Azoria

I hear that FS is "just crushed" that there are no more critical facial hair updates. As there is no hair left (on my face), there is no longer a hair story here. Um...erk...sometimes, it would appear, that bad things happen to good people. And so, so sorry, FS, but crushed you must be. Might I offer as but a poor poor substitute some pictures from the site we visited today? And further, I dedicate pictures from A Z O R I A [!] to FS in the fond hopes that they will buck her up.

Anyway, Azoria is a recently excavated site that is very near Agios Nikolaos. Its floruit was 1200-600BC. It therefore is younger than the Minoan sites we have been looking at. The site has not been published yet and it posed some problems for yours truly as he endeavored to get oriented and talk about some of the features of this site. Besides not being able to track the spine wall through the Andreion (which was unexpectedly HIGHLY mysterious) I did find everything I set out to find. So, like, go team!

One of the things that is really interesting about Azoria is how it is temporally inbetween the ancient Greece we all know better and the more mysterious and much older Minoans. It looks forward a lot -- e.g. the Andreion, a possible Prytaneion, a possible Agora, a possible Temple. It also looks back some. The closely built houses remind one of Gournia.

We did not know precisely where the site was [it is not on maps yet] and the walk was long and steep (with a small amount of backtracking). Some of the students were a little grumbly but they settled down later especially when we got up there. It was a beautiful day and the site is stunning! Amid such beauty and sunshine, it was hard to keep your snark on.