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The Azoria Project Fund

The Azoria Project is an on-going excavation and continuing study of an early Greek city in east Crete, in the Greek Aegean. Participants in the project include archaeologists, scholars, and students specializing in the study of ancient architecture, pottery, metals, animal bones, plant and wood remains, human skeletal remains, coinage, and inscriptions; as well as technical specialists in archaeological illustration, photography, conservation, and various scientific analyses.

An important part of the Azoria project is to provide on-site training for students of classical archaeology and related areas. During excavation we normally support a field team of eight to ten graduate students, and some 40 undergraduates from participating institutions. The project staff consists of about 90 people: senior staff archaeologists; graduate student trench supervisors; graduate student assistants; undergraduate student assistants and field-school participants; and local workmen, pottery washers, and technical staff. Donations to the Azoria Project may be used to support housing and subsistence costs; excavation and finds processing equipment and supplies; travel and local transportation; workmen wages; or other associated expenses.

While the core of the Project’s funding is derived from competitive grants, such as the National Science Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the National Geographic Society, we remain dependent on private contributions and foundation grants to meet the costs of our annual operating budget. While generous contributions have been made by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, the Institute for Aegean Prehistory, and the Shelby White-Leon Levy Program for Archaeological Publications, private donations are vitally important not only in establishing matching funds for federal grants, but in meeting our cost-sharing budget line for the project as a whole.

The Azoria Project Fund was thus established in April of 2001 by the Department of Classics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, in order to receive gifts from individuals, corporations and businesses, as well as private foundations, with the purpose of providing annual support for the research objectives of the Azoria Project.
The Azoria project also conducts annual site conservation, for which we draw on support from the Azoria Project Fund. In 2012, the Azoria Project received the Award for Best Practices in Site Preservation from the Archaeological Institute of America’s Site Preservation Program; and in 2017, a generous grant from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation in support of the Azoria Project Field Conservation and Public Outreach Program.

Funds from the trust are expended to meet the annual operating budget of the project, providing excavation equipment and supplies, and supporting students and staff of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. While specific and targeted contributions are welcome, unspecified donations will be expended as needed by the project.


Donors

Dr. John L. Perentesis
Mrs. Helen K. Perentesis
Ms. Helen Paliouras (Patron)
Dr. Michael Taylor and Mrs. Susan Taylor (Patron)
Mr. Robert Bensberg and Mrs. Angela Bensberg
Professor Nicola Terrenato and Dr. Laura Motta
Mr. Archie E. Craig
Professor Maria A. Liston
Professor William C. West III
The Institute for Aegean Prehistory Study Center for East Crete (Patron)
The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation (Patron)


Donor Categories
A. Corporate and Business
B. Private and Public Foundations
C. Individual
Patron: greater than $1000
Donor: $500-1000
Friend: $100-500
Contributor: less than $100


Yes, I would like to contribute to the Azoria Project Fund

Mail-in Contributions
Checks should be payable to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill or the Arts and Sciences Foundation, indicating one’s intention to make the contribution to the Azoria Project Fund in the lower left corner of the check. All contributions for the project are tax deductible, and letter of receipt explaining the tax-deductible status of the gift is forthcoming to donors.

Donations and inquires should be mailed to the following addresses. Inquires may be addressed to Professor Haggis at dchaggis@email.unc.edu, or by telephone at (919-962-7191).

Donald C. Haggis
c/o Cinnamon Weaver
Department of Classics
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
212 Murphey Hall, CB 3145
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3145

Online Gifts to the Azoria Project

If you would like to make a gift online to the Azoria Project, you can click the link above to be taken to Give UNC’s page.

In the box under Gift Information, “Top Funds” should have “Classics – Azoria Project (100581)” in it to successfully donate to Azoria specifically. If not, search the Project’s donation number (100581) in the Search box.