Brauron 20th Vravrona

Brauron Sanctuary did not survive the confiscations of matriarchal order, or First Estate, and of the their manorial plantation commonwealths. Both secular and religious conservatories succumbed to the misogyny which characterized patriarchal invaders of Greece during the early Dark Age of the Eleventh and Tenth centuries BC. The Ancient Athenians insisted that Attica was never conquered, nor invaded, but most certainly a new mankind invested Attica as a new Second Estate of manhood. It was intolerant of the former regime governed by women and would not admit of their forbears who were ruled by them.

Brauron is spelled in Modern Greek as it had been ever since the alphabet was created from Oldest Greek. But the phonetics greatly changed. Twentieth century Brauron is pronounced Vravrona, [Vrahv-RHO-nah], the phoneme for the letter Beta having become Veta. The dipthong “AU”, formerly pronounced AWE, is today “AHV” and “AFF,” depending upon its following consonant.

The depiction is timely to late May of any particular sunny springtime of the late Twentieth century. Modern agronomy renders the topography of former Brauron Basin incoherently, since the original geological depression was a marshlands sink that since has been filled, then raised to a moist soils elevation by cumulative alluvium. Erosion long ago filled all cluverts, drainage channels, meres, pond reservoirs and small bogs, until it is all alluvium spread uniformly. Because Modern Greeks prefer rectangular field layouts specific to species crops, a myriad patchwork appearance of single crop diverse plantings distinguishes every land parcel under cultivation.

It’s also clear that Brauron remained pastoral at animal husbandry below former Brauron Cove. Land use affixed as pasturage probably reflects the depletion of aquifers. There does not seem to be sufficient deep ground water howsoever explicable. Likely the modern climate of Greece, hot and dry compared with the prehistorical Late Aegean Bronze Age, has become ultra-stable. That’s to the effect of thin topsoil enabling only dry scrub, broad leaf weeds and maquis to the landscapes. We are all now an interglacial warming period of Earth, and have been ever since 1850 AD. Summers are torrid dry by mid-morning and Greece’s lovely cool nighttimes offer no alleviation to pervasive parch over warm season months. The once ageless opportunities to condition Brauron into surface cultivations of landscape are long lost. Only shallow tilth parcels can be staged above a great ground water aquifer that once was. Bygone forever, therefore, the vast basin depression first seen by Skia as a twelve year old girl at just before she became a maiden novice sister at fourteen.

We cannot date the depiction any earlier than 1975. We must consider ourselves lucky that Brauron managed good modern years of lush and bounteous farming, overcoming so easily regular summertime torrid heat that reduces harvests of wintertime propagated crops to parched stubble by midsummer.

The depiction looks very good by comparison to turning Brauron Basin what it is today, in this Twenty-first century.