7/31 - Aegina Day Trip: Kolonna and Aphaea Temple

Even though we had to be on the bus at 0715, Abi and I still climbed Lykabettos this morning. It was quite hazy again and the sun looked heavy and red. We departed more quickly than usual and made our way back to Loring. I ate leftover spaghetti from dinner last night and half of a fruit tart. The bus departed promptly and we en route to Peiraeus. We got there early enough that we were able to get on an earlier ferry than we had originally planned.

This meant we got to Aegina early and consequently the site early. This gave us time to get fresh orange juice from a cafe nearby. We got on site and into the museum, where Jessica presented on the city of Kolonna. The site has some incredible pottery finds and the city was a major point of trade for most of its historical existence. There were even synagogues in the city until the 7th century CE.

Picture of a drawing of one of the pedimental reconstructions. The process of restoring and derestoring

these sculptures has been controversial since the first restoration in the early 1800s. 

We hopped on the bus then and drove to the Aphaia temple on the east side of the island. Luke presented there. The pedimental sculptures are quite famous and are on display in the Glypthotek Museum in Munich. They famously were restored in the early 1800s and were then more famously derestored in the 1960s. The two pediments depict two scenes of Hellenic conflict with Troy - the Herakles sack and the Trojan War. Luke had us recreate the pedimental sculptures on the platform of the temple so we could understand what was happening in them. The pediments were either replaced or modified partway through their construction, possibly to depict more anti-Mede scenes following the Persian War. The Aeginetans were not well regarded after an attempt to Medize (establish friendship with the Persians) before the Persian Wars, but also fought exceptionally well at Salamis. These anti Persian actions may have colored the tone of the sculptures.

The inhabitants of Aegina were forced to trade because their island doesn't have enough arable land to support the classical population. And with naval trade, come pirates. The Themistocles’ reason for building the Athenian fleet before the Persian Wars was that the Aeginetan pirate problem had gotten out of control. Eventually, the island fell into the Athenian hegemony in the later 5th century, effectively ending its autonomy.

The temple. The restoration has put back up a remarkable portion. This much standing architecture

probably deserves more popular tourist interest. 

After the temple, we headed to a family style restaurant where we had a reservation. We chowed down on tons of amazing Greek food, including at least five cheese dishes. It was fantastic and wound up being super reasonably priced. Feta here is so good and American feta has probably been ruined for me.

We hopped back in the bus and headed back to Kolonna to go to the beach. All went well in the water, including some epic chicken battles. Out of the water, things went a little less swimmingly (heh) as I stepped dirctly on top of a thorn bush and had to spend some time getting them pulled out of my feet on the beach. I limped my way back to the boat with help from Amy and Luke, where I eventually learned that the captain himself had found out about my injury from Amy's inquiries seeking tweezers. He invited me to the bridge and helped pull out some of the smaller splinters. Definitely not something I expected to be able to do. Amy even took pics on the bridge.

Smiling on the bridge. The captain used a needle from a syringe to remove some lingering bits of thorn.

Yeah, so two days from the end I get my first real injury. Thanks to Amy and Luke for helping with the thorns in my feet and thanks to Abi for helping get the foot wound equivalent of rubber neckers out of my hair. It's unclear what compels people to continue to speak to someone biting down on a hat while things come out of their feet painfully, but Abi and Amy were really on top of things.

We took the boat back to Athens lounging on the top deck. The sun was warm and low and the breeze was lovely.

Two days left. Sad it's ending, but excited to get onto the next thing.

Thanks for reading.

7/30 - Acropolis Erechtheion and South Slope, Byzantine Museum

Computer news! It got delivered to the school yesterday! And was placed into the IT office for safekeeping. So safe, in fact, that I won't be able to get it until Monday. At least it's back!

Abi and I walked up Lykabettos again. It was super hazy, so the sun came up muted and red, which I hadn’t seen yet on our morning hikes. We headed back down afterwards to get ready for the final trip to the Acropolis.

The final sites we had to explore on the Acropolis were the Dorpfeld Foundations, the Erechtheion, and many of the peripheral buildings on the South Slope. I’ll give a short blurb about each place we visited. We began at the Dorpfeld Foundations.

The Dorpfeld Foundations are also referred to as the site of the Old Athena Temple on the Acropolis. In fact, there may have been more than one temple on this site. There was certainly one built in around 500 BCE that stood here and was destroyed by the Persians when they sacked the city in 480 BCE. The speculative earlier temple may have been built on the same foundations around 560 BCE. It’s still disputed because some scholars claim that the older temple’s foundations could be under the Parthenon, but they were not found by coring during the restoration project. That doesn’t mean they’re not there, only that we don’t have any evidence for them yet.

Porch of the Caryatids from the Erechtheion

Hole in the North Porch floor where it's possible the marks of the Trident of Poseidon were. 

The Erechtheion is a weird building. There are parts of it, like the central portion, that are obviously trying to look like a canonical temple. However, the topography of the Acropolis is such that there is a steep drop in the bedrock as you move across the temple, so measures had to be taken to actually create a standing building that broke with canonical temple construction. The South Porch, home of the famous caryatids, the statues of women in place of columns, overlaps with the foundations of the Old Athena Temple. This is obviously intentional and could have to do with a desire to tie the two buildings together in a religious context. There’s also a hole in the ceiling and floor on the North Porch that purportedly was left that way to expose the legendary trident marks that Poseidon made during his attempt to become the patron god of the city. Again, that’s totally speculative.

