At the conclusion of the speeches, we all piled into an assortment of vehicles along with equipment and headed down to the beach. Mitrou is a tidel Islet about 20 meters off the mainland. It was not always an island, but a REALLY big earthquake in the late 1800s altered the landscape so completely that the fields around the site were covered with water, and made into a large bay. As a result the archaeological site itself extends quite a far way into the water.
To get to the islet, we have to wade out every day into water that can be up to knee deep. It really adds to the whole charm of the place. We had to walk quite a few meters inland to the trenches and pits that have been dug. The site of Mitrou is so big that in 6 years of excavation, they have only uncovered 2.1% of the islet which means that there is still an incredible amount of potential archaeological wealth still available. We got quite a shock when we arrived. The place did NOT look anything like we were expecting (although I am truly not sure what we were expecting exactly). Long Grasses had almost completely covered the site. Large mounds of backfill were dotted all over the place, and weeds were rife. This is the price that a seasonal dig site pays.
After a quick tour of the island, we were put to work. We grabbed whatever tool we felt we needed and began to clear away all the scrub and weeds off the sides of the trenches and pits. This was very hard work as the vegetation was incredibly thick in some places. Finn (assistant trench supervisor), Mary-Page (student), and me decided it would be good to work as a team and we had a good system in place. We were quickly making progress until Kerril (Dig Coordinator) noticed and decided to put us to work building a road. Kerril made building a road sounds quite rewarding and sort of fun. Oh how wrong we were. The road was supposed to be up a mound to the side of the site, where dirt and debris from all the trenches were dumped last year. Obviously the trend was to continue but there was a problem. The mound had been completely COVERED by a thick layer of very stubborn grass. We were there shovelling, hoeing and rakeing for much of the 6 hours we had on site. It was extremely backbreaking work in quite hot conditions. The sun is fierce and at this stage of the excavation, there is no shade tarpaulines in place. We made steady progress though and soon the mound began to take the shape of a large ramp.
It might be worth making break from the narrative here to describe a typical day on site. Work begins usually at 6:30am. We work for around 3 hours before we are given a Kalatzo (second breakfast) typically of fruits, yogurt and breads. Work then again resumes, and the sun is starting to get very hot. 2 hours later we are mercifully given a short Karpuzi (watermelon) break. We are told again and again how important it is to take advantage of the watermelon as it reduces the amount of water you have to have flowing through your system, and therefore decreases the loss of minerals and vitamins. I don’t normally enjoy watermelon but it is definitly helpful in getting through to the end of the day which comes 2 hours later at around 2pm. By now the sun is much to hot to safely work, and all of Greece goes into a 3 hour siesta from 3-6pm.
By the end of the day we were all utterly exhausted. I decided to take a swim, after work beer and shower during siesta which did wonders for my energy levels. At 6pm we had to meet for a quick hike some way up the mountains backing Tragana in order to have a look at some Mycenaean Chamber Tombs that had been excavated. Only 1 had not been backfilled, but it was very interesting to see. We will be going to a museum in the next town (called Atalanti) to view some of the things found there. While up the mountain we also had a formal introduction to the field school. The entire program sounds absolutely fantastic, and I will be throwing myself completely into doing as much as possible.
After this we went out to dinner to Strabula’s, and I turned in for an early night soon after.
The next day went by much the same schedule. Upon reaching the site, Ben and I (student and roommate) were commandeerd to help construct the shade tarpaulins because we were tall. While we waited for that to be organised I quickly helped Finn finish off what we still had to do on the road. We made extremely fast progress and soon the place was fit to be used as a ramp to the dump site. Finn continued to fiddle while Ben and I headed off to construct the tarpaulins. This job was extremely finnicky and ANNOYINGLY FRUSTRATING. We managed to construct 2 6x5 Tarpaulins and 1 5x5 before we were out of time. Yes, it took us almost the entire day. There is still quite a lot to do so we will in all likelihood continue in the morning.
After work on the site we had the afternoon free till dinner. I took advantage of the time to get to a computer and call my parents who had not heard from me yet. My baaaaaad :p
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