Ancient History Ramblings

It's Been a While

Well, it has been a while since I last posted. I have been in Polis since last weekend and a stable internet connection has been difficult to find. Anyway, quite a few members of PKAP have been here doing ground-penetrating radar, some GPS, and looking at pottery. I will be finishing up here on Wednesday evening and will be back in Larnaka on Thursday. I still have to do a few chores to finish up the PKAP season, such as putting items in storage for next year and cleaning things up. It has been a long and strange season. We have had more issues than ever before - minor issues, but still problems that made things run much less smoothly than we usually do. It will be interesting to see how things shake out over the off season as we determine the success of the season. For my part, we caught up on the pottery processing...well, we are almost caught up, so to me it was a very successful season.

RSM 

The Voyage of PKAP Airship 1

So......after the resounding success of our first flight with the PKAP Airship 1 (a helikite with a camera attached), we decided to fly it again today.Since our first attempt with it went so well, we immediately decided that since we were now expert aviators, we could be........less careful....or perhaps more daring with our attempt. We spent the morning at the museum finishing up our pottery analysis and were unable to get to the site until around 4.  In the afternoon, the winds always pick up due to thermal inversion and today was no different. We immediately noticed that helikite was much more difficult to control and exerted a lot of pull on the lines. It was hard enough to control the line that Bill made use of the gloves I brought to use with the helikite (as usual while I was much mocked for this, they turned out to be very useful). We then walked to helikite down the coastal plain and out into the infilled harbor taking photos at an oblique angle. During this period we noticed that the camera (a Nikon Coolpix P6000) was......moving around much more than on our previous attempt (it was actually gyrating wildly at times). We ended up taking about 600 photos, many of which were unusable - pictures of the helikite, the horizon, the sun, etc. Some turned out quite well and are very interesting.

Once we reached the harbor we turned around and headed back (cue Jaws music). We immediately noticed that since we were walking into the wind, the pull was much stronger on the line and the helikite was much more erratic. We had almost reached our starting point when the helikite suddenly started darting around, much like a fish on a fishing line. When we stopped walking, it turned and suddenly swooped toward the ground, but pulled up before it crashed. Thoughts of a certain tragic historic event crossed my mind.

(from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Hindenburg_burning.jpg)

The helikite regained its height and so we proceeded. From this point on, everything moved in slow motion. The kite turned and dove at the ground and literally bounced off the ground and back into the air. I asked Bill if he though the camera was still working and he said he doubted it since "...the helikite had spiked the camera into the ground." The helikite immediately bounced off the ground again and this time as it bounced up, the camera was catapulted off the mount and out into space where it spun like a top all the way down until it crashed to the ground. All I could think about was a scene from my favorite Christmas movie - A Christmas Story (For one brief moment I saw all the bolts silhouetted against the lights of the traffic. And then they were gone. Oh, fudge! Only l didn't say ''fudge.'). Anyway, the camera is totally shot and I am wondering if I should return it to Nikon claiming it was clearly defective since it failed to survive a fall from a mere 50 feet.

Preparing for ejection.

The final moment of PKAP's Nikon coolpix P6000. A moment of silence please. So, how many Ph.Ds does it take to safely fly a helikite? Evidently more than 2.

RSM

PKAP Airship 1 Takes to the Skies

Sunday was a big day for the project. Our helikite, nicknamed the "PKAP Airship 1" (all PKAP things - people, gadgets, etc. eventually receive a nickname), made a successful maiden voyage. We took it out to Koutsopetria and set up shop. It was quite an operation and required 2 cars. The hardest part was getting the tank of helium

 

out to the site in our small cars. The rest was downhill after that...sort of. Flying a helikite takes a bit of practice. It had great lift and we had no problem getting it to the right altitude. Making sure it stayed centered over the area we wanted to photograph, however, was a bit more complicated. We eventually were able to get that sorted out and the setup produced some great results. That was a bit of a relief for me, since there have been a lot of jokes made about the helikite and the possible outcomes.

