Week 4 has been the quietest week thus far and it provided some nice rest before our upcoming trip to Mycenae, Tiryns, Pylos, and Olympia. I started off the week with my Myth and Reception class where we talked about the different ages of humans in Greek mythology as well as Prometheus and Pandora. Our discussion on the ages of humans and the different authors’ perspectives really stuck with me. In Works and Days, Hesiod sees humans in his present day as having regressed into a worse form that is further from the gods and more barbaric than in the previous ages. In contrast, Aeschylus’ Prometheus Bound describes humans as being better off today than in the past due to Prometheus having given humans fire. This enabled them to gain knowledge and make advancements. A key piece of contextualization behind these differing views on humans is that Works and Days was written in ~700 BCE while Prometheus Bound was written between 479 – 458 BCE. Accordingly, we see two different perspectives on humans and life across two different time periods. These differing perspectives are largely attributable to the different time periods. Aeschylus was living in the fifth century BCE, which was the golden age of Athens since the Athenians had just defeated the Persians and felt a great sense of unification. The city saw substantial economic and political growth with the rise of democracy and its culture flourished as well. It would be pretty easy to feel good about yourself and others during such a time. For Hesiod, times were not as prosperous. He was a shepherd who worked long, hard days and he lacked the sense of societal unification that they had in fifth-century Athens. Accordingly, each piece’s respective time periods help illuminate why each author felt either pessimistic or optimistic. Despite these texts being written thousands of years ago, I find their differing perspectives to be incredibly applicable to modern times. When I focus on different aspects of my life, I find myself relating to both Aeschylus and Hesiod. In some ways, I think society as a whole is at the best point ever in history and there is so much to look forward to. At other times, I romanticize the past like Hesiod and feel as if our society has deeply regressed due to the plethora of modern issues. Both Hesiod and Aeschylus are products of their time and I am no different. The world and the way I feel about it are both increasingly complex, but these ancient authors are as relevant as ever. Just like Aeschylus and Hesiod, the context in which I live my life, and in what I focus on, greatly influences my opinions and feelings about myself and what is around me.
Tuesday consisted of less deep reflection, but still plenty of learning. I had my Digital Archaeology class where we talked about LiDAR and other remote sensing tools that modern archaeologists use. Our guest lecturer for the day, Evan Levine, is friends with my Digital Archaeology professor as well as our program director, Alex. Evan was very engaging as he added to our LiDAR discussion and taught us about his current projects. After class, I went to lunch and then had my only class with Alex for the week. We learned about how complex communities in the Early Minoan period, as well as the Early Helladic, led to the creation of Europe’s first states. The information that we learned such as a state’s need for an agricultural surplus as well as social and economic complexity through specialization all ties into the ongoing theme of emerging social complexity and societal growth in Greece. As an economist, I find it unsurprising that economic specialization and international trade appear to have played key facilitating roles in the emergence of Europe’s first states. Since I have spent so much time discussing those concepts elsewhere, it also makes me really happy to see them explored in another setting. Additionally, I find it particularly interesting how some urban developments and ideas from the Early Minoan and Helladic time periods are still used today in Europe. One example of that is urban “squares,” which act as places for people to gather in a city. They used those in Early Minoan urban centers and archaeologists call them “central court complexes.” I love the feel of a city built around squares for people to walk around and Europe is full of them. I wish the US had used more central court complexes when designing its cities.
Wednesday was a very unique day since I had no class. My Myth and Reception professor was in the US for a conference so we had the day off. I decided to spend that day working on my 3D modeling project for Digital Archaeology. Accordingly, on Wednesday morning, I went to our classroom, picked up the camera that I checked out, and headed into the gardens to find something to 3D model. While in the gardens, I came across a broken chair that seemed to be good enough so I took about 80 photos all around it.
Then, I went back to the classroom and uploaded the photos into the software. After running the program with a few bumps along the way, I produced my first 3D model. I was pretty happy with the model and my professor happened to be coming by so he took a look at it. He was really impressed, told me it was a great model, and turned it in for me on the spot! I was very pleased when I learned that the result was good. I spent a pretty long time setting everything up so I was happy to see that my hard work paid off. You can see my model here.
On Thursday, we went over my model in my Digital Archaeology class and we also learned about drones. We actually got to fly a drone in class, which was a ton of fun. We all took turns flying the drone while our professor “jammed” on his guitar. I had a great time and that was my last class of the week. Similar to my Myth and Reception professor, Alex was also in the US for a conference. So, after lunch at the CYA cafeteria on Thursday, my week was over.
Ever since Thursday afternoon, I have spent my time working out in the park nearby, enjoying Greek food, doing some homework, and relaxing on our balcony. It has been a quiet week and weekend. I don’t have many pictures since I have been relaxing a bunch, but I do have some photos that I want to share.
This has been a great week. I learned a lot, have gotten some great rest, and continue to reflect on how lucky I am to be here. It is such a unique, privileged experience to come and live in Athens for three months. I will never again have the opportunity to do this and I am incredibly grateful that I am here. We are almost halfway done with the trip and there is still so much to look forward to!