Thásos (Part 2) The Agora and Museum

The island of Thásos and its capital Liménas (or Thásos), where we were moored, initially prospered because of its gold deposits but later also from marble and its black wine for which it was renowned throughout the ancient world. The wine was made with sundried grapes which had been left to soak in must and seawater. The pressed juice was then mixed with boiled must and the result was a sweet, high alcohol content wine with a black colour. Apparently it was normally drunk mixed with an equal amount of water. Apparently you can still buy black Thásos wine but we didn’t see any - perhaps we should have looked a little harder, though I’m not sure that it sounds particularly tasty!

The ruins of ancient Thasos lie scattered around the modern city. The ancient military harbour is still in use but as a harbour for shallow draft fishing vessels now and around it remnants of the ancient town have been excavated.

6^th century AD Christian basilica   

As we headed out that way we came across a square in the centre of the town in which are the ruins of a 6^th century AD Christian basilica. This is regarded as the most significant early Christian building on the island and is unusual because it faces south rather than the more conventional east. The building behind had the torso of an ancient statue set into the wall.

Crisscrossing a maze of small streets, we came to the remains of the ancient agora next to which the town’s museum has been built. We decided to visit the museum first, both to orientate ourselves and also because museums are often closed in the afternoon. Fortunately for us, it turned out that we were visiting on the Greek ‘national free museum entry day’ and so there was no requirement to pay the €3pp fee to go in.

Thásos’ kouros   

The star exhibit is a 4-metre high kouros, which is immediately inside the entrance to the museum. The body of the statue was never finished probably, it is thought, because the marble split next to the left ear early on in the sculpting process. However, before that disaster befell the sculptor, he had fashioned the rough outline of the kouros and pretty much finished the detail of the hair which is held back by a ribbon tied with a ‘knot of Hercules’; not one we’ve seen in our sailing books.

Statues of Nemesis and Emperor Hadrian   

Hermes   

The excavation of the agora revealed several other fine sculptures such as the twin statues of Nemesis from the 2^nd century AD, a 130AD Statue of Emperor Hadrian and the Head of Hermes from around the 4^th century BC.

Ruins under the museum   

The museum was excellent. As well as many other fine examples of pottery, bronzes and statues at one point you could look into the foundations of the building where there was an archaeological site being uncovered.

Pre-Bronze Age exhibits above, and pottery of later era below   

Unusually there was also a large number of exhibits from the pre-Bronze Age. Weapons and tools from households and even ancient mines.

Exhibits of later era featured Thásos’ black wine and a display showing how the handles of the amphora were stamped with the place of origin, the name of the ruler in the year of production, the producer and the inspector. Wine production was clearly well controlled in ancient times. The stamps were changed to show the year of production and presumably to try to stop them from being copied so that they guaranteed the quality and quantity of the contents.

Thásos’ agora   

Model of Thásos’ agora   

After visiting the museum we crossed the road and went into the site of the ancient agora. We had a pretty good idea of what it used to look like from a model we had seen in the museum.

Thásos’ agora   

Odeon beside the agora   

It’s a large site with the layout of the old buildings still clear from the stonework which has been exposed. Sadly, much of it was overgrown with tall grass when we visited which made getting about the site difficult and I’m sure that it hid some of the ruins from us. Hopefully the grass cutting will start again shortly so that future visitors see it at its best.

With a museum and a couple of ancient sites already ticked off it was time for a lunchtime break so we made our way down to the old military harbour to the Simi restaurant. We picked it because the previous evening it had been busy with locals, not because of assured claims by the waiter that “it’s the best restaurant in the town”!

Thásos, Greece