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A woman swinging a pick axe

This spring term, I've been on the Dartmouth Classics FSP (Foreign Study Program) in Greece, which has been an incredible experience. For seven weeks of the program, we live and study in Athens through College Year Athens, taking two courses: Topography of Athens and Myth & Religion. For the remaining four weeks of the program, we make four different trips: the Greek Peloponnese, Sicily, the Cyclades Islands, and a choice between doing an archaeological dig on Despotiko Island or a trip to Northern Greece. 

Out of 27 Dartmouth students in our program, 17 chose to do the dig and 10 chose to travel around Northern Greece. I opted to step into the archaeological world for a week because it seemed like a truly once-in-a-lifetime experience! We are fortunate to be led by Professor Paul Christesen (referred to as PCC by students), a world-renowned Ancient Greek scholar with connections throughout Greece, which led us to Despotiko.

A woman shovels dirt
Me playing archaeologist for the week!

For the first two days of our trip, we explored Paros, a beautiful island with lots of history (and great beaches). We had a personal tour of the island from the man who runs the Paros Archaeological Museum and Despotiko digging project, which was such a fantastic experience! The group also hiked to the Delion, an ancient sanctuary to Apollo, for great sunset views. During a free afternoon, my friend and I explored the town of Naoussa, and after bumping into PCC, we spent the afternoon roaming around with him. At Dartmouth, professors want to get to know their students inside and outside the classroom, and this is just another example of that!

After our weekend in Paros, the group moved to Antiparos, the island right next to Despotiko Island, which is uninhabited. On Despotiko was a sanctuary to Apollo, and it has been an active archaeological site for over twenty years.

A woman stands with her arms out on a marble building
Here I am at the temple to Apollo!

The week of digging was full of amazing surprises! For the first day, the group pulled up grass and weeds so that we could excavate properly. During the second and third days, we split up into smaller groups, tackling different areas of the temple. I was stationed to pickaxe and shovel on an outer wall, and my group discovered pottery that helped date the wall to the Archaic period, around 700-500 BC, which was very exciting! On the fourth day, I worked on a room in the temple, and my group uncovered an adjacent room's wall that hadn't been seen in over 2,000 years! For the final day, I helped wash all the pottery that had been found during the week, and I saw beautiful patterns, which will hopefully be in a museum someday!

Pottery sherds on a wooden plank
A sneak peek of the group's discoveries from the week

Taking part in archaeological digs typically costs thousands of dollars, but our Dartmouth tuition covered the entire experience! All of our lunches, tools, ferry rides, hotel rooms, and pretty much everything we needed for the experience were covered by Dartmouth, which made the trip financially accessible for all students.

PCC is famous for daily "takeaways", which are when the group says what they learned from the day. My takeaway from the trip was that archaeology is an incredible field, and that attending a place like Dartmouth provides numerous opportunities to step outside the classroom and engage in new experiences.

a green ocean with rocks
One more picture of beautiful Despotiko!

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