1.
Classics
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Classics or Classical Studies is the study of classical antiquity. It encompasses the study of the Graeco-Roman world, particularly of its languages, and literature but also it encompasses the study of Graeco-Roman philosophy, history, and archaeology. Traditionally in the West, the study of the Greek and Roman classics was considered one of the cornerstones of the humanities and it has been traditionally a cornerstone of a typical elite education. The word Classics is derived from the Latin adjective classicus, meaning belonging to the highest class of citizens, the word was originally used to describe the members of the highest class in ancient Rome. By the 2nd century AD the word was used in literary criticism to describe writers of the highest quality, for example, Aulus Gellius, in his Attic Nights, contrasts classicus and proletarius writers. By the 6th century AD, the word had acquired a meaning, referring to pupils at a school. Thus the two meanings of the word, referring both to literature considered to be of the highest quality, and to the standard texts used as part of a curriculum. In the Middle Ages, classics and education were tightly intertwined, according to Jan Ziolkowski, while Latin was hugely influential, however, Greek was barely studied, and Greek literature survived almost solely in Latin translation. The works of even major Greek authors such as Hesiod, whose names continued to be known by educated Europeans, were unavailable in the Middle Ages. Along with the unavailability of Greek authors, there were differences between the classical canon known today and the works valued in the Middle Ages. Catullus, for instance, was almost entirely unknown in the medieval period, the Renaissance led to the increasing study of both ancient literature and ancient history, as well as a revival of classical styles of Latin. From the 14th century, first in Italy and then increasingly across Europe, Renaissance Humanism, Humanism saw a reform in education in Europe, introducing a wider range of Latin authors as well as bringing back the study of Greek language and literature to Western Europe. This reintroduction was initiated by Petrarch and Boccaccio who commissioned a Calabrian scholar to translate the Homeric poems, the late 17th and 18th centuries are the period in Western European literary history which is most associated with the classical tradition, as writers consciously adapted classical models. Classical models were so prized that the plays of William Shakespeare were rewritten along neoclassical lines. From the beginning of the 18th century, the study of Greek became increasingly important relative to that of Latin, in this period Johann Winckelmanns claims for the superiority of the Greek visual arts influenced a shift in aesthetic judgements, while in the literary sphere, G. E. Lessing returned Homer to the centre of artistic achievement, in the United Kingdom, the study of Greek in schools began in the late 18th century. The poet Walter Savage Landor claimed to have one of the first English schoolboys to write in Greek during his time at Rugby School. The 19th century saw the influence of the world, and the value of a classical education, decline, especially in the US
2.
Archaeology
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Archaeology, or archeology, is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, Archaeology can be considered both a social science and a branch of the humanities. In North America, archaeology is considered a sub-field of anthropology, archaeologists study human prehistory and history, from the development of the first stone tools at Lomekwi in East Africa 3.3 million years ago up until recent decades. Archaeology as a field is distinct from the discipline of palaeontology, Archaeology is particularly important for learning about prehistoric societies, for whom there may be no written records to study. Prehistory includes over 99% of the human past, from the Paleolithic until the advent of literacy in societies across the world, Archaeology has various goals, which range from understanding culture history to reconstructing past lifeways to documenting and explaining changes in human societies through time. The discipline involves surveying, excavation and eventually analysis of data collected to learn more about the past, in broad scope, archaeology relies on cross-disciplinary research. Archaeology developed out of antiquarianism in Europe during the 19th century, Archaeology has been used by nation-states to create particular visions of the past. Nonetheless, today, archaeologists face many problems, such as dealing with pseudoarchaeology, the looting of artifacts, a lack of public interest, the science of archaeology grew out of the older multi-disciplinary study known as antiquarianism. Antiquarians studied history with attention to ancient artifacts and manuscripts. Tentative steps towards the systematization of archaeology as a science took place during the Enlightenment era in Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries, in Europe, philosophical interest in the remains of Greco-Roman civilization and the rediscovery of classical culture began in the late Middle Age. Antiquarians, including John Leland and William Camden, conducted surveys of the English countryside, one of the first sites to undergo archaeological excavation was Stonehenge and other megalithic monuments in England. John Aubrey was a pioneer archaeologist who recorded numerous megalithic and other monuments in southern England. He was also ahead of his time in the analysis of his findings and he attempted to chart the chronological stylistic evolution of handwriting, medieval architecture, costume, and shield-shapes. Excavations were also carried out in the ancient towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum and these excavations began in 1748 in Pompeii, while in Herculaneum they began in 1738. The discovery of entire towns, complete with utensils and even human shapes, however, prior to the development of modern techniques, excavations tended to be haphazard, the importance of concepts such as stratification and context were overlooked. The father of archaeological excavation was William Cunnington and he undertook excavations in Wiltshire from around 1798, funded by Sir Richard Colt Hoare. Cunnington made meticulous recordings of neolithic and Bronze Age barrows, one of the major achievements of 19th century archaeology was the development of stratigraphy. The idea of overlapping strata tracing back to successive periods was borrowed from the new geological and paleontological work of scholars like William Smith, James Hutton, the application of stratigraphy to archaeology first took place with the excavations of prehistorical and Bronze Age sites
3.
Europe
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Europe is a continent that comprises the westernmost part of Eurasia. Europe is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, yet the non-oceanic borders of Europe—a concept dating back to classical antiquity—are arbitrary. Europe covers about 10,180,000 square kilometres, or 2% of the Earths surface, politically, Europe is divided into about fifty sovereign states of which the Russian Federation is the largest and most populous, spanning 39% of the continent and comprising 15% of its population. Europe had a population of about 740 million as of 2015. Further from the sea, seasonal differences are more noticeable than close to the coast, Europe, in particular ancient Greece, was the birthplace of Western civilization. The fall of the Western Roman Empire, during the period, marked the end of ancient history. Renaissance humanism, exploration, art, and science led to the modern era, from the Age of Discovery onwards, Europe played a predominant role in global affairs. Between the 16th and 20th centuries, European powers controlled at times the Americas, most of Africa, Oceania. The Industrial Revolution, which began in Great Britain at the end of the 18th century, gave rise to economic, cultural, and social change in Western Europe. During the Cold War, Europe was divided along the Iron Curtain between NATO in the west and the Warsaw Pact in the east, until the revolutions of 1989 and fall of the Berlin Wall. In 1955, the Council of Europe was formed following a speech by Sir Winston Churchill and it includes all states except for Belarus, Kazakhstan and Vatican City. Further European integration by some states led to the formation of the European Union, the EU originated in Western Europe but has been expanding eastward since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. The European Anthem is Ode to Joy and states celebrate peace, in classical Greek mythology, Europa is the name of either a Phoenician princess or of a queen of Crete. The name contains the elements εὐρύς, wide, broad and ὤψ eye, broad has been an epithet of Earth herself in the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European religion and the poetry devoted to it. For the second part also the divine attributes of grey-eyed Athena or ox-eyed Hera. The same naming motive according to cartographic convention appears in Greek Ανατολή, Martin Litchfield West stated that phonologically, the match between Europas name and any form of the Semitic word is very poor. Next to these there is also a Proto-Indo-European root *h1regʷos, meaning darkness. Most major world languages use words derived from Eurṓpē or Europa to refer to the continent, in some Turkic languages the originally Persian name Frangistan is used casually in referring to much of Europe, besides official names such as Avrupa or Evropa
4.
Greek language
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Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, native to Greece and other parts of the Eastern Mediterranean. It has the longest documented history of any living language, spanning 34 centuries of written records and its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the major part of its history, other systems, such as Linear B and the Cypriot syllabary, were used previously. The alphabet arose from the Phoenician script and was in turn the basis of the Latin, Cyrillic, Armenian, Coptic, Gothic and many other writing systems. Together with the Latin texts and traditions of the Roman world, during antiquity, Greek was a widely spoken lingua franca in the Mediterranean world and many places beyond. It would eventually become the official parlance of the Byzantine Empire, the language is spoken by at least 13.2 million people today in Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Albania, Turkey, and the Greek diaspora. Greek roots are used to coin new words for other languages, Greek. Greek has been spoken in the Balkan peninsula since around the 3rd millennium BC, the earliest written evidence is a Linear B clay tablet found in Messenia that dates to between 1450 and 1350 BC, making Greek the worlds oldest recorded living language. Among the Indo-European languages, its date of earliest written attestation is matched only by the now extinct Anatolian languages, the Greek language is conventionally divided into the following periods, Proto-Greek, the unrecorded but assumed last ancestor of all known varieties of Greek. The unity of Proto-Greek would have ended as Hellenic migrants entered the Greek peninsula sometime in the Neolithic era or the Bronze Age, Mycenaean Greek, the language of the Mycenaean civilisation. It is recorded in the Linear B script on tablets dating from the 15th century BC onwards, Ancient Greek, in its various dialects, the language of the Archaic and Classical periods of the ancient Greek civilisation. It was widely known throughout the Roman Empire, after the Roman conquest of Greece, an unofficial bilingualism of Greek and Latin was established in the city of Rome and Koine Greek became a first or second language in the Roman Empire. The origin of Christianity can also be traced through Koine Greek, Medieval Greek, also known as Byzantine Greek, the continuation of Koine Greek in Byzantine Greece, up to the demise of the Byzantine Empire in the 15th century. Much of the written Greek that was used as the language of the Byzantine Empire was an eclectic middle-ground variety based on the tradition of written Koine. Modern Greek, Stemming from Medieval Greek, Modern Greek usages can be traced in the Byzantine period and it is the language used by the modern Greeks, and, apart from Standard Modern Greek, there are several dialects of it. In the modern era, the Greek language entered a state of diglossia, the historical unity and continuing identity between the various stages of the Greek language is often emphasised. Greek speakers today still tend to regard literary works of ancient Greek as part of their own rather than a foreign language and it is also often stated that the historical changes have been relatively slight compared with some other languages. According to one estimation, Homeric Greek is probably closer to demotic than 12-century Middle English is to modern spoken English, Greek is spoken by about 13 million people, mainly in Greece, Albania and Cyprus, but also worldwide by the large Greek diaspora. Greek is the language of Greece, where it is spoken by almost the entire population
5.
