Thursday 16th May 2024 – Nea Karvali, Greece

 

We knew that there was also a gymnasium and a Hellenistic house on the site but we were not sure where. When the guardians came to open the site I asked about the gymnasium and fortunately the lady was from the museum and spoke excellent English. She explained that you had to go out of a gate at the far corner of the site and we had entirely missed that, mainly because there were no signs. She explained that they were on their way there to unlock and asked whether I wanted to accompany them. It was definitely worth giving up the breakfast cup of tea, so I joined them and chatted to her about the site on the way. She warned me about the danger of snakes on the site and a few minutes later a spotted one lurking by the side of the path, only to be told that it was dead – it didn’t look it!
Most of the rest of the site is early Christian but the gymnasium dates back to the 4^th century BC and was used through to the 1^st century AD. It is the only known gymnasium in Northern Greece and is the best preserved in the country. Bathing facilities provided for the athletes were the forerunner of the Roman baths – another thing that the Romans learnt from the Greeks!
Returning to the entrance to the site, I met the guardian who looks after the site during the day – the site was unmanned when we arrive last night. I asked for directions to the Hellenistic house and she said that she would take us down and open it up for us. Well worth the short walk to the site, there were large sections of painted wall plaster still in position and the layout of the two-storey building was very clear. The guardian was very strong in her criticism of the authorities for not opening the Kasta Tomb to the public ten years after it was discovered. The tomb is just up the road from Amphipolis and is a very large and very important discovery and we would love to see it. They allowed a few people (journalists etc.) at the end of last year and they do plan to open it to the public but these things move incredibly slowly, especially in Greece.
We moved on to the museum at the other end of the village. The whole of Amphipolis is covered in archaeology and everywhere that they dig, they find ancient remains and that applied to the building of the museum where they found an unlooted high-status cist grave and other remains. One of the museum staff took us to see the tomb before we left – very impressive service! It is really good to have a museum on the site rather than miles (or kilometres) away and this one is very good. Only relatively small but well displayed and excellent information in English. We had the museum to ourselves and only saw one other couple at the site. On the way out of the village we visited a Byzantine tower built incorporating much ancient masonry and also the site of an ancient wooden bridge where archaeologists are conserving the structure by taking plaster casts of the wooden posts used to support the bridge.
On then to Philippi, a much busier site and often a destination for coach parties largely due to the visit of St. Paul as detailed in the bible. Having said that, it wasn’t too busy and as the threatened rain finally appeared, it got quieter still and we were often the only people on the site. They are laying water pipes for fire hydrants across the site and also renovating a basilica, so parts of the site were closed to the public but it was good to visit it and, once again, the museum was very good.
We drove on to Nea Karvali, just to the East of Kavala and pitched up in Camping Alexandros.
Photos: The Amphipolis gymnasium bathing area; The gymnasium covered race track - a parallel outdoor track ran to its right; The Amphipolis Hellenistic House with two painted rooms and the staircase to the upper rooms was on the right side; The silver ossuary of General Brasidas dated to 422 BC from the cist grave discovered during the building of the Amphipolis museum; Figurine of Telesphoros, a demon that would not be out of place in Harry Potter (Amphipolis museum); A terracotta figure of a dancer or jumper from the 3^rd century BC (Amphipolis museum; View over the very wet forum in Philippi; Late Neolithic figurine head from Dikili Tash, close to Philippi.