Date: April 16, 2005
Partners for the day: Jackie (text) Ben (images)
Site(s) Modern town of Sparta
Museums: The Museum of the Olive and Olive Oil
Time Spent on Each Site: from ca. 12:45 PM to ca. 1:30 PM [ __3/4__ hours]
Weather: Sunny, a bit breezy, pleasant
Today was our first free day since we began our road trip in Southern Greece. Instead of staying out late and taking advantage of the opportunity to sleep past 7 AM, most of us got to bed fairly early and woke up in time for breakfast. It was quite a treat and perhaps one of the best hotel breakfasts we have had so far: yogurt and honey, mini tyropitas, cereal, cakes, bougatsa, eggs, and honey-drizzled, fried chips (like the kind they serve at Panda House). After our hearty breakfast, Ben, Caleb, Nkosi, Neha, and I decided to be daring and explore the city of Sparta. Our first stop was the weekly market, which was filled with fresh produce and flowers. Many people packed the aisles between booths, both looking at the assortment of vegetables and fruits and bargaining with the sellers. What particularly struck me were the colors and smells. There were bins of brilliantly-red tomatoes, florescent-yellow lemons, green and yellow apples, and oranges, all surrounded by the aroma of lilacs and roses. How could you not buy something in this atmosphere? Both Ben and I were drawn in and decided to buy apples, but when Ben explained in Greek that we only wanted to buy one apple a piece and not a kilo of apples, the owner happily gave them to us for free.
Afterwards, we wandered down a few streets in hopes of finding the “paintball tournament” that was advertised in a few local cafes. We thought it would be a good opportunity to see what Spartan boys did in their free time, but we were quite shocked to find that the tournament dominated by 20-30 year-old males. Apparently, there were four semi-professional teams competing, all decked out with team uniforms and chants and playing a “capture the flag”-type game. Our favorite team was “Molon Lave” (meaning “come and take it”), whose name was a reference to the Spartans’ audacity against the Persians in the Persian War and could be found on the statue of Leonidas in town. We were quite amused as we watched and reveled in the thought of coming back later in the day to play a game with Prof. Rutter and Abby. (Unfortunately, when we asked Prof. Rutter if he would play against us, he refused.)
After we watch two games (which lasted about 2 minutes each) we departed and searched for the Museum of The Olive and Olive Oil. The museum was very interesting and accessible, with numbered panels to lead visitors through the exhibit and grammatically-correct English captions. The exhibit started on the top floor, and consisted mainly of colorful panels covered with pictures and diagrams outlining trade centers, explaining the significance of olives to the Greek Culture, tracing the uses for olives and olive oils throughout Greek history, and presenting various depictions of olives in art. We were delighted to find that we recognized many of the Prehistoric and Ancient Greek replicas, such as the Olive Leaves fresco and Linear B tablets from Knossos. On the lower level, the museum explained the actual process of creating olive oil from olives, complete with about half a dozen 19th and early 20th century machines and three interactive models showing the uses of water, steam, and diesel power in processing olives. Just the sheer size of these machines gave us some inkling as to the amount of labor involved in creating olive oil. First olives had to be ground into pulp, then pressed, and finally separated from the oil. The museum ended with the various examples final product, resting on shelf framed by a bar. We surmised that on busier days, this area was probably used for taste testing.
All in all, we were very impressed with the museum, particularly with its integration of artwork and artifacts with text. As Nkosi pointed out, unlike the other museums we have visited in Greece, the Olive and Olive Oil Museum used artifacts as part of the larger purpose of explaining an idea, rather than simply putting them on display to show off their aesthetic values. Often, the importance of such finds becomes lost among all the other examples of “pretty objects” in a museum. Yet the Olive Museum was able to highlight the importance of many artifacts while at the same time charting the importance of olives and olive products through history. One example, the depiction of Odysseus blinding the Cyclops with a spear of olivewood, which was on display at the Argos Museum in a case with other pottery, was recreated and in the Olive Museum for the purpose of showing the importance of the olive wood to Greeks. It is this kind of artifact usage that makes the museum successful despite its lack of authentic artifacts. All of us left the Museum feeling wiser in the way of olives and olive oil production.