My first experience of field archaeology was in ’94, at the site of the Cistercian Monastery of Zaraka, in Greece (next door to Lake Stymphalos, of Herculian fame). Shelia Campbell of the Pontifical Institute for Medieval Studies, University of Toronto was the director. I am pleased to see that new architectural survey work is taking place there, along with a 3d  reconstruction.

Zaraka was an amazing site, not least for the skeletons we found (I was a teenager: skeletons were always the most cool thing, ever). Hector Williams, directing the nearby work on the ancient city of Stymphalia, casually noted, ‘oh yes, that’s how they bury vampires around here’… How could I not sign up for the BA in archaeology after that?!

So I owe a debt to Peter Rahn, Shelia Campbell, and Hector Williams for getting me into this line of work… (or maybe I should just send them my student loan bills).