Athens
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Athens is the capital and largest city of Greece. In modern times, Athens is a cosmopolitan metropolis and central to economic, financial, industrial, maritime. In 2015, Athens was ranked the worlds 29th richest city by purchasing power, Athens is recognised as a global city because of its location and its importance in shipping, finance, commerce, media, entertainment, arts, international trade, culture, education and tourism. It is one of the biggest economic centres in southeastern Europe, with a financial sector. The municipality of Athens had a population of 664,046 within its limits. The urban area of Athens extends beyond its administrative city limits. According to Eurostat in 2011, the Functional urban areas of Athens was the 9th most populous FUA in the European Union, Athens is also the southernmost capital on the European mainland. The city also retains Roman and Byzantine monuments, as well as a number of Ottoman monuments. Athens is home to two UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the Acropolis of Athens and the medieval Daphni Monastery, Athens was the host city of the first modern-day Olympic Games in 1896, and 108 years later it welcomed home the 2004 Summer Olympics. In Ancient Greek, the name of the city was Ἀθῆναι a plural, in earlier Greek, such as Homeric Greek, the name had been current in the singular form though, as Ἀθήνη. It was possibly rendered in the later on, like those of Θῆβαι and Μυκῆναι. During the medieval period the name of the city was rendered once again in the singular as Ἀθήνα, an etiological myth explaining how Athens has acquired its name was well known among ancient Athenians and even became the theme of the sculpture on the West pediment of the Parthenon. The goddess of wisdom, Athena, and the god of the seas, Poseidon had many disagreements, in an attempt to compel the people, Poseidon created a salt water spring by striking the ground with his trident, symbolizing naval power. However, when Athena created the tree, symbolizing peace and prosperity. Different etymologies, now rejected, were proposed during the 19th century. Christian Lobeck proposed as the root of the name the word ἄθος or ἄνθος meaning flower, ludwig von Döderlein proposed the stem of the verb θάω, stem θη- to denote Athens as having fertile soil. In classical literature, the city was referred to as the City of the Violet Crown, first documented in Pindars ἰοστέφανοι Ἀθᾶναι. In medieval texts, variant names include Setines, Satine, and Astines, today the caption η πρωτεύουσα, the capital, has become somewhat common
6.
Greece
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Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, historically also known as Hellas, is a country in southeastern Europe, with a population of approximately 11 million as of 2015. Athens is the capital and largest city, followed by Thessaloniki. Greece is strategically located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, situated on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, the Republic of Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to the northeast. Greece consists of nine regions, Macedonia, Central Greece, the Peloponnese, Thessaly, Epirus, the Aegean Islands, Thrace, Crete. The Aegean Sea lies to the east of the mainland, the Ionian Sea to the west, the Cretan Sea and the Mediterranean Sea to the south. Greece has the longest coastline on the Mediterranean Basin and the 11th longest coastline in the world at 13,676 km in length, featuring a vast number of islands, eighty percent of Greece is mountainous, with Mount Olympus being the highest peak at 2,918 metres. From the eighth century BC, the Greeks were organised into various independent city-states, known as polis, which spanned the entire Mediterranean region and the Black Sea. Greece was annexed by Rome in the second century BC, becoming a part of the Roman Empire and its successor. The Greek Orthodox Church also shaped modern Greek identity and transmitted Greek traditions to the wider Orthodox World, falling under Ottoman dominion in the mid-15th century, the modern nation state of Greece emerged in 1830 following a war of independence. Greeces rich historical legacy is reflected by its 18 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, among the most in Europe, Greece is a democratic and developed country with an advanced high-income economy, a high quality of life, and a very high standard of living. A founding member of the United Nations, Greece was the member to join the European Communities and has been part of the Eurozone since 2001. Greeces unique cultural heritage, large industry, prominent shipping sector. It is the largest economy in the Balkans, where it is an important regional investor, the names for the nation of Greece and the Greek people differ from the names used in other languages, locations and cultures. The earliest evidence of the presence of human ancestors in the southern Balkans, dated to 270,000 BC, is to be found in the Petralona cave, all three stages of the stone age are represented in Greece, for example in the Franchthi Cave. Neolithic settlements in Greece, dating from the 7th millennium BC, are the oldest in Europe by several centuries and these civilizations possessed writing, the Minoans writing in an undeciphered script known as Linear A, and the Mycenaeans in Linear B, an early form of Greek. The Mycenaeans gradually absorbed the Minoans, but collapsed violently around 1200 BC and this ushered in a period known as the Greek Dark Ages, from which written records are absent. The end of the Dark Ages is traditionally dated to 776 BC, the Iliad and the Odyssey, the foundational texts of Western literature, are believed to have been composed by Homer in the 7th or 8th centuries BC. With the end of the Dark Ages, there emerged various kingdoms and city-states across the Greek peninsula, in 508 BC, Cleisthenes instituted the worlds first democratic system of government in Athens
7.
Epigraphy
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Specifically excluded from epigraphy are the historical significance of an epigraph as a document and the artistic value of a literary composition. A person using the methods of epigraphy is called an epigrapher or epigraphist, for example, the Behistun inscription is an official document of the Achaemenid Empire engraved on native rock at a location in Iran. Epigraphists are responsible for reconstructing, translating, and dating the trilingual inscription and it is the work of historians, however, to determine and interpret the events recorded by the inscription as document. Often, epigraphy and history are competences practiced by the same person, an epigraph is any sort of text, from a single grapheme to a lengthy document. Epigraphy overlaps other competences such as numismatics or palaeography, when compared to books, most inscriptions are short. Typically the material is durable, but the durability might be an accident of circumstance, epigraphy is a primary tool of archaeology when dealing with literate cultures. The US Library of Congress classifies epigraphy as one of the sciences of history. Epigraphy also helps identify a forgery, epigraphic evidence formed part of the discussion concerning the James Ossuary, the study of ancient handwriting, usually in ink, is a separate field, palaeography. The character of the writing, the subject of epigraphy, is a quite separate from the nature of the text. Texts inscribed in stone are usually for public view and so they are different from the written texts of each culture. Not all inscribed texts are public, however, in Mycenaean Greece the deciphered texts of Linear B were revealed to be used for economic. Informal inscribed texts are graffiti in its original sense, the science of epigraphy has been developing steadily since the 16th century. Principles of epigraphy vary culture by culture, and the infant science in European hands concentrated on Latin inscriptions at first, individual contributions have been made by epigraphers such as Georg Fabricius, August Wilhelm Zumpt, Theodor Mommsen, Emil Hübner, Franz Cumont, Louis Robert. The Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum, begun by Mommsen and other scholars, has published in Berlin since 1863. It is the largest and most extensive collection of Latin inscriptions, New fascicles are still produced as the recovery of inscriptions continues. The Corpus is arranged geographically, all inscriptions from Rome are contained in volume 6 and this volume has the greatest number of inscriptions, volume 6, part 8, fascicle 3 was just recently published. Specialists depend on such on-going series of volumes in which newly discovered inscriptions are published, often in Latin, Greek epigraphy has unfolded in the hands of a different team, with different corpora. The first is Corpus Inscriptionum Graecarum of which four volumes came out, again at Berlin and this marked a first attempt at a comprehensive publication of Greek inscriptions copied from all over the Greek-speaking world
8.
History of modern Greece
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The establishment of Catholic Latin states on Greek soil, and the struggles of the Orthodox Byzantine Greeks against them, led to the emergence of a distinct Greek national identity. Ottoman control was largely absent in the interior of Greece. Rhodes fell in 1522, Cyprus in 1571, and the Venetians retained Crete until 1670, the Ionian Islands were only briefly ruled by the Ottomans, and remained primarily under the rule of Venice. The first large-scale insurrection against Ottoman rule was the Orlov Revolt of the early 1770s, as a result, especially in the aftermath of the French Revolution, liberal and nationalist ideas began to spread across the Greek lands. In 1821, the Greeks rose up against the Ottoman Empire, Greece was initially to be an autonomous state under Ottoman suzerainty, but by 1832, in the Treaty of Constantinople, it was recognized as a fully independent kingdom. In the meantime, the 3rd National Assembly of the Greek insurgents called upon Ioannis Kapodistrias, on his arrival, Kapodistrias launched a major reform and modernisation programme that covered all areas. Furthermore, he tried to undermine the authority of the clans that he considered the useless legacy of a bygone. The customs dues of the inhabitants of Hydra were the source of revenue for these municipalities. It appears that Kapodistrias had refused to convene the National Assembly and was ruling as a despot, the municipality of Hydra instructed Admiral Miaoulis and Alexandros Mavrokordatos to go to Poros and seize the Hellenic Navys fleet there. This Miaoulis did so with the intention of preventing a blockade of the islands, Kapodistrias called on the British and French residents to support him in putting down the rebellion, but this they refused to do. Nonetheless, an Admiral Rikord took his ships north to Poros, Colonel Kallergis took a half-trained force of Greek Army regulars and a force of irregulars in support. With less than 200 men, Miaoulis was unable to make much of a fight, Fort Heidek on Bourtzi Island was overrun by the regulars, encircled by the Russians in the harbor and Kallergis force on land, Poros surrendered. Miaoulis was forced to set charges in the flagship Hellas and the corvette Hydra to blow them up when he, Kallergis men were enraged by the loss of the ships and sacked Poros, carrying off plunder to Nauplion. The loss of the best ships in the fleet crippled the Hellenic Navy for many years and he did finally call the National Assembly, but his other actions triggered more opposition and that led to his downfall. In 1831, Kapodistrias ordered the imprisonment of Petrobey Mavromichalis, the Bey of the Mani Peninsula, Ioannis Kapodistrias was succeeded as Governor by his younger brother, Augustinos Kapodistrias. Augustinos ruled only for six months, during which the country was very much plunged into chaos, the protocol also dealt with the way in which a Regency was to be managed until Otto of Bavaria reached his majority to assume the throne of Greece. The Ottoman Empire was indemnified in the sum of 40,000,000 piastres for the loss of territory in the new kingdom. Ottos reign would prove troubled, but he managed to hang on for 30 years before he and his wife, Queen Amalia, left the way they came
9.
