Archeology & Folk Museum

Drawing and taking pictures of things that she finds interesting in a museum has been a way that helps Mozart to learn as she goes and gives us time and silence to explore more of what we want to look at.
We are all having so much fun with this approach that we are thinking about making an extended project/report out of the material we are gathering and perhaps submitting to a children’s magazine later or for a presentation to her school.

It is a small Archeology Museum in Chania’s old town but we really enjoyed it. The building itself was lovely as well as the garden and it was once one of the most splendid buildings in Crete, the former Venetian Church of San Francesco.

There were some great 3rd century, Roman mosaics on the floor that we really enjoyed like the one of  Dionysos when he found Ariadne at a seashore on the island of Naxos which had been discovered in Chania (ancient Kydonia) in 1977. Mozart is always up for anything related to Greek or Roman myths and it was surprising to see representations from Menander’s comedies depicted.

There were some huge things like statues and pots larger than Mozart, but some of the things that touched us the most were very tiny and amazingly intricate. There was a tiny little sculpture head that we just loved and and even tinier piece (fingertip size clay sealing) that had a whole detailed city carved into it which date back to Minoan times. DaVinci was fascinated with the diminutive, elaborate gold jewelry and how they made it in those ancient times.

The courtyard itself was very pleasant and had more artifacts plus shade and fruit trees adding to the ambience along with lovely music wafting in from a nearby cafe. We were particularly fond of a lion without a head standing royally in a corner as you entered.

The very best part of the museum was perusing the clay tablets inscribed with Linea A and Linea B script from 1450 B.C.. Mozart had read about them in her books and they had a key so we could decipher them ourselves a little.

The folk museum was entertaining too and allowed Mozart more hands on interaction which she loved. She could pretend like she was baking bread, working in a field or kitchen or hugging a Greek grannie and there was an older woman working on some very colorful embroidery. They were close by to each other, so we felt we had a very fruitful day of wandering.