It is hard to believe that we have been here about a month! This week the team has been divided into two groups — some of us are working in the Nemea Museum, and others have been up at the site.The Museum group is working on different jobs. Birgit has been drawing the pottery. She very carefully tries to draw the shape, size, and decoration of each pot, so that a person could really understand the pottery, even if he or she could not see it in person. Jessica, who has been trained in studying skeletons, is looking at some of the bones that we found in the previous seasons. Laura, Stella, and Ann-Sophie are working with Jim and Mary on organizing, cataloguing, and studying the finds from previous years. I’ve been finishing up the maps of the site from this season and teaching the students how to use the Total Station.
The field school students are working on site, practicing how to dig. On the final day of excavation we found what looked to be a natural pit, which is full of pottery. Angus thinks that this pit may have been formed by an earthquake. Then, water caused pottery to fall into it. It is still possible that the pit may also have been made by people, and so the students are continuing to dig. The students are working in teams of 3 people at the site in the mornings and then working in the Museum washing pottery in the afternoons. The students are also taking field trips to archaeological sites in the area. Last weekend, they visited the Temple of Nemean Zeus and the citadel at Mycenae. Tomorrow they will go to Tiryns and Epidauros.
The whole group also went on a wine tour yesterday afternoon. Many people grow grapes in this region, especially the St. George grape. We learned how they press the grapes with their feet, how they allow the wine to age in oak barrels, and how they create a distinctive flavor for their wines.
