The morning started off rough. I fought my cold oh so valiantly, and now it is almost gone (Thank God). We had our Greek language and culture section and then we were off to Ancient Akrotiri. Ancient Akrotiri was a city most likely inhabited by maybe up to 10,000 people, which in ancient times is a crazy big deal. Their civilization thrived from about 2000 BC to about 1640 BC. I don't know about you, but my mind is always boggled by ancient civilization (like the Aztecs, they had a population of about 200,000 people making them the sixth largest civilization in the world at that time, yet no one from Europe and Asia knew that).
One of the craziest things about the Ancient Akrotiri civilization was that they were peaceful. No evidence has been found that indicates a militaristic nature, which is awesome. These are the people that were intense traders. There are highly intricate paintings on their walls (which are preserved in museums) that depict women in the finest clothes (like silk, which had to have been traded with from Asia Minor since silk is not, and has never been available on the island) as well as plucked eyebrows (they have found ancient tweezers) and even painted nails (how crazy is that!). It just reminded me a lot of the beauty industry today (minus the fact that everything the ancients used was solely derived from natural means).
The site is called Ancient Akrotiri only because it is located by present day Akrotiri. No evidence has been found to give us any indication to the name of this magnificent city. And when I say magnificent I mean magnificent. This city had three story buildings, which in ancient times was a big deal (also keep in mind that this island had earthquakes too). One of the cool things that the excavators do is they fill in parts with liquid gypsum. This city was literally buried in the ground, fully preserving everything. However, wood decays (it didn't burn). So when excavators come across of pocket they fill it with the gypsum and then dig out the object that was once there. They have found intricate wooden tables with highly detailed clawed legs and beds. They have also reconstructed the doorframes with the substance, and then (for people on tours to get a feel for it) painted it to look like wood, so we could get a picture of what it would be like.
This city also had indoor plumbing, seriously! This just makes me look at current civilization and think about how long ago indoor plumbing has been around. Crap it made me feel lame. We were thinking that the time most people spent thinking about military and stuff like that these people were able to focus on making a more egalitarian society. So that was our morning in the smallest nutshell.
Tonight for dinner we made mac n' cheese, since we were really craving something from home. I actually learned how to make it too on the way back from the grocery store from one of our professors. We used three different kinds of cheese (Edam, Non-dyed Cheddar, and Mozzarella). The result was awesome, we may just use more milk next time. But it completely hit the spot. It feels so good being able to make food, especially when abroad in a different country. I'm glad we have the privilege of a kitchen in the room.
I did the other half of my laundry today, so that was exciting I guess. I am getting used to doing laundry by hand, but I am not making promises that that habit will continue once I get home. We have our wonderful clothesline stretched across our balcony twice, so we can fit more clothes on it. I have everything pinned twice (I call the second one my "contingency pin") just in case the wind decides to be extremely agressive. I haven't lost anything yet, so let's hope that continues. Well I will probably post some pictures from Ancient Akrotiri later tonight (or tomorrow, depending on the internet).
One of the craziest things about the Ancient Akrotiri civilization was that they were peaceful. No evidence has been found that indicates a militaristic nature, which is awesome. These are the people that were intense traders. There are highly intricate paintings on their walls (which are preserved in museums) that depict women in the finest clothes (like silk, which had to have been traded with from Asia Minor since silk is not, and has never been available on the island) as well as plucked eyebrows (they have found ancient tweezers) and even painted nails (how crazy is that!). It just reminded me a lot of the beauty industry today (minus the fact that everything the ancients used was solely derived from natural means).
The site is called Ancient Akrotiri only because it is located by present day Akrotiri. No evidence has been found to give us any indication to the name of this magnificent city. And when I say magnificent I mean magnificent. This city had three story buildings, which in ancient times was a big deal (also keep in mind that this island had earthquakes too). One of the cool things that the excavators do is they fill in parts with liquid gypsum. This city was literally buried in the ground, fully preserving everything. However, wood decays (it didn't burn). So when excavators come across of pocket they fill it with the gypsum and then dig out the object that was once there. They have found intricate wooden tables with highly detailed clawed legs and beds. They have also reconstructed the doorframes with the substance, and then (for people on tours to get a feel for it) painted it to look like wood, so we could get a picture of what it would be like.
This city also had indoor plumbing, seriously! This just makes me look at current civilization and think about how long ago indoor plumbing has been around. Crap it made me feel lame. We were thinking that the time most people spent thinking about military and stuff like that these people were able to focus on making a more egalitarian society. So that was our morning in the smallest nutshell.
Tonight for dinner we made mac n' cheese, since we were really craving something from home. I actually learned how to make it too on the way back from the grocery store from one of our professors. We used three different kinds of cheese (Edam, Non-dyed Cheddar, and Mozzarella). The result was awesome, we may just use more milk next time. But it completely hit the spot. It feels so good being able to make food, especially when abroad in a different country. I'm glad we have the privilege of a kitchen in the room.
I did the other half of my laundry today, so that was exciting I guess. I am getting used to doing laundry by hand, but I am not making promises that that habit will continue once I get home. We have our wonderful clothesline stretched across our balcony twice, so we can fit more clothes on it. I have everything pinned twice (I call the second one my "contingency pin") just in case the wind decides to be extremely agressive. I haven't lost anything yet, so let's hope that continues. Well I will probably post some pictures from Ancient Akrotiri later tonight (or tomorrow, depending on the internet).
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