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Curious students lingered around the Robert B. Moore Theatre Friday evening, discussing some of the most prominent archaeological discoveries and waiting to question Irini Rickerson about the latest revelations she had discussed in her Mysteries of Ancient Archaeology lecture.
Rickerson, an Orange Coast College art instructor, shared with the audience her experience researching areas of interest in Greece over the course of six years.
The Palace of Nestor was once thought to be mythological until researchers discovered its remains in the 1930s. Decades later, excavations are complete and the palace in Pylos, Greece is now open to visitors.
According to Rickerson, her research began when curiosity struck about whether the Palace of Odysseus was somewhere in Greece, undiscovered. She wondered how probable it was that the palace, like the Palace of Nestor, was more than mythological.
“We had been working on the island for six years, and of course, I realized finding the actual palace was not an easy task and that it was possible it would never be found,” Rickerson said to the theatre of over 100 guests. “But it is always good to be dreaming about things and (to) go for it.”
Rickerson said that while they may not have found the palace like she had dreamed of, other discoveries naturally came about during her years of searching.
With the use of GPR, ground penetrating radar, Rickerson and a team of Greek expert archaeologists found points of interest in the most discreet regions of the island.
Two years ago, Rickerson and her team located the exact positions of two Mycenaean tombs through GPR, scaled at about 15 feet in diameter. To Rickerson’s knowledge, the tombs were made for multiple people in context to the size of the chambers.
According to Rickerson, they were granted a three-year extension for GPR use as a result of their tomb discoveries.
Rickerson plans to return to the site this summer with her team to meet with the regional archaeologists to discuss the results of the GPR and to convince them to excavate specific points of interest.
Rickerson said the main problem lies with how bad Greece’s bureaucracy is and has the potential to delay the excavation.
“I guess it takes patience and patience is not my virtue,” Rickerson said in her lecture. “So I’m going to make sure I bother them so much this summer that they will be sick and tired of me bothering them that they will do it. That is my goal.”
Rickerson went on to discuss discoveries found on the Greek island of Antikythera, the pyramids on Pico Island in the Azores autonomous region of Portugal, sophisticated findings in Japan, South America, Turkey and traces from the earliest signs of civilization that have left researchers today in awe.
In the lecture, Rickerson explained the Antikythera mechanism, an unusual artifact that has peaked the interest of historians and archaeologists for decades and changed what scholars thought they knew about the general timeline of technology.
The mechanism is said to have spent nearly 2,000 years in the sea. When discovered in the early 19th century, none were able to make sense of the discovery.
X-ray technology in the 1970s and 1990s however, helped depict the complexity of the device, what some may refer to as the first computer.
Similar to a modern clock, the mechanism had rotating hands but instead of hours and minutes, its hands represented the moon and the sun, one for Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn.
Jocelyn Rodriguez, a 20-year-old biology major at OCC, was curious about the level of complexity in societies of the earliest centuries and if they were more advanced than scholars imagine them to be.
“I wonder if there are certain things beyond our level of comprehension,” Rodriguez said. “It was interesting to see similar patterns in disjointed societies and how they constructed them and functioned.”
Rodriguez said Rickerson’s lecture gave her a sense of perspective in regards to how ancient civilization could compare to technological developments today.
“I think about what would happen if they was a catastrophic event and what clues would we leave behind,” Rodriguez said. “Would people in the future understand our levels of advancements?”
Other students thought the information was groundbreaking.
“I was rather surprised at the large amount of information and findings that were news to me, and I study this on a weekly basis,” 19-year-old engineering major Joshua Chong said.
Rickerson said she felt the lecture went surprisingly well and the amount of students asking questions and discussing the topics at the end proved they were interested.
“My goal was to be able to get people out of the box and open to new ideas,” Rickerson said. “I think that with all this new information they saw, it makes them start to think about things.”
Even more than an understanding of ancient Greece, Rickerson hopes to encourage students to pursue lifelong learning, no matter the subject.
The lecture was open to students, faculty and anyone with an interest in archaeology. Tickets were $15 and some instructors on campus offered extra credit for students who attended. According to Rickerson, the money will go toward OCC student scholarships.
“If you can, instill in your students the curiosity to research more and to think critically for themselves,” Rickerson said. “I hope for students to be intrigued and go further into researching themselves and to be open minded.”
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