What culture am I studying? MYCENAEan!

Mycenae

Last Sunday our group made a trip to Mycenae, one of the fortified cities remaining to us from the culture which borrowed its name from this citadel, the Mycenaean Age. This is a city that I’ve studied in every Classical Archaeology class I’ve had, and while I knew that the city was surrounded by mountains and had a deep ravine on one side, the site of the two giant mountains flanking the city and the deep rocky ravine that once held an ancient river took my breath away. While the pictures are nice, you cannot experience this place without being there.

Cyclopean Masonry

The citadel was nice, and it was awesome to see the things I’d studied (such as the extension which includes a cistern which one could go down into and a sally port used during siege).

Entrance to Cistern

We also got to see several tholoi (beehive shaped underground tombs) including one nicknamed the “Treasury of Agamemnon”… the lintel stone over this particular tomb weighs approximately 120 tons.

Tholos tomb

Not kidding. It was ginormous.

Me in front of the Lion's Gate entry to Mycenae

After suffering through the midday heat while climbing up the steep rocky slopes of Mycenae, we took a quick trip to Napflion, the first capital of Greece before Athens stole all the glory. Napflion is right on the coast, and has a large citadel on top of a very steep mountain jutting out of the landscape.

Napflion

It’s 999 steps to the top, supposedly, so I definitely didn’t go. Instead we had a relaxing time with an ice cream on the pier and a walk through the streets of the city. A lovely trip.

My roomie and me

The next day my roommate and I took a trip to the beach after we got done at the dig. It was quiet, but I’m glad we did it because today the entire group is going; however, I and three other students will be missing out since we’re assigned to work at the museum today, and won’t be at the dig site to catch the bus to the beach.Napflion