{"id":15568,"date":"2025-10-13T13:20:53","date_gmt":"2025-10-13T10:20:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cig-icg.gr\/the-abdera-urban-plan-project-aupp-results-from-the-2025-season\/"},"modified":"2025-10-16T09:30:04","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T06:30:04","slug":"the-abdera-urban-plan-project-aupp-results-from-the-2025-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cig-icg.gr\/fr\/the-abdera-urban-plan-project-aupp-results-from-the-2025-season\/","title":{"rendered":"The Abdera Urban Plan Project (AUPP): Results from the 2025 season"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

In June 2025, the AUPP began its second season with excavations at the site of the Roman period Insula of Houses <\/em>at Abdera. The project is co-directed by Maria Chrysafi, Director of the Ephorate of Antiquities of Xanthi and Dr. Maria Papaioannou from the Department of Historical Studies at the University of New Brunswick, under the auspices of the Canadian Institute in Greece and the Greek Ministry of Culture. Abdera is a coastal site in northern Greece nestled between the Rhodope mountains and the Aegean Sea with a spectacular view of the island of Thasos. Not far along the coast, to the west, is the site of Argilos where another CIG project was in full swing. Students from different disciplines and institutions – Canada, the US and Greece – convened to put into practice the knowledge they acquired in the classroom and from past experiences at other sites. Cohorts of workers and archaeologists from the Ephorate of Antiquities of Xanthi and professional museum staff offered their expertise and supervision to the group.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Left: David Pogoson, (Civil Engineering, University of New Brunswick); Centre & Right:\u00a0<\/em>Site supervisor, archaeologist Efie Kosmidou, Ephorate of Xanthi (centre): training session<\/em><\/p>\n

Investigations of the Insula of Houses,<\/em> begun in 1952 by Dimitrios Lazarides, were later continued by the Greek Archaeological Service. The results from last year\u2019s geophysical survey (2024) conducted by FORTH allowed us to map remains of courtyard and peristyle houses beneath the surface and confirm the presence of another housing block to the east. This year our goal was to locate the road bordering the north side of the insula<\/em> and the north wall of the Roman period peristyle house, reexamine Lazarides\u2019 trench in the east portico of the house and locate remains of the Hellenistic period. Work at the site was supervised by archaeologist Efie Kosmidou from the Ephorate of Antiquities of Xanthi who was always\u2019 on the go.\u2019\u00a0 She is to be commended for her expertise and skills in organizing workers, students, trenches, site documentation, and making sure that all ran smoothly.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Above: aerial view of excavations along northern limits of Insula of Houses; Below: <\/em>work along the north wall of the peristyle house. Students: Left: David Pogoson; Right: Kate Seeger, Michaela Mirkopoulos, Maria Zatusevschi, Mary <\/em>Lucovich<\/em> & Maria Georgia Papoutsi<\/em><\/p>\n

Work commenced along the north side of the peristyle house where a small section of the north wall and an extensive destruction layer came to light. This was a challenging site to dig as the soil was as hard as concrete and work progressed slowly. Consequently, we were unable to reach the foundations of the wall as originally planned. We also excavated, northward, along the east wall of the peristyle house hoping to locate the road delineating the northern limits of the insula<\/em>. There is much debate about the exact location of the road.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Left: Excavations in the east portico of the Roman period peristyle house. Lazarides\u2019 trench (1954);\u00a0<\/em>Right: covering Lazarides\u2019 trench<\/em><\/p>\n

