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Tag Archives: Archaeological sites

The Spondylus Route to archaeology, Ecuador

24 Friday Aug 2018

Posted by winifredcreamer in Ecuador

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Archaeological sites, Museums

Romantically named, the Ruta del Spondylus highway borders the the ocean in places, then dips inland around high hills, making its way from northern Peru to northern Ecuador. It is named after the spondylus shell, brilliant orange or deep purple species that were used to make beads and jewelry by the ancient people of both Ecuador and Peru. These mollusks are only found in warmer waters–no spondylus were harvested in the waters off Peru, but the bright colored shell was traded south from Ecuador into Peru by 3000 BC, or perhaps even earlier.

Over-harvesting resulted in a crash of spondylus and today it is in danger of extinction. The Ecuadorian government is supporting experiments in repopulating these species. We found no trace of spondylus in the many tourist souvenir stands along the roadway, though we found a local monument to these lovely shells. Jewelry made from spondylus shells is very popular among tourists visiting Peru, though the shell comes from all over the world. The romance of having something made from shell that was valuable to the Inca and their even earlier ancestors still captivates visitors.

In Ecuador, however, the greatest enchantment is in the beaches that line the route. There are well-known stops such as Playa Los Frailes or Playa Rosada (pinkish sand), and lesser known beaches that lack umbrellas and chairs for rent, but provide long stretches for a walk or a swim. We are visiting during the off season, the dark of winter to many Ecuadoreans because of the cloudy weather. It has not rained, but the sun has been out only two days of our first seven here. The Santa Elena peninsula, where we are located, is one of the driest places on the Ecuadorian coast. In GoogleEarth, it shows up as a grayish brown finger of land pointing out into the Pacific.

Part of the attraction to us is the deep history of the area. Ecuador was home to very early villages that formed by 3800 BC in places like Real Alto. We visited the museum at that site on one of our first days in the area and walked around. It’s a difficult sell for tourism, however, because there is nothing to see on the surface. The raised area where people built their houses is barely distinguishable from the surroundings, and even when the excavations were first being carried out, the astonishingly early remains consisted of the stones that formed the base of clusters of houses. There was never anything on the surface. You need a good imagination to  build a circle of oval thatched houses in the brush that covers the area today. We enjoyed chatting with the young woman excavating some test units as part of a thesis project at ESPOL (Escuela Superior Politecnica del Litoral).

Our next archaeology stop was the Museo des Amantes de Sumpa, just down the street from our house, in the town of Santa Elena. We wanted to see the famous skeletons of a young couple buried together in an embrace. What we found was an excellent local museum with information on the ancient people of the region that was never boring or preachy (as a lot of museum text seems to be). In addition to the archaeological exhibits there was a recreation of a local house from a century ago that showed the very simple possessions people are likely to have had. Having heard a lot about hat-making in Ecuador (home of “real” Panama hats), we were interested to see that the equipment for making straw hats is unchanged between today and the 19th century. It was a lovely visit–I only wished they had a gift shop! We were impressed by the entire museum, which is carefully tended. The exhibits are not complex or high tech, yet they are absorbing. The meeting room of the museum was in use during our visit with a training program (according to the guard). It is nice to see the public spaces of a museum in use.

Our next stop was the museum at Valdivia, site of the oldest pottery in the New World when it was originally reported in the 1970s. Jonathan and I studied archaeology when this site was the next big thing, and Betty and Clifford Meggers and their Ecuadorean colleague Emilio Estrada, proposed that Validivia showed a connection between Japan’s ancient Jomon culture and the earliest ceramic-makers, as early as 4000 BC. Today this seems like an unlikely proposal. The similarities between Jomon and Valdivia pottery are related to the fact that there are only so many ways you can decorate pottery that is made and decorated by hand with no tool more complex than a pointed stick.

