The Island of Cyprus has always been a crossroads of the world, the object of conquest by whoever passed through the area -- from Mycenaean Greeks in 13th century B.C. to Assyrians, Persians, Egyptians, Alexander the Great, Romans, Arabs, Crusaders, French, Venetians, Ottoman Turks to the British in 1878.

Cyprus gained independence from the British in 1960 but that was short-lived since civil strife between the Greek majority and Turkish minority broke out three years later. A military coup in 1974 precipitated a Turkish invasion, which effectively split the small island into a Turkish zone to the north and a Greek zone to the south. Into this scenario in 1990 came the latest wave of invaders -- the Davidsonians.

But this time the invasion is a friendly one, led by a native born Cypriote turned Davidson professor, dedicated to finding and preserving a forgotten part of the island's rich history.

The Davidsonians come for many reasons, but for some it is a simple but profound fascination with digging in the dirt. Liz Pharr is a junior political science major from Williamsburg, Va. She returned in 1994 for the second summer in a row because she discovered how much she loved to dig: "I have to admit that my first impression of digging was from watching 'Raiders of the Lost Ark.' That doesn't show all the long hours of finding nothing. You dig and you have no idea what's going to be underneath the soil. It could be 20,000 pottery shards or a statue that's older than Christ. It's so old it's hard to fathom. You just never know what's there. I'm ambitious and I'm drawn by the idea of what might be there."

Others find the dig a much needed respite from the rigors of academic classroom work. Chris Kip is a senior English major from Columbia, S.C. This is also his second summer in Cyprus with the program: "The first time I came was after my freshman year. It was spring, I was really tired of school, and it was hard to study. I saw a poster on the wall that said 'Dig in Cyprus.' I saw the slide show and decided to go. I didn't come last year but came back this year.

"It's an academic thing still, but it's hands on and it combines history and anthropology and mythology, making all that very tangible. Sometimes it's hard for me to continue things academically, and books become dead to me. But when you find a statue of Hercules, you think about the people who made it and you look at this area and you wonder how they lived. You wonder what they believed in and how that kept them going. I think of my background and religious beliefs and the context of my life. It's a powerful program and a powerful experience."

Malloura, which is Greek for "fleece" or "wool," is the name of the dig site in Cyprus. It was chosen for excavation by Michael Toumazou, associate professor of classical studies who came to Davidson in 1987. While still a Ph.D. candidate, Toumazou had obtained a permit to excavate at a prehistoric site in Cyprus dating to 3000 B.C. This fell through, however. Then in 1989 local informers in Athienou told Toumazou about pieces of statues and pottery strewn all over their barley fields just outside of town. The area had been systematically looted in the 1930s and some of the former looters were alive and in the town, so Toumazou interviewed many of them. Based on what he found out he decided to dig at the site at Malloura, strategically situated in the center of a fertile valley surrounded by hillocks.

The dig site is unusual because it spans 2,500 years of the island's history and contains all three major components of an archaeological site: tombs, a settlement, and a sanctuary. The sanctuary, established in the 7th century B.C., flourished for nearly a thousand years. It was eventually abandoned after the triumph of Christianity in the 4th century A.D. The adjacent settlement dates from the 2nd century B.C. through the 8th century A.D. It was re-established in the 13th century and lasted until 1878. Toumazou estimates that 2-3,000 people lived in the settlement in its prime, which made it larger than Athienou at that time. Scores of tombs dating from the 5th century B.C. through the 3rd century A.D. are scattered throughout the area.

Toumazou started excavation in 1990 with three Davidson students and three others, including Diane Stirling, director of instructional support services at Davidson, who has been instrumental to the project ever since. By 1991 Toumazou had organized a group of 35 Americans, plus local workers. The program goes well beyond the scope of Davidson College, however. In just five years, the program has involved more than 120 outside participants, including undergraduate and graduate students from almost two dozen academic institutions, as well as eight professors or Ph.D. holders.

Richard Yerkes, an associate professor of archaeology at Ohio State, and Nick Kardulias, an assistant professor of anthropology from Kenyon College in Ohio, have been with the project for the past four years and are Toumazou's co-directors responsible for the field survey of the valley. They bring many of their students with them every summer. The field survey teams have identified no less than 30 other archaeological sites dating from about 7000 B.C. through modern times, which is truly amazing in a valley measuring only 20 square kilometers.

