Friday, June 24, 2011

I have offically hit a wall of exhaustion and brain overload today.  I guess I can't complain seeing that it's the true first of the trip.  The 95+ degree heat along with the long walks didn't help matters, but thankfully our archeological tour guide that took us through the Agora (basically a marketplace of shops and civic activities dating back to 450 B.C.) was very interesting and she based her whole tour on the facts of the artifacts that she and her teammates have and are digging up in the area just below the Acropolis.

The Agora

Molly - our archeologists and tour guide of the Agora

These columns each represented the 12 tribes of Athens and the surrounding areas.  When people came to the marketplace, they would come to this area and go to their tribes column and read the news that concerned their tribe.  Very cool.

The Sanctuary of Hermoides

Can you see the light brown stone on the bottom?  Our tour guide threw a little water on the darker side so we could see the anicent inscription.  The white marble stone on top is the "modern" translation.  There was a ton of inscription items and our tour guide, Molly, specializes in inscription artifacts.

These lion heads and mouths are on the roof of the stoa (basically the large porch that covered stores in the Agora).  When it rains, the rainwater falls out of the lion's mouths.  When archeologists rebuilt these and others, the water was just dripping out and straight down creating puddles that damaged the foundation.  Then they realized that another artifact they had been finding were actually tongues that belonged in the lion's mouth which allowed the water to push out and away from the building!  Loved that piece of history and piecing together of history.  Smart guys!

The "front" of the stoa.

The Stoa from another angle.  This has been totally rebuilt to it's form from about 450 B.C.

Then our tour guide took us past the current archeological sites that are being worked on.  I thought it was exciting to see 400+ old artifacts dugs up when I was in Jamestown a few years ago, but today I was seeing artificats come up from a well from 2500 years ago!!!  Unbelievable.

Two people digging.  It is literally back-breaking work.  It was 95+ degrees out there today and there was so shade!

An archeologist named Emily was at the bottom of the well and these guys were pulling up buckets she was filling out of the well.  It was so neat to watch!

Can you see the blue bucket to the right of the guy?  That is the bucket that came up with a very large piece of pottery from who knows how many thousands of years ago.

Lunch was delicious.  We FINALLY had gyros!  We've all been dying for them and they did not disappoint.  Afterwards we were given some much appreciated free time.  I chose to come back to the hotel to do some sink laundry, my blogging (you are welcome!), and then I plan to just walk to a few local shops before dinner. Tonight I am sticking around the hotel in hope of getting re-packed before we take off for the island of Aegina for two days.  Happy Friday!