Last day

Friday 16.9.2016

Today was my last day diving at Mazotos, at least for now. So, this is the last blog entry. Tomorrow is for R&R in Larnaca, High View Gardens and Mazotos Village. On Sunday I fly home.

Happy Teemu after last Mazotos dive turned out so good.

The day started differently. In the middle of Stella's morning brief at M/S Queen Zenobia she received a birthday cake, and we all sang Happy Birthday to Stella. The surprise was not complete, as she has had her birthdays on the field many times before. She was even prepared with a small bottle of champagne in her pocket. We were just about to dive, and so no champagne for us, or for Stella. She poured it all to the sea! But there was champagne on her birthday.

Stella chats with Christos after giving all her birthday champagne to Mazotos wreck.

Most of the dives today were documentation of the wreck before the excavation wraps up this weekend. My dive was again excellent, as I was just shadowing Andreas (Kr) on his photography session. At the same time I was getting a very good long last look at our achievements in preceding four weeks. What a way to finish my 21 dives at Mazotos!

Teemu and Stella

The high point today was when one of the anchor stock lead weights was lifted. It was carefully raised into a plastic box re-enforced with metal, which was brought to surface with a lift bag, and finally lifted to M/S Queen Zenobia with a pulley. They have in earlier excavations lifted both anchor stock weights for two other anchors, but this was the first one for us.

Anchor stock weight being lifted onto M/S Queen Zenobia

This has been such a wonderful four weeks that I can hardly believe it myself yet. I have met a huge number of nice people, who have all been very committed to make both the fieldschool and the excavation successful. There have been minor setbacks due weather and mechanical failures, but their effect has been minuscule due to strong teamwork and willpower to complete the excavation.

This whole setup with the fieldschool and excavation together has at least in my perspective been a big success. I wish something like this could be done also in Finland, but I doubt it. This project has had The Honor Frost Foundation to fund most of the expenses, and so far there is no such foundation in sight in Finland to chip in. Of course, none of this would not have happened without joint work of The Nautical Archaeology Society and University of Cyprus.

I am happy that I stayed on at Mazotos as a volunteer diver after the fieldschool ended. In these last two weeks I have seen how we amateur archaeologists with technical diving skills can contribute to the success of a large excavation, and how important our part is in it. It is truly important to train new volunteers with technical diving skills and the know-how on nautical archaeological fieldwork. It has been great to have the opportunity to give back right after receiving the training.

I want to give special thanks to Mark and Stella for organizing the fieldschool and the excavation at Mazotos. Also, it would not have happened without the effort of numerous people in many different fields volunteering their time and other resources. It it just amazing how many people are involved. Of course, for many the real work of conserving the finds and to processing the excavation data is just now beginning. It will take years.

I again thank Sheri from Dive-In Larnaca for posting that newspaper article in Facebook. I would not have been here without that! It is amazing, how small things can lead to big things!

Mazotos Fieldschool 2016

Finally, I like to thank the other 11 fieldschool students. It has been such a pleasure to know you all, and hopefully we will dive together again.

Teemu Kerola

Starting to close down the excavation

Thursday 15.9.2016

Today we started to slowly close down. We complete the tasks that are underway, and do not start any new ones. We lost two days of diving due to boat trouble, but those things happen. We could have easily lost them and much more due to weather in these four weeks. Today's weather forecast had again strong winds for the afternoon, and so we started early.

Our own RIB has still problems. We are fortunate to have a small RIB from Cyprus Civil Defense forces helping us now for a few days. With that RIB, and with Spyros and his boat (also a RIB), we just manage.

The Civil Defense RIB with two crew members are big help for us.

Today I had a real fun dive. I was diving last with Dimitrios, when he took photogrammetry photos. The visibility was good, with some current towards east. You could clearly see the slightly "cloudy" areas on the west side of the wreck, whereas the east side was very clear. My job was to "watch his back", and not to be on the way. It was great to spend the whole dive just to look at the wreck in its current status without any specific other tasks. It was especially rewarding the see all the work that we have done in the bow and B trenches. At the end we recovered the safety tank from the bottom of the ascent line.

On the way back David, Rupert and me were asked to sit in the back of Spyros' boat, and we were given one amphora to take care of. The weather was not good for amphora transport, the waves were maybe 1m tall, but we really needed that amphora brought to High View Gardens today. Every now and then the boat reached a wave crest, and the amphora started to "fly". I needed to lift it up slightly, that it would not bump too hard onto my lap.

Rupert, Teemu and David in babycare duty

I was taking care of vertical suspension. Rupert was in control of forward speed changes due to boat hitting a wave every now and then. David for ready for anything. I had no purchase to do anything in forward direction. At half way Spyros gave his own life jacket for extra suspension. We were drenched from the waves, and my eyes were hurting from drying salt. I could not wipe them, because both hands were needed to hold the "baby". The amphora was swaddled in wet fabric and wet bubble wrap, and so I was pretty wet from the start. After some 30 minutes of wave riding we finally reached Alaminos, with the baby intact.

