The Aegean Sea and its collection of beautiful islands are framed by
the coastlines of mainland Greece and Turkey.
Millions of tourists of all nationalities come here every year.
3,000 years ago, it was just as popular.
The ports of the Aegean would have been crammed
with families, workers, soldiers and kings,
travelling for trade and to fight.
The cities of ancient Greece were often at war
with each other.
I want to find out more about this vast
and complicated civilisation,
to dig out the real stories behind the myths.
And I'm not just going to the well known tourist spots,
of course not. I'm headed off the beaten track.
I'm Alice Roberts
and I'm travelling hundreds of miles through what is now Greece
and Turkey, looking into the flowering of classical civilisation
from ancient Greece to the Romans...
Oh, my goodness! That's wonderful!
..to discover this region's vital role as
the birthplace of Plato,
Socrates and Alexander the Great, mythology, theatre and democracy.
After a few days in Athens, I'm taking the morning train
and heading 90 miles west to Corinth.
As a port, Corinth had a strategic role to play in ancient times.
The city amassed great wealth from trade,
making it a big target too for its rivals.
To get there, the train will cross the Corinth Canal...
..a short cut between the Ionian
and Aegean seas that was started in Roman times,
but only completed in the 19th century.
At 24 metres, it isn't wide enough for modern cargo ships.
I'm too late!
That was so quick, it's a really narrow canal. Oh, I missed it!
After a morning in Corinth,
I'll head back east to Piraeus, the port of Athens,
and there I'll board a ferry to the Cyclades islands.
Here, in Corinth, I'm meeting an archaeologist called
Socrates, who was once the site director here.
Socrates!
Hi, Alice, welcome to Corinth. Kalimera. Kalimera.
This is just gorgeous, isn't it? Look at that.
It is, it is indeed. Is that Doric? Yes.
Can we get inside? Of course.
The ancient site of Corinth contains archaeology spanning nearly
1,000 years, from ancient Greek
and Roman times through to the Byzantium period.
It's actually a jigsaw puzzle for us. Yeah, yeah.
But it is so amazing, so fascinating that it is worth working in Corinth.
The most imposing monument is this ancient
Greek temple built around 600 BCE.
So you think this is local stone, then?
It is the so-called oolitic limestone that comes from
the quarries of Corinth.
I do love this architecture. It's just really robust,
chunky architecture, isn't it, this Doric style?
Yeah, of course. The thing is that although the limestone is local,
it is extremely expensive to build such a temple.
And a feat of engineering. When you look at each
of those columns, that's a single block of stone? Yes.
Instead of drums, which you can see in other temples, in the Parthenon,
Erechtheion, the temple at Delphi but these are monolithic,
made of one stone. And they were probably quarried not far away from here as there were
many quarries in the area and it is extremely hard to carry them. I mean... Yeah.
Yeah. They're huge. They weigh tonnes. Yeah. Yeah.
Can we walk over this?
Ah, yes, why not? Have they said we can?
Yes, let's do it. Yeah, OK.
I was curator of the site so... Yeah, exactly. You have some privileges. Yes.
Wow! OK, now.
This is pretty impressive isn't it, as a site?
Yes, it is.
In the second century BCE,
Roman forces laid siege to Corinth
and razed it to the ground.
It was rebuilt in the 1st century BCE as a Roman city.
And most of what we're looking at here, is this Roman?
Roman. Yeah. Roman, Roman. And over there, it's the Bema, the Bema.
The, the famous Bema. The famous Bema.
We must go down there. Can we get down to this bit?
Yes, of course. We can... We can walk.
Corinth is referred to in the Bible in the Acts of
the Apostles.
The apostle Paul came here on part of his mission
to spread Christianity to Greek speaking people.
I want to go to the very place where he's said to have stood.
This is bigger than I was expecting.
I was expecting just a kind of plinth, but it's more than that.
Yeah. This is the pedestal of the Roman monument, which was...
That was standing on here? Yes, this is the stylobate of
the facade. There was a row of pillars.
So, stylobate, stylo refers to the pillars.
Yes. And the bate is the... Is the base.
Exactly. So the pillar base.
Yes. Yeah, OK. Exactly. So it's an open space with pillars.
Exactly. And a roof?
No, there was no roof. No roof? OK.
No, there was just an epistyle on top of the pillars.
