I arrived in Athens, Greece around 11 o’clock in the morning after the first smooth flight of my life. I did not have any delays or problems with the airlines at all, which never happens to me. I remember thinking to myself that this could be an omen of good fortune for the rest of the trip. My fellow companions and I wandered into each other and eventually found the Pan Hotel at about 12:30. That evening the entire group of twenty students and professors ventured to the mound of the Muses, whose view consisted of the Acropolis, the prison of Socrates, and the entire city of Athens. On our way back to the City, the group stopped at a traditional Greek restaurant that served a huge amount of traditional dishes. Each dish had a very unique and fine taste to it. Some of the dishes were a little overboard for my palate, but mostly all very good. After dinner I decided to call it a night and headed back to the hotel.
Today the group traveled first to the Stoa and Agora. The Stoa is an open aired building that is a common ground for city dwellers. It is a place where people can come and get out of the elements. There was a remodeled Stoa in place of the original structure and it housed a small museum with a few amenities. The Agora is the place, to a degree, which started western court of law. Five delegates from ten states had to occupy the Agora for one month throughout the entire year. This ensured that any issue that arose could be handled immediately and represented by all parts of the country. The Temple of what is believed to be Hephestus is also located in this area. It is the best preserved temple in all of Greece. There is much question to whom this temple is dedicated to, Either Hephestus or Theseus. My thoughts lean toward Theseus because depicted on the walls of the Temple is the battle between the Lapoliths and the Centaurs, which Theseus was directly involved with. In the Afternoon we went to the Acropolis. The entire site was truly baffling in all aspects. The amount of people that travel in and out every day is truly immense, the architecture is truly immense, the setting is truly immense, basically every aspect of the site was mind boggling. This site shows that ancient architects were truly on top of their game. If one was to look down the length of the steps from eye level, you can notice a curve in the foundation. This hump cannot be noticed when looking at the entire structure, only at eye level. It shows that the architects compensated for a deformality in the rock and were successful. The structure would still have a roof today if it wasn’t blown off by a shell in one of the World Wars due to the Greeks storing ammuntion inside the structure. The site was under heavy renovation and remodeling, as many of the sits are in Greece, to try and preserve the structures from the elements of man and nature.
Today was a big day. We woke early in the morning caught a bus that took us to the Samarian George. This was a day full hiking, luckily it was all downhill. The intended trail descended 10,000 vertical feet over 10 miles to the Mediterranean. Throughout the hike, we found several incidents where volcanic ash had layered into the limestone rocks, giving evidence to several explosive events over an unknown amount of time without further testing. The Gorge in all aspects is truly remarkable. As we hiked, we traveled though a constantly changing environment. At the start it was all exposed rock, by the time we finished it was a very green and luscious environment. The trail followed a stream bed most of the time that constantly ran next to massive ancient mudslides. The stream bed lay within a fracture that most likely runs on a strike slip fault. The trail ended in very small town that was only accessible by boat, which made me think about the mud slides we sa, so we had to then catch a ferry back to the city. By the time we finished the hike, Ben Aaron and I quickly found ourselves at the nearest waterhole enjoying a well deserved post hike drink that quickly dulled any aches or pains acquired on the trail.
The palace of Phaistos was on the agenda for today. Phaistos is located on the Mesora plain, which is the largest agricultural plain on Crete, and was the supposed home of king Rodemanthos who went on to judge next to Hades in the Underworld. Phaistos’ wealth came from the land. Large stone jars, also known as Pithoy, were also found, which stored the agricultural wealth. It was the home of the first high Minoan culture on Crete and dates back to 3500 years ago. Scattered around, I noticed that there was evidence of a great fire. Around 1730 BCE a major earthquake destroyed the old palace and a new palace was built over it and in 1375 the site was abandoned. Throughout the architecture there were facade transitions that showed major psychological influences in the structures. These transitions were the psychological barrier between the ruler and the ruled. Mt. Ida can be seen towering over the site with it’s two bullhorn peaks, which is more evidence of psychology coming into play.
Today we visited Agia Entriada, which was constructed in 1550 BCE. There were
2 phases of civilization evident, which were Minoan and then Mycenaean. There
was a stoa and agora located in the site of the newer Mycenaean civilization.
Both sites were completely covered with earthquake evidence. There were cracks
in the walls and stairways, which comes form the uplifting of the stairways and
the turning of the rock. We also stumbled upon a small villa that consisted of a
royal dining area giving evidence that it was most likely occupied by village
elite. As we walked around the site, JR discovered that both the palace of
Phaistos and the old palace at Agia Entriada were lined up at exactly compass
North and South by measuring the orientation of the foundations.
After we
visited Agia Entriada, our group traveled to the Skotuino Cave. This was once a
Minoan place of worship where they left many offerings and even human sacrifice
could have occurred. The cave was filled with massive limestone formations that
were truly captivating.
Last on the agenda for the day was Gortyn. This was
the site of where the fisrt laws were ever scribed into stone. The words were
written in straphedone writing style, which was written left to right and then
right to left enabling maximum efficiency. Mostly all of the laws were about
property and inheritance.
