Greece Archaeology and Ancient Arts 2

Greece Archaeology and Ancient Arts Part 2

Europe

Peloponnese. – In Corinthia, research continued in various sectors, especially by the American school. The center of Corinth has been explored, as well as in its archaic and classical phases (at the temple of Apollo and in the area of ​​the agora), in the numerous monuments of its Roman reconstruction, especially on the sides of the agora and at the edges of the road which leads to the port of Lechaion, where the remains of a large thermal building and a gymnasium have recently been excavated. A singular sanctuary to the Eleusinian divinities was found on the slopes of the Acrocorinth. Even the port on the Saronic, at Kenchreai, has revealed a remarkable nucleus of interest with the remains of houses from the 4th century BC. C. and various monuments of the Roman and Paleochristian age, now under the sea level, opus sectile of glass paste (4th century).

Other fundamental discoveries took place in the Isthmus area: in addition to fortification works, periodically restored or redone, and the diolkos, in operation since the 7th century BC. C. for the transport of ships between the two gulfs, the sanctuary of the Panhellenic games dedicated to Poseidon was excavated in Isthmia, since the 8th century, with superimposed templar constructions from the 7th and the first half of the 5th century, with theater and stadium, of which the ingenious starting line is perfectly preserved, and a heròon. Lesser but no less valuable activity in the region’s necropolises and Perachora sanctuaries.

In Argolis, in addition to the continuation of excavations in prehistoric and Mycenaean centers, topographical and historical-archaeological innovations are to be reported in Nemea, where further researches have specified the dating of the temple to about 330 BC. C., in Porto Cheli (Halieis), flourishing in the classical period, with templar installations, walls and artisan installations, but above all in Argos: here precious historical data from the exploration of the necropolis of the late Bronze and geometric period have been collected, and interesting topographical elements with the excavation of sanctuaries (Pythion, Aphrodision), of public areas (theater, buleuterion) and private areas (with interesting mosaic floor decorations from the end of the 5th century AD). In Epidaurus, attention was paid to the phases preceding those of the sanctuary of Asclepius (sanctuary of Apollo Maleatas on the Kynortion) and to the re-examination of the numerous buildings in the area. In Arcadia, the edition of previous research now illustrates the monumental context of centers such as Alipheira (walls, temples of Athena and Asclepius, classical and Hellenistic necropolis), Orcomeno, Gortys, Lykosura, Megalopoli, Mantinea, Basse and Tegea. In Laconia, a short distance from Amykle, a chthonic sanctuary has been excavated (Zeus-Agamemnon?), With materials ranging from geometric to the Hellenistic period. In addition to various prehistoric researches in the region, finds of mosaics, a gymnasium and archaic buildings on the acropolis. Fervent activity in Messenia, especially in the field of pre-classical archeology; among the topographical researches, one of the most extensive excavations of recent decades, in the center of Messene, should be mentioned, where an organized system of buildings (sanctuaries, exedras, stoaipropylonodeion), mostly from the Hellenistic and Roman periods. In Elis, the most numerous searches took place in Olympia, in various sectors of the sanctuary of Zeus, with the identification of the ergasterion of Phidias, and the remains of the clay matrices for modeling the chryselephantine colossus, with the careful exploration of the different stages of the stadium, with surveys and re-examinations of already known monuments (Heraion, area of ​​the octagon, Pelopion, stoà dell’Ecothesauròi, etc.), with the recovery and restoration of various materials, especially bronzes and pedimental sculptures. But also the center of Elis was explored with intensified research, especially in the area of ​​gymnasiums, the agora and the theater. In Achaia there have been no organized excavations, but modern construction has occasionally brought to light various monuments, mostly Roman, in the center of Patras (odeion, mosaics, statues, etc.).

Central Greece. – In Megaride, in addition to research on the topography of the land, were repeated, for occasional insights, surveys in the center of Megara, with the definition of the individual monuments problems (Teagenes fountain, tombe- heroa, etc.) And the graphic reconstruction of the plan of the ancient city. Boeotia has given numerous fundamental innovations.

According to Justinshoes, the center of Thebes offered new features of the Mycenaean palace of the Cadmea, as well as various areas of the town with individual mosaic documents. Excavations continued at Kabirion, a short distance from the city, with the edition of classes of materials. The sanctuary of the Ptoion has also had recent investigations and surveys and the impressive series of its archaic kouroi have been studied. The novelty in the Mycenaean culture is remarkable: the chronological and morphological problems of the fortress of Gla have been clarified, the Mycenaean necropolis of Tanagra has been explored, with a series of larnakes, and a large sector of a palace structure in Orchomenus was probed. On the coast of the Euboic Gulf, the sanctuary of Artemis in Aulis was discovered, with a 5th century temple raised on the remains of a previous construction of the Geometric age, with workshops and workshops of coroplasts.

Euboea has been the subject of excavations and surface explorations for its prehistoric phases. In Chalcis, occasional searches have enriched the topographical picture of the city and its surroundings with findings that reach, with the remains of mosaic floors, up to the Late Antiquity; but the most intense researches were addressed to the problems of Eretria, and to the identification of the old Eretria, remembered by Strabo, and located in Lefkandi (with continuous documentation from the proto-Helladic to the 8th century BC: inhabited area and necropolis), and to discover the most ancient phases of historical Eretria, documented starting from the 8th century. At the western walls of the city, the various phases of the gate towards Chalcis have been ascertained, as well as an area of ​​late geometric tombs, subsequently overbuilt with buildings of a sacred nature. A residential district extended over the whole area in the late Classical and Hellenistic periods. The sanctuary of Apollo Daphnephoros was also deeply explored, with the succession of four templar constructions from the late Geometric to the late Archaic. In the city, scattered finds (tholos at the agora, sanctuaries of the acropolis, deposit of panathenaic amphorae). In Phocis the Delphic sanctuary, in addition to the edition of materials and monuments already known, has been enriched with new sectors and investigations (urban area E of the sanctuary; archaic fountain near Castalia; necropolis E; restorations and new interpretations of the decorative sculptural cycles of the metopes of the tholos of Marmarià and of the late classical pediments of the temple of Apollo). On the slopes of Parnassus, an impressive mass of votive material was excavated in the Korykion cave. More limited research, but no less important, in the smaller centers (near Itea, Galaxidi, Anfissa) of Phocis, Aetolia and Acarnania.

Greece Archaeology and Ancient Arts 2