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October23,2007

"Argolid...without Argos"

I've been trying to type up this entry for a while, but glitches on my computer keep deleting my entry and so now out of frustration, this entry may be a lot shorter than intended, but picture-filled. I realized that i needed to type this one up before I leave for Turkey for Thursday for fall break, because when i come back, i may never catch up with my entries! so here is a long, week-late entry:

Two weekends ago (October 12-14), CYA took all of us on a trip to the Argolid in the Peloponnese. just like on Crete, they separated us into different groups and busses, and our professors acted as tour guides at the archaeological sites. we stayed in hotels in Nafplio, the port city in the Argolid that was once the first capital of modern Greece. on Friday, we left from Athens early in the morning and most of us went to see Mycenae first. we went to see four of the nine tholoi in Mycenae and its surrounding area, including the famous Treasury of Atreus and the Tomb of Clymnestra. while we do not know who were actually buried in each tholos, the grandeur of each tomb indicates that they were clearly meant for the wealthy.



just as we were promised, the interior of the tomb of Atreus was very impressive and awe-inspiring. the height of the tomb reached so high that i couldn't imagine how grave robbers managed to lower themselves from the top after removing the capstone of the tumulus. there was another room in the tomb that we were unable to see, but the entrance also had a relieving triangle like the main entrance. walking through the dromos alone felt like walking towards a magnificent structure; you just knew you were making your way to something grand and majestic. the corbel vaulting was incredible inside, and really gave the impression that the Mycenaeans were amazing engineers and architects. the acoustics of the tomb were supposed to be very good, but unfortunately we were unable to test our echoes since there were too many tourists inside the structure with us. we were lucky to test the echoing effect in another tholos, the Tholos of Clytemnestra, Agamemnon's wife.



afterwards, we walked up the road to the palace of Mycenae, where supposedly Agamemnon lived and ruled his city-state. from the road, you could see how mighty Mycenae must have been, with its fortifications encircling the hill visibly. perhaps the most important part for me was to see the famous Lion Gate, which i had only previously seen in pictures from art history books. seeing the gate itself was an accomplishment for me, and the gate was certainly much more impressive than what i had imagined. the sculptural relief sits on top of a multi-tonned monolith that isn't terribly long, but so deep that its length seems almost similar to its width. this is seen especially from the inside of the entrance where the sculptural panel of the lions sits much further towards the front of the stone lintel, leaving most of the top of the lintel bare. the lions are ambiguous because their heads are missing. their bodies actually suggest that they are lionesses, which would indicate a strong symbolic statement about the nature of the Mycenaeans, that they were warriors and hunters. their fortifications certainly contribute to this statement as well.



the Mycenaeans also built secret cisterns towards the end of their golden age when they became fearful of invaders from the North, who were possibly the Dorians. we were able to explore one of the cisterns, and made our way down there in groups of five. it was terrifying experience because while there were five of us, only one of us had a flashlight which gave very poor lighting. in the end, we made our way down to the bottom only because we used our flashing cameras to flicker some light on the steps down the cistern. at the bottom there was nothing to see, because it was a damn cistern and aside from the smell of dampness and possibility of cave spiders, the cistern wasn't very interesting at all. but it was a good experience to see how far the Mycenaeans were willing to go to preserve themselves, even if it meant a finite source of water that would fail them if they were held under a siege.








the next day, we went to Epidaurus to see the ancient theatre, which is best preserved in all of Greece. the popular sanctuary of Asclepius was also there, and we were able to walk through the sanctuary as well. in ancient times, this site was very popular for its beautiful surrounding and unexplainable aura of tranquility. the atmosphere was definitely very different from other sites, which probably gave the architect his reason to build the sanctuary at that location. while there was much to see at the Asclepieion, the reconstructions were rather disappointing. the whiteness of the reconstructed parts looked tacky, and some parts were completely reconstructed such that everything looked white and new. i wasn't very interested in the sanctuary as much as i was eager to see Epidaurus and experience the wonder of being in such a large theater.

as you can see, it really was a magnificent theatre.



after Epidaurus, we made our way to Franchthi (pronounced "frankthi") Cave where one of the CYA professors, Steve Diamant, had excavated before. he actually dug there in the first round of excavations in 1967 and returned multiple times until the end. we were so lucky to have him guide us to the cave and provide a brief lecture about this obscure site. in sum, Franchthi was an accidental discovery and is a significant Neolithic site in the Aegean. in fact, it is the only site in the Aegean that has evidence of the longest sequence of occupation, from 30,000BCE to 3,000BCE. hunter-gathering groups settled in this cave periodically until suddenly in 3,000BCE, when all signs of inhabitants stopped appearing. the best explanation for this sudden abandonment is that people in this region began cultivating the vine and olive, and had turned to an agrarian society instead.