The Valdivia Museum is run by the community and has almost no budget. There are volunteer docents who were pleasant and knowledgeable, but there was almost no labeling and many of their photographs had disappeared or disintegrated. We enjoyed our visit. I was astonished to hear that the museum is built right on the middle of the excavated site. The town has grown up on and around it, covering up the site entirely. We stared at a low dirt embankment in the parking lot as though potsherds would be lying there waiting for us. Since none appeared, we asked whether anyone sold replicas of ancient pottery and were referred to a house around the corner, the home and studio of Juan Orrala, master replica-maker. We chatted and looked at his work, all the copies stamped with “Replica-Juan Orrala” in the clay of the base. His contemporary work inspired by ancient designs is beautifully made, so we took home some of each. What you see below is the replica figurine we purchased (8 in long), a whalebone figurine in the museum (about 24 in long) and a monument outside the town of Valdivia (about 6 ft. high). The museum holds hundreds of fragments of smaller clay versions of the “goddess.”


We also bought a matching plate and bowl set that we are already using as serving ware.We are happy to have met the talented Sr. Orrala.

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Tihuanaco/Tiwanaku

16 Monday Apr 2018

Posted by winifredcreamer in Bolivia

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Archaeological sites

Most people visit Tiwanaku on a day trip from La Paz, spending about two hours at the site. We set aside two and a half days. After talking to visitors in our La Paz hotel we wondered whether we’d regret booking two nights at the Akapana Hotel around the corner from the site entrance. We could have used another half day beyond the two days we were there. We stayed at the Akapana Hotel, a block from the site. Our room was fine, the top floor restaurant was (grilled llama one night, trout the next). The enclosed parking is a must for us, and we were very comfortable in this miniscule town.

Tiwanaku was an ancient empire that controlled southern Peru and northern Bolivia for centuries (AD 400-900). The capital city lies on the altiplano, a high altitude (3850 m) open plain on the south shore of Lake Titicaca. The lakeshore has receded from the site leaving the gigantic buildings stranded. We began our visit in the afternoon of the day we arrived, starting with the ceramic museum and then following the path to the large pyramid in the center of Tiwanaku, the Akapana. The Akapana looks like a natural hill though some of the terracing used to build it has been reconstructed. From the top you can look out over the other structures. From the ground these are not immediately impressive but they make a satisfying meditative stroll.  The upper picture is a reconstruction of the step-sided Akapana. The lower picture is a photo of it today. We followed the paths out to smaller areas, enjoying the view across the landscape and imagining what it was like when it was first occupied. The modern town of Tiwanaku lies on top of what was the living area of the site in ancient times, so not much is known about daily life.

The next day we visited the large enclosure called the Kalasasaya a low platform that was originally walled. On one corner is the best known artifact of Tiwanaku, the Gateway of the Sun. This portal was originally a massive piece of stone heavily carved and inscribed on one side. It was identified in the mid 19th century, already broken into two pieces as it is today. No one is sure where it was originally located and 19th century drawings show that it has been broken into two pieces for at least the past 150 years. The carving is quite detailed, showing the Andean deity often called the Sun God. The image can be traced back through many ancient Andean civilizations.

The semi-subterranean temple has the most distinctive decoration, with more than 100 tenon heads projecting from the four interior walls of this structure.

Tiwanaku is known for a number of monumental stylized human figures, El Fraile and the Ponce Monolith among them. The biggest and best preserved is the Bennett monolith. Identified by the American archaeologist Wendell Bennett in 1932, this statue is over 20 ft high and so impressed people that it was carried off to La Paz and set up in several locations between 1932 and 2002 when it was returned to Tiwanaku. Today it can be seen in the Lithic Museum at Tiwanaku where it dwarfs the room that houses it.

Bennett Monolith, fine carvings all over the surface
Bennett Monolith, fine carvings all over the surface
4.8.18 Tiwanaku-107
Ponce Monolith, fine carvings all over the surface
Ponce Monolith, fine carvings all over the surface

Both the Bennett and Ponce Monoliths (R, L) have fine designs carved over their entire surface, like the Gateway of the Sun.

