Archaeology
Greece
- Juvenal 0 Herodotus 1
Creditur olim velificatus Athos, et quidquid Graecia mendax / audet in historia
Historians - as well as Juvenal - have debated whether the famed Canal of Xerxes was really dug all the way from coast to coast. Some have doubted its existence, pointing to a rocky plateau that they argue would have made the construction an impossible task for workers of that day. Now, scientists from Britain and Greece have come up with what they say is conclusive evidence that the canal was built. Using geological information gathered from several meters below the earth's surface, where the structure now lies buried, the scientists have drawn a map detailing the canal's dimensions and course. The findings confirm Herodotus' account, which some scholars have long regarded with scepticism. Buried under centuries of silt and alluvium, the structure is testament to remarkable military strategy, work-force management and civil engineering. It also tells of shortsightedness and haste, and of a king who was probably in such a hurry to conquer that he never thought of preserving the canal as a permanent waterway. "From the analysis of sediments in the canal, we know that it probably had a short lifetime," said Richard Jones, the lead researcher on the project and an archaeologist at the University of Glasgow. "The Persians did not think of it as a monument that would remain for centuries. Once their ships were through, that was the end." Spanning about 30 meters at the surface, the canal was just wide enough for two war galleys to pass. "It was a colossal enterprise," said Ben Isserlin, an archaeologist at the University of Leeds who started the canal exploration project in the early 1990s. "There were no pulleys. So the workers had to shovel earth into baskets and pass them along from one person to the next, all the way to the top." [New York Times Nov 12 2001]
- World's oldest wine?
Jars 4000 years old found on the Greek island of Santorini (ancient Thera) show grapes in cultivation. Carbonised grape seds have been found in the ash from the 1550 BC eruption. Wine has possibly been made there longer than anywhere else in the world - but, at long last, it's come to the attention of the connoisseurs. The very dry white wine (called Atlantis after the theory that ancient Thera was the site of the legendary state - but see my views!) is now officially world class. [UK Press July, 1999] - Mycenae, rich in tourists
The palace of Mycenae - ancient home of the House of Atreus famed for its bloody murders and cannibalism - is in serious danger from "schoolkids clambering all over it", according to the significantly named Dr Iphigeneia Tournavitou. The damage done by tourists, time, neglect and the weather over 7000 years has taken means that, after essential repairs have been carried out, it is likely that the 3000 daily visitors will be confined to walkways. I'm glad I've had my chance to clamber, though. [The Guardian - article and picture Saturday May 22 1999] - Those marbles (again!)
For the first time in nearly 200 years the return of the Elgin marbles to Greece is to be considered by a parliamentary committee. You can read much of the recent saga by browsing through my news items - but the story so far is:- 5th century BC - created by Pheidias and his workshop
- 1687 - damaged while Athens was under Turkish rule (they were keeping ammunition there which blew up when a Venetian shell scored a hit)
- 1801 - Lord Elgin gets official permission from the Ottoman Turks to remove sculptures.
- 1816 - Bought by British government for £35,000. The British Museum was orderd to look after them intrust for the nation.
