• Ancient dig

  Students spend summer on Crete excavating early Greek city.

• The view was fantastic.
  
  Atop a mountain, the Iowa State students could see the Mediterranean Sea while they worked to excavate an early Greek city on the island of Crete.
  
  The diversity of plants and scenery that exists on the island surprised a few students.
  
  Still most of the time, the sea, plants and scenery took a back seat to their work.
  
  "Working onsite atop a mountain with a view of the sea was incredible and breathtaking," said Abbie Bollans, a senior anthropology major. "However most of the time onsite I was focused on the dirt at my feet.
  
  "Running the wheelbarrow or carrying zambilis to dump dirt of the mountainside allowed for a nice view, but man, that was hard work," she continued.

  "We had to keep our eyes out for falling boulders, snakes and scorpions as well. We also worked alongside Greek workers, and that provided for interesting lively interactions because of the language barrier."
  
  Bollans and eight other Iowa State students (including a graduate student) spent seven weeks with Margaret Mook, associate professor of foreign languages and literatures, in Crete as part of a study abroad experience. The students were involved in all aspects of excavation and processing, while working with a wide range of specialists.
  
  Mook and her collaborator, Donald Haggis of the University of North Carolina, have long worked on the Azoria Project. That project is the archaeological excavation of a Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age-Archaic town (ca. 1200-500 B.C.) on Crete.
  
  This past summer, Mook decided to go a step further with the project and offer a study abroad course for Iowa State students.
  
  Through excavation, Mook and the other members of the team expect to recover evidence for changes in the site’s economic, social, religious, and political organization through time and within the broader context of cultural crosscurrents in the eastern Mediterranean.
  
  Those goals attracted Bollans and Monica Brewster, another senior anthropology major at Iowa State, to the summer study abroad program.
  
  "Ceramics are my first love, and we found a lot of ceramics," Brewster said. "The last week of digging we found a very large kitchen that had hearths, large pots and a cheese strainer."
  
  In the particular trench Brewster was working in, chert blades and other stone tools were found.
  
  "This was a major event, as it meant that the site had been occupied much earlier than originally thought," she said.
  
  The students' time at Crete was split between working on the excavation and a study center for Eastern Crete where the finds were processed.
  
  Onsite the students removed layers of topsoil, rock and plant debris in order to find architecture. They carefully sifted through the excavated dirt in order to find animal bones, ceramic sherds and carbonized plant remains.
  
  As the excavation moved further into the ground, the team came upon roofing clay and floor areas that had artifacts associated with them.
  
  "I was most surprised about how excited the Greeks were to have excavators digging up their heritage and history," said Krista Judge, a junior liberal studies major.
  
  At the study center, Brewster says she did a variety of processing jobs that included floatation of soil samples, sorting floatation samples, washing pottery and assisting the local conservationists.
  
  "I had the opportunity to work closely with the plant remains because I had expressed an interest in paleoethnobotany," Bollans said. "I was surprised to find that my interest in paleoethnobotany only grew through this experience."
  
  Regular afternoon presentations by Mook and the specialist staff were also held throughout the seven-week course.

Around LAS
September 8-21, 2003