Meseum work, behind the scene!

During this trip in Greece, I spent 2 weeks in the museum in both Mycenae and Nemea to photograph the artifact that were discovered and restored during the last few years.

While I was preparing for the photo shoots, I got to handle those artifacts. Having those objects from 2500 year ago in my hand is a very overwhelming experience. When I first touched the little human clay figure, I could feel the notch and bumps the artists made on those human forms. I could feel how his figures traced and shaped the clay figures. With the pottery, I could also see how the artisan use the spinning wheel to shape the curvature of the vase. Feeling a connection from sooo long ago is a very hard to describe feeling.

The experience working side by side with the archaeology team is sooooo amazing!! From discovering those artifact, documentation, identification, to restoration, every single step take a lot of patience and passion. However, the opportunity to peek into our past is totally worth while.

Below are some of the behind the scene images from the museum.

Dr. Kim Shelton, Director of Nemea Center for Classical Archaeology. She's an expert in classic pottery. Dr. Shelton is inspecting a piece of pottery.

Here is the work shop in Nemea where a lot of the identification and restoration takes place.

Steven and Katrina labeling an architecture fragment.

Linni propping the human figures for the photo shoot in Mycenae Museum.

A corner of the stock room in Nemea Museum where a lot more potterys are waiting to be photographed.

Nemea Site Restoration!

Here is the Nemea site. There are constant restoration going on trying to bring the ancient site back to life. Every site has different management, and hence different restoration philosophy. I like the way this site is restored. It's reconstructed to show visitors how it used to be, however, it still maintains the ancient feeling without using modern finishing like a lot of the other sites.

This is an almost 180 degree panoramic of the site. Please click on it for the higher resolution version.


This is the ruined temple. The Romans destroyed it when they went through the area and left only 3 pillars intact, a symbol of holy trinity. The restoration of the temple is slow. Each component has to be rebuilt and assembled. It's a very laber intensive and time consuming process.

This is the workshop where the molded components are rebuilt.
This is the tool construction workers use to trace the contour of the surface for mold making. You can see the coordinates on the surface of the female mold.