- 1939 - Lord Duveen's staff bribe cleaners to whiten them, to conform with his idea of ancient sculpture
- 1998 - Scandal of scraping revealed
- The Marbles will stay
The Marbles saga(will Tony Blair be able to keep them?) is almost as hilarious as the London Mayoral election nonsense - unless you are Greek, or a Hellenophile. Only three months after deciding to discuss the matter, Tony Blair has announced that the return is not a matter for discussion. I shall say no more on the subject - unless I decide, like Cato, to end every news item with "marmora reddenda sunt". [December 13, 1999] - Marbles Row: Hotting Up
Friends of the Acropolis struck back at the Greek Ministry of Culture yesterday: workers building the new Acropolis Museum, designed to hold the marbles when they return, have apparently been ordered to ignore any archaeological remains on the site, to ensure it's ready for 2002: "Whole layers of history are being cast aside" because of the "indecent haste". The Ministry of Culture hotly denied any such thing, but foreign jounalists are totally excluded from the site anyway. The Greek press is enjoying comparing the 60-year-old British vandalism to the marbles (see below) with the current behaviour of the English sporting ambassadors in Marseilles [World Cup Football]. (The Times 19 June 1998) - Scrubbers condemned
The Greek Deputy Foreign Minister, George Papandreou (son of Andreas) criticised the cleaning of the Parthenon sculpture by the Briitish Museum: "There has been very great damage. History has been lost. We would like these statues back as soon as possible." A British spokesman said: "The marbles will stay in the British Museum where they belong". (The Times 18 June 1998) - Troy Exhibition in Russia
Objects from Troy, some donated by Heinrich Schliemann, others "acquired" in Germany are on show in the Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg. - Overkeen scrubbers
The "Elgin Marbles" may have been irreparably damaged over 60 years ago while in the care of the British Museum, according to a new edition of William St Clair's Lord Elgin and the Marbles. The man responsible was Lord Duveen, who put up the money for the Duveen Galleries in which the marbles are currently housed. He apparently believed that Greek sculpture should be white, rather than the natural honey colour of the Pentelic marble, and ordered that the pieces should be scrubbed. In fact, of course, Greek sculpture was painted to resemble flesh, but this was not realised in Duveen's day. (Guardian, 8 June 1998) - Oldest Profession's oldest premises
A brothel from Roman times is a new attraction in Salonika, Northern Greece. So far only a small proportion of it (about a tenth) has been excavated, but the finds (a clay dildo, a pitcher with a phallic spout, innumerable offerings to Aphrodite, and much other erotic paraphernalia) make its identification as the earliest bordello certain. It seems to have formed part of a first century BC "Leisure Complex" - also on offer was a restaurant, a sauna with 25 marble baths, and two swimming pools (one heated). The porneion is directly (about four feet) below the taverna: customers could have move downstairs to enjoy bathing or more intimate services after their meal - or beforehand to give themselves an appetite! (Report, with pictures, in the Guardian, 27 May 1998) - Acropolis
Now!Soon!Never?
The last original decorations from the Periclean Acropolis (slabs from Temple of Athena Nike) have been permanently removed to the museum. At the same time it was revealed that the Parthenon (which took 20 years to build) 11th February 1998) will be in restoration for ever. "The time will never come when we can say that the Acropolis works are over" said Athens' culture minister, Evangelos Venizelos. (The Guardian 27th February 1998) . For Marbles latest see below - Those Marbles again
22 of the world's leading architects have collectively registered their total opposition to the Italian design for the new Acropolis museum, which will house the Parthenon marbles currently being "looked after" by the British Museum. As Tony Blair's government (breaking a previous election promise made by his predecessor Neil Kinnock) has already refused to talk about their return (see below), the whole project has an air of unreality. The museum, which from the outside would resemble a vast slice of Feta Cheese, features a huge underground cavern - rather like the setting for the dénoumement of an early Bond movie - with a curving peephole on the north side, from where you could see the actual Acropolis. It stands (or rather does not stand) accused of being too big, too dark and in the wrong place. Maybe Richard Rogers - one of the leading opponents (whose Millennium Dome for London is not without critics) should be asked to redesign it. If the object is to shame Britain into letting the Marbles go home, how could they refuse to send them to somewhere designed by Lord Rogers himself? (see Guardian October 15, 1997) - Labour keeps Marbles
Despite an apparent personal pledge made by the previous leader of the UK Labour Party, Neil Kinnock, to Melina Mercouri, then Greek Minister of Culture, that a Labour government would immediaely set about returning the bits of the Parthenon sold to Britain by the Turks in 1803 to Athens,Tony Blair's brand-new Labour government (since May 2nd) has decided that they will stay in the British Museum. Heritage Secretary Chris Smith said on TV that the matter had been considered, but that in the government's view it would make no sense to repatriate them. A major row with Greece is now expected. [UK Press May 5th-6th 1997] - Of Mycenae and Men
Fragments of skull found at Mycenae - from graves outside the walls of the 17th century BC citadel and slightly older - have been used by medical artist Richard Neave to reconstruct faces of Agamemnon's ancestors. Actually the theory is that the bones and skull fragments are from two rival dynasties - one of which would have won out and become the House of Atreus. DNA tests will be enable scientists to discover who of the "nobles outside the walls" were related to those later buried inside - and whether they were genetically more closely related to other mainland Greeks or to Cretans. Many ancient controversies may be solved at last. It will also be interesting to discover whether any modern "Myceneans" exist - as a man living near Cheddar in Somerset UK was recently found to share DNA with a cave-dwelling ancestor who lived locally 7000 years previously. [Report and Picture in Observer, Sunday 30th March 1997] - Was Cnossos destroyed from Outer Space?