Archaeologists in Pafos

Wednesday 14.9.2016

Our boat troubles continued, and we had another day off from diving. Rupert, Hana, Andrzej and me took advantage of this and made a day trip with Rupert's car to archaeological sites in Pafos. It was a great trip. I must be an archaeologist now, because I was allowed free to two museums in one day. It probably did not have anything to with Professor Rupert leading the pack...

We first stopped at beach where Aphrodite may have come to the beach in Pafos. On that beach is The rock of the Greek. It refers to mythology, where The Greek saved Pafos by throwing this rock on the enemy. That Greek was a strong one! The same rock is also called Aphrodite's Rock. It is handy to combine legends.

Aphrodite's Rock

Lovers seemed to believe that this place had romantic powers and have made lots of stone hearts all around the beach. They still keep making new ones.

Couple making a heart in Aphrodite's Beach

After taking a stroll at the beach, we moved on and went to the Sanctuary of Aphrodite, where the cult of Aphrodite was born and where the Aphrodite's temple was. It was not so romantic as it first sounds. All maidens had to go there and prostitute themselves to visitors from abroad. Only once they had found their 1st customer, were they allowed to leave and marry. Not so big love story.

This stone was the symbol of Aphrodite in the sanctuary. Maybe there is some hidden female form in it, but I could not find it.

The houses in the area still had many mosaic floor remaining, though many of them are now protected with fabric and sand. This mosaic of Leda and the swan is from the Roman period, maybe 200-300 AD. This is a copy - the original is in museum in Nikosia.

Leda and the swan

Rupert was great guide. He seemed to know all the sites, and had lots of stories to tell of them. And you got the feeling, that there were many stories left untold.

Rupert and Hana in Pafos

We continued our trip to Pafos, which has a huge archaeological site. It has many ongoing archaeological digs going on, which the visitors can observe in addition to the actual ruins. More ruins are excavated continuously. It was nice to notice photogrammetry control points in many of the excavations. One month ago I would not have seen them at all, or at least known what they were.

Archaeological field work in Pafos seems easy as compared to our Mazotos site. One person can excavate all day, and not only 20 minutes. On the other hand, I do not know if my back would last all day excavation like that! Maybe 20 minutes is enough...

The Pafos site had structures spanning for centuries. At one time the walls were also reinforced against trebuchet attacks. The outer stones in the wall might break, but the smaller rocks inside the wall would absorb the impact, and keep at least some of the wall still operational.

Trebuchet-resistant wall structure

The area is so large, that you easily get a feeling that you are walking in a city. There are temples, houses, and fortifications of different centuries all mixed up. Some material from earlier sites have been used to build some more recent structures.

Rupert, Teemu and Hana in Pafos

After touring Pafos under Rupert's guidance for an hour, we met with Agata, who works as an archaeologist here. Agata had spent one weekend already at the Mazotos site, and she probably will come this weekend again. How else would an archaeologist spend her free weekends?

Agata, Rupert, and Hana (and Andrzej far away) look at 7m deep well newly excavated by Agata. She also found stamped amphorae, glass containers, and gold in the same area. In another well she found human remains. 

After a tour Agata took us to her workshop, where (mostly?) students were sorting out zillions (boxes and boxes) of sherds, and doing impossible 3D-puzzles of putting together amphorae from a selected collection of similar thickness sherds, that may or may not belong to the same amphora. They use glue than can be dissolved with acetone when/if needed.  Agatha had many amphorae already partly assembled this way. She also showed us the almost 2000 years old glass finds they had found. Each one was packed well into its own plastic container. Metallic ones were in conservation elsewhere.

Our RIB is still not doing so well. But Spyros will come with his boat, and we have also another small RIB helping us. So, diving will continue tomorrow - unless the weather decides something else.

Trench B and two-toed amphora

Monday 12.9.2016

I dived with Ray this time. We had the first dive. On our way down we took an extra tank set to the bottom of the ascent line - just in case. We excavated trench B, loosened one amphora, and moved it and three others to the apotheke (Greek for storage area). At the end we took one nice looking amphora up from the apotheke. Or Ray took, while I was collecting the sherds into our bag and returning the airlift back to its place.

The amphora to be lifted up is placed in large sturdy net on the sea bed, the net is closed with smaller rope, and lifted up with a lift bag. You put just enough air in the lift bag, so that it barely starts to rise up. You have one hand all the time on the exhaust valve on top of the bag, so that you can let extra air out, when it expands while rising (5 liters at 40m becomes 25 liters on surface). If you would not do that, the expanding air would increase lift dramatically, and the whole system would "woosh" to surface. Not good. You do not want to let too much air out, because then the amphora would start sinking and you would be in real hurry to add more air into the lift bag from you regulator. And you are on top of the lift bag, and the opening is at the bottom some 1m lower. So, you need to be careful.

Once we were at the decompression trapeze, Ray gave the amphora a gentle push up, and it floated nicely to surface for the safety diver to take it to Queen Zenobia. It had only some 10m to go, and so the air in the lift bag only doubled in size. However, the distance was short and there was no time for big rush to surface.

Amphora parts are named after human parts: hands, shoulders, neck, body, lip, and toe. The hands are above the shoulders, the toe is right under the body, the lip is just on top of the neck and there is only one lip and toe. Except for this one amphora (lifted up many days ago) had two toes! However, the other one was inside the body - with lots of other amphora sherds.

Two toed amphora, one under the body on its proper place, and the other inside.

What happened? No one really knows, but one possible culprit could be a turtle. A big turtle was recently (year or two ago) noticed to be moving finds in the area, and maybe she decided to do also some home decorating? It does not seem feasible for all those sherds to just randomly fall into one amphora.

Our backup boat coming back to M/S Queen Zenobia.

The wind picked up, and we had some boat trouble getting back home. I hoped they would get it all sorted out tonight so that we could dive tomorrow. They did not. We all have an extra off-gas day tomorrow. Must figure out something to do...

Most people are now relaxing by the pool. Not swimming, but just chatting and listening Robert playing his flute. There no real hurry to go to bed early today! I can not follow all discussions because the locals are like Finns, and like to chat in their own language. And that is all Greek to me.

Off-gasing in Agia Napa

Sunday 11.9.2016

On my 3rd and last off-gas day I went to Agia Napa with Ray. We used public transportation, and it took a while. A local bus 407 took us to Larnaca, and it took almost an hour. We had a 90 minute layover in Larnaca, and we went for coffee. Then an Intercity bus took us to Agia Napa, and it took another hour. We got hungry and spotted a Hard Rock Cafe close to the bus station.

While eating our hamburgers we browsed the net, and found out that the Thalassa museum opens only at 15:00. Smart people would have checked that earlier, but what you play with cards you have. Another two hours to await. So we strolled down to the beach, had coffee in some nice beach cafe, and admired beachgoers in their normal habitat. That is a different species.

Kyrenia II is clearly the main attraction in Thalassa. It is experimental archaeology, because it is built with ancient methods and tools. How do they know about the ancient ship building tools and methods so much? I do not know, but maybe they did. Either way, it is interesting to us, because there is strong likelyhood that the original Kyrenia ship and our Mazotos ship would have had many things in common.

Kyrenia II

We saw the modern copy of Kyrenia II, the Kyrenia Liberty, in Limassol earlier, and I was pondering that how do the turn those steering oars. Well - it turned out that they were not steering oars, but rudders!

Kyrenia II main rudder. The rudder rotates in its place on the side of the ship. There is copper plating underneath to protect the railing. The other rudder is set clearly higher. water Maybe it is a back up, to be used in case the main rudder is damaged due to shallow water. 

The exhibit had also piles of amphora copies imitating how they may have looked on the wreckage site on the sea bed. The piles look amazingly realistic - it really looks like this at the Mazotos wreck site! Except that the amphorae in sea are not so clean at all.

Amphora copies at Kyrenia II exhibit.

Robert does not believe, that the Kyrenia II builders got the upper structures of the ship correct at all. They had made copies of all some 400 amphorae  found at the site, and then tried to load them all up in Kyrenia II. It did not go well - they did not fit at all. Maybe Robert is right, and the ship's hull should be much wider on top?

I was looking closely at the joints to the keel at the bow. Would Mazotos keel have similar joints?

Kyrenia II keel at bow.

But wait - there is more. The exhibit also had a smaller scale copy if the original Kyrenia wreck site (once all the amphorae and lots of the sediment were removed). It was build under a glass floor, and you could walk on it and admire it just like you would be diving there! Novel. I was too embarrassed to lie down on the floor to get better view...

Kyrenia wreck site model

I must admire those experimental archeologists who somehow deduced from this wreckage all details needed to build Kyrenia II. It would be very interesting to some day visit the Kyrenia Castle in Northern Cyprus and see the original Kyrenia there. It was painstakingly documented, one small part at a time, all pieces lifted up, conserved for years, and then finally rebuilt just the same as it originally was on the sea bed.

In the excavation the original Kyrenia wreck site was totally destroyed. Everything was raised. That is the dilemma in all excavations - is your work important enough to destroy the site today? Do you collect enough data while excavating the site?

Kyrenia wreck site model, detail. Would there be such side planking still remaining in the Mazotos site under all those hundreds of amphorae still remaining. We do not know.

The glass floor over the Kyrenia wreck site model is neat, but it was very difficult for my camera. It really did not like to focus through glass. And then sometimes it just did. Go figure...

Kytrenia wreck site model, detail. What is that round metal "pipe" on top of the keel in stern?

We took another Intercity bus from Agia Napa back to Larnaca, had a small break at the Meeting Place Cafe by the beach, and took a taxi home. No local buses on Sunday evenings. We must be getting better at negotiation, because now the taxi was only 20€, when just 2 days ago we paid 25€ for us and 30€ for the key to ride alone.

Larnaca

Saturday 10.9.2016

Yesterday Ray and I were in the first boat out from the excavation site, already at noon or so. We decided to use the opportunity and go to Larnaca for afternoon and evening, just for fun. Harold gave us a ride on his way home to Nicosia.

We got in Larnaca early enough to visit Dive-In Larnaca, and say "hi" to Sheri and Chris there. I also had a chance to purchase a new wrist dive slate and a few double-ender clips that we need all the time, and which have a tendency of getting lost...

We stopped at a Kybele's beach cafe, when Ray noticed that he still had the room key in his pocket. He should have left it in the High View Gardens' office so that the other two divers could get in once they get back from the excavation site. They would not be happy campers if they could not get into their room all evening. We pondered the situation for a while, and Ray ended up sending the key back to Mazotos in a taxi. A significant problem was solved with just 30€. Who says that money can not buy you happiness?

Ray wanted to know all details of the taxi - just in case.

After furiously scurrying, we found someone to be there in the office to receive the key, probably about the same time as the the taxi arrived. Either way, it was a relief to get a confirmation that the key was where it should have been in the first place.

We strolled pass the small Medieval Castle to the main beach, had some ice cream there, and visited the Church of St. Lazarus. We covered out bare legs with purple wrap-around skirt, out of respect for the place. There were some people inside with short, but not us!

This is the place where the biblical Lazarus was eventually buried, once he died as the Bishop of Kition (present day Larnaca) after been revived from the death earlier by Jesus. Close to the main altar is a small coffin, where some of Lazarus' bones are on display surrounded with silver framing. The rest were taken to Constantinople by byzantine Emperor Leo VI in 898, looted by crusaders in early 1300's, brought to Marseille, and then lost. Emperor Leo VI had this current big church build over the original tomb as a compensation of him taking the relics.

Some of Lazarus' remains in the Church of St. Lazarus in Larnaca. These were found in 1972 in a marble sarcophagus under the altar. Too late for Emperor Leo VI to complain that he did not get all that he paid for.

We wanted to eat something different than the local home cooking style Cypriot meals that we have been eating 3 weeks at Pambos' tavern.  We ended up having big steaks at the Panos Steak House right on the main beach.

Afterwards we strolled (again) the beach boulevard for more ice cream, and visited the main Pier, where many Zenobia dive and tourist boats reside. This Pier is about the only place in Larnaca that Zenobia ("One of the best wrecks to dive in the world") is in any way visible. We concluded the visit in Art Cafe for dessert, and took a taxi to home. It turned out that a taxi for two to Mazotos is cheaper than a taxi for a key to Mazotos... Maybe people can haggle about the price better than a key?

Today we each did again our usual excavation at the site. It is getting more interesting now that we are excavating new layers that have not be seen before. However, we have only a little more than a week to go with this excavation, and there must be some days used at the end just to close down the excavation, collect and take apart the airlifts, and put some 60 cm layer of protecting sand on top of areas with wooden or metallic finds.

Tomorrow will be my off-gas day. I will go with Ray to Agia Napa to see Kyrenia II, the "original" copy of the Kyrenia ship. Well - at least the bottom planks may be just like in the original ship, and attached to the keel and to each other the same way as originally. Only the bottom of the original Kyrenia survived and was recovered. However, Kyrenia II was built in 1985 with tools and methods used in the antiques, whereas the Kyrenia Liberty we saw in Limassol was built in 2004 with modern tools and methods. The original Kyrenia ship is on display in the city of Kyrenia in Northern Cyprus, and is out of reach for us in this trip. So, a very good replica will do.

Photogrammetry, orthophotos, and 3D-models

Thursday 8.9.2016

Christos (I.) and I tagged new amphorae that have become visible once the amphora layer above has been removed. I took GoPro video for documentation purposes. In the afternoon I went through that video and picked up documentation photos for each amphora that we tagged.

This photogrammetry stuff is neat. We collect finds (amphorae etc.) continuously from the trench, and the landscape changes quite fast. To keep track of all of this lots of photos are taken, and processed with photogrammetry software. We can get almost real time orthophotos, which are kind of stitched-together large photographs covering the whole site. We also get 3d-models that visualize current state of the site very well. You can rotate and zoom in the model, and look at current state of the site from different angles and distances. The images are not exact, because we do not have supercomputers or days to spend on computing. But they are handy.

Photomosaic of the Mazotos wreck as it once was. The image is distorted, because the control points were not set. The bow curves to the right in the image, but not in the actual wreck site. Once control points are set, the same photographs can be used to create a more realistic orthophoto of the site. The site does not look like this anymore, because of the excavations done there after this photo was made. 
(https://www.ucy.ac.cy/marelab/documents/Publications_/Demesticha_2010.pdf)

It is just amazing how useful this stuff is as compared to hand-made drawings of the past. All this of course requires that we have people with proper equipment to take those zillions of photographs and people who can process them into useful product in just a few hours. And then that product is used to plan for tomorrow's dives and at the end of the day get a new set of photographs. Teamwork at its best.

The photogrammetry software keeps track of all currently visible amphorae locations in 3D, and that data can then be used to create a 3D-model of the whole site. That is virtual reality at its best. You can "see" something that was newer really visible. Some of the amphorae are not visible yet, because they are under other amphorae or buried under the sea bed. Some of the amphorae are not in the wreck any more, because they have been removed, maybe years ago. But this model can bring them all back at the same time in the same 3D-model. However, the model can not be complete, unless all amphorae have been located and photographed.

If this interests you more, you can check scientific articles on the topic. For example, this article. Both Dimitrios Skarlatos and Stella Demesticha are present at this excavation.

The new stuff is presented to all us at the outside auditorium set in front of the office. We even have the cafeteria chairs arranged there so that it looks like a (very small) small movie theater. It is novel to have briefings like this.

Frappe day

Wednesday 7.9.2016

I dived with Christos and Pantelis. We continued working on our trench, although were slightly hampered with some airlift problems. Christos brought up one amphora on our way up. At deco he gave it to the safety diver, who took the to the pulley system where it was lifted up to MS Queen Zenobia for processing.

We complain for the early starts, but they make so much sense. The wind often picks up in the afternoon, like it did again today. We left MS Queen Zenobia at 14:30, and it took for ages for Mark to drive the RIB back to Alaminos harbor. Every now and then we slowed down almost to a full stop, just to ride the big wave coming. This time I wore my raincoat, though I could also have used rain pants...

After getting back to High View Gardens a few of us made it to the swimming pool. The four of us was the largest crowd in the pool so far. Usually you are too tired for swimming after a full day at the work site.

Frappe (for a tall glass): 1.5 tsp instant coffee, 1.5 tsp sugar (or to taste), 1/4 dl cold water, mix (or shake) but not for too much foam, add 4-5 ice cubes, top glass with water (and some milk?), add straw and swirl with it a few times. 

Today was frappe day. Panagiotis taught me how to make frappe. He had brought a frappe-mixer from home just for it. He also had ice-cubes ready in the freezer in plastic ice-cube bags, and a big bag of straws! He was well prepared to have frappe or three every day. Panagiotis is by no means the only one here well prepared with their own frappe facilities. Quite a few people walk around with frappe in their hands all the time. It is a "thing" here.

Easy as a pie, and really refreshing in this climate. You could get used to it.

All amphorae are not equal

Tuesday 6.9.2016

Today we had more divers and two RIB-loads of people to ferry. I was in the 1st one, leaving High View Gardens at 06:00. We had three new volunteer divers from Check Republic, and one each from Poland and Austria.

Team waiting for the 1st boat to Mazotos work site at 6:15 in Alaminos harbor. This time, we had also two new 50 liter oxygen tanks to take to M/S Queen Zenobia.

Panagiotos and me were again excavating the west part of trench B. This time Dave (S.) was diving with us, first tagging some newly excavated amphorae, and then picking up loose finds to our bags. I spent again the whole dive excavating one amphora. There is clearly an amphorae layer under it. Excavation work is fun and (so far) exciting. You shovel sediment into the airlift, and in the process reveal  new finds next to this one. Every now and then you stop, and let the airlift remove all sediment so that you can see the overall picture before continuing. It is just annoying when that 20 minute bell rings and you have to leave. On the other, you would not have air for much longer stints with current setup. Total dive times are still some 50 minutes.

Two amphorae brought up from Trench B.

Many amphorae were brought to surface, including the one I was working on yesterday. All amphorae are not equal. There is limited desalination space. We will accommodate this by taking only the selected amphorae for desalination. The others should do fine in the sea, because the conditions are exactly like in their original position in the wreck where they have been well preserved for some 2500 years. If needed, any such amphora can easily (?) be recovered for further study.

All amphorae to be put stored in sea are emptied, cleaned, kept moist, and measured and documented carefully.

Sometimes there are sherds and other finds inside the amphorae. Amphora contents are dumped into a sieve, clay and sediment is removed with water shower with some hand massage, and finally you check the sieve for any loose finds. The amphorae are kept under wet wraps that they would not dry. 

Amphorae to be put back are also photographed from all angles, so that a photogrammetry point cloud (and a 3D-model from it) can be built for each amphora. We had a two-person photogrammetry team on-board for this purpose today. Before being raised the amphorae had already been tagged and documented in situ. They has also been photographed (for photogrammetry) in situ so that their exact position can be used in the 3D-model of the wreck site.

An amphora to be returned to sea is photographed from all angles, so that a photogrammetry point cloud and a 3D-model can be built just for this one amphora.

The sandbag saga continued. The two new sandbags were carefully lowered close to the wreck site to determine whether they would be of acceptable quality. We will monitor them closely.

Two sandbags with coarser-grain sand ready to be lowered to the sea, with a lift bag.

Evening meal was again at Pambos' tavern. The tavern belongs to the "popular organization of the people in Mazotos" or something like that, and Pambos and his family run it. The organization is clearly very left wing, as there are Che Guevara, Lenin, and Marx pictures decorating the walls.

Laikes Organoseis Mazotoy, which is run by Pambos.

Excavating trench B

Monday 5.9.2016

Fieldschool is over and I am now just volunteer diver here. This means that my breakfasts and other room supplies are not covered any more. No big deal, even though we were sold a different package. I can easily get my groceries in the little "supermarket" close to the tavern after each dinner. But the the rest of the "accommodation and food" are still covered, I hope.

We departed the High View Gardens at 06:15, and it was surprisingly cool. First time ever I went back to my room and put on my raincoat for wind breaker! Once we reached M/S Queen Zenobia, it was warm again. I am really surprised at this. I never though that I would actually use that raincoat for anything else than having more stuff on my person when flying back to home... just in case I would have too much luggage otherwise.

Waiting for the RIB in Alaminos harbor at 06:30.

Today we had only 11 divers and two archaeologists to go to the work site. We did not raise any amphorae, and so the conservator was not needed. Or, maybe it was the other way around... The archaeologists went through the airlift filter buckets, cleaned and documented sherd finds, and took care of other documentation.

Panagiotis and me were excavating trench B amphorae, each with our own airlift. Trench B is fun to excavate, at least for now! You can actually see what you are doing. In the bow area we were first excavating the powdery sand, and then new seabed layers that also made for bad visibility. Excavating alone with an airlift is hard work, and you need keep an eye on you gas consumption.

I spent my time excavating one amphora with wooden paddle, and trying to see what is underneath. If there is not another layer of amphorae, then there might be the hull and you might find wood. In that case we should not go further (yet). We are extra careful because old wet wood is very fragile. However, if there is another layer of amphora, then we want to excavate, document and move the amphorae on top, and then continue excavating that new layer of amphorae below.

Today we started to replace the bad batch of sandbags. The sand in them was much finer-grain that was asked for, and it can not be used. Some 15 bags we loaded into the RIB, brought back to the shore, loaded into a MPV trunk, and then taken somewhere to be replaced with better ones. We could not use the truck, because it was transporting 10 amphorae from High View Gardens field lab to the permanent desalination lab in Larnaca. Each amphora will now get its own bathtub. We got two new sandbags to try out tomorrow. Maybe they work better! However, the sandbags with very fine-grained sand on the seabed in 45m depth will stay. Lifting them back up would take too much of our resources.

Heavy load for our RIB: 13 people, gear, and sandbags.

The way back to the Alaminos harbor with 13 people and sandbags was slow. It was hot, and I did not put on my raincoat. The waves were not that big, but the wind sprayed water on all of us sitting on the wind side. I was completely drenched already at half way. Luckily the water was warm.

Lazy Sunday and sandbags

Sunday 4.9.2016

High winds continued, and we did not even try to archaeological work today. Instead, a small group of divers, mostly cypriots, went to the site to put sandbags in 45m depth into plastic bags!

When the excavation is completed for this season, all parts of the wreck with exposed wood or metal will be covered with some 60cm of protecting sand. In the bow area we spent the 1st week of excavation in removing protecting sand that was placed there after the previous excavation had completed.

The project had bought a batch of at some 100 sandbags that were loaded with a large crane to our RIB in the harbor and then manhandled in a long chain from the RIB to the bow storage area of MS Queen Zenobia. The sand in the bags seeped through the fabric and at least I and my clothes were all in sand dust after the chain link manhandling. I needed a swim, and the clothes needed a wash.

Before the fieldschool had begun, they had already delivered 2 batches of sandbags, and they are all stored on the 2nd floor of MS Queen Zenobia. We were not allowed to place the new batch there, because the skipper was worried about ship stability. Those earlier sandbags have at least different colored bags - I have no idea if the sand is different or the same.

Some 30 sandbags were left in the RIB and then carefully thrown overboard just south-west of the Mazotos wreck. I happened to be the safety diver then, and took a video of it with my GoPro. It looked like a video game, where targets appear from top in seemingly semi-random order, and then just fall down slowly. However, there was no chance to "shoot" them down in real life. Even if you would have seen some of them aiming for amphorae, you could not have done anything.

10 second video of the sandbag "airdrop"

Sandbag "airdrop"

The sandbags were scattered on the sea bottom. Soon after that the visibility problems began. It is possible that the sand is so fine-grained that it just seeps through the fabric and makes a thin dust cloud to work area, at least with north-east bottom current (i.e., the current is from south-west). That is not good news as photogrammetry imaging for good 3D-modeling requires good visibility. Maybe the cheapest sand was not so good after all, or then there was a miscommunication somewhere.

Almost all of those sandbags on the seabed were placed into plastic bags today. That must have been "fun" job to do in 45m depth! This may help with the visibility problem for now, but it does not promise good for these sandbags and this sand in general. What good does it do to protect the excavation site with sand that just "evaporates" through the fabric and floats away in a dust cloud? If the sand is deemed to be too fine-grained, it can not be used at all and we have to replace it.

I was trying to go to Agia Napa today, to see Kyrenia II, which is the life size replica of the Kyrenia ship, and which has been built with ancient tools and methods. It would have been a little more realistic than the Kyrenia Liberty ship that I saw yesterday in Limassol. But not much. Most of Kyrenia II design is just made up guesswork, because so little of the original ship was really recovered. You can not really deduce what the the rigging system was like from bottom planks!

That was not to be. I had scouted a suitable bus connection from Larnaca to Agia Napa, but I could not get any ride from Mazotos to Larnaca. I ended up having a very relaxing loitering day in High View Gardens and in Mazotos village.

Mazotos village is quiet empty on Sunday afternoon

Mazotos village

I went for a walk in Mazotos village, and lunched at our usual tavern. There are not very many restaurants or cafes to select from in Mazotos.

Two birthday cakes for Ray was plenty for 16 people having dinner tonight. Ray is the 4th person on the right with blue shirt.

We had our usual dinner at the tavern at 19:30. We are now on the 2nd rotation of the menu. So today we had the same meal as day 2 of the fieldcamp, and then tomorrow we have a pork chop like we had on the 3rd day. But today we also had dessert, as it was Ray's birthday.  Everyone (including those who had left the fieldschool already) had signed the birthday card. Happy birthday, Ray!

Second off-gas day in Limassol to see Kyrenia Liberty

Saturday 3.9.2016

Even though were given a small sleep extension because of the Mazotos evening, I woke up on Saturday the usual time at 5:30. I was curious to see, whether anything would be different in diving now that the fieldschool is over. It is weekend, and there were some cypriots' relatives visiting the site. So, we were pretty crowded in M/S Queen Zenobia. The weather was kind of rough, but going there with fully loaded RIBs was ok.

Once we all got onboard, the waves felt bigger and the smaller family members were starting to get seasick.  Diving would be OK, but other work onboard would be difficult. Stella posted dive roster, and I noticed my name missing. When I asked about it, Stella said that today was my off-gas day. Ray and Mark were similarly surprised, because no one had told them either. Ray had brought along his humongous camera kit box.

Then the weather turned even worse, and it was decided that all non-divers would be sent back to port right away, so that there would be as few people as possible to be shuffled once diving was done. In no time I was back in the RIB having a pretty nice roller-coaster ride on the way back to the port in Alaminos Beach. A nice touch was to see a big turtle on the surface quite close to the boat. Good that we did not run her over.

Once back to High View Gardens, we decided with Ray to try to get to Limassol to see the Kyrenia ship replica in the Old Port. The original Kyrenia ship was slightly smaller than the Mazotos ship, but it is very likely that they were otherwise very similar.

After long discussion with Irene and Andri (and lots of sweet talking) we got Andri to drive and Teresa to give directions, and they gave us a ride to Choirokotia bus stop, so that we could hop into the bus from Larnaca to Limassol. We had a nice prawn lunch there, and then located the Kyrenia replica in the port. I took lots of pictures, though of course many of the vessel details may be guesswork as only bottom planking was found of the original Kyrenia. I hope they have had other reliable sources for those details... Anyway, it was very interesting to see, what the Mazotos ship probably looked like before she sank.

Kyrenia Liberty, replica of the Kyrenia ship found in 1967

The remains of the original ship are on display in Kyrenia Castle in Northern part of Cyprus. They form just the bottom part of the hull, that was under seabed. In 1985 a life size "replica" of the whole ship was built as experimental archaeology, using only ancient ship building methods. That ship, Kyrenia II, sailed only a few years but probably longer than the original. It is now on display in Thalassa Museum in Agia Napa. Kyrenia Liberty is also a life size replica of Kyrenia, but it was built with modern techniques in 2004. It is still in use.

Kyrenia Liberty, bow. Could we locate any parts similar to this in the Mazotos wreck?

Kyrenia Liberty, stern. How did they turn the rudders?

Teemu and amphora replicas. They made replicas of all 404 amphorae found in Kyrenia, and then made experiments on how could fit them all in. It was not easy, even though the amphora shape is designed just for this. Trying to figure out, how amphorae is loaded into the ship, is one of the main goals of the Mazotos project.