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Heading North

17 Saturday Mar 2018

Posted by winifredcreamer in Peru

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Archaeological sites, Huanchaco, Landscape, Piura

We decided to visit northern Peru, and headed for Playa Los Organos, on the coast between Piura and Tumbes, stopping for two nights on the way. The first day was familiar territory where we passed familiar archaeological sites. Just north of our home in Barranca is the Fortaleza de Paramonga, southernmost outpost of the Chimu empire. The Chimu are not as well known as the Inca, because in the great battle between opposing empires in 1470, the Chimu lost, and as we all know, the victors write history.

Just outside the Casma Valley is Chankillo, a fortress and ancient observatory built around the 4th c. BC where 13 small towers align with the annual movement of the rising and setting sun. Cerro Sechin is nearby, its main structure lined with carvings of warriors and victims. More sites line each valley until you arrive in the Moche Valley home to two of the great ancient societies of ancient Peru, the Moche and the Chimu. The Huaca de la Luna is the iconic capital of the Moche, who controlled this region from about 100-700 AD. They built vast adobe brick pyramids with brightly colored figures painted on each tier. Its twin, the Huaca del Sol, was mined for the gold in tombs by the first Spanish explorers, by diverting the Moche river to wash away the adobe. Fortunately for us, they left a portion for us. The site museum, completed just a few years ago, displays the trappings of Moche power. Burials found within the pyramid were dressed in wide beaded collars, gold crowns and masks, surrounded by pottery molded into plants, animals, and people, or painted with detailed scenes of ceremony and battle. It is fantastic.

Before leaving town you have to visit the other great empire of the Chimu at one of the royal enclosures of Chan Chan. Each ruler built a new palace, a huge enclosure of adobe with walls more than 15 feet high, sculpted with figures of fish, pelicans and other creatures. Within each royal enclosure was everything the ruler needed, meeting rooms, living space, even a reservoir dug into the water table to provide water. Chimu elite were buried with masks of gold and elaborate pottery. The scale of these buildings is what’s most impressive, and the range of shapes sculpted into the adobe. The Chimu empire developed around 900 AD and died out after the defeat by the Inca in 1470.

When we stop in this area we always stay at the Hotel Bracamonte in Huanchaco. It is on the beach outside Trujillo and a relaxing stop after a day of visiting archaeological sites. It has a lovely garden by the dining area that you can enjoy while having breakfast. The fruit, yogurt and granola combo is always my choice. Our only mistake this trip was failing to enjoy one of the excellent restaurants in Huanchao for seafood at lunch time. When we went out in the evening for dinner, most places were closed and we ended up eating cake and ice cream for dinner. We won’t let that happen again.

The next morning we headed into new territory. We’ve driven as far north as Chiclayo to see the Museo Tumbes Reales de Sipan, where the golden burial of the “Senor de Sipan” is displayed. This is one of the most elaborate tombs we’ve ever seen. The tomb was found by grave-robbers, taken over by archaeologists who had to camp at the mouth of the tomb and patrol 24/7 until the Peruvian government acted to protect the treasure. The hero of the story is Peruvian archaeologist Walter Alva, who spearheaded the site protection and stuck with the site until the museum was built about ten years later. There are fantastic objects in the museum including  beads on a burial necklace shaped like peanuts made of gold and silver. The site where the tomb was discovered, Huaca Rajada, is also worth a visit. Late Moche tombs like Sipan though not quite as large are still being uncovered periodically. A site museum is usually built for each one, like the Senora de Cao. Once you’ve seen the Sipan museum, though, you’re spoiled by the amazing wealth on display and none of the others is quite as rich.

