CENTURIES-OLD GREEK LIBRARY

Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 98, 27 April 1935, Page 25

CENTURIES-OLD GREEK LIBRARY

/ Oblivious of' the, Greek revolution, archaeologists at the Agora marketplace oJ; ancient Athens, are carrying -oh-'this"season's excavations -without ■interruption,-according to aii announce-" -rrient.. by" Pfofessor Edward Capps, of, 'Princeton University, and chairman of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, which is sponsoring the investigations,: states the "Christian ■Science Monitor."- ",' .'' ■_____•' Objects::'dating back. 2500' years"ares"are among the finds made since this year's digging was started on January 28. The oldest were four funeral urns, in one of which were—found 10 small vases of varying, patterns. Fragments of sculpture,and inscriptions'.-also were uncovered, among them being - the boundary stones of the Anakeiori,. . sanctuary of Castor and Pollux, and of the House of the Priestess to -Athena Poliasi': .. ■■ "■■■■■ v '' ; ■ .'' One inscription, of particular interest to librarians, was found not far from the position of the dedicatory inscription of /the library of the Jmporer Trajan. Translated, it reads: '"Noi book shall be taken, out of the library. '~..1f will be open' from the first hour until the sixth." Found just above one of the burial jars were pieces of a fine proto*Attic vase. The front was occupied by two sphinxesi' The vliead of one of them, well preserved, was described, as a mas-

terpiece of this type of pottery of the early seventh' century. - Two s osfraka, or ballot stones, used in voting on the banishment of men from the city, also were found. One M ,them bore'the.name; dt Hippodrates, son of'AnaxaliaSj of whom,several had previously been found: biit' the other giyes a now name—that '■• of Kallias, son of Didymios, a famous athlete, who | won the - pankratidri ;at the Olympic' Games of 472 B. ; C. ' ' t . , • Kallias: was likewise honoured by the erection of a to him at Olympia,':and;nunifercius other vicj tories, of his. are recorded., Little has been learned of his Apolitical activity, and it is conjectured that the votes were cast against him by jealous athletic .rivals.':.: f • Excavation of tlie Agora, in the \heart' of the residential'section of modern Athens, was^beguif in 1931 and is under the direction of a committee of eight, headed by Professor Capps, who, was Minister to--Greece under President Wilson. Professor T. Leslie Shear, of Princeton ..University, well known for his excavations at Corinth, is in charge of the actual digging and the interpretation of discoveries. Approximately two and a half acres will have been excavated when digging for ,the year'ends in June, necessitating ;the demolition of 32 modern dwellings. ' . ■ '. ■ .'■ ■ . '.'.'''.