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The postwar village · Ancient Lerna

Machteld Mellink photographs Lerna in colour

1958 Proven

In 1958, the last digging season, the archaeologist Machteld J. Mellink took colour slides of the Early Bronze Age walls and the fortification of Lerna III, already under small tiled roofs. The slides are kept at Bryn Mawr College in the United States.

Where
Archaeological site of Lerna
Who
Machteld J. Mellink
Threads
Ancient Lerna
Certainty
Proven confirmed by primary sources

Pictures

  • Lerna, 1958: the fortification wall of Lerna III (c. 2500–2200 BC), with protective tile roofs over the excavated walls.

    Lerna, 1958: the fortification wall of Lerna III (c. 2500–2200 BC), with protective tile roofs over the excavated walls. Machteld J. Mellink, 1958. Bryn Mawr College Special Collections (CC BY-NC 3.0)

  • Lerna excavation, 1958: excavated walls of the Early Bronze Age settlement (c. 2500–2200 BC).

    Lerna excavation, 1958: excavated walls of the Early Bronze Age settlement (c. 2500–2200 BC). Machteld J. Mellink, 1958. Bryn Mawr College Special Collections (CC BY-NC 3.0)

Sources

  • Bryn Mawr College Special Collections, Machteld J. Mellink Collection of Archaeological Site Photography, bmc78655, bmc78656, bmc78659, bmc78680 (CC BY-NC 3.0) Open

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…

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  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…

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