Sophomore, Professors Part of Archaeology Research Team in Greece

College of Charleston sophomore Jami Baxley is the only student participating in an archaeological project in Greece during the 2013 summer months. She will join two College of Charleston professors and other researchers for a month in Greece collecting archaeological data on more than 1,400 objects from the ancient Palace of Nestor in Pylos. Over the next year, the team, led by Classics Professor Kevin Pluta and Dimitri Nakassis of the University of Toronto, will compile a traditional print volume and a searchable online database of their findings. Jim Newhard, College of Charleston Professor and Director of the Archaeology Program, will also be a researcher on the project.

“I am absolutely thrilled to accompany two of my professors on this project in which I will gain hands on experience that will directly relate to my career aspirations,” says Baxley, a classics and archaeology major from Beech Island, S.C. “Being the only student is a bit nerve-racking (and exciting!), but I am ready for the challenge and look forward to all I will learn.”

The project will document via Reflexive Transference Imagery (RTI), 3D imagery, X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF), and traditional illustration the administrative archives of the Palace of Nestor at Pylos, Greece. The publication and corresponding spatial database would effectively compile the scholarship of several generations of Linear B scholars into a concise, organized system, useable by scholars, students, and interested lay communities; and expand use of this dataset to broader cross-cultural comparative applications.

The online database, in development at the College of Charleston, will be searchable by tablet, fragment, word, or geochemical signature. The documentation via multiple imaging formats will also provide an archiving component to a valuable dataset that is of a fragile nature. The final images and data will reside at the College of Charleston on a dedicated server.

“This project is an excellent example of the ways in which the expertise and research of the faculty are leveraged for high impact experiences for students, while at the same time moving the discipline of archaeology forward in exciting ways,” explains Jim Newhard, Classics professor and incoming director of the archaeology program. “I am looking forward to seeing this collaboration develop for the benefit of all the cooperating institutions, researchers, and students.”

The project currently has funding from the Loeb Classical Library Foundation, the Institute for Aegean Prehistory, the Michael Ventris Foundation, and the College of Charleston.

For more information, contact Jim Newhard at newhardj@cofc.edu.