RSM

Update

Things are going quite well at the museum, so other than trying to sort out some field issues, everything is ok. So, it seems a perfect time to update my potato chip tasting experiment. I have added a few new flavors and plan to experiment some more tomorrow. So, to recap, here are my initial ratings:

• Argentinean Steak -- ***** (5)
• Barbecue -- ******** (8)
• Cheese and Onion -- *** (3)
• English Cheese on Toast -- ***** (6)
• Greek Salsa -- **** (4)
• Mediterranean Herb -- ****** (6)
• Prawn Cocktail -- ********** (10)
• Salt and Vinegar -- ******* (7)

And now for the new ones:

• Brazilian Mango and Chile -- **** (4)
• Thai Sweet Chile -- ** (2)
• Oregano -- ******** (8)
• Quavers with Cheese -- ******* (7)

RSM

Museum Work and More Museum Work

Since we are still resolving our paperwork with the British base, we have not been able to do any work in the field yet. This means that we have been able to concentrate all of our resources on tasks at the museum. We

have made good progress on both processing the artifacts excavated last season, and in cataloguing selected artifacts for publication. This has been a bit disappointing to our students, who are very eager to undertake

fieldwork and instead have spent a lot of time washing pottery, but it makes me feel very good about having a handle on our museum situation. We have taken time to have some brief training sessions for the students on ceramic identification, GPR, GIS, etc. Hopefully the paperwork issue will be resolved on Monday so we can start using the GPR and flying the helikite.

 

RSM

Important Side Project

One important side project that I am investigating this summer is trying to see how many different flavors of potato chips I can try. Actually this is a continuation of last year's project, where I tried flavors such as paprika, ketchup, mustard, prawn cocktail, roasted chicken with lemon, etc. So far, this summer I have tried the standard flavors: prawn cocktail, barbecue, salt and vinegar, and cheese and onion. I have also branched out and tried: Mediterranean Herb, Greek Salsa, Argentinean Steak, and English Cheese on Toast. So far, my ratings (on a scale of 1-10) are:

• Argentinean Steak -- ***** (5)
• Barbecue -- ******** (8)
• Cheese and Onion -- *** (3)
• English Cheese on Toast -- ***** (6)
• Greek Salsa -- **** (4)
• Mediterranean Herb -- ****** (6)
• Prawn Cocktail -- ********** (10)
• Salt and Vinegar -- ******* (7)

More to follow.

RSM

Preparing for the aerial survey

One of my projects this summer is to use a helikite (balloon kite hybrid) to take low altitude photos and low altitude infrared photos of our survey area. One of the most difficult obstacles has been hurdled, we found a supplier who rented us a tank of helium. The next problem was getting the 5 and 1/2 foot tank into our rental car - which is about 6 feet long. Nevertheless, we had success and now move to the more mundane task of flying the helikite and hopefully not watching it float away over the horizon.

RSM

Rain?

As all of the students were quick to point out to me today, I always tell students coming to Cyprus with me that it never, or very seldom rains in Cyprus when we are there in the summer. That turned out to be not so true today. There was a thunderstorm last night with a little rain, and morning arrived with overcast skies - remarkably like Indiana, PA on most days. Towards noon, it actually tried to rain a few times. The three times it started raining, there were huge drops, and for about a minute it looked like it was going to rain hard - then the rain just stopped and the sun came out for a few minutes before clouding up again.

