Students dig at Despotiko Mandra

USC Students Dig Greek Culture

By Nicole St.Pierre

It’s 6 a.m. USC College assistant professor Bryan Burns and a dozen student volunteers prepare to leave the quiet fishing village of Soros they call home. From the western edge of the small Greek island of Antiparos, they stare across the Aegean Sea at the scores of Cycladic islands, many of which are now only inhabited by rabbits, birds and goats.

As the sun rises, the group boards a boat for the island of Despotiko, where people no longer reside, but traces of earlier Greek civilization—a Greek sanctuary, a Roman farmhouse, a medieval tower, early Bronze Age tombs—remain.

Since 2001, Burns, who teaches in the College’s classics department, has led volunteer student groups on six-week summer excursions to Despotiko, a rocky island measuring only 4 square miles. Here, students from USC College, the University of Athens and various other institutions learn the basic techniques of field research through hands-on experience recovering, reviewing and recording ancient objects.

Sifting and Sorting
A number of early Cycladic tombs were excavated from Despotiko in the 19th and 20th centuries, and isolated remains of Doric architecture were discovered in 1958.

Today, excavations focus on Mandra, a sanctuary site with significant remains of the archaic period (800-500 B.C.). During this era, the technologies and styles of classical Greece were developed, producing works such as finely painted pottery, intricately carved brooches, sturdy iron sickles and sharp bronze daggers.

On hands and knees, students work with small picks, trowels and brushes to sift through dirt and identify such relics. One student finds the remains of a cooking pot. Another dusts off a fragment believed to be part of a larger Greek sculpture.

Mainly what the students find are shards of ancient pottery—seemingly unexciting at first, but the writing and designs on the small fragments offer great value. Inscriptions on the pottery discovered at the site suggest worship to Apollo, the Greek god of sun and music.

“The remains of the archaic period were partially covered by domestic structures of the Roman and medieval periods, but some have been preserved, such as the architectural remains of three archaic buildings that were discovered built into later walls on the modern surface,” says Burns, whose own research focuses on the study and publication of “small” finds, including a wide range of artifacts such as ivory and stone jewelry, intricate figurines and metal tools.

Each day, students wash and record their findings, which then are transferred to the archaeological museum on the nearby island of Paros. There, two ceramic analysts attempt to piece the vessels into their original form. “It is a painstakingly slow and detailed process,” says Burns.

Focusing on the cultural connection between ancient Greece and other areas of the Mediterranean, Burns is now in the final stages of writing a book on the consumption of imported goods and materials in late Bronze Age Greece. “The material I am publishing from Despotiko happens to include many items of foreign manufacture, and this has presented an interesting case to compare with my work on similar objects from other regions and periods of Greek antiquity,” he says.

Island Life
Despite the promise of crystal blue water and white sandy beaches, the Despotiko program is hardly a holiday. There are a number of practical challenges due to the area’s remote location and unstable weather patterns, even in mid-summer.

Students live in a modest house, with four or five to a room, although many opt to sleep in tents outside. A night on the town in Soros presents the choice of only two small restaurants. Weekends are spent swimming and recording the week’s finds. There are no phones, no e-mail. A trip to buy milk requires a 6-mile trek to the main village of Antiparos.

“The students endure many hardships, but they always seem to rise to the occasion,” says Burns. Some mornings, the fierce winds stir up so much dust and dirt on the excavation site that it is almost impossible to see. By mid-afternoon, the temperature can surpass 100 degrees. But the team of budding classicists and archeologists barely seems to notice.

“Being able to take part in the Despotiko excavation is an incredible experience,” says USC junior Sameer Asad, a double major in classics and film, who participated in the 2003 trip to Despotiko along with Jonathan Vidar, Georgiana Nikias and Nicholas West. “Digging and surveying, especially in a part of the world where ‘the ancient’ is highly revered, takes textbook knowledge to an entirely different level.”

“This is one of the most exciting programs a classics student can participate in,” adds Thomas Habinek, chair of the classics department. “You can never get this experience in the classroom.”

An interest in antiquities isn’t the only prerequisite for students interested in making the trip to Despotiko. “It helps if they like goats,” says Burns, who is not being entirely facetious.

Until 2002, the Mandra site on Despotiko was home to a large flock of goats. (The Greek word mandra means “animal pens.”) Because the modern activities were negatively impacting the archaeological remains, a rescue excavation was initiated, and eventually the goats were relocated to another area where no antiquities were threatened. The original mandra was built 70 years ago by the grandfather of the goat keeper who still tends to his animals, which roam alongside the student volunteers in the same area. “When we started this project, we were literally surrounded by 700 goats,” Burns remembers.

Supporting the Cause
The current excavation at Despotiko Mandra was initiated by the Greek government in 1996 as a rescue project to preserve the region of the Cyclades. Student volunteers were incorporated in 2001.

Today, the excavation is directed by Yannos Kourayos, through his position as the supervisory archaeologist for Paros in the 21st Ephorate of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities of the Greek Ministry of Culture—the government department in charge of museum artifacts and buried ruins. The Greek Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of the Aegean fund the project.

Individuals can make donations to support the excavation through a newly formed organization called Friends of Despotiko.

Student volunteers are responsible for their own travel and living expenses. However, several USC students have benefited from the classics department’s Nelson Award, and this past year, three students received stipends as part of the USC Undergraduate Research Program.

photo credit: Bryan Burns