Hollins Goes To Greece

Sleeping in yesterday spoiled us. However, we were all up and out of the hotel by 8:00 am. The trek to the Agora proved to us that this trip has gotten us in shape because we were hardly out of breath by the time we got there, unlike the first morning in Athens.

Today we learned once again how lucky we are to have Professor Salowey for a guide. Before we entered the Agora, she showed us part of the current excavations which are unmarked and unexplained to the passerby. The two main features of this area were an altar of Aphrodite and the Painted Stoa which would have marked the main entrance into the ancient Agora. Although the western corner of the painted stoa has been excavated, the plans to unearth the remainder of the building must wait until more of the surrounding modern buildings can be purchased and carefully torn down to expose the ruins beneath.

Once inside the Agora, we made our way past the statues of giants which were the only pieces of sculpture or architecture standing above ground when excavations began in the early 1930s. It was amazing to see the statue bases standing about 10 feet above the ground and thinking of the entire area around being filled with dirt and silt from the river and the surrounding hills.

Giant statues in the Agora

From there we walked to the altar of the 12 Olympian Gods, which would have stood near the entrance to the Agora in ancient times. This was the point from which all distances from Athens were measured and citizens in trouble could seek refuge. Unfortunately, all that remains of this important landmark is a single corner of the foundation.

Professor Salowey at the Altar of the 12 Gods

At the tholos building, Ashley gave a presentation on ancient Athenian democracy. We learned that democracy in ancient times was similar to our modern democracy with a few significant differences. The Athenians were very concerned with the idea of “majority rules” but did not allow the lowest class or women to participate in government decisions. Also, the most numerous artifacts found in the Agora were “ostraka” or pottery sherds which were used as voting ballots. Unlike our modern elections where the ballot indicates the candidate of choice, ancient ballots were inscribed with the name of the public official who was thought to be the most detrimental to government affairs. The person with the most votes would then be exiled from the city for 10 years.

Perhaps the most impressive structure in the Agora is the well-preserved temple of Hephaistos, the god of metal-working and craft. This was our chance to test our skill at reading ancient temples. We walked around the temple looking for clues of the order, plan, decoration, and remodeling of the building. We passed with flying colors, noting that the temple was Doric, had some unusual decorative sculpture, and had been modified into a Christian Church in a later period. Professor Salowey was proud.

 The Temple of Hephaistos in the Agora

We made a cursory walk through the site museum, looking at material from graves and homes in the area of the Agora. However, the real treat of the day, thanks to the connections of our esteemed professor, was getting a private tour through the conservation labs and storage rooms of the American School’s basecamp at the Agora excavations. First, we went to the conservation lab where every artifact which is brought out of the ground on site is cleaned, preserved, and catalogued. The process was fascinating. We were impressed with the detail, patience, and knowledge required of the conservationists and the passion they have for their work. We saw many artifacts from several different decades, which depending on the preservation and restoration techniques were in various states of deterioration.

We did not want to leave the lab, but we were soon drawn out into another area by Marcy, an archaeologist at the site. She has been working on the Agora excavations for almost ten years and obviously loves her work. For those Hollins people, she was the Achaeological equivalent of Renee Goddard, very animated, very passionate. She showed us the amazingly detailed notebooks of the process of excavation, which include not only the ancient sites they excavate but also the buildings they tear down to begin digging. Though they have incorporated some new technology, they have been keeping records in the same way for 75 years. Then she took us to what we think is one of the most amazing places we have yet been, the basement storerooms of the center. In the basement along rows and rows of wooden shelves are ALL of the artifacts from the site.

Rows and rows of Amphoras!!!

There were literally hundreds of drawers of pottery sherds and shelves and shelves of stones bearing inscriptions. The long, rows of identical shelves reminded us of the last scene in Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark. There really are places like that!!!

Professor Salowey’s friend, Molly Richardson, who is an epigraphy expert then gave us a demonstration of how to read ancient inscriptions. She first used water to bring out the text on a grave marker. As a group, we determined that the marker was for a woman from Antioch. Molly also told us that of about 20,000 inscriptions we have from Attica, over 7,000 are from the area in an around the Agora. We saw when walking around the storerooms and talking to Voula, a scholar currently revisiting all of the inscriptions in the Agora, that the Agora is truly a treasure trove of ancient inscriptions and artifacts.

After a quick lunch at a souvlaki place, we made our way to Kerameikos, which is the ancient entrance to the city of Athens.

A view of Kerameikos

We focused primarily on the cemetery area. Jenny gave a close reading of two grave stelai which are preserved in the site museum, and then we went out on site to get in idea of how these monuments would have been placed in ancient times. Upon entering the ancient city of Athens, a traveler would first pass through the monuments of the city’s deceased citizens requiring him or her to acknowledge the ancestors of the city. We concluded our official itinerary for the day at Kerameikos and were left to enjoy another afternoon and evening in Athens.

Lindsay and Michelle