Young George Bass digs at Lerna

1956 Proven

In 1956 the American student George F. Bass worked at Lerna, where he was photographed holding a large pot in a trench. He later became one of the founders of underwater archaeology.

Where

Archaeological site of Lerna

Who

George F. Bass

Threads

Ancient Lerna

Certainty

Proven confirmed by primary sources

Sources

• ASCSA Archives, George F. Bass Photographic Collection (GFB 057), sheets 10–11 "Lerna 1956"

Also in this period

1. 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

2. 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…

   ProvenAncient LernaWater and mills

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