January 24

Today we packed up our bags and left Heraklion for Sitia. Sitia is about a two hour drive, but we broke up the trip by visiting various sites along the way. The first place we went to was Malia, but it was closed due to a shortage in staff. That was frustrating. It was a nice day today, much better than yesterday. Next we visited Gournia. This site was excavated in 1901 by a woman named Harriet Boyd. She uncovered an entire town surrounding a central complex. This center is much smaller than the one at Knossos, and I would hesistate to call it a “palace,” as it was described to when discovered. Prof. Krentz sent us out for 30 mins to search for indications that it was indeed a palace and for those that would help argue otherwise. This center seemed to have much in common with other palaces we’ve seen, but everything was on a much smaller scale. There was no central courtyard however, the one extant was off to the side and not paved. There were only two indications of columns and there was no grand staircase. One of the more interesting, and distinguishing features, was the “sacred” stone that sticks up out of the intersection in one of the paved roads (when I say road, picture narrow walkway – no car would ever fit here). In antiquity it was common for stones to represent a god, so it is likely that there were religious functions associated with the center palace.
We had about 15 minutes to explore the site and as I wandered, I was trying to figure out the layout of the town and how this layout affected the social and economic life. I tried to imagine how many rooms were meant for (or allotted to) one family. Prof Krentz and I think we found one area that seemed to be a likely downstairs for one family’s home. The town’s set-up had me considering what kind of social environment existed here. Was it a communistic society, with a communal storage system? Or did each home have its own separate storage system? According to modern standards, this was a very small town and I can easily imagine the family going up to the main town center (“palace”) for their portion, or the center distributing the grain and oil to the various homes for personal storage. Just given the size of the town, the shared religious beliefs (it seems reasonable to me that there would only be one religion that people would follow, with varying degrees of devotion), and the central location of the “palace” that this town would share most of the goods and food. I don’t know about the incomes of the people, whether there were large differences or not. If a family did live in the “palace” and ruled the surrounding town, they would likely be wealthier than the average townsperson, but among the people, I would think everyone was roughly on the same socio-economic level. These theories are only based on my perception of the town’s layout, but from what I can tell, it seems that the homes were all roughly the same.
After Gournia, we hopped on the bus for an hour before getting off at a small Minoan home called Chamais. This home sat atop a hill and looked over the harbor. Of course, it was gorgeous up there, and there are now several luxury apartments that flank the coast. When you look down by the shore you can see the little town where I am now staying, Sitia. The site here was very small in comparision, possibly because the rest of the ruins have slowly fallen down the hill. There were strong, thick walls to protect against the winds.
I’m surprised I survived the bus rides today. The direct distance between Heraklion and Sitia is not very long, but travelling through the mountains means a winding road and several people got pretty green by the end of the ride. Crete is very beautiful and we passed more white houses with blue doors and shutters. Sitia is a quiet town, especially during the non-tourist season. The hotel rooms are bare, but sufficient. I don’t know if it is just in Greece, but at this and the last hotel, you have to insert your key into a certain slot on the wall in order to turn on the power in the room. It seems like an economically sensible idea to me, it ensures that no power will be wasted on an empty room.
The café right next to the hotel is a free wifi hotspot. I just finished a Greek coffee – very strong and very good. The fine grounds at the bottom of the cup are strange to me, but at least I know my coffee is very fresh. So at some point (not now because I feel the urge to nap coming on) I will post new pictures on my facebook page. If you don’t have a facebook page, just give me your email address and I’ll send you a link.
I’ll post more tonight after dinner when I come back to the café. I think I’d like to go on a short walk right now to check out the town and then nap for a bit.