Crete: Knossos, Heraklio Archaeology Museum and town tour

Shadow Dancers

Day two in Crete!

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 Anne, our Professor-tour-guide, apparently wrote her dissertation, which remains unpublished to this day, on the poor reconstruction of Knossos.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"  

Crystal Vase

For Libations.

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 Because 3/4 of the material is unpublished, we had to refrain from photographing certain things to closely or at all.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"

Byzantine Fortress

We ended the day with a tour of Heraklio. Heraklio has a wonderful history, due to its place on Crete. Its natural harbor made it a target, as trade was an important part of why the area was so successful. Right on the Pier, a 4th century Byzantium fortification still sits. We sat around the beach, as our professors explained how Crete and Heraklio changed hands often because of where the island is located in the Aegean sea. 

The Church

We saw several other historical places. One was a grand church. Build in Byzantium times, it changed hands between Orthodox and Roman Catholics. Now, the church is fully functional, and displays a mixture of Byzantium/Roman Catholics/Orthodox traits. 

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"

Crete: Mallia and Gournia Archaeological Site and INSTAP Archaeology Study Center

Day one in Crete!

Malia

Our first day in Crete began bright and early. We were separated into two buses, both with their own itinerary for the week. My bus, bus B, was the bus filled with students primarily interested in Archaeology . The two professors in charge of our bus split us up once again, to make tours easier. My professor was named Anne. She teaches the "Archaeology of Athens" course and is absolutely fabulous. 

Our first adventure was at Malia.

Storage Magazines

Malia is the third largest Minoan Palace excavated on Crete. It is massive and parts of it are very well preserved. Much of the site is constructed of clay brick. Normally, this would have deteriorated over time and exposure to the elements. However, Archaeological evidence shows that much of the Palace was set ablaze, thus, preserving the skeleton of the structure.
The best example of this would be the storage magazines. They were used to store Oil. It is theorized that the site was ignited during an earthquake. . There is also evidence that shows some layering of materials. This means that over time, the structure was rebuilt or renovated as it changed hands.
It was very cool to be able to walk around these ancient sites. The palace was obviously the main attraction, but an entire town was build in the surrounding areas. Unfortunately, the remains of the town, including a graveyard, were not open for public viewing. This is a reflection of Greece's economy. There wasn't enough staff to properly monitor the area. 

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The password is "CYAMalia"

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Anne and the Stone Slab

The next place we visited was Gournia.

Gournia is another Minoan Palace, however, not as well preserved. It is located right on the coast of Crete, which explains how prosperous a place it was in ancient days. Evidence shows that Gournia was excellent for wine production, as well as metal work. Ancient Seals have been discovered on it's pottery, seals that can be found all over Crete. This helps paint a picture of how goods traveled back then. It's location was perfect, as it is right next to a natural harbor. It has everything an early civilization needed in order to thrive with limited technology. Its proximity to the water, however, proved to be its undoing.

Gournia

Archaeologists thought it very curious that remains in Gournia gave the impression that everyone just stopped one day and walked away. Like Malia, this is due to another natural disaster. There seemed to be a volcanic eruption on the neighboring island of Santorini that caused a Tsunami wave to crash over Gournia, thus wiping out the settlement unexpectedly. 

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The password is "GourniaSite"

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Both Sites had the makings of your typical Minoan Palaces. 

This includes a central court of which the rest of the palace would be based around.

Each had their own Stone Slab to carry out Sacrificial Ceremonies. The central court itself is thought to hold many ritual purposes. 

It is not entirely clear how there palaces were governed. Some evidence points to a ruling family, whereas other pieces of evidence would suggest that a ritualistic figure was in charge. In some theory's, the Ruler was the head of ritual. There is no clear evidence for either case.

There is also evidence that these structures were at least two levels, which shows how advanced these civilizations were.

Lustrial Basin at Malia

One structure found in all the sites we visited that I find particularly interesting is the presence of the "Lustrial Basin." Like many other sections and rooms of these ruins, the specific purpose for the Lustrial Basin is unknown. Some believe that they were for bathing. It is argued that the absence of a drain would prove this to be incorrect, but as Anne said "Thats what you have slaves for." The fact that these structures are usually lined with a stone called "Gypsum" is better evidence against them being bathes. Gypsum erodes in water. Their decoration and how well preserved the gypsum suggests that they were of some importance. Gypsum is a pretty white stone, so it is easy to see why someone would want to line their structures in it, but using it as a bath doesn't make since. The best guess at this point is that it was used for ritual purposes.

The last visit of the day was to the INSTAP Archaeology Study Center.

Conservation Center

Holy pottery pieces, Batman.

Storage

This was really interesting, because we got to see how the artifacts get  processed. INSTAP is basically the Archaeology haven of Hellenic studies, and of course, Anne had a hand in the beginning of it. Archaeology programs from all over Crete bring their artifacts to this center to conserve and process them. We got to see how scientists determine where a type of pottery originated from, which is awesome to track trade patterns. We got to hear about the process of reconstructing old pieces of pottery and other artifacts. We even got to see their storage space where there is thousands upon thousands of artifacts stored there that have been processes and much of which is unpublished material. There is a librarian, who works on a year long grant to be there. She gets to work on organizing the library, which is really just putting all their sources on the internet right now. This library has literally everything published about Cretan archaeology. She also just gets to stick around and learn from the Archaeologists who file in and out of the place. This position is up for grabs yearly. It sounds fantastic. Things to keep in mind for the future? I think heck yes.

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The password is "INSTAPisCool"