ATHENS RELICS

Evening Star, Issue 19773, 25 January 1928, Page 8

ATHENS RELICS

AMERICAN ARCHAEOLOGISTS BUSY. An unusually ambitious and comprehensive archcGological enterprise, the excavations of which will bo conducted in the very centre of Athens, is being financed by an anonymous American philanthropist, who has pledged 2,500,000 dollars to further the work of the American School for Classical Studies in Athens. The site.of the Agora, or market place, where the public buildings, temples, and libraries were grouped in the ancient days, will bo the scene of the excavations. _ Nowhere in tbe world, say antiquarians, is there_ a more promising location from which greater contributions to history and classic art could bo expected. A twenty-five acre plot has been granted by the Greek Government as a concession to the American Archaeological Study group, which will unearth treasures that have been undisturbed since the age of Pericles because of the great expense involved in the recovery operations. A total of 250,000 dollars has already been advanced to carry on the work and the remainder will he available when needed, provided adequate cooperation is evidenced by the Greek Government, Colonel Woods said. The location of the first operations, just north of the Areopagus and about 500 feet west of tbe Acropolis, has been selected by Prof. Edward Capps of Princeton University, who conducted the negotations with the Greek Government for the concessions. Professor Capps was attempting to raise the necessary 2,600,000 dollars among American universities to finance the work when Colonel Woods advised him that the funds had been provided. Other largo sums _ will be spent on research in connection with the excavation. The General Education Board, endowed by John D. Rockefeller, Sr., has set aside 500,000 dollars for such study, it has just been learned. Actual digging will not begin until 1929, it is expected. Existing buildings to the value of 1,000,000 dollars will be dismantled in tbe work, and considerable time will be taken for legal steps incident to condemnation. No estimate of the time required for the research is made, as pick and shovel will be sparingly employed. Brush and knife will be used for most of the work, which will proceed until all signs of human occupation, believed to go back as far as 2500 b.c., are exhausted.. The governmental concession provides that “duplicate” objects unearthed, or objects already m tbe Greek National Museum, may be sent to the United States. . A number of reasons are given for the expectation that important discoveries will bo made. Casual excavations, including that of the Pinens subway, have produced _ some of the finest museum pieces existing. Many of the statues which were damaged by tbe ravages of Xerxes and barbarian invaders were discarded and buried by the Athenians. Most of these which have been discovered are in a better state of preservation than the average classical piece-s.

Rich tintls in archaic sculpture are expected. During the classic period little attention was paid to work of the archaic school, and the statutes were discarded by the Athenians and many of them buried. Remains of the royal Stoa, or covered porch, and the temples of Aphrodite, Ares, and Zeus are expected to be disclosed by the first digging. Selected parties of _ archcoologists, numismatists, and skilled antiquarians will be selected from American universities to undertake the work.