The Sphakia Survey: Research Methods

1. Environmental

• definition of environmental zones
• geology, sediments, erosion
• historical ecology/vegetation land-use observations
• pollen core in Frangokastello; earlier core just outside, near Kallikrati
• tree rings
• satellite images
• aerial photographs (with thanks to the Greek Ministry of the Environment and Land-use)

2. Archaeological

a. fieldwork

• design of sampling programme this is the EMC/CV article of 1988
• confirming sites already discovered
• contour transects, line transects, kilometer squares, moseys, free excavations
• special intensive collection of large sites such as Loutro/Phoinix and Anopoli ("vacuuming")
• revisiting and recording sites
• drawing plans for sites with standing remains (Roman houses, Byzantine churches)
• site photography

b. post-fieldwork

• diagramming and date-diagramming
• study of finds by pottery specialists
• pottery fabric research
• study of finds by specialists on lithics (obsidian, chert), bones, coins
• drawing artefacts
• construction of databases
• finds photography

3. Documentary

• Graeco-Roman tomb inscriptions
• Graeco-Roman texts (e.g. Theophrastus on cypress trees)
• Byzantine MSS
• Venetian reports (relazioni), drawings, and maps
• Turkish-period tax records
• 18th-century land sale documents
• ecclesiastical records
• foreign travellers' accounts (e.g. Randolph, quoted in EMC/CV 1989
• novels (Ioannis Kondilakis, Patouchas; Evelyn Waugh, the Sword of Honour, trilogy)
• Cretan songs (mantinades) and proverbs

4. Local

• Toponyms (topothesies, ‘place-puttings’ for landscape features as well as settlements)
• water sources
• agricultural practices (e.g. vines, grain)
• shepherding
• bee-keeping
• weaving
• use of lime kilns
• timing of work throughout the year
• routes (footpaths; kaldirimia = built mule tracks, car roads)
• trade and exchange (e.g. lumber from Samaria for grain from the Messara Plain in south central Crete; pottery)