GREEK EXCAVATORS
REWRITE ANCIENT HISTORY Greece is doing a good deal of spade work oil its ancient history. Discoveries made by American and Greek archaeologists indicate that the site of the palace of King Nestor, oldest of the chiefs who attacked Troy, was located on the promontory jutting into the Gulf of Pylos, or Xavarine, as the place was called under Turkish rule. More than 300 tablets have been dug out. These are thought to be part of the archives of the ancient royal court, Ruins of many houses have also been unearthed, suggesting that hereabouts was a great city. The inscriptions on the tablets are written in Minoan type. This is said to be the first time that Minoan writing has been found in Greece, and is taken to prove that the Greeks on the mainland in the Minoan period were not as illiterate as historians have supposed. Excavations in the neighbourhood of Thermopylae encourage the hope that the actual spot where the Spartan hero. Leonidas, and bis 300 men bravely but vainly attempted to arrest the progress of the vast hosts of Persia, may soon he established. Many difficulties have to be surmounted, however, for the configuration of the land has greatly altered during the past 2,000 years. Many well-preserved spears, arrows, and other arms has been already discovered.
Recently five chryselephantine statues were discovered in excavations at Delphi. It has now been established that they date back 150 years beyond Phidias, greatest of ancient Greek sculptors. It is believed that they were destroyed in the fire of the first temple of Apollo. toward the middle of the sixth century b.c. Two statuettes of bronze found in the same area are almost certainly 100 years older still.
Meanwhile, two archaeologists have been commissioned by the Archeological Institute at Merlin to dig in the courtyard of the Church of St. George at Salonica. in the hope of coming upon the imperial palace of the Empire of Byzantium. The famous church of St. Demeter at Salonica is now to be restored after the fire that ruined it a quarter of a century ago. This church was built by Leon the Wise, and was converted into a mosque under the Turks,
A monument symbolising the resurgence of Greek youth is to be erected in Athens. It is to be the centre for gatherings and meetings, aijd a certain day each year is to be set aside for a Pan-Hellenic fete.
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Evening Star, Issue 23349, 19 August 1939, Page 26
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409GREEK EXCAVATORS Evening Star, Issue 23349, 19 August 1939, Page 26
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