Concordia CMLL Study Tour

Starting the day off strong, our tour group woke up early to enjoy breakfast at hotel Rex’s all you can eat buffet. Which consisted of puff pastries, coffee, cold cuts, vegetables, and fruit. Later, we hopped on to the bus to start our journey to the House of the Tiles at Lerna and Tiryns’ Cyclopean architecture.

After visiting Tiryns’ historical landmark, it’s an interesting notion to think scholars only thought civilization started during the Olympic games out of nowhere when, in fact, Greek civilization had prehistory, long forgotten. The tunnels that we saw played an important part in trade, as the rock had been smoothened by sheep. And in return for sheep wool, the ancient people who lived here would have received perfume in exchange and other luxury goods.

Based on today’s tour, it is easy to see how the Ancient Greeks once thought that Cyclopes made these architectural landmarks as the stones would have been too large in size for humans to carry and make into architecture. However, if Tiryns architecture hadn’t been made by cyclopes the Ancient peoples at Mycenae most likely used levers.

Seeing it first hand was very impressive, from the archway to the open window view. These ancient people also seemed to have made these windows match where the mountains are aligning them perfectly. This just goes to show how advanced these prehistoric Greeks really were, even if there weren’t any written tablets left behind.

The next site we drove to by bus was Mycenae, home to grave site A, and how Henrich Schlimen excavated this site despite his infamous history with destroying the various layers of Troy. Another aspect I found interesting was how Mycenae came here to make statements or bury their dead near the palace. One such grave we had encountered was a round theolos tomb, and it is thought to have first appeared during the late Bronze age. After we had a long exhausting hike up the mountain we had gone to see two last sites.

Afterwards we had free time to enjoy the local food and in the beach one last time in Nafplio.

By Themis J Holloway