The Odeion. It's used for modern productions today, much like the theater at Epidauros.

As described on the day we went to the Panathenaic Stadium, Herodes Atticus was a questionable individual. But, he gave a lot of stuff to the city that is still standing and we’re not about to turn down some cool architecture. The Odeion, literally the place of songs, was a huge space that was also roofed. In his treatise on architecture, Vitruvius talks about how to roof such a space, so we know it was possible.

Inside the stoa at the Asklepeion. 

The Asklepieion was a sanctuary for Asklepios, the god of healing, and his children. The site, which was originally established by a man named Telemachus, was eventually administered by the state after the cult grew in popularity. The stoa that sheltered the area next to the cliffs was worked and reworked by both the Greeks and Romans. There is a sacred spring behind the stoa, but the door was locked and no guards were around to let us in.

The Sanctuary of Dionysus was our final stop on the South Slope. The god was extremely popular in Athens due to his association with the theater. In fact, his theater is just outside the borders of the sanctuary. One interesting at feature of sanctuaries is that the altar is in the middle, not the temple. People tend to fixate on temples as being the central focus of Ancient Greek religion, but there are many sanctuaries that don’t have a temple. The altar would have been where all sacrifices and libations took place. The temple is the house of the god, but is ultimately unnecessary if you have an altar.

After the South Slope lecture concluded, we headed back to the school for lunch. Of course, a gelato stop was required along the way. Luke, Abi, and I all got mango gelato. I hadn’t really eaten it before I came to Greece, but Luke’s evangelism of the flavor has taken hold. Back at the school, we had delicious cheese pie and salad for lunch, accompanied by some amazing nectarines.

Following lunch, we were back off again, bound for the Byzantine Museum. We haven't covered Byzantine material as intensively as material from other time periods, so it was nice to explore the era a little bit more. And when I say “the era,” I mean the longer than 1000 year period that the Empire in some form existed. So obviously covering everything was impossible. We did have a really interesting lecture from Agnes Szymanska, a graduate student at Temple University. She talked about her specialty, which is Christian art and architecture before the Arab conquest of Byzantine Egypt. The mix of new religious tradition and the remnants of Hellenism and Ancient Egypt combine to create some fascinating combinations of iconography. We also played the game where you give things to people, only this time you could choose something for yourself or for someone else of your choice.

I’ll be honest, I haven't been super concerned with looking very closely at a lot of the icons we’ve seen in Byzantine churches. But something clicked today. Icons of saints are a continuation of the hero cults we see so often in Ancient Greece. The Byzantine culture, heavily influenced by Greece and Rome, despite shifting dominant religions, kept finding ways to lionize individuals and their feats. When you look at the icons of saints that way, they become so much more interesting! In that same vein, Melanie gifted to me a martyrs’ altar on which people left offerings for martyrs of early Christianity. The actions required would be literally the same as offering to a hero on the altar. I don’t know why this connection didn’t click before, but having this experience was very exciting.

St. Jerusalem and her sons. All were killed in horrible ways before she was tortured to death for refusing

to renounce her faith. 

The Martyrs' Altar. It's reminiscent of a sekoma, the measuring tables. 

Finally, we left the museum and I headed out for an early dinner. Asia, Sallie, Melanie, and I ate at this amazing pasta place in Kolonaki. Definitely going back there when I can. Tomorrow is our last day trip, this one to Aegina. We’ll get some beach in too, which is great.

Thanks for reading.

7/29 - Chaironeia, Orchomenos, Eleon, Schimatari

Abi and got out early on a run, then waited at the base of the hill for the rest of the hiking group to arrive. When they did, we proceeded up the riverbed to try to find the path up to the temple of Zeus Basileos. We were unsuccessful. I guess that means we have to come back sometime! We peeled out of Livadeia for the short drive to Chaironeia.

At Chaironeia we met two familiar faces: Drs. Lee Brice and Georgia Tsouvala. We sat in the theater as Lee described the two Battles of Chaironeia. The first was in 338 BCE, when Phillip II of Macedonia crushed the Athenian and Boeotian alliance to secure hegemony over Greece. The battle is sparsely described in ancient sources, but a debate still rages about the tactics and maneuvers that won the day for the Macedonians. We even got to act out what we do know! Lee had us line up as Greeks and Macedonians and demonstrate the flow of the battle. I got to be a Macedonian phalangite. We marched in, then turned our backs and fled, then wheeled back to face the foe as the Greeks charged our backs. At the same time, the cavalry went through the gap created by the Greeks’ hasty advance and cut them to ribbons. As a participant, I was unable to take pictures, but Georgia did, so if I get them I will post them here.

Lee lecturing in the ancient theater. Unfortunately, the pictures of the reenactment were 

really washed out by the sun. Picture credit to Georgia Tsouvala. 

After a short talk at the lion that marks the graves of at least some of the casualties of the battle, we went to the museum. We didn't have very long though, so we took a fast look around and then got on the bus to Orchomenos.

Jason presented in the shade near the theater about the site. Orchomenos and its surroundings have a long history of habitation. The Mycenaean inhabitants of the site drained a massive amount of the nearby lake in order to farm fertile ground. There were sinkholes to store water and dikes and levees that were a part of the massive waterworks. The basin was redrained in modern times by engineers. The Mycenaeans here didn't build the same type of palace structure as the ones in Southern Greece. It is similar to Dimini’s in that respect, but there aren't a lot of similarities between Dimini and Orchomenos.

