CHAPTER 11

BUILDING OUR TEAM

            “Our trip to Greece was an exciting time in our lives. We arrived in Athens in late June, all of us eager to conquer what we were there to find. We knew we did not have a lot of time, but we wanted to take some time for ourselves to do some recreational travel. We spent the first of our days touring Athens and the ancient worlds that the Greeks had left behind. We saw the ancient Acropolis, the Parthenon, the temple of Zeus, as well as the ancient Olympic Stadium. The Greeks are the first people to live in a modern city and Greek history is rich with art, architecture, and philosophy from these progressive ancient peoples.

            After only four days of sightseeing, we began to put together our team and gather our supplies for what we were sure was going to be one of the most important discoveries in anthropology and paleontology history at that time. Bayne and I sat down and interviewed candidates for our project guide. 

           We easily selected a man named Urian, or Uri as he was called. He was about ten years older than we were and well-versed in the geography of Greece. He had been a guide on several other archaeological digs before this and he had worked on digs nearly his entire life. Uri was a robust man with dark hair, small eyes, and a full black beard. He was married with two children and had a real love for what he called his rich life. From his home, you could see the sunset in the west and watch as the small island of Crete as it silhouetted in the fading sunlight. He lived his perfect life and I still remember the days we spent with him at his home eating, drinking, and laughing on that first visit to Greece.

          Uri was the only guide that both Bayne and I felt we could absolutely trust. Other guides were older but had a way about them. I am sure we seemed naive to be looking for the remains of giants in an age where the world had recently been forever changed by progress and two world wars.

            Other guides were young. Some were even younger than we were. One was a young man named Simon who claimed to have been a guide for several years, but he could not have been much older than nineteen. He was tall, thin, and lanky with no such muscular evidence of having any real experience on any dig. When we told him what our project entailed his eyes lit up. It was as if the words we were speaking were divine.

            Bayne asked him, “What do you know of such things as the ancient bones of the giants?”

            “Sir,” he said. “Only what I have been told through my father and grandfather. I always pictured that they were giants that lived in the great Parthenon and sat on the throne of Mount Olympus. My grandfather once told me the spirit of a local giant, Fedoras, had visited him while walking from his village to the market. This encounter forever changed the life of my grandfather. You see, Fedoras told my grandfather to move his family away from the village where he lived. Fedoras warned my grandfather that his life and the life of his family were in danger. He also said that his village would soon be destroyed by the rocks just above where it was located. Fedoras had told my grandfather that those cliffs and mountains were the resting place of other giants and soon they would awaken with such a roar that the cliffs would crack, break off, and come crashing down on the village. It would be with such might that the village and its people would be thrown into the sea below.

            My grandfather told his family and anyone who would listen about what he was told. Most of the villagers laughed at my grandfather. He and his family were the only ones that moved. Later that summer, an earthquake shook the coastline and indeed the rocky cliffs above the village came crashing down killing most of the villagers. That following autumn, the rains were heavy and the unstable ground around the village gave way, and the dirt, mud, and sand began to flow into the ocean. The village my grandfather had lived in his whole life was completely gone.”

            Simon continued, “I had always wondered about such a story. I believed it to be true even though my father told me that the real reason my grandfather moved was because he owed a tavern owner a substantial amount of money. That my grandfather was lucky that the tavern owner was killed in the earthquake with his debts not paid.”

            Bayne asked Simon, “So tell me about your experience as a guide on the last dig you had success with.” The boy looked down at the ground and then confessed, “Sirs, I am not really a guide. I am trying to make a name for myself. Your intentions here seem honorable and worthwhile. I do not wish to deceive you any longer. But by the name of Fedoras, a giant to whom I owe my life, I will be your humbled servant if you so choose me for any task on this journey.”

