Hellenistic Gold

When you travel on a small boat, things like arriving and leaving can sometimes become flexible.  A weather front came through and the Captain decided to stay in port cozied up to the dock rather than sail in bad weather.  The upshot was we got extra time in Athens by skipping one port and heading straight there.  The ship's entertainment staff worked overtime to produce some 'tours' in Athens at the last minute.  

One of the tours was to the Benaki Museum.  It has bunches of the traditional Greek treasures like black and orange pottery, but what I wanted to see was the Hellenistic Gold exhibition.  (I had already marked it out as something I wanted to see even before we arrived.)  The young flustered tour guide didn't care for my demand to see the exhibition, but I hardly allowed her displeasure at my request to bother me.  Drake and I and another woman peeled off and went in search of the gold.  We found the gatekeeper (aka the ticket seller to the special exhibition) and bought tickets for 7 euros each.  

We walked into a large space filled with glass topped museum cases displaying exquisite beaten gold in many forms.  I especially liked the leaves and flowers.

In addition to the Greek version of tiaras, there were pendants, necklaces, rings, earrings as well as some pieces of beaten gold fashioned into loose leaves.  Something I'd never seen fashioned out of gold were the snoods.  A snood is a net fashioned to be worn over a bun.  It's a hair ornament that comes and goes in popularity over the centuries.

While 'snoods' may have fallen out of fashion, I did see something in this collection which reinforced the idea that 'there's nothing new under the sun' especially in fashion.  Bell bottoms are back!  Mini skirts are probably next.  In this exhibition, here's something which made me smile.

Sequins!

There were also some very lovely small sculptures and other knickknacks which were easy to imagine gracing this Greek woman's house.  Here's her jewelry box.

 

While the pieces were extraordinary, I found the probable story of how all these precious objects came to be found to be the most interesting.  Every item in this exhibition was found stuffed into a large buried amphora.  Archeologists supposed this could indicate everything was owned by one person who buried the amphora to save the contents from being taken.  Think Confederate women burying their silver to save it from the Yankees.  In my opinion, this makes the discovery more personal and relatable.  Imagine the woman who owned all of this, and what could have caused a burial to hide it all.

If you'd like to see the additional pieces hidden in the amphora, click on the pix.

Hellenistic Jewelry

The Corinth Canal

 One hallmark of the 19th century (1800's) is the development of complicated construction projects.  The leading example was the railroad, arguably as big an element of change to the 19th century as the computer was to the 20th century.  Railroads aside, there were other construction projects which heralded consequential economic change.  One of these is THE CANAL.  Erie Canal 1825 put New York State and New York City on the map.  The French constructed the Suez Canal, the first modern canal.  It had immediate economic success.  It connected the Mediterranean with the Red Sea.  You could now sail/steam from the North Atlantic Ocean through the Mediterranean Sea, thru the Suez Canal into the Red Sea, and into the Indian Ocean, an entry point into the Far East.   

In the late 19th century, the French, flush with the success of the Suez Canal, start construction on a 51 mile canal to cross the Isthmus of Panama.  After 9 years and 20,000 lives lost mostly to Yellow Fever, the French abandon the project.  In 1904 under Teddy Roosevelt, the Americans take up the construction of the Panama Canal cutting through the Isthmus of Panama connecting the Caribbean Sea (North Atlantic) with the Pacific Ocean.  There were still difficult construction problems as well  the persistent Yellow Fever problem, but Americans completed the Panama Canal in 1914.

In 1882 the Greeks decide they can internally improve trade by cutting a 3.9 mile canal across the Isthmus of Corinth.  Nero started this project, but the canal idea was dropped with Nero's demise.  The canal would allow ships to cut across the Peloponnesian Peninsula (see inset picture) instead of sailing around it.

This was  literally digging (blasting) a trench through limestone cliffs, but there were no locks since the length of the canal was at sea level.  It is only 26 feet deep and is quite narrow (82 feet wide at the water level/69 feet at bottom of canal).  Today, this is more of a tourist attraction.  Modern ships can't use it since it's too narrow and not deep enough.

It was a good tourist attraction.  Led by a pilot boat, so we could stay in the deepest part of the canal, we sailed down the canal towards Athens with the towering limestone cliffs on both sides of our ship.  They were so close, it felt like you could reach out and touch them.  We also saw birds nesting in pockets and holes in the limestone.  I kept focusing my camera to try and catch some to identify.  I was surprised to see 'rock doves'.  You will know them by their new urban name:  Pigeons.  Cliffs were their preferred nesting sites until they discovered skyscrapers in the urban environment of humans.  

The Corinth Canal, opened in 1893 (11 years of construction) was never the expected economic boon.  Railroads, automobiles (trucks) and construction of larger and larger commercial trading ships quickly made it almost obsolete for trade vessels. 

It was really fun to sail through.  Initially, we started viewing at the front of the boat, but even competing with only 180 people, it was crowded.  We moved to the back of the boat with fewer people, and really enjoyed this experience.  You can still see some of the blasting marks on the limestone, as well as this mysterious group of letters.

There are two submergible bridges at each end of the canal, as well as railroad bridges and an automobile bridge over the canal today.  As always, the pictures tell the story.

Corinth Canal Pictures