Concordia CMLL Study Tour

By Julie Leblanc

The day started early at the National Museum where we were led around by our guide and archaeologist Heinrich as he explained Greek material culture from the Bronze Age to the Classical Period. The museum was massive and since we were on a schedule, some cuts had to be made as to what was to be seen and analyzed. Otherwise, the museum’s vastness could easily lead to several hours of exploration. After this, we walked to Monastiraki Square for a brief lunch and headed over to the Museum of Modern Greek Culture, an outdoor village museum with exhibits in houses. I found this section interesting since it drew a drastic line between everyday Greek culture that we had been engaging with for the last few days and an older, more traditional culture. Although there was this sense of separation between both because of the isolation of the artifacts, Greek culture today is still very much related to everything that could be found inside such as their festival clothes (which are still used albeit only a few times a year).

The house that stood out to me the most was the one dedicated to women and women’s work, especially weaving. The room’s walls were adorned with various types of textiles with a large loom welcoming us by the door. In fact, Heinrich told us that the textile industry in Greece was one of their most lucrative businesses up until a few years ago, demonstrating that even the museum worthy “artifacts” were still found around the country. I found this striking because over many cultures spread out around the world seem to revert to the same roles over and over somehow. This is the beauty of humans and proves that we are more connected than we think we are – culture is ever changing and while some aspects of tradition are left behind to make room for modernity, we inherently keep the aspects that define us. I cannot wait to be able to draw more parallels and discover more things about Greek culture that are either foreign or familiar to me and I have no doubts that our group will experience Greece as a whole both culturally and archaeologically over the next few weeks.

~Traditional Greek dress from the Museum of Modern Greek Culture.