Great Moments in Greek Archaeology. By PANOS VALAVANIS, ed. Los Angeles: J. 
Paul Getty, 2007. Pp. 379. Cloth, $75.00. ISBN 978–0–89236–910–2.


Previously published CJ Online reviews are at 
http://classicaljournal.org/reviews.php


A CJ Online Exclusive: 2008.09.03

Valavanis, who has excavated widely, given papers at many Greek and 
international conferences and authored 15 books including archaeological 
guides and books for the general public as well as books for teachers and 
students, has assembled an international group of archaeologists to produce 
this stunning book. His goal was to publish a book devoted not to 
archaeological finds or important archaeological sites, but to the story of 
how these finds and sites were discovered. The many sensational photos 
enhance the moments of archaeological discovery, and the accompanying texts 
allow readers to share in the great discoveries of those who first saw the 
masterpieces retrieved from the earth or the sea.

Other books have surveyed the archeological discoveries of Greece. Among 
these are Raymond V. Schoder, Wings Over Hellas: Ancient Greece from the 
Air (New York, 1974); Manolis Andronicos, Manolis Chatzidakis and Vassos 
Karageorghis, The Greek Museums (Athens, 1975); and Georg Gerster, The Past 
From Above: Aerial Photographs of Archaeological Sites (Los Angeles, 2005), 
which is not limited to Greek archaeological sites. But none of these 
offers the scope and depth of Valvanis’ volume, which tells a fascinating 
archaeological story. I was reminded of Irving Stone’s The Greek 
Treasure: A Biographical Novel of Henry and Sophia Schliemann (New York, 
1975), which follows Schliemann’s search for the city of Troy and the 
royal tombs of Mycenae.

Before the book’s story begins, Vasilios Petrakos, General Secretary of 
the Archaeological Society of Athens, surveys the stages of Greek 
archaeology. From the Battle of Navarino in 1827 to the excavation at 
Akrotiri on Thera in 1967 and continuing to 2006, he divides the 
archaeology of Greece into clear chronological and political periods which 
include phases that belong to the activities of the foreign archaeological 
schools. The most prominent among these are the French School founded in 
1846, the German in 1874, the American in 1881 and the British in 1886. 
Petrakos also looks at the impressive finds in Macedonia, museum 
catalogues, inscriptions, museums and finally rescue excavations, 
publications and temporary archaeologists.

The next 15 sections of the book focus on the archaeological stories of 
Greek sites as told by archaeologists currently or formerly working in the 
field. Each section, reproducing fine original photographs, oil-paintings, 
watercolors, engravings, plans, reconstructions and portraits, surveys in 
detail the early and modern archaeological history of the site. In 
chronological order these are: the Athenian Acropolis in the 19th century; 
Kerameikos I, Discovery of the Ancient Cemetery (1863); Kerameikos II, 
Archaic Sculptures of the Sacred Gate (2002); Delos, Excavation of the 
Sacred Island of Apollo (1873); Olympia, Excavations and Discoveries at the 
Great Sanctuary (1875); Schliemann and Homer’s “Mycenae Rich in Gold” 
(1876); Delphi, Excavation of the Great Oracular Centre (1892); Knossos, 
Discovery of the Minoan Palace (1901); Sesklo and Dimini, Prehistoric 
Citadels (1903); Poliochni on Lemnos, Earliest City in Europe (1930); The 
Athenian Agora, Encounter with the First Democracy (1931); “Royal” 
Tombs at Salamis in Cyprus (1957); Akrotiri on Thera, Excavation of a 
Buried City (1967); Vergina, on the Tracks of the Macedonian Kings (1977); 
and Dispolio near Kastoria, Prehistoric Lake Settlement (1992).

Delphi, the Excavation of the Great Oracular Centre (pp. 134–57), for 
example, by Dominique Mulliez, Director of the French School at Athens 
since 2002, surveys the archaeological history of one of the greatest 
Panhellenic centers of antiquity. With beautiful engravings, 
reconstructions, drawings, plans and photographs, Mulliez chronicles the 
site prior to the great excavation in 1892 and gives proper place to the 
sensational finds of the Archaic statues of Kleobis and Biton, the statue 
of Antinoös, the Bronze Charioteer, the Sphinx of the Naxians and the 
marble omphalos. The museum and subsequent excavations are also covered. In 
the end, Muillez remarks, the story of the Great Excavation of Delphi is 
something of a disappointment. The excavation of the temple of Apollo, for 
instance, did not live up to expectations. Few characteristic architectural 
features—not one metope or frieze fragment, or even a little toe of a 
pedimental figure—was found. On the other hand, the Delphi excavations 
have produced some definitive finds in architecture, epigraphy and 
sculpture, chiefly archaic sculpture. Delphi itself, and what is yet to be 
learned from the site, still attracts scholars and visitors from around the 
world.

