4/22: Tour the Archeology Museum, Dinner at Aeolian House

Today, half of our travelers group got hit by apparent food poisoning -- all had eaten together with different meals -- and they stayed in at the hotel. I have been there and it is awful to feel yucky AND  miss interesting things to do. 

We headed out to a tour of the Archeology Museum, looking at history here starting from the Neolithic Age (about the same time frame as in Malta) to the 1500s. Again, many layers of population built on top of their forebearers. Our guide helped us see those layers. It was one of the best ancient history tours I have had. 

Part of the tower you see here is about
all that's left of the Norman fort built
in the 1100s. The large red blocks were
used from the previous Greek building
by the Normans. It was mostly razed
by the Ottoman's in 1544.

The pointed arches are from the Ottoman
era.

Looking out sort of a port hole to the harbor.

This area of the museum was used as
a prison during WWII. Now the cells
have art installations.

With the exception of the round Greek altar, this was a
neolithic living area.

As a volcanic island group, this was
a major source of obsidian which was
highly valued for making tools. The
glass-like rock could be fractured to
make very thin and effective cutting
tools and it was a major export. The
dark blobs are the places that had
obsidian and the arrows show where
it went.

 There was lots of pottery that I took photos of, but realized it would be overwhelming here. These are some highlights.

This was a ceramic jewelry case.

Several sarcophogi were moved from the necropolis to
the location on the museum grounds to make room
for the living

Early forms of safety pins

Grave goods of gold. Very flimsy, but
apparently a way to let the gods know
this was a VIP who deserved better
treatment than normal folks.

An early coin

The blue color in this container is made from lapis lazuli,
which was expensive then, hinting at the wealth among
the island inhabitants.

 

This shows how amphorae were positioned in a ship. I
always wondered why these containers didn't have flat
bottoms. The boards they were set into had indentations
to receive the amphorae.

The wooden pieces between the jars
helped stabilize them.

Stacking them in pyramid shapes was
also effective. The ones here were all
found with shipwrecks.

A remnant of the Norman castle and
church

A more baroque church with a highly decorated ceiling
replace the narrower Norman church.

These are the monastery cloisters from the Norman era
that were attached to the church but concealed until the
1970s: rock walls were built between the pillars and
everything was plastered over. Once it was uncovered,
they found many of the materials had been reused from
previous structures. The capitals of the pillars are all
different.

Afterwards, I visited an artist who had work that might have been fine for my home, but was much more expensive than I was prepared for. I got a Sicilian salad for lunch at Di Pina, where we visited yesterday... it was at least as good as I anticipated. And I spent the afternoon reviewing photos and updating 3 of my posts, so now I am only one day (soon to be two because it is bedtime) behind.  

At 6pm, we drove across the island to Aeolian House for dinner. The food is cooked in a restaurant here by the son of the owner and served cold there. We got a chance to look at a typical Aeolian home and see the sunset before our ride back to Lipari.

Our sunset. If you look at my Facebook cover photo, you
will see that I had to reverse the photo so that the profile
picture didn't overlay me in the cover photo.