diamant actually took us up the collapsed rocks at the back of the cave to see the other side. supposedly there is a pool up there which was a great source of fresh water in the Neolithic times, but we were unable to climb over the rocks to see it because our major obstacle was a deep crevice that was probably created by seismic activity. i was fascinated by the site, primarily because we were told that the actual size of the cave was probably five times what it is now before the back of the cave collapsed. if that were really true, then i can see how an entire village could fit comfortably in this enormous cave.

the other significant thing about Franchthi is that most of the major Neolithic pottery and artifacts have been found there, and while information remains slightly ambiguous, Franchthi provided more evidence than before. i was amazed that they even had evidence of food that the inhabitants ate, which included some grain and seeds.



the next day, our last day in the Argolid, we saw three sites all in the morning. first we drove out from Nafplio to Lerna, which was in the middle of nowhere. in Lerna, the archaeological site we wanted to see was the House of Tiles and some Middle Helladic foundations of houses. the site was very odd, because there was no parking lot around the site, and you had to walk through an orange grove to reach the front entrance. the house was interesting to see because of its architecture, and the possibility that it was a precursor to later houses and fortifications of later Greek inhabitants. the house was actually unfinished before it was completely destroyed by the Greeks, eradicating the history of the Helladic peoples. the other interesting thing was that the mudbrick walls of the unfinished fortifications have been preserved very well, probably because the Greeks had burned the place down and thus, unintentionally created a kiln to fire the mudbrick. the layout of the house was a bit confusing, because some of the rooms were very tiny and only accessible from the outside. the functions of the rooms seem very ambiguous and we'll probably never find out what the Helladic peoples had intended to build.



perhaps the most stunning example of cyclopean masonry is at Tiryns. as you can see from my picture, the rocks were humongous! i can't believe the Mycenaeans were able to roll the rocks on top of one another to create such a massive fortification system. it was a wonderful experience to walk up the path to the palace and finally understand how incredible the walls were, and the strength and mighty power that the walls conveyed.

the layout of the palace was similar to Mycenae, though it was much smaller in scale. there was the megaron and court, and various other residential areas identifiable only by their foundations. there were guard posts along the fortification wall that also seemed ambiguous in their function, but it was interesting to see how they vaulted the niche with such large rocks.




the storage area below the fortification and between its walls exhibited the finest vaulting and perhaps the best craftsmanship in Tiryns. most of the walls were roughly put together, but the vaulting in the storage area was much more refined.



we finally made our way to Palamidi, the Venetian fortress towering over modern Nafplio. it was built in 1711 and took three years to build. however, the fortress fell in only a day or so to the Ottoman Turks, and from then on, was occupied by the Ottoman Empire until their fall. the fortress was a boy's dream: a real castle with many doors and hidden rooms to climb through, and at every corner, there was another entire section of the fortress waiting to be explored. my friend and i climbed through as much as we could, before realizing that the fortress was so extensive that we could never finish seeing all of it. so after an hour of wandering and exploring, we finally decided to make our way down the famous 900+ steps back into the town of Nafplio for lunch.




as you can see, the view from Palamidi was amazing, and the sea was a beautiful sight on that clear, sunny day. we could see Nafplio down below, as well as AcroNaplio, which was apparently inaccessible for visitors because somehow the residents thought it'd be a good idea to build real estate around the rock. O_O


the town of Nafplio was very pretty and quaint, but not the liveliest tourist town at all. in fact, because we were there in the afternoon during siesta hours, most places were closed. when the stores finally opened up again at night, the streets became busy again, and resembled a typical touristy town: cheesy souvenir shops and tavernas at every corner. we ate at a couple of the tavernas, and i finally had my first taste of Greek fish. i ordered swordfish, which was all right, nothing too special, and on both nights when we were there, we just had to pick up some gelato from the famous gelato place at the corner behind the main square. the main square was the picturesque town square where children played at night as their parents sat at the cafe's slowly sipping their wine and coffee. on our second night there, a street performer came out and juggled fire-lit batons, dazzling the audience of small children sitting only a few yards away from him. in all the cafes, a Greek soccer game was playing on plasma screens, and scores of people crowded around the tvs to watch the match. we walked along the pier after dinner past another string of tavernas and cafes, and sat on the cement walls along the main dock. across the water, we saw lightning flashes contrasting the clear night sky on our side of the water. looking out into the dark sea, i felt like i was back in san francisco, looking out at the bay from pier39. it reminded me so much of home, that for the first time here, i felt a little homesick.



indeed, nothing cures homesickness like a nice scoop of mint gelato with some waffle cone to nibble on the side.