We've had two grueling weeks on Keros so far and one more to go! The goal of our survey is to document the entire island, which involves a lot of walking and climbing in extremely rugged terrain (and trying not to fall down cliffs or get scratched to death by thorns). Each morning we leave by boat at 6:30, which drops us near our survey area for the day (or at least within a couple hours' hike). There are two types of survey. When we do extensive survey, we w...

After getting into my hostel around 11 a.m., I met up with one of our group members, Robert, who is an American ex-pat currently living in Athens. He's a retired electrical engineer now volunteering at the American School of Classical Studies, which funds much of the American research in Greece. Once we'd successfully found a SIM card for my cell phone, Robert took me to have a Nescafe Frappe (with ice cream--a Greek and Cypriot favorite) at the Numismatic Muse...

Well, I'm here! After nearly 24 hours of flying, I'm pretty beat. All of my flights were on time and my luggage made it in one piece, so I don't have much cause to complain. The overseas flight from Philadelphia to Athens was pretty hellish. Nearly 12 hours on a very cramped plane with squalling children kicking my seat from behind while an old Greek couple decided to shout-talk at each other in front of me the entire flight, including while people were tryin...

Hello all! It's time yet again for another travel blog. This year I'm participating in the Keros Survey project, which is run by Cambridge University. Keros is one of the Cycladic islands off the coast of Greece. It's uninhabited now, but during the Bronze Age, it was the site of not only a major settlement, but also the most unusual deposit of high-status and possibly ritual objects from the Cyclades. Back in the 60s, archaeologists noted a large deposit ...