News Letter from Greece (1979 and 1980)

Abstract

contributed photographs with their usual generosity. It is always a pleasure to thank them. I am indebted also to Dr. Halford Haskell of the American School. The previous News Letter appeared in AJA 83 (1979) 323-29. The scholarly world has suffered a great loss with the death in 1979 of Anastasios Orlandos, Professor of Architecture at the Polytechneion and of Byzantine Archaeology at the University of Athens, member of the Academy of Athens, for many years Director of the Service of Restoration and Preservation and, since 1951, General Secretary of the Archaeological Society in Athens. His numerous scholarly publications, spanning an extraordinarily full and productive lifetime, cover a wide range. Perhaps it is not too much to say that his work reflects not only an imaginative creativity of mind peculiarly his own, but an era steeped in the Classical and Byzantine past as a matter of course in education and upbringing. In late February 1981, a series of violent earthquakes, with epicenter in the Gulf of Corinth, caused substantial material damage, while loss of human life was fortunately on a small scale. Reports of the effects on archaeological monuments mention some cracking of one corner of the Parthenon, the breaking of many vases in the cases of the Athens National Museum and the collapse of a tower at Andritsaina. More serious damage seems to have occurred at Perachora, while ancient Corinth seems virtually unaffected. ATTICA