During the German Occupation of Greece: 37 Towns Pillaged and 17 Illegal Excavations

How Greek archaeological treasures found themselves in German museums, while the question of their return remains open, as D. Reppas stated in the National Assembly.

By Aggeliki Kotti, To Ethnos, 04.04.2012 (Translated from the Greek Original)

Greece paid is own price from the German Occupation as far as its antiquities are concerned. And that price would have been greatly heavier if the archaeologists, dedicated to their science, had not had the forsight to hide our antiquities before the German inasion. And also if they had not protected them, even risking their own lives.

Members of the Archaeological Service hid cultural treasures, in order to save them, in caves, ancient tombs, hidden underground spaces of the museums, even under the stands of statues.

Dimitris Reppas mentioned in the Assembly that Greece will not abandon its claims against the German authorities concerning all that passed during the Occupation. These claims include the antiquities. In 37 towns and regions of the countries antiquities were stolen by the German conquerors. During the Occupation German archaeologists carried out illegal excavations in 17 areas of Greece. The various finds were sent to Germany. During the departure of the Germans from Athens they caused great harm to antiquities. By shooting and using their bayonets they destroyed statues and vases on the Acropolis and in the Kerameikos [Ancient Cemetery]. All of this is described in a report issued in 1946 by the [Greek] ministry of Education.

Just months before the fall of the front and the German invasion of Greece, foresighted workers of the Archaeological Service decided to hide the cultural treasures of the country. In caves (Acropolis), in ancient tombs (Delphoi), in hidden underground parts of the museums (National Archaeological Museum, Athens), even under the stands of statues (the Hermes of Praxiteles in the Archaeological Museum of Olympia) or in the vaults of banks (gold objects and ancient coins), these wise and humble people of the Archaeological Service secured as many as they could. In good order and with every solemnity. The Academic Vasileios Petrakos describes all of this in his book “The Antiquities of Greece during the War 1940-1944”.

He also describes how even from the first months of the Occupation, the Nazis created a special military “service for the protection of art”, supposedly to protect the antiquities. At its head was the archaeologist Hans Ulrich von Seneberg, who held the military rank of  Lieutenant Colonel. The “protection” lasted very little and was soon succeeded by the pillaging with illegal excavations and stealing.

Illegal excavations were carried out in many areas of Crete (even in Knossos itself), on Aigina, Chalkida, in a cave of the Kopais lake, in Laconia, in Hagia Theodora of Arta, in Nea Anchialos of Magnesia, in Larissa, in Volos, in Thessalonike, in Vergina.

In the report of the Ministry of Education characteristic examples of thefts are mentioned:

An ancient head of a woman of the 4^th century B.C. was given as a gift to the Marshal List. From the Museum of the Kerameikos a black-figure plate was stolen. From the museum of Chaironeia a gold leaf-shaped ear-ring and five clay vases. The German military commander of Larissa Coller asked for and received from the prefect a statue of Athena of the 3^rd century B.C.

In Thessalonike, armed German soldiers removed a marble statue of the Herakleiotissa (which was returned in 1947), a geometric vase, a statue of a woman and a late antiquity portrait.

From the Gortyna Museum a statue of a nymphe or Aphrodite of the roman period was stolen, as well as a statue of a sitting woman and a funerary marker of the Hellenistic period. The archaeological collection of Potidea, stored in a school, was pillaged in its entirety by the Germans.

The Occupiers tried using pressure to discover the hidden antiquities, but met with the stubborn resistance of Greek archaeologists. In a characteristic manner Keramopoulos answers to the argument that the antiquities are in danger because of the humidity, that the Greek government has other priorities, as for example to save the people from starvation. And that the interest of the People in antiquities is limited, “as long as the People is starving”.

Greece: 2. Macedonia: g. Emathia: Sites and Monuments

An asterisk (*) marks original posts. A (T) marks translations.