Beyond Chiclayo was new territory for us. There are many other sites along the way, though for us it was a case of so many sites/so little time. We passed Pampa Grande, where Jonathan excavated for part of his dissertation research, Bataan Grande, Tucume, and many others as we drove toward Piura. It took all day to get there with only a stop for gas. The landscape turned dry, and we saw more of the damage done by the 2016/2017 El Nino. Sections of road are washed out and rebuilding is underway but not completed. River basins are scoured out and though you cannot tell from the road, thousands of people still need new housing.

In Piura we stopped at an oasis, the Casa Andina Premium Hotel. Our room had air conditioning, the pool was a great contrast to the heat that was building all day long. We went out for dinner to Tayanti, a restaurant near the hotel with many positive reviews. We had delicious cocktails but found that the menu included only two “fish.” Fish of the day was conger eel, a soft white fish that is the cheapest in the market. Neither of us like it much. The other choice was salmon imported from Chile. We finished our drinks and went to the opposite side of the courtyard to Tao, where we ordered sushi that proved to be delicious with neither conger or salmon involved. We returned to our air conditioned oasis for the night.

 

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Wari, Peru’s First Empire

02 Friday Mar 2018

Posted by winifredcreamer in Peru

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Archaeological sites

We couldn’t pass up a visit to the ancient capital of Peru’s oldest empire, Wari. The site is northeast of Ayacucho and not difficult to find. The site is huge, covering 1800 h (about 4,500 acres). As a capital city, Wari was home to rulers, priests, bureaucrats, craftspeople, and farmers. Circular spaces were probably for ritual activities, perhaps with statues in each of the niches.  Lots of stone was used to build high walls and small rooms, and there is a similarity among Wari sites no matter where they are found. They were probably pretty forbidding places.

There are still a lot of questions about Wari. This group of people was considered to have formed an empire. Larger than a state-level society, empires incorporate unrelated groups of people in an extensive territorial political unit. The Wari included settlements from the Moquegua Valley in far southern Peru to the Cusco area, and as far north as Cerro Patapo near Chiclayo in the north. That is almost as large an area as the much later Inca Empire. The Wari built some of the network of roads that the Inca took over and made famous. The Wari also introduced terracing hillsides to expand agricultural land, another innovation that is attributed to the Inca.

Some excavated areas are covered and walking paths connect the excavated areas.

Most of Wari is covered by a thick growth of cactus making it difficult to see areas that have not been excavated or cut down. It keeps people on the path! This huge site would be a great candidate for LIDAR, the technique of mapping with aerial sensors that has been used to map sites in the Maya area covered with heavy plant growth.

The site represents only a small part of the Wari empire, and the small site museum holds only a few items of Wari material culture. Elsewhere there are spectacular weavings, stonework, metalwork, and ceramics. From Feb. 28 – May 28, 2018, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York has an exhibit, Golden Kingdoms, that showcases Andean art, including some from Wari. Here’s an example of a four cornered hat. Wari designs are highly stylized though you can make out the bird heads on this hat.  There is elaborately painted Wari pottery and stone tools made from obsidian. During our visit to the site, we found fragments of decorated pottery and of obsidian lying on the path.

2.17.18 Wari-057
2.17.18 Wari-054cra

Jonathan bought a cap embroidered with the Wari figure of the staff god from one of the vendors outside the site entrance. Most of what was for sale were crates of “tuna” the fruit of the opuntia cactus. They are pretty but neither of us is interested in eating them. Too many seeds, too little flavor. We returned to Ayacucho from the land of cactus.

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Fall Blows in to Sicily

27 Friday Oct 2017

Posted by winifredcreamer in Sicily

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Archaeological sites

It’s often breezy at the beach. We got out of the car and crossed the fringe of dunes, arriving at the shore to see small waves crashing and the wind rushing east along the sand. Walking into the wind, we started our beach combing, finding smooth oval pebbles and beach glass.

