Day 3 and time to do some archaeology. I was grabbed at breakfast by the survey team (James E, James S and Steve) to be taken off for a morning looking around some of the sites that they were looking at. Into the Landie, and away we go.
First stop was the Firing Range, to the west of Dreamer’s Bay, the main focus for the field survey. At the reception area, staffed by some friendly locals and Ray the Dog, it was time for snake drill. Apparently, there’s a lot of Flat-Headed Vipers in the scrub and these are seriously dangerous. So, “Make lots of noise and beat the bushes with a stick if you’re walking through scrub and they’ll probably slither off. However, they are quite territorial, so may respond by standing their ground. If you see one, and they’re in a ‘S’ shape, get out the way quick as they’re about to strike. Jump sideways, not backwards, and they’ll probably miss. If they don’t miss, they’ll probably hit between the knee and ankle. If they hit, lie down and inform the rest of the party, and keep as still as possible. Get a tourniquet on about 4 inches above the bite, and get the rest of the party to carry you to the nearest hospital. Don’t try and walk as you’ll need to keep your heart rate as low as possible to give you the best chance of survival.” OK then, single file through the scrub with the lightest person at the front, which wasn’t me by a long chalk I’m glad to say for once. The rest of the local snakes are non-venomous, and the scorpions are largely not particularly poisonous. The range has only been used for small arms, so no worries about unexploded ordnance.
We drove over to the cliffs area in the Landie and parked up. I got out and looked down and the first thing I saw was a fragment of a white-slipped Amphora, probably Byzantine-era Egyptian. As we wandered around the scrub, there was a steady trickle of fragments of pottery, mainly red amphora of probably local manufacture. The main features appeared to be natural sink-holes, but some of these had been modified to function as hermit’s holes, some of which had large Juniper bushes growing next to them. Yet more evidence that ‘Life of Brian’ is a documentary. We also noted the existence of a single rock-cut grave, but not a lot else, so we headed down off the cliffs to the beach area.
Down by the sea, it was pretty obvious we were dealing with a harbour. We noted a few possible walls, but there were some massive pottery scatters, with the ground completely carpeted with sherds, again mainly bits of the red wares of probably local origin, but also the occasional white-slipped fragment of probable Egyptian stuff. Lots of amphora handles and bowl rims, and not a lot else. This is very typical of port areas of the Roman and Byzantine worlds, with oil and wine amphorae broken by the thousand at the point of landing. They appear to have simply emptied them then thrown them away. James and James were recording the positions of the hermit’s holes and pot scatters using a nice piece of portable GPS kit, although the technological impressiveness was somewhat undermined by James E having forgotten a note-book, meaning he had to write the co-ordinates on his hand. Hopefully he’ll transcribe them before he has a shower this evening.
Back to the Landie, and round to Dreamer’s Bay. Again, massive scatters of redware pottery, to the extent that it was impossible to walk anywhere without treading on Byzantine pot. There’s the foundation walls of several large warehouses about 20m long at the edge of the natural harbour, and we’re hoping ultimately to put a trench into them one day, but we need to get it all surveyed for now. I gathered up a small collection of pottery, which is beginning to make a little bit of sense now. There’s at least three different redware fabrics, maybe more, but at the moment there’s a fine smooth type, another with harsh inclusions, possibly calcite, and a fairly soft one with big pieces of rounded chalk or limestone. Middle and Later Byzantine pot appears to be virtually absent, although we noted a single piece of red-painted whiteware as well as the white-slipped sherds, and one piece of North African or Turkish red-slipped pot, so, my first guesstimate is the 5th – 7th centuries AD, but I’ve a LOT more analysis and reading to do before that’s definite.
By now it was mid-morning and starting to get hot, well, mid-high 20s, but warm enough for November. Back to the Landie again, and up on to the cliffs to the east of the bay. We knew from the initial survey and previous work that there are rock-cut tombs up there, but it became clear very quickly that there are far more than anyone suspected. In an hour or so we noted dozens of them, and it’s also clear that many, many more have gone into the sea. The cliffs are crumbling at a fairly alarming rate, with some massive cracks opened up in some places due to sink-holes, so we’re going to have to get the tombs recorded as quickly as possible, especially as some may still have their contents intact. In places it there were massive lumps of rock which had detached themselves already, but fragments of tombs were still visible on the top of them. It was very noticeable that there was an almost complete lack of pot in and around these tombs, so it seems very likely that what we are dealing with is the eastern cemetery for the Dreamer’s Bay harbour/settlement, more correctly called the Eastern Necropolis, or city of the dead, so no settlement activity.
It was getting towards lunchtime now and we were pretty much out of water, so time to head back to the base for a cold drink, pausing briefly to stop off at Lania, where there is a series of ?Hellenistic rock-cut buildings. One of these is absolutely massive and is either a Mithraeum or an underground warehouse, depending on who you believe. One of the most impressive things is that all this archaeology is within five minute drive of the base houses, and, Lania aside, all appears to be part of one massive settlement. This first year is mainly intended as a fact-finding mission, and I think the first facts we’ve found is that we’ve got a heck of a lot of work to do, and the site has got quite stunning potential. Right, time for a shower, a cold beer or two and some internet time down at the Sergeant’s Mess. I’ll put a bunch of photos of today’s meanderings up on my ‘open’ Facebook page in a bit, as there’s really too many to go one here.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Paul-Blinkhorn-Anglo-Saxon-Medieval-Pottery-Specialist/169284376452375?ref=bookmarks
Tomorrow, I’m off to the excavations at the Byzantine monastery.
