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The postwar village · Ancient Lerna

A roof over the House of the Tiles

June 1957 – September 1957 Proven

Between June and September 1957 a large protective shelter was built over the House of the Tiles, so the mud-brick walls could stay visible. The roof still stands at the site today.

Read the full story: The man who gave Lerna a face

Where
Archaeological site of Lerna
Who
John Langdon Caskey
Threads
Ancient Lerna
Certainty
Proven confirmed by primary sources

Pictures

  • Lerna: a Neolithic house in the foreground and, at left behind, the shelter for the House of the Tiles under construction with wooden scaffolding.

    Lerna: a Neolithic house in the foreground and, at left behind, the shelter for the House of the Tiles under construction with wooden scaffolding. Bulletin de Correspondance Hellénique, Chronique des fouilles (photos probably supplied by ASCSA/Caskey)

  • The new protective shelter over the House of the Tiles, with houses of Myloi and Mt Pontinos behind.

    The new protective shelter over the House of the Tiles, with houses of Myloi and Mt Pontinos behind. J. L. Caskey / ASCSA Lerna excavation

Sources

  • Bulletin de Correspondance Hellénique 82 (1958), Chronique des fouilles, p. 711, figs. 31–32
  • J. L. Caskey, Hesperia 27 (1958), pl. 40a
  • ASCSA Archives, Administrative Records, Box 204/18, folders 2–3: "Lerna – Roofing for the House of Tiles"

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