Caskey photographs the marshes of Lerna

1952–1953 Proven

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 pumps of 1960.

Read the full story: From spring to pump: how the water of Lerna made Myloi

Where

Lake and marsh of Lerna, Springs of Lerna, Archaeological site of Lerna

Who

John Langdon Caskey

Threads

Ancient Lerna, Water and mills

Certainty

Proven confirmed by primary sources

Pictures

• 

  The Lernaean marshes, the Amymone stream and the excavation site seen from Mt Pontinos, with houses of Myloi, the railway and orchards. J. L. Caskey / ASCSA Lerna excavation

Sources

• J. L. Caskey, Hesperia 23 (1954), pp. 3–4 and pl. 1a

Also in this period

1. 7 October 1950

   First stone of the ice factory «Η Λέρνη»

   Early in 1950 Anastasios Vasileiou bought the ruins of the old state warehouses on the beach of Myloi and levelled the ground. On 7 October 1950, after a blessing, he laid the first stone of the ice and cold-storage…

   ProvenIndustry and tradeWater and mills

2. 1952

   John Caskey starts digging at Lerna

   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.

   ProvenAncient Lerna

3. 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.

   ProvenAncient LernaRailway

4. 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…

   ProvenAncient Lerna