Excavations in the east portico of the Roman period peristyle house were more productive. We located and excavated Lazarides\u2019 trench which offered a treasure trove of surprises! Work began at a slow pace as the surface soil, like elsewhere, was rock hard but conditions changed, and the team managed to reach the flagstone pavement of an earlier, Hellenistic phase.\u00a0 This trench served as an excellent case study for documenting earlier excavations practices which intrigued us all.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Washing pottery sherds in the garden of the Abdera Museum. From bottom left to right: \u00ab\u00a0Shy Kitty\u00a0\u00bb (Abdera), Kate Seeger (St. Mary\u2019s University, Halifax,) Maria <\/em>Zatusevschi <\/em>(University\u00a0 of Dallas, Texas), Maria Papoutsi (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki), Mary <\/em>Lucovich<\/em> (University of Dallas, Texas), Mikaela Mirkopoulos (Toronto & University of Arizona), David Pogoson (University of New Brunswick), Athanasia Koutoula, Sinem Sadik and Chrysanthi Marinou (Demokritus University of Thrace)<\/em><\/p>\n

Students took part in a multitude of tasks, from digging to sifting through dirt for small finds, keeping diaries and washing pottery in the courtyard of the Abdera Museum in the company of a camera-shy kitty (lower left corner) that arrived daily and on time to watch everyone work. Conservator Katerina Christou was always present to assist with the pottery and surprise us by presenting the small finds after cleaning and restoration: what a difference!\u00a0 Other educational activities included pottery classes at the museum offered by the co-directors, Maria Chrysafi (EAX) and Maria Papaioannou (UNB).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

From Left to Right: Hiking up to Hellenistic fortress; view at the top; Inside Macedonian tomb<\/em><\/p>\n

Students also engaged in a variety of weekend excursions which included visits to the old city of Xanthi and its museums (especially the Folklore Museum and the most intriguing Museum of Shadows), the nearby Lagoon of Porto Lagos with its two little islands connected by wooden bridges, each with a church (the Monastery of St. Nicholas and the Church of Panaghia Pantanassa), and the famous pink flamingos! A field trip up to the well-preserved Hellenistic fortress at Kalyva on Mt. Rhodope was accompanied by a breath-taking view of the surrounding forests and visit to the well-preserved 2nd<\/sup> century BC Macedonian tomb. Many thanks to archaeologist Kiki Hatziprokopiou (Ephorate of Xanthi), who although on sabbatical leave offered to conduct the tour. And last but certainly not least, the island of Thasos was also on the list, and a dip in the Aegean was a popular choice!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

A visit to the site by his Grace Bishop of Polystylon, k. Sophronios and excavation team<\/em><\/p>\n

During the excavation season, officials and members of the local community and tourists took a keen interest in our project and came to visit the site and ask questions \u2026 which we were not always able to answer! Among those that honoured us with their presence was his Grace Bishop of Polystylon, k. Sophronios, who after touring the Byzantine Acropolis of Abdera, known as Polystylon, made his way down to our site. As an antiquities enthusiast and ardent supporter of archaeological projects he wished us a productive season.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

AUPP 2025, Team<\/em><\/p>\n

We thank all the workers, museum and hostel staff, archaeologists, surveyor Athanasios Deliorides, archaeologist Konstantinos Darakis for aerial photos of the site, and the Director of the Ephorate of Xanthi Maria Chrysafi, for their hard work and hospitality. It would be amiss not to mention our cook \u2018kyria <\/em>Efie\u2019 who with her delicious meals made sure the students were ready for a hard day\u2019s work.<\/p>\n

This project would not have been possible without the generous financial support from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and the Ephorate of Antiquities of Xanthi.<\/p>\n

We are looking forward to discussing and analyzing the results of this year\u2019s 2025 activities and planning for the 2026 season. The outcomes will afford a better understanding of the complexity of Greek town planning and provide a more nuanced approach to the study of the built environment and those who shaped it.<\/p>\n

Maria Papaioannou, co-director AUPP, University of New Brunswick<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15543,"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":[209],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15568","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2025-fr"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cig-icg.gr\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15568","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cig-icg.gr\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cig-icg.gr\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cig-icg.gr\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cig-icg.gr\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15568"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cig-icg.gr\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15568\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cig-icg.gr\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cig-icg.gr\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cig-icg.gr\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cig-icg.gr\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}