200 THE EXCA VA TIONS IN OL YMPIA. 



THE EXCAVATIONS IN OLYMPIA. 



There has been no flagging on the part of the G-ermans in their scientific 

 investigations in the East, as witness her archteological researches in Asia 

 Minor and Greece since 1871. The excavations in Olympia have opened a 

 new era in the knowledge of the wonders of ancient Greece. Great and 

 valuable riches have been dug up, and lately there has been a motion 

 brought into the Imperial Parliament at Berlin for a new appropriation to 

 continue these researches. To convince members of the importance of the 

 work, the Government appointed Prof. Adler, who had been staying a long- 

 time in Olympia, to report to the Parliament what had been found at that 

 place. The Professor says: 



"The German Government had first to consider whether the undertaking 

 would be of benefit to science, what would be the best way of carrying on 

 the work, and the probable cost. After these and other questions of a sec- 

 ondary nature had been solved, the real business of excavation began Oc- 

 tober 4, 1875. The plain of Olympia is bounded on the west by the moun- 

 tains of Druva ; on the north is the woody Olympus chain, with the cone- 

 like Kronos Hill standing out prominently, like one of nature's watch 

 towers; on the south flows the many armed Eiver Alpheios, and hurrying 

 down from the north we have the brook Kladeos. The whole ground be- 

 tween Druva, Kronion and Alpheios, and far away into the Kladeos Yalley 

 is an alluvial soil of fine chalk and marl, with a slight admixture of clay 

 which the Alpheios has spread over the plain in its headlong progress from 

 the mountain lakes of Arcadia. The work at first did not progress so rap- 

 idly as it might have done, as the Greek Government were constructing a 

 road from the place of excavation to the nearest harbor, and it was not till 

 this was completed last year that our work could go on in peace. But in 

 spite of this hindrance, casts of the treasures found were last year sent to 

 twenty-seven art institutions, some in America and England. On the slope 

 of the Zeus Hill were all the more important buildings, such as ten store- 

 houses, several temples — among these the Temple of Zeus and two smaller 

 ones in the same style, which when brought fully to the light of day will 

 surely be found in good preservation, all with Doric columns; also ruins of 

 brick erections, one a guard-room in which five men could stand. These 

 latter are decidedly of the late Eoman style. 



"Alike in structure, and built of the same material as the brick ruins, 

 are the sewers a little to the southwest of the temple. To the west of this 

 is an ancient churchyard, a cemetery whose graves, formed of slabs of 

 stone, have been many of them washed away by the Alpheios, and the arms 

 of the warriors imbedded in the shallow shoals of the stream or in the 

 wicker baskets of the fishermen. Since the discovery of these things the 

 trafiic which the fishermen of these coasts kept up in Greek bronze wares 

 is accounted for, as also the presence of those articles in many art museums. 



