The Bays of East Attica Regional Survey
An archaeological project centred on the bay of Porto Rafti
Each year the British School at Athens publishes a rundown of significant archaeological results from the previous year of work all around Greece. Short summaries of the BEARS survey results have appeared in previous issues. A fun tidbit that may titillate blog readers is that some of our fun figurines from the 2022 survey grace the cover of the current issue, volume 69. Check out the full report here, or just get in touch if you don’t have a subscription and need the pdf.
With 2024 knocking at the door, it’s almost time for the annual early-January, conference of the Archaeological Institute of America, which will take place in breezy Chicago this year. BEARS team members are well-represented in the program – those interested in the project’s research will be especially excited to see a full colloquium session devoted to papers about our finds from Porto Rafti, which is scheduled for Saturday morning, January 6. A full roundup of BEARS team members and their papers/roles in sundry sessions is listed below.
Friday January 5
Session 1F: The Mycenaean Koine in Context: Disentangling Material Uniformities in the Aegean Late Bronze Age (Colloquium)
Discussants: Carl Knappett, University of Toronto, and Sarah Murray, University of Toronto
Session 2F: Minoan Crete
A Liminal Approach to Cultural Interaction and Maritime Exchange at Two Late Bronze Age Aegean Harbors. Elliott J. Fuller, University of Toronto
Saturday January 6
Session 4B: The Archaeology of Aegean Islands and Coasts: A View from Porto Rafti, Greece based on the Results of the BEARS Survey (Colloquium)
Organizer: Catherine Pratt, University of Texas at Austin
Implementing Survey in a Suburban Coastal Context: Reflections from the BEARS Project. Grace Erny, University of California, Berkeley, and Maeve McHugh, University of Birmingham
Chipped Stone Tools from the Bays of East Attica Regional Survey (BEARS) .Aikaterini Psoma, University of Illinois at Chicago
LH IIIC Pottery in the Bay of Porto Rafti: Insights into Production, Consumption, and Exchange . Bartłomiej Lis, Polish Academy of Sciences
Koroni and Porto Rafti in the Greek Historical Period. Miriam Clinton, Rhodes College, and Melanie Godsey, Texas Tech University
Roman Period Porto Rafti: Results of the Bays of East Attica Regional Survey, 2019-2022. Joseph Frankl, University of Michigan
Session 5C: Temples and Sacred Space in the Greek World
Cultic Topographies in the Neda Borderlands. Shannon M. Dunn, Bryn Mawr College
The Archaic Temple of Athena Hippolaitis in Southwestern Mani . Philip Sapirstein, University of Toronto
Session 5K: Peer Review: Present Tensions, Future Directions (Joint AIA-SCS Workshop)
Panelists: Ellen Bauerle, University of Michigan Press, Emma Blake, University of Arizona & AJA, Sam Huskey, University of Oklahoma, Sarah Murray, University of Toronto & JMA, Sarah Nooter, University of Chicago & CP, Jennifer Sacher, ASCSA & Hesperia, Colin Whiting, Dumbarton Oaks & DOP, and Lin Foxhall, University of Liverpool & JHS
Fans of Porto Rafti archaeology might want to check out a new article that was just published in the latest issue of the American Journal of Archaeology. The paper, by Sarah Murray and Bartłomiej Lis – both proud BEARS members – reexamines the iconographic repertoire of figural art from the Perati cemetery in light of recent research on Postpalatial society. If you don’t have access to the article, feel free to get in touch and ask for a digital offprint!
Meanwhile, some references to Porto Rafti’s archaeology and discoveries of the BEARS project have been sneaked into a recent little book on long-distance exchange systems in the Aegean Bronze Age. It’s free to read online or download until December 28 – a GREAT little holiday gift for yourself?
Finally, BEARS contributor Robert Stephan has an awesome paper in a volume edited by your faithful BEARS co-director on violence and vnequality in archaeological perspective, which has been published by the University Press of Colorado.
It seems that when it rains BEARS related publications it pours BEARS related publications. Watch this space for a post-holiday post highlighting all of the exciting content that BEARS team members will be contributing to the upcoming Archaeological Institute of America conference in January!
