I had a lot more background knowledge this week than I have previously, which was really nice! I hope that pattern continues over the next few weeks, and I think it will as the learning from one week adds to the next. I had recently learned about ancient LBA settlements and Linear B in Jake Morton’s Greek 204 class. I can’t say I found the writing itself very interesting then (Linear B is mostly about tripods and pots), but I loved the information about ancient civilizations, and it was great to have some background for what I was seeing in the museum we visited in Volos. I had also studied art and archaeology terms in Dr. Austen’s Roman Art + Arch class, so I knew terms like “peripteral column” and “stele.” I’m excited to be able to draw more connections between classes like these as I continue my Classics career.
Our first stop was in Thermopylae. I didn’t know much about the Persian War(s), as I’ve never been much of a battle buff, but it’s definitely a great underdog story! The most interesting question to me was of truth vs exaggeration. Obviously it’s very hard to tell what’s true and what isn’t when using ancient sources, and it seems that many historians choose to make things up (or delude themselves). That was kind of a theme for this week, actually. We have so little information about the Neolithic and Bronze Age world, but people are still desperate for answers, so I think they can make some pretty big cognitive leaps sometimes. I definitely understand the impulse. If you spend your life studying something/some event/some place/some people, you’ll fall in love with it and feel some sense of ownership. You’ll want to know more, so of course there’s temptation to assume YOUR THING is X IMPORTANT HISTORICAL THING. Then you write an article on it and a bunch of people get to write commentary articles describing all the ways you’re wrong, and the academic world continues as usual.
I felt very connected to Dimini and Demitrias for similar reasons. There were just such obvious signs of humanity, which are always the things I find the most touching. At Dimini the signs of social organization were so clear. I wish I could’ve seen the place built up, it must’ve been such a relief to step inside after a long day and get a break from the elements. I wonder how raising children worked with so many families so close together, if there was an “it takes a village” style model. Whenever we’re at a site my mind goes right to the ancient women who lived there; how they felt, what they did with their days.
When we went to Demetrias, I had just seen a home-inspo Instagram Reel the same day with the caption “why you should paint your walls white with red trim.” Guess how the walls at Demetrias were painted?
My absolute favourite part was the Archaeological Museum at Volos. It was an amazing display of some great artifacts, and the design was so creative! I would love to work in/curate/design for a similar museum as a career, and I was blown away by this one. The models of ancient rooms were one of the best things I’ve seen in a museum, I could so easily imagine myself there! They displayed lots of objects as they were found, which was also lovely. The bowls of spools/other sewing tools were a particular favourite– I also put small things into bowls!
