Penguins, Archaeologists and Temples

Finally I have got my computer sorted out and am able to now post photos (I hope). Hopefully this will add a completely new dimension to the posts and give you a little taste of what I am actually SEEING while over here.

This whole week has been very exciting not only for me personally but for the excavation. We started off this week with a trench that was on a million different levels. It was terraced in so many different places that the whole thing looked like a big mess. We decided to clean things up and try level out all the different excavation units to the same place, hopefulyl allowing us to avoid contamination from different periods. This sounded like a very solid idea to all of us sop we attacked it with gusto. Unfortunately, on Tuesday we uncovered a very large and very flat rock just sitting in the middle of our trench. Many expletives were uttered by the trench supervisor, as this kind of stone is the tell tale sign of a cist tomb and involves monumental amounts of paperwork. The rest of us were actually quite excited about the whole thing.

Needless to say, this diverted attention completely away from our original plans, and work was now focussed on clearing the trench around the grave so that the mortuary excavators could come in and open the grave. Curiously, code words have to be employed when we are not at site and talking about graves because we do not want the locals to think we are finding gold or anything of value. It would lead to looting and crowding of the sight and ultimately damage to the archaeological record. For these reaosns, we call graves 'Penguins'.

This was started on Wednesday afternoon, and things quickly became interesting. The tomb was intact, but the bones were pretty badly preserved. The Mortuary people could tell that it was the grave of a 6 or 7 year old, but gender was difficult to be sure of. Amongst the bones we found a number of really amazing grave goods. About 7 completely preserved pottery vases and jugs were found, all beautifully decorated in very good condition. On the actual body itself were found a bronze ring, two bronze bangles and two bronze pins to either hold hair or clothing in place. The date of the grave is from the Protogeometric period, the period directly after the Mycenaeans starting from about the 10th century BC. All in all we are told that it is one of the best preserved graves from our site, and it is very rare to find one that hasnt been robbed.

We also went to a site called Kalapodi, jsut down the road from Tragana. It is being excavated by the Germans and is alarge temple complex ranging in use from the Mycenaean period all the way through to Roman times. It is quite an impressive site and very well preserved. The Germans are CRAZY. Their baulks look like they have been cut by a lazer. They are so smooth and sooooo clean that you could literalyl eat off them. You can see everything with regards to the different soil layers and layers of occupation. I was quite jealous and will now strive to be German.

The weekend was planned to be very exciting. I was to meet up with some of my university friends who are digging at the Isthmia at Corinth. We were to rent a car and drive all over southern Greece visiting Sparta, Pylos and Epidaurus. Unfortunately, while we did manage to meet up without amny problems (a monumental achievement), our plans were cut short when we could not find a single place at the airport which had the right kind of car we needed. THis put our entire plans into a tail spin as we had to now rely on public transport, which we had NOT been planning on. We had to wing it. After much deliberation and trudging all over Athens, we eventually found the bus stop to Sounio, a little town on the southern coast of Attica. Its claim to fame is the majestic Temple of Poseidon, poised on a cliff face overlooking the Aegean sea and the island of Aegina. The whole setting was incredible, and the view spectacular. I am sure that even a god must have been pleased.

We made our way back to Athens and I showed my friends around the Plaka area (I swear I know Athens like the back of my hand now), before heading to the metro station to make the long trip to Corinth via train. We arrived quite late and managed to have an amazing meal right on the water front. The next morning we decided to head into the Corinth markets which are pretty much jsut the weekly farmers markets. We managed to grab some amazing tasting fruit for breakfast (not to mention the GLORIOUS home made turkish delight). The markets were busy but very charming. We enjoyed them immensely. The plan was then to head to Loutraki, famous as one of the prettiest beachfronts on the entire gulf. We managed to figure out the bus routes there and arrived without much hassle, but found that the whole place was much to busy to be enjoyed and returned soon after. We also found out that it would be impossible to go to the Theatre of Epidaurus later that evening to watch a play because some famous French orchestra was playing there and the tickets were completely sold out. I was very dissappointed about the whole day but it was amazing to hang out with Rennie and Jennie again.

Today has been quite low key. After a big night last night durting which much Beer Pong was played and alcohol consumed, Rennie and Jennie decided to take me around Ancient Corinth, and we managed to get permission to go behind the barriers into the Peirene Fountain because 'they were doing research'. One of the greatest moments of my life was when we were stopped and asked what we were doing. We jsut looked at each other and replied, 'We are Archaeologists with the American School and we are doing some research on the Fountain.' they let us pass immediately. The great thing was. It wasnt a Lie. We are archaeologists :D:D