Hollins Goes To Greece

     Today’s journey began at the local museum in Sparta, housing local Byzantine and Roman artifacts. We were able to catch a glimpse of the amazing mosaics, which depicted scenes of mythology, animals, and significant people. We learned the mosaics were made of small semi precious stones and not of painted tile. We also were able to see pieces of marble statues, grave steles, small lead figurines, pottery, and clay masks. The masks are replicas of wooden masks the Spartans used durring cult ritual. 
       After the museum we drove through Sparta to the archeaological site of Artemis Othia where Lindsay Little gave a fantasticaly fun and informational presentation. From her presentation we learned the layout of the site which included a theater, temple of Artemis, and an alter. The site was used for cult ritual to send boys into adulthood. The ritual began possibly as human sacrafice; it later evolved into the boys being flogged, sometimes to their death to determine the strongest. The ritual evolved over centuries and ended as almost a game with the older boys flogging the younger boys as they raced to the alter attempting to steal cheese. Later it was used as a tourist attraction for the Romans. To really get a taste of this ritual we enacted it, minus the flogging, right there on site, with professor Richtor as our priestess.
      After Sparta we hopped back on the bus and drove to an island rock called Monemvasia. The town has remained almost unchanged since the medieval ages, c.1600. The town was filled with Byzantine architecture mostly of churches, a really big castle and the local town village full of culture and personality. When we arrived the professors let us loose to explore on our own. We explored the village, then (wipped by our professors) we ventured to the top of the castle where we dutifully explored through the giant flora. We finished our day  watching the sun set over the Mediterranean.

Streaks of red and gold painted the sky in Dimitsana when we took our morning walk through cobblestone streets to view schools that kept alive Greek tradition and customs during the Greek war of independence.

“Dimitsana was very picturesque and it was great to see what a traditional Greek village looked like,” Stephanie Prosack said. “It reminded me of the village in Beauty and the Beast.”

The first official stop of the day was the Open-Air Water Power Museum. It was a highly informative journey into the time of pre-industrial water-based technology. Self-guided, and bundled up against the chill and the first drizzle that heralded rain, our group dispersed amidst the museum to see how corn was ground up, as well as to see how the villagers used water for the tanning process in leather making, and also to make gunpowder. In Dimitsana, this was highly valuable during the Greek War of Independence. Some of the staff members were kind enough to demonstrate, how some of the technology worked.

“Seeing how a country could manipulate it’s natural sources of energy was incredible,” Kristen Gillespie said. “On top of the mountains there are wind turbines, like in Athens. In other places that are flater there are flat land solar panels. In Dimitsana, a city that is tucked away in a river valley, they only have this river, and they used it to power a revolution. I found it fascinating that they used it for so much, washing clothes, grinding grain. They used this one renewable source of energy for everything.”

After exploring Dimitsana, we departed the region of Arcadia, and journeyed  towards Tripolis. If there were one word to describe this town, it would be this: chaotic. Traffic filled the center of town, the smell of warm food mingling with car exhaust. The shouts of locals combined with the honking horns of cars, scooters, and even buses, were more than enough to leave you with a deep sense of being overwhelmed. Through puddles, and mud, and the occasional food wrapper we would trek, amidst popular shops and boutiques.

After lunch, and with a special treat of chocolates from our fearless leader Professor Salowey, we continued on our quest to find our final stop for the day. This time, we were in Sparta, and were introduced to the Museum of the Olive and Greek Olive Oil with a presentation by Emily Mendelssohn, who educated us on the history, health benefits, and cultivation of the olive. The second self-guided museum further educated us on the different uses of the olive, as well as what is believed to be the origins of the olive.

“I found it interesting because olive oil is so important in the religion, they burn candles with it, all their food has it,” Emily Mendelssohn said. “It’s interesting to see how it’s always been important in their culture through this museum. I particularly enjoyed the exhibits on the fossilized leaves, and the old presses.”

Afterwords, Professor Salowey led us, from the museum and to the site of Ancient Sparta, where we would view the remains of a temple of Athena and also those of a theater. We even got to see what progress had been made of a new archaeological site within the area. Our path through the site of Sparta ended after investigating some inscriptions written into the wall of the old theatre.

NB: For those of you who are following our journey through this travel-blog, we sincerely apologize for the small amount of photographs that have been posted thus far. Finding Internet access that is capable of uploading data quickly is proving to be harder than we predicted. Please check back in the near future, for more photographs.

-Emileigh Clare and Liz Brown