The Tholos. Note the massive lintel stone.

We also visited a tholos tomb on site. Schliemann himself investigated the tomb, but was ultimately disappointed. The secondary room off the main chamber has some amazing reliefs on the ceiling. Unfortunately, the tomb was robbed in antiquity so he didn't find a whole lot there.

Our next stop was a nearby church, which Kevin Daly had recommended to us while we were in Thebes. The icons in the church commemorate a supposed appearance of the Virgin Mary during the Second World War when she blasted German tanks and troops from the road, slowing their advance. It's interesting to see the old school icons next to one with Nazi soldiers and panzers being blasted off the road by a giant Virgin Mary.

Depictions of the Virgin Mary literally smiting Nazi tanks and troops. Simultaneously anachronistic and impressive

We stopped briefly in the town of Orchomenos for lunch and then kept trucking to Eleon. We were greeted at the apothiki by Dr. Brendan Burke, the director of the Eastern Boeotia Archaeological Project, and Trevor Van Damme, a graduate student working on pottery in Bronze Age domestic quarters. The first half of the presentation was primarily focused on the pottery, which has come out in wonderful strata. There was a cup that was entirely in one piece, as well as some gorgeous Mycenaean lustrous pottery. The glaze literally shines, which is fantastic to look at. Then we headed out to the site.

Brendan showing us some diagrams in the apothiki. Trevor's face is sadly obliterated by the sun. 

After a short walk through a field and up a hill, we came upon the excavation. The main place of interest to which Brendan drew our attention was the Blue Stone Structure which contained many burials. It's also marked by a 6 foot tall unmarked stele, which is rare if not unparalleled. Furthermore the structure was never built over and there even seems to have been a wall built as a boundary to prevent construction from hitting the structure. Again, this is an extremely rare behavior to observe archaeologically.

The other thing we looked at was a huge polygonal wall from around 500 BCE. It doesn't really appear to have been a fortification wall either, which is odd. There's still a lot to be discovered about the wall and Brendan said it'd be a multi year project of its own.

The wall at Eleon. 

Our final stop for the whole trip (gasp) was the museum at Schimatari. We were asked to pick a favorite object to explain to the group. I chose a stele from Tanagra that had decrees on both sides, separated by 50 years. Both decrees concern the Demeter and Kore sanctuary. The first provides for its establishment and the second moves the sanctuary to a place within the city walls and lists the funding agents, including 98 Tanagran women. Just like the woman doctor two days ago, the inscription provides a brief glimpse into the role of women in Ancient Greek society. These women obviously had substantial property and power.

And then we left. Back on the bus one last time and headed for home. There are a scant few days left but I remember getting to Loring Hall like it was yesterday. Definitely excited for the last few days, but leaving the people here will be difficult.

As always, thanks for reading.

7/28 - Goritsa, Volos, Dimini, Thermopylae

Makrinitsa is an extremely hilly town. Which makes sense because it's on a mountainside, but Abi and I did get to run uphill both ways because of the topography. After a delicious breakfast, we hiked back to the bus and got rolling.

Our first stop was Goritsa, which overlooks the town of Volos. We hiked up the hill and talked about the mythology of the region. Jason of Argonauts fame is from nearby Iolkos and Chiron the centaur trained heroes on the looming Mount Pelion. The climbing was fun and just strenuous enough to be challenging. After a brief stop, we rolled down the hill into Volos and the museum there.

The view from Goritsa. There are modern day machine gun pillboxes on the end of the ridge. 

The Volos Museum is a pretty strong museum. Most notably, it has excellent bilingual signage for the wonderful collection of inscribed and painted stelae from Demetrias and Pasagae. Claudia presented on the two cities which in their histories both flourished, but at different times. Pasagae was the earlier city and experienced its heyday in the 5th century BCE. Demetrias was founded in 294 by a man of the same name, the son of Antigonus, one of the generals of Alexander the Great. He set it up to help control mainland Greece in an area of constant skirmishing between Hellenistic kingdoms.

The stele discussed below. 

One specific item that Claudia discussed is a painted grave stele with an inscription honoring the mother and child who appear to have perished in childbirth. The art style uses color to represent perspective in the fore, middle, and background. According to Asia, our ancient art person, the representation of death is different from many Greek stelae, which don't show the reality of death very frequently. Overall, well presented by Claudia.

Luke presented next on the Neolithic sites of Dimini and Sesklos. The sites have extremely important settlements that have told us a lot about Neolithic presence in Greece. The settlements have walls and evidence of both habitation and production areas, which are not in the same place. Dimini was connected to the Balkans and Central Europe through its shell jewelry production and trade. One custom that is still not fully understood is that Neolithic sites have these odd habitation patterns where houses will just be abandoned with no demolition or letter development. This cabin make for confusing stratigraphy. The museum had a really cool stratigraphic display as well, which made talking about the science more understandable. Luke did an amazing job on his presentation. We really hadn't done a lot of Neolithic stuff until today and I felt quite edified by the presentation.

Haven't seen one of these before. It's a great way to convey what stratigraphy is. 

There is also a Mycenaean settlement at Dimini which has raised many questions among scholars. The site does not conform to expectations of palace society. There are two megarons instead of just one, and there is no archive anywhere that we have excavated. This site perhaps shows a more cooperative and less hierarchical society, but the jury is still out.

