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News from the sea and land of the city of Epidauros

Αρχαιολογικά χρονικά

• Κριτζάς, Χαράλαμπος Β.

Although the famous Hieron of Asclépios has attracted the attention of many scholars, the harbour - city of Epidauros has remained almost unstudied. No excavation has taken place in the city itself and our knowledge about its topography and monuments is based mostly on litterary sources.Nevertheless it had been known for many years that underwater ruins existed in the small bay of Epidauros.The planning of large harbour installations —an eminent danger for underwater antiquities— forced the Greek Archaeological Service to undertake a mapping (fig. 1 ) expedition in this area in September ’71 with the purpose to prevent the modern installations from destroying the underwater ruins.This work has been made possible with the valuable help of Mr Julian Whittlesey, who has kindly offered his air - photographic equipment—consisting of a Hasselblad EL 500 Camera with Zeiss Distagon of 50 mm attached to an aethered baloon—and his services for that purpose.The results were quite interesting : remains of the ancient harbour installations ( f i g. 2 ) as well as many ruins of various buildings (figs. 3-9) were revealed under the water.A complete building, perhaps a Roman villa, can clearly be seen in figs. 5 and 6.A happy result of that expedition was also the discovery of an inscribed boundary stone ( όρος ) of the ancient Agora (fig. 10 ).

• History and Archaeology

• Αρχαιολογία

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