After one night in Athens, we went straight to the highlight–The Acropolis! Shortly into our ascent, someone asked about two doorways that were built into the side of the Acropolis walls (pictured below). They turned out to be monuments erected to commemorate prizes awarded at the Theater of Dionysus. While explaining them, Alex brought up the topic of restoration ethics, which I thought was really thought-provoking. He said that they made the marble so light in color to highlight and make obvious that the structure had been restored. I had never considered why it could be important to clearly see what was original vs. restored in ancient monuments–I always figured that restoration should blend in as much as possible. Throughout our entire visit, I could tell what was restored and began to understand why that was valuable and more ethical. It would be odd to think restored parts were still intact from thousands of years ago when in reality they were constructed a few years ago. I’m curious to learn more about restoration ethics and plan to keep it in mind as we visit more sites. On a different note, I thought it was cool that there was separate seating for the priests that are more comfortable and throne-like (although stone is never comfortable). It reminded me of Shakespeare’s Globe in London where there are different types of seating depending on how much money or social status you had.
The Odeon of Herodes Atticus was a highlight of the Acropolis for me. It reminded me a lot of the Roman Colosseum, probably because it is Roman. I didn’t realize that there was much of a difference between Greek and Roman ancient architecture until coming to Greece. My understanding (which is still limited) is that Romans were prominent later in time and based a lot of their style on Greek architecture but took it to a higher level. I found it impressive that the Odeon was originally enclosed by a cedar roof, especially considering the huge scale of the building. The far wall was relatively intact and I think it’s very cool that they restored it enough to hold events in it. My favorite part was the checkered green and white flooring on the stage!
It was fun to see the Parthenon, a building that I’ve seen in pictures and heard about since elementary school. I was bummed to see so much scaffolding, but I understand that it’s for the greater good. I had not realized that the Parthenon was known for its decoration, so I enjoyed hearing about its many decorative and architectural features. Ancient civilizations always impress me with their attention to detail–I can’t believe they designed the Parthenon to appear level from afar with an optical illusion in mind. I was sad to learn about the explosion that caused the destruction of the Parthenon’s wall, but I appreciated the clear connection between a historical event and the current status of the building. It’s hard to believe that anyone would hurt the mighty and majestic Parthenon.
The Mazi Plain was much different than the Acropolis. Everything was more natural, wild, and less controlled. It was fun to be able to pick up artifacts and walk through ancient ruins. I learned a lot about the identification of artifacts over the course of the day, especially at Oinoe. We found pot, handle, and roof tile sherds. Here are pictures of some of the sherds I found:
My favorite part of the Mazi Plain trip was the Fortress of Eleutherai. It had a great view over the plains, and we were able to walk inside the towers and along the walls. I enjoyed learning about the different theories for who constructed the fortress (it was totally the Boeotians). I learned that the line carved out from the corner of the walls/towers is an architectural feature that helped the ancient builders line up the corners of buildings since the rocks were usually not flat on the sides. Once again, ancient people impress me with their innovation.
Our final stop, the tower at Aigosthena, piqued my interest because of its restoration. It was great to hear from an archaeologist who worked on the restoration project. I think it’s crazy that the tower was in such good condition until 1981. She described the process of rebuilding the tower with the fallen blocks, which seems easy at first but was incredibly difficult in reality. It must have taken forever to fit the puzzle together. One detail that I appreciated was the divots cut into the top of the stones along the roof to account for wooden beams. They were able to use those divots to understand how the roof was constructed. It was great to see a fully restored tower and to go inside–a rare treat!
