June 26: Mycenae and Nemea

Took another rough bus ride to Mycenae founded around 2200 to 1900 B.C. and saw the famous lion's gate. This is the first time in antiquity that a lion is seen as a symbol of strength and power, but mountain lions were prevalent in the area. The relief was thin as far as structure held up on top of the main gate by a lentil stone weighing a few tons. The production of the gate and the ashlar geometry of laying the stones when fortifying the walls indicates a fundamental basic in architecture that is still followed today. It's remarkable that the door is 3 pieces of stone with the lentil or the top weighing over 100 tons. Aside from the main gate the Tholos tombs which look like beehives (all of which were looted before archeologists found them) or the shaft graves are a common attraction here. Heinrich Schliemann discovered five of the six shaft graves containing the most precious gift the ancient world had to offer the royalty of the palace: gold. Everything was gold, it was sewn into their clothes, jewelry was made out it, and drinking cups. These ancient people were advanced not only militarily but economically, they were a force to be reckoned with. The sixth shaft grave unfortunately was not discovered by Schliemann, the original excavator of the dig because his crude archeological techniques consisted of trenches dug consecutively. The sixth shaft grave was by far the most lucrative and engaging as far as elaborate headpieces and ornaments that ordained the dead. These tombs which contained many people were one of the greatest archeological finds of the Greek world, think of King Tut, then multiple that by ten. Seeing all the artifacts in the national museum was astonishing. The Myceneans used up gold as if it was paper!! It was everywhere, they made art with it, wore it, and buried it with their dead. Gold and even bronze were the toughest metals in the Bronze age whether they were raw or in a finished product, and neither material is found anywhere near Mycenae. The nearest trading post is with Tiryns, anotherr remarkable city of its time that we did not have time to see. Knowing the extent of value gold has and still has on the the world these ancient people can be expressed as a strong and affluent community if they had enough gold to bury it!! By far they dominated the Peloponnesian peninsula which they inhabited and controlled for the bronze age. They didn't even build walls around their city until 350 B.C in an effort to protect the palace. The palace, now which is in ruins I can imagine was once just as immaculate as the shaft graves (which I forgot to mention, Schliemann states is the tomb of Agamemnon after the battle with Troy). Homer attests to the power of the Mycenaeans by mentioning them as: " Mycenae, rich in gold." When the period of gold ended for the Myceneans they were bullied by fellow Argos and then more fortifications were put up with ashlar and cyclopian corbeling. Cyclopian basically meaning hodge podge as the prof. would say. As Mycenae is on the top of a mountain..and a tall one at that, they had natural fortifications provided with ravines toward the East. The palace is one of the only palaces on mainland Greece besides Nestor's palace at Pylos where a megaron is seen. A megaron is a room where the king or queen in this case ( it is rumored Mycenae only had queens) received visitors, it was a public place with a hearth and skylight and four columns. A reservoir was even built before 1200 B.C. when the Mycenaeans were conquered by the Persians. The reservior was accessed through a cave tunnel which we went down, scary as heck by the way because you can't touch the walls unless you want to be covered with bugs..we got a quarter of the way down and then it was roped off thankfully. I have been adventurous on this trip but caves are pretty much my limit. Anyway the reservoir had triangular corbelling amazing still because it was airtight and required no cement. The Tholos tombs had circular corbelling think of making concentric circles smaller and smaller until all that was needed to cover the circle was one stone. It was all pretty amazing how these structures were built without using anything to hold them together. It sort of puts Stonehenge to shame.

Mycenae was intense; there was so much history there. We could see tourists walk over structures and look at things and have no idea what they are looking at. I felt bad knowing that they would leave the site with perhaps a quarter of the information that we had gathered over half a day. Our next stop was Nemea one of the original sites of the local Olympian games. A temple of Zeus was constructed there as well as oikoi, which served as treasury storage areas, bathing chambers, a stadium surrounded by a small ring of water for drinking, a locker room, starting blocks, a turning post, and long jump weights. The games were held every four years mainly locally until they grew bigger and then Olympia became the official sponsor. Our professor even let us put on a mock Olympic race there! It was so much fun! We all lined up and on the count of three ran a little less than 200 yards. I didn't win, but I came in close second! (video to come soon). We got back on the bus all tired and sweaty and it was probably the best nap I have had on the bus to date. Since was our last night in Nafplion and so we all ate dinner at Ellas taverna then went to the internet café and watched the USA v. Ghana. Even though we lost, it was a good time. As the night was winding down we all sat down on the balcony, had a few drinks, and talked about the game/how we were so not pumped to get up early and go on a 5 hour bus ride. Pylos/Olympia here we come!!