Wikiloc | Thorikos - Lavrios Trail

WP1 Landscape observation

An acropolis is a settlement, especially a citadel, built upon an area of elevated ground—frequently a hill with precipitous sides, chosen for purposes of defense. Social and financial classes in Ancient Greece CITIZENS: they were the descendents of citizens or those who had aquired civil rights honoris causa. Only about 6% of the citizens owned farming land, workshops and shops. Those rich citizens had to to provide administrative, religious and military services to the city, and they had to purchase their arms themselves. The better educated citizens were involved in discussions about philosophical and political issues. The vast majority of citizens were farmers with small pieces of land and a pair of oxen. Poor citizens had very few resources and were oarsmen in military vessels. Athenian citizens looked down on manual work; metics (immigrants) and slaves were responsible for that! METICS: They were the technicians of the time. They had no permanent residence and moved from one city to another to find work. In this way they also communicated their technical knowledge and skills allaround Greece at the time. SLAVES: owned by their masters who could sell or lend them according to their wishes and needs. 1. Why was the Acropolis built in the highest point of the hill? 2. What kind of economic and social activities can you discern in the hill slopes? 3. What social classes were there in ancient Athens?

WP2 Marble cutting technology –local and natural construction

Open-air and underground quarries and mines. Marble cutting. The stencilling of the marble blocks was done through a narrow passage fitting only one person. Then, with the help of wooden wedges, they moved the block from its original location. The wedges were wet and their enlargement caused the stencilled block of marble to detach. The marble was carried out of the quarry using logs to roll them on. The main tools used were steel hammers, cutters, crowbars, pickaxes, wooden and metal wedges, ropes, logs and pulleys. The marble quarried here was used to build the theatre whose final seating capacity was 6,000.The marbles were interconnected with lead and special alloys of lead and iron to avoid oxidation and the destruction of marbles. 1. Describe the way in which marbles were cut. How were they carried out of the quarry? 2. How were they interconnected to create a single construction?

WP4 Laundry, second simulation

The mining galleries for silver and lead and the slaves of the Athenians Corinthian tile (Berlin Archaeological Museum) depicting slaves at work in Lavrion mines The main driving force for the development of the ancient mines in Lavrio were definitely the miners. They were slaves who mined the underground galleries, enriched the minerals in the laundries and operated the furnaces. To dig the mining galleries they used hand tools, mainly hammers and chisels. The only source of light were ceramic olive oil lamps. They performed this enormous task under exceptionally difficult circustances. They were given names by their mastres, but not surnames. They did not have the right to ownership. If they had saved some money, they could only use it upon their masters‘ perission. They couldn‘t marry or have children without their masters‘ consent. Their children also belonged to their masters. 1. Who dag the galleries? What were their technical skills? 2. What kind of tools did they use? 3. Do you think that homage should be paid to Athenian slaves? Why/Why not?

WP5 Rainwater harvesting

ollecting rainwater, protecting it from evaporation. Waterproof material technology. Near the laundries there were water tanks with capacity from 100 to 600 m3 to collect rainwater as there were no other sources for water in the area. To protect the water from evaporation, the tanks and the laundries were covered with wooden roofs. The watertanks were built on tilting hill slopes from which the water flowed to the waterproof tanks naturally through streams. Firstly the water was collected in small open tanks, where the sediments sat in the bottom and then the cleaned water overflowed to the main tanks. These tanks fed the laundries with water for the enrichment of the minerals. An annual 25,000 m3 of water was necessary for the laundries but rainwater in the area was only 2,000 m3, that is why they had to recycle and reuse it. To minimize loss of water all channels, tanks, dams etc were made waterproof with special coating, still in good condition today, made from a metal which was abundant in the area. This was for sure an Athenian patent! 1. Why did the Athenians have to collect rainwater in Lavrion? 2. Where was it kept and protected?

WP6a The role of theater in Athenian education

The mining galleries for silver and lead and the slaves of the Athenians Corinthian tile (Berlin Archaeological Museum) depicting slaves at work in Lavrion mines The main driving force for the development of the ancient mines in Lavrio were definitely the miners. They were slaves who mined the underground galleries, enriched the minerals in the laundries and operated the furnaces. To dig the mining galleries they used hand tools, mainly hammers and chisels. The only source of light were ceramic olive oil lamps. They performed this enormous task under exceptionally difficult circustances. They were given names by their mastres, but not surnames. They did not have the right to ownership. If they had saved some money, they could only use it upon their masters‘ perission. They couldn‘t marry or have children without their masters‘ consent. Their children also belonged to their masters. 1. Who dag the galleries? What were their technical skills? 2. What kind of tools did they use? 3. Do you think that homage should be paid to Athenian slaves? Why/Why not?

WP6b Theatrical game

Aristophanes’ Lysistrata sistrata Lysistrata is a comedy by Aristophanes. Originally performed in classical Athens in 411 BC, it is a comic account of a woman's extraordinary mission to end the Peloponnesian War by denying all the men of the land any sex, which was the only thing they truly and deeply desired. Lysistrata persuades the women of Greece to withhold sexual privileges from their husbands and lovers as a means of forcing the men to negotiate peace—a strategy, however, that inflames the battle between the sexes. The play is notable for being an early exposé of sexual relations in a male-dominated society. It was produced in the same year as the Thesmophoriazusae, another play with a focus on gender-based issues. At this time, Greek theatre was a profound form of entertainment, which was extremely popular for all audiences as it addressed political issues relevant to that time.

WP3 Mining Gallery : 1st simulation

The mining galleries for silver and lead and the slaves of the Athenians Corinthian tile (Berlin Archaeological Museum) depicting slaves at work in Lavrion mines The main driving force for the development of the ancient mines in Lavrio were definitely the miners. They were slaves who mined the underground galleries, enriched the minerals in the laundries and operated the furnaces. To dig the mining galleries they used hand tools, mainly hammers and chisels. The only source of light were ceramic olive oil lamps. They performed this enormous task under exceptionally difficult circustances. They were given names by their mastres, but not surnames. They did not have the right to ownership. If they had saved some money, they could only use it upon their masters‘ perission. They couldn‘t marry or have children without their masters‘ consent. Their children also belonged to their masters. 1. Who dag the galleries? What were their technical skills? 2. What kind of tools did they use? 3. Do you think that homage should be paid to Athenian slaves? Why/Why not?

Thorikos - Lavrios

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