This week was extremely busy, which felt nice after our previously slower week. We started off on Monday heading to the Acropolis again with for my mythology course, where we took a closer look at Athena and the role these myths played in forming the ancient Greek religious sites.
The day after we headed to the National Archaeological museum, which I highly recommend. We’ve been studying a lot about the Mycenaean civilizations, which marked the end of the Bronze age. There have been incredible finds from this period, especially tombs which are great places for excavation sites because of the level of preservation. These cities had tons of wealth, especially gold. My favorite artifacts in the museum were these death masks:
You can read more about them here. Another very interesting thing about excavations in general is there is sometimes controversy. Certain archaeologists back in the day would have poor methods of excavating and would erase time periods while digging deeper for older finds. The prime example of this is Heinrich Schliemann, the man who found troy and but also destroyed a ton of it:
”Schliemann’s excavation of nine levels of archaeological remains has been criticized as destructive of significant historical artifacts, including the level that is believed to be the historical Troy.” (source)
He also thought he found the mask of Agamemnon (a mythical figure) and was off by about 400 years. lol.
We then had more class throughout the week before our big trip to Mycenae and Olympia. Friday was our stop in Mycenae and Nafplio, where we saw the ancient Mycenaean sites and the Fortress of Palamidi. At Mycenae we saw the remains of a palace, which is an indicator for Mycenaean cities that have central courts, frescos decorated all over the interior, and lots of wealth (gold and other stuff). These communities were fairly short lived (< 500 years) and they also had very intricate funerary customs, which is how we learn from them. There are lots of tombs, called Tholos tombs, that have a dome shape:
After the death of someone significant, they would dig out all the rock from the previous burial, push the previous remains to the side, place the new body inside, and then repack it. Very sustainable burial practice, aside from all the effort. They would put tons of things inside with the bodies, like I had already discussed. Many of these tombs could have been royalty but special burials would take place for more normal people such as a pregnant women.
After focusing on the Mycenaean palaces we went to the Fortress of Palamidi in Nafplio (which is a beautiful town). There were great views, and I’m glad we didn’t have to climb the 1000 steps up it.
Later in the weekend we made it to the site of Olympia. This was where lots of sacrifices and dedications to the gods took place, as well as the famous Olympic games:
There is a lot I could say about Olympia but in order to keep this short I will sum it up quickly. After the Mycenaean period (1500 – 1100 BC), there was the early Iron Ages, where societies regressed and went back to villages. Then, after that, around 800 BC, cities began forming and we see the beginning of the ancient Greek civilization as we know it. Culture and language starts to formalize across Greece, and this is when we start to see religious sites like Olympia grow in popularity and size. This lasted for around 1000 years until around 400 AD when the Romans put a stop to pagan traditions. So over millennium years of worship, festivities, and Olympic games. wow.
To sum up, it was a great week that was filled with tons of visits and hands on activities, and I’m now looking forward to Greek easter!