Rare photographs of the excavations at the Greek island of Delos from the 19th Century have emerged in a book by French archaeologists.
The book “Delos 1873-1913” sheds light on the challenges facing the scientists and other skilled and unskilled workers who discovered ancient monuments and artifacts in one of most important mythological, historical and archaeological sites in Greece.
Delos (Δήλος) was one of the holiest places of ancient Greece, and one of the most robust trade centers as well.
Its claim as the birthplace of Apollo gave it a strong religious identity that lasted all the way until Byzantine times.
During the centuries, Delos was truly a cosmopolitan center with a diverse population that included people from all around the Mediterranean, but in 88 BCE the Romans razed the island during their war with Mithridates (and ally of the Athenians who controlled the island), a calamity Delos never recovered from.
The French School of Athens (FSA) in 1873 sent archaeologist A. Lebègue to start excavating Delos.
Until the First World War, on the instigation of T. Homolle and then M. Holleaux, the emphasis was on the clearing of large areas in the Sanctuary zone and on the northern slopes of Cynthus, even though the rest of the island was not neglected.
Several years apart (1894 and 1907), two archaeological maps of the island were drawn up, while a study of its physical geography was successfully concluded by the geologist L. Cayeux (EAD IV).
After 1903 onwards, the excavations enjoyed annual financial support from Joseph Florimont, Duke of Loubat (1831-1927), a rich American philanthropist and foreign corresponding member of the Academy of Inscriptions and Belles-Lettres.
This important contribution to work in the field was complemented in 1920 by the creation of a Greek epigraphy fund to support the Institute, from which the income was used for the publication of the Choix d’inscriptions de Délos by F. Durrbach (1921) and the Corpus des inscriptions de Délos.
From the 1920s onwards, the efforts of the School’s members focused on the study of monuments, batches of equipment and inscriptions discovered in the previous decades, and exploratory research focused more on buildings than groups of monuments.
(With information from FSA)
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Photo Source: Wikimedia Commons Copyright: Bernard Gagnon License: CC-BY-SA
Source: greekreporter.com
