As we near our final week of the project there is a little bit of stress on everyone. We have a lot going on; a lot trenches with a lot of interesting/important information coming to light. The trick will be scheduling the end of our digging and the processing of our material before the season ends. We've done it before and we'll do it again, but on top of all the archaeological research we have to make sure all of our living quarters are vacated and cleaned and we have to shut down our office and storage spaces. It's a lot to think about over the next two full weeks. I'll try to blog as much as I can - but students will also be blogging as well. In the meantime, here are just a few relatively random photos of work at the site and our impressive polygonal wall. I also include one detail from our group photo shoot a few weeks ago with one of our most popular Dilesi Dogs. 

UVic at EBAP for 2014. Happy Canada Day!

Story Time...

Now, this is a story all about how
My life got flipped-turned upside down
And I'd like to take a minute
Straight from my lawn
To how I became the prince of a town called Eleon

In west Calgary born and raised
Uvic was where I spent most of my days
Chillin' out maxin' relaxin' all cool
And all writing some essays outside of school
When a couple GRS students, up to no good
Started talking archeology, no one understood
I got in one little debate knew I was gone
Mom said 'You're diggin’ with your professors in Eleon’ 

I begged and pleaded with her day after day
But she packed my suitcase and sent me on my way
She gave me a shovel and then she gave me my ticket.
I pulled out Herodotus and said, 'I might as well kick it'.

Sandy beaches, yo this is bad
Drinking ouzo out of a champagne glass.
Is this what Boeotia be living like?
Hmmmmm this might be alright.

But wait I hear there’s hard work, real labour, working the lands

Is this the type of place that will have use of my soft hands?

I don’t think so

But I’m already gone

I hope they’re prepared for the prince of Eleon

I whistled for a cab and when it came near
The license plate said φρέσκο and it had a kombolói hanging on the mirror
If anything I could say that this cab far from rare

But I thought 'Nah, forget it' - 'Yo, homes to Eleon’

Well, the pickaxe landed and when it came out
There was a Mycenaean sherd that flew out
I ain't trying to find this era yet!
I just got through the first locus here
I sprang with the quickness like lightning, on to the next tier

I pulled up to the Mamoni’s about 6 or 7
And I yelled to the cabbie 'Yo homes smell ya later' 

I looked at my main dog Ryan

It was just about dawn

Time to dig up the throne for the Prince of Eleon

Entering our second month of digging, time is flying by. We have quite a few goals that we are aiming to achieve before digging stops July 12. With good weather and hard work, we should be able to accomplish them. Last week had some terrible, windy HOT days, 40+. This week seems better.
On Saturday we had a trench tour from Aiden Chimney, a visit from Oxford Professor Irene Lemos, Director of excavations at Lefkandi, and we had a late evening session to finish some important excavations. We also had a chance for a nice Arma sunset.
I'll post some photos now and hope to continue more with the blog during the week.

Who wore it best?

Digging is like Dancing

As you may have guessed, "Greek & Roman Studies Course Union" is not my real name. My name's Elliott and I'm a 4th year Greek and Roman Studies major at Uvic. In my time there I've gotten involved with a few clubs, one of which is the aforementioned course union. Mostly we organize social events for the department, such as receptions for visiting guest lecturers like our prestigious yearly Lansdowne lecturers, who stay for a few days and hold several interesting talks and workshops. This past year it was Dr. David Kennedy, from the University of Western Australia, who is an expert and pioneer in aerial archaeology. This method of surveying sites from above gives the archaeologist a unique view of the site and its relation to the landscape. This is something we're familiar with at our own site of ancient Eleon and we use an RC plane to take photo and video from the air. This allows us to see the whole trench and the relation of features to each other. So now that I've done my plug for the GRSCU, let me tell you about the other club I'm involved in, the Uvic Ballroom Dance Club. This September will be my 2nd year with the club and in that time I've learned a lot about "dance etiquette." These are general rules to follow so that you and your partner both have a safe and enjoyable dance. Since I've been on this dig I've been struck by how these rules can equally be applied to your partner in the trench, your pickaxe. Thus I'd like to share some tips on dancing that I've picked up, whether it's with a person or a pick.
1. Cleanliness: It's next to godliness. This may seem like an odd one to bring up, since it gets pretty sweaty and dirty in the trenches. Trust me though, 3 hours of dancing in a crowded hall with minimal ventilation (re: an open door) gets very sweaty. Still, hygiene is important. Apply deodorant liberally, try to shower at least semi-regularly and those around you will appreciate it, especially on those crowded rides home from site.
2. Correct frame. Don't break your back. Frame is everything in partner dancing. In ballroom this generally means shoulders back and down, chin up, comfortable but sturdy. However frame also relates to how you hold your partner as you move through the dance, so as a lead you can communicate your movements and your follow can anticipate them. Frame is equally important in the trench. Keep a firm grip on the pick and keep your hands away from the head when swinging it in a wide arc. The momentum from the picks weight will do the work for you. Just so in dance using your partner's momentum to propel yourself is key. Physics is a beautiful thing.
3. Moving around the floor. No collisions. This is the golden rule in ballroom dancing. Most standard dances (foxtrot, tango, waltz) move in a line counterclockwise around the floor. This is to keep everything going smoothly and make sure no one crashes in to each other. In the trenches moving in a line is also important. Picking in a line helps you establish a clear idea of where your level is at in relation to the rest of the soil you are removing and creates tidy artificial lines that will make your area look clean and professional.
4. The most important rule of all: remember to smile and have fun! This sounds cliche, but a negative attitude will bring down your partner and those around you. Plus unless you're taking a 10m pass, you don't want to pick angry.
The list goes on, but these are the really important ones. I've loved to apply my dancing knowledge to my first archaeological dig and I hope to take all I learn here and use it throughout my life.