So, pillars are linked together with an epistyle. Yeah.
Almost like a cornice going round. Exactly.
And so you'd have been able to come up here
and stand between columns at the front presumably
and talk to people in the forum. Exactly, yeah.
Which is what we think Paul did?
That's the idea.
Bema exactly mean in Greek is the word that is used for
a platform on which orators stood in order to address
the audience, the people. Bema is...
So there's one at... There's one in Athens.
Yes, yes. Yeah, on the Pnyx.
Exactly. Where the... Where whoever was speaking to the assembly would have,
would have stood there. Yeah. So this is a similar idea?
Yeah. Yeah. This was, according to me, probably the Bema of which...
Yeah, yeah. I love the fact as an archaeologist you'll put that "probably" in.
Probably, probably. Because you've got...
You've got the history that comes through the Acts of
the Apostles which is also obviously heavily biased,
but there's history in there.
Yes. And so if we're being told there that Paul comes
and stands on a bema to address the crowd,
and then archaeologically you find something which was here in the 1st century,
then it seems reasonable to say, well,
you know, this, this could have been it. Yes, you're right.
The American School of Classical Studies excavated this site in
the late 19th century
and the Americans are still here today, still finding treasure.
This is actually
the place where finds are stored
from the American School excavations. Yeah.
So now, I will introduce you to the Director of
the American excavations here in Corinth.
Oh, my goodness, look how many fragments
of pottery they're having to go through. Yeah.
All these fragments come from the excavations.
Let me introduce you to Chris.
Hi. And you're digging here right now?
We're digging right now. Yeah.
We're in the midst of a three month excavation.
We're just finishing the second of our three sessions.
Yeah, yeah. And are you here every year?
Every year. We've been excavating more or less continuously since 1896.
Have you? Not you, personally. Not me, personally.
What a nice place to come and work. Yeah.
Yeah, and you've got tonnes of pottery coming out.
Literally. Yeah. We're in the midst of part of a bath complex
and it is producing lots of material,
mostly from the Eastern Mediterranean,
so it gives us a good idea of what kind of trade network,
economic system, were involved in.
So you can tell what goods were being brought in and out?
Yeah, and mostly what seems to be coming in to Corinth is wine.
Yeah. A surprisingly large quantity of wine.
So this is late Roman so we're moving into the middle of
the first millennium. This is late Roman so most, yeah,
it's mostly 6th century into the first half of the 7th century.
Yeah, yeah. At some point towards the middle of the 7th century,
there must be something rather bad happening in
the area that we have the end of the...
The life of a very large building and then the dumping of material.
The building's gone and then it becomes a rubbish tip.
Exactly, exactly. Yeah, yeah.
And then in the 12th century,
people are again in the area, but between the 7th
and 12th centuries,
there's very little indication of activity in this area.
Yeah, yeah, so lots to discover. Yeah,
yeah, and it relies on this hard graft. Yeah.
How much more have you got to do today, Chris?
THEY LAUGH
Are you getting near the end? No.
No? I'll leave you to it. Thank you so much.
My pleasure.
Thank you. Bye-bye. Bye.
Before my next train departs,
I've just enough time to climb up to
the acropolis of Corinth, known as Acrocorinth.
In ancient times, this flat top mountain was
a citadel even more imposing than that at Athens.
From here, 570 metres above sea level,
you can see right across the isthmus,
from the Aegean Sea in the east to the Ionian Sea in the north.
Potential invaders could be seen for miles.
Next, I'm heading to Piraeus
and this evening I'll be catching not a train
but a ferry into the Aegean Sea to the historic Cyclades islands.
On my journey exploring ancient Greece,
I'm now leaving Corinth and heading back west beyond Athens.
The next station is 90 minutes away
and it marks a significant stage of my travels.
Well, I've just embarked on my final train ride in Greece and I'm headed
to the port of Piraeus. Piraeus is really important.
It explains why Athens reached this position of supreme power
because that was all about naval supremacy.
Piraeus is the port of Athens,
the port where Athens navy was based.
Just across from the railway station is
the port where I'll be leaving mainland Greece.
But first I'm heading to the Archaeological Museum here
where they have a collection of bronzes from early ancient Greece.
It's rare for bronze work from antiquity
to have survived this long.
I'm meeting an archaeologist called Anthie
to find out more about these precious items.
