6/24 - National Archaeological Museum and the National Museum of Epigraphy

Alright, a quick post on today before I dash out the door. I'm planning on consolidating my first week of blog into a summary post, tentative title "Week One Summary", which should be forthcoming in the next week or so. It'll just be a collection of my Facebook posts from the first week of stuff.

So on to today. Woke up at 6:30 a.m. to leave at 7:25. We managed to get out the door on time and arrived at the National Archaeological Museum. Dr. Jim Wright, an expert on Aegean pre-history and director of the American School of Classical Studies (ASCSA) gave a lecture on Minoan, Cycladic, and Mycenaean civilization in what we call "pre-history" before things were really written down.

Highlights of the lecture included the so called "Mask of Agamemnon," which is probably an inaccurate moniker.

This mask was found in a shaft grave at the palace at Mycenae, by Schliemann, a man I'm sure I will write about more in the future, but to keep it short, was both a controversial and important figure in defining the field of archaeology. He did have a tendency to try to tie finds to mythical sources though, which explains the moniker of the mask. I'd like to expand on the lecture we heard, which was absolutely fascinating, but it will have to wait because I need to get on a boat shortly. 

The other museum we visited was the National Museum of Epigraphy. This building houses rocks. Lots of rocks. Rocks with letters carved into them making them epigraphs. Epigraphs are an amazing way to learn about the past. There are thousands of epigraphs detailing everything from who was buried under the rock to a catalog of tribute given to Athens in a given year. One of the coolest and most controversial epigraphs we saw today is the Decree of Themistocles.

This Decree is extremely controversial, and I'll get into it when I have more time, but I have to catch a boat to Crete now! Hope y'all enjoyed the post and I'll do my best to keep updating on the regular.