2017 Season: Week 6
Hello archaeology fans! We’re back!
Hopefully it’s not a surprise for you, but we’ve recently just completed our last week of excavation on Naxos this season. Let’s take a look at how it all went, shall we?!
Wrapping Up Around Stelida
This week we had to wrap up with digging a couple days early, in order to leave enough time for end-of-season duties such as trench drawing, cleaning closing up and backfilling (refilling the trenches).
We had one last trench check-in with the team on Monday.
Some new trenches were started just in time. Here’s Mackenzie and Nikki scoping out the hill for a new spot to study.
We started to pack up our tools and equipment, and brought them down the hill as soon as we stopped digging.
Section Drawing
With all shelters taken down and equipment taken down the hill, we got right to section drawing. (Learn more here.)
We do this to systematically and carefully record the sections (inner trench walls) and document all of its stratigraphic information for future study (soil layers, etc.). But also, who doesn’t like a pretty drawing?
It’s definitely a task that takes a careful eye and attention to detail! Check out Nat Jackson, one of our drawing superstars laying out some of his essential equipment for drawing:
When drawing sections we need to ensure precise measurements and that things like section lines are level (perfectly horizontal), so sometimes we need to improvise:
Cultural Heritage and Ethnographic Team
Meanwhile, off the field we regrouped with our Cultural Heritage and Ethnographic team, including Stelios Lekakis, Klairi Gianniri and Dionysis Kalogeropoulos, to continue working on our public engagement efforts and begin laying out some foundation for the next two years. Exciting!
Backfilling time!
Backfilling is very important. When we’re done with an excavation we need to actually (and ironically) stuff it back up in order to stop animals (and people) from falling into the trenches. Another reason why we do this is because we want to protect and preserve the sections (inner trench walls) for future study.
So on Thursday and Friday the team went full gear, carrying more than 60 wooden palettes up Stelida and chucking probably hundreds of sandbags into the trenches.
Check out all the happy faces after it was all done:
Party Time!
On Friday, we had our end-of-season party in Vivlos. It was a large celebration of our incredible work this season that was shared with our supporters and partners on Naxos.
In attendance were some important people who we wanted to give our thanks to. These include:
•Anestes Kombokis, landowner on Stélida (and his daughter Liza, husband Niklas and their son; plus his other daughter Marika)
•Anne-Marie de Grazia, landowner on Stélida
•Kostas Tsakoniatis, landowner on Stélida (Hotel Pyrgos Stelida)
•Spyros Skarkos, the President of the Vivlos community (and his family)
•Yiannis Tsolakis, our representative of the Municipality of Naxos and the Cultural Organisation of Naxos
•Sakis Tsolakis, who rents us cars (and his family)
•Dahpne Lalayannis, the conservator of the Naxos Archaeological Museum
Friends for a lifetime
Living in a house with 30 people and spending every single second of the day together can certainly be difficult—but after 6 weeks, many friendships have blossomed. Team members have gotten to not just become great colleagues but even greater friends. They have inspired and motivated each other every single day, through the early mornings and late nights; thunderstorms and heatwaves; the heat strokes and the shingles. When things got tough, there was always support and good friends nearby to get through anything. It’s a beautiful sight (try not to cry).
Last Check-Ins
We’re a sentimental team! So before leaving the island a bunch of us had to take the time to reminisce a little bit and say bye.
Team Departures
And with that, team members booked their ferry tickets and hopped on—not before saying a sentimental goodbye to the island they’ve called home for the past 6 weeks.
So, what’s next?
And that’s it—our sixth and final update on our 2017 excavation season. Wait, what? Yes, our six weeks on Naxos is now over for this summer, and all fieldwork has officially finished for the 2017 season. (I know — we’re kinda sad too!)
But fear (or cry) not, because this isn’t the end of the project. There’s still a lot of work to be done, actually! It’ll be continuing for at least the next couple of years to come. Specifically, next summer, we’ll be having a study season, which means that we won’t be doing any digging, but instead really getting down and looking at everything we’ve found over the past 4–5 years and all the data we’ve collected.
Over the next two years we’re also looking forward to more public engagement and local cultural heritage activities, such as creating a teaching pack for local elementary schools as well as an eventual public exhibition at the Naxos Museum. Super exciting!
And to you, the one reading this:
If you’ve liked following our work on here, please continue to keep in touch. We’ve genuinely enjoyed having great conversations with you about archaeology, digging and beyond, and you’ve made our season an incredible one with your immense support from across the Interwebs. We really could not have done it without you, so thanks for being interested in what we do, for engaging in the conversations and for sharing our work.
As always, we’re always here if you have any questions or wanna chat archaeology. You can reach us on any of these platforms:
