Surprise lakes

Seems like very little changes on the island from year to year, so we were very surprised to find Katsalos cemetery undergoing further excavation. Katsalos is the adult cemetery that Andrea and I have been working on for the last two years. We felt confident that we could identify, catalog, photograph and complete the database for the remaining material in the lab. But...



As we were walking to the grocery store we noticed several newly excavated pits near Katsalos. Upon closer inspection we noticed little yellow tags with the word lakkos and a number printed on them. What did lakkos mean? Was it a depth measurement? We were confused, because the tagged pits were all in a row but did not have sequential numbers. So we went back to our studio to consult the Limited Greek dictionary that I brought. Lakkos means pit in Greek. We now realize that thirty or more new grave sized pits have been dug on the site that we thought was totally excavated.



You can see that you are never very far from artifacts in Greece. The dark areas in the photo are some of the new pits. The excavation area actually drops over the side of the hill and butts up against the street. There are buildings on each side of this area. The landowners probably built over the site without mentioning any artifacts to the authorities.



There is a bit of added mystery. Nobody seems to know where the excavated items have gone. They are not at our lab. Hmmm...the plot thickens.



More later.