Winter Term Begins: Academic Program Notes for 2011
Jack Davis points out a possible (but not likely) support of a Bronze Age column
  November 28, 2011 We just had our first outing of the winter term on November 23, a morning on the Akropolis with a focus on the Mycenaean remains.  With the expert guidance of Director Jack Davis, we looked at fortification walls, terrace walls, blocked entrances and an old postern-gate, a semi-secret staircase and the hidden springhouse, a couple of suppositious column supports and one likely real one. Jack wove together for us these remains with a history of the excavations and study of Bronze Age Athens. In the area behind the apotheke of the old museum we could see the double-thickness of the old looping wall at its east end. On the north slope, we paused to see the ongoing conservation work at the Klepysydra, and then moved on to explore the steep path up to the old northeast entrance, blocked long ago.  We continued down into the Agora to look at the Lithos, a stone used by magistrates for their oaths of office in its current position by the Stoa Basileios, but originally perhaps a lintel for a Mycenaean tholos.  We also admired the griffin pyxis in the museum in the Stoa of Attalos, and the fine early pottery there.  This was a great beginning for our winter term, and we’ll be back to the Akropolis many times in the coming months. The group moves around the machinery at the east end of the Akropolis so as to see the Mycenaean wall Jack Davis leads us to the head of a very ancient staircase that used to descend to the Mycenaean springhouse excavated by Oscar Broneer