Not Just Zagora

This past week I was fortunate to present a paper at the Archaeological Institute of Archaeology's Annual Meeting in Toronto. 

 

The paper focused on the results of some aerial infrared photographs I took of the site of Methone (North Greece), where I work as an excavator and specialist in aerial photography/photogrammetry. UCLA, who run the project, bought a Thermal Camera which I was allowed to borrow for a few weeks before reluctantly giving it back. The paper I presented documented some amazing finds discovered during the course of just 7 drone flights. It was incredibly well received, with one commentator stating that I should publish this work (which I am in the process of doing). Methone acted as trial run for the Zagora project, which will dwarf my previous work in scale and complexity. It was the Entree to the Zagora 20 course Degustation menu.

The goal of this project is not to just multi-spectrally analyse Zagora but to also apply this technique to several other projects. This is incredibly useful for a variety of reasons:

1- It will allow me to compare and contrast the work done at Zagora to a variety of other sites, each with their own unique environment, topography and archaeological remains.

2- It will assist in creating a standardised methodology that will suit all projects.

3- It will broadcast Thermal Imaging and the work I have done to the world as each project reports on the findings at both academic conferences (like the AIA) and in archaeological publications. This benefits other projects, who can use my methodology to perform their own studies!

As I have worked at Methone for several years, I was always going to take the knowledge and equipment from the Zagora project and apply it to their project for the reasons mentioned above. However, during the conference I had conversations with several people from a variety of archaeological projects, including one who runs one of the most famous sites in Greece. Unfortunately, I can't name them until things are more concrete! But trust me, they are phenomenal sites. All conversations were positive, to the extent that I will likely spend 3 months after Zagora performing multi-spectral analysis of these other sites.

As stated on the main page of this project, my ability to work at Zagora depends on a permit application which is currently under review. I am praying it is accepted, because this work will be an amazing benefit to the Zagora project and the site is extremely important to Early Iron Age studies. But after discussions with these projects, if that application was to not succeed, it sounds like I would have several other projects from which to choose from. If the permit is successful, then after Zagora, from Late June to Mid September, I will be moving from site to site, performing these amazing experiments and collecting masses of data. 

Any donations will go towards buying or renting the equipment needed for this project, which in turn, will now assist several other amazing archaeological sites.

Thanks so much for reading and for any support you can give to this project! I am in the process of building my own project web page- which along with the Lab Notes on Experiment.com will document my work over the next few months. This will allow you to see the benefits of any donations you make!

Cheers

Hugh Thomas