Today our family visited the Agora and the Acropolis museum. The Agora was the marketplace and meeting place for many citizens of Athens. The reason it was so interesting was because many of the things we take for granted like measurements of weight and time, jury trials, and depiction of important leaders on coins started there. The exhibit showed many of these early materials. My dad also pointed out to me the way that the Greeks decided who would come to the jury and plead their case and who could not come to plead their case. What they would do was take a stone slab and put ranks and columns of slots for names to be slid into. Then the judges would randomly put either a white or black marble on top each row. Next the judges would turn a crank and when they stopped a white or black marble would fall in front of the columns and those people were either rejected or accepted to the jury. Also the Athenians created the measurements of time. They would measure time by fill a jug of water with enough water to last however long they wanted it to last. Next they would unplug the bottom and let the water run and when all the water was gone whatever they needed timed was done. After we visited the Agora, we payed a visit to the Acropolis museum. There were all kinds of cool stuff there! From statues that went around the Parthenon to the history and artwork in the Parthenon. I also watched a video that explained the construction, statues and damage that was done to it. The construction had about 50 total columns in or around it. There was also an east and west side to the Parthenon. They were mostly separate from each other and had no communication with the other.There were many statues that ran along the inside and outside of Parthenon. The most famous was probably the sculptures in front and behind at the east and west tops. There were pictures of the gods and goddesses, heroes and villains, kings and animals. The most decorated was probably the goddess Athena because the structure was made for her. The damage done to the Parthenon was catastrophic. First a fire lit by the Turks burnt much of the building. Second a explosion blew much of the middle away and finally there was much theft of the master sculptures. The British liked the marbles that surrounded the top of the Parthenon so much that they took them all away. As I walked home from that educational experience I knew that the Parthenon really was amazing.
[ed.-- apparently some people were more excited about the Acropolis Museum than others.]
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