What is the most significant thing found at the site? It depends on who you ask. Many of the best finds were dug up by a French expedition in 1862. There are approximately 70 sculptures from this very site now in the Louvre in Paris. And the site was extensively looted in the 1930s. While some of those finds are in local museums, the majoritv were ingeniously smuggled outside the island, ending up in museums and private collections in France and the United States. Nevertheless, Toumazou's troops have made manv significant finds.

Scott McClean '94 is a classics major from Asheville, N.C. He says: "Last year I found two gold coins. I also found a hand and a statue of Pan with an animal skin around his neck. Most of the time there's not a Lost Ark waiting for you to dig up. It's hard work, and you have to be dedicated to stick with it. But I'm able to walk away feeling good about what I have accomplished here. It's always nice to find things. That makes all the hours of digging worthwhile."

Toumazou adds that it also depends on how you define importance: "People think of important discoveries in archaeology in terms of artifacts of intrinsic or artistic value. We have found lots of wonderful sculptures and artifacts. I suppose some people would say that the gold necklace or gold ring with black onyx were our most important finds, along with a few of the large statues. But to me, the most significant thing is that we have shown that this was a very important site, yet nobody essentially knew about it from the written records."

Why is that important? "In the past," Toumazou says, "archaeologists and art historians have focused on major coastal sites, which we know more about from written sources. It is as if you were to excavate in the United States to examine American culture and just dug in New York, Baltimore, and Charleston, and didn't look at the interior to see what America was au about. Studying a site like ours gives a much better sense of what really went on in the interior of the island -- How did people live? What did they produce? How did they worship?'

Life in the trenches is long and hot and draining and the work is painstakingly methodical. Diggers comb through the dirt sector by sector, inch by cubic inch, recording every little detail of what they find. They go down by layers, stra6fications, of about 8 to 10 inches deep. When they find a piece of pottery or statuary, they record exactly where they found it for later reference. A typical day in the field begins at 6 a.m. in order to beat the heat of the day. Lunch is at 10:30, and consists of bread (coarse and thick and dark), slices of salami, tomatoes, cucumbers, and cheeses. For dessert, oranges and watermelon. Lots and lots of cold water and occasionally cold sodas.

From 11 a.m. to quitting time at 2 p.m. is incredibly draining, when temperatures may reach 100 F.Then it's back to the gymnasium in Athienou, where the students live. They spend the next hour or two cleaning their samples with water and toothbrushes, marking them, and storing them in bags and boxes. Others work on daily journals, fill out excavation forms, and enter data into Mac Powerbooks. When the work is done, the rest of the day is clear. Some take naps, play cards, read or do laundry, some hang out in local bars and cafes, some do academic work or housekeeping chores. Every day at 4 p.m. a local man comes to the gym with a freezer full of homemade ice creams in the back of his pick-up truck, with flavors like pistachio, apricot, lemon, fig, and rose. Several days a week there are lectures at 6 p.m. from one of the resident professors or specialists, then more time to work or relax before dinner at 8 or 8:30. Dinners are rotated among half a dozen local restaurants, all within easy walking distance of the gym.

Of course, there are many more aspects to the program than digging in the dirt every day. Since June and July are big wedding months, no weekend goes by without the group attending engagement and wedding parties, which typically number more than 2,000 guests. The group is treated to free unlimited food, drink, and dancing. The group also takes field trips around the island, visiting famous archaeological and historical sites on an island rich in such things. Much of this would not be possible without the generosity and hospitality of the locals - municipal authorities, the Athienou Co-op bank, police and military authorities, the school board, clergy, and countless individuals. They provide free housing, two free vehicles, buses for weekend trips, free supplies of cheese and bread, and innumerable special favors. The program also provides vivid historical lessons in current political realities. The dig site is located in a demilitarized zone very close to the Turkish sector of the island. As a consequence, the site is monitored and patrolled regularly by U.N. troops.