Knossos
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Knossos is the largest Bronze Age archaeological site on Crete and is considered Europes oldest city. The name Knossos survives from ancient Greek references to the city of Crete. The coins came from the Roman settlement of Colonia Julia Nobilis Cnossus, a Roman colony placed just to the north of, the Romans believed they had colonized Knossos. The second palace was built on a grander scale over the old Palace after an earthquake destroyed it. The structure and ruins we see today are from the second Palace, during the Bronze Age, the town surrounded the hill on which the palace was built. The site was discovered in 1878 by Minos Kalokairinos, the excavations in Knossos began in AD1900 by the English archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans and his team, and they continued for 35 years. The palace was excavated and partially restored under the direction of Arthur Evans in the earliest years of the 20th century. Its size far exceeded his expectations, as did the discovery of two ancient scripts, which he termed Linear A and Linear B, to distinguish their writing from the pictographs also present. The palace of Knossos was undoubtedly the ceremonial and political centre of the Minoan civilization and it appears as a maze of workrooms, living spaces, and storerooms close to a central square. The palace was abandoned at some time at the end of the Late Bronze Age. The occasion is not known for certain, but one of the disasters that befell the palace is generally put forward. The hill was never again a settlement or civic site, although squatters may have used it for a time, however, fieldwork in 2015 revealed that during the early Iron Age, Knossos was rich in imports and was nearly three times larger than indicated by earlier excavations. Except for periods of abandonment, other cities were founded in the vicinity, such as the Roman colony. The population shifted to the new town of Chandax during the 9th century AD, by the 13th century, it was called Makruteikhos Long Wall, the bishops of Gortyn continued to call themselves Bishops of Knossos until the 19th century. Today, the name is used only for the site now situated in the expanding suburbs of Heraklion. In the first palace period around 2000 BC the urban area reached a size of up to 18,000 people, in its peak the Palace and the surrounding city boasted a population of 100,000 people shortly after 1700 BC. The name Knossos was formerly Latinized as Cnossus or Cnossos, and occasionally Knossus, Gnossus and this site history is to be distinguished from the ancient. In Greek mythology, King Minos dwelt in a palace at Knossos and he had Daedalus construct a labyrinth, a very large maze in which to retain his son, the Minotaur
10.
Crete
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Crete is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, 88th-largest island in the world and the fifth-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus, and Corsica. Crete and a number of surrounding islands and islets constitute the region of Crete, the capital and the largest city is Heraklion. As of 2011, the region had a population of 623,065, Crete forms a significant part of the economy and cultural heritage of Greece, while retaining its own local cultural traits. It was once the centre of the Minoan civilization, which is regarded as the earliest recorded civilization in Europe. The island is first referred to as Kaptara in texts from the Syrian city of Mari dating from the 18th century BC, repeated later in Neo-Assyrian records and it was also known in ancient Egyptian as Keftiu, strongly suggesting a similar Minoan name for the island. The current name of Crete is thought to be first attested in Mycenaean Greek texts written in Linear B, through the words
11.
Heraion of Perachora
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The Heraion of Perachora was a sanctuary of the goddess Hera situated in a small cove of the Corinthian gulf at the end of the Perachora peninsula. The Sanctuary of Hera at Perachora is 14.2 kilometres north-northwest of Corinth and 75.9 kilometres west of Athens. Although there is debate between Argos, Megara and Corinth, the sanctuary was probably under the control of Corinth, cult activity at the site continued from perhaps the 9th century BCE to 146 BCE, when the Roman general Mummius sacked Corinth during the war with the Achaean League. In the Roman period, domestic structures were built on the site and this site is significant for the study of the origins of Greek temple architecture and rural cults. There is a legend recounted in Euripides that Medea buried her murdered children at a sanctuary of Hera Akraia as she fled from Corinth and this may be a reference to this site. Herodotus tells the story of Periander stripping the clothes off of the Corinthian women at a sanctuary of Hera, in the 1st century CE, the Greek historian Strabo wrote that there was an oracle associated with the sanctuary. The known structures of the cover a rectangle approximately 45 metres north–south and 245 metres east–west. The sanctuary wrapped around a small cove and extended toward the east uphill along a ridge, the structures will be discussed in order from west to east. At the extreme southwest end of the sanctuary, there is an area of roughly 25 by 25 metres largely cut into the rock beside the cove. This structure has been termed the agora, or the west court. This structure may date to the 6th century BCE and thus be contemporary with the Temple of Hera Akraia and it appears to have been destroyed in the 4th century BCE, it has been proposed that the L-shaped stoa took over its function. There appear to have been colonnades on the western and southern sides, there are remains of a house from the Roman period roughly at the center of the area. The earliest structure at the site was a building of perhaps the late 9th century BCE. On that analogy, it would have had a high-peaked roof, there were Early Helladic sherds under this structure. In the 6th BCE, a Doric order tetrastyle-prostyle temple of about 10 by 30 metres was built a little to the west of the apsidal structure, the epithet Akraia refers to the position of the sanctuary at the point of the peninsula. The cella of this temple was divided into three aisles – a highly unusual design, there was a wall to divide the west end of the cella and a screen in front of the cult statue. Evidence for the reuse of some blocks may indicate there was a prior phase of the structure in the 7th century BCE. The roof of this temple was of marble, no evidence has yet been found of pedimental sculptures
12.
Survey (archaeology)
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A common role of a field survey is in assessment of the potential archaeological significance of places where development is proposed. This is usually connected to work and road building. Archaeologists use a variety of tools when carrying out surveys, including GIS, GPS, remote sensing, geophysical survey and aerial photography. Survey work may be undertaken in response to a threat to an area of known or unknown archaeological interest or as part of a program addressing specific research topics. Consideration should be given to the nature of the landscape before a range of techniques is selected to be applied within an appropriate overarching method, literary sources, Old literary sources have provided archaeologists with clues about settlement locations that have not been archaeologically documented. Sometimes the texts may be recent, for instance, a book on local history may mention an interesting area. Oral sources, In many locations, local stories contain some hint of a greater past, and often they have a basis in history. For instance, someone may remember that a grandfather who used to walk the hills as a used to talk about columns from an old temple. Local knowledge, In many cases, locals know where to find something of interest to archaeologists and they may not have reported it because of taking it as part of their world, or because of fearing intrusions on their land or community. Previous surveys, In some places, a past survey may have recorded in an academic journal. The use of more recent technologies and finds from other sites may provide reason to re-examine the site, previous excavations, Excavations carried out before the middle of the 20th century are notoriously poorly documented. They were often carried out by methods that left much of the evidence the modern-day archaeologist is looking for. Early excavators were often interested only in fine pottery, jewelry and statues, lack of knowledge, Many areas of the world have developed limited knowledge about the nature and organization of past human activity at the regional level. An archaeological field survey is the tool for discovering information about previously uninvestigated areas. Map regression, comparing maps from different periods of the same area, using modern maps to transcribe or re-project earlier maps can help to locate these features with contemporary survey controls and techniques. Aerial photography is a tool for planning a survey. Remains of older buildings often show in fields as cropmarks, just below the topsoil, there should preferably be photographs of the same area at different times of the year, allowing the analyst to find the best time to see cropmarks. If the indicator that started the process was not a record of previous work, as many older surveys and excavations were published in papers that are not widely available, this may be a difficult task
13.
