The Institute’s Annual Open Meeting and an Archaeological Theft in Herakleio

The much awaited Annual Open Meeting of the Institute is upon us! The Meeting will take place on this coming Tuesday, the 21st, at 7:00 PM at the Italian School of Archaeology in Makriyianni. I will review the varied activities of the Institute since the last meeting and will present highlights of the results of the Institute’s synergasies at Eleon in eastern Boiotia and at Kastro Kallithea in Thessalia in 2012. The discoveries from this fieldwork span from the Late Bronze Age through the Hellenistic period.

This year the Invited Lecture will be given by two individuals, not one! Prof Jacques Y. Perreault (Université de Montréal) will share with us what the the Greek/Canadian excavations in the lower city at ancient Argilos in Macedonia reveals about the daily life in this colonial city of Andros and its economic interactions with the indigenous population of the region as well as with other Greek centers. His research colleague and the Director of the excavation, Dr. Zisis Bonias (Director Emeritus, Ministry of Culture) will focus on the Akropolis where after the destruction of the city by Phillip II in 357 BC a well-preserved, substantial, two-storey building, the “Archonitiko tou Argilou”, was built on the ruins at the highest point in the early Hellenistic period. The ground floor was equipped for olive oil production and storage, while the upper floor was the well-appointed living quarters.

The title of the joint lecture in French and in Greek is, “Argilos, colonie d’Andros (VIIème-IIIème siècles av. n.è): Grecs, Thraces et Macédoniens sur le littoral nord-égéen”. We look forward to seeing you at the Open Meeting!

Spyridon Marinatos

A Theft from the Archaeological Museum in Herakleio in 1938
The last lecture of the 2012/13 Lecture series of the Syllogos Filon tou Istorikou Archeiou tis Archaiologikis Iperesias will take place on Monday May 20th at 6:30 PM at the Istoriko Archeio Building at Odos Psaromylingou 22 on the edge of Kerameikos and Psyrri. Prof. Nanno Marinatos (University of Illinois – Chicago) will give the lecture entitled, «Κλοπή Μουσείου Ηρακλείου, 1938». Using documents from the personal archive of her father, Spyridon Marinatos, she will reconstruct like a crime thriller the organized theft from the Archaeological Museum in Herakleio in 1938 and then how he, Nikolaos Platon and the police eventually solved it. The well-known collector of antiquities Dr. Stylianos Gamalakis and the conservator Zacharis Kanakis play positive roles in this investigation as well. Only one object was not recovered.

Nikolaos Platon

The Syllogos Filon is planning the 2013/14 Lecture Series now. If you have suggestions for lecturers who combine archaeological investigations with archival research please let me know as soon as possible.

Cordially,
David Rupp
Director