Malahini in Greece and Turkey

Now back to a few days ago when we were talking about clay. The next step is very important. When clay dries it is very breakable. It just turns into powder like the clay that they first dug from the ground. In order to become hard the clay must be cooked for a long time at a very hot temperature. This is done in an oven called a kiln. Guy is having a kiln built in his backyard. In the picture you can see John building the kiln.

The kiln is built with three kinds of bricks. The first is a very hard firing brick. These are the yellow ones. They can withstand really high temperatures. The whole inside of the kiln is lined with these. The next is a similar brick that can withstand high temperatures, but it is wedge-shaped and will be put over the whole top of the kiln. The third type is the red brick with a honeycomb center. Because they have air holes they hold the heat in. They are good insulators.

In the picture you see wooden forms on the top forming an arch. These are just supports for the bricks and will be taken out when the bricks are all in place. This is a long oven. The pots are placed in the back of the oven and the fire is made in the front. It takes two days for the pots to fire in the kiln and two days for the kiln to cool down enough so that you can go and get the pots out. Once the pots are fired they are really hard. They can break, sort of like glass, but they will not just fall apart.

By doing this Guy and Phil are learning about the particular clay here in Corinth and the process used by potters to make all of the shards (pieces of pots) that they are finding in the excavations. Clay can be different colors and the clay in Corinth has sort of a yellow color to it. Archaeologists can look at a shard of clay and tell you where it probably is from! In the ancient world pottery was made in certain places and exported (taken different places in ships and sold), so you often find pottery from another location here in Corinth. The clay in Corinth is not the best quality. It was used for cooking pots and that sort of thing, but the more beautiful items were made somewhere else and imported here.
Susie asked how far the dig site is from normal civilization. Good question. It is interesting, but the village of Corinth that we are living in is actually surrounding the archaeological site, so it is about a 5 minutes walking distance from where we stay. I volunteer at the museum and actually am staying in a little house on the archaeological site. The elementary school that I visit is right across the street from the current excavation. Because they have been digging here for over 100 years there is a whole lot of area that was excavated in the past and is now open to visitors and tourists. I have made a map to sort of show you the layout here. It is not accurate and there are lots of details missing, but you can see where we are staying, the village, the dig, the museum and the school. It is all within close walking distance. The dig is called Panagea Field.

Clay
Did you know that clay is actually just a certain kind of mud that you can find in the ground? Yesterday I learned all kinds of things about clay that I am going to tell you about.

Some of the archaeologists here are extremely interested in clay. I bet you wonder why. Well, it is because when clay is fired in a kiln it becomes very hard and all through time people have used clay to make cooking pots and all kinds of things. There are the things that archaeologists find a great deal of and by looking at them they can tell how old they are and learn about life centuries ago.

Some of the archaeologists here decided that to become even more knowledgeable about clay they could make their own and from the clay make tiles, and other things, fire them in a kiln and learn about the whole process. Here are some pictures of what they are doing:
1. Phil explained to me about how clay is found in the ground. After it rains you can sometimes see cracks in the earth. The ground in that area might be clay. Guy Sanders, Phil and others go out and collect a bunch of this clay from the ground. This clay is actually from Acrocorinth (shown in the picture above). This picture shows how it looks when they first get it. It is sort of like a rock.
2. Next they break the clay into small pieces and dust by hammering it. This makes it ready for dissolving it in They put the crushed clay into these old limestone tubs and add water and then let it sit for a day or two and let it melt.
3. When it has melted it feels like clay. You can stick your hands in and feel how it holds together. When enough of the water has evaporated the clay can be wedged.

4. Wedging is when they take a bunch of the clay and throw it down 40 times to get out all of the air and to help it really stick together. After the clay is wedged it is ready to be made into something.

5. The day I visited Phil and Guy decided to do something else with some of the clay that was too wet to wedge. They put it all into a form to make tiles. The clay will dry in the form and then they can cut it into four squares that will become floor tiles.
6. These tiles will be very breakable until they are fired in a kiln. Check back tomorrow for more information and pictures of the kiln!

The Internet in Old Corinth at the archaeogical dig has been down. I wasn’t able to send in an entry to the blog yesterday. I am sorry. It is still down today, but I am visiting an Internet Café in New Corinth (the modern part of Corinth). To get here I took about a 15-minute bus ride. It costs 3 euro an hour to use the Internet. Can you please figure out what that is in dollars and write it into a comment?

The weather here has been unusual (that is what everyone says!). It has not been too hot and has been overcast and rainy a few days. We are not getting tan or sunburned. Steve has been wearing his hat at the excavation (see an earlier post in the blog), but I have not used mine.