The site of Palaikastro was the first stop of the day. This is one of the
largest towns discovered on the island of Crete. It dates back to 1450 BC, and
after this time period something catastrophic occurred causing a complete cut
off of all of the city’s artifacts and findings. The sacred object of Zurs was
destroyed during this catastrophe, whether it was by man or nature is still
uncertain. This was a wealthy site of port and trade before the city end, which
consisted of many pier and door patricians marking the importance of some of the
structures.
We then traveled to Goanria, which was uncovered by the first
women excavator named Hariet Boyd. This site also suffered a catastrophe around
1450 and burned down like most of the sites at the end of the palacial period.
Pottery has been found here that gave name to marine pots that depicted sea
creatures, such as octopuses, on them. The entire town was extremely well
preserved and excavated. It truly gave a sense of how the Minoans liked to live
in beauty, with the ocean being visible in between two mountainsides.
Today we ventured to one of the most popular sites on Crete, Knossos. There were people and lines everywhere we went, which made it hard for professors to communicate to us all as a whole while we were actually on the site. There are several areas that Sir Arthur Evans remodeled to what his visions of Knossos actually looked like. There were many modern copies of ancient frescos lining the walls where the remodeling has occurred. This palace is thought to be the site of the maze like structure where the legend of the minotaur was slain by Theseus. It was baffling to see that the entire structure truly resembled a maze. Observed several Labyrinthos mason’s marks which stems into the word Labyrinth, meaning maze. We unfortunately were unable to find a whole lot of earthquake evidence, except for the site of fallen stones, but their orientation was confusing to determine how they actually fell. During our time that day, there were several areas where the remodeling was actually falling apart, prohibiting us from entering centain levels of the palace. All in all, it was an astounding site to see someone’s vision actually come to life stirring the creative senses.
This morning started out a little slow. I had a rough night the previous
evening causing me and some others to sleep in a little late. This held the
group up a little so they went on to the museum without us. We managed to catch
with the group and found them looking over a roman copy of a female statue that
was carved with some kind of ancient drill in the second century AD. As I walked
through the museum, all of the ancient Minoan sites we had visited in the
previous week really seemed to come to life. The artifacts really seemed to
bring out the lifestyle and people of ancient Crete.
It was really
interesting to see the evolution in the craft as I walked though the museum. I
started in the early stages of, say, pottery and noticed the basic form and
shape of all of the artifacts. The paintings on them were very minimal and
basic. Towards the end, they became full of life, portraying more complex forms,
shapes, and lines. They eventually moved to incorporate animals, and at the end
they started to have the human form painted on them.
The cycle which we
viewed the sites and then viewed the artifacts in the museum was probably the
best order to take it all in. It really made me think and visualize the culture
that we have been immersed into for the past week.
We arrived on the Island of Santorini after an overnight ferry from Crete.
The island of Santorini is one massive volcano with a resurgent caldera in the
middle surrounded by a ring of islands that were the old boundaries of the
volcano. Many believe that this is the site of the legendary Atlantis because of
the ring like situation of the islands. The following day, the group hiked the
Resurgent Caldera. It was quite astounding to think of how destructive the
actual eruption was in about 1600 BC. It has erupted several times after that
and last in 1956. The name of the volcano is King George I.
During the
eruption mass amounts of ash flew to the sky. Once it stopped, all the base
layers collapsed to the sea floor, forming the caldera. Basalt is then pushed
up, while rhyolite pushed through during the strongest eruption. I noticed there
was lots of scaria, a red colored rock, lying around, which is lava that dried
very fast in the air and then fell to the ground in its final form.
We
stopped and had lunch at a small little port that had the best grilled calamari
I have ever eaten. The location overlooking the ocean was quite pleasing as
well.
After lunch, the boat we were on took us to a hot spring that bubbled
into the ocean. It was not as hot as I expected, but it was still a nice treat.
Lastly the boat stopped at Oia, a quiet little town on the north end of
Santorini. It was an extremely beautiful place that didn’t have the hustle and
bustle of the city. The architecture overhanging the on the cliffs was quite
spectacular and picturesque.
The roof of the site was being replaced, which is really good for the
protection of the site. It was very interesting to see how the ash layers
preserved the site so well. It is Santorini’s version of Pompei, except that no
actual bodies have been found, which leads archeologists to believe that the
people escaped in time. The only loss of life that has been found is a single
pig. In the future they might find that all of the people were at the harbor
when the eruption occurred, but hopefully the entire town escaped in time. Only
further excavation will bring about the answers.
It was intriguing to see
pots and vases lying in their original position around the site. The layers of
ash held the city pretty well intact, though there has been much remodeling.
Wooden supports have been replaced with cement and fashioned to look like the
original wood.
We then went to the Islands museum, which showed the true
wealth of the ancient society. There were a couple of highly detailed plaster
casts of a wooden table and part of a chair that were found in the ash, which
showed there dedication to craft.
The final stop of the trip. We visited several ancient marble queries that were absolutely remarkable. There were two statues, one modeled after a young Apollo and the second was a god that was of particular interest. He was holding out his right hand, which is believed to be shaped into holding an offering. Gods are usually not holding out offerings, it is the other way around. The second structure was the largest attempt of a single marble structure ever known to be tried. Both statues were abandoned though because of faults in the rock. The smaller, first statue was most likely dropped and one of the legs cracked. The second had flaws in the actual marble. Another possibility is that there was a change of powers or a fall of a civilization, which would cause no further need for the statues.