People · 1908–1981
John Langdon Caskey
Archaeologist, excavator of Lerna
American archaeologist and director of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens (1949–1959). He led the excavations at Lerna from 1952 to 1958, and in 1959 the community of Myloi made him an honorary citizen.
Also written: Τζων Λάνγκντον Κάσκυ, Jack Caskey, J. L. Caskey, Κάσκυ, Κάσκεϋ
Events
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6000 BC – 3200 BC
First farmers settle by the springs of Lerna
In the Neolithic, more than 6,000 years ago, farmers settled on a low rise beside the springs, just south of today's village. Each generation built on the ruins of the last, so the settlement mound of Lerna slowly grew.…
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2500 BC – 2200 BC
The House of the Tiles
At the centre of Early Bronze Age Lerna stood a large two-storey building roofed with baked clay tiles and stone slabs. Rows of seal impressions found inside show that goods were stored and checked here, so it probably…
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c. 1250 BC
Lerna is abandoned
Lerna stayed inhabited into the Middle Bronze Age. In the Mycenaean period the hill was used mainly as a cemetery and lived on only now and then, and around 1250 BC it was abandoned for good.
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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.
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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…
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1955
Graves just beyond the last houses of Myloi
The excavators also found a Geometric cemetery "a short distance beyond the southernmost houses of the village of Myloi", at the foot of Pontinos. Caskey's lists of the graves and their locations are kept in the Lerna…
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12 January 1957
Lerna in the Illustrated London News
On 12 January 1957 the Illustrated London News printed an article by Caskey about Lerna, with an aerial photograph of the mound and a view of the House of the Tiles. Readers across the world could now see the place by…
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June 1957 – September 1957
A roof over the House of the Tiles
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.
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30 June 1959
The village council makes John Caskey an honorary citizen
By unanimous decision no. 45 the council of Myloi declared the American archaeologist John Caskey an honorary citizen, for services to culture and to tourism in the community. It was signed by president Chr. Papagiannis…
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2 July 1959
Lerna is handed over to the Greek state
On 2 July 1959 Caskey handed over the excavated site and the finds, now displayed in the museum of Argos, to the Greek Archaeological Service. He gave the key of the shelter to Ioannis Papadimitriou, in the presence of…
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31 July 1959
New York's Greek paper reports the honour
On 31 July 1959 the Greek-American daily Εθνικός Κήρυξ in New York reported, in its provincial news, that Caskey had been made an honorary citizen of Myloi. The news from the village thus reached emigrants in America.