Date: Saturday, April 23, 2005
Partners for the day: Ben Silverman (text) Nkosi Harvey (images)
Site(s): Sikyon, Isthmia, Perachora
Museum(s): Isthmia Museum
Principal Buildings/Monuments: Sikyon: theater, stadium, bouleuterion, temple, palaistra; Isthmia: Temple of Poseidon, Palaimonion, race track starting gate; Perachora: Sanctuaries of Hera Limenia and Hera Akraia, cistern, dining rooms.
Time Spent on Each Site: from ca. 10:00 AM to ca. 12:45 PM [2.75 hours at Sikyon]; from ca. 1:45 PM to ca. 3:00 PM [1.25 hours at Isthmia]; from ca. 4:00 PM to ca. 5:30 PM [1.5 hours at Perachora]
Weather: low 70s, sunny and clear
The group ended its trip in the Peloponnese today with visits to Sikyon, Isthmia and Perchora. Each site offered unique buildings in different types of locations, and this diversity provided for an interesting day. We met Yiannis Lolos, a professor from the University of Thessaly, at Sikyon, where he showed us the theater, stadium and various buildings in and around the agora. After the morning outing to Sikyon, the group traveled to Isthmia, where Professor Rutter led us through the site and the museum, which contained some interesting pieces, including glass mosaics. We ended the day at the picturesque site of Perachora that sits on the edge of harbor, meters away from the clear blue water. After an eventful day we left the site—and the Peloponnese—and headed back to crowded, noisy, familiar Athens.
The three sites the group visited today were all fascinating, but the site of Sikyon stood out for me as particularly interesting. Many of the sites we have visited, both on the mainland and in Crete, have been for the most part completely excavated, and rarely has the group been able to talk to a current excavator of the site—Professor Rutter’s sites being excepted—about the problems, progress and plans he or she has at the site. Thus, it was a treat to have Yiannis Lolos speak to the group. Through Dr. Lolos’ comments at Sikyon, the group learned firsthand what it is like to be a site excavator: deciding where to dig; how to identify buildings and their dates; and how, despite perhaps not finding the most revolutionary finds, the excavator still takes pride in his site and finds his work on that site interesting and exciting.
Dr. Lolos’ discussion of how he was deciding where to dig exposed the group to some of the decisions that excavators must make. In order to choose where to lay trenches, archaeologists must use various sources to ensure that they will be digging in the right place. Dr. Lolos showed us that at Sikyon, the team was using the accounts of Pausanias combined with electric sensitivity readings to make the decision. It seemed fascinating to me that two sources, so vastly different from such different time periods both influence the decision on where to dig. The sensitivity readings, as Dr. Lolos pointed out to us, can at times be extremely accurate, as they clearly indicated the outline of a basilica underneath the current ground level. The readings also suggested the existence of other buildings, but Dr. Lolos needed to use the accounts of Pausanias to see if these readings matched what Pausanias saw. Hence, this was one of the first sights where the group perceived how methods ancient sources interact with current technology in the choice of a trench location.
I was also amazed that, despite having the accounts of Pausanias and the advanced sensitivity readings, the excavators of Sikyon still face problems with building dates and identities. Dr. Orlandos from the Archaeological Society of Athens had previously excavated the site, but unfortunately, he did not collect or record any pottery. Thus, current archaeologists like Dr. Lolos must now struggle to date buildings based on architecture, which can be troublesome at times, as is the case with the temple at the entrance to the agora area. Dr. Lolos is also not certain what deity was worshipped at that temple, for current remains, accounts of past excavations, and Pausanias do not provide a definitive answer. Dr. Lolos suggested that further excavations may in fact resolve some of these issues, but listening to him describe the puzzles that archaeologists deal with gave the group a new perspective on the process of identifying and dating a building.
The last part of Dr. Lolos’ lecture that made the visit especially interesting was the satisfaction and enjoyment he seemed to get out of his job. He is a Greek working on a Greek site, and uncovering the history of his ancestors must be an amazing feeling for him. I would love to be discovering information about my forefathers of hundreds of years ago, and I can see how he could take pride and satisfaction out of digging the site. He concluded the visit by telling the group that despite the fact that the site may not turn up new, eye-opening finds, it still could show us much about an ancient city state with a reasonably rich history. This feeling of anticipation and of unknown potential of a site is an exciting feeling that I did not realize could be so tangible for archaeologists. Driving away from the Peloponesse I now had this understanding, and I had Dr. Lolos’ talk at Sikyon to thank for it.
Posted by Abby Gillard at April 24, 2005 01:16 AM