Note: Due to slow hotel Wi-Fi I can't really upload all the pictures I want to put up in a timely manner. I'll do so when the wifi is better. In the meantime, enjoy these descriptions of what eventually will be pictures.
The alarm went off way too early at 6:40. The shower wasn’t
particularly warm, but the breakfast was pretty tasty. We gathered everything
together and piled onto the bus. We’ve got a new method not to leave people
behind using a countoff system of the Greek numbers one through nineteen. We
drove to Kommos and were greeted by James Stratis, a Colorado based architect
who is working on a conservation plan for the site.
Kommos might be my favorite site that we’ve visited thus
far. It was known to and used by at least five civilizations – Minoans,
Mycenaeans, Phoenicians, Hellenistic Greeks, and Romans. It contains the
largest foundation stone known in the Minoan world - a massive rectangular
block 1 x 1 x 3 meters in dimension (Pictured below). The site served as the
port for Phaistos (we visited yesterday) and later Agia Triadha, which we
visited immediately after Kommos. Another fantastic feature of Kommos was the
tromboe (sp?), which James described to us as a natural pier. If you look out
into the water at Kommos, there is a reef-like structure some distance off
shore. There is also a natural limestone spur that runs from the structure to
the shore. This was used as a pier in ancient times, which would have made
moving commerce from ship to shore very efficient.
A massive stone used in the construction. It dwarfs other individual building components.
Kommos is built in distinct layers which ascend both due to
time and the fact that in the ancient world, sites used continuously tend to
have buildings built on top of other, older buildings. One amazing discovery at
Kommos is the presence of a Phoenician altar. This altar, between the Mycenaean
and the Hellenistic layer of construction, contained Ancient Egyptian religious
symbols. The altar is a three-post construction, which is a uniquely Phoenician
worship implement throughout the ancient world.
The complex at Kommos also housed mixed industries. There is
a massive, tri-partition kiln on the south side of the site, obviously
indicating pottery production. There are also clusters of houses and workshops
where goods like cloth would have been woven or grapes and olives pressed. One
such press, left in situ, is pictured below.
The press in situ.
The Kommos plan for the site is incredibly ambitious and the
site is in a race against time. The proximity to the sea means that sand is
slowly burying the site and eroding the exposed limestone. The other problem is
that Joseph and Maria Shaw, the two world leading experts on the site who
supervised the initial excavations are both in their eighties. If you want to
throw an archaeological site that gets no support from the Greek Archaeological
Service a bone, check out kommosconservancy.org. The site also has loads of
information about the project and the cool ways, including drone surveys, that
research has progressed in the 21st century.
We left Kommos for a short bus ride to Agia Triadha, one of
the inland sites associated with the port at Kommos. There we heard a site
report from Clinton.
Some of the notable things about Agia Triadha include that
it was continuously inhabited from roughly 2600 BCE until around the 13th
century CE, when the Venetians built a church there. It was rediscovered and
excavated in the early 1900s by students from the Italian School of
Archaeology. In a spectacular case of Murphy’s Law striking before you’ve made
a backup, the original plans and notes made by these students were destroyed in
a flood in Florence in 1966. The site was remarkably unsigned and only one
monitor was on duty for the entire site, taking tickets.
Looking over Agia Triadha.
Found at the site also was a massive stockpile of 150 Linear
A tablets. Written in a script that we do not have the ability to currently
decipher, this cache is the largest ever found in one location. It is likely,
based on what similar tablets in Linear B record, that the Linear A tablets
detail supplies and administrative details of the settlements at Agia Triadha. More
on Linear A and B in the Prehistoric Aegean essay which is still under construction.
After poking around Agia Triadha for a bit longer, we headed back to the bus
got on the road to Gortyn.
Gortyn (known both by this name and several variations) is a
sprawling site with several sections. The most salient find at the site is the
Gortynian Law Code, which dates to somewhere between 500 and 450 BCE. The law
code details procedures for many important topics, many of which focus on
citizenship and marriage. For instance, when a father dies, his property was to
be divided equally among his children, with sons receiving two parts and
daughters receiving one. Jason presented on the topic and did an excellent job
getting the group to chime in and discuss the relevance of each of the sections
he picked out.
It's hard to make out, but the whole wall is inscribed with the code.
After the law code talk, we hiked down the road a ways and
into field to see some more structures. The first, the Temple of Apollo, had a
large fragment of the roof on the ground, which prompted us to search for an
find the guttae, a formerly
functional, now decorative element that allows someone with the proper formula
to calculate every dimension of a Doric temple.
We also hiked to the praetorium, which housed the Roman
administrator for all of Crete and Cyrenaica (located in Northern Africa). The
structure would have also housed the provincial governor’s family. During the course
of the hike we were followed by an adorable stray puppy.
After that it was back to the bus for the hilly trip to
Archanes. Crete is a wonderful country to drive through if you’re not driving.