RSM

Still Getting Sorted Out

Well, it is halfway through the first full week in Cyprus and we are still trying to get things sorted out. Yesterday I went grocery shopping with our cook for the season, Chester, to show him how we have done it in the past and to impart what limited wisdom we have accumulated over the years. It was very busy at Carrefour, since all the stores had been closed on Monday. It was quite hectic, but a good training session for him since it was chaotic, crowded, and people were shoving to get in line or grab stuff from the shelves. After about 45 minutes of shopping, we finished up at Carrefour and then went over to the Lakanagora (Fruit Market) and grabbed some vegetables. The fruit market is a great place since it is one of the few places on the island where you can buy in bulk. In the US you can gigantic boxes of stuff, while at most stores like Carreforre the largest size they carry would be a medium in the States. Since we are always on a tight budget, buying in bulk is great and the fruit market sells large bags of vegetables that are nearing the end of their shelf life for a flat rate of 1.70 Euros. The downside is that they go bad very quickly, but when you are cooking for 20 people it is an acceptable risk. The story that best illustrates how foreign the concept of buying in bulk is two years we noticed that a local restaurant would sell you a whole chicken for 7 Euros. We talked to the gentleman behind the counter and told him that we were wondering how much he would sell us 10 chickens for. Since he did not understand us, he called the owner and asked him and then handed us the phone. After explaining our question to him, the owner without hesitation said he would sell us one chicken for 7 Euros, or 10 chickens for 70 Euros. Not exactly a significant savings.

Yesterday morning, David and I also met with the director of the Department of Antiquities and discussed our plans for the upcoming season. The meeting went well, and we even were given a very nice tour of the site of Idalion where she is excavating. In the afternoon, after lunch, we took the students out to see the site of Hala Sultan Tekke. It is usually a very quiet and peaceful site, but there was a busload of tourists there at the same time, so it was more crowded than usual.

Today, we went to the museum and spent the morning locating our supplies and artifacts and getting ready for a full day at the museum Thursday. After taking a quick inventory of our supplies, Bill and I ran out and picked up a few things we still needed, like a new laser printer, some paper, and some graph paper. While we were doing this, David and Dimitri went out and talked to the authorities at the British base to start the process of filling out the paperwork we need to file to conduct archaeology on the base. We have been fortunate that both the Department of Antiquities and the personnel at the British base have been so helpful in allowing us to continue our work.

RSM

PKAP Season 8 is now underway

I arrived back in Cyprus yesterday evening to start another season on the Pyla-Koutsopetria Archaeological Project. This year we are focusing on completing our analysis of the artifacts we have collected over the last few seasons, so more of a study season than a field season. David Pettegrew, a professor of history at Messiah College, has been in Cyprus since Friday with 6 of his students (his last student arrives tomorrow) preparing for the season. I have 5 students coming from IUP (2 graduate students in history, a graduate student in anthropology, a graduate student in geography, and an undergraduate history major). When our last 4 participants (including Bill Caraher - professor of history at the University of North Dakota) arrive this week, we will be 18 in total - almost half the number we had last year, so a big change.

Last night I got in in time to go to dinner with the group and was disappointed to learn that 3 of my favorite restaurants have closed down, including a Lebanese restaurant that had great chicken schwarma - something I have tried to cook with no great success. Today we took the students on a walking tour of Larnaka, both in the morning and in the afternoon. It is a bit hectic in Larnaka since the Kataklysmos festival is right in the middle of its festivities. While most of the island celebrates Kataklysmos over the weekend, in Larnaka it is a week long celebration of song, dance, and carnival/county fair like amusements - including great bumper cars (that was what we did after dinner last night).

 

This presented some challenges as you can see, David is actually talking to the students about a statue commemorating Cimon, not lecturing them on the types of balloons available for purchase as the picture seems to show. I will give David credit - he did a very good job in spite of the crowd and all of the distractions. We were able to move down the boardwalk to the medieval fort and separate ourselves from the Kataklysmos revelers. We then moved on the Church of St. Lazarus, which at first seemed calm and peaceful.

But then a camera crew showed up and starting videotaping the church and even David talking to the students. Every few minutes he would move in with his camera and stand amongst the students videotaping David. I have to admit it was pretty funny watching David trying to keep a straight face every time this guy moved in close.

We finished the tour by showing the students some picturesque sights on the way back to the hotel.

RSM