antiquities in Piraeus, the port of Athens

 The Pireaus Archaeological Museum was the final historical site of our summer travels. Pireaus is the port city of Athens. While we did not get to go into the center of Athens, we enjoyed seeing this museum and wandering around the surrounding area. Below are some of the key artifacts we saw. I have particularly uploaded those that were less common within the summer's explorations, which obviously included artifacts of much greater antiquity. However, the items below are quite worth noticing, including musical instruments, a replica shrine with real artifacts, and measuring standards of various sorts. Personally, I always find the various styles of altars fascinating since I don't have a modern standard to compare them to.

Pieces of musical instruments

  It's amazing how some things haven't really changed over the centuries... look at the surgical instruments and vases and fish hooks.

Bronze statue, look at the unique eyes.

Entryway to the 'shrine' style room

A room set up like a typical ancient shrine

an altar to Hellos Mithras

Measures for liquid weights

Price list for goods (regulated)

Engraved measures

 Notice the handspan, arm-span, foot, and elbow to fingertips.

Coins of interstate commerce

A sundial

Santorini, beautiful and deeply impressing

  Volcanoes are known to have frequently affected societies or civilizations. (A Mexican volcano made the news last month due to its affect 1,500 years ago on Mayan civilization.) Or you might think of Pompeii or Krakatoa and their known affects on nearby and/or distant societies. According to our tour guide on Crete, Santorini's explosion some 3,600 years ago may well have been the event that allowed the Mycenaeans to overthrow the Minoans as the area's powerful civilization (see previous post).

 Anyways, sailing into the crater of the volcano was impressing: everything you see in the first photo below was the ancient island; the crater of the volcano is the entire center section that looks like a bay. This gave an idea of the cataclysmic nature of a major volcanic event. (Click on the pictures to enlarge them.)

Panoramic shot, entering Santorini's crater

  Besides all that, Santorini is gorgeous; my favorite shot was the nighttime one below, taken by Bethany.

one section inside the crater of Santorini

night view of Santorini

town on Santorini, looks like snow

Crete: The 'Minoans,' the first known advanced European civilization

  One of the interesting aspects of our tour of the ancient 'Minoan' city of Knossos (in modern Heraklion) was the guide's repeated comment, "We often do not know where history ends and myth begins here." Many aspects of this site are reminiscent of the Greek myths that one can still read, such as the story of the Minotaur or Daedalus & Icarus. In some areas, these myths seem to be correlated to historical events; while in other ways they are clearly fictional.

Rooms within the Palace of Knossos

  This island, which we call Crete, was called Caphtor (Deuteronomy 2:23; Jeremiah 47:4; Amos 9:7) before gaining its modern name (Acts 2:11; chapter 27; Titus 1:5, 12). However, in this earliest of known advanced European civilizations, the people's own name for themselves is uncertain - thus my quotation marks around the name of 'Minoans.' Apparently the Minoans are called this because it was their king(s)' name/title.

View from the Palace to the mountain from where water was brought by aqueducts 

  The palace complex is huge, especially considering the time and the place, more than 3500 years ago. Apparently, some scholars think that the palace itself was 'the labyrinth' in the story of the minotaur.

The replicas of the paintings that are still displayed are impressive. (Originals are in a covered museum.)

Entry to "the Throne Room"

Inside the Throne Room; the throne is on the right with a bowl for washing in the center

Pictures within the throne room

Ancient sewer system that still works, although it's covered with a modern grating

Notes about the Hall of the Double Axes

Dolphin mural in the queen's room

Reconstructed wall with bull relief 

  Did you know that bull-leaping is a thing? Apparently one of the major sports of ancient Crete (and the succeeding Mycenaean culture) was leaping over a bull acrobatically, hands to the horns, back flip or hand spring off the back! Look it up online, the remaining figurines and drawings and such like are impressive.

Another side of the palace

180-degree view to give a sense of size (about a third of the Palace complex should be visible)