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ASA International Scholars Series Lectures
The Minoans at Knossos on Crete
Deep within a dark labyrinth under the palace of King Minos at Knossos on Crete, the Minotaur roamed, a terrifying beast that was half-man, half-bull. Each year a grisly offering was made to the Minotaur – 12 Athenian youths who were forced into the labyrinth, never to return. Princess Ariadne, in love with the Athenian hero Theseus, gave her lover a great ball of wool to unravel as he entered the endless maze of tunnels, enabling him to find his way back to the surface after killing the beast.
In the 19th century, Sir Arthur Evans brought this legend back to life as he excavated an extraordinary complex on Crete, unearthing fragments of wall-painting, ceramics and the foundations of numerous narrow, seemingly endless passageways. He named this civilisation 'Minoan' after the legendary king.
So began a new era in understanding the Ancient Mediterranean. The extraordinary richness and diversity of the Bronze Age continues to be revealed as archaeologists and scholars work at unravelling the mysteries of the past. Our knowledge has evolved as we learn to 'read' our world in new and exciting ways. The landscape itself is as vital to understanding an ancient site as are the traces of the civilisations revealed by excavation. The interaction of ancient peoples is recognised as the means by which ideas were shared and technologies moved through regions.
Whether listening to a lecture or travelling on tour, ASA Cultural Tours ask people to take a step beyond simply looking at a place, and instead use the present in combination with artefacts and sites from the past to imagine the march of history.
To view this International Scholars Series visiting Sydney, Canberra, Hobart, Melbourne and Perth
To visit this spectacular sight join our Islands in Time: Cyprus, Crete & Santorini program in April 2012
An Adriatic Journey: from Trieste to Corfu
26 May - 15 June 2012
Explore the beautiful coast line of Croatia and Montenegro, and be some of the first travellers to explore Albania.
This tour explores the role of the Adriatic both as a trade corridor between Northern Europe and the Mediterranean and as a frontier between Europe and the Balkans. We begin in the seaport of Trieste in northeast Italy, and then traverse the stunning coast of the eastern Adriatic, through Croatia, Montenegro and Albania, before crossing the Ionian Sea to the beautiful Greek island of Corfu. Amidst the vibrant, cosmopolitan communities that inhabit this coastline today, you will encounter legacies of the many cultures - Illyrian, Greek, Roman, Venetian, Slav, Austro-Hungarian, Ottoman - that once traded and settled along these shores. Their three great belief systems - Latin and Orthodox Christianity, and Islam - have for eons both interacted and vied for supremacy. In Croatia we encounter two UNESCO listed buildings that testify to both the division and the commingling of the eastern (Byzantine) and western (Latin) Christian powers in the region - the Episcopal Complex of the Euphrasian Basilica in Porec and the Cathedral of St. James in Sibenik. Highlights of this tour are ten UNESCO World Heritage List sites. In Croatia we explore Split, a palace of the Emperor Diocletian, so large that it later gradually metamorphosed into a sizeable town. Nearby, we visit the island town of Trogir, settled by the Greeks in the 4th-3rd centuries BC, and explore the semi-independent trading city the Italians once called Ragusa (Dubrovnik). It prospered in the late Middle Ages through the interchange of Balkan land trade with Mediterranean maritime exchange. In Montenegro we stay in the small and extremely beautiful port city of Kotor, once important as a maritime centre. Further south in Albania we explore the archaeological site of Butrint, described by Virgil as Troy in miniature. In the highlands of Albania we visit Gjirokastër and Berat, two of the best-preserved Ottoman towns in the Balkans. On Corfu, once eulogized by Lord Byron as the 'Shores of glory', Old Corfu Town bears the marks of Romans, Normans, Venetians, French, Turks, Germans and the British. Here Richard Pine, friend and biographer of Lawrence Durrell, gives a lecture on the Durrells on Corfu.
For more on this historically diverse tour
Also visit our past newsletters for some interesting articles on sites visted on this tour.
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ASA offers you a new way to travel.
In 2013 ASA will offer two group departures led by our own lecturers. Your ASA lecturer will augment Voyages to Antiquity's own lecture and site visit program with exclusive group talks and some additional ASA excursions. There will be ample time to enjoy the cruise ship's luxuries.
ASA is continually looking for new and exciting ways to enhance our travellers' quest to learn while exploring and understanding the 'march of history' through travel.
We are pleased to announce a new association with the educational cruise company Voyages to Antiquity. This affiliation will offer you more leisurely, less strenuous programs. You may enjoy our arrangement with Voyages to Antiquity in different ways. We will be offering ASA group departures or you can book an independent departure through your ASA consultant. You may also wish to take a cruise as an add-on before or after one of our land-based tours.
We have chosen Voyages to Antiquity as a partner for particular reasons:
• Voyages to Antiquity's educational aims and objectives, and the high quality of its programs, are inspired by its figurehead John Julius Norwich, who played a critical role in the development of modern educational tourism, and inspired the founding of ASA more than 30 years ago.
• Voyages to Antiquity's luxury ship, MV Aegean Odyssey, combines all the amenities of a cruise liner without the huge size; the ship carries an average of only 350 passengers, which allows for meaningful experiences, personalized service, and a high proportion of public spaces in which to pursue interesting activities.
• Voyages to Antiquity's cruises offer lecture programs by excellent scholars, and far more time onshore at historic sites than most cruises; well-trained classics graduates assist with the shore excursions.
• Voyages to Antiquity's programs appeal to like-minded travellers; you will not feel like a member of the anonymous herded masses that join huge cruise ships.
For more information or to obtain a brochure, please contact your ASA consultant on 03 98226899