Laconia
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Laconia, also known as Lacedaemonia, is a region in the southeastern part of the Peloponnese peninsula. The word laconic is derived from the name of the region by analogy—to speak in a concise way, as the Spartans were reputed by the Athenians to do. Laconia is bordered by Messenia to the west and Arcadia to the north and is surrounded by the Myrtoan Sea to the east and by the Laconian Gulf and it encompasses Cape Malea and Cape Tainaron and a large part of the Mani Peninsula. The islands of Kythira and Antikythera lie to the south, the island, Elafonisos, situated between the Laconian mainland and Kythira, is part of Laconia. The Evrotas is the longest river in the prefecture, the valley of the Evrotas is predominantly an agricultural region that contains many citrus groves, olive groves, and pasture lands. It is the location of the largest orange production in the Peloponnese, lakonia, a brand of orange juice, is based in Amykles. The main mountain ranges are the Taygetus in the west and the Parnon in the northeast, Taygetus, known as Pentadaktylos throughout the Middle Ages, is west of Sparta and the Evrotas valley. It is the highest mountain in Laconia and the Peloponnese and is covered with pine trees. Two roads join the Messenia and Laconia prefectures, one is a mountain pass through Taygetus. The stalactite cave, Dirou, a major tourist attraction, is located south of Areopolis in the southwest of Laconia, Laconia has a Mediterranean climate with warm winters and hot summers. Snow is rare on the coast throughout the winter but is common in the mountains. In ancient Greece, this was the region of the Spartan state. For much of antiquity the Spartan sphere of influence expanded to Messenia. Significant archaeological recovery exists at the Vaphio-tomb site in Laconia, found here is advanced Bronze Age art as well as evidence of cultural associations with the contemporaneous Minoan culture on Crete. Laconia was at war with the Kingdom of Macedonia and saw several battles, at the end of the Mycenaean period, from the early-2nd century BC until 395 AD, it was a part of the Roman Empire. In the medieval period, Laconia formed part of the Byzantine Empire, following the Fourth Crusade, it was gradually conquered by the Frankish Principality of Achaea. In the 1260s, however, the Byzantines recovered Mystras and other fortresses in the region and managed to evict the Franks from Laconia, by the mid-14th century, this evolved into the Despotate of Morea, held by the last Greek ruling dynasty, the Palaiologoi. With the fall of the Despotate to the Ottomans in 1460, with the exception of a 30-year interval of Venetian rule, Laconia remained under Ottoman control until the outbreak of the Greek War of Independence of 1821
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Boeotia
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Boeotia, sometimes alternatively Latinised as Beotia, is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the region of Central Greece and it was also a region of ancient Greece. Its capital is Livadeia, and its largest city is Thebes, Boeotia lies to the north of the eastern part of the Gulf of Corinth. It also has a coastline on the Gulf of Euboea. It bordered on Megaris in the south, Attica in the southeast, Euboea in the northeast, Opuntian Locris in the north and Phocis in the west. The main mountain ranges of Boeotia are Mount Parnassus in the west, Mount Helicon in the southwest, Cithaeron in the south and its longest river, the Cephissus, flows in the central part, where most of the low-lying areas of Boeotia are found. Lake Copais was a lake in the center of Boeotia. It was drained in the 19th century, lake Yliki is a large lake near Thebes. The earliest inhabitants of Boeotia, associated with the city of Orchomenus, were called Minyans, pausanias mentions that Minyans established the maritime Ionian city of Teos, and occupied the islands of Lemnos and Thera. The Argonauts were sometimes referred to as Minyans, also, according to legend the citizens of Thebes paid an annual tribute to their king Erginus. The early wealth and power of Boeotia is shown by the reputation and visible Mycenean remains of several of its cities, especially Orchomenus, the origin of the name Boeotians may lie in the mountain Boeon in Epirus. Some toponyms and the common Aeolic dialect indicate that the Boeotians were related to the Thessalians and they moved south and settled in another rich plain, while others filtered across the Aegean and settled on Lesbos and in Aeolis in Asia Minor. Others are said to have stayed in Thessaly, withdrawing into the hill country, many ancient Greek legends originated or are set in this region. The older myths took their form during the Mycenean age when the Mycenean Greeks established themselves in Boeotia. Many of them are related to the myths of Argos, and others indicate connections with Phoenicia, Boeotia was also notable for the ancient oracular shrine of Trophonius at Lebadea. Graea, an ancient city in Boeotia, is thought to be the origin of the Latin word Graecus, from which English derives the words Greece. The major poets Hesiod and Pindar were Boeotians, on the other hand, the lack of good harbours hindered its maritime development. The importance of the legendary Minyae has been confirmed by archaeological remains, the Boeotian population entered the land from the north possibly before the Dorian invasion
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Methana
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Methana is a town and a former municipality on the Peloponnese peninsula, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Troizinia-Methana, the municipal unit has an area of 50.161 km2. Methana is situated on a peninsula, attached to the Peloponnese. Administratively, it belongs to the Attica region, the town is located north of the road connecting to the rest of the Peloponnese and Galatas. The highest point is 740 metres, the municipal unit has a land area of 50.161 square kilometres and a population of 1,657 inhabitants at the 2011 census. The largest settlements besides the town of Methana are Vathý, Megalochóri, Kounoupítsa, Kypséli, Ágioi Theódoroi, the municipal unit Methana is subdivided into the following communities, Kounoupitsa Kypseli Loutropoli Methanon Megalochori Half of the entire peninsulas population lives in Methana town. The peninsula is entirely of volcanic origin and contains over 30 volcanic eruption centers, the last volcanic eruption occurred near present-day Kameni Chora in 230 BC and a submarine volcano erupted in 1700. Famous writers such as Ovid, Strabo and Pausanias reported the last volcanic eruption in Methana, the peninsula is the northwesternmost of the arc of the Aegean islands of which the active volcanic areas are Methana, Milos, Santorini and Nisyros. In the future, Methana may expect other volcanic eruptions, since 1991, the peninsula has been investigated by the team of ETH Zürich geologically and cartographically. From this, a map of the entire peninsula at a scale of 1,25,000 was made. An interactive 3D map was created and is on the World Wide Web, also a rich photographic archive with about 10.000 color slides has been produced. Much of the peninsula is mountainous and bushy and grassy, the mountain range covers the central part of the peninsula and has a small ridge north of the seat. The residential area is within the sea, a mountain ridge is founded in the west and is about 3 km long with a stream in the middle and a cliff in the south. The earliest known settlement dates from 1500–1300 BC, the first survey was conducted by Michael Deffner, who discovered a large throne, among other artefacts. Many ancient sites were identified through the archaeological survey conducted in the 1980s by the University of Liverpool in association with the British School at Athens, the Acropolis Palaiokastro is located near the village of Vathy. The fortress is in Kypseli at the coast Akropolis Oga at the pace of Nisaki. A Mycenaean settlement was excavated by Helene Konstolakis-Jiannopoulou in 1990 along with the chapel of Agios Konstantinos, selected artifacts can be visited in the museums of Poros island and in Piraeus. This site dates between 1500 and 1300 BC, in the Hellenistic period, the peninsula became one of the Ptolemaic bases in the Aegean when it was renamed Arsinoe
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Argolis
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Argolis or the Argolid is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the region of Peloponnese, situated in the part of the Peloponnese peninsula and part of the tripoint area of Argolis. Much of the territory of region is situated in the Argolid Peninsula. Most arable land lies in the part of Argolis. Its primary agricultural resources are oranges and olives, Argolis has a coastline on the Saronic Gulf in the northeast and on the Argolic Gulf in the south and southeast. Notable mountains ranges are the Oligyrtos in the northwest, Lyrkeio and Ktenia in the west, Argolis has land borders with Arcadia to the west and southwest, Corinthia to the north, and the Islands regional unit to the east. Parts of the history of the area can be found in the articles on Argos, Mycenae, Epidaurus, Nafplio, Troezen, Ermioni, Kranidi, from 1833 to 1899, Argolis was part of Argolidocorinthia, which included present Corinthia, Hydra, Spetses and Kythira. It joined Corinthia to form Argolidocorinthia again in 1909, forty years later, in 1949, Argolis was finally separated from Corinthia. The regional unit Argolis is subdivided into 4 municipalities and these are, Argos-Mykines Epidaurus Ermionida Nafplio As a part of the 2011 Kallikratis government reform, the regional unit Argolis was created out of the former prefecture Argolis. The prefecture had the territory as the present regional unit
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Ithaca
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Ithaca or Ithaka is a Greek island located in the Ionian Sea, off the northeast coast of Kefalonia and to the west of continental Greece. Ithacas main island has an area of 96 square kilometres and had a population in 2011 of 3,231 and it is the second-smallest of seven main Ionian Islands, after Paxi. Ithaca is a regional unit of the Ionian Islands region. Modern Ithaca is generally identified with Homers Ithaca, the home of Odysseus, the fact that classical Greek authors often used eponymous explanations to explain away names through folk etymology makes it more likely that Ithakos derives from Ithaca rather than vice versa. It may have been the capital of Cephalonia during the Mycenaean period, the Romans occupied the island in the 2nd century BC, and later it became part of the Byzantine Empire. The Normans ruled Ithaca in the 13th century, and after a short Turkish rule it fell into Venetian hands, Ithaca was subsequently occupied by France under the 1797 Treaty of Campo Formio. It became a French possession again in 1807, until it was taken over by the United Kingdom in 1809, under the 1815 Treaty of Paris, Ithaca became a state of the United States of the Ionian Islands, a protectorate of the British Empire. In 1830 the local community requested to join with the rest of the newly restored nation-state of Greece. Under the 1864 Treaty of London, Ithaca, along with the remaining six Ionian islands, were ceded to Greece as a gesture of friendship to Greeces new Anglophile king. The United Kingdom kept its use of the harbour at Corfu. The origins of the first people to inhabit the island, which occurred during the last years of the Neolithic period, are not clear. The traces of buildings, walls and a road from time period prove that life existed and continued to do so during the Early Hellenic era. In the years some of the migrated to part of the island. The buildings and walls that were excavated showed the lifestyle of this period had remained primitive, during the Mycenaean period, Ithaca rose to the highest level of its ancient history. The Ithacans were characterized as great navigators and explorers with daring expeditions reaching further than the Mediterranean Sea, the epic poems of Homer, the Iliad and the Odyssey, shed some light on Bronze-Age Ithaca. Recent studies concluded that Homer recorded oral history from elders, after the end of the Mycenaean period Ithacas influence diminished, and it came under the jurisdiction of the nearest large island. During the ancient Hellenic prime, independent organized life continued in the northern and southern part of the island, in the southern part, in the area of Aetos, the town Alalcomenae was founded. From this period, many objects of important historical value have been found during excavations, among these objects are coins imprinted with the name Ithaca and the image of Odysseus which suggest that the island was self-governed
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Ionian Islands