Ow, ow, ow!It wasn’t sand flies or hot feet, but the sand stinging our ankles, whipped along by stronger wind than we had felt before. I only remember the bite of the first gusts, though the wind kept up so strongly I almost lost my footing a couple of times. The sun was as bright as ever, and the water felt warmer than usual. We could feel the seasons changing.

The light is more slanting as fall comes on. Morning and evening shadows are long and last longer every day, as though the sun is resisting Apollo’s horses dragging it upward. One evening I said, “You didn’t need to close the shutters so early”… then realized that they were open and it was already dark.The wind was still blowing in the change of seasons at Morgantina the next day. I had to give up on wearing my hat or it would have flown miles away. Morgantina is another of the mammoth ancient sites in Sicily that had a long and varied history before being sacked by the Romans in 221 BC. Though it continued to be occupied, the city never regained prominence. It’s been a couple thousand years since then and Morgantina is still sitting on its hilltop out of the mainstream.

Heating pipes of a Greek bath house
Heating pipes of a Greek bath house
In the bath house
In the bath house
A large kiln
A large kiln

The wind blew away most of the visitors. We saw a busload of students from a distance and after they disappeared we saw only one or two other visitors at this vast site. (It is 30 minutes each way from the Palermo-Catania highway, and not close to either Catania or Palermo, a bit out of the way.)

The fall scenery is spectacular, silver-brown furrows in the recently plowed fields that curve and dip across the rounded landscape. Mt. Etna sits in the far distance, volcanic ash like snow on the upper slopes and clouds covering the peak. The wind blew clouds overhead, creating patches of light and dark that changed constantly, shifting a hill into sunlight then into shadow as we watched. It was a captivating landscape, half New Mexico’s stony ridges, half midwestern farmland, and definitely its own thing.

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Where the Greeks were

23 Monday Oct 2017

Posted by winifredcreamer in Lillian, Sicily

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Archaeological sites

Sicily was the largest colony established by Greece. What that actually means sinks in about the third time you visit a vast, partially excavated archaeological site and find a temple, or several, that appear to be transplanted straight from the Acropolis in Athens.

Agrigento

Selinunte

Segesta

The temples may the most impressive sights, but there are lots of other features. Like a big amphitheater at Segesta.

Amphitheater, Segesta

Huge roof supports shaped like gods (telamon):

The Greeks were supplanted by the Romans, and then Arabs, then Normans, then others. The Romans left paved main streets (Decumani), like this one in Lilybaeum (Marsala)and elaborate mosaic floors at Villa Romana de Casala (Piazza Armerina), see the previous post for these.

Off topic but interesting: This recent article tells about a New York City resident and art dealer who had a section of mosaic from a ship that belonged to Caligula (Roman emperor 37-41 AD), It was finally repatriated to Italy this week after spending about 40 years as a coffee table.

Mosaic from Caligula’s ship returned to Italy

As if all this were not enough, we’re off to Morgantina, another great pre-Roman site in Sicily, followed by Syracuse (the one in Sicily). I’ll add more from those stops. However, I can say without a doubt that the Greeks were everywhere in Sicily, and in many ways they are still here.

 

 

 

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Piazza Armerina–Roman mosaics at their best

18 Wednesday Oct 2017

Posted by winifredcreamer in Lillian, Sicily

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Archaeological sites, Mosaics

We didn’t know much about Piazza Armerina until we looked for archaeological sites to visit within driving distance of us in Sicily. The guidebook indicated interesting mosaics at the Villa Romana de Casale near the town of Piazza Armerina. The mosaic floors of this villa, owner unknown but possibly the Emperor Maximian (250-310 AD), are wonderfully detailed. We’ve never seen anything like them in all our Italian travels. Why isn’t this site better known? OK, there were ten tour buses parked at the site when we left at 3:30 pm. But seriously, I had heard very little about this particular site and the mosaics are unparalleled.

