More about Hotel Votsala and Archaeology

Hey everyone, sorry I haven't posted in such a long time!

We've been QUITE busy with our archaeological digs; we found out just a few months ago that we'd be getting the chance to do some work at some sites here, and we were mostly pretty excited to do it. When we got here, though, what actually happened was very different from what we'd expected.

We've been split into groups and sent to either Thermi (the site near our hotel) or either of two sites in Mytilini, doing work either with metals or ceramicware. Tuesday was the first day we went to the sites, and it was a very bizarre day. We heard from other groups that the museums didn't even know we were coming; as for my group, when we got to Thermi the woman there greeted us and asked us what we were studying. When half our group had announced our majors, she stopped us and asked, "What are you DOING here??" None of us were intending to go into the field of archaeology, and she was clearly disappointed. She turned and spoke with the three younger women who were there to teach us, and they argued amongst themselves in Greek for about 20 minutes while we stood there in bewilderment. Finally they split us into groups to go with each of the students. One group went with Vicky, the "bone girl," a grad student specializing in animal bones, to help her identify the different specimens she'd laid out on a table. The rest of us went with Eva and Georgia, two other grad students, to look around the site. After we'd walked around, they roped off a section of land and had us dig ten centimeters down to the next level of earth and sift through the dirt for ceramicware and quartz. It was pretty exciting for about 20 minutes while she showed us the techniques for digging and sifting. We were finding lots of pottery shards, which was immensely satisfying. After an hour, though, we realized that our progress was very slow and that we weren't actually helping; they had roped off a section of ground that they had no intention of ever excavating, they just wanted to give us something to do to keep out of their way. It got a bit existential after that. We wondered what we were supposed to do at this site for 6 hours a day, 5 days a week - just keep sifting through dirt for millions of thumbnail-sized ceramic shards that all looked exactly the same, and were so sanded down by thousands of years of dirt-rubbing that no one would ever fit them back together into their original vessels? We weren't learning anything, nobody taught us anything after that initial 20 minutes, they just went back to work. And how were we supposed to "experience the culture" of Mytilini if we only had 2 hours of daylight to ourselves every day? A dreary outlook, to be sure.

We returned from our site to find that almost everybody else had had similar experiences of being shunted around, away from any actual progress being made at the sites. The group was pretty unruly at that point. I wasn't sure if I was going to say anything to Professor Kugler, but when he approached me and asked me how my day had been, I just poured out all my feelings, my existential notions about the whole thing. I gleaned that he'd spoken to others about their experiences already, because it became apparent that he had expected me to "whine" about the archaeological dig, and he had already prepared defenses against any complaints I might raise. I wasn't prepared for this, and I was upset that he'd practically written me off in his mind as an ungrateful brat before actually listening to what I had to say. After he'd left me sitting by myself, I took a walk down the beach and threw rocks angrily into the sea, feeling pretty abused and sorry for myself. Unhealthy I know, but I respect Kugler a lot and probably put too much stock into his opinion of me. In any case, the whole day was kind of a downer.

After Sophia's class that night - she teaches our "Modern Greek Culture" class in the evenings, which is basically just an overview of sociological methods and notions in Greek context - we had a group meeting to discuss the dig. Many people presented logical arguments for why we should reduce the time spent at the dig sites - the way the idea was presented to us, whether we had a choice in the matter, whether we'd still have time to work on our projects and papers, etc - but there were also some students who just plain whined about their own personal problems with the way things had gone. Pretty depressing, for a group of 20 year olds. Kugler wrapped the whole thing up by "playing the parent" for us and telling us to give it another try the next day. It always makes me feel better, talking things over with him, so that was pretty good.

He turned out to be right; these past two days have been much better. Now we're only there for 3 hours, and Kugler spoke to our excavators about maybe letting us observe them more in their work so they could teach us how to actually do things, instead of just giving us pickaxes and essentially telling us to go play in a sandbox for a long time. So we've learned more about how to reconstruct a site, mixing mortar and placing stone layers one on top of the other. We've also learned about identifying animal bones - I can tell the difference between sheep, goat, and pig's teeth now, and distinguish between upper, lower, right and left teeth - and about rendering drawings of stone walls, with accurate measurements of angles and things like that. Georgia, a grad student who I've become friends with, also showed us today part of the site where they've found entire clay vessels "frozen in time" in the ground, such that they have to actually dig AROUND them to see where in the room they were and in what condition they were in when they were used last. I actually got to touch one of them, which was amazing; a recently discovered clay jar dating to about 2500 B.C., and I'm one of the first to lay hands on it. Way cool. Here's a picture of me holding a piece of pottery I found in our little roped-off area where we were digging.

Anyway, that was basically the only problem we've had with the trip so far, and for 5 weeks in a foreign country I think that speaks pretty well for us as a group and for Kugler as an organizer.
Our hotel, for example, is amazing. I told you about how I almost broke down and cried when we first got here, when I first saw how beautiful and friendly everything is here. It's not, you know, 5-star or ritzy or anything, but it's just really NICE being here. Everything is so open and airy, the beach is lined with palm trees, the dining room is cozy and has lots of windows facing the sea and the distant Turkish shore, and Iannis the owner is so warm and welcoming and always willing to talk to us about Greek culture. Plus the food is good; we get breakfast and dinner, and Iannis usually sends us off to our dig sites with bags of hard-boiled eggs and fruit juice as a snack. When we get back from the sites we have lots of time to wander around the town of Thermi, or take the bus down into Mytilini if we want to "experience the culture" more on our own. Otherwise, people sit around on the beach or take the hotel's kayaks for a spin. (Here's a picture of Mackenzie and I trying to kayak chariot style.) Alex and I have been teaming up on guitar and vocals for songs we both know, which is way fun because I love to jam and I miss jamming with Avery. The group will swim and play ping pong and soccer as well, and sometimes the dogs who hang around the hotel try and steal the ball away from us.

Speaking of animals, there was a cat hanging around here last night who we all wanted to bash over the head because of the constant - I kid you not, constant - meow meow meow that kept us up, on and off - I kid you not - from 11 p.m. to 7 in the morning. So I think we'll all keep a glass of water by the door tonight, so in case he comes by again, he'll get a sploosh.

For now I think I'm off to bed. Kali Nixta!