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A LARGE-SCALE ARCHAEOLOGICAL PROJECT ON CRETE HAS CREATED AN ENDURING COLLABORATION, AN EXPERIENTIAL GLOBAL LEARNING OPPORTUNITY FOR UNC STUDENTS AND A FUTURE HERITAGE TOURISM SITE FOR THE REGION.
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orning begins early, well before 6 a.m., in the small Greek village of Kavousi, on the island of Crete. Pickup trucks rumble up a winding road in the western Siteia mountains, passing by olive trees — one at least 1,500 years old — and wild flora to transport faculty and students to the top of a steep hill with a breathtaking view of Mirabello Bay below. Their destination: Azoria, an archaeological site where UNC researchers and students have led a large international, interdisciplinary team for 16 years. Their goal has been to excavate and study the sociopolitical and economic structure of an emerging city in its transition from the Early Iron
Age to the Archaic periods (7th to 5th centuries B.C.). It is the first example of an early Greek urban center recovered from Crete — and perhaps the best documented in the Aegean. It’s hot, dirty, messy and important work, and it’s been the long-term passion of Donald Haggis, the Nicholas A. Cassas Term Professor of Greek Studies in UNC’s department of classics. He established the Azoria Project in 2001 under the auspices of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens. Early on, he brought in UNC archaeobotanist Margaret Scarry to the project. She’s an expert in plant remains and the current chair of the curriculum in archaeology and director of the Research Laboratories
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of Archaeology (RLA). That move would prove to be fortuitous, given what they would find over the years about the importance of food and communal dining to the city’s civic life. Another key partner is Margaret Mook of Iowa State University, Azoria’s pottery specialist. Summer 2017 marked the last season of excavation for Azoria, which will be followed by five years of study and analysis. It’s also a time for reflection on the monumental scale of the project — which has raised over $1.8 million in competitive grants (including funds from the National Endowment for the Humanities and National Science Foundation), trained over 300 undergraduate and graduate students,
Donald Haggis
A monumental dig