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The Ionian Islands are a group of islands in Greece. They are traditionally called the Heptanese, i. e. the Seven Islands, the Ionian Islands became part of the modern Greek state in 1864. Administratively today they belong to the Ionian Islands Region except for Kythera, the seventh island, Kythira, is off the southern tip of the Peloponnese, the southern part of the Greek mainland. Kythira is not part of the region of the Ionian Islands, in Ancient Greek the adjective Ionios was used as an epithet for the sea between Epirus and Italy in which the Ionian Islands are found because Io swam across it. In Modern Greek omicron and omega represent the sound, but the two words are still distinguished by stress, the western Ionia is accented on the antepenult. In English, the relating to Ionia is Ionic, not Ionian. The islands themselves are known by a confusing variety of names. During the centuries of rule by Venice, they acquired Venetian names, Kerkyra was known as Corfù, Ithaki as Val di Compare, Kythera as Cerigo, Lefkada as Santa Maura and Zakynthos as Zante. A variety of spellings are used for the Greek names of the islands, Kefallonia is often spelled as Cephallenia or Cephalonia, Ithaki as Ithaca, Kerkyra as Corcyra, Kythera as Cythera, Lefkada as Leucas or Leucada and Zakynthos as Zacynthus or Zante. Older or variant Greek forms are also used, Kefallinia for Kefallonia. The islands were settled by Greeks at a date, possibly as early as 1200 BC. The early Eretrian settlement at Kerkyra was displaced by colonists from Corinth in 734 BC, the islands were mostly a backwater during Ancient Greek times and played little part in Greek politics. The one exception was the conflict between Kerkyra and its mother-City Corinth in 434 BC, which brought intervention from Athens and triggered the Peloponnesian War, Ithaca was the name of the island home of Odysseus in the epic Ancient Greek poem the Odyssey by Homer. Attempts have been made to identify Ithaki with ancient Ithaca, archeological investigations have revealed interesting findings in both Kefalonia and Ithaca. By the 4th century BC, most of the islands, were absorbed into the empire of Macedon, some remained under the control of the Macedonian Kingdom until 146 BC, when the Greek peninsula was gradually annexed by Rome. After 400 years of peaceful Roman rule, the passed to the Eastern Roman or Byzantine Empire. Under Byzantine rule, from the century, they formed the theme of Cephallenia. The islands were a frequent target of Saracen raids and from the late 11th century, most of the islands fell to William II of Sicily in 1185
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Kea (island)
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Kea, also known as Gia or Tzia, Zea, and, in antiquity, Keos, is a Greek island in the Cyclades archipelago in the Aegean Sea. Kea is part of the Kea-Kythnos regional unit and it is the island of the Cyclades complex that is closest to Attica and is also 20 km from Cape Sounio as well as 60 km SE of Athens. Its climate is arid, and its terrain is hilly, Kea is 19 km long from north to south and 9 km wide from west to east. The area is 128.9 km2 with the highest point being 560 m above sea level, the municipality, which includes the island Makronisos, has an area of 148.926 km2. Its capital, Ioulis, is inland at an altitude and is considered quite picturesque. Other major villages of Kea are the port of Korissia and the village of Vourkari. After suffering depopulation for many decades, Kea has been rediscovered by Athenians as a convenient destination for weekend. The population in 2011 was 2,455, in the Archaic period, the island was divided between four city-states, Ioulis, Karthaia, Poieessa and Koressos. During the classical period, Kea was the home of Simonides and of his nephew Bacchylides, coins retrieved from the island from the 3rd century BC feature dogs or stars with emanating rays, highlighting Sirius importance. During the Byzantine period, many churches were built and the prosperity of the island rose and it was Byzantine until, in 1204, it was captured by the Venetians in the wake of the Fourth Crusade. The Archbishop of Athens, Michael Choniates, came here in exile after his city fell to the Crusaders in 1205 and it was recaptured by the Byzantines under Licario in 1278. In around 1302 during the Byzantine–Venetian War, it fell to the Venetians. Kea was taken from the Venetians by the Ottoman Turks in 1537, along with the rest of the Cyclades, Kea joined Greece following the Greek War of Independence in 1821. HMHS Britannic, the largest ship sunk in World War I, which was the ship to the RMS Titanic. It is today listed by the Catholic Church as a titular see, the island is famous for scuba diving, with excellent visibility, rich marine life, and wall, cavern and wreck diving. The water temperature ranges from 20°-26°C, the highlight for recreational divers is the wreck of the unique paddle/wheeler steamship Patris which sank in 1868. She was a passenger steamer 66 m long, in service in the Aegean Sea, owned by the Hellenic Steamship Co. based on Syros island and she hit the reef off Koundouros Bay at Makriopounda, Kea island on 24 February 1868 with about 120 passengers aboard. No casualties were reported owing to the proximity of land, the world-famous wreck of the HMHS Britannic, sister ship of the Titanic, located 1.5 nautical mile offshore, is at a depth of about 120 m
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Melos
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Milos or Melos is a volcanic Greek island in the Aegean Sea, just north of the Sea of Crete. Milos is the southwesternmost island in the Cyclades group, the island is famous for the statue of Aphrodite, and also for statues of the Greek god Asclepius, the Poseidon and an archaic Apollo in Athens. Milos is a popular tourist destination during the summer, the Municipality of Milos also includes the uninhabited offshore islands of Antimilos and Akradies. The combined land area is 160.147 square kilometres and the 2011 census population was 4,977 inhabitants, obsidian from Milos was a commodity as early as 15,000 years ago. The mining of obsidian did not lead to the development of permanent habitation or manufacturing on the island, instead, those in search of obsidian arrived by boat, beaching it in a suitable cove and cutting pieces of the volcanic glass from the quarries. The position of Milos, between mainland Greece and Crete, and its possession of obsidian, made it an important centre of early Aegean civilisation, Milos lost its arms-making importance when bronze became the preferred material for the manufacture of weapons. The first settlement at Phylakopi arose in the Bronze Age, flourishing as the extraction of obsidian was in the decline, the first settlers were tuna fishermen. The famous fresco of the fish was found in the ruins of the Pillar room and was executed with delicate colouring. Stylistic similarities to Minoan frescoes are suggested, and it could perhaps have been the work of a Cretan artist, part of the site has been washed away by the sea. The antiquities found at the site covered three major periods, from the Early Cycladic period to the Mycenaean period, at the site much pottery was excavated, with several changing styles and influences over the sites long occupation. In the early occupation of the site, there are similarities and imports from other Cycladic islands. The quantities found at the Cycladic sites have taken to suggest a Minoan control over the region. At Phylakopi a Megaron structure, which is associated with the Mycenaean palaces, such as those at Tiryns, Pylos. This has been taken to suggest that the Mycenaeans conquered the settlement, the evidence is not clear, though again it could be a legacy of the islanders adopting foreign elements into their culture. Particularly unexpected was the discovery in the 1970s of a shrine at the site, the shrine is unprecedented in the Bronze Age Cyclades and has provided a valuable insight ito the beliefs and rituals of the inhabitants of Phylakopi. The site was abandoned and was never reoccupied. The first Dorian settlement on Melos was established no earlier than the 1st millennium BC, dorians are the ethnic group to which the Spartans belonged, but the Dorian settlers of Melos made themselves independent. They eventually established a city whose site lies on the shore of the bay
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Kythira
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Kythira is an island in Greece lying opposite the south-eastern tip of the Peloponnese peninsula. It is traditionally listed as one of the seven main Ionian Islands, administratively, it belongs to the Islands regional unit, which is part of the Attica region. The island is located between the Greek mainland and Crete, and from ancient times until the mid 19th century was a crossroads of merchants, sailors. As such, it has had a long and varied history and has influenced by many civilisations. This is reflected in its architecture, as well as the traditions and customs, influenced by centuries of coexistence of the Greek, Venetian, and Ottoman cultures. Kythira and the island of Antikythira were separate municipalities until they were merged at the 2011 local government reform. The municipality has an area of 300.023 km2, the municipal unit 279.593 km2, the province of Kythira was one of the provinces of the Piraeus Prefecture. It had the territory as the present municipality Kythira. There are archaeological remains from the Helladic period, contemporary with the Minoans, there is archaeological evidence of Kythiran trade as far as Egypt and Mesopotamia. Kythira had a Phoenician colony in the archaic age, the sea-snail which produces Tyrian purple is native to the island. Xenophon refers to a Phoenician Bay in Kythira, the archaic Greek city of Kythira was at Scandea on Avlemonas, its ruins have been excavated. Its acropolis, now Palicastro, has the temple of Aphrodite Ourania, in classical times, Kythira was part of the territory of several larger city-states. Kythira was independent, and issued her own coins, in 195, in Augustus time, it was again subject to Sparta, being the property of Gaius Julius Eurycles, who was both a Spartan magnate and a Roman citizen. By this time, the Greek cities were in practice subject to the Roman Empire, Kythira continued to exist under the Roman Empire and its Byzantine successor state for centuries. Christianity is attested from the fourth century AD, the time of Constantine, according to her legend, archaeological evidence suggests the island was abandoned about 700 AD. When Saint Theodore of Cythera led a resettlement after the Byzantine reconquest of Crete in 962 and he established a great monastery at Paliochora, a town grew up around it, largely populated from Laconia. When the Byzantine Empire was divided among the conquerors of the Fourth Crusade, during the Venetian domination the island was known as Cerigo. Ottomans called this island Chuha Island, kythirans still talk about the destruction and looting of Paliochora by Barbarossa, it has become an intrinsic part of the Kytherian folklore
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Cyclades
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The Cyclades are an island group in the Aegean Sea, southeast of mainland Greece and a former administrative prefecture of Greece. They are one of the groups which constitute the Aegean archipelago. The name refers to the islands around the island of Delos. The Cyclades is where the native Greek breed of cat originated, the largest island of the Cyclades is Naxos. Interest lagged, then picked up in the century, as collectors competed for the modern-looking figures that seemed so similar to sculpture by Jean Arp or Constantin Brâncuși. Sites were looted and a trade in forgeries arose. The context for many of these Cycladic figurines has been mostly destroyed, another intriguing and mysterious object is that of the Cycladic frying pans. More accurate archaeology has revealed the outlines of a farming and seafaring culture that had immigrated from Anatolia c.5000 BCE. Early Cycladic culture evolved in three phases, between c.3300 –2000 BCE, when it was swamped in the rising influence of Minoan Crete. The culture of mainland Greece contemporary with Cycladic culture is known as the Helladic period, in recent decades the Cyclades have become popular with European and other tourists, and as a result there have been problems with erosion, pollution, and water shortages. There are also many islands including Donousa, Eschati, Gyaros, Irakleia, Koufonisia, Makronisos. The name Cyclades refers to the forming a circle around the sacred island of Delos. Most of the islands are uninhabited. Ermoupoli on Syros is the town and administrative center of the former prefecture. The islands are peaks of a mountainous terrain, with the exception of two volcanic islands, Milos and Santorini. The climate is dry and mild, but with the exception of Naxos the soil is not very fertile, agricultural produce includes wine, fruit, wheat, olive oil. Cooler temperatures are in higher elevations and mainly do not receive wintry weather, the Cyclades are bounded to the south by the Sea of Crete. The Cyclades Prefecture was one of the prefectures of Greece and these have been reorganised at the 2011 Kallikratis reform as well
