April 15, 2005
April 15 Photos: Katherine
The view from Tiryns. Our home base for the past 3 nights, Nafplion, is on the coast at the left. In the Mycenaean era, the coastline was much closer to Tiryns. The sea gave the inhabitants of Tiryns easy access to trade routes, among other benefits.
The fortifications walls viewed from just inside the gates at Tiryns.
Guest lecturer Melissa Vetters points out the features of a colonnade that would have stood in front of a series of storage rooms, which are now lost.
An unusually vaulted corridor connecting storage rooms on the lower level at Tiryns. It is thought that this construction shows Hittite influence, through either simple imitation or the supervision of a Hittite builder.
Laura and Caleb stand in front of the conglomerate antae to demonstrate the width of the Great Megaron.
The west fortification walls at Tiryns. The wall was constructed in segments, without the use of a crane, by dragging huge boulders up ramps.
Neha and Jackie as human scale for the Cyclopean masonry of the walls.
Nkosi and Neha inside one of the hidden underground cisterns, which were meant to be accessible only from inside the walls.
The group on a cross section of the massively thick outer wall at Tiryns.
The entrance to the Tripolis Archaeological Museum. Unfortunately, much of the material in the museum is unpublished, so photographs were not allowed inside.
Head of Herakles, by the sculptor Skopas, from the West pediment of the Temple of Athena Alea in Tegea. In the Tegea Museum.
A display of moldings and other architectural sculpture from the Temple of Athena Alea.
The foundations of the Temple of Athena Alea. At least two building phases are visible in the foundations.
Abby .
We examined a series of unusual cuttings on some blocks from the interior colonnade of an older building phase. The round space would have held a wooden column, a dowel would fit in the rectangular cutting to attach the column, and the trapezoidal cutting would have been used when lifting the column into place. The chisel marks may be from a later time.
Column drums at the Temple of Athena Alea.
A view of snow-capped peaks from our new hotel in Sparta.