Astarte Appears in Area A

Today were were cleaning pottery from the rubbish pit that Shannah and Lauren have been excavating in the northeast corner of the "Melbourne megaron" and found this really cool mould for making plaque's or figurines of Astarte. It is broken, but you can see her hips, pelvic region, belly button and one of her upraised arms.

More of the Philistine Buffet

Sharon excavated 4 more mandibles from another rubbish deposit across the road and Brent helped.

The Philistine Buffet!

The rubbish pile in the northeast corner of the "Melbourne megaron" in Area A2 of Tell Safi seems to have the full Philistine buffet including a sheep scapula, boar mandible, fish vertebra, bovine astragali (not pictured), and a nice little basalt mortar for grinding up some spices.

Meanwhile Elsewhere on the Tell...

Project Director, Prof. Aren Maeir gave us a tour of the exciting things happening in Area D. If you want to know more, then read his blog!

Mycenaeans at Safi

Dean and Vaia were digging a fill with earlier material set into it. Shannah and Lauren were digging a similar fill on the other side of a wall. Lo and Behold, they both found joining parts of the same Late Helladic IIIB imported pyxis - a type of box.

Alex Gives Us A Lesson

We couldn't have done such a great job without help from Alex Zukerman - he puts the A in Area A.

It Begins With Cleaning

We began cleaning our excavation area in Area A. In cleaning the area, we found this bi-chrome Philistine bird sherd.

Endorsing Shelmerdine Wines and Vineyards

I recently convened the 12th International Aegean Conference, DAIS: The Aegean Feast on 25-29 March. The lead up to the conference and catching up have kept me from blogging much. But I want to relate one of the best experiences that I had with the conference. One of my presenters was the prominent Classicist Cynthia Shemerdine from the University of Texas. Out of the blue and on a whim, I contacted the Shelmerdine vineyards with regard to sponsorship. Stephen Shelmerdine and his lovely wife Kate met with me and a friend Stephie, who has been helping with the conference. Then they invited me, my husband, and Cynthia Shelmerdine, and her partner for a wonderful afternoon lunch where we also met Stephen's mother. I spent some time looking at family photos for resemblances and hearing about the family history of the Shelmerdines - I now know more about them than my own. Before they started a vineyard, there was a felt hat factory in Melbourne.

The Shelmerdines donated several cases of wine for the conference banquet at Ablas Lebanese restaurant, which they attended as my guests and sold us wine below cost for the reception - which was decorated with the felt hats of the Shelmerdine factory, and organized our winery tour. When we visited his Lusatia winery in the Yarra Valley, Stephen personally explained all the wines to the archaeologists, and also the iconography of the labels and even the bottle cap. One could not ask for a better service than this. He is a great raconteur and story teller.

I can very much recommend Shelmerdine wines and their Heathcote winery.

First Visit to Sydney

I gave a seminar at the University of Sydney last week. It went really well and then on Friday I attended the meeting of the Council of the Australian Archaeological Institute in Athens, and I got taken out to the Australian club both nites.

I spent Saturday walking around the city. I went to the aquarium, then on to the parks and botanical gardens. Then at sunset I had a glass of champagne in front of the opera house (it looks smaller in person), then ate lobster at a restaurant on the harbor with a view of the bridge, then walked around some more and that was it.

I really like Sydney - it's much warmer than Melbourne for one thing. The tall buildings reminded me of New York, the old buildings reminded me of London, the harbor reminded me of San Francisco, and the weather reminded me of LA. So, it's not like any place I've visited.

Toeing the Line

I haven't been posting much.

Between trying to finish my paper for the conference I'm organizing, polishing up an article, reading student work, giving guest lectures, planing the conference, I've been flat out. I still have to put together a ppt for my talk, stuff the conference bags, and make final arrangements with the caterers. I had other "fun" things go on last weekend. I wrote something like 24 recommendation letters for 6 of my students who are all applying for the same 4 scholarships. Poor students. I also bumped my toe on the bed and from the crunchy sound I knew it was broken. I put it "back" into position, taped it, and iced it. I had my toe X-rayed - it's definitely broken, but I had set it and taped it correctly so there was nothing the Doctor needed to do - maybe I should be an MD instead of a PhD!