The scenery is picturesque and the towns are pretty cute. As I write this
though, we’ve just executed a three point turn and are headed back the way we
came. So hopefully we’ll get there.
We did get there! After two wrong turns. Melanie presented
on the bus about Archanes-Phourni, the town and its associated necropolis.
There has been continuous habitation here since 2600 BCE all the way down to
today. Then we made it to town and the accompanying museum. It was small as
many museums in small towns here are. Reminded me of the small, one room
museums that every town in France has to commemorate WWII. Still, there was
some cool stuff, including a display of what is speculated to be a human
sacrifice and an amazing fragment of an ivory pyxis (type of jar) that was
found in the Mycenaean graves. Now, how did ivory get there? Again, I’m gonna
geek out about this in my Aegean Prehistory, but that ivory is evidence of a
wide ranging trade across the Aegean that has really caught my interest this
trip.
After the museum, we had a short break for lunch. Luke and I
elected to hit the grocery store and walked out with meat, feta, cherries, pomegranate
juice, and a few snacks for later on the bus. We ate it in the plaza, soaked up
edges of the sunbeams, and then hopped back on the bus. A word to the wise –
100 grams of feta is SO MUCH FETA. I should have ordered 50 grams for sure.
Anyways, we got back on the bus and headed for Knossos. Paniatos, our bus
driver, bought a Greek dessert for the bus as well, which was roundly cheered
by all of us. According to Talia, it’s called gelatoboureko (sp?) custard wrapped
in pastry soaked in honey. It was a fantastic finish to lunch as we headed up
the road to our last site of the day.
The final site was the palace at Knossos, one of if not the
most famous sites on Crete. Dr. Caroline Thurston, who oversees the excavations
the British School of Archaeology is currently undertaking in the area, gave us
a look around two sites slightly off the beaten path before we headed to
Knossos for the more popular attraction. The first place we went was the Villa
of Dionysus. This Roman villa, constructed between the 1st and 2nd
centuries AD, has beautiful mosaics depicting Dionysus in almost every room off
of the central peristyle garden. Unfortunately, they’re currently covered with
layers of gravel and cloth as the funds to restore them have not yet become
available. There was one mosaic still uncovered, which showed a fairly
pedestrian geometric pattern. The central peristyle had water ducts that fueled
a fountain in the room. The aqueduct, which was some distance away along the
ridgeline was an excellent testament to the absolute shenanigans the Romans
pulled off with water movement. That may be something I look to expand on in
the future. Pictures of the villa are below.
Wide shot of the Villa and its roof.
Up next were two somewhat puzzling buildings, stacked right
next to each other. They are known as the Little Palace and the Unexplored
Mansion. The names originate from Sir Arthur Evans, the legendary and
controversial British archaeological tour de force of the early 1900s. Both
structures are originally Minoan and were potentially used for storage for the
palace at Knossos. Puzzlingly, the Unexplored Mansion (now explored) was built
directly next to the Little Palace, less than 100 years after the Little Palace
was constructed. The sites are both pretty enigmatic although research is
currently being prepared for publication that may help clarify both the mysteries
of the site and puzzling questions related to the way the original excavations
were (mis)handled.
After a brief stop at Villa Ariadne, where Sir Arthur Evans
built his house from where he ran the Knossos excavations and the Germans
headquartered their command staff during the WWII occupation of Crete, we were
off to the main palace at Knossos. Knossos is very similar to the other Minoan
palaces scattered around Crete. Big areas of procession, apartments for the
people in charge, etc. What’s different about Knossos is that portions of the
frescoes and the palace have been “reconstructed” based on the best guesses of
archaeologists and other researchers. Some find it garish, some think it’s a
nice touch to make viewers think harder. I’m somewhere in the middle. I really
do think that structural reconstructions put the scale of these buildings into
perspective in a way that is valuable to the modern observer. It’s so easy to
look at the ground level, or in many cases, below ground level foundation of an
ancient building and not think about how grandiose it would have been in the
past.
Some of the restored architecture at Knossos.
Finally, hot and sweaty, we got back on the bus one more
time for the trip to Herakleion and the hotel. We arrived, hung out, and then
Luke and I headed out to seek sustenance. We wound up at a gyro place, joined
by Talia, and feasted on the delicious combination of meat, pita, vegetables,
and yogurt. Our waiter was super friendly and we chatted him up about Hollywood
flicks and Euro 2016 while we ate. Abi came by as we were finishing and we hit
up what was reviewed to us as the “Best bougatsa in the city” for a slice of
the pastry. I got back to the hotel and chowed down with Asia and Sally, who
had, coincidentally, been to the same place.
[Picture of Bougatsa]
This one clocked in at just shy of 2k words in Word, which
is a lot. Hit me up via email or the comments if you want to talk about things
related to the trip or history.
Thanks for reading.
Thanks for reading.
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