Hi Everyone! I am back after taking a day off and going to Athens. Monday was a holiday here for Pentecost. It was one of those holidays where schools and government agencies close, but stores are open and most things seem to go on normally.

On the trip to Athens I crossed the Corinth Canal by train and I thought it would be a good time to talk a bit about the canal. It is only a few minutes drive from where I am staying. From here I can see the mouth of the canal easily. Sister Susie asked how it compared to the Panama Canal and also some very good questions about my comment on ships going over land rather than around the whole of the Peloppenese. I decided to ask Guy Sanders who is the director of the Excavation here at Corinth and I am so glad I did. He printed a whole paper he gave on it and told me that he will actually be featured on TV on the History channel sometime in the next year talking about it! So, you can keep your eyes open for something on the History Channel on the Corinth Canal (or shipping in the ancient world?) with Guy Sanders!

I am not going to give you the whole paper here, but just a few interesting tidbits to get you thinking. The Corinth Canal is very different than the Panama Canal although I think it was created for the same purpose. There was a narrow neck of land between the mainland and the Peloppenese for about 6 km (or 4 miles). It is about 80 m above sea level at the highest point (you will have to figure that out in yards), so there is a LONG way from the bridge to the water below in the canal. It is so far in fact that you can actually go bungie jumping there! . At the Panama Canal there are locks because the sea level at one side is so much higher than the other and the locks help the ship to “climb” to the higher level. At the Corinth Canal the sea level is the same or similar at both sides and the land is SO much higher thans sea level that locks are not needed.[picture of depth of canal from web]

In ancient times, before the canal was dug, there were war ships (triremes) cargo ships and smaller vessels that traveled the seas. We are mainly concerned with cargo ships and smaller here. It turns out that it was less expensive to drag the ships across the land (with their goods in them-I was wrong in what I said before). The shippers charged a tariff that was figured per ton per mile of transport and so the shorter distance really made a difference. Weather and safe sailing were also factors. The seas get too choppy for sailing between October and April and the land around the Peloppenese is rocky. There are many shipwrecks around the coast.
There was a specially designed wooden cradle in which the ship was firmly secured. It was on a rolling platform. The platform with the ship was then harnessed to teams of oxen. Guy Sanders estimates that it would take around 35 yoke of oxen to pull the 40 tons or so of weight repesented by the ship and the cargo. If there were 70 oxen pulling the ship I would guess that there would be many more men (slaves and workmen) securing the ship and caring for the oxen.

Over the centuries people thought about digging a canal here, but they did not have the technical ability to do it. In order to create a canal they had to cut the channel through rock. In Roman times (31BC-330AC or CE) emperor Nero used Jewish slave labor and unsuccessfully tried to excavate a canal. Finally in 1893 it was opened. The technology had developed enough to make it possible. Today supertankers will not fit in the canal and it is not as important for tranporting cargo, but it is an amazing sight and smaller ships regularly go through it. (Are you adding dates to the timeline as you go? I am!)

Well, enough about the canal. If you are interested in canals you may want to also check out the Suez Canal, which was completed about the same time as the Corinth Canal.

Today I am going to the elementary school (Demotico Echoleio) to learn about what games the kids play. I will take some pictures and I hope they will demonstrate for me. I am guessing that it will not be a day with a lot of work since tomorrow is their last day and it is a festival.

I think I should have started out this blog by mentioning that I did spend one month in Corinth in October 2005. If you are interested in reading more about it you can find my other blog at http://malahinitx.blogspot.com and look in the archives for October 2005. In October I was communicating with a 5th grade class in Missouri. You will find their picture somewhere there. I have learned a few words of Greek, but not much. I definitely understand much more Spanish than I do Greek. I heard a tourguide giving a tour in Spanish and understood most of what she said! It was a relief after hearing so much Greek and not understanding much beyond “good morning”. It is good that I can get by in English here.

This morning when reading my email I think I came across something interesting about my friends at John Muir School. If I am right they will be participating in the National Educational Computing Conference in their city (San Diego, California) ! Here is what I read. Maybe they can write us more about it in a comment!

Muir School International Projects: Global Schoolhouse and iEARN
[Student Showcase]
Be a global citizen. Share with international partners. Muir School
students demonstrate projects that change their perspectives forever.

Today’s Greek word is Amphora-this is a vessel for holding liquids, used like we would use a bottle. I will put a picture in tomorrow!

