modern maenad

young Greek-American returns to the homeland to dig up things.

[modern-maenad]

hello! I am sorry it has been almost a full two months since I updated this space. rest assured I am still alive and well. I wrapped up my courses in Athens and have been busy working on various archaeological projects across the Balkans. I have been bouncing around from place to place; right now I am living in a small village in Romania called Murighiol, and have lacked the internet connection to upload my large image files. I hope to put the rest of my photos up when I return to the States in a month (!), including pictures from my time in Crete, Mytilene, Lefkada, and Transylvania, as well as a traditional Easter celebration with my family in Lamia. until then, I'll be excavating a Roman fort on the Danube delta until I pop back down to Greece for a vacation with my parents and sisters.   

happy summer! 

[modern-maenad]

palatial complexes on Crete tend to have a paved west court in addition to a large central court. 

Knossos, Crete

[modern-maenad]

Sir Arthur Evans had visions of minotaurs and labyrinths and King Minos dancing in his head while he was powering through excavations at Knossos. these preconceived notions heavily influenced his interpretation of the archaeological material as well as how he chose to reconstruct parts of the palatial complex. 

Knossos, Crete

[modern-maenad]

alien landscape or rock? 

Knossos, Crete

[modern-maenad]

outside of the hall of double axes. you can just see the pier and door partitions on the right which would have allowed one to control how much light was entering the space very easily. 

Crete, Knossos

[modern-maenad]

storage magazines with recesses for pithoi of olive oil. the blackening on the edge of the pier is from a fire that marked the end of Knossos being used as a large administrative center. one can imagine how quickly a fire in an olive oil storage area would have gone up. 

Knossos, Crete

[modern-maenad]

up on the restored piano nobile (first floor).

Knossos, Crete

[modern-maenad]

giant pithoi (the applied decorations are intended to look like ropes). 

Knossos, Crete 

[modern-maenad]

nobody really agrees on what this symbol means. Evans dubbed it a horn of consecration and said it represented the horns of the sacred bull. some think it's modeled after the peak of Mt. Ida, others think it may have been adapted from an Egyptian symbol. 

Knossos, Crete

[modern-maenad]

some of the southeast section of the complex. it was rough waking up early to get on site but worth it for the buttery light and lack of crowds. 

Knossos, Crete

[modern-maenad]

monumental staircase. 

Knossos, Crete

[modern-maenad]

massive central court in the center of the complex. rare quiet time before the hordes of schoolchildren on field trips arrive. 

Knossos, Crete

[modern-maenad]

across from the throne is a depressed area of the floor with steps leading down to it which Evans called it a lustral basin, believing it was used for some sort of ritual purification. most folks do not think that's what this feature would have been used for, but the name has stuck. above you can see light streaming in from a light well, a common feature in palatial architecture. 

Knossos, Crete

[modern-maenad]

during peak times Knossos is so crowded with visitors it is almost impossible to get in to see the "throne room", featuring wonderful griffin frescos and the infamous lustral basin. 

Knossos, Crete

[modern-maenad]

so much work has been done at Knossos to make it a popular tourist attraction that it's fair to call it the Disneyland of archaeological sites. note the reconstructed Mycenaean columns in front of the so called Charging Bull fresco. 

Knossos, Crete

[modern-maenad]

Knossos is a massive site, and is widely acknowledged as the first city in Europe. it also has been subject to lots of somewhat imaginative reconstruction at the hands of Sir Arthur Evans. 

Knossos, Crete

[modern-maenad]

paved theatral area to the northwest of the main complex, which leads down into the royal road. 

Knossos, Crete