A focused sprint

Zea Harbour Project 2010 -  Week 12: a focused sprint.

As this week begun there were seven days of fieldwork left and the to-do-list had a million things on it: complete excavation of Tower M-T3’s Trench 1, digitally survey it, photograph it. Surface clean Trench 4, digitally survey it, and photograph it. We also had to back fill all excavated areas (Trench 1, Trench 2, Trench 3 and Trench 4 in Mikrolimano) as well as secure all structural elements with sandbags for preservation. Then, report writing, finds registry, final edit of digital surveys – in short: wrapping up this year’s excavation season.

Monday morning the team was split up into three groups. Some dove in Trench 4 to prepare it for photography, digital survey and detail drawing.  Another dive team climbed up and down walls – with a diesel pump! – to place it on a deserted patch of beach outside the modern harbour, to allow the dive team to finish a trench west of Tower M-T3 – weather permitting, pretty much business as usual (Fig. 1). The survey team however, had their most challenging and busy day. They had to “weave” their survey grid across the harbour mouth and across a good part of the modern southern quay and breakwater, and then ending at the entrance of the Yacht Club Café, with a beautiful view over the Saronic Gulf and the area of Tower M-T3 (Fig. 2). To do this they had to set up three tripods for the Total-station along with two prism stations, which was quite an endeavor that involved a lot of legwork for the oldest member of the whole ZHP team, our architect Richard who had to walk all the way around and back the whole harbour – twice!

The operation was successful as the survey team managed to cover a previously “blank” area outside Mounichia harbour (Fig. 3).  Both the survey team and the divers had to fight against the elements for one more time, as big waves and swell made the conditions less than ideal.  Sticking to a strict safety protocol, excavation and photography had to be postponed.

Fig. 1 Mads Møller Nielsen during a visual inspection dive of Tower M-T3.

Among the most important tasks this week was to write the annual reports, which comprise the core of the future publications. Along with this, the survey team finalized the edit of this year’s digital survey, thus creating an exciting map of our new discoveries.

The week ended with an archaeological highlight, when we finally and to our utter amazement had a day with exceptionally good visibility underwater. This allowed us to take some good underwater photographs of the ancient structures, but more importantly Ioannis Sapountzis used this rare opportunity to visually inspect areas of the seabed while on the boat. To the south-west of the newly discovered shipsheds, previously unknown built and rock-cut structures were suddenly revealed in the murky waters of the harbour. The still unidentified structures are further from the shore and deeper than any ancient remains we had found to date. This area will be the primary objective for the investigations of 2011, thus giving the team a head-start for next year’s underwater work in Mikrolimano. Stay tuned for the last news letter from the field in 2010 next week.

Authors: Sanne Hoffmann, Bjørn Lovén and Casper Toftgaard