KOPAIC CULTURES, ECONOMIES & LANDSCAPES (KOCECOLA)

INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATIVE ARCHAEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION OF A PREHISTORIC SETTLEMENT IN ITS PHYSICAL, HUMAN, AND HISTORICAL CIRCUMSTANCES

• Dr. Michael F. Lane, Departments of Ancient Studies, University of Maryland, Baltimore County (U.M.B.C.), Field Director
• Dr. Alexandra Charami, Superintendent of Antiquities of Viotia, Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports (H.M.C.S.), Supervising Director
  
• Dr. Elena Kountouri, Chief of the Directorate of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities, H.M.C.S., Co-director

Synopsis

KOCECOLA is a four-year program of precise stratigraphic excavation, micromorphology, human bioarchaeology, zooarchaeology, archaeobotany, and material culture studies at Aghia Marina Pyrghos (A.M.P.) in the Kopaic Basin of central mainland Greece. It is built on the successes of the AROURA geophysical and surface survey program (2010–2014) and the MYNEKO test excavation program (2016–2019), also co-directed by Dr. Lane.

KOCECOLA’s Aims

1. To sample systematically and adaptatively the full extent of settlement previously defined and mapped at A.M.P., sampling with units large enough to expose activity areas adn their interrelations.
2. To conduct this sampling in every identifed phase of occupation and inhabitation identified at this site, to reconstruct the ways in which its dimenions, purposes, and types and frequencies of activity took root and changed from the Neolithic Age (before ca. 3100 B.C.E.), the earliest known phase, through the Medieval Period (ca. 1200–1450 C.E.), represented by the watchtower (pyrghos) on the site adn even short-term occupation in the modern era.
3. Of greatest interest for theories of social development, to explore both topographically and through material culture, cultivated and uncultivated plant proxy evidence, and human and animal bone remains the changing relationship between activities and events at the site and the surrounding human landscape, especially the settlement's connection iwth the construction of a polder for irrigated agriculture, from the Middle to Late Bronze Age (ca. 1800–1600 B.C.E.), its development over several centuries, particularly its regionwide integration under central authority in the 13th century B.C.E., and its evident abandonment ca. 1190 B.C.E., albeit possibly experiencing sporadic efforts toward partial repair and reuse in the following few centuries.
   

Annual Reports

KOCECOLA Pre-excavation Vegetation Survey, 2022 (DRAFT)

KOCECOLA Annual Report, 2023

Mycenaean Northeastern Kopaïs Test Program (U.M.B.C. website)

Archaeological Reconnaissance of Uninvestigated Remains of Agriculture (U.M.B.C. website)

Links

Visit us on Instagram @kocecola

2023 Fieldwork Staff

Dr. Kyle Jazwa (Maastricht University), Mr. Damian Koropeckyj (independent), Ms. Rowan May (York Archaeological Trust), and Ms. Naomi Morales-Glenn (independent). Undergraduate research assistants who participated in field and laboratory operations, from between one and six weeks, completing the team, were Mr. Robert Barry (U.M.B.C.), Ms. Sofia Beroukli (National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, “N.K.U.A.”), Ms. Katie Bjerkaas (U.M.B.C.), Mr. Aidan Bodurtha (N.K.U.A.), Ms. Mare Chavez (U.M.B.C.), Mr. Michael Fischer (U.M.B.C.), Mr. George Ftergiotis (N.K.U.A.), Mr. Logan Jackson (U.M.B.C.), Ms. India Kelly (U.M.B.C.); Ms. Abigail Kennedy (University of York), Ms. Eleni Keogh (U.M.B.C.), Ms. Lauren Oster (University of York), Ms. Mriga Rao (U.M.B.C.), and Ms. Brenna Smith (Gallaudet University).