Athienou Archaeological Project Turns 25

Professor Derek Counts is Associate Director of the Athienou Archaeological Project again this summer in Athienou, Cyprus.

Counts reports, “We have a senior staff of about 12, along with 19 undergraduate students. The project includes excavation and labwork Tuesday-Saturday, 6am-4pm – with field trips to other sites on the island on Sundays. Monday is a ‘day off’.

In addition to Kevin Garstki (UWM Anthropology, ABD), 2 UWM undergraduates are here (both received one of our prestigious NSF awards, which provides them with program costs/tuition ([$4000], airfare, room/board, and a $3500 stipend). As you know – for our students this is crucial.

We opened four new excavation areas and returned to two other trenches that were started in previous seasons. No 3D scanning this summer – too much work to keep up with excavations, lectures, and site trips. . .

Finally – while its hard for me to believe – we are celebrating our 25th Anniversary this summer. I joined the project in its first season as a student shovel bum in 1990. Dang!”