Week 9 was an eventful and fun week! It was the perfect week to be our last full one here in Greece. I started off my Monday with my Myth and Reception class where we talked about Oedipus. Then, on Tuesday I had Digital Archaeology and Alex’s class. In Digital Archaeology, we talked about formal ontologies and CIDOC-CRM, which is a semantic modeling system that allows us to understand and model things, qualities, and what’s around us. Then, in Alex’s class we had our last visit to the National Archaeological Museum. This time, we visited and learned about the sculpture gallery at the Museum. We had a terrific guest lecture from Nikos Gkiokas, who has a PhD from Duke. His dissertation was on the reuse of archaic sculpture in Roman times so he was a total expert on the sculptures. We saw many sculptures from the archaic period and we even saw one sculpture that Nikos called the “peak of the archaic style.” It had very clear details of muscles and even stylized pubic hair. We also learned about how sculptures changed over time from the archaic period to the classical period. The classical period statues were more commonly made of bronze since it was easier to work with than stone. Classical statues also began changing the poses of statues. We saw a very cool bronze statue of either Zeus or Poseidon throwing something and Nikos pointed out the “optimal” angle to view it from. We also saw a beautiful cult statue of Athena that we had learned about from Alex at the Acropolis Museum. It was a fun and informative last visit to the National Archaeological Museum!
Wednesday was another normal Wednesday here in Athens since I only had my Myth and Reception class. In that class, we learned about Medea, which I found to be an incredibly interesting story. That was the last Greek myth that we read for that class and I am so glad that I took Myth and Reception. I had essentially no prior knowledge of Greek mythology before coming here, but I feel like I am leaving with a very solid foundational understanding of the topic. I went on a very nice and long run Wednesday night, but I had an early night since we left early on Thursday morning for our trip to Santorini and Crete.
After our arrival on Thursday in Santorini, our first stop was the Akrotiri archaeological site where we had a great guest lecture from a PhD student named Marilena. It was easily one of the best guest lectures we have had and we learned a ton of information. To summarize what we learned, Akrotitir originally started off as a small fishing village. It took advantage of its position in the Aegean and had flourishing pottery production in the Middle Cycladic period. Then, the local volcano erupted and everything was frozen in time since the eruption inadvertently preserved so much of the site. As for the site itself, it exhibited impressive complexity and was really large. There was a high level of architectural sophistication, urban planning with things like a drainage system, and artistic skill. We got to see the artistic skill a bit more at the museum, but it was definitely evident at the site. That site visit was our only visit of the day so a bunch of us swam in the pool at our hotel that evening. Then, after swimming, I went out to a beautiful sunset dinner in downton Fira.
The first half of Friday was spent in Santorini as well. After checking out of our hotel, we visited Ancient Thera and had another guest lecture from Marilena. The site was beautiful and Marilena pointed out how “unfriendly” the landscape would be for any unwanted visitors. The bus ride up was a bit precarious, but we were high up on a mountain with great views. Besides the incredible views, the site itself was very impressive with an extensive sewage system as well as some very interesting sanctuaries and temples. There was a sanctuary to Pythian Apollo, a temple to Apollo Karneios, and even a sanctuary to some Egyption gods. One of the most interesting aspects of the Temple to Apollo Karneios was that there was a festival that, if successful, would result in the freeing of some slaves. The Ancient Thera site was awesome to learn about and I loved the views!
After visiting Ancient Thera, we went to the Museum of Prehistoric Thera, which was the museum corresponding to Akrotiri. We saw some really interesting things like olive leaves preserved in volcanic ash from 60,000 BCE, a plaster cast of a 17th century BCE wooden table, and beautiful fresco paintings. For her last guest lecture, Marilena gave us a brief talk about the frescoes. She discussed many of the frescoes that she referenced at Akrotiri like the Flotilla Fresco and the fresco of the boy who caught Tuna. The paintings were stunning and the painstaking work that has gone into them in order to put them back together was very evident. After our visit to the Museum, we had some free time in Fira. I spent that time getting some great gyros and a fun drink. After our free time, we headed to the Athinios Port to catch a ferry to Crete. Then, after the ferry ride, we had the evening free in Heraklion. I went out and got some dinner with friends and topped the night off with some ice cream.
Saturday was our first full day in Crete and we started off by visiting the Knossos archaeological site. We had learned about Knossos quite a bit in class so I was very excited for this visit. Upon our arrival, Alex called the site the “alpha and omega of Aegean prehistory,” so my excitement grew even more. We learned a bunch about the site like how it was a multicultural place, it had the first palaces in the Aegean, and it had significant town planning with indoor plumbing. We got to see some of the key features of the site like the lustral basin, the throne room, the “royal apartments,” and the “temple repositories.” It was a great visit to the site and then we followed it up by visiting the corresponding museum, namely the Archaeological Museum of Heraklion. We saw a ton of interesting things at the museum and learned a lot like how Knossos had the earliest neolithic activity, there were 3 separate writing scripts found at Knossos, and how Romans invented glass blowing. We then had the day free after the Museum. I was very tired so I took a nice, long nap after lunch. Then, I did some homework for the rest of the night and took a break to go get dinner.
Sunday was our last day on Crete and the last day of our trip, but we still managed to do quite a bit before flying home to Athens. We visited the village of Margarites for a ceramics workshop. While there, we learned about how the village has been known for ceramics since Minoan times and how each piece of pottery produced at the workshop is made for a special purpose. I purchased these very cool salt and pepper shakers! After the workshop, we had some free time to explore the town a bit. Then, we went to the Arkadi Monastery. The Monastery played a key role in the Cretan uprising against the Ottomans and Crete, as a whole, has been a very hard found territory. Alex told us a story about how the Monastery became a place of refuge for revolutionaries and, eventually, opposing forces gained entry to the Monastery. Then, in an act of martyrdom, the Cretains decided to blow the Monastery up resulting in 864 deaths. The story was very moving and helps show how symbolically charged the place was and still is. Regardless of its symbolic significance, it was a beautiful Monastery. I also purchased some authentic Cretan honey and olive oil from there. After the Monastery, we went to Rethymno town for lunch. I got a delicious burger and mostly relaxed before our flight. Although our flight home was delayed quite a bit, it was a pretty easy ride. I was very happy to get home and I quickly showered and went to bed since I was so tired.
It was another really great trip and another great week. This blog post will be my last of the entire OCS and I can firmly say that I have enjoyed every minute. It is such a blessing to be here in Greece and I have done my best to not take anything for granted. I want to say thank you to Alex, MJ, Sam, Stella, and all of CYA for making this such a great experience. I highly recommend this OCS!