Priniatikos Pyrgos Open Day

As a foreign school excavation operating under the hospitality of the Greek Ministry of Culture, it is important to ensure that our work has resonance and meaning within the local community and broader area within which we work. This is a great pleasure for us because we have been received so warmly in the areas of Kalo Chorio / Istron that the opportunity to give something back was seen as a great pleasure to all team members from students to specialists. On 14th of August we held an open day, which we had advertised around the local towns and villages. The response was outstanding with large numbers of locals and interested holiday-makers in the area flocking to the site.

As with many archaeological sites, many locals who had traversed this site for decades were hugely surprised to see the extensive ancient remains that had lain literally centimetres beneath their feet. Indeed interest in our work was sufficient to attract a reporter from Tele Kriti, a regional television station to run a special feature on the Irish Institute's work at Priniatikos Pyrgos.

It is planned to host a similar open day next year, with the further addition of a bi-lingual opening lecture to give slightly more detailed analysis of the work we have been doing.