INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC ACADEMY 7th JOINT - IOA

Excavations – Ideas
In a letter to the later Cardinal QUIRINI 34 , Bernhard de
MONTFAUCON 35 writes about his idea to go to Olympia and try to
excavate, because
Here is the ancient Elis, where the Olympic Victories were
celebrated, where many monuments for winners were
erected: statues, reliefs, inscriptions. The earth must be
crammed full with them; and there is one important point
about it that there has been according to my
[MONTFAUCON’s] knowledge nobody searching yet”. 36
But QUIRINI does not take any action. There is only the idea. Fifty
years later another man has the same idea: Johann Joachim
WINCKELMANN planned to visit all Greek islands and especially
Olympia, but he was murdered on April 8 th , 1768 in Trieste. His
letters were preserved and it is possible to reconstruct his ideas. 37
Olympic Visitors
In 1766, Richard CHANDLER becomes the first recorded person 38
to stumble over temple facilities in Olympia. 39 He reports of a meeting
with a Turkish Aga, who gives him the hint “on ruins by Miraca, near
the Rophia a very large river”. 40 This gave CHANDLER hope because
this description fits very well with his idea of Olympia.
CHANDLER discovers “the walls of a cell of a very large temple,
standing many feet high and well-built” 41 – probably the expedition
group was standing in front of the temple of ZEUS, which was
damaged by people who needed the metallic ornaments and by nature.
CHANDLER’s visit will not last as the only one: in 1780 Louis Francois
Sébastian FAUVEL 42 and FOUCHEROT 43 arrive at Olympia and in 1805
William Martin Leake. 44 Later visitors arrive frequently – even the
“sportsman” Lord BYRON attends Olympia in 1810.
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