After the rest of the museum, we went to Dimini and climbed around the Neolithic site for a while. There's even a tholos tomb on site, which provided some interesting exploration. We didn't stay for long though and got back on the road.

Our next stop was food and a beach in sleepy Kavaromilos. We had to walk a ways to get food, but I had an immense quantity of chicken so that was great. On returning to the bus, Luke (not the one who presented) was 20 minutes late and we nearly left him. After some running back and forth though, he was successfully retrieved. All in all, no harm, no foul.

Then it was on to Thermopylae, which is where I gave my second presentation. Of course, silt from the Sperchios River has buried the original battlefield under many meters of mud, so we opted for the hill at Colonus, purportedly the site of the last stand of the Persian War battle. There were hundreds of Persian arrowheads discovered on the site, which shows either a battle or that they were deposited later as votive offerings. I'm not sure which one I agree with to be honest, but I will admit that votive deposit takes a lot more buy in to believe.

Me presenting on the Colonus hill. Picture credits to Melanie Harris. 

The other main focus of my presentation were the ancient sources. Both Diodorus and Herodotus record the event and it is believed that Diodorus was working from the account of Ephorus, who lived much closer to the battle. Herodotus is considered more authoritative on the battle than Diodorus, who claims that the Greeks made a night raid on the Persian camp before being surrounded the next day. Both authors, however, appear to be following Homeric pattern in their writing, which means that we must take the exact events of the battle they recorded with a grain of salt.

After the presentation, which generated a lot of discussion, we headed at top speed for Livadeia. We dropped our bags at the hotel and did a quick turnaround, heading to the base of the hill where the Temple of Zeus Basileos is located. Melissa presented there on the history of the town and the famed oracle of Triphonios. Triphonios was a local hero who became an oracle after fleeing a treasure heist gone wrong. Despite not finding the cave or sanctuary of Triphonios, the rites are well attested in ancient sources. We're not really sure how people actually received the oracular answers because there was no priest or priestess in contact with the god like Delphi, but plenty of people still tried the oracle.

After Melissa finished, we walked through Livadeia and grabbed dinner. It's a gorgeous town with an amazing river and I wish we were here for longer. Tomorrow morning though we are climbing the hill to look for the Zeus temple, which should be wonderful. We dine in Athens tomorrow for dinner as the final trip comes to an end.

Thanks for reading.

7/27 - Methone, Dion, Farsala

Last night I was up writing the blog until 0045. I actually messaged Abi to say that I wasn't going to run around 0030, then went back on that as I posted. Then the alarm went off at 0550 this morning and I debated sending another message to opt out. Some force of will pushed me not to. I'm glad I ran, but I had a lot of bus sleep to make up.

We departed at 0730 as it rained for the first time this trip. Five weeks without precipitation made the showers into a refreshing novelty. We were greeted at Methone by Drs. Sarah Morris, John Papadopoulos, and  John Tzifopoulos, all experts on various aspects of the site. The three seem to have a great working rapport that involves a lot of entertaining banter. Dr. Tzifopoulos was particularly vocal about not having enough inscriptions for the site. Still, there are extremely important early Greek inscriptions on some of the pottery from the 9th and 8th centuries BCE.

Looking across a field at Methone towards the site of the later Macedonian garrison. 

One very important aspect of the site is the silting. Two rivers pour through the area, carrying with them silt and dirt. This constant process has pushed the shoreline hundreds of meters further into the Thermaikos Gulf than the ancient shore. This has created great expanses of wetlands near the site, which are a key part of the site’s conservation plan. The eventual goal is to buy the land of the site adjacent to the wetland and create an archaeological site connected to a park. The project is still in its infancy, but all three experts were hopeful.

A trench at Methone. The excavation was about to get underway when we were there. 

Another really cool feature of the site is that there is no Hellenistic or Roman pottery anywhere. This is because in 354 BCE, Phillip II of Macedon, father of Alexander the Great, besieged the city and upon his victory, burned the whole thing to the ground and forced the inhabitants to leave. Doing so cut off Athens from the rich timber resources in the north of Greece and also meant that the remains of the city could not be disturbed by later use. We were able to see the remains of a tunnel that was dug under the walls, probably for active defense and resupply during the siege.

The array of methods being used to study the site is broad. Among the various methods that Dr. Papadopoulous mentioned were old fashioned digging, multiple types of ground scanning, field walking, and core sampling. It's an exciting site with a lot still to be uncovered.

We walked back down the hill and headed for Dion. On the way, we stopped for a quick restroom and coffee break, where we purchased 30 peaches from a guy selling fruit. A few minutes later we were back on the road for Dion, where Dr. Tzifopoulos was waiting, having driven ahead of us.

Dion, as Dr. Tzifopoulos said, is Zeus’s town. Mount Olympus looms in a light haze close by, sending down rocks and silt and water during times of precipitation. That runoff creates one of the most puzzling issues for the site. A river runs through the sanctuary complex and has filled excavated ruins with mud more than once. However, as of right now, we don't have any evidence of large scale waterworks to control the river. When I asked him about possible core sampling in an array around the riverbank to find the ancient stream bed, he laughed and said that it would be ideal but the funding is just not there.

The very waterlogged Isis sanctuary. 

We also encountered several teams from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki doing small excavations. Dr. Tzifopoulos explained that the school doesn't have the funding to do proper excavations and field schools as it once did. The current plan to make sure that students receive proper training is to do small, 1-2 week excavations on minimal budget. While the financial circumstances are pretty grave, the teams seemed happy to just be in the field and even let Luke swing a pick for a minute or two.