Kalimera, Anthie. Kalimera. Nice to meet you.
Nice to meet you too.
Here we are, the Museum of Piraeus.
The museum has ten halls over two floors,
crammed with extraordinary artwork from two to 3,000 years ago.
This is a relief, a representation of an actor.
Oh, really? Because he holds a mask, tragic mask.
You can see his hand here. Yes. Yeah.
Now I've heard that your bronzes are better than
the ones in the main museum in Athens. Yes.
In this room, four bronze statues of gods and goddesses tower over us.
They were all found at the same location here in Piraeus.
Here we are.
So these bronzes were all found together.
All found together. Very close to each other.
And when were they discovered? In 1959.
OK, so during modern building work. Yes, yes.
That's incredible, isn't it? So much bronze.
Yes. And they haven't been melted down. They've survived.
Do we know who this statue is? Yes, this is Apollo.
This is Apollo. Apollo. How do you know? How can you tell?
He's recognised by the traces of the bow in his left hand.
And that is bronze, is it? And it's snapped off? Yes.
So this is a typical... A typical attribute. A typical image of Apollo.
Yes, of Apollo.
But he does have that kind of Archaic style.
At the end of Archaic period.
Yeah, and he's starting to look a little bit more naturalistic.
Yes. It's in the beginning of the Severe style of sculpture.
Severe? Severe style of sculpture.
But more naturalistic.
Ah, yes. Yeah.
When does that date to then, do you think?
Probably to the end of 6th century BC.
And that's on the basis of the style
and the fact that the style is starting to change? Yes, it does.
So it's transitional. It's transitional between Archaic
and this Classical Hellenistic sculpture.
There's one more bronze that Anthie wants to show me.
It's not an artistic sculpture,
but part of an ancient Greek warship.
Known as triremes, they were powerful ships with sails,
but also three banks of rowers.
And the prow of each ship was furnished with a bronze ram.
This is the bronze ram. Oh, wow, so that's on the prow.
Yes. Yeah.
It's the only one.
Is it? Of that time, yes. There are other too but much later.
Right, OK. Of Roman times.
OK, and when does this date to, do you know?
It's from the 5th century or 4th century BC.
Yeah, yeah. Isn't that amazing?
It's very unique.
Yeah. It's not known. There's nothing else like it from the 4th century?
No, no. Yeah, yeah and it just...
I mean it just takes it back to that...
That time of naval battles across the Aegean
and all these different city states battling it out
for supremacy. And Athens investing in its navy.
It's one of the most remarkable objects I have ever seen.
That's amazing. Yes.
There are more sculptures in the open-air part of
the museum surrounding an ancient Greek theatre dating
to the 2nd century BCE.
It's where I'm meeting a man called Aristotle.
Hello, Alice. How are you? Nice to meet you.
Kalimera. Kalimera. Lovely to meet you here.
This is an ancient theatre, isn't it?
It is pretty amazing, isn't it? This is the actual thing!
I love the way that this has been preserved in
the middle of the...the modern city.
Aristotle works in education and politics,
where ancient Greece is always a hot topic of conversation.
If you look at the world at that time,
this was the most progressive society. Classical Greece,
and especially Athens, has made major contributions in terms
of philosophy, theatre, history...so much, arts, that have been enjoyed
and thought about for millennia afterwards.
But then you have to think, we're talking about very few free people
and not that many years, and yet they produced so much.
Is this a fluke? Is this a coincidence?
Or is there something deeper going on?
I think there's something deeper, because... What is it?
What do you think it is? ..well, I think that we have
a society that is very aware of how precarious
the human existence is, and also a society where there is
an incentive to excel in whatever it is that you do.
If we look at modern civilisation, which is really
an extension of Western civilisation,
for better or worse, we are very good at keeping lists.
Who gets relegated? Who's number one...
..the Premier League standings? Eurovision contest.
We have everything... Who is...? We like these competitions.
Yes! Who has more money? We have lists and competitions.
Yeah. But not every society does that.
It's not something that was historically prevalent in
the East, for example. So we have an extremely antagonistic,
competitive society where everyone has to excel.
So, small numbers, but once you have that mentality, that philosophy,
and also a political system that gives you
a say in what is happening,
you have a tremendous incentive
to produce, to excel, to improve.
One of the things I've been really fascinated by is understanding
the relationship between different areas
of what is now Greece back in antiquity
and the very short-lived empire of Alexander.
