My Life in Ruins: 30 Years of Travels in Time and Space with Oliver Gilkes
Thirty years working for Andante! I worked full time as an archaeologist for forty years, so it’s a big chunk of my life. It was never a secure way of earning a living and I laboured as a field archaeologist, in rescue and research, as a university lecturer, then I was a museum archaeologist. Geographically I worked in the UK and abroad in Italy, Libya and the Balkans. I think I can say that to be able to follow a path (career is too big a word) in archaeology a number of things are necessary. A certain determination, a good dollop of luck but above all you have to want to be an archaeologist, enough.
The Balkans are fascinating and I still am involved was Albania. It’s a commitment that has provided occupation for almost thirty years now. Initially it was an adventurous challenge. In 1994 the place was an utter ruin, communism had collapsed and the country with it. There were no jobs, roads and infrastructure had been destroyed, basic services lost. I was working for the British School at Rome then and our archaeological project was based at the wonderful Unesco World Heritage Site at Butrint. A magical site, a mixture of splendid monuments and a suggestive natural location at the junction of this world and the next. In such an environment it verged on a crime just to go and run a normal research project, ‘dig and run’ archaeology. Indeed, the whole programme was conceived as a way of creating a resource, social, economic and cultural for the country.
Tourism was going through a very uncertain infancy at that time, but nevertheless, a main objective was to sustain the place and the archaeology, by developing and encouraging visitors. How does one use tourism to support and maintain culture and archaeology? This was a long-term effort, and one that worked, perhaps too well (1200 visitors in 1994 – c. 300,000 in 2025) visitor numbers threatening to overwhelm the thing we had intended to preserve. This issue of overtourism is a common problem for popular archaeological sites around the world.
We made some wonderful discoveries, from sculptures and mosaics to an entire Roman suburb sitting unexpectedly adjacent to the city. Nevertheless, as the 21st century dawned the project approached its end. I had become increasingly intrigued by the whole idea of the travel industry and in what way I connected with it as an archaeologist. Unfortunately, few archaeologists really understand how the business actually works, tourists are sometimes unfairly seen as a necessary evil and distraction by archaeologists, at odds with the scientific aims of a project; and yet the same archaeologists dabble in cultural heritage. Clearly it was time for me to get some practical and hands on experience.
Andante Travels was founded by Annabel Lawson, an archaeologist and an expert in Roman cavalry helmets. She had the inspired idea of employing archaeologists to run her travel company, and having been put in touch with me was keen to have a tour of Albania which (this was in 1996) was very much an unknown quantity. Regrettably, in 1997 the Albanians decided to have a civil war and the tour was cancelled, until 2001. Instead, I led a trip to see the great abbeys of central Italy, a bit different, but monastic archaeology had been one of my Italian interests.
So, for some years I led a series of trips, until in 2010, with the Butrint project coming to an official end, it was time to do something else. Annabel offered me a full-time job to work together with Denise Allen and her team in Salisbury, which would allow me to get to grips with the world of travel. This was a move I did not regret. I went from being a producer of archaeology, to a consumer and presenter. Helping people to really see the past and experience things I dealt with almost daily is really an extension of the sort of work I had been doing for years, only this time the canvas was much broader.
For Andante I designed and led trips. I became responsible for finding and recruiting Guide Lecturers. The company had a philosophy to employ practicing archaeologists as their principal guides, making the whole part of the British archaeological establishment. The only issue was finding appropriate people, working archaeologists and academics are busy people and may not be able to lead the several tours a year. Some specialists are unique and some others may have double firsts from Oxford but cannot lead groups. This was a surprise discovery. The most significant thing was not knowledge of a subject, though they had to know it. It was not organisation, as Andante’s modus operandi insists upon a Tour Manager to keep the whole thing ticking along. The primary need was for a certain charisma and ability to tell a story.
Working with a travel company also offered expanded horizons. Each tour is checked by its designer and normally some sort of reconnaissance, a recce, will be carried out, perhaps with the chosen guide, or perhaps by a member of Andante staff on their own. Its good to actually check that the sites are actually accessible, and the hotels tolerable.
I was lucky enough to take up a few of these and there were some memorable visits. Checking out the South West of the United States for the Anasazi tour was extraordinary. I agreed to do it so as to get the chance to see Monument Valley and Santa Fe. What I found, accompanied by Prof. Steve Lekson, a real archaeological celebrity was dazzling. The idea of spiritual native Americans did not much attract me, but what we encountered was an empire in the desert and an astounding story of pride and a fall set in a stunning landscape peopled with fascinating people and stories. The legend of the Great Gambler who brought low the mighty civilisation of Chaco; Earl Morris a pioneering archaeologist who was the model for Indiana Jones, and the Durango and Silverton Railroad – US steam locomotives sound just as they should!
A second memorable trip was to Ethiopia, where I have family in any case so could visit them. This is one of the grandest countries I have travelled in, the home of Lucy the ancestor of us all (we saw her bones in Addis Ababa). This was the African empire, with a history and civilisation ranging back the classical world, the Temple of the Moon at Yeha and the obelisk obsessed kingdom of Axum. The medieval state had a capital with castles and palaces at Gondar from where ruled the Grand Negus, a descendent of Soloman, who stretched out his power to eventually overthrow the Muslim Emirs of the caravan city of Harrar. The only word I could use to describe this astonishing land is ‘biblical’, endless landscapes, and magnificent people. Travelling was not easy, this was a real expedition in land cruisers. My only main issue was the food, strange and spicy. Being a cautious Brit I kept largely to plain boiled rice and soup.
Finally, one last memory. A jaunt out to Uzbekisatn with the two-livewire archaeologists who were to lead this one, Paul Wordsworth and Gai Jorayev. I had studied the Romans, but I now know that if I had my days over again, I would take up the archaeology of Central Asia, as here you can actually hear the footstep of history behind you. From fabulous Samarkand, ancient Maracanda, taken by Alexander, where Tamerlane, a man who just knew he was destined to rule the world, erected vast structures of blue tiled bling, out across the Kara Kum desert to the west. Here the great oasis cities, Bukhara, Khiva lie in a landscape punctuated by the ruins of titanic dead metropolis’ the centres of empires and conquerors long gone. At the Achaemenid and Sassanid Persian fortress of Ayaz Kala we stood on the icy battlements (it was February) and looked north across endless oceans of grass. Here even Herodotus ran out of words, this was the very edge of the ancient world.
So, thirty years has been an extraordinary adventure and opportunity. My fascination for the past has been stretched and enlarged, the world is a huge river of time and people, but wherever you go the latter are all pretty much the same. I have had the chance to work with some fine colleagues and collaborators with their own tales. I hope I have given people the opportunity to see and experience things they had long desired to encounter and imparted a little of the magic of time and space. Working with Andante has been a privilege. Here’s to our next voyages together.
Oliver Gilkes
