Date: April 3, 2005
Partners for the day: Nkosi Harvey (text) Peter Van Buren (images)
Site(s): Heraklion (also spelled Iraklion), Crete
Museum(s): Heraklion Archaeological Museum
Principal Buildings/Monuments: Grave of Nikos Kazantsakis
Time Spent on Each Site: from ca. 1 PM to ca. 4:30 PM [ 3.5 hours]
Weather: Cloudy, temperatures in the 50’s, windy but not so bad as in Athens
Greetings from Crete. We arrived safely in Crete this morning thanks to the crew of the Knossos Palace. We left the cold and stony metropolis of Athens last night around 9 PM and put-putted our way to Crete. Our brisk 7 AM walk from the docks to our hotel was rewarded with warm bougatsa at one of the cafes near the hotel. Once we arrived at the hotel Prof. Rutter let us loose to explore the city and terrorize the locals only to be later disappointed to find us sleeping our free time away.
The afternoon proved to be more exciting, however, with a whirlwind tour of the Heraklion Museum. We began our tour with a brief introduction to the history of Crete from about 6500 b.c. to 1300 b.c. In short the Minoans were colonists who came to the island around 6500 b.c. they had complicated and important trade routes especially with Egypt. All in all they were amazing until the Greeks showed up around 1300 b.c. And what was the Minoan period became the Mycenaean period (but that will cost an additional $9,000 of tuition).
The museum had a nice mix of beautiful as well as functional objects. The Minoans were prolific potters. Prof. Rutter impressed us with his knowledge of the museum and the artifacts. Most of which were displayed by subject. The amount of simply beautiful objects was overwhelming. And it became easy to ignore the context and the information made available by the museum. It (like our hotel) had spiffed itself up for the Olympics and had some nice displays highlighting famous objects which the museum owned. Prof. Rutter indulged our interest in Minoan culture, that is until the guards decided that we were having too much fun and kicked us out. All in all we had a good time in yet another museum.
We ended our day with a tour of some modern day monuments and Prof. Rutter’s favorite grave. We also got to see the resting place of Zeus whose head was sticking out of mountain ridge. Who knew Zeus could die? Well, the Cretans, obviously (It seems to be a local legend with roots in the early Christian era. So, if Zeus is your personal hero, it’s okay - he is still alive in your heart.)