He spreads himself too thinly. I'm not quite sure what he was up to.
He's battling through Asia and then eventually dies in Babylon,
and the empire fragments almost immediately.
You're very correct to point out that Alexander the Great's
political unity achievement didn't last long.
I think that his impact on world civilisation is cultural
because he brings Greek, the Greek language,
and Greek civilisation to larger parts of the world.
I think that Greek civilisation's already there through trading,
and I think that then he becomes this powerful myth.
So... This is one man doing this.
It can't be... It can't ever be one man.
No man alone can produce that. Mm! But again,
going so far... And then you have the successor empires.
Let's take Egypt. Egypt is governed by the Ptolemies.
Mm-hm. The last of the dynasty is the very well-known today
Cleopatra, who was fluent in Greek. So Egypt was not Greek,
but suddenly, you have a very Greek dynasty in Egypt.
So that is what I would say an example of
Alexander's culture influence. And also, Greek history is
so complex, even ancient Greek history. Yeah, yeah.
If we just concentrate on that. It's so complex that you actually
want to highlight things that contribute to the story
and understanding but are not that well-known.
Aristotle, so you've obviously thought very deeply about
the relationship of heritage, history,
archaeology and modern politics. Yes.
And you can see how this incredible, incredible history that
Greece has was something that could bind people together.
Right. One can wonder today, "Why do we care about people who lived
"2,000-2,500 years ago, who were white and male?"
But the reason we care is because of the questions they asked.
They asked questions about politics, ethics, biology, science. Mm.
They produced drama, philosophy.
They asked the right questions. And for 2,500 years,
human civilisation is coming up with different answers,
sometimes very critical answers to what they were saying.
But the questions remain the same.
Yeah. For 2,500 years, we're grappling with the same questions
asked right here, and I think that is the big contribution.
Again, not their replies, their answers...
Although some of them are brilliant, some of them are not.
But asking the right questions. Yeah, yeah.
That's a huge part of human civilisation,
and it resonates in all parts of the world to this day.
After learning more about ancient Greek civilisation
and the naval power of the Athenians, I'm about to take to the sea myself.
I'm taking this ferry from Piraeus to
an island called Paros
100 miles from here,
arriving around ten o'clock tonight.
VOICE OVER LOUDSPEAKER: Your attention, please.
Would Professor Alice Roberts please come to the bridge? Thank you.
HE SPEAKS GREEK
SPEAKING GREEK
Hello. Captain Kronas.
Hello, Ms Roberts. How are you? Welcome aboard. Kalispera.
Thank you very much. Nice to meet you.
Thank you. So, we've left Piraeus Harbour... Yes, already.
Yeah. What's next? What's next?
Our next destination is Paros, in approximately four hours. Yeah.
OK. And after Paros, then Naxos, another 45-minutes route.
And then after Naxos, around two-hours trip for Santorini.
So you're going to keep going?
Yes. We arrive at Phila around 2.30... Yeah. ..after midnight,
and we leave at seven o'clock in the morning.
OK, I'm going to get off at Paros, I think. Yeah. OK.
And it looks like good conditions today? Yeah, good condition.
A little foggy, but that is something...
And how many days a year is it too rough to sail?
Would you like to have a seat...to the lounge there? Yeah.
OK. I'm in charge now.
With 8,500 miles of coastline and over 1,200 islands,
it's no surprise that the Greeks are a seafaring nation.
How long have you been a captain? I've been a captain for one year
and about a couple of months, as a master of this company.
And then serving this company, 11 years from second officer time.
Normally, not in every family, but in a big amount
of families in Greece, there is at least one seaman.
Yeah, yeah. Maybe 60%, 70%, there is somebody that work or used
to work around vessels or on seafaring industry. Yeah.
Maritime culture. Maritime culture, yes. Maritime society. Yeah.
Given how much Greece still relies on maritime transport,
it makes you wonder if
the Greek civilisation would have risen as quickly as it did in that
first millennium had it not been for that island nature. Of course.
If there was no maritime tradition in Greece,
I wouldn't think we would have made what we made.
Yeah, so it's all down to the sea, really. Yeah.
It would be a totally different civilisation. Yeah.
I mean, if... I don't know if it's in genetics or DNA,
but sure it has helped a lot for Greek civilisation
to expand, because of navigation. Yeah.
