I set out from Ermioni a bit early than usual so that I could hike to the top of Profitis Ilias. This peak was marked as site B21 by the AEP. Roughly 80m from the top a large 3m thick rubble wall runs around the western potion of the peak for about 200m. There is a second smaller enclosure wall encircling the higher portion of the peak where the modern chapel and a more recent auxiliary building with a few beds are located.

I was perhaps a little over enthusiastic to reach the top this morning so I took what appeared to be the correct road to the trailhead and ended up on some shepard’s road which left me a few hundred meters too far to the west. I set out upon my hike at any rate only to cut back and forth with several goat trails for about 20 minutes before I reached the clearly defined trail up (there is white paint marking every other boulder on the way up. This is clearly discernable from several kilometers away). The path is relatively gently sloping series of switchbacks. Rubble pavement fills in the rougher portions of the trail. With the pack full of the equipment, my notes and water, the accent was a bit tiring.

I stopped periodically to take photographs and I have just completed a video walk from the LH wall to the new stone cabin. This structure is just to the south of the cistern and was not marked on the AEP map. I will take a panorama and sound footage from the 346.57 m datum on top of the peak.

9:55 am—sound footage taken on elevation column. The geographical cmarker column is @ N 37° 23.723 E 023° 10.284 (spliced panorama from marker taken during the summer of 2004).

I just finished a video diary segment and I will film a video walk on the way down.

I filmed a video walk along the western portion of the LH wall. I also filmed several segments of the path down and made my way back to the car parked above the small house at the end of a rough gravel road.

While driving out I passed by a small chapel, which is adjacent to an even smaller chapel that has fallen into disrepair. The smaller chapel had several fading paintings and icons | figures along the partition wall inside. I took a couple of photographs of these figures.

I am now sitting in the shade of an olive off one of the crossroads near B20. B20 was identified as an old and “possibly ancient well” at the intersection of three different roads. This is Loutro. I will take some photographs and go through the routine.

12:15 pm—the wellhead at B20 is @ N 37° 24.355 E 023° 10.404. There is a light breeze that passes on occasion, but otherwise it is getting much warmer. I will now take a video walk through the olives and down to the wellhead. I will then take a sound sample at the wellhead and return to Ermioni for some grub.

I took a video walk through an open olive grove just E of well B20. I turned down and got part of the road from the E to the well. I then took a video transect along the same course I took through the grove.

12:35pm—I took sound footage at the well. I also took a video panorama from the center of the road.

These media experiments are beginning to pay off with reference to landscape experience. The sound samples taken at various points in the landscape will, for example, provide acoustic indexes to different areas of the landscape. Potentially this will give me some indication of how sound traveled and was heard at different places in a given landscape in the past. We simply have to tune ourselves into aural sampling and sensibilities.

While walking through the bottomland near the well I noticed that the water table appears to be relatively high for August or this basin draws water from the surrounding areas. At any rate this was, no doubt, aided by the heavy rains we experienced a few nights ago.

After my regular two gyros and Fanta Lemonita I decided to venture back in the 2:00pm heat. However I will leave the hot Loutro valley till a little later today and so here I am at windmill hill above Kranidhi. I hope the hill will live up to its name.

2:40pm—it is extremely hot. B14 is located @ N 37° E 023° 09.236. B14 is covered in stubble and nettles. The circular pattern of the rubble and a circular indentation in the interior were all that could be discerned. A sound sample was taken.

I had hoped to return to the Loutro valley in the afternoon but I decided that it was entirely too hot to go back out again. The Loutro valley was surveyed in 1972 and I do not have the notebooks from that season to work with. I also need to catch up on the large amount of paper work and take stock of where I am. And where I need to be by the end of the coming week. This marks the 6th straight day of work.

As with many of the days during the AEP survey, thistles, nettles, etc. block one’s ability to walk an area properly. This “lack” of visibility occurred on several occasions with the AEP and it has already occurred in several instances with my work. Voids are part of landscape approaches.

Go back to August 12, 2003

Go forward to August 14, 2003

August 13, 2003 log entries

Return to Summer 2003 field notebook

Return to Multiple fields and the Argolid Exploration Project Home