{"id":15027,"date":"2025-07-25T00:00:23","date_gmt":"2025-07-24T21:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cig-icg.gr\/?p=15027"},"modified":"2025-07-25T09:13:08","modified_gmt":"2025-07-25T06:13:08","slug":"first-season-of-the-southern-mani-archaeological-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cig-icg.gr\/el\/first-season-of-the-southern-mani-archaeological-project\/","title":{"rendered":"First Season of the Southern Mani Archaeological Project!"},"content":{"rendered":"

In May 2025, under the auspices of the Ephorate of Antiquities of Lakonia, with a permit through the Canadian Institute in Greece, the Southern Mani Archaeological Project (SMAP) initiated pedestrian field survey in the area of Porto Kagio on the southwestern coast of the Mani peninsula. SMAP is directed by Drs. Chelsea Gardner (Acadia University), William Parkinson (Field Museum \/ University of Illinois at Chicago), and Rebecca Seifried (University of Massachusetts-Amherst), and during this initial pilot season we recorded material dating from the prehistoric period through the time of Turkish occupation, and mapped the Achilleio fortification. The following is a blog post written by undergraduate student research assistants Cameron Barnard, Bella MacQuarrie, and Christos Zigoumis.<\/p>\n

– Chelsea Gardner and Bill Parkinson<\/p>\n

Introduction<\/strong><\/p>\n

In May, a team of 15 gathered in Mani, Lakonia \u2013 in the southern Peloponnese \u2013 for the first season of the Southern Mani Archaeological Project. With funding from SSHRC, the goal of SMAP is to better understand the southern Mani peninsula\u2019s history, landscape use, and resource exploitation as well as the relationship between southern Lakonia and the wider eastern Mediterranean region from a diachronic perspective.\u00a0The team was made up of the three project directors; Dr. Mo Snyder as geological field supervisor and their student, Bella MacQuarrie; a lab supervisor; two photogrammetrists; four ethnographers led by Dr. Manos Spyridakis from the National and Kapadostrian University in Athens; and three student assistants. The students engaged in pedestrian survey and collection of a 0.5 km2<\/sup> area of interest (see Figure 1), discovering pottery sherds from the Neolithic up to the early modern period. At the same time, Dr. Snyder and Bella conducted daily fieldwork as part of an ongoing project to map the geology of the Mani Peninsula.<\/p>\n

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Figure 1. Image of study area of interest.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>Fieldwork<\/strong><\/p>\n

The day began at 8:15AM, when everyone would jump in the cars to drive to site. Once there, a quick briefing would occur and we would go over the location(s) being surveyed and conduct a daily safety check. With pedestrian survey, every day was different! One day, it would be easy walking across rocky beaches or overgrown terraces, and others it would be breaking through thorn bushes and large spiderwebs down the side of the mountain (see Figure 2).<\/p>\n

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Figure 2. Dr. Gardner in the field.<\/em><\/p>\n

At times, the visibility was so poor we could not see the ground at all. Each unit surveyed was unlike the one before it. When ceramics or tile were found, they were counted, weighed, and bagged (see Figure 3). Backpacks would grow heavier throughout the day as ceramic samples were collected. When the fieldwork was over, the team would return to the hotel \/ base of operations, where the collected ceramics were washed and left to dry. Then the lab manager, Dr. Shannon Dunn (Bryn Mawr College), would sort and group the ceramics in each unit (based on time period, material, shape, etc.) and they would be entered into the database. The students would then photograph each group and upload the details on the database as well. Other skills the students learned during the season in Greece include georeferencing, ceramic analysis, and artifact cataloguing.<\/p>\n

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Figure 3. Team members (including Dr. Gardner and Cameron Barnard) counting sherds for the unit.<\/em><\/p>\n

Results<\/strong><\/p>\n

The amount of material discovered far exceeded expectations, with the total count reaching approximately 1,200 individual sherds. Although many ceramic fragments were small and non-diagnostic, other pieces, such as rims, bases, handles, and glazed pieces can be diagnostic of different chronological periods (see Figures 4-6). The majority of these diagnostic pieces were found in concentrated areas, such as around buildings, above the beach, and under over-hanging rocks. This pattern possibly suggests that these ceramics had washed down from higher up the mountain, where buildings or a settlement could have been. This concentration of material is even more impressive since only ~10% of the 0.5 km2<\/sup> area of interest was surveyable; the rest of the landscape was inaccessible due to steep hills, dilapidated terraces, and dense thorny bushes. The team will head back to Greece later this year to review the ceramics with experts who study different time periods.<\/p>\n

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Figure 4. Diagnostic ceramic pieces, such as rims and bases.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Figure 5. Ceramic handles.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Figure 6. More diagnostic ceramic pieces.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>Structures<\/strong><\/p>\n

