Crete - Heraklion, Archaeological Museum

 We had checked online and found that Knossos wasn't open on Sunday and the Museum wasn't open on Monday. So we did the Museum first and were surprised that it was free on that Sunday. Unfortunately it was also more crowded than we have had to deal with.

The museum had a huge number of very impressive artifacts

with excellent labeling.

A variety of wine jugs. There are a couple of potters in the family, I wonder if they could make me one like in the top row, it would be lovely to pour my wine out of a Minoan inspired jug.

Stone vessels for votive offerings. We were surprised at the amount of stone work, its not as easy to shape stone as it is to make pottery but then I realized...it survives better.

Amazing jewelry, gold and precious stones, most of it grave goods. The Minoans were wealthy enough to have craftspeople doing this kind of fine work, to wear it and then to be buried with it. 

This is tiny and intricate.

Miniatures....they think some were for cosmetics. some for herbs and some may have been children's toys.

So much well preserved pottery.

Looks modern.

The first few rooms had been from early Minoan finds but from here on it was all about Knossos and the peak of the Minoan civilization. This model was off the Minoan Palace at Knossos (we went the next day)

The pottery was overwhelming so I started looking for themes - Octopi.

and Bulls.

Overwhelmed and, we realized, dehydrated, we went to the museum cafe and got some water, stepped outside for some fresh air and found there were ruins there (a church or monastery)

Back to it and a room dedicated to wine making and storage.

The Bull Leaping fresco from Knossos. There are numerous depictions of this activity and it is believed to have been an acrobatic sport or form of entertainment.

The "Horns of Consecration" from Knossos

"Horns of Consecration" is a term coined by Sir Arthur Evans^[1] for the symbol, ubiquitous in Minoan civilization, that is usually thought to represent the horns of the sacred bull. Sir Arthur Evans concluded, after noting numerous examples in Minoan and Mycenaean contexts, that the Horns of Consecration were "a more or less conventionalised article of ritual furniture derived from the actual horns of the sacrificial oxen".^[2]

Small clay example, and topping a model building, AMH

The much-photographed porous limestone horns of consecration on the East Propyleia at Knossos  are restorations, but horns of consecration in stone or clay were placed on the roofs of buildings in Neopalatial Crete, or on tombs or shrines, probably as signs of sanctity of the structure.^[3] The symbol also appears on Minoan sealstones,^[4] often accompanied by double axes and bucrania, which are part of the iconography of Minoan bull sacrifice. from Wikipedia

Some of the double axes, mentioned above.

Primitive clay bulls made as offerings.

and

more refined

ones.

These were stone. We couldn't even work out how they would be made, with the tools available at the time!

I was getting a bit museumed-out

and have to admit

I was just basically

walking through,

barely skimming the written material.

The rest of the museum was from Crete's Greek period and although it looked like there were some fabulous pieces, we figured we had probably seen enough for a lifetime, at the 2 museums we went to in Athens last year.

Bee brooch imitations in a souvenir shop

The restaurants were busy with Cretan Sunday in full swing

Flags outside the restaurants to show where the treasure hunt teams were eating.

The Loggia which had been so crowded was now empty.

The Loggia that survives today in Heraklion was built in 1620 by the Venetian Morozini, an architect who had also constructed many other public works in the town. According to historical accounts, there were other three previous loggias before this one, but for various occasions, they were not functional until this last was constructed.

The Loggia was a place for the Venetian noblemen to gather and discuss the local economic and social issues. It also worked as a Club, in modern terms. This is a rectangular building with an open adit on the ground floor. The ground floor was built following the Doric style, that is austere and severe, and the upper floors had a more Ionian style, with ornaments and nice decorations.

When the Turks conquered Crete, they made the Loggia their administrative center. When Crete became autonomous in 1898, the Loggia was in bad state and would face the danger to collapse. The works for its renovation started in 1915 but they were interrupted by the Second World War in 1940.

Today, the Loggia of Heraklion has been fully renovated and houses the Town Hall. In fact, it is considered as the most elegant Venetian building in Crete and in 1987, it received the Europa Nostra award as the best-renovated monument of the country. from greeka.com

Just the prize for the treasure hunt was on display

and the security guard said that the treasure hunt was to learn the history of Heraklion.

We were pretty tired and

had to fortify ourselves with an ice cream cone.