A Gold Olive Wreath under the Microscope of Archaeologists

The gold wreath, just after its exctraction from the silver amphora.

Source: To Vima, 24.02.2012

Finds from the Agora of Aigai will be presented in a congress on the digs.

Part of a silver Panathinaïc amphora that bears etchings of an image. (Click for larger)

The gold Olive-Wreath that had been discovered a few years ago in a silver panathinaïc amphora during the excavations of the Aristoteleian University of Thessalonike in the Agora of Aigai will be the centre-piece of the speech of the excavation team, that will be presented on the 2^nd March 2012 (at 7:30 P.M.) in the Hall of Ceremonies of the old building of the Philosophical School of the A.U.T. The speech will be part of the Archaeological Congress on the excavations of 2011 in Macedonian and Thrace that will take place in Thessalonike between the 1^st and the 3^rd March and will include more than 68 announcements and 147 participants.

“The work of restoration of the valuable finds of 2008 and 2009 progressed with slow rythms, but with impressive results and the gold wreath has started to recover something of its original form”, is mentioned in the presentaton signed by Chrysoula Paliadeli, Athanasia Kyriakou, Alexandros Tourtas, Nikolaos Chatzidakis, and Paraskevi Papageorgiou who is the one that carried out the restoration of the wreath.

The siler vessel itself, unique of its kind, also has great problems of oxidation on its surface, on exactly the part where the etchings of a once impressive image can be discerned and whose subject for the time being and until the restoration is completed, remains undefined.

On a different subject, that of the protection and showing in the best light of monument, the excavation team of the University in Aigai will propose in the coming days for the approval of the Central Archaeological Council a study for the light intervention on selected sectors of the research of the archaeological site, so that they be restored and rendered visitable. The study was compiled by N. Hatzidakis.

It must be noted that this year’s archaeological meeting on the excavations in Macedonia and Thrace is organised for the 25 time and in it are presented a plethora of new archaeological material, important announcements are made public and observations and synthetic interpretations concerning the antiquities of the region are expressed. The works of the congress will be saluted by the Dean of the A.U.T., professor Giannis Mylopoulos on Thursday 1 March at 9:30.