On a glowery overcast October day last week, two BEARS team members (Bartek Lis, LH IIIC pottery guru, and your faithful blog correspondent, co-director Sarah Murray) had the great and glorious privilege of visiting Christos Agouridis and his team of underwater archaeologists during their campaign of excavations at the shipwreck of the northern shore of the islet of Modi in the Saronic gulf.
As faithful blog readers will know, Modi is a small, craggy island off the coast of Poros. Like our own Raftis islet, Modi is covered in a dense scatter of LH IIIC and Late Roman (7th century CE) pottery. Excavations by the Greek Archaeological Service produced some really interesting LH IIIC finds on Modi, including evidence for engagement with long-distance exchange networks, and these finds are matched by the amazing finds from Agouridis’ excavations of the shipwreck mentioned above.
Visiting Modi was a real dream come true – all made even better by the incredible friendly hospitality offered by Christos and his team. We were given wonderful explanations of and insights into the daily work routines involved in excavating underwater remains on a steep, rocky slope, and had many great discussions about potential connections between the finds from Modi, the wreck, and what we’ve found in Porto Rafti. Perhaps most importantly – we were never short of coffee and delicious Greek snacks! We could have stayed forever; though neither Bartek nor myself are qualified divers, perhaps we could contribute to the sieve?
Overall, we left (reluctantly) having learned a huge amount about this “cousin” site to Raftis and with a strong impression that this must be one of the best and most well-run projects in Greece these days. The Modi team is doing really amazing work in challenging circumstances. What’s more, they have been partnering with various innovative EU organizations and initiatives to develop new technologies for underwater archaeology and heritage. Modi folks are working with a program called BCT Hubs to help connect underwater and maritime heritage sites throughout European seas. And one day, with input from awesome projects like the Modi excavation, remotely operated submersibles will apparently be on hand to help underwater diggers! Let’s just hope they don’t go squish like some other famous submersibles in the news lately.
Might there be a shipwreck under the waters of Porto Rafti bay, perhaps near the islets of Raftis or Praso? This is an intriguing question….perhaps something to ponder along with our new friends from the Modi team someday in the future….an exciting prospect indeed, especially if we can get some robots involved! For now, there’s plenty to do as we work towards publication of the BEARS survey finds.
Last academic year chewed me up with the gnashing, saliva-speckled jaws of our project mascot. Most tragically, its many travails left zero spare time units with which to while away a few leisurely hours designing a BEARS 2022 season t-shirt, which I only got around to in April of 2023. Fortunately this year has brought the welcome relief of a research and study leave, so the BEARS 2023 shirt is arriving in the regularly scheduled early fall time slot. Despite my general distaste for all matters Imperial Roman, it features the dear old Raftis statue. It is also a little goofy. It is probably fair to say that is pretty consistent with the vibe of the project. Have also started developing a related line of Porto Rafti themed beachwear, surely will be big hits in the market stalls of Plaka and Monastiraki as of summer 2024.
Once the project’s groundstone catalogue passed the 365 artifact mark, the team’s attention turned to the obvious next stage of work: assigning each team member (or anyway those whose birthdays I know from their personnel forms) a personal “spirit” groundstone based on which day of the year they were born.
The results, of the utmost scientific interest!, are as follows:
The most common artifact in the catalogue, by a wide margin is “andesite grinding slab”. A grinding slab is the lower, stationary part of grinding toolkits, working as a pair with a handheld tool for pulverizing a variety of substances, such as grains, acorns, spices, minerals, pigments etc., or to produce other artefacts. Andesite is a volcanic stone of intermediate silica content with plagioclase crystals. It does not occur naturally in the Porto Rafti area, but was probably sourced relatively close by in the Saronic gulf. Aegean andesite ranges in color from light or dark grey to pleasantly pink.
The official BEARS groundstone mascot, “andesite grinding slab” accurately captures the normative, sturdy, and utterly reliable characters it represents: Izzy Brewer, Miriam Clinton, Grace Erny, Rob Stephan, Joey Frankl, Elliott Fuller, Matthias Kalisch, and Dom Pollard.