A suggestion that the simultaneous destruction of Bronze Age civilisations in various parts of the world (first noted by French Archaeologist Claude Schaeffer 50 years ago who postulated volcanic eruptions - now known to be impossible) is to be discussed at a conference in Cambridge in July. There were three destructive episodes over a huge area of the near and Middle East (2300BC - Mesopotamia, Indus Valley, Egypt, 1650BC and 1250BC - Mycenaean cities). The new theory (propounded by Dr Benny Peiser from Liverpool John Moores using evidence from Dr Marie-Agnes Courty, a French soil expert) proposes that the destruction was caused by extra-terrestrial impact, from meteorites or the tail of a comet. Dr Courty has found traces of a calcite material in the soil - unknown on earth, but found in meteorites - along with vast amounts of black carbon, which most probably came from ash deposited from forest fires. [Report in the Times 8th March 1997] - A New Athens?
The most exciting improvements to Athens since Hadrian were announced this weekend. A traffic-free "archaeological corridor" from the Temple of Olympian Zeus to the Academy is planned, taking in all the major sites on the way. The new Lyceum site will not be part of it, however, but it's good news for Platonists that the Academy (which always reminded me of Peter Simple's "lovely, sex-maniac-haunted Sadcake Park" in his Daily Telegraph column) is to be put on the main tourist map at last. Ironically the announcement coincided with another strike of the absurdly underpaid site attendants. [Report in the Guardian 15th February 1997] - Lyceum found!
The greatest archaeological discovery since the war, according to press reports. Aristotle's Lyceum has finally been located to the east of the Acropolis. I hope it will not suffer the fate of the Academy in Athens, which must be among the most obscure, unvisited and undocumented sites in the city. [Guardian 15th Jan 1997] - Acropolis Now?
Not according to a recent Associated Press Report. The present programme of repairs and restoration is set to last another 35 to 40 years! Perhaps a better bet, then, is to take that virtual tour of the Acropolis - no crowds, no smog. [The Times 17th May 1996] - The Olympic Torch
The dropping of the sacred Olympic Torch by a cyclist and its consequent extinction has led to a questioning of the whole absurdritual
. The torch was apparently immediately relit with an alternative flame also kindled by the sun's rays in the Temple of Zeus Olympios on the morning of March 30th. Memories were recalled of the Tokyo Olympics, where a similar incident was avoided by prompt use of a cigarette lighter. Many Classicists (even) assume the ritual is ancient. There were of course torch races (like the one Socrates had been to at the beginning of Republic) - but they were never part of the Olympics. The Olympic Flame goes back only to Hitler's Games in 1936 - and was possibly one of Leni Riefenstahl's concepts (she wanted the runners naked : the Greek boys involved saidno!
). The appropriate still from Olympiad her amazing film is available.) [Guardian etc May 8th 1997] - Looted jewels return to Greece
50 items of Mycenaean jewelry, looted from tombs near Nemea in the Peloponnese in 1978, were restored to Greece recently, after a ceremonial handing over in Washington. The exact history of the items since they left Greece is obscure, but a prominent US Archaeologist hinted at collusion between art dealers, government officials, guards and looters. Full story in May's Archaeology.
