Timothy Gregory, a professor of anthropology at Ohio State, is teaching students how to excavate ancient Greece.
Gregory runs a program of archaeological research and education at the Sanctuary of Poseidon on the Isthmos of Corinth.
Isthmia was one of the four major Greek sanctuaries active in ancient times.
The goal of the excavation is to find out how people lived thousands of years ago and what that means for us today, Gregory said.
But Gregory is proudest of the students who have worked the site with him.
“We have uncovered much important archaeological information, but our main achievement is what our students have learned with us,” Gregory said.
Ashley Maloney, an OSU ancient history student who spent last summer at the excavation, said that Gregory is helpful and knowledgeable.
“Not only is he known throughout the realm of archaeologists, but he is especially fantastic because he cares about the students and their desire to learn field-work techniques,” she said.
Dallas DeForest, an OSU doctoral student, also emphasized the program’s focus on education.
He enjoyed working with Gregory so much that he has returned each summer since 2006.
“Gregory is a very open-minded person and lets his graduate students pursue most ideas they come up with,” DeForest said.
The focus on students doesn’t mean that the excavation has been materially unsuccessful.
“Our precious find was a coin from the Roman era, which we could track to a local treasury where it was minted,” Maloney said.
Such a find is often the product of less exciting labor.
Work on the site often consists of clearing weeds, which threaten the excavation site, cleaning pottery shards with toothbrushes and identifying those shards.
Students also work to digitize more than 50 years of records.
The Isthmian excavation began in 1952 as a project of the University of Chicago. Gregory took over for OSU in 1987.
The excavation is set to continue for many more years.
“I’ve been working at Isthmia for almost 30 years and I hope that OSU will continue to work there for another hundred years or more,” Gregory said.