Shannon Dunn and Taylor Stark are both “metamorphic hammerstones”. A hammer stone is a type of active percussion tool, any handheld tool used with strokes to remove material from another surface. They are further categorized based on the force of the stroke and morphology of their use faces. Metamorphic stones are local to east Attica.
Being a metamorphic hammer stone seems “very metal”.
Phil Sapirstein is a “pink andesite pestle”. Pestles are handheld tools of a relatively elongated shape used with one or both ends for pounding, grinding and mixing a variety of substances, often used in conjunction with mortars.
This pestle suits The King of the Roof Tiles, with his fashionable art historian’s demeanor and penchant for shades of lavender. Would be a good tool for smashing up tiles.
Braden Cordivari is a “figure-of-eight shaped possible weight”, a very useful tool for the metallurgist in training.
Kat Apokatanidis is a “multifunctional andesite pounder used for grinding on one side”. No comment!
Maeve McHugh, known for dwelling in only the most exclusive gated mansions and 5-star resort hotels while visiting Porto Rafti, has a fittingly prestigious groundstone doppelgänger: “gneiss foot from a tripod mortar”.
Tripod mortars are a distinct tool type where the body rests on three feet and a narrow spout might be present on the rim. They date mostly to the Late Bronze Age in the Aegean and are thought to have been used in both utilitarian and ritual contexts. They are considered prestige items, because a great deal of extra effort was required to manufacture the feet and spout.
NICE.
Finally, Melanie Godsey and Sarah Murray are unmodified raw materials that are volcanic – so brought to the survey area from elsewhere – but that don’t have any apparent usewear. Murray is a mere pebble, Godsey a hulking andesite boulder. These two have limitless potential and will never be a tool for “the man”.
As part of our campaign of architectural documentation in the 2023 season, the BEARS team conducted some drone photography. This was particularly helpful on Raftis and Koroni, where steep slopes, gnarly vegetation, and large features combined to present considerable obstacles for terrestrial documentation. While useful, flying the drone is also kind of fun (or frightening, depending on your tolerance for sending a $3,000 lump of plastic with a short battery life zooming around over open water). Here are some drone’s eye out-takes from the season including a few ‘classic’ drone-operator selfies featuring team members staring intently at the drone or its remote controller.
BEARS 2023 team member and figurine expert extraordinaire Belisi Gillespie recently shared a great series of photos capturing the arduous life of the groundstone documentation team on Raftis island. In case you missed this gaudy stat in the CIG study season wrap-up blog posted below, Grace and Eleni documented well over 500 total groundstone artifacts between the 2022 and 2023 seasons! And, as you’ll see, they looked mighty cool doing it!
Groundstone documentation – a lot of fun! Well, I am sure it was the first 300 times or so. Fans of grindy poundy friends should keep a (googly) eye out on the blog for more related content, including exciting details of our BEARS groundstone day-by-day calendar and related horoscopes.
BEARS blog readers may be lamenting the dearth of updates through the summer – rest assured we were busy working on BEARS business in May and June, and have been industriously getting reports ready and preparing for our final push toward publication since then! Amidst the madness of many moving parts and trying not to let all of our brains sweat out through our ears, the blog seems to have fallen by the wayside. There is a nice wrap up of the season now available on the CIG’s blog, and we’ll try to get some posts going this fall as we are writing up material and looking forward to the final study season in 2024.
Meanwhile, fans of BEARS t-shirt designs can check out this trifle of a news story on a certain co-director’s unquenchable amateur graphic design habit here:
https://www.artsci.utoronto.ca/news/infusing-life-laughter-and-colour-courses-lectures-even-clothing
The 2023 BEARS study season is upon us! Starting on May 15, a small crew of Athens-based team members started commuting to the Brauron museum to get things started fleshing out the finds catalog, continuing the long process of bulk cataloging Praso pottery, and analysing groundstone objects. This week we welcome the season’s first arrivals from near and far, including various materials experts who will study artifacts in Brauron and a crew of expert architectural mappers who will tackle the remaining ruins. To kick off the blogging action, here is a photo of the museum team from May 22 fuelling up with donuts offered to us by one of our lovely and wonderful colleagues in the work rooms. Hooray for archaeology – we look forward to sharing additional updates as the work progresses this month and next.