Luke swinging a pick. If one of us was going to do it, it was going to be him.

We moved to the more Roman part of the site and saw the baths, which have a gorgeous hypocaust system on display. We also saw the doctor’s quarters, which have inscriptions attesting the presence of a female doctor in the city. Not just a midwife, as was not uncommon, but a full doctor who would have been performing surgical operations. While little else is known about her, it's cool to learn about women in ancient times breaking social custom and doing non-conventional work.

We wrapped up our walkthrough of the site and moved on to the museum. We couldn't stay there for long though and grabbed a fast lunch after a too short visit. Luke and I split a small container ice cream with the flavor “Chocolate Orgy” displayed brazenly on the lid. I'll let you think of your own jokes.

The cap in question. 

Taking our leave of Dion, we headed towards Farsala. Our route took us through the Vale of Tempe, a site where the Greeks gathered to battle the Persians in 480 BCE but withdrew soon after arriving because there are alternate routes around the Vale. What scenery I saw was nice, but I also took a killer bus nap to repair the damage to my sleep from this morning.

We kept rolling and eventually arrived in Farsala, which is near the site where Julius Caesar comprehensively defeated Pompey with a much smaller force in 48 BCE. Upon arriving and meeting Dr. Vasso Noula, we learned we were minor celebrities for the afternoon. The mayor had individually signed some very nice folders for us and we were supposed to meet him until he had something urgent come up. We also took group photos in several places to record our visit. We visited an exhibition about nearby excavations, an Archaic tholos tomb, and the Acropolis. That was a hike and a half. I ran most of the way up and most of the way down too. On top of the hill are fortifications that are a mix of Archaic and Byzantine construction, as well as the water infrastructure for the fort from both periods.

The gate of Farsala acropolis wall. Multiple eras of construction are visible. 

After soaking in the views and the ruins, we headed down as quickly as possible. We hopped back on the bus and went hard for Makrinitsa. It was a two hour drive and also already 1900, so we had a ways to go. We made it with little delay and carried out the now familiar night time hotel routine.

Thanks for reading.

7/26 - All Day at Thessaloniki

I got up early and headed out solo to run. Abi and Sophie both needed the sleep. I probably do too, but I can catch up on the bus or something. I went hard on the waterfront, doing sprints at the end as the cherry on top of the exertion cake.

After cleaning up and eating breakfast, we headed out into the city to get a look at things and hear presentations from Sophie, Jessica, and Brad. Thessaloniki is a beautiful city. While it has in its history often come second to other cities in Greece (it’s currently the second largest city in the country), it has many qualities that have caused me to prefer it over Athens. I haven’t spent long enough in Thessaloniki to really get a sense of how it is, but the first impressions were extremely positive.

Sophie delivered our first presentation of the morning at Agia Sofia, which takes its name and some architectural influence from the more famous church in Istanbul. The church was built extremely early on and is dated to the middle of the 8th century CE based on the style of art inside. There’s also a letter from a monk in 797 that mentions the church, so it would have had to be in existence when he wrote. The church is a weird transitional style of architecture. The earlier basilica design is combined with the cross and square that is the hallmark of later Byzantine churches. Sophie did a great job with her presentation. She put the whole thing together on pretty short notice after arriving in Athens and her delivery was excellent.

The dome of Agia Sofia. Technically probably wasn't supposed to have this picture, the signage

is quite unclear regarding whether all pictures or just flash are prohibited. 

We toured around inside the church for some time and then moved on. I got a bunch of pictures that apparently we weren’t supposed to take. As good as pictograph signs are, the one differentiating no photography in general vs. no flash photography is too unclear. And yeah, that sounds like I deliberately ignored the sign, but if we go back to the church I bet I could convince you that it means either no flash or no photography at all. Anyways, the next stop was Agios Demetrios.

Jessica gave us the low down on the church, which was created after the death of Demetrios, who later became the patron saint of the area. Basically, Demetrios tried to convert people to Christianity when it was still outlawed in the Roman Empire and was imprisoned. While imprisoned, a Christian man came to him for a blessing to fight a favored gladiator of the tetrarch for Greece. The tetrarchs were the administrators of roughly a quarter of the Roman Empire and were put into place when the empire became too unwieldy to manage from one seat. The Christian man killed the gladiator, but when the tetrarch had found out what had happened, he killed the man and Demetrios. However, his body was recovered and buried by brave Christians. Apparently, his bones and relics ooze myrrh and have healing properties.

The delicious smelling bones. This area did smell like myrrh, to the church's credit. 

Dodgy claims about supernatural bones aside, the church was really cool. I even got into the older sections under the church before being shooed out by a crew shooting video for a TV show. Still, snagged some good photos.

An older altar under the church. 

Our next stop was the Rotunda, created by the Tetrarch Galerius as his eventual mausoleum. Galerius died and was buried elsewhere, however. The Rotunda was converted into a church and features some gorgeous mosaics. One cool feature of the mosaics is that they depict monumental architecture, that is, art in art. The pictures, again, are locked on my SD card, but believe me they were incredible.

Some of the buildings portrayed in the Rotunda mosaics. The conservation job here is really well done. 

