7/11 - Argos, Mantineia, Tegea, Olive Oil Museum, Menelaion, Ayios Vassileios

Welcome to the blog! If you're just reading for the first time, some technical difficulties have knocked my computer out of commission so I will be doing pictures starting no earlier than the 17th of July. Anyways, enjoy the update.

The morning alarm came way too early, but I managed to get out of bed to meet Abi and Sophie for what was now a familiar run to the beach between the two bastions. Unfortunately, I had left my sneakers on the bus, so I was running in flip flops. It wasn't the most comfortable but again the water was worth every step. And then we had to depart. Nauplio was great to us and it’s definitely a city I want to go back to if I have the chance. Our first stop of the morning was Argos.

Replicating columns at Argos. I'm an ionic column, while Luke on the right appears to be Doric.

The group spreads out across the agora.

We were unsure if much of the excavated site would be open, but it turned out the whole thing was. We started on the steps of the massive theater, capable of holding 20 thousand people in antiquity. We then examined the temples and Odeion nearby and Luke rescued a cat! A Greek woman outside the fence shouted to Amy about something in the corner of the site along the fence. It turned out that there was a young cat trapped in some thick brush in a ditch. Luke went in, wrangled the cat, and extracted it for the grateful woman.

Luke pulling the cat out.

We also explored the baths, which still have some visible in situ mosaic. I was in drain heaven with the Roman constructions because the bath was fed by an aqueduct and has extensive piping. The hypocaust chamber was also really cool, as it was higher than other hypocausts we had seen.

Then we were across the street in the forum. There are diverse buildings situated all across the forum, from temples and shrines to another bath complex. Amy basically let us have the run of the place, which let us clamber over and explore based on our preference. It's nice to have a balance of sites with experts and sites like these. The more free range approach is also a fun challenge to see how much can be identified before looking at a signpost. I've gotten noticeably better since the session started, which is heartening. Notably the forum had a killer drainage system with some really cool terra cotta pipes. Ancient hydro works are really neat in general. Most of the group will call me over if they see a drain too and I appreciate every one of these instances.

(Pipe pic)

After the forum we went to Mantineia, a former city with some gorgeous views of the plain and the mountains surrounding it. The site also has a bucolic air to it and the understated infrastructure for tourism only helps with that. Tim presented on the major battles at Mantineia, which shook things up in Ancient Greek history several times. We also enjoyed a watermelon that Amy had brought along and chopped up on site. A member of the local ephorate, an archaeologist whose name I didn't catch, also happened to be in the area, observing road construction. She gave us an impromptu tour of the site and its structures, bringing us up to speed on the forum area. She also let us use the bathroom generally not open to the public, which earned the gratitude and thanks of much of the group.

Mantineia. The site is pretty flat, but has a gorgeous view of the plain and surrounding mountains.

Tegea was the next stop on the agenda, where the museum staff specially accommodated us by opening the museum on Monday when it was normally closed. The museum is dimly lit with illuminated display cases, a choice which those of us tired of the hot sunlight appreciated fully. Amy had us spread again and find our favorite items. I chose a sekoma, a table of measures set by the polis to standardize trade. Standard measures like this are fascinating because there has to be a central authority to set and enforce them, which is a fun topic to puzzle over. The museum also has extremely impressive digital resources, including an awesome Microsoft Surface display with some extremely impressive touchscreen functionality.

A sekoma with many tiny cuttings for smaller quantities.

We went outside next to the sanctuary of Athena Alea, which is preserved fairly well in a fenced off earlier. Again, we were able to do some quality clambering on the blocks and column bases. Doing experiential (American meaning of this word) stuff like this, as I mentioned above, really helps me get a sense of the scale of the things we’re studying. And climbing on stuff is also really fun. My childlike sense of wonderment has certainly had a revival of sorts since arriving in Greece.

The sanctuary is good at putting into perspective how massive individual blocks were. 

We drove hard for Sparta next, where we made a long anticipated stop at the Olive Oil Museum. The name basically says everything you need to know about the contents of the museum. This stuff has existed for a looong time. The museum takes the tradition of the oil up through the modern day. It was a nice change of pace from being outside too.

After an hour that was entirely too short, we rolled out again, bound for the Menlaion. We arrived at the base of the hill and began the hike up. It's a pretty good walk. Not too steep but still uphill and good enough to provoke a good sweat. I should note at this point that we really didn't get lunch today, so I was running on breakfast fumes and back of the bus snacks. So, anyways, got to the top and headed up the hill that remains of the Menelaion.

The tumulus on the Menelaion

The view was gorgeous. I can see why the sanctuary was so revered. You're on top of this hill after this gritty hike, staring at the whole valley and the mountains across the plain. I was pretty awestruck. Asia presented on the Menelaion, which was a  shrine to both Helen and Menelaus in antiquity. She really drew out some of the cool aspects of cults and their origins and continuity in the region. Well presented, with an excellent and comprehensive handout.

Our final site was one of the most puzzling we've been at during the whole session. It's called Ayios Vassileios and the primary excavator is Dr. A. Vasilogamvrou. The site is a newly discovered Mycenaean era palace that is barely 1% excavated. It will provide “work for a generation” of archaeologists. Now I said Mycenaean era, but this site has a very strong presence of Minoan elements. The palace is arranged more similar to a Minoan than Mycenaean palace. There are finds that include bull iconography, similar to the Minoans as well. It's bizarre. And we know so little!! Why is there this weird fusion of Minoan influence in the later time period? Are they another group of civilizations? Or isolated remnants of Minoan culture that somehow reconstructed palace architecture? It's a big freaking mystery and so exciting that it's coming up now. No pics from this site due to the active excavations there.

Some of the excavation at Ayios Vassileios.

At long last we headed to the hotel, where we thankfully had dinner planned at the hotel restaurant. It was delicious and the table service was fantastic. Good choice by Amy to do that.

Tomorrow we depart Sparta after a few sites and go west towards Pylos. I'm excited.

Thanks for reading.