Oscar Broneer

The Isthmian Victory Crown

Olympia it was made from the wild olive tree that grew behind the Temple of Zeus; and a boy, whose parents were both alive, cut the branches for the wreaths with a golden sickle.? The victors in the Pythian Games at Delphi were crowned with laurel from the Vale of Tempe.2 At Nemea the crown was made of celery, and this was explained as a token of mourning for the boy Archermeros (or Opheltes), in whose honor the games were instituted.3 At the Isthmian Games there were two kinds of

The Corinthian Isthmus and the Isthmian Sanctuary

The peloponnesus came so near to being a true island (Island of Pelops) that the neck of land (FIG. I) which joins it to the northern half of the Greek peninsula is less than five miles wide. This became a natural crossroads of the Greek world. Several routes converging on this landbridge connected the Peloponnesus with the rest of Greece. Communications by sea between the east and the west, through the Saronic and the Corinthian Gulfs, were interrupted by the Isthmus, and attempts were made early to pierce or overleap the barrier. The southern sea-lane encircling the Peloponnesus was much longer, and weather conditions made the journey hazardous. For this reason cargoes were unloaded at the two harbours, Kenkreai on the Saronic and Lechaion on the Corinthian Gulf, and carried by land across the Isthmus. Naval vessels, and perhaps the empty freight carriers, were transported over a paved roadway called Diolkos. The western end of this portage has long been recognized on the Peloponnesian side of the Corinth Canal, and recently longer stretches of pavement have been laid bare on both sides of the Canal. The Diolkos here did not run straight but ascended the steep slope in great sweeping curves (FIG. I and PLATE IX ( c ) ). The pavement has a width of 3-50-5 m. and is made with large poros blocks well fitted together. Two deep ruts, 1-50 m. apart, show that the ships were hauled on wheeled cradles, not on rollers, as was formerly assumed. The excavation, conducted by the Archaeological Service of the Greek Government, is still in progress, and the exact course across the Isthmus will not be known before this work is completed.

What Happened at Athens

IN THE history of the incursions into Greece from the north at the end of the Mycenaean age, known as the Dorian invasion, Athens holds a peculiar place. We learn from ancient writers that Attica was by-passed when the invaders descended into the Hellenic peninsula. The Athenians were forever reminded by their orators of the fact that Athens had never been subject to a foreign power, that its citizens had never seen their properties invaded. It will be my task tonight to show how far the archaeological remains in Athens itself substantiate this tradition. Until a comparatively few years ago, Mycenaean Athens was all but unknown. Sections of the Mycenaean fortification of the Acropolis had been discovered in the earlier excavations, but accurate observation of the stratification associated with these remains were not made at that time, and as a result the wall itself constituted practically all our knowledge of Mycenaean Athens. Then in the nineteen-thirties excavations in various parts of the city brought forth much new evidence which throws light on the period under consideration. The first of these excavations was that of the German Archaeological Institute in the Kerameikos close to the Dipylon Gate. Here a series of graves were excavated, the very earliest of which date from the end of the period which is the subject of our discussion tonight, and later graves in the same area carry the history of the city down to classical times. This discovery was fundamental for an understanding of the role which Athens played in the time of the Dorian invasion and the centuries following. The excavations in the Athenian Agora, beginning about the same time, resulted in the discovery of several Mycenaean tombs belonging to the period preceding the Dorian invasion. Our excavations on the North Slope of the Acropolis, which will be discussed in greater detail below, brought us right into the midst of the era with which we are dealing. These were begun in 1931 and carried on with some interruptions until 1939. About the same time, Mr. N. Balanos, of the Greek Archaeological Service, began dismantling the Athena Nike temple with a view toward a more accurate restoration, and in the course of these investigations the Mycenaean Tower, upon which the temple rests, became exposed. Finally, in 1938 Professor Kolbe, examining the evidence for the date of the earlier Parthenon, was led to an investigation of the Mycenaean wall itself. In the undisturbed fill between the inner and outer face of the wall he discovered some potsherds which must be contemporary with, or earlier than, the construction of the fortification. Some of these are fragments of unpainted kylikes, of a type in common use near the end of the Mycenaean period. This pottery shows conclusively that the so-called Pelasgian or Cyclopean wall around the Acropolis dates from the second half of the 13th century B.C. These five areas of excavation furnished our information regarding Athens in Mycenaean times and throughout the era with which we are dealing tonight. I shall now describe in more detail the Mycenaean remains unearthed in the excavations conducted on the North Slope of the Acropolis by the American School of Classical Studies. In the early campaigns of these excavations we discovered the continuation of the stairway leading from the lower city to the postern gate at the northeast corner of the Acropolis. The upper part of this stairway which had been laid bare in the earlier excavations