Well, you asked for it and you got it. This is what I learned. Many archaeologists think…well, not many archaeologists…actually, it was one tour guide. So, one tour guide claims that this figurine proves that the ancient Corinthians did indeed have peeps. He can’t figure out whether this is an actual peep or a terracotta replica because the texture would be about the same by now. Also, we do not have any textual evidence, so we don’t know what flavor it would have been. The archaeological site has drawers full of these!
My friends at John Muir School in San Diego asked about the house we are living in. That was a very interesting question to research. It turns out that the house was built in 1925 by a Mr. Shear who was the head of the excavation for several years. They call it the Shear house. It has a very long and colorful history and so I will tell you one story now and if you are interested you can ask for more. Mr. Shear lived in the house until 1940 because of WWII. Nazis occupied the house! Mr. Shear had been storing lots of the artifacts that he found in the house in wooden crates. It was cold in the winter so that Nazis dumped out the crates and burned the wood in the fireplace! After the war the artifacts were collected again, but lots of information about them (their context) was totally lost because they were no longer in the crates with other things found in the same place and time. After that the house was used for storage until sometime in the 1960’s when the conservator of the museum (like Nicole, see June 9th) decided to restore the house and live in it. She lived in it until fairly recently when she retired. Now it is used to house visitors like us.
While I was looking for a picture of the house to see how old it is I came across this picture of workers at the excavation in 1896. What a cool picture! At Corinth they have found things from about 6000 BC to the present.

Yesterday I told you that I was going to visit the Elementary School (Demotico Echoleio) here so that I could ask some of the questions that you have been asking. I tried to do that, but no one was at the school. I went again today and they were all there! Yesterday was a teacher workday and so there was no school. Their last day of school is next Wednesday, June 14th and they are having a game day and I am invited. I asked them some of the questions you sent me. It turns out that they do learn English in school. They didn’t talk to me in English (or understand me), but they showed me the workbooks that they use. The class I visit is only Third Grade and so they are just starting to learn. Their teacher speaks English and translates for me. Next week when I go again they are going to tell me about some of the games they play and I will take more pictures. Today they did give me the answer “Play Station”. They are all going on a field trip on Friday and Monday is a school holiday.

Word of the day Oinochoe Here is a picture of one. Aha! This must mean pitcher. The most exciting part about this is that a miniature one from the classical period or earlier (before 400 BC) was found in Steve’s trench yesterday!

Timelines really help me, so I am including the one that I am starting to build with information that we are learning. It is pretty empty, so maybe you can help me to fill it out. On the side bar I have linked to the Excel document that I used to make this timeline. Feel free to download it and use it if it is helpful to you.

I love it that you ask such good questions that cause me to think. I am staying here with all of these doctoral students and professors who know so much about Greece, so I have people to ask who are experts. I learned about a historical novel that I am going to read to learn more about Alexander the Great!

What I am learning about Greek history is that we think of Greece as one country, but it really wasn’t that way most of the time. There were lots of small countries like Athens, Sparta and Macedonia that each had their own government and fought against each other for power. We call them City-States because they were really more the size of a city, but were governed like a state. The people did not think of themselves as one country like we do now of Greece. There were Athenians, Spartans, and Macedonians and they called outsiders barbarians.

So far I have not found out the origin of the word Greece. If you ask people today what they call themselves it is not Greeks, it is Eleni. The Greek word for the country is Elenica. This is a VERY old word used by Heroditus, one of the first historians, but I still have not found out what it means. So, there is more to learn. Seth, one of the doctoral students here did some research and told me that the word Greek actually does come from the Greek language, but he was unable to find out what it means. Both words Eleni and Greci were used as long ago as we can trace.

Alexander the Great, from what I am hearing so far REALLY was GREAT. He was actually from Macedonia (north of Athens and the Peloppenese. His father, Phillip (who was king of Macedonia) hired Aristotle (from Athens) to be his tutor and so he learned to appreciate Greek art and thinking. Alexander was very intelligent and learned quickly. He was also someone who people followed and so when he grew up he led armies to conquer the land all around Macedonia. He actually conquered all the way to India and down to Egypt. This is something that no one had done so far. He spread the influence of Greek thought all throughout the areas that he conquered. He died tragically at the young age of 33. People always wonder what he would have done if he had lived longer. What do you think? For the most part people here consider Alexander to have been their king and are proud of him. That is especially true of northern Greece where Macedonia is. I guess there are some southern Greeks who still think that Alexander was a barbarian attacking their land and taking over, but not too many. The great thing about a blog is that if I have got it wrong or if you have something to add you can comment. Please do!

Because of Alexander’s influence the Greek language became the language that people throughout the entire ancient world used. Even the Old Testament (or more correctly Hebrew Bible) was translated into Greek in the second century AD. Over the centuries until now Alexander the Great has become a legend and there are really fascinating stories told about him in many countries over hundreds of years. You might really enjoy reading some of the stories about him that are more like tall tales than real history.

