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| Shadow Dancers |
Day two in Crete!
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| Throne Room. (Original) |
Day two in Crete started bright and early. Knossos is arguably the most well preserved/reconstructed Minoan palaces Crete has on display. Arguably. Arthur Evans began excavating in 1900, and did the majority of it in 4 years. Knossos was a gold mind of finds. Everything from wall painting to ritualistic figures were found among the Palaces ruins. The buildings we see today are not building from antiquity. These are structures that Evans and his team theorized on and reconstructed to help give the public an idea of what it might have looked like back then. Unfortunately, there are flaws with this reconstruction. For one, his team wasn't consistent in the materials they used to reconstruct. Thus, it is difficult to get a unified idea of whats going on. Secondly, the grand staircase was reconstructed according what would be safer for the crew, rather than what was actually there. (You can't reeeeally blame him for that one.) Lastly, wall painting were poorly dealt with and poorly reconstructed. Its virtually impossible to figure out how the pieces might have been put together now, but regardless of that, the copies of the reconstructions were not placed according to where in the Palace they were found. They just kind of picked places randomly. Anne, our Professor-tour-guide, apparently wrote her dissertation, which remains unpublished to this day, on the poor reconstruction of Knossos. Evidently, it was too controversial. All things aside, it was massive and very cool to see.
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The password is "Knossos"
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| Crystal Vase |
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| For Libations. |
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| Snake Goddess' |
Our next adventure for the day was the Heraklio Archaeological Museum. This museum, unfortunately, only was displaying about a fifth of what it actually has. It has been under construction since 1993 or 1994. It displayed its best Mycenaean and Minoan pieces. This museum, as a whole, is over flowing with material. A lot of it is poorly conserved and displayed. Because 3/4 of the material is unpublished, we had to refrain from photographing certain things to closely or at all. Either way, there was some incredible things to see!
This Crystal vase was an incredible find. It was in thousands of pieces, and a conservator spent years reconstructing it. It's beautiful and delicate. Anne told us that when the conservator finally went to move it, he accidentally dropped it, sending the thousands of pieces scattering once again. So he had to put it BACK together. The bull pictured is actually hollow from behind. Its a ceremonial piece, used in libations to the gods. A lot of gods find the bull to be a sacred animal, and usually prefer those as sacrifices. This piece would probably be used in cult ceremonies. Whatever liquid was being offered would be poured in the back of the head and would come out through the nostrils. In the middle photo are relics called Snake Goddess'. If my memory serves, these were found in/around the Throne room of Knossos. Again, used for ritualistic purposes, they're thought to have some maternal qualities.
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The password is "Heraklio"
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| Byzantine Fortress |
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| The Church |
We saw old ship yards and the Lions fountain, which used to be much more grand in ancient times. Heraklio was a charming, lively town. The energy was very different from the hustle and bustle of Athens. It was a nice change of pace for a few days!
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The password is "HeraklioTown"
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