DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.2532#0009
PREFACE
The excavations on the site of the Argive Heraeum were carried on hy the American
School of Classical Studies at Athens, with the active support of the Archaeological
Institute of America, under my direction, during the four springs from 1892 to 1895.
In presenting this official record of the work there done, I venture to hope that this
publication will in some degree he worthy of the excavations themselves. It cannot
be denied that the site itself and the remains there discovered by us are of extreme and
exceptional importance. No period of ancient Hellenic life, historic or prehistoric, is
known to us at the present day, of which our excavations have not yielded instructive
illustration. All the new evidence concerning the prehistoric period of the ancient
classical world furnished by the Heraeum and other sites becomes the more important
and illuminating from the fact that our excavations show an undoubted and continuous
connection between the Mycenaean age, its immediate precursors and successors, and the
historical periods of ancient Hellas. No other site can furnish such evidence in the
same way and to the same degree. In this respect the Argive Heraeum holds a posi-
tion unique among all sites of the ancient world hitherto excavated.
Should this publication be at all worthy of the results of our excavations, I feel that
this will have been achieved in the face of exceptional difficulties, which made them-
selves felt in the work of excavation itself, as well as in every phase of the preparation
and elaboration of the finds and their publication.
The young men who acted as my assistants at the excavations, who one and all stood
by me so loyally in all difficulties and ultimately became so efficient in their work, came
to me, with hardly an exception, as novices who, in those days, had not even been able
to pursue a complete course in archaeology in any of the home universities (a want
which is now being rapidly supplied in many American universities). In most cases,
when they had thus become really efficient assistants they were called away by the offer
of some appointment at home or by some other inducement, the organization of the staff
was disturbed, and the same period of preparation and probation had to be gone through
anew with others. Among those who remained with me for more than one campaign,
and whose help was in consequence the more efficient, as the part they played in the
excavations was more important, are Professor J. C. Hoppin, Professor Richard Nor-
ton, and Dr. H. S. Washington.
I should like to say at once that the proportion of work done by the several assist-
ants at the excavations is not adequately shown by the part they take in the publica-
tion. This I regret much ; but it has been inevitable. I had hoped that all those who had
done service at the excavations might in some way be directly associated with the publi-
The excavations on the site of the Argive Heraeum were carried on hy the American
School of Classical Studies at Athens, with the active support of the Archaeological
Institute of America, under my direction, during the four springs from 1892 to 1895.
In presenting this official record of the work there done, I venture to hope that this
publication will in some degree he worthy of the excavations themselves. It cannot
be denied that the site itself and the remains there discovered by us are of extreme and
exceptional importance. No period of ancient Hellenic life, historic or prehistoric, is
known to us at the present day, of which our excavations have not yielded instructive
illustration. All the new evidence concerning the prehistoric period of the ancient
classical world furnished by the Heraeum and other sites becomes the more important
and illuminating from the fact that our excavations show an undoubted and continuous
connection between the Mycenaean age, its immediate precursors and successors, and the
historical periods of ancient Hellas. No other site can furnish such evidence in the
same way and to the same degree. In this respect the Argive Heraeum holds a posi-
tion unique among all sites of the ancient world hitherto excavated.
Should this publication be at all worthy of the results of our excavations, I feel that
this will have been achieved in the face of exceptional difficulties, which made them-
selves felt in the work of excavation itself, as well as in every phase of the preparation
and elaboration of the finds and their publication.
The young men who acted as my assistants at the excavations, who one and all stood
by me so loyally in all difficulties and ultimately became so efficient in their work, came
to me, with hardly an exception, as novices who, in those days, had not even been able
to pursue a complete course in archaeology in any of the home universities (a want
which is now being rapidly supplied in many American universities). In most cases,
when they had thus become really efficient assistants they were called away by the offer
of some appointment at home or by some other inducement, the organization of the staff
was disturbed, and the same period of preparation and probation had to be gone through
anew with others. Among those who remained with me for more than one campaign,
and whose help was in consequence the more efficient, as the part they played in the
excavations was more important, are Professor J. C. Hoppin, Professor Richard Nor-
ton, and Dr. H. S. Washington.
I should like to say at once that the proportion of work done by the several assist-
ants at the excavations is not adequately shown by the part they take in the publica-
tion. This I regret much ; but it has been inevitable. I had hoped that all those who had
done service at the excavations might in some way be directly associated with the publi-