After a short walk from the Rotunda, Brad delivered a presentation on the Triumphal Arch of Galerius. It’s massive as it currently stands and we only have a fraction of it remaining. The remaining pillars are loaded with reliefs, depicting processions, Galerius kicking ass up and down the empire while on campaign, Galerius sacrificing piously to the gods, and generally Galerius being a winner. Interestingly, the reliefs are not chronologically organized, unlike something like the Column of Trajan in Rome. Brad killed it with his presentation, both with his knowledge and delivery. We were next to one of the busiest intersections in the city and being loud enough to be heard and comprehensible is a skill that not everyone has. Brad does though and his notes on the reliefs were comprehensive and informative.

Studying the reliefs on the arch. 

After a lunch break that I filled with a tasty falafel sandwich/wrap thing, we were on to the archaeological museum. Dr. Eleni Manakidou met us there and was available for questions as we moved through the museum. The highlight for me was certainly the Derveni Papyrus, for several reasons. The first is personal. I read the translation of the fragments for a class this year and being able to confront a source of deep confusion seemed appropriately cathartic. Secondly, it’s our first known instance of literary commentary. And that’s cool. Really cool.

In person, you can make out letters. This picture obviously doesn't do the papyrus justice. 

We also had a presentation from Andrea on the Derveni Krater. The krater is shaped like a normal drinking vessel except it’s massive. And made completely out of metal with gorgeous reliefs all over it. It’s one of the most impressive pieces I’ve ever seen. It even looks slightly golden due to the ratio of tin to copper. The reliefs would have been created by pounding inside out on a sheet of metal. The amount of craftsmanship in this one piece is awe-inspiring.

The Derveni Krater. The scale of this thing is unbelievable when you see it in person. 

Our next stop was the Byzantine museum. Despite being mostly outside my area of interest, I was still impressed with some of the textiles that are preserved. There was a ceremonial bishop’s garb that really caught my eye. It makes sense why processing the cross takes so long - people are walking more slowly because the robes they wear are super heavy and have metal all over them.

The heavy robes in question.

After another short break, we were off to explore the city walls. Which meant that I got to scramble and climb all over the old walls. Other than the physical joy of basically clambering on an adult jungle gym, we also saw an awesome gate with an inscription to one of female regents of the city whose name I’m currently struggling to recall. Still, it was interesting to get a small glimpse of a woman in power in the Byzantine area, which was not exactly known for equally representing both sexes in leadership roles.

The inscription mentioned above. 

Our walk took us by several monasteries on the way back to the hotel, where we showered up and then headed out for dinner. The harbor side restaurants of Thessaloniki have great views and some great food. We ate delicious pizza and pasta at a restaurant called High School. As much as never want to go back to that time in my life, High School capital H capital S is somewhere I’d definitely revisit. Early start tomorrow. Sadly, we must depart Thessaloniki and begin heading back south. The program is ending. I don’t want it to, but it must. And now we’re in the home stretch.

Thanks for reading.

7/25 - Vergina, Mieza, Pella

Necessary terminology: GAS/MoC = Greek Archaeological Service/Ministry of Culture = blanket term for site and museum administrators in Greece even though it's not 100% accurate.

And if you remember where those were used before, that might tell you something about what happened today.

We had to get out of town early this morning and so left at 0715. This precluded a run, but I'm sure I'll be able to get something in while we're in Thessaloniki. The bus ride in the morning was long and let people supplement their sleep with those dozy not-quite-real sleep bus naps. We rolled up to the base of the hill at Vergina while the sun was still low in the sky. After a walk up that yielded a great picture of the plain below the hill, we reached the gates of the site where the palace is being restored.

They do have a great view. The whole plain just sprawls before you.

We walked through the gates and were greeted by some confused restoration workers. They apparently hadn't heard from the Archaeological Service that we would be allowed in, nor did they have an archaeologist anywhere on site. And we had spoken with the Archaeological service earlier too, according to Amy. That level of communication between two services seems...suboptimal.

GAS/MoC: 5
Summer Session II: 0

Anyways, they rebuffed us and we walked back down the hill to the bus. Panayiotis dropped us off in the big parking lot near the tumulus and we walked towards the site, hoping to get an early jump on the museum. The hours of said museum are 0800-2000 every day...except Monday. The Monday hours are 1200-2000. We had no idea that this deviation from the normal hours existed. Undeterred, we made alternate plans. Still, the shutout getting pitched right now is quite impressive.

GAS/MoC: 6
Summer Session II: 0

Our fearless leader quickly adjusts to the circumstances. 

We moved off to a cafe and grabbed a quick coffee while Amy talked about Vergina. The site has pretty strong evidence for being the palace of Phillip II of Macedonia and his son Alexander the Great. He's a little famous. Anyways, the palace is currently under restoration and the museum is over the tombs of the royal burials there. After waiting and a brief trip to snag food for lunch, we got in line for the museum. It moved at a snail’s pace, but we finally got tickets and got inside.

Outside the tumulus. The site is beautifully landscaped. 

Hands down, one of the coolest museums I have ever been to. The gallery is dark, with lights illuminating the fantastic pieces found therein. There's no photography allowed and description will hardly do the treasures justice. For example, there are multiple wreaths of gold, shaped delicately to look like plants. The detailing is so fine you wonder if somehow there is an actual plant inside. The silver alone is priceless. And then you get to go down some stairs to see the Hunting Mosaic, on the front of the tomb where it was found. It's a little surreal. The low light and exposed dirt really set the mood well. If you are ever in the area, go go go to Vergina and the museum there. You won't regret it one bit.

