Papers of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens (5.1886-1890)

254

DISCOVERIES AT PLATAIA.

has been written by Mr. "W. I. Hunt, who, with Mr. Hale, studied
the question on the spot. Mr. Hunt's paper and the results of the
survey of the site, illustrated by a map drawn by Mr. Hale, will also
be embodied in this Report. Professor Theodor Mommsen of Berlin,
who has for years devoted himself to the study of the numerous frag-
ments of Diocletian's Edict, and is now producing a revised edition of
the whole material, was naturally the fittest person to publish the new
fragment which we discovered this year in our excavations. He has
consented to edit it for us, and this publication also w ill be included
in this Report. Finally, my colleague for the coming year in the
School at Athens, Professor Richardson, will, I hope, publish an in-
teresting votive inscription to some female deity discovered by us on
the same site.

It was my intention to begin work at Plataia early in February;
but, as the weather was particularly unfavorable during the whole
season, we had to defer our departure from day to day. I finally
yielded to the enthusiastic eagerness of Mr. "Washington, who left
Athens on February 14, and on the 19th began digging with 22 men
at the church where last year the Preamble of Diocletian's Edict was
found. He was soon joined by Mr. Hunt and Mr. Shelley, and sub-
sequently by the other students. During this time the party had tu
contend with great difficulties, the most trying of which was the
severe weather, with snow and cold winds, in houses that were not
even provided with glass windows; and I cannot sufficiently commend
the self-sacrificing perseverance of all concerned. Owing to stress of
weather, work had to be suspended for some days. In the first week
of March, I joined the party. When not engaged in the excava-
tions, the walls, over 2i miles in circumference, were carefully meas-
ured and surveyed. Mr. Hale also drew the ground-plans of six
Byzantine and Frankish churches at which we dug.

Our corps of workmen was increased to a number averaging 40
men, and with these we dug at a promising site at the southeast wall
of a Byzantine church and monastery, which I thought might mark
an important entrance to the ancient city. Here Messrs. Hunt and
Shelley came upon an interesting aqueduct or drain covered with
large stones, light yellow in color, at a depth of 1.20 metre below
the surface. Mr. Washington describes the stone as somewhat like
■poros, very soft when first found, but hardening on exposure. It is
apparently a limestone containing gypsum and a small quantity of