What of the future? Mike Toumazou has a dream for the Malloura site. Some day he would like to see the sanctuary completely excavated, walls 3-4 feet high, altar in the middle, covered by a roof. He would like the site to be developed into an official archaeological park, owned and maintained by the Department of Antiquities of Cyprus. Preliminary permission has already been granted for the construction of a small museum at Athienou. The importance of the work is obvious to Toumazou. But what about his students? Very few actually go on in archaeology, and only a handful are classical studies or anthropology majors. What is the value to them?

Toumazou explains: "Our students get a real hands-on experience and appreciation of what archaeology is all about. They learn the historical/cultural background of the area. Since Cyprus has been at the crossroads of civilization, we have lectures on the history and archaeology and culture of Cyprus from the 7th millennium B.C. through modern times. Even if they don't go into archaeology, they have a better understanding of what went on in the area. Plus, they get a unique chance of living and interacting in a foreign culture, in close cooperation with a local village. They get a good international experience. Plus, they live within the life of the village, a unique experience for the students that I always hear is the thing they appreciate most."

That must certainly be true for Joe Parvis '92, who has been on the dig five years in a row. He is usually the first to arrive and the last to leave Athienou and has become one of Toumazou's most valued collaborators. Parvis was an anthropology major at Davidson. He first came the summer after his sophomore year, the first year of the dig. In 1992, he came back just eight days after his graduation and stayed on until Thanksgiving time.

Parvis recalls: "Everyone else left after the summer and I stayed to do research in the libraries in Nicosia. When I had money I would research, when I didn't I would look around here for temporary work. I dug a ditch across the street over here, then shoveled goat and horse shit. I went back home, applied to graduate schools, got in at the University of Michigan in anthropology and history. I have two more years of classes, then a dissertation, then I will teach. I will probably do my dissertation on Cyprus, its location and ethnic mixing."

Why is the attraction so strong for Parvis? "The reason I keep on coming back is not because of the archaeology, although that's pretty interesting. Mostly it's because of the people, living in Athienou and being in Cyprus...

"I've been through long drinking bouts, culture shock, love affairs, meeting a lot of people, learning a new language. I like what has come out of the experience for me; it keeps on opening me up. I get opened up every summer, then I go back to America. That's why I really hope the program continues. The archaeology's a really good thing to know, but we do archeology here in the midst of a living place. We do archaeology on somebody's farm lands, we live in a gym, we eat in people's houses or in the restaurants. We're very connected."

J.S. Stockdale is Editor of the Davidson Joumal.

Ask his students to describe Mike Toumazou and many different adjectives pour forth enthusiastic, crazy, caring, excitable, knowledgeable But one word pops up more than any other: he's hogwire. Hogwire? Never mind that you've never heard the expression before. It's part of Toumazou's own special vocabulary.

Among his students he's famous for his "Michaelisms" -- the little expressions in English that he never gets quite right: hogwire (hog wild + haywire) when it rains it snows... to be a testing pig (guinea pig) ...who rattled the snake (who rattled your cage)... coming down on the wire... getting down and dusty... The list goes on and on.

Some times he gets the words right but not the proper inflection. Thus, the running joke of the '94 dig was "Yes I am!" - made famous in the recent Bud Lite television commercials. For Toumazou, the accent comes on the word "am" - thus creating the most versatile Michaelism of all, a handy phrase for any and all occasions. Are you following this? Yes I am! Good.

Mike Toumazou is tall and wiry, and looks remarkably like the yuppie comedian Gallagher -- balding on top with long fly-away hair cascading wildly down the sides of his head. He is rarely without his trademark hat, cigarette, and Coke in hand. He is a native Greek Cypriote who grew up in the coastal city of Famagusta (now in the Turkish sector of Cyprus) and came to the United States his junior year in high school as an exchange student in Pennsylvania. He returned to Cyprus for one more year of high school then two years in the military before coming back to the States to attend Franklin and Marshall College. He lived with the same family he stayed with in high school. They treated him like a son and he still thinks of them as his American parents.

After his freshman year, war broke out in Cyprus (1974) and Toumazou got drafted. When the war ended, he came back to Franklin and Marshall for 3 more years, where he received his A.B. in Classical Studies and Physics. Then he got a fellowship to Loyola University of Chicago, where he got a masters in Classical Studies. From there he went to Bryn Mawr College for a second master's and then a Ph.D. in Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology.

