Archaeology in Greece, 1953

Extract

The pace set in the last three years has been maintained. Golden Mycenae and Nelean Pylos again outshine the rest, but Eleusis has come to the front with the acclaimed Tombs of the Seven. Olympia has yielded the helmet of Miltiades and Argos amazing discoveries of eighth-century armour in a two-drachma burial. Important finds have been made in the islands, and among notable discoveries in Athens is a first-class fragment of an archaic boxer's stele and the epitaph of a Carian prince whose son fought with the Persian fleet at Salamis. The terrible earthquakes in the western islands wrecked the museums—not least those in Ithaca, which were filled with the rich finds from British excavations of recent years; much has been retrieved, but the tasks of reconstitution will be slow and costly. Work is progressing at the Acropolis Museum, and new galleries are due to open in the National Museum. There is again good progress to report from the provincial museums, especially in Crete. The indefatigable Prof. Orlandos and his associates continue their work of repair and restoration around the Acropolis, at the Aphaia temple, and among the Early Christian and Byzantine monuments; among the objects of their attention this year may be recorded the monasteries of Osios Loukas, the Meteora, and the Holy Mountain.