Lack of posting

The lack of posting has been because I do not have the internet as readily anymore. The second class it mostly travel. We only have a few days here and there in Athens, which is the place I've been getting my internet access at (the CYA center).
18 June 2008
We spent the night on a boat to Crete and arrived very early in the morning. We ate breakfast at 6:30 and and were off the boat by 7:00AM. We drove to Knossos and saw the palace there first! It was great. The tourists didn't get to bad until after we saw the Throne Room, which is awesome, because by 9AM there was a 45 minute wait to see it. After Knossos, we had lunch in Iraklion and then went to the archaeological exhibition. The museum is being renovated, so there are some artifacts in a small display. We then drove to our hotel in Zaros. I would completely recommend this to anyone. It was wonderfully secluded.
19 June 2008
We went to the Palace of Phaistos, where the Phaistos disk was discovered. Like Knossos, it's a large Minoan palace complex. We also went to Kommos, which is a pre-palatial structure and area. It's been excavated recently and is not open to tourists, so it was nice to be able to visit this less well known site. We took the afternoon off and went to Malatas for lunch and a bit of beach, then back to the hotel for a swim in the pool. It was wonderful.
20 June 2008
This day was spent seeing more Minoan sites. We went to Archanes, which is a cemetery. There were some really awesome tholos tombs from different periods that we got to enter. They were interesting. We also went to an ancient Minoan villa with a really well preserved wine/oil press called Vathypetro. We went to a museum after to look at the artifacts found there. Prof. Diamant and Caitlin (an archaeologist traveling with us) had a fun debate about human sacrifice there. In the afternoon we went to the East Crete Archaeological Center. We got to see the storage, sorting, scientific testing and drafting areas of the center. Prof. Haggis (one of my UNC professors) works there every summer. I didn't see him there, but I did get to meet a few of his collegues. It was nice to be able to see how and where the archaeological remains are processed.
21 June 2008
The class climbed two hills which felt like small mountains. The first led to Myrtos, a Minoan site that was burned and then never reoccupied. The second led to another burned village that was a slightly older period. We then went to Gournia, a city with a central court and lots of residential areas around it.
22 June 2008
We went to Lato, which sits in a saddle between two peaks of a mountain. This was the first site that we looked at that wasn't Minoan. This one comes from the Archaic period. It had terracng and temples, which none of the Minoan sites do. I met a UNC - Chapel Hill emeritus scholar on the site there. He was digging at Azorias and was visiting sites with his wife. It's nice to meet people from UNC abroad.
After Lato, we drove to Mallia, another Minoan palace. It was huge! In a lot of places mudbrick had been preserved. Overall it was a well preserved site, which made it really nice to walk around and be able to see the structures well and how all the components of a Minoan palace really come together.
We headed back to Iraklion and got on the boat back to Peiraias for the night.
23 June 2008
John Camp (a famous archaeologist who's written a few of my text books) showed us around the sections of the Agora (in Athens) that are being excavated right now. It was an interesting morning lecture. We got to go into a bunch of places that people normally don't get to. We got to see the Royal stoa up close and I ended up standing on the Oath stone by mistake. :)
Sadly, lunch made me sick to my stomach and I didn't go to the NAM with the class, but luckily it was only to cover the statues that I'd already seen in the other class.
24 June 2008
Today I am much recovered from yesterday's sickness. We went to the Agora this morning and got a view from the upper level of the restored Stoa of Attalos before going down and discussing the Agora as a sanctuary. We'll head back tonight for further lecture on the Roman period of the Agora. Tomorrow at 6:30 AM we head for the Peloponnese. We get to see Mycenae in the morning - that's the site I've been looking most forward to seeing!

I hope everyone's doing well at home. Only 21 more days until I'm back in the US. I'll see you soon!