ASINE

#Asine #Mycenaeancitadels

If you decide to drive along the coast road from Nauplio when you pass Tolon you might spot an old stone wall and a flight of steps behind a gate and fence.

Asine is alas definitely one of those archaeologist only sites in that you'll need to know some archaeology to visualize how this site was once a small citadel and village.

Hopefully my selection of images might help.

Be careful if you use Google Maps or Earth, There is a modern town called Asini.
I suggest you google Tolon and scroll eastwards.

This is an OLD photo but it shows why this site was occupied for centuries before and after the Mycenaeans. Beaches on either side! A gentle slope up to cliffs and check out Google Earth and you'll see possibly the sea level has changed on one side.

This ones a bit blurry enlarged but I have used it cos you can see the topography plus a rough outline of where the walls were originally. Its the sort of rough triangular shape Mycenaean rulers loved to fortify plus landing beaches on both sides steep cliffs yet a gentle slope upwards on the land side and a view of the sea and the flat coastal strip the road runs along. Perfect for watching for signals from beacons or who's coming along the road or sailing along the southern coast. 

Asine today. The old path / track has been improved and widened.

This also demonstrates how the Greeks would call settlements we regard as villages a POLIS.

Note that shape and the preference which appears again and again on coastal or inland sites for one side to have a gentler slope allowing ramps. Remember the only draught animals were oxen or donkeys. Horses were for pulling chariots or riding not pulling carts.

More after Easter.

The Sites of Ancient Greece

George Gerster the noted aerial photographer has a book out from #Phaidon
#greece #archaeology #photography #aerialphotography #book

If you have read R.V. Schoder's Ancient Greece from the Air 1974 

This doesnt cover all the same sites but is a worthy successor!

It is though "coffeetable" size and perhaps you might want to encourage a school or library to buy a copy?

MINYAN ORCHOMENOS

#minyan #orchomenos #boeotia

I'm very annoyed at how few GOOD photos and particularly maps or site maps there are of Orchomenos. Oh yes plenty of shots of the Tholos Tomb a few of the hellenistic citadel tower  even fewer of the Byzantine church or theater but they're rather touristy and I was really looking for maps that show how orchomenos' location made it a dominant settlement in the area until the end of the Mycenaean area.

Pausanias' description suggests there should be a lot more visible above ground so it appears sadly that later residents very zealously recycled pagan buildings for newer works.

Here's what little I could find crop edit compile that may be of use?

Actually a map of a battle but does show local topography and how Orchomenos could control local trade on the western side of the Copaic basin. If the old "acropolis" above Chaironeia was once an outpost for Minyan Orchomenos guarding the road nw?

Another view with a different interpretation of the shoreline.

Look at this before you try using Google Earth. 

Only the Theatre is clearly visible on the Google Earth maps. 

Both rivers have changed course. 

The modern town site spreads eastwards.

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Greek Polises Mantinea

#mantinea #fortifications #greek #polis #ancient history

Whoever built the foundations of the walls of Mantinea did such a good job that despite the usual centuries of locals using the rest of the city as a quarry the outline of the city walls shows VERY VERY clearly in Google Earth.

This is a photo from 1907.  The main difference I've seen in more recent shots is that in some sections less grass more wall.

Apparently there's been a lot of flooding in that area including lakes and rivers  forming and disappearing as sinkholes in the area blocked and unblocked and so silt to the benefit of local farmers has built up around the walls.  But such excellent walls!

Mantinea was originally Ptolis a settlement dating back to the Mycenaean age on a nearby hill now called Gourtsouli. The inhabitants moved down to the fertile plain and built a city.

That was centuries before the current surviving wall dating to about 370 BCE so possibly the walls follow or are on top on older ones probably the  mud brick wall damaged by a water diversion during a siege in 385 BCE.

As with so many Greek polises most of the surviving structures are what little is left of an agora and stoa and council hall and a nearby theatre shown below.

There are several small villages nearby and the city of Tripoli which seems to absorbed what was left of the residents of Tegea Mantinea and other Arcadian cities in the 14th century.

Afro-eccentrica

Afro-eccentrica

Eurocentric Afrocentric

Two viewpoints about Ancient Greek Culture that clash.

The first tends to be conservative and support the ideas about the uniqueness and specialness of greek culture.

The other stresses the influence of Egypt and the near East on Greece and Africa.

Egypt however is not Africa.

So where do I stand apart from that statement?

Evidence comes first.

The Ancient Greeks had legends about Cadmos and others migrating to Greece from Egypt and Phoenicia.

Artifact evidence is sparser though.

The Linguistic evidence I am more inclined to support partially because of my research into creolisation for a couple of linguistic courses I did in university.

If you're looking into the case for  or against Afrocentricism bear these two things in mind.

EVIDENCE COMES FIRST NOT INTERPRETATION

CONTACT WITH OTHER CULTURES CAUSES CHANGE

' nuff said...

Sesklo- The first Greek Settlement

SESKLO

The first GREEK settlement?

Well probably not since other Neolithic settlements like Nea Nikomedia have also since been found in Thessaly in Northern Greece but its one of the oldest dating occupied for over a thousand years.

Why do I consider this Neolithic settlement to be Greek ?

Note the use of slip and the symmetrical  arrangement of the cord used to  create a geometric pattern rather than spirals and the overall symmetry.

Now here's a reconstruction of what archaeologists think Sesklo looked like.

MMM terraced hillside and is it a central plaza / agora next to the main building?

Why do I say terrace rather than wall? This is Greece well their ancestors ... the houses are close but separate on a hill to leave slopes and flatter land free for farming and grazing and while many archaeologists believe walls were for defence ... remember there were still four legged predators back then and a need maybe to shelter garden plants from storms and rain and wandering stock .

Perhaps Sesklo should be called a proto polis?