‘Archaeology’ Archives
Road to Ayios Nikolaos
During a journey last year to the Venetian fortress of Spinalonga, we passed through the town of Ayios Nikolaos (called “AgNik” by foreign residents), but didn’t visit. Since it is just off the E75 highway and has an archaeological collection, we decide to take a day trip on the KTEL (public) bus. After a light [Read More]
Volcano and Legend
Saturday morning finally arrives and it is time for us to say goodbye to Pavlos and Eva, and begin our voyage northward into the Cycladic islands. Pavlos drives us to the port of Iraklion to catch the ferry, talking all the while about political cronyism and the ecological damage caused by uncontrolled tourism — which [Read More]
Archaeology Basics
Having visited many ancient sites over the years, we feel it might be helpful to tell you a bit more about archaeology. Most of you have seen archaeologists in movies, which depict the exciting Indiana Jones and Lara Croft methods of finding lost treasures. As you might expect, those film stars could not be farther [Read More]
Dark and Mysterious Places
There are over 3,000 caves in Crete (a tribute to nature’s flair for interior decoration), and many are of great archaeological and historical interest. We don’t have time to explore even a small portion of these. However, any inquiry into ancient Crete must include caves – so we decide to visited a few during our [Read More]
Bull Leaping
Minoan lifestyle was the envy of the ancient world. Their merchant marine fleet traded throughout the Mediterranean, from the ports of Anatolia (modern Turkey) to the shores of Africa. Even the great Egyptian empire relied heavily on regular shipments of goods brought across the sea by Minoan ships. All of this commercial activity produced great [Read More]