We departed, pushing our schedule further back to compensate for the delays, and set out for Mieza and Talia’s presentation. Along the way, we stopped at the Tomb of the Judge meant and the Tomb of the Palmettes. These tombs, which were unfortunately robbed of their goods, are preserved in situ in these huge she'd like structures. The painting that remains on the facades is striking. In the Tomb of the Judgement, Hermes leads the dead man before two of the legendary judges of the Underworld. On the Tomb of the Palmttes, a couple is shown in a portrait above the lintel. The colors still visible after all this time are incredible. The Reds and blues really stand out among the rest.

Tomb of the Palmettes. Look at those colors!

Facade of the Tomb of the Judges

Then we pushed on to Talia’s site, where we walked up the short path to Aristotle’s Academy. The site was used by the legendary philosopher to educate the legendary leader who went on to do legendary deeds. Alexander spent no more than two and a bit years at the site with his close companions, learning from Aristotle. There's not much left of the site, just the foundations of a stoa and the caves where the pupils at the school supposedly slept. Talia gave an excellent presentation and we wrapped it up with watermelon, which we ritually disemboweled and passed around.

It was hard not to start spouting Homeric simile about the wounds of the watermelon

Our next stop was the Pella museum, where Sally presented on the Pella mosaics. She had us draw one of the mosaics as she talked and our results were predictably comical. There were some gems though, showing the hidden drawing talent of people in the group. The mosaics proper are really quite remarkable pieces of art. The artists accomplished shading with stones, a technique I haven't really seen before. The museum was one of the better museums we've been at thus far. There's an entire row of eleven warrior burial panoplies all in a row. And not poor burials either. Virtually all of them contained gold of some sort. The artistry was exquisite. There was also a very Etruscan-esque reclining figure, which is interesting because the burial was dated to the 6th century BCE.

Just a few of the panoplies. I appreciate the comparative approach taken by the curators. 

Our last stop was the site proper of Pella. The mosaics, were again, super cool. The well planned streets and square blocks showed some superb Hippodamian city planning. We wandered around a bit and made friends with many of the site dogs. Unfortunately there's not a lot of standing architecture at Pella. Once the site was done, we headed for Thessaloniki and the hotel. We have two nights there, then we are back on the road.

Pella. Very excavated. And very flat. 

Thanks for reading.

7/24 - Lamia, Meteora

Abi and I were out the door at 0600 this morning for our run. At one point, we had not one, not two, but three dogs following us in a big happy fluff pack. One of them dropped off pretty quickly and the remaining two escorted us to the sanctuary of Athena Pronaia, so we named them Cleobis and Biton. Hopefully they stay happy and fluffy for a long time though. The sanctuary is gorgeous in the morning light. The sun takes a long time to come up due to the high mountains in the east.

We returned to the hotel and snagged a quick breakfast. Then we boarded the bus and headed out. About 40 minutes into the drive, we stopped on the roadside and picked up Luke, who had hiked out of Delphi down the mountain to the road at 4am. With him back on the bus, we kept moving towards Lamia.

Pot shard with what appears to be a sea battle on it. Discussed further below. 

The museum at Lamia is a converted barracks that was built under the reign of King Otto in the 1830s. Some of the fortifications are still evident, but much of it has crumbled away. We played our museum gift game again, where you take another person’s name and have to find something they like. I felt like a little bit of a spy when I managed to get Asia to divulge what she liked in a case without revealing that I had her as my recipient. I presented her with a load of bronze rings, which may have been used as a currency before coins existed but also seemed to double as decorative objects.

The picture above is one of the treasures of the collection. It appears to show a battle at sea on a pot shard, which is extremely rare. Specifically, the depiction of the ship is something that archaeologists would be interested in finding more of.

The museum stop was pretty quick and after a restroom break we hopped on the bus and kept driving. We stopped a while later at a roadside cafeteria. The food was alright, if overpriced as these places are. We ate quickly and got back on the bus in a jiffy. The drive ahead of us was long and we had places to be.

We rolled through Kalambaka and up the winding hills to Meteora. The site is most famous for its extensive monasteries, which numbered 24 at the height of the site’s flourishing. We went to Varlaam and The Church of Transfiguration. Most of these monasteries were barely accessible in their heyday, with the only access coming from rope and basket lifts. There are many restrictions on photo taking inside, so I have some beautiful vista shots but no pictures of the art in the churches. Still, I'll try to describe some of the cool stuff.

Gorgeous if slightly blurry view of one of the monasteries from below. 

In the Church of Transfiguration, in a room that houses relics from one of the monastery’s founders, the walls are decorated in the deaths of martyrs. There were decapitations and dismembering and burnings and crucifixions and crushings and molten lead being poured down throats and much much more. The martyrs all have golden disks of sainthood around their head even after the heads have been separated from the body. It's a gory but impressive depiction of people more dedicated to their faith than to their continued existence. Strength of conviction that strong is not unadmirable though.

Looking across onto another monastery. Got a lot of these shots. 

Eva presented at the foot of the hill in front of the Church of Transfiguration and gave a very thorough overview of the history of the churches. The gradual amalgamation of isolated monks into communities on the hill is really cool. There is evidence of earlier habitation going as far back as the Neolithic period. Also, For Your Eyes Only, the James Bond film, was shot partially on Meteora. In addition, Meteora is the name of a Linkin Park album I like way too much. Finally, I'd like to give a shout out to Glenn Bugh and tell him that everything went really well.

