Tag Archives: archaeology

pyrgos

19 Wednesday Mar 2014

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Municipal Museum of Pyrgos

Before entering the Municipal Museum of Pyrgos, make sure you walk around this beautiful neoclassical building and admire one of Ernst Ziller’s architectural accomplishments. What used to be the city’s marketplace, now houses many impressive finds from this prefecture.

See the boar’s tusk helmet; a similar one (according to Homer) would have been worn by Odysseus. Admire the costume jewellery from the late bronze era (1600-1200bc). These pieces are 3000 year old but they would sit proudly on the style pages of a glossy magazine.

Other findings really worthy of seeing are the ancient “safety-pins” and the ancient “thylastra”, baby feeding bottles.

ancient elis

18 Tuesday Mar 2014

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Ancient Elis

History

Ancient Elis (58 km from Olympia) was the city which had, under its supervision, the organization of the Olympic Games. One month before the games, all the athletes and trainers had to gather there to train under the supervision of the local judges. They would see if the athletes were good enough, otherwise they were excluded from the Games, and they would divide them into categories. Of course, in those times, they didn’t have birth certificates, so they would determine which category they belonged to from their built and body hair. Two days before the Games began, a procession set out from this city-state and all the athletes and trainers had to walk the whole distance to Olympia (58 km).  Imagine how tiring it must have been to walk such a distance before even competing in the stadium.

This procession was meant as spiritual cleansing, to prepare themselves psychologically for the religious games they were about to take part in.

Site

At the site, the remains are scattered and, with the exception of the theatre, considerably neglected. There are also remains of training facilities, a marketplace (agora) and roman baths.

During the summer a theatre festival takes place here and people from all over the area have the opportunity to watch ancient tragedies, comedies etc. under the moonlight.

Museum

Find out that women in antiquity were just as vain as they are today since a large number of bronze mirrors and jewellery pieces were found in the archaeological site.

agios andreas

16 Sunday Mar 2014

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Ancient Pheia (the submerged city) and Pontikokastro

In the bay of Agios Andreas are the remains of Ancient Pheia, which was an important harbor for ancient Olympia. Pheia was partially sucked into the sea by the earthquake that overthrew the Temple of Zeus at Olympia in the 6th century AD. Remains from the wall of Pheia can be traced under water, which were explored by several archaeologists in the 1970’s. Unfortunately, it is not allowed to dive here since there are so many antiquities. (Pheia is not the only submerged ancient city in Greece. In the southern part of the Peloponnese, there are at least 2 more prehistoric settlements (Pavlopetri and one near Methoni) that were sunk into the sea. There are actual plans to turn these submerged cities into underwater archaeological parks. Greece’s underwater wealth was first shown in the 1957 movie “Boy on a Dolphin” with Sophia Loren.)

Pheia’s low acropolis had a byzantine castle (Pontikokastro or “mouse” castle), which became the Beauvoir of the VIllehardouins. The steep site is considerably overgrown, with low remains, one or two towers, and a plethora of potentially dangerous cisterns.

The main thing here is the view, still beautiful!

 

olympia

16 Sunday Mar 2014

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Olympia

History

Olympia is the place where the very first Olympic Games were organized. These Games were held in honour of Zeus, once every four years, as part of a religious festival. They were greatly respected and even had the power to suspend wars for a period of three months.

In the beginning these games had a local character and only Greeks from the area of Olympia could take part. Over time, however, they got a Pan-Hellenic character and Greeks from all over the then known Greek world would travel to Olympia in order to be part of this feast. The highest moral award for an Olympic winner was a wreath made out of the branches of a wild olive tree. Victory symbolized by a wreath meant rather more than sponsors, deals and advertising campaigns. The Olympic winners won immortal fame.

The archaeological site

Don’t miss out on the opportunity to run the original Olympic track. It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity! Other spots of interests are the training facilities where the athletes would warm up their muscles, the hotel for VIPs’ only and the place where the Olympic flame is lit twice every four years.

The archaeological museum

The Archaeological Museum of Olympia houses the most important finds of the excavations, which began in 1875 by the German archaeologists.

Some of the highlights are the original marble sculptures of the Zeus temple, the metopes of the temple which depict the 12 labours of Hercules (the idol of all muscle –men in ancient times), the Nike statue and the late-classical Hermes statue which has the perfect proportions. Don’t forget to walk around the statue because his “behind” is really worthy of seeing as well. Other finds of interest are the ancient “strigils”, scrapers. In ancient times the athletes would get really dirty since they would rub themselves with olive oil and sand to protect their skin from the sun. After training they would use these scrapers as a kind of peeling.

Hermes of Praxiteles

The museum of the history of the Olympic Games

Here you will find “ancient Playmobil”, small stylized statuettes of animals which were actually the offerings of the poor people. If you didn’t have the money to sacrifice a real animal to Zeus, you could buy a little votive offering at one of the ancient souvenir stands in Olympia and dedicate this to Zeus.