Monday, 26 September 2011
While waiting to get the go-ahead to have Tropi hauled, we tackled some essential maintenance on the land - the track down from the road suffered in the storm, the sheer amount of rain in a short time on dry ground had gouged out one side of the track. Luckily it's the side nearest the 'ravine' (a drop to a waterway that's about 20 metres deep at the top and shallows out to about 5 metres near us). So we were up bright and early and went to do some digging out and trench infilling before the next rains.
Then, very excitingly, we got a call from the Architects to say our planning permission was through, subject to the compulsory Archaeological Survey. Everywhere ground is broken in Greece an Archaeologist has to supervise - if anything of interest is found, they have a year to excavate before the build can progress. If they find nothing of special significance in that time, they have to go away - if they do, then they can hold up the build as long as it takes.
Dave, Maria (Konstantine the Architect's wife and assistant) and the Archaeologist, viewing the site.
We would be quite excited to have a dig on the land, even if it did hold up our plans. You never know, Odysseus' Palace might be down there somewhere. However, our boyish enthusiasm met with deep depression from the Archaeologist. She wasn't prepared for it - she must meet a lot of resistance in her job, and didn't seem pleased. It was like Tigger meets Eeyore. She then explained with relish that there is no funding for the dig, so if they do find something interesting, the site goes on a waiting list for private donations to fund the work, which takes years. Usually people fund it themselves, she said, just to get on with it. Not an option for us - we don't have the money. Anyone fancy a Bring A Trowel holiday?
This is our site - if you look closely, you'll see a board and some stones roughly outlining the proposed build. The land is very dry and scrubby now at the end of the summer, but the recent rains are causing little green shoots to appear.
The archaeologist said she was working on a site down the hill, where the council have been putting in big sewage pipes. We walked down to have a look later in the day, and found the dig - big stone walls and lots of broken pottery. Circa 200 BCE apparently.
While waiting to get the go-ahead to have Tropi hauled, we tackled some essential maintenance on the land - the track down from the road suffered in the storm, the sheer amount of rain in a short time on dry ground had gouged out one side of the track. Luckily it's the side nearest the 'ravine' (a drop to a waterway that's about 20 metres deep at the top and shallows out to about 5 metres near us). So we were up bright and early and went to do some digging out and trench infilling before the next rains.
Dave, Maria (Konstantine the Architect's wife and assistant) and the Archaeologist, viewing the site.
We would be quite excited to have a dig on the land, even if it did hold up our plans. You never know, Odysseus' Palace might be down there somewhere. However, our boyish enthusiasm met with deep depression from the Archaeologist. She wasn't prepared for it - she must meet a lot of resistance in her job, and didn't seem pleased. It was like Tigger meets Eeyore. She then explained with relish that there is no funding for the dig, so if they do find something interesting, the site goes on a waiting list for private donations to fund the work, which takes years. Usually people fund it themselves, she said, just to get on with it. Not an option for us - we don't have the money. Anyone fancy a Bring A Trowel holiday?
The archaeologist said she was working on a site down the hill, where the council have been putting in big sewage pipes. We walked down to have a look later in the day, and found the dig - big stone walls and lots of broken pottery. Circa 200 BCE apparently.
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