Kyrenia Liberty, anchor-stock cores. Originally they were of lead, and cast directly in to the anchor-stock. These are the lead weights that we have located in the Mazotos bow. I do not know whether they are lead or iron in Kyrenia Liberty.

Kyrenia Liberty, anchor arm tip. Now that we have located both anchor-stock weights (of the 3rd anchor) found in Mazotos, we could try to locate also the arm tip (or tips). However, they are small and likely under some 20-30cm of hard clay. Robert has a metal detector that could be of use.

Then we located a dive shop, so that I could purchase a few more double-ended clips. They seem to be a disposable commodity here. You always clip this or that to your harness, and then that stuff has a tendency to go to some other group with your clip. We found the shop, but it was closed. Luckily I had Jouni to borrow a couple of his clips, as he left High View Gardens today.

Then we took the same bus back, called Irene, and Andri (and Teresa and Constantina) came to pick us up from Choirokotia. On the way back we stopped at a water machine in the Mazotos village. You pay 50c and you can fill a 20L tank with fresh drinking water. That is how the project gets all it drinking water. With just 2€, you get 80L of water that lasts a day. Good deal. As a tourist I am used to paying ten times that much for drinking water. It has never occurred to me to look for water machines in Larnaca. The project water is stored in the office, and everyone goes there and fills up their own water bottles from those canisters.

At the work site the weather had actually deteriorated further, and they had had to stop diving operations early. It looks like that the strong winds will continue tomorrow, and there is no archaeology work done. I will try to sleep late.

Mazotos evening

Friday 2.9.2016

Our dive was very similar today as it was yesterday, except that I was now excavating and Jouni was holding the airlift. Nick did not even try the other airlift. Visibility was still really bad - maybe the seabed bottom clay is like that. Or then the sandbags close to our excavation leak fine sand, because of the current caused by the airlift. Either way, I pretty much felt my way during the excavation. Every now and then I noticed Nick's hand or paddle in from of me, when he was also feeding clay to the suction head monster in Jouni's hand. I clearly felt the both ends of that lead weight, and the Northern end of it was very close to the toe of the amphora next the lead weight excavated earlier. It is kind of exciting to know, that there are probably less than 5 people who have ever touched that lead weight for 2500 (?) years.

Constantina had warned us that that lead could be poisonous. Me and Jouni have still all fingers intact, but maybe the consequences appear later? Mark convinced me that it is not such a big deal. I excavated also today with my bare right hand.

Before the excavation we were allowed to be tourists for a few minutes, and tour the other trenches. We were not very much in luck, because the visibility all around the wreck was pretty poor and cloudy. It seemed like some thin layer of dust was covered the whole site, and there was no current to take it away. It could be the sandbags that we dropped SW of the site for future covering of the excavated wood-containing trenches. They may be seeping fine-grained sand through the fabric.

It is amazing how many amphorae there still are. It is very hard for me to see any amphorae loading patterns from that amphorae heap. Stella seemingly can, but can she convince others in her papers to be published?

Mazotos Fieldcamp 2016 on upper deck of M/S Queen Zenobia

We were all advised to bring our fieldcamp T-shirts for group photo in the boat, but to wear them only for the photo so that they would not get dirty on the way or before the evening. Most of us were able to do that, but not all.

The main event for today was the Mazotos evening. First we met in the class room and gave our trench presentations. Then we got final reports for the course, and NAS-credit reports.

Teemu receives final report card from Rachel.

After that things became interesting. We moved to the village center where some 200 people were gathered (whole village?). This seemed to be a day, when the village gave awards for all best students at about all grades in the school system, as well as rewarding local University graduates, and Mazotos field school graduates!

The whole village came to respect their best students and us. 

We were each asked to come one by one at the podium, where we received the Fieldschool diploma from Stella and Mark, and a Commemorative from Mazotos Community Council. Stella and Mark had a speech, and then we showed a 5 minute video on Mazotos Fieldschool. The video was our "thank you" to the Mazotos village and it's people for hosting us in this expedition. Chris was so excited about making that video, that he even skipped one dive yesterday to work on it. Video was very good, but I would not have sacrificed a Mazotos dive for making it...

After the video presentation was local culture's turn. First, a choir sang very many local folk songs, and then there was turn for local folk dances.

Choir singing traditional Cyprus folk songs. (I know - my flash is weak, and I have no Photoshop)

Traditional Cyprus dancing with traditional clothing

Some of us got hungry when the dance presentations were starting and snugged out to eat at our usual tavern. No beer even on graduation day, because we dive tomorrow. We were a little surprised when Mark promised to put in his tab. He must be very tired...  or just very satisfied!

Evening got so late that I got 20 minute later departure time than usually. That was nice. I will be now well rested.