Petition to Protect Sites in the Lakonian Wetlands

I am posting this information on behalf of Chrysanthi Gallou of the University of Nottingham:

There have recently been reports in the Greek press for the plans of a private company to build a power plant in the area of Viglafia, just opposite Elaphonisos, in south-eastern Laconia http://www.enet.gr/online/online_text/c=112,id=58549520
The site is an important wetland and has been included in the proposed list of Natura 2000 sites. It is also of great archaeological importance since a large number of prehistoric and later sites will be SERIOUSLY affected, including the very important submerged Bronze Age site at PAVLOPETRI (see Annual of the British School at Athens 64 (1969) 113-142).

The local authorities and the Committee for the preservation of the site, assisted by the local politicians, have made appeals to the Greek and European Parliaments. In addition, they have set up a petition and they would be extremely grateful if we would sign it. It only takes a minute!

http://www.petitiononline.com/adepuydt/petition.html

More details on the subject can be found at
http://www.enet.gr/online/online_text/c=112,id=58549520 (where also the support offered by Nottingham's Centre for Spartan and Peloponnesian Studies is mentioned)
http://www.vatika2000.com/prwtoboulia%20politwn%20gia%20thn%20prostasia%20twn%20batikwn/prwtoboulia%20politwn%20gia%20thn%20prostasia%20twn%20batikwn.html

Feel free to circulate this message to anyone whom you think might be interested.

The HOTTEST ticket in Melbourne

We've had a really good last few days. We went to the big day out on Monday - to hear a lot of bands we've never heard of, to see if Bjork would wear her swan (she didn't), and mainly to hear one of my favorite bands - Rage Against the Machine. We saw them again tonight at Festival Hall. I over paid for the tickets on e-bay, but when they broke up in 2000, I never thought I'd get a chance to see them again. I spent endless amounts of time kicking myself for not driving to downtown LA when they protested the monopolistic 2 party system at the Democratic National Convention. So, seeing them 2 x this week was cathartic for a number of reasons. Now I'm sore from all of the jumping up and down.

Happy New Year!

Cold weather hasn't been a problem since a couple of days before Christmas. In fact, we have had a record hot NYE at 42 C (113 F). It felt more like being in Las Vegas or Syria heat-wise.
We still managed to have a fun though low key New Years. We met up at this new really cool bar (Gerald's) with one of my students (Rod) and his girlfriend (Maria). In addition to writing a PhD in Classics, Rod is also a novelist and has written a very interesting novel called Prince of the Lillies, about the Minoans and about living in Sitia, Crete, where I used to dig.
Gerald let us get pizzas from La Porchetta next door and we stayed in his bar drinking and eating till about 10:30. Then we got Asta and a bottle of champagne, and miraculously found a cab and went to my student's friends apartment building in East Brunswick. The friend was from New York and has been here for 5 years. It was a little like Melrose Place with this big apartment building and everyone gathered around the pool partying. Our friends went out to the street to see the fireworks and we stayed at the pool. At midnight everyone jumped in the pool and Asta got really excited. She started running around the pool barking, then she finally jumped in and alternated between swimming in circles around the pool and riding around on a boogie board. It was really hilarious - unfortunately I left the camera at home that night. The pool was cold but refreshing. We finally walked home around 1:15. I think this was the first New Years since I had to march in the Rose Parade that I didn't have too much to drink.

And Today is Even Warmer... in Los Angeles

So much for summer in Oz, although it should warm up later in the week, although the weather report is
more of a guideline than anything one can rely upon. I guess it's a good thing we won't be bar b quing this year.

We Thought It Was Supposed to be Summer?

