It’s early days in the Agora on top of the Parnassus. We haven’t raised the Temple yet or settled on the nature of the Polis’ Constitution; particularly in terms of what the duties and obligations of our Citizens may be. Do however visit us again at a later date – say a little closer to the Thirty b.c.e, or maybe even the year Zero: no doubt by then we will have settled all these important matters.
In the mean time, be careful out there: the Spartans have established a military checkpoint at Marathon in Argolid and its rumoured that there’s a whole host of Persians on the roads this time of year.
But as you are in the neighbourhood just now, here are some fun facts gleaned from The Horse, the Wheel and Language by David W. Anthony, a mind-blowing, head-numbing treatise on the evidence for the origins of Proto-Indo-European (maybe we’ll just say “Aryan”), the reputed linguistic ancestor of many of the Western world’s languages today.
Domestication of the Horse: circa 2,500 BCE. Invention of the cart circa 3,000 – 1,500 BCE (so the French have it kind of right when they say the cart comes before the horse). 4,500 – 3,300 BCE, invention of the potters wheel and the earliest wooden wheels (disks with a hole for the axle); earliest wheeled vehicles, 3300–2200 BCE culminating in the invention of the spoked wheel and the Chariot.
There you go: how about a drink after that?
Archaeological Museum, Athens – Gold cup from Mycenae (one of two known as the Vatho Cups). Heinrich Schliemann, a German archaeologist, excavated Mycenae in 1876. Of the six shaft graves in Grave Circle A, “The Mask of Agamemnon” was found in Grave V. In addition, six of the men found in the shafts of Grave Circle A were given gold masks, and then one child who was also found with a suit of gold had a gold mask.[2] There were 7 masks found in Grave Circle B that had several similarities between them that led scholars to believe the faces were related.[3] This suggest that there were different families buried in Grave Circle A, and that each wanted to boast their wealth and success over the other family. To make these masks they took crude gold and beat them into the shapes they wanted using a technique called repoussé. The gold vessels found, mostly cups, were clear examples of status symbols. The craftsmen of the gold vessels also used repoussé, which would require more work than a regular vessel. There was one specific gold cup found in Grave Circle A that resembles Nestor’s Cup from Homer’s Iliad.[4] Even in death, families used gold for conspicuous displays of wealth.
A 3D mock-up of Delphi, nestled on the side of the Parnassus