Olympia, an ongoing excavation project

In spite of a general shortage of financial means, excavations at the ancient site of Olympia in Greece’s Peloponnese have resumed. It always makes me happy when new buildings are brought to daylight or when new artifacts lift another corner of the veil shrouding antiquity.

[Picture from Archaeology News Network]

Work at Olympia’s Gymnasium has revealed another section of 30 meters of its eastern Stoa. Earlier excavations had already exposed a 70-meter-long section, but the remaining 80 meters are still hidden underground. The central court of the Gymnasium was surrounded by a wide stoa, whose roof was supported on the inner side by a double row of Doric columns. Behind the stoa on the west side were the rooms dedicated to the athletes, while on the east side, the stoa was closed off by a solid outer wall.

An acute problem at present is caused by rainwater that used to be running over the road alongside the Gymnasium, but is now – not too well – collected in a basin and regularly inundates the site. To remedy this major problem, it has been agreed to divert the excessive water towards the nearby Kladeos River. The river seems to have been a problem even in antiquity, as its waters swept away most of the west wing of the Gymnasium.

It will be interesting to see when and how this problem will be tackled properly.