Come sit around our campfire and swap adventure stories. Be there when we pass around the puzzling finds of the day, and tell us what you think. One of the most challenging aspects of digging Yeronisos is the large number of unusual, if not unique, objects we have uncovered. On this page we will regularly post some of our most intriguing discoveries with the hope that you will share with us parallels, ideas, and bibliographical references that may help in the identification and interpretation of these finds. Please type your comments in the form provided at the bottom of this page. A selection of your comments will be posted for your fellow team members to read. Thank you!

There are a large number of finds from Yeronisos that show evidence of re-use. Among these are a series of pot sherds cut into an oval shape and finished smooth at the edges, then pierced with a pair of holes at the narrow end. We believe that these shallowly curving oval sherds served as the bowls for make-shift spoons or ladles, to which wooden handles would have been bound with leather straps through the holes at the narrow end. We are eager to hear of similar finds from other sites, or to hear of different interpretations of these objects.


An impressive percentage of Yeronisos pot-sherds are pierced with holes. Many of these are clearly for mending broken pots with lead clamps or, possibly, with leather straps. Others seem placed in positions that would argue against their use as mend holes. We are very keen on collecting comparative data from other sites yielding large numbers of pot sherds showing holes, and learning of alternative interpretations of the function of these holes, including the re-use of sherds as fish net weights and the piercing of pots to create lamps or wind screens. Please send us your thoughts. <



This splendid early Roman thin-walled dot-festooned patterned drinking cup (left) has been mended from over two-hundred tiny fragments to restore a complete profile. We would be happy to know of other sites that have yielded this ware, or cups with this shape, particularly in first century B.C. Eastern Mediterranean contexts.



As Yeronisos is without a fresh water source, the collection of water was paramount to the utilization of the island as a living space. Last season, we excavated a cistern with large, semi-circular collecting basin and a reservoir, with adjoining raised platform that we have tentatively identified as an impluvium (See Archaeology, 1996 Field Report). Please share information on hydraulic technologies at other sites, and solutions to problems of water collection and distribution. Do you know of other sites with similar collecting basins and platforms?


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