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Chios
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Chios is the fifth largest of the Greek islands, situated in the Aegean Sea,7 kilometres off the Anatolian coast. The island is separated from Turkey by the Çeşme Strait, Chios is notable for its exports of mastic gum and its nickname is the Mastic Island. Tourist attractions include its medieval villages and the 11th-century monastery of Nea Moni, administratively, the island forms a separate municipality within the Chios regional unit, which is part of the North Aegean region. The principal town of the island and seat of the municipality is Chios town, locals refer to Chios town as Chora. Chios island is crescent or kidney shaped,50 kilometres long north to south,29 kilometres at its widest. The terrain is mountainous and arid, with a ridge of mountains running the length of the island, the two largest of these mountains, Pelineon and Epos, are situated in the north of the island. The center of the island is divided between east and west by a range of peaks, known as Provatas. Chios can be divided into five regions, Midway up the east coast lie the main centers, the main town of Chios. Chios Town, with a population of 32,400, is built around the main harbour. The town was damaged by an earthquake in 1881. North of Chios Town lies the suburb of Vrontados, which claims to be the birthplace of Homer. The suburb lies in the Omiroupoli municipality, and its connection to the poet is supported by a site known traditionally as Teachers Rock. The villages, built between the 14th and 16th centuries, have a carefully designed layout with fortified gates and narrow streets to protect against the frequent raids by marauding pirates. Between Chios Town and the Mastichochoria lie a number of historic villages including Armolia, Myrmighi. Along the east coast are the villages of Kataraktis and to the south Nenita. Directly in the centre of the island, between the villages of Avgonyma to the west and Karyes to the east, is the 11th century monastery of Nea Moni, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The monastery was built with funds given by the Byzantine Emperor Constantine IX, the monastery had substantial estates attached, with a thriving community until the massacre of 1822. It was further damaged during the 1881 earthquake, in 1952, due to the shortage of monks, Nea Moni was converted to a convent
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North Aegean
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The North Aegean is one of the thirteen regions of Greece. It comprises the islands of the north-eastern Aegean Sea, except for Samothrace, the North Aegean region was established in the 1987 administrative reform. With the 2010 Kallikratis plan, its powers and authority were redefined and extended, along with the Southern Aegean region, it is supervised by the Decentralized Administration of the Aegean based at Piraeus. The capital of the region is situated in Mytilene on the island of Lesbos, until the Kallikratis reform, the region consisted of the three prefectures of Samos, Chios and Lesbos. Since 1 January 2011 it is divided into five units, formed around, Chios, Ikaria. The total number of islands in the North Aegean region are nine, Lesbos, Chios, Psara, Oinousses, Ikaria, Fournoi Korseon, the regions governor is Christiana Kalogirou who on 2 October 2014 succeeded Athanasios Giakalis following the 2014 local elections. Chíos Kalloní Karlóvasi Mýrina Mytilíni Omiroúpoli Pythagóreio Vathý Official website
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Excavation (archaeology)
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In archaeology, excavation is the exposure, processing and recording of archaeological remains. An excavation site or dig is a site being studied, such a site excavation concerns itself with a specific archaeological site or a connected series of sites, and may be conducted over as little as several weeks to over a number of years. Numerous specialized techniques each with its features are used. Resources and other practical issues do not allow archaeologists to carry out excavations whenever and wherever they choose and these constraints mean many known sites have been deliberately left unexcavated. This is with the intention of preserving them for generations as well as recognising the role they serve in the communities that live near them. Excavation involves the recovery of types of data from a site. These data include artifacts, features, ecofacts and, most importantly, ideally, data from the excavation should suffice to reconstruct the site completely in three-dimensional space. The presence or absence of remains can often be suggested by remote sensing. Indeed, grosser information about the development of the site may be drawn from this work, the history of excavation began with a crude search for treasure and for artifacts which fell into the category of curio. These curios were the subject of interest of antiquarians and it was later appreciated that digging on a site destroyed the evidence of earlier peoples lives which it had contained. Once the curio had been removed from its context, most of the information it held was lost and it was from this realization that antiquarianism began to be replaced by archaeology, a process still being perfected. Archaeological material tends to accumulate in events, a gardener swept a pile of soil into a corner, laid a gravel path or planted a bush in a hole. A builder built a wall and back-filled the trench, years later, someone built a pig sty onto it and drained the pig sty into the nettle patch. Later still, the original wall blew over and so on, each event, which may have taken a short or long time to accomplish, leaves a context. This layer cake of events is referred to as the archaeological sequence or record. It is by analysis of sequence or record that excavation is intended to permit interpretation. As he remarked, waiting for animals to hunt represented 24% of the total man-hours of activity recorded, no tools left on the site were used, and there were no immediate material byproducts of the primary activity. All of the activities conducted at the site were essentially boredom reducers
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Servia, Greece
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Servia is one of the main towns in the Kozani regional unit, West Macedonia, Greece. It is one of the most historical places in the region, with a 6th-century Byzantine castle, there are also a number of 10th century Byzantine cave hermitages and small churches located nearby, which add to the Byzantine atmosphere of the area. Since the local government reform of 2011, it is the seat of the municipality of Servia-Velventos. Prior to 2011, the town was the seat of the Municipality of Servia, Τhe town itself has a population of 3,540 people. The municipal unit Servia has an area of 400.116 km2, parmenion son of Glauceas from Phylacae winner at Doliche. Servia has given its name to the settlement site beside the former bridge across the Haliakmon river to the west. This was first reported by Alan John Bayard Wace and first excavated by the British School at Athens under the direction of Walter Heurtley in 1930. The site is a low mound created by the debris of successive phases of human occupation, the square or rectangular buildings, one or two storeys in height, were framed with massive oak posts and the walls were created with wattle and daub. The classic red on cream ceramic repertoire of this phase is related to that of Thessaly at such sites as Sesklo. Typical shapes are fruitstands, shallow bowls and beakers, bone and stone tools are frequent while ornaments of stone and sea shell are quite frequent. Occupation continued for a thousand years until the early stages of the Late Neolithic period, characterised by black burnished, after a long interval, occupation resumed in the Early Bronze Age when the ceramic repertoire suggests a cultural orientation towards Central Macedonia rather than Thessaly. During ancient times, Servia served as a fort for the passageway between Macedonia and Thessaly, hence its name, as time passed people settled around the area and the town of Phylacae was created. The Ottomans captured Servia in 1393, from 1864 it was the seat of the Sanjak of Serfiğe in Manastir Vilayet and the town was known as Serfiçe in Ottoman Turkish. Servia was the seat of the Bishop of Servia and Kozani until 1745, the Greek army entered Servia on 10 October 1912, during the First Balkan War, after its victory against the Ottoman army in the Battle of Sarantaporo. On the same day,117 prominent citizens of Servia were gathered and executed by the Ottomans who were leaving the city, from then on the main road of the town leading to the Town Hall is called 117 Εθνομαρτύρων, i. e. Of the 117 National martyrs, in remembrance of this dreadful event, Servia was granted to the Kingdom of Greece by the Treaty of Bucharest in 1913. During the Second World War, on 6 March 1943, German and Italian troops set the town on fire in response to the resistance they were facing in the region. After this fire the town was left in ruins and most of Greek neoclassical architecture was lost apart from 3 houses which remain until today
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Macedonia (Greece)
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Macedonia is a geographic and historical region of Greece in the southern Balkans. Macedonia is the largest and second most populous Greek region, dominated by mountains in the interior, Macedonia is part of Northern Greece, together with Thrace and sometimes Thessaly and Epirus. It incorporates most of the territories of ancient Macedon, a kingdom ruled by the Argeads whose most celebrated members were Alexander the Great, the name Macedonia was later applied to identify various administrative areas in the Roman/Byzantine Empire with widely differing borders. Even before the establishment of the modern Greek state in 1830, it was identified as a Greek province, by the mid 19th century, the name was becoming consolidated informally, defining more of a distinct geographical, rather than political, region in the southern Balkans. At the end of the Ottoman Empire most of the known as Rumelia was divided by the Treaty of Bucharest of 1913. Greece, Serbia, and Bulgaria each took control of portions of the Macedonian region, with Greece obtaining the largest portion, Central Macedonia is the most popular tourist destination in Greece with more than 3.6 million tourists in 2009. Macedonia lies at the crossroads of human development between the Aegean and the Balkans, the earliest signs of human habitation date back to the palaeolithic period, notably with the Petralona cave in which was found the oldest European humanoid, Archanthropus europaeus petraloniensis. In the Late Neolithic period, trade took place from quite distant regions, one of the most important changes was the start of copper working. According to Herodotus, the history of Macedonia began with the Makednoi tribe, among the first to use the name, there they lived near Thracian tribes such as the Bryges who would later leave Macedonia for Asia Minor and become known as Phrygians. Macedonia was named after the Makednoi, accounts of other toponyms such as Emathia are attested to have been in use before that. Herodotus claims that a branch of the Macedonians invaded Southern Greece towards the end of the second millennium B. C, upon reaching the Peloponnese the invaders were renamed Dorians, triggering the accounts of the Dorian invasion. For centuries the Macedonian tribes were organized in independent kingdoms, in what is now Central Macedonia, the Macedonians claimed to be Dorian Greeks and there were many Ionians in the coastal regions. During the late 6th and early 5th century BC, the region came under Persian rule until the destruction of Xerxes at Plataea, many Macedonian cities were allied to the Spartans, but Athens maintained the colony of Amphipolis under her control for many years. The kingdom of Macedon, was reorganised by Philip II and achieved the union of Greek states by forming the League of Corinth. After his assassination, his son Alexander succeeded to the throne of Macedon, for a brief period a Macedonian republic called the Koinon of the Macedonians was established. It was divided into four administrative districts and that period ended in 148 BC, when Macedonia was fully annexed by the Romans. The northern boundary at that time ended at Lake Ohrid and Bylazora, strabo, writing in the first century AD places the border of Macedonia on that part at Lychnidos, Byzantine Achris and presently Ochrid. Therefore ancient Macedonia did not significantly extend beyond its current borders, the Acts of the Apostles records a vision in which the apostle Paul is said to have seen a man of Macedonia pleading with him, saying, Come over to Macedonia and help us
28.