            Simon did not become our guide, but we did hire him to be a trusted journeyman for our project. Uri would select the rest of his crew himself. It was made up of mostly those who had worked with him on other projects. Our project was unlike most in recent years. Most digs in Greece during this time were to find the riches left by an ancient civilization and not the remains of a mythological race.

            It took us nearly a week to gather the supplies we needed and to bring our team together. Bayne, Uri, and I would spend the next week scouting the location for our dig. We wanted to begin in the northeast mountains of the great Mount Olympus. Our grant research was specific to mention that we would dig in the valley between Mount Olympus and the Pindus Mountains. We were to focus on the mountainous area near Longa just northwest of Larissa.

             We left Athens by train to Larissa and then traveled by jeep to the base of the mountain and finally on foot up to our selected site. The terrain of the area was extremely rocky. We would hike halfway up the base of the mountain and then circle toward the east-facing Mount Olympus. From there we hiked up a steep path to the site. The site was laid out like a crescent moon along a flat level area where sediment over the centuries produced a small, flowering meadow. The crescent shape was made up of rocks on each side that gradually increased in size as each side came to what was the center of the crescent shape at the base of the mountain. At the center of the crescent was a sheer rock base that led to the towering cliffs cresting at the peak of the mountain. Just to the left of the center was a shallow, natural cave opening that went only eight feet into the rock. This was our selected project site.

            It was set up in three stations. Station 1 was the cave opening where the crew would mine through the rock by hand. Station 2 would be where we would dig in the sediment floor sifting through the dirt for fragments of bone. Station 3 was where research on rock and fragments would be more thoroughly investigated. We set up Station 3 in the meadow area along with our tents. These three stations would be known as Base Camp 2. Base Camp 1 would be set up at the foot of the mountain mostly as an inventory, medical station, and rest area.

            Since neither Bayne nor I had a geological background to speak of, the grant stipulated that an experienced geologist be present. We decided we would wait until we had our plans all lined up before we would hire such a person. Our goal was not to let the geologist steer the project off course.

            After scouting the research site, we returned to Athens. Uri and his team immediately began the journey back to the site to get the camp set up. Bayne and I stayed in Athens to interview for the geologist. Our search was quite easy, Uri had suggested a geologist he had worked with on a couple of government digs. The geologist was Greek and knew much about the mountainous regions in central Greece. He was a dark, thin man in his fifties. Bayne felt he was not too old to steal the show but old enough to know what he was doing. He met us in the lobby of our hotel in Athens. He was a mild man with little to say. When we told him what we were doing, he coyly sat back in his chair with a half-smile. It was clear that he thought we were wasting our time.

            I asked angrily, “What we need is someone to analyze the geological content from the site - nothing more. You can safely leave the rest to us.”

The man answered back, “Where, sir, are these giants of yours buried?”

            I answered, “Our site sits in the mountains near Longa.”

“Interesting,” the man thought for a minute. “Have you a map?”

            Bayne pulled out the map of the area and handed it to the man. He looked at the map and questioned, “Where on this map is your site?” I pointed just to the east of Longa.

            He then said, “Why this location? Why so far north? Have you thought anything about the Pindus Mountain range? I am sure there are several suitable sites in that vicinity.”

            I answered, “No. We are more interested in the mountains that lie between the Pindus and the range that includes Mount Olympus.”

            He answered quickly with a quote, “And, he threw the slain headless bodies into the great valleys of Greece. Their bodies filled the valleys and were covered over by the mountains in their place.”

            I answered him back, “Exactly.”

           He thought for a minute more. “You know many sites along the mountains going toward Macedonia were where scientists had found the remains of the great mammoths and prehistoric animals.”

            I smiled. “We are aware of the rich history of the area. We did not come all this way to waste our time. Much research has been done in advance that brought us here at an even greater expense.”

            “I see that,” he said. “You have my curiosity. It’s an interesting proposition and I have not had a better offer. Gentlemen, you have your geologist.” And with that, Dr. Cadmus Haralambos became the last member to join the crew.