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Fig. 1: Niels eagerly studying the ancient sources in order to write this week’s historical highlights from the ancient Zea.

Fig. 2: Mette laying out the finds for “bag photos” as part of her find processing work at Zea.

Author: Mette Schaldemose and Niels Ladefoged Rasmussen

This week in the Peloponnesian War: The week after the humiliating Athenian defeat near Delion (424 BC) was a week of suspense, as the Athenian garrison at the fortress of Delion was waiting in trepidation of the expected Boeotian assault. The Boeotians, meanwhile, spent their time making plans for the construction of an ingenious siege weapon.

They also ensured reinforcements from their allies of the Spartan lead Peloponessian League; 2,000 Corinthian hoplites, a number of javelin throwers and slingers as well as an unspecified Megarian force joined the Boeotian army.

Five years earlier – in 429 BC – this week was also a time for imaginative plans, as the Spartans were preparing to launch an attack on the Athenian naval installations in the Piraeus. According to the fifth entury historian Thucydides, the Athenians could not envisage that their enemy would dare attacking Athens herself from the sea. Thus they had left their military harbours undefended, feeling safe in their naval supremacy. The Spartans were no doubt hoping to strike a devastating blow to the very basis of this supremacy.

In the next episode of our delving into ancient Greek history we will hear more about the Boeotian siege of Delion as well as about the Spartan attempt to destroy the naval installations of Athens – the very instal- lations which the Zea Harbour Project are now endeavouring to uncover!

This week at the present day Zea has been dedicated to processing the results of this year’s excavation; we have commenced the writing of the excavation rapport, and the processing of the finds (fig. 1).

The Assistant Director reports Having done the basic find registration during the excavation campaign, I am now processing the finds more thoroughly. Because the finds were saturated with salt water they needed to be kept wet, immersed in water, from the time when they were excavated to prevent them from drying out. If they were allowed to dry out before the salts have been removed, the salts within would dry too and the formation of salt crystals below the surface of the ceramics could cause serious damage to the surface.

But the finds are not only saturated with plain salt water; the water in Zea is polluted and the finds are as contaminated as the water inside the harbour. For health and safety reasons it is therefore necessary (though often very impractical) that I wear chemical resistant gloves during all the initial phases of the registration - for instance when laying the finds out to be photographed (fig. 2).

The finds are bagged in nets according to dive and context; from the 2007 excavation the total amount of bags numbers 55. In total we found 554 tile fragments and 306 ceramic fragments along with fragments of brick and porcelain, lead weights, modern coins, a gold ring, a mobile telephone and a small toy car of the fiat cinquecentro type (my favourite 2007 find!). All find bags were photographed this week. At the same time all finds were sorted in two groups: 1) finds we keep for further research, and 2) finds we wish to redeposit in Zea.

In the coming week, the find list will be completed to be included in the excavation report. Likewise, ‘wet’ finds photography and pre-registration of all finds will be finished, so that, by the end of next week, our finds are ready to be handed over to the Ephorate of Underwater Archaeology. Conservators of the Ephorate will then desalinate, wash, and dry the finds. Once dry, I will carry out the final registration, study the finds again, and finally, publish them in the appropriate Zea Harbour Project volume.