It Belongs In A Museum

“Don’t ask yourself what the world needs; ask yourself what makes you come alive.  And then go and do that.  Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”

--Howard Thurman

Because I am still on a night train, I have some free time to write about one afternoon in Crete that I had forgotten about until now.  We were invited to tour the research center in Crete, which was spectacular!  To give you a sense of the center, there were multiple buildings, rooms, an entire stoa of artifacts, plenty of people, and libraries.  We weren’t able to take pictures inside because the artifacts were so new that they hadn’t been published yet. 

The center is large and accounts for a fairly large percentage of academic research on Crete done by Americans.  For me, I was very interested because I could see myself being involved at this site in some way in the future.  They accumulate all of the archaeological evidence at this site, clean it, organize it, analyze it, and hopefully publish it.  I saw some of the techniques that I may someday use in my career.  The center was so expansive and covered so many different areas of research.

There were students at the center that we saw in the field the following day, and seeing how they worked was kind of remarkable. 

Evidence is collected in a dig in large bags and organized based on the size and classification of the material.  Small pieces of material are cleaned and collected through a sieve, net, and an agitator.  Large pieces of clay are separated based on the type of object they were a part of.  The pieces are then laid out where they would be on the original object.  After all of the pieces are arranged, a puzzle begins where any pieces that can be fitted together will be.

The reconstruction room involves gluing the pieces together, filling in the gaps, cleaning the material, and finishing creating the piece as much as possible.  The people in the room were so interested in their work, and that passion is something that I want to have every day I go to work.

We saw the storage facility, and I saw bones on display.  I really wish that I had the required knowledge to be able to analyze the bones fully and to understand everything about the lives of the individuals.  I know that my education is only so good at this point in time, but I hope that the future will allow me the opportunity to be able to pursue my dream. 

There was an incredible amount of money that had been invested in both the buildings and the technology at the center. 

We saw some of the results of the work done at the center, which was amazing.  Really, it was something to see and behold firsthand, but I was so impressed.  It was one of the coolest afternoons and lessons from Crete.