The MGS Forum

Places to visit => Places to visit => Topic started by: Hilary on January 03, 2015, 04:41:15 PM

Title: Elevsina
Post by: Hilary on January 03, 2015, 04:41:15 PM

We visited the archaeological site in November and, as always ,I was looking for flowers to snap.
All I could find were Dandelions.
So here you are Dandelions in Elevsina

Dandelions in the Telesterion.
A dandelion in front of the wall made of blue-grey Eleusinian stone
A dandelion in the ruts where the ancient doors had stood.
I think we heard someone say that the ruts had been carved out of the stone to make rainwater drainage channels

Title: Re: Elevsina
Post by: Hilary on January 04, 2015, 08:54:06 AM

Carved in stone
Ears of corn
An Olive branch

Title: Re: Elevsina
Post by: Joanna Savage on January 05, 2015, 06:11:35 AM

Hilary, the remains of that blue-grey wall of Elusinian stone are impressive. The stone is neatly worked and fitted together. Imagine the skill and the hours which went into the finished wall.It is a jigsaw and an artwork.

Title: Re: Elevsina
Post by: Hilary on January 05, 2015, 06:26:48 PM

Joanna,
Here is the notice explaining how the wall was made and its different layers.

Title: Re: Elevsina
Post by: Joanna Savage on January 12, 2015, 06:08:46 PM

Hilary, thanks for posting more info on the Eleusinian polygonal wall. It makes me weak to think of the labour involved in such work on hard stone with very simple tools. I wonder what metal would have been hard enough in a chisel to make any impression on the stone.

Title: Re: Elevsina
Post by: Hilary on January 12, 2015, 08:31:19 PM

I have been wondering myself where all the tools  are which were  used by the stone masons of ancient times.
Are they there in the museums and I have just not noticed them?

Title: Re: Ancient tools
Post by: Alisdair on February 05, 2015, 11:20:02 AM

On our Moroccan trip last year we were very lucky to have with us an MGS member who is a British Museum's specialist on ancient tools/stonework/ceramic work etc (when the Chinese need some expertise on a piece of ancient jade they fly her out). The owner of one of the gardens we visited had a collection of Moroccan ceramics and stonework that she said was outstanding, and it was really interesting to hear her talk a bit about some of the things. And I think nice for the owner to have someone so knowledgeable appreciating his things, instead of the rest of us tourists that he was being so nice to!

Title: Re: Elevsina
Post by: Hilary on May 09, 2015, 07:37:24 AM

Alisdair,
I have just read your post about the British Museum expert with your group in Morocco, how interesting.

Re ancient tools
We went to the, recently reopened, Archaeological Museum in Madrid this year.
All who go to Madrid must visit this museum and spend as many hours as they can there.
We will have to go back as we still didn't see everything

I was glad to see these ancient agricultural tools, some of which look very familiar