Poliochni on Lemnos (pp. 196–201), the Earliest City in Europe, by 
Alberto G. Benvenuti, General Secretary of the Italian Archaeological 
School at Athens since 2000, is among the most fascinating of these 15 
sections. Though the Poliochni excavation is not widely known, the 
discovery there in 1934 of the first settlement of urban character in 
Europe remains one of the great moments of Greek archaeology. Lemnos may 
have been settled by the non-Hellenic Tyrrhenians, whose name and language 
were connected with the Etruscans in Italy, before Lemnos was captured by 
Athens around 500 BC. As early as 1923, archaeologists believed that Lemnos 
might preserve traces of the passage of the Etruscans on their way from the 
East. In 1886, a 6th-century BC stele, with the relief head of a warrior 
and inscriptions resembling Etruscan lettering, was found at Kaminia near 
Poliochni on Lemnos. Poliochni itself was shown to be one of the earliest 
proto-urban settlements in Europe, dating from the Early Bronze Age in the 
north Aegean, its architectural and cultural development spanning the whole 
third millennium BC. The 1956 season at Poliochni began with an unexpected 
discovery by Luigi Brea: during the clearing of vegetation from the area of 
excavation, a jewelry hoard was found in one of the rooms of the megaron of 
the Yellow Period that had been discovered in 1953. This hoard closely 
resembled the so-called “Treasure of Priam” found by Schliemann in the 
second city at Troy. Poliochni’s geographical location on the sea route 
between the islands and the Asia Minor coast made it a safe haven for sea 
communications between North and South from the start of the third 
millennium. Thus, Poliochni may be placed at the interface between the 
civilized world of the East, where the urban revolution had already taken 
place, and Europe, where it had not yet appeared. The city’s economy, and 
therefore its importance, was based on its early involvement with metals 
and maritime commercial activity with the Hellespont and settlements around 
the Black Sea. Poliochni may thus be described as the earliest city in 
Europe.

In Great Moments in Marine Archaeology, three marine archeologists discuss 
the importance of ancient shipwrecks. Susan Katzev reconstructs in 
narrative and photos the Ancient Ship of Kyrenia, Beneath Cyprus Seas. 
Harry Tzalas tells of his work to build a full-scale replica of that 
Ancient Ship of Kyrenia in The Kyrenia II, an Attempt in Experimental 
Archaeology. In Uluburun, a Bronze-Age Shipwreck, George Bass narrates a 
tantalizing account of the loss and modern recovery of a late 14th-century 
BC cargo ship carrying precious artifacts.

In Masterpieces of Greek Sculpture See the Light of Day, four specialists 
recount the discovery of some of the world’s most treasured sculptures. 
Aliki Samara-Kauffmann, from the Antiquities Department of the Louvre, 
recounts in detail the story of the discovery in 1820 of the Aphrodite of 
Melos and its journey from Greece to its current home in Paris. 
Samara-Kauffmann also tells the story of the discovery of the Victory of 
Samothrace in 1863 and its voyage from Samothrace via Constantiople and 
Piraeus to the port of Toulon and finally to the Louvre in 1864. In the 
Piraeus Bronze Statues, Georgios Steinhauer reveals that the bronzes 
discovered in 1959 are now the pride of the Piraeus Museum and are among 
the very few works of large-scale sculpture in which the spirit of ancient 
Greek art is still preserved with its original clarity. The bronze statues 
represent Apollo, Artemis and Athena. In Memories of Phrasikleia, Evangelos 
Kakavoyiannis follows the discovery in 1972 at Merenda in Attica of two 
Archaic marble statues, one of which depicts the kore Phrasikleia and the 
other, a kouros, “her brother.” These beautiful statues grace the cover 
of this book. Helmut Kyrieleis, in the Large Kouros of Samos, tells of the 
unexpected discovery in 1980 at the Heraion on Samos of a colossal Archaic 
marble kouros (almost 5 meters tall). In the final installment, Bronze 
Statues from the Depths of the Sea, Harry Tzalas offers us exceptional 
stories surrounding the discovery and retrieval from the sea of 19 bronze 
statues, all considered masterpieces today. There is the Apollo of Piombino 
(ca. 480 BC), the first statue to have been retrieved from the sea in 1832; 
an original Poseidon (ca. 460 BC) from the Corinthian Gulf; the Youth of 
Antikythera (ca. 340–330 BC); the head of the Antikythera Philosopher 
(ca. 240 BC); the Marathon Boy (ca. 340–300 BC), likely an original from 
the workshop of Praxiteles; the majestic Zeus of Artemision (ca. 460 BC); 
the young Jockey on horseback (ca. 140 BC) from Cape Artemision; the 
Autostephanoumenos (ca. 340 BC), a victorious athlete, considered an 
original by Lysippos; the Philosopher of Porticello head (ca. 420–410 
BC), probably one of the earliest Greek portraits; the Youth of Agde (ca. 
2nd century BC) from Southern France, resembling Alexander after Lysippos; 
the famous Riace Warriors (ca. 460 BC), thought to be the work of Pheidias 
and, with the Zeus of Artemision, considered the supreme works of this 
period; the equestrian statue of Augustus (late 1st century BC); the 
athletic Youth (Hellenistic) from Kyme; the Apoxyomenos of Vele Orjule in 
Croatia, a Roman copy after Lysippos; head of a male wearing Macedonian hat 
(Hellenistic); life-size female statue (Hellenistic); and a young nude 
athlete (Early Roman Imperial Period) after Polykleitos.

A comprehensive bibliography of each subject appears at the end of the 
book. Full biographical notes on each contributor follow. Sources of 
illustrations, a glossary and an index complete the volume.

Great Moments in Greek Archaeology is intended for readers who want to 
learn about the important archaeological discoveries in Greece from the 
19th century to the present. With both scholarly and anecdotal accounts, 
this reasonably priced and beautifully illustrated volume will appeal to 
the professional archaeologist, the scholar, the advanced student or anyone 
fascinated by stories about some of the greatest archaeological discoveries 
in Greece over the past two centuries.

PAUL PROPERZIO
Boston Latin Academy


You may remove yourself from the CJ-Online list-serv by sending an email 
to: [log in to unmask] Leave the subject line blank, and in the first 
line of the message write: UNSUBSCRIBE