Corinth: Center of St. Paul's Missionary Work in Greece

The Biblical Archaeologist is published quarterly (Fcbruary, May, September, December) by the American Schools of Oriental Research. Its purpose is to meet the need for a readable, non-technical, yet thoroughly reliable account of archaeological discoveries as they are related to the Bible. Ed!tor: G. Ernest Wright, McCormick Theological Seminary, 2330 N. Halsted St., Chicago 14, II. (Only editorial correspondence should be sent to this address.) Editorial Board: W. F. Albright, Johns Hopkins University; Millar Burrows, Yale University. Subscription Price:

The Cave on the East Slope of the Acropolis

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An Official Rescript from Corinth

The rugged slopes of the Athenian Acropolis, with their overhanging cliffs, narrow underground passages, and numerous small caverns made a special appeal to the religious imagination of the early inhabitants of Athens. On the south slope, which offers the best opportunity for buildings of large size, many of the early sanctuaries, enlarged and embellished in classical times, have been excavated and identified. The west slope, which still remains unexcavated for the greater part, also contained several cult places, some of which are known from inscriptions and ancient writers, although their actual location is still in most cases a-matter of dispute. On the north side the steep and rugged cliffs, the Max-gat H&oaL cast their dark shadows over the lower slope, rendering the place cold and inhospitable in winter, but cool and inviting in summer. The numerous small grottoes and concealed passages below these cliffs became the favorite haunts of the gods of nature on whom the primitive settlers relied for the protection and prosperity of their families, for the fertility of the soil, and the increase of their flocks. Many of these shrines which ha-ve come to light can be assigned to their respective occupants. Only the east side has hitherto remained uninvestigated. On the lower slope, the Street of Tripods, extending from the Prytaneion on the north to the Precinct of Dionysos on the south, can be followed for a considerable distance, because the foundations for choregic monuments which lined the streets on either side show the direction of the road. But the distance from this street to the Acropolis wall is about 150 m., and it is not likely that all this territory was left unoccupied in antiquity. The most prominent landmark on this side of the Acropolis is a large cave which can be seen from afar. An immense mound of earth, dumped from the excavations on the citadel, has partly filled the entrance and rendered the approach difficult (Fig. 1). The cave itself, which is by far the largest in the city, measures approximately 22 m. from east to west, and 14m. across the opening. It seems highly improbable that a cave of such dimensions below the very walls of the Acropolis should have remained unoccupied in ancient times, while the smaller grottoes on the south and north slopes all came to be devoted to the use of religion. Some of the earlier topographers, in their attempt to locate the various sanctuaries of Athens, quite naturally assumed that some important cult was housed in the spacious cave on the east slope. Leake and others located the Eleusinion here,1 but this theory has long I Leake, The Topography of Athens, II Ed., pp. 296ff.; and see Judeich, Topographie von Athen, II Ed., p. 287, where other references are given. 17

Excavations at Isthmia: Fourth Campaign, 1957-1958

tant enough to detract our attention from the one key problem which will be with us for a long time to come. It is to a certain degree a pity that scholars follow at too close a range the fluctuating fashions of popular thinking. The problem of German guilt is of interest to the student of politics not only inasmuch as it deals with a specific aspect of German history; it has also broader implications for the understanding of the complex phenomenon of collective guilt in general. One of the main shortcomings of the debate on German guilt was the way in which the question was put in the first place, being usually expressed in the form: &dquo;Are the Germans guilty?&dquo; The answer, being either an absolute &dquo;yes&dquo; or &dquo;no,&dquo; was bound to be unsatisfactory. It is the merit of Professor Jaspers’ book to have deviated from this oversimplified approach and to have divided instead the general concept of guilt into four categories: criminal guilt; political guilt; moral guilt; and metaphysical guilt. This fourfold breakdown of the guilt concept results in an analysis of the conduct and attitude of the German people in terms of different groups according to the degree to which they participated, actively

New tombs at Dendra near Midea

municipal affairs of the Roman city. It is part of a stele of hard gray limestone, preserving the entire width and thickness but broken above and below. The left edge is smoothly finished with a fine-toothed chisel, whereas the right edge, which shows the marks of a pointed tool, though carefully finished, is less smooth. The back 1 A general study of these inscriptions, now under way, will be published as a supplement to Corinth, Vol. VIII.