Excavations at Sparta, 1926: § 1.—Introductory

Abstract

A Short account of the campaign of 1926 at Sparta has already appeared in the Annual Report of the British School for the Session 1925–26, and consequently need not be repeated here. Work started on April 7th and lasted until June 5th, the Director being in charge throughout, except for a brief visit to Athens to attend the opening ceremony of the Gennadios Library on April 23rd. He had as helpers Mrs. Woodward, Mr. P. De Jong and Mr. G. A. D. Tait, who were present for the whole campaign; and, for shorter periods, Mr. H. Box, who stayed from the start to April 18th, and returned for the last three weeks of the work, Mr. W. L. Cuttle, Miss K. Chrimes, of the British School at Rome, and Miss E. Tankard, who again came to draw our finds of small objects.The Hellenic Government was ably represented by Dr. Th. Karachalios, Ephor of Laconia and Messenia, and the Archaeological Section of the Ministry of Religion and Education again kindly allowed us to employ as foreman Georgios Alexopoulos, Phylax at Mycenae, who performed his duties with his customary zeal and competence. Our total number of workmen averaged nearly fifty, though for a time we had as many as sixty, and we were fortunate in losing very little time through bad weather.