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Hunting is a major theme, especially in the Great Corridor where a scene over 200 ft long shows the capture of exotic African animals that were shipped to Rome. There is detail in the shapes and colors of the animals, the individuals capturing the animals, and their transport (the elephant is wrapped in a net). Within the long scene are vignettes that accompany the tale. A slave is whipped, a tiger’s cub is stolen while she is distracted by a reflection. It is remarkable.

One of the most interesting rooms in the Villa Romana shows women competing in sports and being awarded prizes (crown, olive branch) for running and other games. I have not seen another depiction of woman in a palestra (gymnasium) or competition. Nicknamed “the bikini room”, this is popular even though the Blue Guide notes it is of “inferior artistic quality compared with the others.” I think it’s great.

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Other mosaics include various ways of hunting (nets, clubs), cherubs fishing, boats, children riding animal-drawn carts, children being chased by the animals they were pursuing, and the legend of Anios, who won a music contest in Sicily, was robbed by sailors on his trip home and thrown overboard only to be saved by a dolphin. Areas that were closed during our visit show people getting a massage in the bath complex, and the twelve labors of Hercules in a large atrium.

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Here are a few details. There are over 4,000 sq meters of mosaic floors in the Villa Romana. Some mosaics are so fine that they average 36,000 tesserae (pieces) per sq meter. The mosaics at the Villa Romana are considered to be Romano-African in style, and some may have been made in sections in north Africa (Libya, where there were large Roman colonies, for example) and shipped by boat to Sicily. The putative owner of the villa, Maximian, was known as a soldier and hunter rather than a statesman, interests that the mosaics support.

Another piece of evidence that is used to associate the structure with an emperor is the decoration of the room called “The Circus”. It depicts horse races around a track from the perspective of the emperor’s box at the end of the arena, where nobles look on from the sides.

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What I love about Pompeii

15 Friday Sep 2017

Posted by winifredcreamer in Salerno

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Archaeological sites

As an archaeologist, I was amazed, surprised, and delighted by Pompeii. Other sites may be bigger (Tenochtitlan, Mexico), have larger temples and pyramids (Moche, Peru), or more spectacular settings (Machu Picchu, Peru), but more is known and brings the city to life in  Pompeii than anywhere else.

There are lots of buildings, walls and streets. The owner is often known and many are marked .

Pompeii is so big there are addresses (e.g. Region VI, Insula 3). They are very helpful when you are trying to find a specific house, since some are open 9:30-1:30 pm. Others are open 1:30-7:00 pm.

9.14.17 Pompeii excavaation Nocera necropolis-001
9.14.17 Pompeii excavaation Nocera necropolis-002

Archaeologists know a huge amount about Pompeii from inscriptions, objects and documents. We stopped and chatted with an international team (French, Spanish, Italian) excavating in the Necropolis of Porta Nocera and they showed us their work. They have uncovered three individuals, one under the wall and two in the funerary structure, including a woman who was marked by the small tombstone on the right, above. They now know her name and that it was a family burial plot for some time before the tomb structure was added. A man was buried near the woman and they believe it may have been a couple, but he did not have a marker to tell us his name. The archaeologists dig very slowly, removing narrow layers. We also saw all the digital gear that is now standard in excavations.

The level of preservation is a real knockout. The Villa of the Mysteries is at one end of the park. All of the house but its roof was preserved and the walls are decorated with complex mythological scenes. The wall art is painting or fresco.

 

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There are more than forty houses that are named and visible, many with spectacular preserved wall painting like the Villa of the Mysteries above.

Three things I noticed in the elaborate houses–

The two lower panels are imitation marble.

People used a lot of painting to imitate decorative marble (R).

 

 

 

 

 

People often painted rooms very dark colors, black or dark red.

 

 

 

 

 

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People liked trompe l’oeil painting (making walls look three-dimensional). There were a lot of skilled painters.

