21.02.2022

West Area of Samos Archaeological Project (WASAP) - First Report

Project summary: The first season of the West Area of Samos Archaeological Project focussed on laying the groundwork for an intensive five-year research programme, while also generating a substantial base dataset for the region. Intensive field walking of 50x50m grids took place in August 2021, covering 9.48 hectares spread across 55 individual walker tracts. Ceramic scatters were recorded around the church of Agios Ioannis (north of Kampos), an area of interest known from previous research (Shipley 1987) as a potential Archaic/ Classical site. One hundred and seventy three diagnostic samples were collected from these tracts and will be studied in future years. The extent of ceramic material scattered across the Agios Ioannis site appears to have been identified, while a second scatter of material coming down from an area northwest of the region surveyed appears to have been detected preliminarily. Off-season work will focus on bibliographic research of the Kampos hinterland, and on the mapping of the region through LiDAR survey. We anticipate that the next field season (summer 2022) to be longer and we will be with a larger team. The first goal is to finish mapping the scatters around the Agios Ioannis area, and to continue the Kampos region survey down to the coast. Our region had originally been drawn with a view to extensive drone survey; however, as no drone survey could take place this year, and as two off-site locations show great potential for intensive field walking, we hope, following discussion with the Ephor, that we will be able to refine the area of research to include these new targets. Our plan was always to refine our research target after the 2021 extensive work, so this will not change our overall programme of research in any substantial way.

Fig: Location of WASAP tracts walked in 2021 field season.

The project is conducted by the kind permission of the Ministry of Culture and Sports, Greece and the Ephoreia of Samos and Ikaria. We thank in particular the Ephor Panagiotis Hatzidakis for permission to work on Samos and for facilitating practical arrangements. We would also like to thank John Bennet and Tania Gerousi at the British School at Athens as well as the authorities on Samos. Project participants for this season’s fieldwork included Fabiola Heynen, Alexandra Katevaini, Christina Koureta, Rafael Laoutari, and Nicola Simon and researcher Georgia Delli. Funding was received for the project this year from the British School at Athens, the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research in Cambridge and the University of Vienna.

Fig: The WASAP project team, at the Agios Ioannis site, West Samos.