Lefkandi
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Lefkandi is a coastal village on the island of Euboea, Greece. Archaeological finds attest to a settlement on the locally known as Xeropolis. The settlement site is located on a promontory overlooking the Euripos, the site is located between the islands two main cities in antiquity, Chalkis and Eretria. Excavation here is conducted under the direction of the British School at Athens, occupation at Lefkandi can be traced back to the Early Bronze Age, and continued throughout the Bronze and Iron Ages, to end at the beginning of the Archaic period. The known cemeteries cover only part of the periods attested in the settlement, the abandonment of Lefkandi coincides with a rise in settlement activity in nearby Eretria, and it has been argued by the excavators that the site is, in fact, Old Eretria. The sites importance is due to a number of factors, first, substantial occupation strata of the Late Helladic IIIC period excavated in the 1960s allowed the establishment of a ceramic sequence for this period, at that time insufficiently attested. The IIIC settlement furthermore stands in contrast to sites in the parts of Greece, such as the Peloponnese. This situation places Lefkandi within a group of sites in Central Greece with important post-palatial occupation, such as Mitrou, Kalapodi, and Elateia. There is some dispute as to whether the structure was in fact a hērōön built to commemorate a hero or whether it was instead the grave of a couple who were important for other reasons. One of the bodies in the grave had been cremated, the ashes being wrapped in a linen cloth then stored in a bronze amphora from Cyprus. The amphora was engraved with a scene and placed within a still larger bronze bowl. A sword and other goods were nearby. It is believed that the ashes were those of a man, the womans body was not cremated. An iron knife with a handle was found near her shoulder. It is unknown whether this woman was buried contemporaneously with the mans remains, scholars have suggested that the woman was slaughtered to be buried with the man, possibly her husband, in a practice reminiscent of the Indian custom of sati. Four horses appear to have been sacrificed and were included in the grave, two of them were found with iron bits still in their mouths. Archaeological research has brought to light a settlement where continuous occupation can be demonstrated from the Mycenaean period through the Dark Ages and into historic times. It has been suggested by the excavators that the site can be identified as the old Eretria which was forced to up root, negotiated Peripherality in Iron Age Greece, Accepting and Resisting the East
29.
Corinthia
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Corinthia is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the region of Peloponnese and it is situated around the city of Corinth, in the north-eastern part of the Peloponnese peninsula. Corinthia borders on Achaea to the west and southwest, the Gulf of Corinth and Attica to the north, the Corinth Canal, carrying ship traffic between the Ionian and the Aegean seas, is about 4 km east of Corinth, cutting through the Isthmus of Corinth. More faults are near Kiras Vrysi and Sofiko, the eastern coastlands of Corinthia are made up of pastures and farmlands where olives, grapes, tomatoes and vegetables are cultivated. The rest of Corinthia is mountainous and its tallest mountain is Kyllini in its west and the largest lake is Lake Stymphalos situated in the southwest. The reservoir will become one of the largest lakes after its completion, the climate of Corinthia consists of hot summers and mild winters in the coastal areas and somewhat colder winters with occasional snowfalls in the mountainous areas. The regional unit Corinthia is subdivided into 6 municipalities, the prefecture had the same territory as the present regional unit. At the same time, the municipalities were reorganised, according to the table below and it included Hydra, Spetses and Kythira. Argolis joined Corinthia to reform Argolidocorinthia again in 1909, forty years later, in 1949, the prefecture was finally separated from Argolis. The highway was first paved at the turn of the 20th century, the mid to late-20th century saw the population shifting from agriculture to other jobs, as people migrated to larger towns and cities as well as other parts of the world. In the 1960s, the motorway GR-8A was constructed to handle the traffic between Corinth and Athens and allow higher speed limits. The section from the old Corinth interchange eastward in Corinthia was opened in 1962, the new highway had a significant effect on the local industry, as it lowered the cost of transportation of goods between Corinthia and the Athens metropolitan area. In late 2006, the prefect of Corinthia announced the construction of a new dam, to be located 5 to 7 km south of Kiato and Sicyon, near Stimanika and it will be the second largest body of water in Corinthia. The dam will be designed to withstand earthquakes and natural disasters, on July 17,2007, a forest fire struck the area around the historic Acrocorinth and its castle. The main sources of income are goods and services, manufacturing, tourism, several major roadways are situated within Corinthia
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Mycenae
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Mycenae is an archaeological site in Greece, located about 90 kilometres southwest of Athens, in the north-eastern Peloponnese. Argos is 11 kilometres to the south, Corinth,48 kilometres to the north, from the hill on which the palace was located, one can see across the Argolid to the Saronic Gulf. In the second millennium BC, Mycenae was one of the centres of Greek civilization. The period of Greek history from about 1600 BC to about 1100 BC is called Mycenaean in reference to Mycenae, at its peak in 1350 BC, the citadel and lower town had a population of 30,000 and an area of 32 hectares. Although the citadel was built by Greeks, the name Mukanai is thought not to be Greek, legend has it that the name was connected to the Greek word mycēs. Thus, Pausanias ascribes the name to the legendary founder Perseus, the earliest written form of the name is Mykēnē, which is found in Homer. The reconstructed Mycenaean Greek name of the site is Mukānai, which has the form of a plural like Athānai, the change of ā to ē in more recent versions of the name is the result of a well-known sound change in later Attic-Ionic. An EH–MH settlement was discovered near a well on top of the Kalkani hill southwest of the acropolis. The first burials in pits or cist graves manifest in the MH period on the west slope of the acropolis, during the Bronze Age, the pattern of settlement at Mycenae was a fortified hill surrounded by hamlets and estates, in contrast to the dense urbanity on the coast. Richer grave goods mark the burials as possibly regal, mounds over the top contained broken drinking vessels and bones from a repast, testifying to a more than ordinary farewell. A walled enclosure, Grave Circle A, included six more shaft graves, with nine female, eight male, Grave goods were more costly than in Circle B. The presence of engraved and inlaid swords and daggers, with points and arrowheads, leave little doubt that warrior chieftains. Some art objects obtained from the graves are the Silver Siege Rhyton, the Mask of Agamemnon, the Cup of Nestor, Alan Wace divided the nine tholos tombs of Mycenae into three groups of three, each based on architecture. His earliest – the Cyclopean Tomb, Epano Phournos, and the Tomb of Aegisthus – are dated to LHIIA, burial in tholoi is seen as replacing burial in shaft graves. The care taken to preserve the shaft graves testifies that they were by then part of the royal heritage, being more visible, the tholoi all had been plundered either in antiquity, or in later historic times. Within these walls, much of which can still be seen, the final palace, remains of which are currently visible on the acropolis of Mycenae, dates to the start of LHIIIA,2. Earlier palaces must have existed, but they had cleared away or built over. The construction of palaces at that time with an architecture was general throughout southern Greece
31.
Sparta
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Sparta was a prominent city-state in ancient Greece. In antiquity the city-state was known as Lacedaemon, while the name Sparta referred to its settlement on the banks of the Eurotas River in Laconia. Around 650 BC, it rose to become the dominant military land-power in ancient Greece, given its military pre-eminence, Sparta was recognized as the overall leader of the combined Greek forces during the Greco-Persian Wars. Between 431 and 404 BC, Sparta was the enemy of Athens during the Peloponnesian War, from which it emerged victorious. Spartas defeat by Thebes in the Battle of Leuctra in 371 BC ended Spartas prominent role in Greece, however, it maintained its political independence until the Roman conquest of Greece in 146 BC. It then underwent a period of decline, especially in the Middle Ages. Modern Sparta is the capital of the Greek regional unit of Laconia, Sparta was unique in ancient Greece for its social system and constitution, which completely focused on military training and excellence. Its inhabitants were classified as Spartiates, mothakes, perioikoi, Spartiates underwent the rigorous agoge training and education regimen, and Spartan phalanges were widely considered to be among the best in battle. Spartan women enjoyed more rights and equality to men than elsewhere in the classical world. Sparta was the subject of fascination in its own day, as well as in the West following the revival of classical learning and this love or admiration of Sparta is known as Laconism or Laconophilia. At its peak around 500 BC the size of the city would have been some 20,000 –35,000 free residents, plus numerous helots, olliers theory of the Spartan mirage has been widely accepted by scholars. The ancient Greeks used one of three words to refer to the location of the Spartans. The first refers primarily to the cluster of settlements in the valley of the Eurotas River. The second word was Lacedaemon, this was used sometimes as an adjective and is the name commonly used in the works of Homer. Herodotus seems to denote by it the Mycenaean Greek citadel at Therapne and it could be used synonymously with Sparta, but typically it was not. It denoted the terrain on which Sparta was situated, in Homer it is typically combined with epithets of the countryside, wide, lovely, shining and most often hollow and broken. The hollow suggests the Eurotas Valley, Sparta on the other hand is the country of lovely women, a people epithet. The name of the population was used for the state of Lacedaemon
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Keros
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Keros is an uninhabited Greek island in the Cyclades about 10 km southeast of Naxos. Administratively it is part of the community of Koufonisia and it has an area of 15 km2 and its highest point is 432 m. It was an important site to the Cycladic civilization that flourished around 2500 BC and it is now forbidden to land in Keros. Keros is especially noted for the flat-faced Cycladic marble statues which later inspired the work of Pablo Picasso, the Keros Hoard is a very large deposit of Cycladic figurines that was found on the island of Keros. In 2006-2008, the Cambridge Keros Project, co-directed by Colin Renfrew with others and this general area is believed to be the source of the so-called Keros Hoard of fragmentary Cycladic figurines. In 2007-2008, the same project identified and excavated a substantial Cycladic period settlement on the island of Dhaskalio. In addition to excavation, survey of the islet showed that most of its surface — a total of 7000 m2 — was occupied during the Early Bronze Age, specialist studies for the geomorphology, geology, petrology, ceramic petrology, metallurgy and environmental aspects are in progress. No more fieldwork is planned prior to publication of the 2006 to 2008 seasons. Publication of this important work is underway and expected in four volumes to appear in 2012 and 2013, the activities at this site have now been dated 2750 to 2300 BC, which precedes any identified worship of gods in the Aegean. Keros-Syros culture is named after the two islands in the Cyclades—Keros and Syros and this culture flourished during the Early Cycladic II period. Some of the best preserved sites of culture are at Kea and Ios. Some of the important artifacts of this culture are the frying pans – shallow circular vessels or bowls with a decorated base. The use of metal became widespread during this period, daskalio Cyprian Broodbank, An Island Archaeology of the Early Cyclades. Cambridge University Press,2002, ISBN0521528445 Mariya Ivanova, Befestigte Siedlungen auf dem Balkan, in der Ägäis und in Westanatolien, ca. Waxmann Verlag,2008, ISBN3830919379 Colin Renfrew, Christos Doumas, Lila Marangou, Giorgos Gavelas, Dhaskalio Kavos, Keros, in, N. J. Brodie, J. Doole, G. Gavalas, C. Renfrew, Horizon – a colloquium on the prehistory of the Cyclades, Cambridge, McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research,2008, ISBN 978-1-902937-36-6, S. 107–113 Panayiota Sotorakopoulou, Dhaskalio Kavos, Keros, The pottery from the Investigations of the 1960s. In, N. J. Brodie, J. Doole, G. Gavalas, Renfrew, Horizon – a colloquium on the prehistory of the Cyclades. Cambridge, McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research,2008, ISBN 978-1-902937-36-6, Keros – Dhaskelion and Kavos, Early Cycladic Stronghold and Ritual Center
33.