This ferry has the very latest kit,
including state-of-the-art navigation technology.
But it's nice to see they're still using more traditional devices, too.
There are still about 60 miles to go before I arrive in Paros.
Perhaps enough time to learn a new skill.
This is the zero. This one. Yeah.
OK, and 35,
36, 37. Yeah.
And now in the same line, you transfer...
..and you are here. Oh, I see. Yeah.
So you've measured it here and then you transfer over. Yeah.
In the same line. Yeah, yeah.
So it's the equivalent to bringing a ruler in from here. Yes.
You take a pencil and in this mark... Yeah. This is your position.
That's where we are. Yeah. And we're headed out this way?
Yes. That's the little island I can see. Yeah.
And now this is the Paros port.
So, where are we going to be coming in? Just on this pier? Yes.
Missing these little rocks on the way.
But it's OK. Captain's... You trust him.
Yes. Yeah. Knows everything. Yeah.
I think he'll get us there.
The ferry arrives at the port of Paros
at 10pm, right on schedule.
Over the next few days,
I'll be travelling around the islands on smaller boats.
But first thing tomorrow,
I'm looking forward to a guided tour of ancient Paros.
Paros has been inhabited for at least 5,000 years.
It's a fertile island, occupying a strategic location -
right in the middle of the Aegean Sea.
And it became famous in antiquity for its fine, white Parian marble,
sought after by ancient Greek sculptors.
The island's chief port and capital, Parikia,
is a popular tourist resort today, and it's easy to see why.
Among the whitewashed buildings are little gems from the past.
This is part of a Venetian castle built in the 13th century.
The builders clearly recycled older materials.
But there are much older sites here,
sites that have survived the development of hotels
and houses because of one man, an archaeologist called Yannos.
Yannos. Hi. Good morning. Kalimera. Kalimera.
What should we do? Where should we start?
Should we start in the museum or in the town?
No, we do the museum after. OK.
Let's start with a workshop of pottery, the Roman house
and the other archaeological sites around.
Lovely. You lead the way then. Perfect. OK, let's go.
Yannos has been excavating here for 38 years.
He's taking me on a tour of his greatest hits.
There is a lot of history here. Yeah, yeah!
We have Prehistoric, we have Classical,
we have Archaic, we have Hellenistic,
Roman, Byzantine, post Byzantine. We have everything. Neoclassical.
I'm telling you there are antiquities all over.
Parikia has expanded a lot in
the time that Yannos has been working here.
One of the biggest challenges is
preserving and protecting the history.
Kalimera. Kalimera.
SPEAKING GREEK
What have we got down here? WOMAN SPEAKS GREEK
What have you got in your basements?
WOMAN CONTINUES IN GREEK
Oh, my goodness! Look at that.
So you're really impressed, huh? I didn't expect...
Something like this. ..this to be quite as deep.
Yannos struck a deal with the town planners
to safeguard these ruins whilst
carefully building apartments right on top of them.
So, this is a Roman house? Yes.
So we had the idea to preserve the site.
So...
That's wonderful. So this is the front of a...
The front of the house. ..of a Roman house here.
The threshold and the door jams. Got a couple of doorways. All marble.
Can I walk on those steps? Yes, of course. You are with me.
And were there any archaeological finds in here? A lot.
Glasses, pottery, bronzes, a lot of things.
Really? They're in Paros Museum. Yeah?
If you want to come around and see the side
and then we can go. You have a lot of things to see.
OK. This is fantastic. I'd like to have
a Roman house in my cellar.
Right, next thing.
THEY SPEAK GREEK
You want coffee?
Ooh, yes! That would be lovely.
THEY SPEAK GREEK
What kind of coffee you want? Black coffee, please.
Frappe sketo. Thank you.
Now you're going to see the church.
This is a private church, so I have the key of the lady. Huh!
While the coffee's brewing,
Yannos wants to show me another treasure.
But this isn't one of his excavations.
It is a double church.
Oh, it's lovely. Yeah, double aisles.
It's Profitis Ilias and the Virgin Mary.
And in here, we find some older archaeology.
But you see the column? This is an ancient column.
Is it? Yeah. So that's been reused.
Reused for the church. Yeah.
When you say ancient, you think this is Hellenistic?
Hellenistic or Roman. Yeah.
