The Argos Orestikon Excavation was initiated in 2009 as a University of Ioannina research project under the joint direction of Professors Dimitris Plantzos and Dimitris Damaskos. Since 2003 it has been running under the auspices of the Archaeology and Art History Sub-Faculty of the University of Athens. Its primary focus is the site of Paravela, approximately 1,5 km northwest of the present-day town of Argos Orestiko in Western Macedonia (Kastoria Prefecture). The excavation is supervised by the 29th Ephorate for Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities (based in Florina) and the 16th Ephorate for Byzantine Antiquities (based in Kastoria). For the years 2009-2011 it was entirely funded by the University of Ioannina.
Strongly committed to training our students on the field, in the Argos Orestikon University Excavation we work with 20 to 25 trainees every year; workmen from the Argos Orestikon area, other archaeologists and excavation specialists such as architects and topographers help us form a strong dig team.
Since 2009 we are also running the side project “Excavation and Local Community: Argos Orestikon”, designed to inform the public on matters pertaining to the area’s archaeological and architectural heritage while at the same time monitoring the community’s reaction to the archaeological project at hand. To this end we work with MOnuMENTA, a non-profit society for the protection of natural and architectural heritage based in Athens, Greece.
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