The villas are not all of the story at Pompeii. People fled, taking jewelry or a sack of coins, if anything. Thus, businesses and homes were abandoned completely furnished, bakeries had loaves in the ovens, horses were in their stalls, grapes and pomegranates on the vine. Everything was covered with volcanic ash so rapidly that their form was preserved even after the physical remains burned up. Scientists have identified the trees and plants in the gardens from casts of their carbonized roots.The casts of family members who tried to hide from the explosion are among the most poignant features of the site.

Jonathan could have worked at the thermopolia–take out restaurants. Only the wealthiest people cooked their own food. Most people bought hot meals to go. He also liked the kitchens and the bakeries.

9.14.17 Pompeii-121
9.14.17 Pompeii-120
9.14.17 Pompeii-107
9.12.17 Pompei-054
9.12.17 Pompei-026
9.14.17 Pompeii-022

All food was farm to table back then. Each bakery had stones to grind grain to make flour, then they made and baked bread. Amphorae held oil, wine and even garum, the smelly fermented fish condiment that Romans loved. The artifact storage spaces hold hundreds of amphora, and countless others were removed from Pompeii over the years before the site was well protected.

I was impressed by the respect people at Pompeii had for their household gods. Most houses had a niche, a lararium, and these ranged from simple to glorious.

9.14.17 Pompeii-001sm
9.14.17 Pompeii -016sm
9.12.17 Pompei-073sm
9.12.17 Casa dei Vettii 076.17 Pompei-077

I knew that Pompeii would have great things to see. What I learned is that Pompeii has a lesson for great sites, it’s openly a work in progress. This has its good and bad sides. The good part is that as new buildings are restored and conserved, they are opened to the public, even when they are not yet on all maps and posters. We found this with the Taverna Hedones. Since I don’t read Latin, I don’t understand why the mosaic in its floor is a bear and the word “Have”.

You can spend two full days at Pompeii as we did and still not see all there is to see. It’s vast. You pass maintenance staff, people working on restoration at all levels, from measuring a pillar in a gated area to moving rock with mini-backhoes. There is storage of artifacts in some of the spaces along the side of the Forum. It’s not ideal artifact storage, but it shows some of the many amphora, casts, even a strongbox that used to be built into a Pompeiian house.

Open-air storage with a strongboxfrom a Pompeiian house.
Open-air storage with a strongboxfrom a Pompeiian house.
Open-air storage
Open-air storage

There isn’t room to hide anything backstage at Pompeii. Some areas are blocked with metal gates covered in images of the site. You have no idea how long it has been or will be like this. It all changes as it goes. If you are on a tour, your guide should know what’s available and you will barely notice streets and buildings that are blocked.

If you are on your own, and especially if you’ve done a bit of planning in order to see specific houses at Pompeii, you need to factor in buildings at Pompeii that are open at different times. Neighboring structures may be open at opposite times, requiring a visitor to pass the same spot twice at different hours in order to see both places. There are online lists of which houses are open and at what times and this can change at any time. It’s a tough place to keep together.

Sometimes the walls fall down.

In 2014, a chunk of temple wall collapsed after heavy rains and there was a lot of ranting in the press about whether Pompeii was mismanaged. Everyone knew it was underfunded, so there was a lot of finger-pointing.

Wall collapses at Pompeii after heavy rains

Today the funding situation seems to have improved and there is a master plan in the works (Grande Progetto Pompeii). Restoration is underway in several areas and there is general bustle. I like that. When we visited there were also interesting exhibits, one on Pompeii and the Greeks in the Grand Palestra and two smaller exhibits in the Antiquarium exhibit area near the gift shop. One exhibit was on looted items that have been recovered, including a section on fakes being sold as ancient artifacts from Pompeii. The second exhibit is on the House of the Golden Bracelet that is not presently open to visitors.

My personal gripes are small ones. There is only one cafe in the center of the city and it seemed like every time I wanted coffee we were at the other end of Pompeii. The other is that the gift shop isn’t very extensive, and not a single ball cap. I guess Italians don’t wear a lot of hats. I’ll end with a few more of my favorite images from Pompeii.

