End of the Season Varia

At the end of a study season, I’m always left with various things that I’m all excited about, but I don’t have sorted out for a blog post.

For example, I usually have a satisfying photograph of the end from the last day at the apotheke (or storeroom) like this:

The table is empty, and that’s a good thing, because it was usually filled with pottery under study or being catalogued.

I also have a few photographs that try to capture the range of activities during the season in a single shot. So, I have a photograph that shows off Brandon Olson’s illustrations of Late Roman fine ware like this. Scott and Brandon are looking at two chronologically contemporary, but physically distinct areas of the excavation for joins.

And I since we did some 3D modeling of parts of the basilica using Agisoft Photoscan, I invariably have some cool screen shots like those below. The first one is southwest corner of the narthex. If you look carefully you can see the lines of the original arched opening which was latter walled up with less well-sorted (and weight bearing) rubble walls.

Here is another showing the buttresses in the north aisle of the church. You can see clearly how the eastern apses do not bond with the main wall of the north aisle. 

One of the most useful things about modeling architecture using Agisoft is that we can show parts of the basilica at almost impossible angles without having to get a crane and reshooting photographs.

I also have a little gaggle of photographs that I like, but don’t really know what to do with. So I have this one of the “super moon” over the plataea of Polis at night. I like it because it looks a bit like a painting.

Then I always have ridiculously beautiful scenes like this:

Or like this:

I don’t recall whether these two photos appeared on the blog.

It’s ok if you find this kind of thing empty and self-indulgent. I promise that I’ll  get back to more substantive blog posts over the next couple of days. I have some writing and thinking time in Larnaka before I head to Greece to check out an area where I hope to do some fieldwork next year.