Archaeology in Greece, 1949–1950

Abstract

It is a pleasure to record this year that the promise of more substantial results held out in the previous slender reports from Greece has not been disappointed, and that the discoveries made in the latter part of 1949 and the year 1950 challenge comparison with any prewar years. The Archaeological Society has undertaken a number of new excavations in different parts of the country and has already achieved some remarkable successes. The foreign Schools have not lessened their endeavours; the Italian School has resumed its activity in the field, and the French have supplemented their achievements on land by commencing a systematic investigation of inshore waters. The Herákleion Museum is now open again. In Eleusis and Tegea the museums are being reconstituted, and that at Sparta has been reopened; the Hermes of Praxiteles has been brought above ground again at Olympia. A new wing comprising an exhibition gallery and workrooms has been added to the Corinth Museum. The museum in Thera is to be set in order, and the archaeological collection at Syra has been re-assembled in the Town Hall. In Athens, there are now six exhibition galleries open in the National Museum with a splendid selection which ranges from early Hellenic to the fourth century B.C.; a new gallery has been constructed in the Byzantine Museum to hold select exhibits, and a library and rooms for study are being fitted out in the cellars of the main building there. Under Prof. A. Orlandos' direction many Byzantine churches and monasteries which needed attention have been put in order in the last year.