Hello! Things in Athens are a bit crazy in general – there’s a huge strike going on today which shut down schools, the airport, the trains, ferries, and all the archaeological sites, even the Acropolis. On a more personal level life is pretty normal; I have spent the day inside at the library (class got canceled because nothing is open) working on my dissertation, and will soon be off to do the same in the afternoon.
The past few days have gotten us back into a normal routine, although the schedule from here on out is pretty un-normal. I spent Sunday recovering from the trip; the only productive thing I did was unpack, but I was trying to get over my cold (not a lot of success; I’m still waking up every morning coughing and congested). Monday was better. I picked up Andy’s care package, which involved me going all the way to Omonia because for some reason the package was not at the Kolonaki post office; I got it without any trouble, and then went back on the Metro carrying the bulk heavy box (it had candy inside, so really I do appreciate it). Sadly there was some serious disruption: things got crumpled and crushed, and apparently the Wilbur buds you will see in the picture of the box were in a tin when Andy sent it; said tin has now disappeared, and the Wilbur buds were conveniently poured into the bottom of the box for me. I also got laundry done that day and prepared for my presentation, and a few other odds and ends got done as well.
On Tuesday I walked to the Pnyx, on top of which is the Philopappos Monument. There are no signs for it, so you essentially walk towards it (it is very easy to see as you walk around the city), then get to the Pnyx, which is pretty dense woods, and can no longer see it, and so must follow paths leading up to it (there are no signs; you just assume you should always be going up since it is at the top). I made it, though, and gave my presentation: it’s a funerary monument for Philopappos, whose grandfather was the last king of Commagene, a kingdom of Anatolia; Philopappos himself lived variously in Athens and Rome and hobnobbed with emperors and writers and all sorts of important people, and apparently Athens loved him because it’s really a very conspicuous monument. After that we talked for a while about the Pnyx, which is where the assembly of citizens met to vote on legislation. Then we visited the Areopagus, which also gives you a great view of the city, but which is made of bedrock so worn you can barely climb it in places. The Areopagus was where a council (of the same name) met to decide on murder cases. At that point it was already about 1:00, so I got some lunch in the city as I had to be at the agora at 2:00 for my next class.
The next class was Bones of the Agora with Maria Liston, who is a physical anthropologist who specializes in osteology. [This part is not for the squeamish] She talked to us about the dead baby well, which is a well that was excavated in the agora that contained the bones of about 450 dead babies (she had the bag with all of their right femurs; it is a large bag). Some people have argued it was used by a cult practicing baby sacrifice, but Maria thinks that is ridiculous, and some have said it was used by a brothel when prostitutes got pregnant, but context pottery shows the babies were deposited in a 15 year span, so you’d have to have a lot of very careless prostitutes (her words). Instead Maria thinks it was used by a few midwives for babies that died soon after birth or were born with defects; she’s identified obvious problems in about 40% of the babies. She also showed us the Rich Athenian Lady, a skeleton which was found in the agora with rich grave goods; she was cremated, so all that’s left is bone fragments of varying sizes. Maria studied these as well and was able to determine that she was in her mid-30s and that she was pregnant. Finally she showed us the skulls of what she suspects are two murder victims: one is a man who shows fractures consistent with being hit on the side of the head, and the other is a woman who has no less than four axe-marks on her skull.
So, tomorrow I have class down at the Piraeus, but there’s no class Friday and Tuesday! This was to be used by us for mini-vacations, but since I’m going to Rome soon I’m just staying in Athens. On Friday I’m going to the Epigraphical Museum to make up the class I’m missing today, and then this weekend I’m going to try to check out the Byzantine Museum, Museum of Islamic Art, Benaki Museum, and Museum of Cycladic Art (assuming they are open). After that there’s only a few more classes left, and then to Rome!
I have a couple pictures from Tuesday’s class which are here.
I have to say that I think Bones sounds really, really cool.