ABSTRACTS - The American School of Classical Studies at Athens

anged between the 15 th and the 12 th c. B.C.
Among the intact graves of the cemetery, an exceptional place was reserved for the rectangular pit grave,
whose excavation offered many surprises and new information for the research on burial customs of the
Mycenaean period.
One of the most fortunate events of this excavation was the discovery of a small pit at a corner of one of
the pillaged chamber tombs, which revealed the ‘Treasure of the Excavation’.
The Treasure of Aidonia and other valuable finds from the graves of the cemetery of Aidonia were
determinative for the struggle of the Hellenic Ministry of Culture to repatriate the Treasure of Aidonia.
Hector Williams, Professor of Classics and Classical Archaeology, University of British Columbia,
Vancouver, Canada
Excavations at Ancient Stymphalos
From 1982-1984 the Canadian Archaeological Institute carried out a topographical and geophysical survey
of the site of ancient Stymphalos in collaboration with the Archaeological Society of Athens. Our work
revealed a grid planned city laid out within a circuit of fortification walls and gates on the north shore of
Lake Stymphalos. The electrical resisitivity survey, the largest ever done in Greece til then, was particularly
effective in locating buried walls and streets. In 1994 the Institute began its own excavations at the site
and uncovered fifteen different areas of the city over the next ten summers. Of particular interest was a
number of late classical/Hellenistic/early Roman houses and streets just east of the acropolis, a theatre
with scene building, a palaestra, a sanctuary to Athena with small temple and altar, a fountain house and
nearby heroon, the city walls and gates, and a number of early Byzantine cemeteries; we also found on the
surface a dozen inscribed funerary stelai of the Hellenistic period. Finds ranged from a Middle Palaeolithic
scraper to Early Helladic lithics to a scattering of late Mycenaean pottery. Most material, however, came
from the late classical to early Roman periods and includes one of the largest collections of jewelry ever
found in Greece, dedications at the sanctuary of Athena. Of importance too is the large collection of ca.
200 bronze and iron projectile points, some probably from sieges in the late 4 th and mid 2 nd centuries BC,
and over 500 coins. Survey in the area around the city also revealed traces of a number of substantial
buildings including a Doric temple of the classical period with a marble roof.