Vergina

• (T) The "Battle" for Vergina
• (T) Vergina/ Aigai: A Walk in the Traces of Alexander

(T) Vergina/ Aigai: A Walk in the Traces of Alexander

A Virtual Museum and archaeological park at Aigai.

by Giota Sykka

It is time to leave behind outdated ideas that imagine that a museum is a building with tens of showcases and thousands of objects, presented to visitors, limiting them a passive tour. The example of something different comes from Aigai with an ensemble of interventions in the legendary necropolis, that offer the opportunity for a charming promenade between separated poles and with it the delight of discovery.

An open museum that unifies, protects and shows up all the monuments of this enormous archaeological site, of which but a small part has been excavated and only the royal tombs of the Philip II group are open to visit.

However the 200,000 visitors that arrive each year - despite the fact that neither profound interventions have been carried out nor has the site been arranged to take advantage of it - show that they "thirst" to learn any information concerning the ancient Macedonian metropolis and its protagonists.

These problems shall be taken care of by the Multicentered Museum of Aigai in which the public, through a grand open promenade shall walk amongst the monuments and the natural environment, will halt under roofing and will follow courses, will travel in the environment and the history and will be able to have a direct appreciation of the site where Philip II and his son Alexander lived, walked and were active.

The enthusiastic and active archaeologist Aggeliki Kottaridi, responsible for the study of all these interventions, a veritable master plan which defines the principles of all that will be carried out in the archaeological site, has other plans as well - as long as money can be found!

For example the Virtual Museum of Alexander the Great which will take us to the country where the Great general was born and raised, informing us of the roots of his dynasty and his great adventure, that continues to fascinate.

Greece, instead of participating in others programmes, by lending antiquities to exhibitions and allowing filming in its sites and museums, can advance in a responsible and defining way toward the veritable administration of its past and heritage: thus goes the argument of the archaeologist.

The Virtual Museum shall function on two levels: on the Internet through a portal, and in its natural environment, at the Museum of Aigai, through a hall of realistic imagery projections; As dr Kottaridi underlines "it was in Aigai that Philip II was murdered and Alexander the Great was proclaimed King, and it was from here that in the spring of 334 B.C. commenced - according to Arrian- with festivities and sacrifices to the Gods, the great expedition that changed the history of the world".

The work shall be a coordinated effort to gather all known sources, interpretations and approaches, aiming at the production and composition of cultural content concerning the life and work of Alexander the Great in the World's Culture. To avoid historical distortion and inexactitudes, but also to promote the idea of free and equal coexistence of different cultures: "In parallel it shall be a new beginning for intercultural contacts and exchanges with states of North Africa and Asia".

The plan was approved with congratulations by the Central Archaeological Council, which was also informed of the present image and problems of the archaeological site of Aigai.

Apart from the Royal group A and the Palace on which conservation work is being carried out, all the rest of the monuments and remains are crudely protected by roofing and metal plating. The interventions are minimal or non-existent. Of 450 tumuli few have been excavated, while the lack of fencing results in the accumulation of rubbish and waste. The access to the Palace and the burial group of the queens from the West is inadequate, as it does not correspond to the structure of the Ancient City, while the hellenistic grave group Heuzey-Mpellas and the Palaio-christian and Late Byzantine monuments are not connected to the rest of the site.

The stored treasures of the Royal Tombs, more than 30,000, remain unknown to the public, which cannot even buy an official Museum guide, as it has not yet been published!

This real lack of interventions on the site is covered by the plan, which adds pedestrian bridges, fencing, the planting of trees and plans, excavation of the tumuli, while allowing the public to watch on... So that a walk in the Aigai area shall really be charming.

Source: Kathimerini, 01.04.2010
Translation: ArchaeologyMatters

See also:

• Eleutherotypia, 01.04.2010
• Ethnos, 01.04.2010
  
• TA NEA, 01.04.2010
• Rizospastis, 01.04.2010

(T) “Battle” for Vergina

Disaccords and different approaches of archaeologists concerning the Palace of Aigai and the dating of the walls.

It may be almost two and half thousand years, but even on the ruins of the walls, of the Palace and the Theatre of ancient Aigai (Vergina) disaccord and battles are still raging, no longer with armies or aiming at power, but with scientific papers and approaches of archaeologists concerning the dating, the value and the interpretation of the finds at Vergina.

Photo: Ethnos

The 23^rd meeting on the Archaeological Work in Macedonia and Thrace, which ended last Saturday in Thessaloniki, was the cause to openly reveal the disaccord.

