The Menelaion project Excavation 2005
Excavation: Research excavation
Mr R. W. V. Catling reports that thanks to the cooperation of the Ministry of Culture and the 5th Ephoreia of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities, a series of small supplementary trials were carried out at the Menelaion during July and August. Their purpose was to obtain archaeological evidence for dating two of the main phases of construction of the Archaic-Classical sanctuary of Menelaos and Helen. Three trials were excavated. Two of these were in the fill of the ramp on the W side to date the first monumental terrace system that surrounds the shrine on all four sides. In both the massive stone foundations supporting the terrace were revealed. An unexpected discovery in one of these trials was a Mycenaean wall cut by the Archaic foundations and running beneath the inner retaining wall of the ramp. The third trial on the S side was in the fill behind the later monumental terrace added on the S and W sides of the sanctuary. The chronology of the architectural development of the sanctuary requires quite radical revision in the light of the results obtained by these trials. It is evident that both phases are substantially earlier than envisaged in the original excavations of 1909.
Active in 2005.
Catling, Dr H. W. O.B.E, C.B.E.