And now to discuss something that I was thinking about in connection with the monasteries that may be controversial. At what point would an ASCSA or other scholarly trip decline to visit a monastery or other site because their group’s female members are treated differently or have entirely different access rights as male colleagues who are at the same level as they are?

I talked about this with Luke a fair bit over and after our gyros and chicken souvlaki tonight and we really didn't get to a good conclusion. And it seemed pretty obvious that eventually the whole thing was going to devolve into a super wide question of the intersection of western ideals and more traditional customs, which I'm not trying to address now, as it’s way too broad. Maybe it's not the job of people who are barely a step above tourist to try to create a shift towards increased gender equality.

For a suggestion of a more localized solution, maybe the rules at monasteries should be more strict. Like elbows and knees covered for everyone, not just women. I wore jeans today in anticipation of this and it turned out to be completely unnecessary. Should the monasteries really crack down in order to actually be more equal? Or is the current system something to just deal with? I'll be honest, just accepting that doesn't begin to consider problems with female academics not being permitted the same access as male academics. I'm not sure about any of these things so feel free to drop a comment or write me at mcartier@uchicago.edu.

Anyways, we took some more pictures of the beautiful views then rolled into town. We hit dinner and the pool, which were incredible. Tomorrow, we have more driving all the way to Vergina.

Hit me with your monastery modesty thoughts. Thanks for reading.

Edited 7/25 for errors.

7/23 - Delphi Extravaganza

Abi and I ran this morning at 0615, making good time to the sanctuary of Athena Pronaia. We poked around a bit and got some nice photos before returning to the hotel and breakfast.

Our departure at 8pm sent us back the way we had run earlier. However, instead of heading to the lower terrace, we went past the museum into the upper part of the site, dedicated to Apollo. Our first presentation was on the Delphic treasuries, delivered by Asia. She talked about how the confined spaces of Delphi made the placement of the treasuries difficult, especially when cities were trying to be as conspicuous as possible. Brad drew a comparison between treasuries and World’s Fair booths. Asia informed us that many of the treasuries were built from material from the home cities of the builders, making them stand out even more. There's even a treasury from the Greek colony of Messalia, now known as Marseille, in the lower sanctuary. The Athenian treasury was rebuilt by the French during the course of their excavation here and is quite impressive. Overall, Asia’s presentation was very informative and well sourced.

Treasury of the Athenians at Delphi. 

Up next was the centerpiece of the sanctuary, the Temple of Apollo. Melanie presented there and knocked it out of the park with a detailed background of the site’s mythology and discussion of the temple. There are a couple different traditions about the site, including the one that gives the place the name Delphi. Apollo was in search of guards for his sanctuary and spied a ship full of Cretans on the water. He changed himself into a dolphin and swam alongside the ship before appearing to them. They agreed to protect his temple and named the site Delphi after the Greek word for dolphin, delphinos. Apollo’s oracle supposedly resided within the temple near a chasm in the rock where vapors emerged and the god possessed her. Her gibbering was interpreted by a priest, who relayed the answer to prophecy seekers.

Picture from the north side of the Temple.

The prophecies were notoriously difficult to understand, or perhaps deliberately were made so to prevent repercussions against the oracle and Delphi. Perhaps the most famous example of this is when Croesus, King of Lydia (in modern day Turkey), asked the oracle if he should invade the Persian Empire to the east. The response wa something along the lines of “if you cross the border river, a great empire will fall,” according to Herodotus. Croesus attacked and ultimately, his empire fell.

After the temple, we kept climbing. We saw the theater, hewn from the bedrock, and the stadium. Alas, we were unable to run in the stadium. It was roped off and the straw on the track would have made running difficult even if we had been allowed past the wire.

Alas, we were unable to continue our races here. 

We headed down after a short break to the sanctuary of Athena Pronaia, where Abi and I had run earlier in the day. Cassia gave a brief presentation on the site and then we wandered around for a while. Of particular interest is the Tholos, which is another round structure that we have no answers for. Anyone who figures out the Tholos problem probably gets a job in classics.

Circular and mysterious. 

Then we had a leisurely break for lunch. Gyros, of course. We were back in the museum after lunch looking at some fantastic artifacts. The silver bull was extremely impressive, both the material and the museum display that contextualizes these twisted and fragmentary pieces of metal. We also had a rousing debate over the identification of the figures on the metopes of the Siphnian treasury. I supported the view that it is not the Judgement of Paris, but a scene with Artemis. If anyone knows Richard Neer, I'd love to chat with him about the identification.

Artemis or Aphrodite? We had a lively debate.

We also saw the omphalos, which supposedly marked the center of the world for the Greeks. It was placed by Zeus in Delphi after he divined the center of the world by observing where two eagles released from the edges of the earth on a straight course met. The relief on the stone has a lot of eastern elements and someone compared it to Hindu iconography. We also saw the incredible charioteer bronze, which is preserved with reins made of bronze.

The charioteer with his fragmentary reins. 

The restored omphalos. Very imposing and solid. 

After the museum, we were set free by Amy for the rest of the evening. Abi, Luke, Sophie, and I headed back to the hotel and did various activities, like helping Sophie prepare her site report before dinner. The down time on the trip thus far has been really enjoyable.

Tomorrow we head out to Lamia and Meteora. It's a lot of bus time, but I have reading I need to do anyways.

Thanks for reading.