Crete

Hey all,

We’re just got back to our hotel in Athens (as of time of writing) about half an hour ago (7:45 am on May 25th), and everyone is sitting around waiting for our rooms to be ready so we can nap/read/shower and enjoy our day off. More interesting, however, is that we just got back from Crete!

I’ll spare you the details of what we were doing, because you can read them in exhaustive detail on the official blog, and because you probably don’t care that much about the intricacies of Minoan palace architecture. Incidentally, if you do follow the official blog, you may have noticed a change toward a more formal and educational tone in most of the entries. That’s because the blog entries are now about a third of our grade with the new professor (Rutter), whereas PCC basically counted them for participation only. Anyway…

Crete was one of my favorite places on the trip, even just looking at the landscape. It’s extremely mountainous, and there was even some snow on the mountaintops in places. Unfortunately, most of the really high mountains were in western Crete, and we spent approximately zero time out there because there aren’t any fancy Minoan palaces in that region. The academic focus of the trip has shifted from Archaic and Classical Period material to the Bronze Age cultures of the Minoans (on Crete) and the Mycenaeans (on the mainland). We spent most of our working time looking at Minoan palaces and cemeteries, with a few villas and later sites mixed in.

We've also had a lot more non-working time, partly because Prof. Rutter is a bit more relaxed than PCC and partly because it was in the high 90s almost every day on Crete, so we took some time off in the middle of the day in order to not die of heat prostration. We also did a lot less hiking than I was expecting us to do, but Cam and I still got some good runs in.

Text is boring. Here are some photos:

The view from Mt. Iuktas, the peak sanctuary (a type of Minoan religious site) associated with Knossos, which is straight ahead on the plain far below. 

The Archaic to Hellenistic polis of Lato, of which we all have a billion pictures because we had a paper assignment about comparing it to Gournia, a Minoan settlement. 

Zakros, a small Minoan palace by the sea. 

The Gorge of the Dead (or "Dead's Gorge," as the sign called it), where burials from Zakros are found. 

Cam's killing it with the style choices. 

This was taken in the back of a pickup truck taking us to a site (we didn't have time to hike up and down before sunset, so we settled for just hiking down...lame). Yes, that is Cam's favorite shirt. 

Phaistos, my personal favorite of the Minoan palaces. 

The lighthouse at Chania, where we caught the ferry back to Athens.

We're going to the Peloponnese (actually, we're in the Peloponnese now...I'm finishing this up at the hotel in Nafplio) and then Boeotia to look at Mycenaean sites. One week left! How bittersweet. Hope everything is well for all the readers of this blog.

Laurel