KU Classics

Excavations

at

Gournia, Crete, GREECE

The excavation

• The site is Gournia, a prehistoric village site in east Crete dating primarily to the Late Minoan period (Late Bronze Age, ca. 1500-1200 BCE).

• The Director of Excavations is L. Vance Watrous, University of Buffalo.

• Contact person at KU and in Crete is Professor John Younger, Department of Classics. Professor Younger will meet the students at the Herakleion airport on June 15, and will drive the students in a rental car to Pacheia Ammos, the village where we stay. Younger will also be responsible for the KU students during the excavation, and will drive them back to the Herakleion airport for their return home in the days immediately following the end of the excavation (July 28).

• KU will provide lodging for the students in Pacheia Ammos. Students will provide their own transportation from the United States to and from the Herakleion airport, their own food, and any other personal items.

  
  

  

  
  

• Students do the excavating. This is hard work: breaking up earth with pick axes, removing the dug earth with wheelbarrows, shoveling, cleaning the site, making drawings, and other tasks. There will be some delicate work cleaning and removing artifacts, but most work involves removing earth.

• Summers in Greece are hot (90-100 degrees most days, 70 degrees most nights) and dry.

• Excavation starts June 16, with an archaeological orientation on site directed by Professor Watrous the day before (June 15). Excavation runs M-F with a half-day on Saturday; Saturday afternoons and Sundays are free.
  • Daily routine: Professor Younger will provide transportation from our lodgings in Pacheia Ammos to the site at 6:45 am, Mo-Sa. Work begins on site at 7:00 am. Students bring their own water. There is a 15 minute rest at 9:30 and a half-hour rest at 11:00 ("kolatsó," a time for students to eat something). At 1:30 we pack up our tools and leave the site by 2:00. In the afternoon, after the 2nd week, students will be expected to wash pottery and do other tasks for 2 hours. On Saturdays, there is no kolatsó and work stops at noon; students have the rest of the day off. On Sundays, there will be scheduled free field trips to other sites.

• In Pacheia Ammos there is the Center for East Cretan Studies (run by the Institute for Aegean Prehistory). There, in the afternoons students will wash pottery and do other tasks for the excavation. The Center also has Internet, laundry facilities, a library, a kitchen and other amenities.

Pacheia Ammos

Living in Pacheia Ammos

• Pacheia Ammos is a small village (pop. about 500) on a beach, lined with several restaurants and cafés, most of which have Internet. On the main road through the village there are two small general stores (groceries and basic pharameutical supplies [soap, shampoo, etc.]) and one bakery that also makes sandwiches (good for kolatsó). There is no bank, ATM, or pharmacy in Pacheia Ammos.

• To the south of Pacheia Ammos is Hierapetra and to the north is Ayios Nikolaos; both are large towns with department stores, bigger restaurants (including Chinese), pharmacies, barbers, banks ATMs, and other amenities. Professor Younger and various staff members will have the use of rental cars and will make regular runs into Hierapetra and Ayios Nikolaos for student needs.

• Students will be housed in small apartment buildings or in one of the two hotels in the village.

  
  

  
  The Villa Marcos, one of the student residences in Pacheia Ammos

  
  

Deadline: 1 November 2012.