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After Ferragosto

08 Friday Sep 2017

Posted by winifredcreamer in Salerno

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Archaeological sites, Paestum

Ferragosto is the annual down time for all of Italy. During the two weeks from mid-August until the first of September almost everyone takes a holiday, and every desirable hostelry in the country is jammed to the doors. That’s why we left for Ireland. We returned to Italy when order was restored on Sept. 1. Our first trips were to the beach and a major archaeological site, Paestum.

At the beach, the shift was dramatic. There were only two or three umbrellas in use at beachfront businesses with 40-60 umbrellas. Staff members were hosing off equipment, taking down cabanas and stacking the parts for storage. We had a lovely afternoon enjoying the sun and the breeze. No babes in bikinis, just other retirees and a few families with preschoolers.

The next day we tackled a real challenge, Paestum. This huge archaeological site was home to Greeks, Lucanians (ancient Italians), Romans, Lombards, pretty much everyone who passed through. The Greek temples are the best preserved portion of the site, though the museum holds the remains of painted tombs and artifacts from later periods. We chatted briefly with one of the archaeologists working at Paestum this year and we watched a staff member running ground penetrating radar across a section of grassy field that is probably full of ancient houses.

 

There is also a very large amphitheater and other round buildings that were used for meetings of different sized groups.

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Excavations at Paestum recovered hundreds of painted tombs, four walls and sometimes a ceiling panel (the most famous, the Diver, was a ceiling panel.)

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There were not many visitors, and since Paestum is so large, we passed very few people as we walked around. There may have been more lizards than tourists. We could tell that the high season is over. One tour bus was parked in the lot beside a scattering of cars.  Everyone else was back at work.

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12 hours of madness, and incidentally, New Grange

05 Tuesday Sep 2017

Posted by winifredcreamer in Ireland, Lyra, Peggy

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Archaeological sites

(Things got a bit out of order and this should have appeared before the previous)

We left Bundoran on Aug. 30 and embarked on 12 hours of madness as we tried to get me in and out of the outpatient unit at University Hospital, Sligo for a shot in my eye to treat my macular degeneration and on to the destination we actually had planned, New Grange. We sat for what seemed like forever in the waiting area at the hospital, yet were able to cross Ireland and make it to New Grange in time to get on the second to last tour of the day. New Grange is an amazingly impressive site and sight. Its sheer size outdoes anything else in Europe. Purists may balk at the reconstruction, but the unreconstructed interior brings all kinds of images of past religious activities to mind (Photography is no longer allowed inside). The 93 or so huge stones encircling the mound at New Grange, as well as those on the inside, have been pecked with spirals, circles, undulating lines, cup marks and other symbols. I admit I did not enter the annual lottery–winners get 2 tickets to see the light of the winter solstice come in the upper window of New Grange on one of 5 days that this occurs each year.

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Lyra rolling down the hill at New Grange. It was that kind of day.
Lyra rolling down the hill at New Grange. It was that kind of day.

As if that weren’t enough, we had decided to return our rental car and stay overnight in the city of Dublin. Leaving New Grange around 6 pm, the thought of driving into the city, disgorging the luggage of four travelers at the hotel and returning to the airport gave us visions of the 9th circle of hell. Around that moment, we discovered that the Dublin airport is on the route from New Grange into the city, so we stopped in, dropped the car, picked up a big taxi and arrived at our hotel for less than the cost of four bus tickets from the airport into town. Not only that but our 6’5″ retired army medic taxi driver told us his best stories of taxi driving. (Unfortunately, the one where the guy pulled a gun on him took place in Chicago….uh oh.) By 8 pm we were seated at dinner, having triumphed over all hurdles, visited a truly world class attraction, and were ready for our last day in Ireland. I am grateful for the patience of my traveling companions that allowed us to make this all happen.

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