The first disagreements was expressed concerning the paper delivered by Angeliki Kottaridi, head of the Museum of Vergina, concerning the Palace of Aigai.

Presenting new data concerning its destruction she supported that Philip, “to demonstrate the idea of his enlightened rule, needed a palace that would combine the functions of the political agora and the sacred Acropolis of a democratic state and thus the idea of the Palace of Aigai was born, an archetype for those of the Hellenistic world; in todays terms a building combining the functions of the Assembly, the Supreme Court, the Pentagon and the Presidential Palace…”

Photo: Ethnos

This conclusion, however, was the reason that strong objections were voiced and questions were raised by professors Demetris Pantermalis and Michalis Tiverios, but also by mrs Kottaridis’ own colleague in the same Archaeological Ephorate (17^th), Pavlos Chrysostomou.

The question was discussed in a more lively manner in the breaks of the meeting, and those opposing the view supported that “it is not possible that the Presidential Palace of the time was in Aigai when the capital had already been moved to Pella, where the Palace covered 60.000 sq. m.”

The next clash was over…the walls of Vergina. The professor Panagiotis Faklaris presented for the first time the results of his research concerning the walls, saying that they “were built during a single phase, and that was during the reign of Kassander”.

This conclusion was the reason for an “attack” against mr Faklaris by mrs Kottaridi, who declared that she, during research on a different part of the wall, located remains from phases that are much more ancient, dating even from the reign of Perdikkas.

Mr Faklaris “counterattacked”, saying that mrs Kottaridi “invaded and while there dug” in his sector, while he only got to see “the final sweepings”. My research had all the necessary permits and was done in all legality, answered mrs Kottaridi.

Mr Faklaris, however, in his paper did not name the town that was protected by the impressive walls and towers that he discovered. When questioned by Ethnos if it was Aigai, he answered characteristically “I know not”, insisting on his opinion, that he has supported for many years, that Vergina was not the site of the ancient capital of the Macedonians but some other city.

Ethnos asked mr Tiverios, who declared that in his opinion “the wall that mr Faklaris showed us is of the time of Kassander, but this does not exclude the existence at another point of a more ancient wall, but nothing of all this does not differentiate the estimation that the city is indeed Aigai”.

Finally the professor Giorgos Velenis put forward that “the idea that the theatre in Vergina was constructed with clay row of seats must definitely be abandoned and it is logic to assume that it had rows of seats of solid wooden blocks, which reached the veranda of the Palace of Aigai”, which also was used as a gynaikonitis (women’s quarters) for the presentations.

Professor Stella Drougou, who has published the theatre of Vergina with different conclusions, restrained herself to the comment: “I do not know if women watched the theatre. In any case I was not there”.

Source: Ethnos, 15.03.2010

Vergina: New Royal Tombs?

Traces of Royal dead
A silver Urn, similar to that of the Prince of the Great Mound of Vergina, and an extremely rare and maybe even unique silver panathenian amphora was brought to light by the archaeological excavations in the agora of Aigai.

The silver panathenian amphora.

It should be noted that in the same area the team of archaeologists, lead by the professor of Archaeology of the Aristoteleian University of Thessolonike, Chrysouls Paliadeli, had found during the summer of 2008 a valuable grave ensemble.

The bronze container that enclosed the golden ostuary

According to mrs Paliadeli, these finds belong to important graves within the walls of the old capital of the ancient Macedonians, dated to the first years of the rule of Kassander.

This is combined with the exceptional quality of the objects that make up the two burial ensembles - which are close to each other. The objects are closely comparable to the grave goods found in the rest of the royal tombs of the Great Mound, confirming that these too are royal graves.

When the first burial was discovered, during the summer of 2008, it had been identified by mrs Paliadeli as that of Herakles, the son of Alexander the Great and Barsina, who had been murdered by order of Kassander.

The Professor of the Aristoteleian University declares that she is convinced that the two rich burial ensembles from the Agora of Aigai are parts of the same burial proceedure, as they were located at the same depth, at a small distance from each other.

Source: Ethnos, 12.03.2010