The word for the day is skyphos. It means a shallow bowl. Here is a picture. The ancient people used them for drinking like we use cups.

Tomorrow look forward to some interesting stories about Nazis, the house we are staying in and Peeps! Oh yes, and a new archeological term.

Wow! It was really fun to open my blog this morning (Tuesday) and to find so many questions both from the 5th grade in San Diego and also from my very own sister, Susie! I want to let you know that I am keeping track of your questions and will answer them all, but there are too many questions for one blog entry and also I am going to have to do some research on some of the questions (like the one about Alexander the Great).
I hope that I am doing the same thing here that you all are doing there… I am learning! In the mornings I volunteer at the Archaeological Museum. I am typing into their database all sorts of information about artifacts that are on display. Here are some of the things I am learning about: oinochoe, krater, pyxis with lid, amphora, hydriai, kalathos, skyphos. Have you heard of them? I don’t know what most of them are yet either! I am also going to be spending time just talking with people. There are several shops in town and I am hoping to spend some time visiting the shops and talking to people there. I have some friends from my last visit (Maria and Paniotis) and I am looking forward to seeing them. Tomorrow I hope to go to visit the elementary school here in town. They are still having school until at least Friday, so I hope I will have a chance to visit and to ask some of the questions that you sent me (like what games they play and if they learn English in school).

Now for a Greek word: proeno means breakfast. Greek people are not big breakfast eaters. They sometimes eat some bread and jam and drink milk before leaving for the day, but it is really about 10 am that they eat. At 10 am they have a break at work and at school and eat pastries. These pastries usually have a flakey crust and often have cheese inside. Some are sweet. At the archaeological site we have a different breakfast because most of the people that work here are American. We have a cook who makes us eggs and we have toast, butter, jam and coffee every morning.
Greek is written with different characters, so here is what the word breakfast really looks like:

I want to recommend something that seems to really work for not getting Jet Lag for those of you who do 25 hour plus trips! My mother gave me something called “No Jet Lag” (http://www.nojetlag.com) that is a homeopathic medicine. You take one tablet every two hours while traveling (you chew them and they taste good). I am surprised at how quickly I have adjusted to the time schedule here. I think that those pills helped!

Fortunately for me I will not have to get any new clothes because my baggage arrived this morning! Not many Greeks wear traditional outfits anyway. I am putting a picture of some of the traditional outfits here and next to it some pictures of Greek people that I see here. This is a picture of Nicole who works at the museum as a conservationist and someone else who works with her that I don’t know. Nicole is in front standing sideways. She is the one who restores what the archaeologists find. She is working on one pot (a krater) now that has decoration on the outside. It wassitting in the dirt so long that it is really difficult to remove the dirt without removing the decoration too. Sometimes she works with very small tools and a magnifying glass.

I need to tell you a bit about where I am staying. The arcaeological dig that we are at is in a town called Old Corinth (Archaos Korintos). There is a more modern town called New Corinth (or just Korintos) about a half hour away.

Corinth was an important city in history for several reasons. It is on the coast of the Pelopponesian Island (the big bottom chunk of Greece). Because of that it had a port where lots of commerce passed through. Also, there is a huge rock outcropping called Acrocorinth that could be used as a place to protect the area if there was a war. Most of the time the people lived down in the farm land all around, but if they were under attack they could all climb up to the top of Acrocorinth. It was very difficult to attack because it was high and they built walls all around it. Anyone coming to attack could be seen from a long way off. An attacker would have a very difficult time getting into the walls.

The whole Pelopponese was only connected to the mainland by a small piece of land. The Mediterranian Sea surrounds Greece. Ships would come to the side called the Sea of Crete and rather than sail the whole way around to get to the Ionian Sea they could unload all of their goods, carry the boat from one side of the land to the other and put the ship back into the ocean, put all of the goods back into the boat and take off again. It sounds like a lot of trouble, but it was a lot safer than trying to ship around the land in bad weather. Later I will tell you about the digging of the Corinth Canal.

The archaeological dig is sort of like a fancy summer camp. There are archaeology students from the United States and Greece and also professors who come and work here for three weeks at a time. There are dorm-like rooms where most of the people stay, but Steve and I are staying in a little house right on the archaeological site itself! It is a very old house and not a good place to stay in the winter because it is too cold. I am putting some pictures here.

I have added a map showing where our plane traveled to yesterday’s post. Are you curious about anything? Please write comments so that I will know what to write about!

I finished writing a WebQuest on Greece and the origins of democracy. I do not consider it complete, but would be glad if anyone uses it and gives me feedback! OR feel free to use it as a starting place for writing your own WebQuest. It is at:

http://www.webquest.org/questgarden/lessons/02460-050922124447/