Friday the 13th!
How much does luck have to do with archaeology? I'm not sure all that much frankly. The reasons why we dig where we do are based on lots of different sources of evidence - geophysical survey, surface collection survey, architectural survey and previous excavations nearby. We also have a general idea of how sites form and how sites from the periods we are excavating look at other sites.Our site does have some very unusual, puzzling features - the large polygonal wall running a curved, concave path for one, plus the parts of the earlier Mycenaean constructions on the site - so, figuring all this out, makes every day interesting and our work meaningful.  Wish us luck!
Yesterday we had our first student-led trench tours. Very good job, Nicole and Honor!

People matter

We are inching toward the end of the second week. Things are falling into routine. One common feature of this excavation, like many, is people arriving and departing. Within the past week, we have seen the arrival of Tina Ross, our illustrator, Bartek Lis, one of our ceramicists, Camilla MacKay, our database and Medieval ceramicist, Nepheli Theotokou and Vicky Karas, our conservators, and tomorrow, Trevor Van Damme, our other ceramicist.  And today we say good-bye to Janet Jones, from Bucknell. Nick Blackwell and Kyle Jazwa returned to Athens after short visits.Yin Lam departed last week too. It's a lot to keep track of but everyone seems to fully understand that this undertaking is a massive team effort and everyone's contribution matters greatly. On site, digging everyday, we are fairly consistent with our supervisors and students/volunteers - these don't change too much. We are a very big work crew - the biggest we've ever fielded at EBAP and the amount of earth we are moving demonstrates this. The weather has also finally turned full-on SUMMER. Yesterday probably hit 35 degrees in some parts of the site. And unfortunately, the lower we dig, the hotter it is out of the breeze. We (Joe last year, with Spencer this year) have built sun shades made of aluminum pipes and green netting used for olive collection. These are coming in very handy. Teams will lift the four corners and rotate them during the course of the day as the sun moves, giving vital shade to the diggers and shovelers below. The wheelbarrowers, unfortunately, don't get much shade.

This project is co-directed by me and my very good friend and colleague Bryan Burns, Wellesley College. I think most would agree we work and co-direct very well together - on nearly everything we come to an easy agreement and have similar views on how we'd like things to happen. Perhaps it's telling that most people confuse our names and when we correct them, they sometimes just say, 'it doesn't really matter'. I kind of agree.

It's always been a key part of EBAP's success to have a very coherent and communicative team of people fully involved and engaged.  Soon the students will be posting blog posts here - and I'll be including more photos of them. For now, here's just one more and me and the other 'BB':

Building on the Past

Every day brings additional team members to our project: On Tuesday we welcomed back our very long-time EBAP team member, Dr. Genevieve Hill. Gen has been working with us every year since we started the survey project in 2007, one of only two team members this year with that record! She'll be leading a team of diggers who previously worked with Nick Blackwell, but they will be located on the monumental wall at our site. We are hoping to get a better understanding of the relationship between the Classical builders and their Mycenaean predecessors. This is one of the most interesting things about the architecture at our site: around 1200 BC there were major building projects, wall constructions, and then, six or seven hundred years later, people returned and began building on the ancient remains that they saw, reusing and rebuilding their past. 

Our other new arrival was only with us for the day, Kyle Jazwa. Kyle has worked and studied the architectural material from the site of Mitrou, among other sites, for many years. He is very familiar with roof tiles, bricks and other materials. In very little time Kyle was able to assemble the complete profile of one very large Mycenaean roof tile and part of another, something we only knew from disparate pieces previously. This is an exciting result because it seems likely that only very large buildings would have large, fired roof tiles. 

Week Two begins

This week begins without an internet connection in our main house. It's hoped that the problem will be fixed by Wednesday. On site, Monday was a great day full of progress. We arrived to a surprisingly muddy and wet site - rains overnight were heavy in Arma. Everyone was well prepared though. We began with brief trench tours from the site supervisors to see what was happening and where things were going. Students were divided randomly (mostly) into new dig teams so that everyone has varied experience. The Northwest area is coming into very good order with the appearance of sizable walls. The Southwest is expanding eastward, extending our very first trench on site (SWB3b, always very dear to me) to the north.  This will be adjacent to the area around the smaller site tree (which we are NOT going to remove). Work around the tree is a little tricky but our supervisors are doing a great job removing lots of rubble and revealing interesting surfaces. The finds are becoming more consistent with a more intact stratigraphy. In the Southeast, this slightly remote trench is working hard to expose a variety of large blocks that we presume makes some kind of platform or bastion. To me, this is really interesting work. 

Week One in quick Review

We've made amazing progress on-site. Anyone who came by last week wouldn't recognize our excavation area. With lots of work from lots of people, the prickles and thorns and weeds have nearly all been removed, the back-fill dirt has been cleared and the protective tarps have been lifted. The project is humming along in record time. After a rain delay Tuesday afternoon and all day Wednesday we are now back in the thick of it all.
We now have 7 excavation areas with our guest-supervisor, Nick Blackwell here for a few days. He's taking time off from his ASCSA job to work with us. It's always great when people take time off of their paying jobs to come 'work' for us during their vacations. Debra Nadal is also doing this with us.
Today, Saturday, was a shorter day - we work until 12, rather than the normal 1:30. We call it a half-day, but obviously our math skills aren't quite right. Everyone will have the afternoon off and all day tomorrow for the beach, exploring, or just resting. We'll start again early Monday morning.

Spectacular Thursday

The rain cleared and the site dried out nicely The air was cool and clean as we worked all morning (6:30 am departure - no one was late!). We worked until 1:30, and then had an incredible lunch at Stavroula's (as usual) - she makes it seem so easy, feeding 40 people on her porch! The work went very well. All five/six new trenches have been laid out and our eager team members worked hard to clear top soil. No significant finds to report but lots of good progress. Tomorrow should be just as bright!

Rain brings lemons. We make lemonade. 

Soggy rain cut our second full day of digging short yesterday, and really put a damper on our today. Yesterday afternoon we divided up. Some worked on the cleaning/preparing the apothiki work/storage area, Others went to Schimatari for the museum and other errands. Supervisors headed to a cafe to 'work' on their notebooks - after one day digging? : ) Lunch was as normal as could be in Arma, with delicious!! briam - some say it's the best briam they've ever had (roasted, stewed vegetables in olive oil).

Overnight the sky poured rain. We met at 8 and had an intensive session on pottery processing which I think will be very helpful in the long run. At 12:30 we had another great lunch, this time delivered to Dilesi by Stavroula. We had revithia - stewed chick peas. Amazing. Then we went on a quick road trip to Eretria - to the museum and to the important site of Lefkandi and Xeropolis. It was a great outing all in all.

We hope tomorrow we will be back to normal. We're happy to have some new arrivals too - our geographer and family of very valuable participants and our architect!