FROM TEAM LEADER’S DIARY:
SKOPJE FORTRESS – 2007 EXCAVATIONS
- Preparatory Works, Organization and Beginning of the Excavations -
Skopje fortress (Kale) is one of the most attractive and most provoking, but also most controversial and most complex locations for archaeological excavations. Although its great archaeological potentials are beyond doubt and well documented, its basic cultural and historical parameters are still unknown. It is a location where the biggest number of archaeological and preservation interventions have been conducted, and yet it is still treated as a common picnic place much more than a real archaeological site. Assuming the most dominant and central position in the capital, with huge cultural and tourist possibilities, the area itself is still focused around a single functional facility, a plain restaurant of a lower category built several decades ago on the most central part of the location. While almost all cultural and political history of the city since prehistoric times up to the 1963 earthquake is related to this space, it has remained only a plain green area with a beautiful view of the complete central city area.
To excavate Skopje fortress (Kale) is a tempting opportunity for an abundant archaeological hunt, but only at first sight. Actually, taking into consideration the permanent damages and violations of the archaeological layers in the past, the excavations of Kale are a fully unclear, hard and not very rewarding archaeological work. Therefore, before excavating Kale, as a manager of the works, I actually feel like a surgeon facing an organism attacked by many diseases. If we add all the current and organizational problems that can come from the implementation of the project because of the big public interest, different expectations and constant media needs of spectacular information, the work is additionally complicated. So, Kale is not only an ordinary organism attacked by various diseases but a patient of a special rank for whom there is a broad interest and different prognosis and expectations; I am to fulfil them all.
The idea for archaeological excavations on Skopje fortress (Kale) came from the pressing need to finally effectuate the big potentials of such a space and reinvent it by adding new contents and new, appropriate urban context to it. This initiative, started by the Head of the Directorate for Cultural Heritage Protection Pasko Kuzman, was fully supported by the Government of the Republic of Macedonia and the Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski.
After the idea for a project for excavations on the Kale was publicly announced, there were immediate different opinions and reactions in the public. The project was mostly hailed, with hopes that finally the space of Skopje fortress would be put in proper function, as a real cultural, historical, tourist and urban centre of our capital. However, there were also some highly politicised reactions, in order to score cheep political points. For some individuals it was unacceptable to have work conducted on the Kale, mostly because of the possibility that allegedly some of the discoveries would be hidden and covered. These fully unsubstantiated claims were spread by a group of so-called Albanian intellectuals who broadly (via media, tribunes, public events, etc) fed the public with misinformation that Kale excavations would hide whole cultures, which, according to them had existed in this area and in this way history would be changed. Without any scholarly basis, they sold stories and concern about the alleged culture of the old Illyrians and Dardanians, whose vestiges should be in the Kale, and the excavations could hide these artefacts.
Out of the whole media campaign, it remained unclear how this “group of citizens” had built this firm “knowledge” about the cultural and historical values that were supposed to be discovered on the Kale, before the very start of the excavations. It remained unclear what Illyrian culture it was that the concerns referred to, which period it was from and what specific Illyrian or Dardanian cultural occurrences on the Kale there were. Still, despite the lack of expertise and basic knowledge of the issues, this group of citizens dared to publicly ask that Albanian archaeologists from Kosovo or Albania are also included in the implementation of the excavations, as a guarantor of the proper work. For us, this was fully condescending and unacceptable, most of all because of the blatant political background and involvement of the above activities, which were a serious danger in destroying all criteria, methods and principles of archaeological work.
All preparations on the strategy building and planning for the forthcoming excavations were made in the course of the first months of year 2007. In the beginning of March the methodological approach, team and dynamics of work were planned in detail, and put into an excavation program. After the program was accepted and an excavation permit was issued, specific activities for preparation of the field and direct organizational set-up started.
A week before the official start of the field work scheduled for 15 March, the necessary preparation work was conducted on the Kale. There was a general geodesic survey of the field conducted by placing, that is, returning of the old 1967 grid. The complete space of the interior of the walls was pegged out, divided into large 50m X 50 m cells. Within this general grid, a micro grid with 5m X 5m trenches was placed on the positions planned for the excavations; the absolute positions for each placed peg were measured. The way and the most favourable place for storing the excavated soil were determined, as well as all details of the daily process of the field work, documentation and protection of the discovered finds.
Based on the set goals, 6 sectors were determined, as different excavation positions with different space, where 30 people will be involved per sector. Two immediate leaders per sector were planned, with a full responsibility for the implementation of the direct process of excavation and documentation. The leaders have 2 assistants each.
Two photographers shall be employed full time for the needs of the photo and video documentation, as well as one cameraman, who will cover all sectors and at the same time work on the digitalisation of the photo documentation.
Geodesic measurements and positioning will be made by two geodesists, who will cover all sectors.
Each of the sectors will have a record taker – a sketch maker of the discovered archaeological positions.
The treatment of a discovered movable find implies a long and fully completed process, from its discovery to the final museum storage. The discovered finds, after being sketched and photographed in their original position at discovery and after the noting in the sector diaries and the locus lists are handed for further treatment in the so-called conservation sector. This is a specially organised space for cleaning and preventive protection, where a dozen of pottery conservation experts and conservation experts work, led by a main conservation expert. The next step is individual photographing and sketching of each find, and its field recording (giving it an inventory number and an ID card) in a special software. Four sketch takers of objects will be full time employed for this purpose, as well as one record-inventory maker and one coordinator of the movable finds. Because of the specific nature of some finds and the material they are made of, this scheme will not be applied to coin finds, and especially to the metal, bone or similar finds that require urgent and more complex preservation treatment. After they are documented within the discovered situations, they will be directly taken to the Laboratory of the Museum of Macedonia, where they will be fully treated, documented and inventoried.
In this process of work, there will be a significant usage of machinery for clearing the space and transport and storage of the dug soil; the soil will be separated from stones which will be stored at certain places so that they can be eventually used at a later stage for preservation. After the complete organization is set, the tools and techniques are provided, the team is completed, and there is an initial clearing of the filed and removal of the humus layer in the first day of Monday, 12 March to Wednesday, 14 March 2007, the excavations can start.
Thursday, 15 March 2007
Official start of the Arhaeological exavations "Skopsko Kale".
The start was marked by a location visit of an official delegation led by the Prime Minister, Minister of Culture and numerous other visitors, followed by almost all electronic and printed media. The Prime Minister was explained the complete work process, the goals and expected results, via visits to all sectors individually and his direct introduction to sector leaders. After the round, there were short briefings of the journalists by the Prime Minister and myself.
Friday, 16 March 2007
The work is already full speed ahead, and there are two new sectors opened (Sectors 7 and 8) for a better coverage of the field planned to be excavated. More than 200 participants in the field activities are busy with specific tasks. The biggest number of them are students, final year students, graduates, post-graduates and unemployed archaeologists, all with a visible energy to work. For many of them, this is the first chance to be directly involved in the implementation of such a project, obtain the necessary practical experience and find themselves in the profession.
This segment of transparency of the activities is their biggest and most significant mark. That is why I will try outside the usual principles of archaeological work, to keep the location open for visitors and all interested parties during the excavations. I am convinced that the openness of such an activity can significantly contribute to spreading information about the real meaning of the cultural heritage and the necessary care for it, not only with the participants in the activity, but also with the local population, who will be able to visit Kale at any given moment and directly follow the work of the archaeologists.
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