Davidson is his very first academic job. He finished his Ph.D. in May 1987, started at Davidson the next August and has been here ever since. He got tenure in 1993 and says he intends to stay at Davidson for good. He has found a home in Davidson, but there is nothing that can replace his love for his native Cyprus. He is totally in his element digging at the site in Malloura and living in the village of Athienou, where his mother was born and where he now has oodles of aunts, uncles, and cousins. The village people love him, his students love him. He is the force that makes the program go.

Wells Campbell is a junior classical studies major from Myrtle Beach. He says: "Mike holds the program together wonderfully. It was good to see him on this trip. I was used to seeing him dressed up at school. But the first day when I came here he was wearing cut-off jeans and an open shirt and smoking a cigarette on the porch of the gymnasium."

Senior Chris Kip says: "He's crazy and brilliant. He's a perfectionist in archaeology. When he comes in my trench and shows me what I'm doing wrong, it really kind of embarrasses me. But it makes work harder. He really cares about us, teaching us as much archaeology as he can, but also sharing his culture with us. To take that home is a nice thing."

How is he crazy? His driving comes to mind. In the field he drives over everything: rock walls, dirt piles, anything in the way. And he always has to win, he always has to get there first.

Chris Kip again: "Once we were at the site with the van and the truck. We were still packing, so Joe Cooper '93 took off in the van without Mike knowing. Mike looked up and saw the van on the hill. He said, 'Oh my God!' and got everyone in the truck really fast and took off. Joe kept us from passing. Mike cut across a barley field and all of a sudden there was a rock wall. Mike tries to take a shortcut through the middle of Petrofani, an abandoned Muslim village, when all of a sudden there are a thousand sheep in the middle of the road. That was the end of the race. He just has a craziness that livens things up."

Joe Panis '92 knows something about the crazy side of Toumazou: "One of the best seasons for me was 1991. 1 had a group of my friends who decided they wanted to come - Jayson Phillips, Bryan Padrick, and Lindsey Clarke, all class of '92. Mike wanted to find a tomb to dig, so we took to going out in the afternoon -- after his nap. It's always a frightening thing to wake him up. One time he yelled at me in Greek, then rolled over and went back to sleep. He was ferocious, so we always went in with a Coke and set it by his bed. We'd wake him up, he'd see the Coke, then we'd leave. Later people would report, 'the Coke has been activated.' We never really found an unlooted tomb, but it was a fun time for us. One of the guys brought the Indiana Jones soundtrack, so we played that as we barrelled along in the late afternoon. Mike used to love it, used to crank it all the way up. One day we were rolling along with the Indiana Jones music cranked up and he's driving really fast, he had his Coke, he was all happy. Just in the middle he turned and looked at us, kind of cackled and said, 'Little did they know, the young Americans, that in ancient Greek 'Toumazou' means tomb robber!"'

But there is also a serious side to Mike Toumazou. He cares passionately about his work and about his native country. And about sharing his passions with his students. Scott McClean recalls: "As a teacher I think he really loves what he's doing. He's excited about his field and that transcends teacher/student barriers. Students pick up on that kind of thing. When they see that he's excited about it, they get excited too. He motivates students through his own zeal for classics to work hard and to learn something. As a person, he's a really little man with a really big heart."

When asked why he digs, Toumazou answers matter of factly: "I love being in the field; I love the outdoors; I love Cyprus. And of course I love the study of cultures."

He has already spent the last five summers digging at Malloura and expects to spend at least five more. After that, then what for Mike Toumazou? "I haven't thought much beyond Malloura, really. Typically archaeologists hop around a bit more and test different sites. We have enough work here, and I see enough value in our work to continue here for a while. And, to add to that, we have been so spoiled with the logistical, moral, and financial support from the village that I can't see us picking up and going somewhere else in the future until our work here has been completed and published."

And what about many years down the road? Would he ever return to his native land for good? "Maybe when I retire," he says after a long pause. "Yes, I would like to go back to the 'sweet island.' My heart is there."

His heart is there and his life's work is there. And for many Davidson students, past and present, some of the best summers of their lives are there, too. If asked, are you ever going back to Cyprus some day? Surely, most would answer in a heartbeat--Yes I am!