And this is still used, this church?
Yes, it's a private church. It belongs to the family. Does it?
That has the Roman house underneath.
We'll take the key back. I wonder if our coffee's ready.
Yes, your coffee's waiting for you. What's the name of this lady? Vula.
Vula! Vula! We're coming in.
THEY SPEAK GREEK
Oh, Vula! Eucharisto!
THEY SPEAK GREEK
Take the plastic and we go. Oh, coffee to go.
Vula, that's so kind. Thank you. Efcharisto.
Kalos? Mm!
HE SPEAKS GREEK
Kalos. Efcharisto. Kalos.
Is there a lot of building going on?
There's lots. We have almost 1,000 requests.
Right, where are we off to now?
Yannos' tour will take me on
to see some more incredible archaeology.
It's brilliant. And it's very well-preserved.
And how lovely just to be able to walk past and see it down there.
And I'll help him solve a mystery.
I think this is a male. Male?
This is very narrow.
I'm on the historic island of Paros, having a guided tour with
an incredible man who's been excavating here since the 1980s.
We have a funeral urn inside. Yeah.
And this is still of the 5th century.
Yeah. There's another one next to that. A pottery urn? Yes.
Yeah, yeah.
He'll be retiring later this year
and we're racing around so he can show me all his work.
Look at the... Look.
Oh, yeah. There was a kiln.
The next site is right underneath our feet.
It's... It's here? It's underneath.
So this was my first excavation, 1986. Was it?
And I had the idea to preserve the site under the house.
It's brilliant. And it's very well-preserved.
And how lovely just to be able to walk past and see it down there.
But of course, you need the key to come and see the site. Huh!
What do you think? That's fantastic.
I mean, what an incredible depth of archaeology.
It is. This is of Hellenistic and Roman period again. Yeah.
But we have a house of Classical period that had
the workshop of pottery on top of that. Yeah.
This wonderful workshop from 2,500 years ago has six kilns
for producing all sorts of pottery.
See that over there? That was very difficult to do that...
Under the road now.
The mayor gave me the permission for three months to excavate. Yeah.
I promised in three months I will finish
because that was the main road to go to the house. Yeah!
So this was open when you were excavating it?
Yeah, of course. For three months.
Then we cover it. And then you build over it. Yeah.
We were very lucky
because...had a lot of money so we pay for the roads...
Yes. ..the cement and everything. Yeah, yeah.
And it means you can still come down here
and see all of this archaeology.
And it's very well-preserved. If it was in open air,
everything going to be destroyed.
Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
No, it's perfect.
YANNOS SPEAKS GREEK
THEY SPEAK GREEK
Yannos knows everybody.
I'm going to be the second mayor, I mean, after this mayor.
You know everybody. Everybody.
After 38 years, I'm Parian.
You feel part of the community. They don't hate me. No!
Usually, they hate archaeologists.
Another excavation that was led by Yannos uncovered
a workshop for sculptors.
Parian marble would be brought to this site
and the craftsmen would chip away, making statues over centuries.
You can see a lot of chips from the...
When they work the marble...
Oh, yeah. ..they throw all the chips down. You see those? Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, there's pieces of marble everywhere.
Just little chips of it.
You can see from here, we have layers of those chips.
This depth of marble chips, I mean, this is telling us something
about how long people were here... Exactly. ..making...
For many years, they were... ..making marble sculptures.
Generations and generations of people, right here,
making marble sculptures.
Look at here, look here, it's really good.
I can walk over this, can I? Yes, you can.
That's narrow baulk.
Oh!
Thank you.
Look, you see that? Oh, yeah.
We left it so people can understand that there are
layers and layers of chipping.
And it just builds up over time.
And from here, you can see also... That's a brilliant section.
Yeah, it's a great section here.
Yeah, so you've just got lots and lots of little marble chips.
And a lot of pottery also. Yeah. Of Hellenistic period, of course.
So, you've got a rubbly layer here and, then, on top of that,
which then becomes a floor, you've got all these marble chips.
So, we started excavation here, another archaeologist before me,
and then we continue and now we still continue the excavation
after 30 years.
Yeah, I wonder how far it goes that way.
It goes... But we can't excavate here because we have the road.
Yeah, but you've excavated under roads before.
Yeah. Yeah. It's not so easy. There's a lot of bureaucracy now.
We've done that once. Yeah.