Atsipades
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Atsipades is a modern village and an archaeological site of a Minoan peak sanctuary in western Crete. It is part of the community Koxare within the municipal unit Foinikas, Atsipades is about 20 km south of the modern town of Rethymno. Korakias peak is a part of Mount Kouroupas, above the village of Atsipades. Atsipades was identified as a sanctuary in 1986. Atsipades was in use from Early Minoan III to Middle Minoan II, finds included ceramic spindle whorls for weaving, numerous clay human and animal figurines, ceramic lamps and ceramic altars. The votive animal figurines are mostly of cattle, settlements found by an archaeological field survey in the nearby Ayios Vasilios Valley suggest that this peak sanctuary served a rural community of farmsteads and hamlets. Jones, Donald W. Peak Sanctuaries and Sacred Caves in Minoan Crete, the Atsipadhes Korakias Peak Sanctuary Project
34.
Psychro Cave
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Psychro Cave is an ancient Minoan sacred cave in Lasithi plateau in the Lasithi district of eastern Crete. Psychro is associated with the Diktaean Cave, one of the sites of the birth of Zeus. Psychro is 1,025 metres above sea level, the cave is located in the prefecture of Lasithi. The Dictaean cave is famous in Greek mythology as the place where Amalthea, the archaeology attests to the sites long use as a place of cult worship. The nurse of Zeus, who was charged by Rhea to raise the infant Zeus in secret here and it is one of a number of caves believed to have been the birthplace or hiding place of Zeus. The mountains, of which the cave are part, are known in Crete as Dikte, the cave was first excavated in 1886 by Joseph Hatzidakis, President of the Syllogos at Candia, and F. Halbherr. In 1896, Sir Arthur Evans investigated the site, in 1899, J. Bones among the ash layer attest to sacrifice of bulls, sheep and goats, deer and a boar. More recent excavation has revealed the use of the cave reached back to Early Minoan times, the lower grotto falls steeply with traces of a rock-cut stair to a pool, out of which stalactites rise. Much earth had been thrown down by diggers of the Upper Grotto, Hogarth reported, in the vertical chinks of the lowest stalactites, Hogarths team found toy double-axes, knife-blades, needles, and other objects in bronze, placed there by dedicators, as in niches. The mud also at the edge of the pool was rich in similar things. In 1961, the art historian and archaeologist John Boardman published the finds uncovered by these, while clay human figurines are normally found in peak sanctuaries, Psychro and the sanctuary on Mount Ida stand out as the only sacred caves that have yielded human figurines. Psychro is also a sacred cave for a bronze leg, also known as a votive body part. More common sacred cave finds at Psychro include stone and ceramic lamps, Psychro yielded an uncommon number of semi-precious stones, including carnelian, steatite, amethyst, jasper and hematite. Psychros artefacts are now on display at the Heraklion Museum, the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, the Louvre, jones, Donald W.1999 Peak Sanctuaries and Sacred Caves in Minoan Crete ISBN 91-7081-153-9 Rutkowski, B. and Krzysztof Nowicki,1996. The Psychro Cave and Other Sacred Grottoes in Crete, the Cave Sanctuary of Zeus at Psychro, A Study of Extra-Urban Sanctuaries in Minoan and Early Iron Age Crete Hellenic Ministry of Culture
35.
Myrtos
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Myrtos is a coastal village in the west of the municipality of Ierapetra, in the regional unit of Lasithi on the island of Crete in Greece. It is located 14.5 km from Ierapetra, the most southern town of Europe and 50.5 km from Agios Nikolaos, Myrtos is situated at the Libyan Sea. The population of the village in 2010 is about 600 people, Myrtos has a rich history, and although many think it is a poor town it has prospered with the advent of tourism. The town is full of tavernas although there is also a jewellery shop,2 supermarkets, a few souvenir shops. There are a few hotels, apartments and studios, the area surrounding Myrtos was already inhabited in the Minoan period, but the current village dates from the first half of the twentieth century. Before that it was the location of a port, where inhabitants from higher surroundings traded for local products. Only when threats from piracy along the Cretan coast diminished and it became safer to live there did the village of Myrtos develop, on September 15,1944, during the Second World War, the occupants of Myrtos were ordered by the German occupiers to leave the village. Many refused to do so, resulting in the massacre of eighteen inhabitants as a reprisal, in the central square of Myrtos there is a monument to commemorate that event. Near this monument, every year on October 28, Ohi Day is commemorated, tourism started at the beginning of the 1970s. Initially Myrtos was especially popular amongst hippies, but later also regular tourists started to visit the village, the temperature in the south of Crete is a couple of degrees higher than in the north, because colder winds from the north are blocked by Dikti mountain. The average temperature in the warmest months of the year is around 30 degrees Celsius, the temperature in the coldest months of the year averages about 8 degrees Celsius, and it can also sporadically snow in Myrtos. Myrtos has a beach, consisting not just of sand. The beach has received the Blue Flag award, which requires the beach to satisfy a number of criteria in order to retain it, the nearby village of Tertsa has a very long beach. On the two outlying beaches of Tertsa nudism is tolerated by the authorities, Myrtos is also the location for two Minoan archaeological sites, at Fournou Korifi and Pyrgos, which provide evidence that the village and its environs have been inhabited since the neolithic period. There is also a Roman villa, although the ruins are now covered or lost due to coastal erosion. Near the small village Mithi, about 3 miles from Myrtos lies the Sarakina Gorge, of particular importance in increasing the prosperity around Myrtos in the middle of the twentieth century was the Dutchman Paul Kuijpers. The areas surrounding Myrtos are still dominated by greenhouses, often composed only of wooden frames covered with plastic, in 1971, Paul Kuijpers was killed in a car accident, and a memorial in Gra Lighia commemorates his importance for the area. Official Website of the Village Myrtos Crete Guide Archaeological site at Myrtos-Pyrgos
36.
Palekastro
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Palekastro is a small village at the east end of the Mediterranean island Crete. Already in Minoan times the region was a centre of trade, the port of Itanos, today several meters below sea level, is mentioned in ancient times. The Palaikastro Kouros is a figure of a youth that was recovered in fragments between 1987 and 1990. The village remains free from mass tourism, the main business of the approximately 1100 inhabitants continues to be agriculture. Olives and grape vines are cultivated and a few fisherman remain, commercial fishing however is difficult these days because of the substantial over fishing of the Mediterranean Sea. Tourism is an important source of income and is likely to remain so. At the east edge of the village, visible from a distance and this hill gave Palekastro its name in the Middle Ages when the region was dominated by the sovereign power of Venice. On its flat summit the Venetians established a fortress, in the course of the centuries the stones were cleared away and used by the people of the region to build houses. Finnish progressive rock band Kingston Wall have a song titled Palékastro on their album II, Palaikastro Archaeological Site The Palaikastro kouros
37.
Newnham College, Cambridge
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Newnham College is a women-only constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1871 by Henry Sidgwick, and was the second Cambridge college to admit women after Girton College, the co-founder of the college was Millicent Garrett Fawcett. The history of Newnham begins with the formation of the Association for Promoting the Higher Education of Women in Cambridge in 1869, the progress of women at Cambridge University owes much to the pioneering work undertaken by the philosopher Henry Sidgwick, fellow of Trinity. He persuaded Anne Jemima Clough, who had run a school in the Lake District. The following year, this moved to Merton House on Queens Road, demand continued to increase and the supporters of the enterprise formed a limited company to raise funds, lease land and build on it. In 1875 the first building for Newnham College was built on the site off Sidgwick Avenue where the college remains, in 1876 Henry Sidgwick married Elizabeth Balfour who was already a supporter of womens education. They lived at Newnham from 1893, the college formally came into existence in 1880 with the amalgamation of the Association and the Company. Women were admitted to titles of degrees from 1881, the demand from prospective students remained buoyant and the Newnham Hall Company built steadily, providing three more halls, a laboratory and a library, in the years up to the First World War. The architect Basil Champneys was employed throughout this period and designed the buildings in the Queen Anne style to much acclaim, so Newnhams founders allowed the young women to work at and to a level which suited their attainments and abilities. Some of them, with a years preparation, did indeed go on to degree-level work. In 1890 the Newnham student Philippa Fawcett was ranked above the Senior Wrangler, by the First World War the vast majority of Newnham students were going straight into degree-level courses. In tailoring the curriculum to the students, Newnham found itself at odds with the other Cambridge college for women, Girton, emily Davies, Girtons founder, believed passionately that equality could only be expressed by women doing the same courses as the men, on the same time-table. This meant that Girton attracted a much smaller population in its early years, in 1948 Newnham, like Girton, attained the full status of a college of the university. The university as an institution at first took no notice of these women, in 1868 Cambridges Local Examinations Board allowed women to take exams for the first time. By 1881, however, a permission to sit examinations was negotiated. Undergraduates demonstrating against the women and their supporters did hundreds of pounds worth of damage in the market square, the First World War brought a catastrophic collapse of fee income for the mens colleges and Cambridge and Oxford both sought state financial help for the first time. In Oxford this was secured in 1920 but in Cambridge the women went down to again in 1921, having to settle for the titles - the much-joked-about BA tit -. This time the male undergraduates celebrating victory over the women used a handcart as a ram to destroy the lower half of the bronze gates at Newnham
