As I slowly return to a routine, after a welcome respite to the Yukon and Northwest Territories, I remind myself of the value of a semi-regular pattern. Much like mountain climbing, where one step after another usually leads to the summit, so to does one hour after another lead to learning.

The desired pattern is to allocate one hour each morning to this activity. I was able to honor this ideal this morning.

Another pattern is embedded in this web site. Based on my efforts yesterday, I realize that I want to have two distinct components on this site. One, which has been evident from the start, is to provide a record of my progress. This is represented by these daily entries, which go back to early February. The other component, is to reorganize and restructure the readings into a coherent knowledge base, where I attempt to lay out what I have learned. Basically these notes can serve as a form of notes, suitable for review.

The first set of such notes will be for Ancient Greece.

While in Edmonton at the beginning of our trip up North, I happened to find a book sale and purchased a number of books, including one on Greek art and another on Japanese art

• .John Griffiths Pedley (1998) Greek Art and Archaeology. Second Edition. New York: Abrams.

This is a beautiful hardcover book containing numerous photographs of sculpture and buildings, with a rich historical commentary.

The early chapters provide an elaboration of the era before 1000 BC. The period from 3000 - 2000 BC (the third millenium BC) is called the Early Bronze era for the region around the Aegean. At this time, there were three main areas of Aegean settlement: Crete, the islands of the Cyclades and part of mainland Greece. There were also well established civilizations in Egypt [the Old Kingdom] and in the Fertile crescent. There is extensive evidence of small villages with a well developed pottery industry. Domestic animals were common (sheep, goats, cattle) and granaries were in evidence.