Have you seen...have you seen the house with the pottery?
Yeah. Yes, we just came from there. He just walked around.
We've been here a week and you just stumble upon it all.
Isn't it wonderful? So, Yannos excavated that in the '80s.
Oh, YOU did? Yeah. Thank you! Thank you. Unfortunately.
THEY LAUGH
Nice meeting you. Bye-bye. Bye.
Isn't that wonderful?
They said they're just walking round the town
and they stumbled upon the archaeology, just as you intended.
Exactly.
Further along the road, there's a sanctuary.
Then we have...
Here's another city here.
Different sites for graves. This is a big Roman monument.
All the statues from here are now housed in
the island's museum.
And just around the corner, surrounded by car parks,
are the ruins of a Roman house,
complete with a beautiful mosaic floor.
Near the seafront, Yannos shows me an ancient cemetery.
At the far end, there's a small museum
with remains from some of the graves.
A horse?! A horse. Was that in the cemetery? Yes.
Is that unusual, to find animals buried in a cemetery?
Usually, we have some, but it's unusual to find. Yeah, yeah.
And then these burials are interesting.
So, you've got some in... There are different burials here.
This female burial.
With a mirror? With a mirror.
Yeah. IS it a female?
Can I pick up the pelvis?
Yes, you can do that.
The bones are original. Yeah.
So, you can say that it's female? I'm going to shock you now. Hmm.
Hmm.
You can see this is a doctor. Yeah.
I think this is a male.
Male? No. This is very narrow.
It's interesting cos it's narrow on this side,
but a little bit wider here. Mm-hm.
Let me look at the skull.
OK, so the skull is looking more male.
There's a significant brow ridge.
You've got a large mastoid process.
And then I suspect it would have
a large occipital protuberance as well.
May I pick that up? Yes.
Oh, no, actually, it's quite rounded.
But on balance...
..I think this is male. Interesting.
Is that a surprise? It's good to know. Yeah. Yeah.
We had the mirror, so I don't know. Yeah, yeah.
So, we have another... So, typical...
What you would consider to be typical female
grave goods, but then you have to look at the biology, don't you,
of the...? And young as...
Well, yeah.
You can still see the fusion lines there on the sacrum.
Although having said that...
So, from the finds, we say female, but I don't know if it's male,
I don't know.
Then we have a lot of funeral urns of marble with
the name of the deceased. Do you see that?
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah. This is part of her sarcophagi.
Sarcophagi? Sarcophagus. Sarcophagus. Yeah.
You know, the Americans, they use...
They say sarcophagi, so I don't know.
Do they? Yeah.
Like "vah-ses" and "vay-ses". Yeah, yeah.
Right, where should we go now?
Finally, we arrive at the Paros Archaeological Museum.
The museum's shut, but we're being allowed in.
It's closed for refurbishment, but we're going in anyway.
I'm with Yannos, after all.
And those are the inscriptions.
Look at that!
I'm so lucky to be looking at this.
The museum's going to be open in a couple of days,
but they've let me in.
There are all kinds of treasures here from the sites
that we've been looking at, but the statues made from
Parian marble are the main attraction.
Then, the masterpiece of the museum is this one.
Look at that drapery! I mean, that is...
This is the trophy of the victory of the Parians against the Athenians.
So, this is a victory. Nike? Nike. Nike.
It's just stunning, isn't it?
That's an incredible sculpture.
This is the Gorgon of Paros. Roman Medusa.
Ooh, where's that from? From behind the museum.
This is the open-air sanctuary.
Used to be an architectural piece on top of the pediment.
So, she would have greeted you as you enter the temple. Exactly.
OK, we finish.
We love you, I hate you, you have to leave now. It's one.
ALICE LAUGHS
In this museum, you really get an appreciation of...
..this incredible level of craftsmanship here on Paros.
They had the most amazing sculptors of the ancient world.
It's just full of masterpieces.
Yannos takes me from one to the next, every one is beautiful.
Kalimera!
Next time, I seek out some more remote ancient islands.
So, is anybody living on Despotiko today?
Nobody. We have a shepherd and around 800 goats. Right.
Nothing else.
I visit the legendary birthplace of Apollo.
The more we know, the more questions we have. Yeah, yeah.
And I go in search of ancient Greece in modern Turkey.
To the future. To the future.
And the past.
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