INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC ACADEMY 7th JOINT - IOA

Excavations
The first archaeological research and excavation started even
before the independence war was over on May 9 th , 1829. The French
Support Corps started the excavation and Abel BLOUET completed
them. 45
After the liberation of Greece from the Turkish rule 1829, it
has been a French scientific Commission, the Morea-
Expedition, which did thorough research in Olympia. [...]
The precious parts of the Metope-frieze of the Zeus temple
were discovered and shipped to France. [...] The excavations
of the French were stopped for a decree of the newly formed
Greek government.” 46
The sacred place was secured against the robbery of art. The objets
d’art which were discovered beforehand went to France and are now
displayed in the Louvre. The remaining artefacts are now secure –
protected by law.
The next excavations follow later in the 19 th century. Ernst
CURTIUS visited the Peloponnesus in 1840, but did not consider any
excavations. He returned to Berlin, became educator of crown-prince
FRIEDRICH WILHELM – the later emperor FRIEDRICH III – and
published in 1852 his two volume work Peloponnesus, eine
historisch-geographische Beschreibung der Halbinsel (Peloponnesus,
a historical and geographical description of the peninsula). The
description of the situation in Olympia suggests that CURTIUS was
inspired by the idea of excavating Olympia while writing the chapter
about Elis.
A select audience in a hall of the Singakademie in Berlin was the
first to listen to CURTIUS’ presentation of an idea to uncover Olympia.
As a result the crown-prince declared his support for an excavation in
Olympia. But this had to wait until the end of the German-French war
of 1870-1871.
In 1874, Germany entered into an agreement with Greece, which
ensured that any subsequent discoveries in Greece and allowed
Germany to start work in the sanctuary. 47 The work started in the
valley of Alpheios river on October 4 th , 1875 and lasted until 1881.
The results were published as large format portfolios between 1890
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