BSA Course Day 4 - The National Archaeological Museum

Weather - hot and humid with showers, 29 degrees

Step count - 14361

A different morning walk from the BSA took us up and down some serious hills before reaching the National Archaeological Museum, which has an incredible collection of antiquities from all across Greece.

Founded in the 19th century, it has a fascinating story, particularly at the time of the Second World War. Ahead of the German arrival in Athens the collections were catalogued, covered, protected and buried in trenches in the basement and surrounding streets. The troops arrived to find the museum empty, with not a single antiquity to be seen, and the collection remained safe and intact until it was able to be displayed again after the end of the war.

Back to the present day, and we split into two groups to cover the topics we were focused on for the day. Our group started with tutor Laura Magno, who took us on a journey through ceramics from the Neolithic period to the Bronze Age, explaining how these objects can help us to understand and track movement and connections between societies through trade and travel by studying the materials, techniques, shapes and designs.

Then we headed into the galleries displaying the incredible finds from the two grave circles excavated at Mycenae in the 19th century by Heinrich Schliemann. The contents of these burial sites painted a picture of Bronze Age culture as transitioning from community - shown through larger ceramic cooking vessels which suggest sharing of food - to that of the individual, demonstrated by the large number of personal objects such as jewellery, weapons, and smaller items of tableware in precious metals found at the sites.

As well as the iconic 'Mask of Agamemnon', Grave Circle A contained similar masks which have been associated with both males and females, and we were reminded of the importance of remaining objective when assigning gender to remains based solely on the objects found with them, avoiding imposition of our own society's conventions which can distort the picture. Ornate and finely worked decorative, rather than functional, weaponry, as well as jewellery, was also found in great numbers, expressing a warrior identity through ostentation.

The other finds evidenced movements between, and connections with, societies across the Aegean and even beyond. A large proportion of the objects and iconography reflect Minoan culture - such as sacred knots and bulls - from the island of Crete, which still can't be explained.

The image of the octopus, also associated with Minoan culture, was discovered on many of the ceramics and goldwork surviving from burial shrouds. It was interesting to learn that it was believed that the bottom of the sea was a liminal space which linked the living world and that of the afterlife, and so sea creatures were often associated with funerary practices to represent transition between the states of life and death.

I could write all day about the Mycenaean finds, which differed in designs between site A and site B, as well as those of Tiryns which showed not just Minoan but also Cypriot influence. But I will add more after we visit the sites themselves next week.

After a lunch break, and the emotion of finding out that my daughter had aced her first GCSE exams, it was time to head back into the collection to look at sculpture. Tutor Bela Dimova took us on a chronological tour from the archaic to the Roman period, concentrating on how the male body has changed through time.

We started by looking at archaic kore (female statues) and kouroi (male statues), comparing and contrasting how each were depicted.

Focusing on the male form we then traced the changes from the relatively stiff-posed, serene-faced kouros through to the increased realism and hyper-realism of the classical period which showed musculature and more naturalistic poses with evidence of the use of models to depict veins and muscle tension. We looked at how the use of bronze allowed for more freedom of movement than that of marble, which had weak points at the arms and ankles, and I was bowled over to realise that most bronzes survive only because they were found in shipwrecks, as they would otherwise have been melted down.

Following through to the Hellenistic period, we saw the increased use of individual facial details and expressions, with sculptures taking on a more portrait-like realism, before ending with the Roman period and the depiction of power and status through individuality rather than symbolism. Bela encouraged us to think about the intention of the curation and display of the galleries, how we as visitors respond to the narrative and what decisions we would make in exhibiting the sculptures.

After the hot and humid walk home to the BSA, we were surprised with an impromptu talk from former course tutor Anastasia Christophilopoulou, all about her work as a field archaeologist and a curator at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge. She described how the two different aspects of her work complement each other, and gave an insight into the work involved in preparing for an exhibition. The perfect end to a fascinating day.

Photo credit: The British School at Athens