P.S. You should check these out:
Greek & Roman Studies Course Union: grscourseunion@gmail.com
Uvic Ballroom Dance Club: http://uvicdance.com

Pottery Processing

We pack up the site for the day around 1:00, but the day's work is not over yet; after a delicious lunch at Stavroula's, the 25-ish minute car trip back to Dilesi, and a break during siesta, the hottest period of the day, the whole group goes to work again at 5:00 pm for pottery washing. The only exceptions are on Saturdays, when we skip pottery washing and start the weekend early (saving the unwashed pottery and bones for an extra big work load on Monday) and on this past Thursday the 19th, when we started right when we got back and worked through siesta. That experience made me truly appreciate the mid-day break, as it was much, much sunnier and hotter in the courtyard where we work at 2:30 than it is at 5:00.

There are other things going on besides pottery washing too. There are also bones that need to be washed, which we all do, and a small group of students with lots of knowledge of osteology go through already-washed bones and process them in mysterious ways. Lately many students have also been helping the supervisors to process the pottery, including myself. Last week, Sara Daruvala and I worked together as a team to process pottery sherds from Morgan's trench. 

This means grabbing a bag of some of the already-washed pottery from one or two days earlier and laying it all out in a pile on a table in the courtyard. Together Sara and I go through it and sort it into various categories: fine-ware, medium-ware or coarse-ware; painted or unpainted; and what part of the vessel it is from, such as a body sherd or a handle or part of a base. This part of the process usually takes quite a while, depending on the size of the bag we selected, and afterwards we count the different categories, weigh them, and record all the numbers on special sheets made for this purpose. 

The teamwork is especially helpful to have, because it's not always easy to tell what category something should go into. Though Sara and I work twice as fast going through a bag by sorting together, the real triumph of our team is being able to ask questions of each other. "Medium or fine-ware?"; "is that paint?"; "does this look like a handle to you?";  "isn't this a rock?" The first two questions are the most common, and usually if we can't make a decision alone, we can at least make one together.

The part I find most difficult is definitely deciding what category of coarse, medium, or fine something should be in when it's somewhat in between two categories. In that case, we have to look extra closely at inclusions, the larger chunks of things that are part of the sherd's fabric. If there are more than just a small amount, it's medium, and if there are a lot it goes in coarse. But it's often difficult to see the fabric and inclusions very well, because the only place to get a good look is the edges of the sherd, and those are just a tiny slice sometimes; plus often they're still a bit dirty--it's very hard to get pottery perfectly clean. Then the dirt will look like inclusions, because dirt is lumpy, but it's usually actually just dirt.

It's really great getting to look at all the pottery when it's clean and dry and getting to examine it so closely in order to sort it. I often notice things I normally might not have, and in general it's an opportunity to examine great amounts of very old  and sometimes very beautiful pottery  as closely as I would ever like to. And last week, there was added enjoyment through the fact that on site I had also been working in Morgan's trench. I got to examine and process lots of pottery that I myself had dug up. It has also provided an opportunity to be able to observe a change in the trench in a way that isn't quite possible on site, when the pottery is still covered in dirt and when I am only one of many people adding to the pottery buckets; when processing, you get to see everything that's there, after it's been cleaned, and after processing for Morgan for a week, I feel like I was definitely able to observe a change in the types of pottery sherds Sara and I were processing as Morgan's trench progressed to deeper levels.

It has been wonderful working with Sara and helping Morgan. I love how much I've been able to learn and experience from this job, and from the entire trip so far.