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Published: January 28th 2009
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Today was a lovely, lovely day!
The day started with a visit to the National Archaeological Museum for my Archaeology of Athens course. Hilary and I were able to enjoy our first trolley ride experience on the way there. This was a bit of an adventure in and of itself since we had to go in the middle of rush hour traffic meaning that the trolley were incredibly crowded, making it very difficult to figure out what to do to validate our tickets (and harder yet to actually validate them once we understood how). In any case, we managed to make it to the museum with a good ten to fifteen minutes to spare (we left our apartment forty-five minutes before we needed to be there). Our professor gave us a very nice guided tour of the parts of the museum that were relevant to what we have studied thus far. This meant we got to see Minoan, early Mycenaean, and Bronze Age Greece artifacts. I very much enjoyed the museum. It is always a wonderful experience to be in a museum filled with things that you have studied over and over again over the years! I especially enjoyed seeing
Bronze Age artifacts after my Old World Prehistory class last semester.
The professor meant for the class to be divided so that half the time was spent being guided around and the other half was spent looking through the galleries we were in on our own while working from a task sheet. Unfortunately, by the time she finished talking to us and showing us stuff, we had eight minutes left, not forty-five. So she gave us the task sheet anyway and encouraged us to do it on our own time. Therefore I took the liberty of spending the last few minutes backtracking over what we had talked about and taking some pictures. As I was hurrying through the last gallery trying to make sure I got as many of the pictures as I could take in the time we had, the guard came over to me to point a few things out. He was very friendly and showed me an object and asked if I knew what it was- I did, which impressed him (it was a woman's mirror made of bronze), he then proceeded to show me two or three other things (which incidentally included spending a few
Boxing Boys
fresco from Santorini dating to the mid 16th century BCE minutes struggling with the language barrier over the word for corral, though we did manage to finally get it). I managed to get all the pictures I wanted (as well as a few suggested to me by the guard) with just barely enough time to grab my bag and head towards my next class.
My second class of the day also met at a museum. The two classes have the same professor and there is one other student in both of these sections with me, so the three of us headed to the second museum together. This worked out really well because it meant I didn't have to try and figure out where we were going, especially considering we ended up being late as it was! We did manage to meet up with the rest of the class (only a few minutes after we were supposed to be there- but I was excused... I had the professor with me!) and make our way to the British School Museum. This was a small museum that has a main focus as a learning institution. At this visit we went into a small collections room where we had a selection of artifacts
out on the tables. We then were given the task of examining some of the artifacts and trying to determine what they were made of as well as any other information we could provide. Thus we drew pictures, took photographs, and provided descriptions of the various artifacts.
I had the pleasure of looking at three artifacts in detail. First I examined a small blown glass bottle from the Roman period (sometime between 1st century BCE and 1st century CE). Next I looked at a couple of obsidian blade shards. And lastly I looked at a beautiful ceramic pot from 470 BCE. I was able to look at some of the other artifacts as well, though not in as great detail. These included a small stone figurine, some beads made of various stones, a metal animal figurine, a number of ceramic pots, a few lead weights, a small bronze hand held pot, an archaic bronze helmet and a few others. All in all, it was one of the neatest "classroom" experiences I have ever had.
On a completely unrelated note- I managed to translate four of the six sentences of my Greek homework this evening without the use of
large vessels
These vessels have a stylized iconography of a Minoan octopus on them which indicates that though they are Mycenaean they have Minoan influences in them a lexicon or a grammar guide! A feat I am quite pleased with!!!
Weather providing, this weekend looks like it will include a day trip to the nearby island, Aegina, and my first (of many) visits to the top of the Acropolis!
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