The Azoria ProjectThe University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Iowa State University
Excavations at Azoria in Eastern Crete
The Azoria Project
The Azoria Project is the excavation of an Early Iron Age and Archaic site (ca. 1200-500 B.C.) on the island of Crete in the Greek Aegean. Fieldwork is conducted by permission of the Greek Ministry of Culture under the auspices of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens and the Archaeological Service of Eastern Crete (24th Ephorate of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities). The main supporting institutions are the Department of Classics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the Classical Studies Program at Iowa State University, the Research Laboratories of Archaeology at UNC, the Institute for Aegean Prehistory Study Center for East Crete (INSTAP-SCEC), and the Duke-UNC Consortium for Classical and Mediterranean Archaeology (CCMA).
Azoria Project Volunteer Program 2013
The Azoria Group
Maura High
An Archaeology of Now and Then
The Southern Review 48.2 (2012)
The
Azoria Project Overview (Research
Design)
Azoria Project Staff
Azoria Project Bibliography
(Recent
Publications)
2002 Summary
Report
2003
Summary Report
2004 Summary
Report
2005 Summary Report
2006 Summary
Report
2002
Detailed Report
2003-2004 Detailed
Report Part 1 (Archaic Buildings)
2003-2004 Detailed
Report Part 2
(Neolithic-Early Iron Age)
2005-2006 Detailed
Report (Archaic Civic
Buildings)
2005-2006 Detailed
Report (Archaic Houses)
The Early Iron
Age-Archaic Transition in Crete (Dark Ages Revisited)
A Tholos Tomb from
Azoria Kavousi (AEK 1, 2010)
Kritiko Panorama
(2007) PDF
Views
of the Site
Site Conservation (Technical Report)
The
Azoria
Project Fund
Azoria Project Archive
The Azoria Project Archive, stored in the Carolina Digital Repository of the University Archives and Records Management Services of Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, is the permanent archive of the Azoria Project excavations. The Azoria Project Archive is a collection of original documents and publications generated from fieldwork and research of the Azoria Project. The documents in this collection comprise an archive of publications; original field notes; excavation and directors notebooks; stratigraphic sections; manuscript drafts; artifact catalogs; and illustrations (plans, artifact and architectural drawings, maps, and photographs) produced by this research project.
The Azoria Project is the excavation of an Archaic city (7th-6th c. B.C.) on the island of Crete in the Greek Aegean. Completing an initial five years of excavation in 2006, the aims of fieldwork have been to document the form of an early Greek city, reconstructing the sociopolitical and economic organization, and studying the process of urbanization (Haggis et al. 2004; 2007; 2011). Current study and future excavation focus on the transition from the Early Iron Age (EIA; 1200-700 B.C.) to Archaic periods, the early development of the city, and the material correlates for emerging social and political institutions in the Archaic period. The excavation constitutes the first case study of the political economy of Archaic Crete, while augmenting our knowledge of the agropastoral resource base of Aegean communities in early stages of urbanization, by means of an integrated framework derived from excavation—a dialectic between faunal, botanical, environmental, archaeological and historical data.The purpose is to recover stratigraphic evidence for culture change in the late 7th and 6th centuries, and to reevaluate interpretive frameworks and develop new models of Archaic urban social organization. The principal goals are to recover evidence indicating the response of Archaic inhabitants to their Early Iron Age past; and to study the sociopolitical and economic change in the 6th century suggested by the organization of the settlement, and evidence of food mobilization, storage, processing and consumption in houses and civic buildings.
 Funding for the Azoria Project has been provided by the National Science Foundation (BCS-0438073); National Geographic Society (7193-02; 7614-04; 9164-12); the National Endowment for the Humanities (RZ-20812; RZ-50334; RZ-51427); the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research (GR 6875); the Institute for Aegean Prehistory; the Loeb Classical Library Foundation; the American Philosophical Society, Franklin Research Grant; the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation; the Shelby White-Leon Levy Program for Archaeological Publications; the College of Arts and Sciences, the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Economic Development (UNC-CH); the James Penrose Harland Fund (UNC-CH); Social Science Seed Grant for Multidisciplinary Research, H. W. Odum Institute for Research in Social Science (UNC-CH); the Iowa State University (ISU) Center for Excellence in the Arts and Humanities Fellowship for Scholarship and Creativity; College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Small Grants (ISU); the Azoria Project Fund (0-65305). Donate to the Azoria Project |