Dörpfeld's excavations west of the Athens Acropolis

Department Archive
Collection BSA SPHS Image Collection
Reference No. BSA SPHS 01/1357.3434
Level Item
Description Glass negative, quarter plate size, a copy negative taken from a photographic print.
Dimensions 10.5 x 8 cm
Place Dopfeld's Excavations W. of Acropolis
Athens
Dates 1894-1897
Donor/Creator Atchley, Shirley Clifford
English Photographic Company
Scope and Content The original description in the SPHS register reads: "Athens: altar from Temple of Dionysos, between Pnyx & Acropolis".
Notes A commercial image from the English Photographic Company. Unknown date, but based on numerous images from the English Photographic Company donated via Shirley Atchley catalogued from SPHS 3401 to 3407; 3421 to 3439 appearing in the 1897 slide catalogue in the Journal of Hellenic Studies, it probably dates no later than 1897. On the negative is the catalogue number A.B. 79 and below, a cropped caption which reads: "...[d]iscovered temple of Dionysus in the German excavations between Pynx and ac[ropolis...] behind. The figure is Dr Dörpfeld the great German excavator. A. shows the [...] stone with the statue of the god which stood beside the altar (visible in 7th [...]"
Further information The area west of the Athens Acropolis, according to E.A. Gardner in his book, Ancient Athens (1902) pp. 111-117, is the area located in the valley between the Areopagus, the Pnyx and the Acropolis. Gardner's sketch plan (on page 109) shows the location of a winepress in its relation to other structures in the area. The area was excavated by Dörpfeld in 1894 wo identified it as the precinct of Dionysion in Limnai. This identification was based, in part by the presence of the winepress (Dörpfeld 1895 Att, Mitt pp. 161-206). However, in 1911, it was identified by A. Frickenhaus (Att. Mitt 1911, pp. 113-144) as the Heroon of Heracles Alexikakos (see J. Trovlos, Pictoral Dictionary of Athens pp. 274-5). This identification as the Heroon of Heracles Alexikakos has since been contested.
Reference 1904 JHS 24: Catalogue of Slides. xcvii.SPHS 3434. Link to article
1913 JHS 33: Catalogue of Slides. 36.SPHS 3434. Link to article