The postwar village · Ancient Lerna
John Caskey starts digging at Lerna
1952 Proven
In 1952 the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, led by its director John L. Caskey, opened the first trenches in the low mound by the springs, at the edge of Myloi. The work went on every year until 1958.
Read the full story: The man who gave Lerna a face
- Threads
- Ancient Lerna
- Certainty
- Proven confirmed by primary sources
Pictures
View east from Mt Pontinos over the roofs of Myloi towards the springs and marshes of Lerna, the gulf and Nafplio. J. L. Caskey excavation (photographer not named)
Sources
- J. L. Caskey, "Excavations at Lerna, 1952–1953", Hesperia 23 (1954), pp. 3–30
- J. L. Caskey, Archaeology 6.2 (1953), fig. 1
Also in this period
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1952–1953
Caskey photographs the marshes of Lerna
Caskey's first report shows the site from Mount Pontinos: marshes, the stream Amymone running from the spring to the gulf, orchards and the railway. It is one of the best pictures of the water landscape just before the…
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1953
A trench right beside the railway
In 1953 the diggers opened Area D right next to the Argos–Myloi railway, so trains passed only a few metres from the trench. The plates in Hesperia show both the ancient walls and the tracks.
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1954
The House of the Tiles comes to light
By the summer of 1954 a large part of the House of the Tiles was exposed: a big Early Bronze Age building (around 2500–2200 BC) whose roof had been covered with baked clay tiles. Caskey published the first photographs in…
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1954
Forty people on the dig, the staff living in Myloi
In 1954 the team photographed itself: some forty people, archaeologists and workmen, many of them probably from the village. That season the staff lodged in Myloi, among them the field architect Lloyd Cotsen and the…