The survey area proved not only to be rich in artefacts, but also in the number of structures and anomalies we were able to rediscover. One day, we found a rock-cut cistern (Figure 7) \u2013 which may be ancient \u2013 as Medieval cisterns are usually constructed of stone blocks rather than rock-cut, which was a surprise and further attests to continued human occupation of this area. Our LiDAR map showed this feature, but we had initially assumed it to be a sinkhole, so avoided it. It was only when the geological team approached it (thinking it was a sinkhole) that we made this discovery, showing that it is important to have many specialists on one team for the study of a specific area.<\/p>\n

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Figure 7. Rock cut cistern with view of the landscape and sea, immediately behind is the rock wall.<\/em><\/p>\n

Near this cistern we also found graffiti cut into the exposed bedrock which consists of names, symbols, and dates (mostly 1950\u2019s) which was convenient to us who wanted to know how old the graffiti was (Figure 8).<\/p>\n

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Figure 8. One graffito of a Greek last name.<\/em><\/p>\n

Further down between two remas<\/em> (dried riverbeds) appeared to be a large fortification wall with terraced walls inside gradually going down in elevation (Figure 9). The terraced walls were quite ordinary as most of the survey area had them, even if they were overgrown. But the wall was completely out of the ordinary. It was constructed of relatively small stones with no mortar or binding material in between and remained to a height of about four or five feet. It may have stood taller at one point as there was rockfall in most places, which might suggest that the wall may have at one point in history served a defensive purpose. But that doesn\u2019t align with the shoddy construction and lack of evidence found within the walls, but there could be artefacts buried beneath the later terraced walls.<\/p>\n

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Figure 9. The rock wall.<\/em><\/p>\n

A few days after this, Dr. Rebecca Seifried and student assistant, Christos Zigoumis, had the opportunity to explore a ruined structure which the locals referred to as \u201cFrankoklisi\u201d (Frankish church). This toponym excited the both of them since the Frankish presence in the Peloponnese lasted a comparatively short amount of time during which the ruling Frankish class constructed characteristically mediaeval western churches in such a foreign land. The Frankish presence in Mani is poorly understood and few remains of them are even known to exist here. As the two came upon \u201cFrankoklisi\u201d and scaled the remains of its walls, they quickly came to the realization that it was certainly not Frankish, or even Byzantine (Figure 10). They were unable to find an apse, which is an integral part in all churches of this period, and the entrance way was about nine feet wide; absurd for the 12×12 feet dimensions of the whole structure. Dr. Seifried suggested that it might have been a mosque or hammam, due to the Achilio<\/em> fortress lying just up the mountain. This was an Ottoman construction and the easiest way to get from the sea to Achilio<\/em> might have been to dock a ship at the beach where \u201cFrankoklisi<\/em>\u201d is situated, where a path to the fortress may have been.<\/p>\n

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Figure 10. Birds eye view of \u201dFrankoklisi\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n

Geology<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Geological Survey permit covers the archaeological site as well as the rest of the Mani Peninsula, offering a more comprehensive understanding of the area’s geological history.\u00a0 Daily fieldwork involved traversing the landscape to map bedrock exposures, documenting structural features, collecting rock samples, and interpreting the site\u2019s geological history through both in-field observations and post-survey data analysis (Figure 11, 12).<\/p>\n

Lithological samples were taken of each representative mappable unit; these samples will be processed in the Acadia Petrographic lab and analyzed. Lithological samples will either be cut hand-samples or made to thin sections, offering further classification and a more comprehensive guide to understanding the geology of the Mani Peninsula.<\/p>\n

The outcome of this work is to create a detailed 1:50,000 bedrock geology map of the Mani Peninsula, as the most recent map of the area is from 1984. Although the previous map is comprehensive, it does not trace key marker metalimestone beds that are of interest for archaeological research on the peninsula.<\/p>\n

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Figure 11. Bella standing amongst an impressive coastal outcrop.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Figure 12. Dr. Snyder standing on top of a rugged rock face.<\/em><\/p>\n

Cameron Barnard, Acadia University, BA Honours Classics and Biology (2025); University of Waterloo MA Anthropology (2027 anticipated).
\nBella MacQuarrie, Acadia University, BSC Honours Geoscience (2025), MSC Geology (2027 anticipated).
\nChristos Zigoumis, Carleton University, BA Honours Greek and Roman Studies (2027 anticipated).<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14991,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[210],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15027","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2025-el"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cig-icg.gr\/el\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15027","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cig-icg.gr\/el\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cig-icg.gr\/el\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cig-icg.gr\/el\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cig-icg.gr\/el\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15027"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cig-icg.gr\/el\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15027\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cig-icg.gr\/el\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cig-icg.gr\/el\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cig-icg.gr\/el\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cig-icg.gr\/el\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}