We're experiencing the 3rd day in a row of pouring rain (including flash flooding in the city) and as you can see by the weather report, our summer day is the same temperature as today's winter weather in Los Angeles (except without rain). The thunder was bad enough that Asta crawled on my lap last night.
Yet, we are in the middle of a drought with water restrictions. See:
http://www.melbournewater.com.au/
Drought's seem to follow me around. I've lived under water restrictions in Athens, Nicosia, and Los Angeles. Strangely, it rarely rains in those places whereas it seems to rain continuously here. Of course, we need water, It just seems odd to have so much rain yet be experiencing drought, not to mention our so-called summer temps. Presumably Melbourne water - which also manages drainage, is doing something to recycle all of this rain - it would be nice to hear specifically what they are doing. Cyprus has improved its situation by building a desalination plant, with 3 more to be built by 2013 - a costly solution for such a small country. In Athens, we took navy showers and caught our shower water in buckets and used it to flush the toilets. I catch my shower water here from time to time to water plants, but with the amount of rain, this is rarely necessary.

We're Ready for our Close-ups Mr. DeMille

Extras are rehearsing a scene from The Pacific on Rathdowne Street


Our favorite local bar, Gerald's became a Greek Kaffeneion

The fruit and veg market was turned into a Greek establishment

Lots of equipment was brought in for the shoot

One building was turned into an old fashioned gas station.
We live in a neighborhood of vintage houses and the main street (Rathdowne) just two blocks from our house was used for a location for a new HBO series called 'The Pacific' produced by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks. It's about US soldiers fighting in WW II in 1943 and stationed in Australia. Our street was used to recreate Lonsdale St, which is the heart of the Greek community downtown. Having a movie shoot going on near our house reminded me of all the production work that used to go on near where we lived in Los Angeles - I frequently rollerbladed past the Bay Watch beach, for example. Alas, even though we've seen Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks in our local Mexican food restaurant in the Palisades, they were nowhere to be seen in Carlton North.

Saturnalia

The end of the year brings with it inevitable parties. This was an end of year party thrown by our Classics and Archaeology grad students. We had some great food at a local pub, and I shared some stories about my own grad student experiences.

Last Day In LA

On my last day in LA, I finished where I started - at the Pacific Dining Car, having lunch with 2 old college friends, Craig and Chris. Coincidentally we sat at the table where we sat on our wedding day. We managed to wrap things up by howling at the moon, which was very difficult concerning it was daylight. The trip home was uneventful and we were back to work the next day.

LA Hash and the Old Place Redux

I spent my penultimate day in the city of the angels running with the LA Hash House Harriers in the hills of Agoura. It was primarily a trail run with spectacular views of the Malibu canyons and San Fernando Valley. Afterwards there was a bar b q. It has finally gotten cold enough here to wear a coat at night, so I'm glad to be returning to summer this next week. After I left the hash festivities, I went to the Old Place, a rustic restaurant on Mullhullond Drive (appropriate since it has a David Lynchian quality) that I discovered on my visit here last year. (See the post from last November). The Old Place is a 37 year old restaurant run by an elderly couple while their slightly less elderly son serenades the customers with Country Western music. They only accept cash, open when they want, and only serve steak or clams. When the food runs out, they close. I arrived there earlier than last year and was rewarded with 3 fairly good size pieces of steak. The prices have gone up, it's now $16.00 for a meal and $3.50 for a Corona beer. They also serve Australian wine by the glass.

Last Few Days in LA

Sunset over Santa Monica





Aside from deleting a deluge of spam, my last few days in Los Angeles have been spent catching up with friends and buying things that are cheaper here (well, pretty much everything is cheaper here other than wine and museli), such as Levi's and running shoes. Despite the fact that it's winter, there has been just 1 day of rain and all other days have been warm and sunny. The sunset over Santa Monica can be seen from Palisades Park where I went running when I lived in California. I am planning to go on a diet when I get back - I think I put on about 8 lbs (4kg) from all of that Mexican food. Last night was a final goodbye with many of my friends at the El Coyote Mexican Restaurant in WeHo. My friend Vicki, says it's tacky, but it's old school, tacky chic. My best friend and best man, Bob, gave me grief about not having enough margaritas, but I think I had enough to still function on Saturday and get my rental car up the hill to Craig and Christine's place, where I'm staying. Dwight and Cathy from the Hash were there also.