First stop was the Firing Range, to the west of Dreamer’s Bay, the main focus for the field survey. At the reception area, staffed by some friendly locals and Ray the Dog, it was time for snake drill. Apparently, there’s a lot of Flat-Headed Vipers in the scrub and these are seriously dangerous. So, “Make lots of noise and beat the bushes with a stick if you’re walking through scrub and they’ll probably slither off. However, they are quite territorial, so may respond by standing their ground. If you see one, and they’re in a ‘S’ shape, get out the way quick as they’re about to strike. Jump sideways, not backwards, and they’ll probably miss. If they don’t miss, they’ll probably hit between the knee and ankle. If they hit, lie down and inform the rest of the party, and keep as still as possible. Get a tourniquet on about 4 inches above the bite, and get the rest of the party to carry you to the nearest hospital. Don’t try and walk as you’ll need to keep your heart rate as low as possible to give you the best chance of survival.” OK then, single file through the scrub with the lightest person at the front, which wasn’t me by a long chalk I’m glad to say for once. The rest of the local snakes are non-venomous, and the scorpions are largely not particularly poisonous. The range has only been used for small arms, so no worries about unexploded ordnance.
We drove over to the cliffs area in the Landie and parked up. I got out and looked down and the first thing I saw was a fragment of a white-slipped Amphora, probably Byzantine-era Egyptian. As we wandered around the scrub, there was a steady trickle of fragments of pottery, mainly red amphora of probably local manufacture. The main features appeared to be natural sink-holes, but some of these had been modified to function as hermit’s holes, some of which had large Juniper bushes growing next to them. Yet more evidence that ‘Life of Brian’ is a documentary. We also noted the existence of a single rock-cut grave, but not a lot else, so we headed down off the cliffs to the beach area.
Down by the sea, it was pretty obvious we were dealing with a harbour. We noted a few possible walls, but there were some massive pottery scatters, with the ground completely carpeted with sherds, again mainly bits of the red wares of probably local origin, but also the occasional white-slipped fragment of probable Egyptian stuff. Lots of amphora handles and bowl rims, and not a lot else. This is very typical of port areas of the Roman and Byzantine worlds, with oil and wine amphorae broken by the thousand at the point of landing. They appear to have simply emptied them then thrown them away. James and James were recording the positions of the hermit’s holes and pot scatters using a nice piece of portable GPS kit, although the technological impressiveness was somewhat undermined by James E having forgotten a note-book, meaning he had to write the co-ordinates on his hand. Hopefully he’ll transcribe them before he has a shower this evening.
Back to the Landie, and round to Dreamer’s Bay. Again, massive scatters of redware pottery, to the extent that it was impossible to walk anywhere without treading on Byzantine pot. There’s the foundation walls of several large warehouses about 20m long at the edge of the natural harbour, and we’re hoping ultimately to put a trench into them one day, but we need to get it all surveyed for now. I gathered up a small collection of pottery, which is beginning to make a little bit of sense now. There’s at least three different redware fabrics, maybe more, but at the moment there’s a fine smooth type, another with harsh inclusions, possibly calcite, and a fairly soft one with big pieces of rounded chalk or limestone. Middle and Later Byzantine pot appears to be virtually absent, although we noted a single piece of red-painted whiteware as well as the white-slipped sherds, and one piece of North African or Turkish red-slipped pot, so, my first guesstimate is the 5th – 7th centuries AD, but I’ve a LOT more analysis and reading to do before that’s definite.
By now it was mid-morning and starting to get hot, well, mid-high 20s, but warm enough for November. Back to the Landie again, and up on to the cliffs to the east of the bay. We knew from the initial survey and previous work that there are rock-cut tombs up there, but it became clear very quickly that there are far more than anyone suspected. In an hour or so we noted dozens of them, and it’s also clear that many, many more have gone into the sea. The cliffs are crumbling at a fairly alarming rate, with some massive cracks opened up in some places due to sink-holes, so we’re going to have to get the tombs recorded as quickly as possible, especially as some may still have their contents intact. In places it there were massive lumps of rock which had detached themselves already, but fragments of tombs were still visible on the top of them. It was very noticeable that there was an almost complete lack of pot in and around these tombs, so it seems very likely that what we are dealing with is the eastern cemetery for the Dreamer’s Bay harbour/settlement, more correctly called the Eastern Necropolis, or city of the dead, so no settlement activity.
It was getting towards lunchtime now and we were pretty much out of water, so time to head back to the base for a cold drink, pausing briefly to stop off at Lania, where there is a series of ?Hellenistic rock-cut buildings. One of these is absolutely massive and is either a Mithraeum or an underground warehouse, depending on who you believe. One of the most impressive things is that all this archaeology is within five minute drive of the base houses, and, Lania aside, all appears to be part of one massive settlement. This first year is mainly intended as a fact-finding mission, and I think the first facts we’ve found is that we’ve got a heck of a lot of work to do, and the site has got quite stunning potential. Right, time for a shower, a cold beer or two and some internet time down at the Sergeant’s Mess. I’ll put a bunch of photos of today’s meanderings up on my ‘open’ Facebook page in a bit, as there’s really too many to go one here.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Paul-Blinkhorn-Anglo-Saxon-Medieval-Pottery-Specialist/169284376452375?ref=bookmarks
Tomorrow, I’m off to the excavations at the Byzantine monastery.
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