Excavations Near the Civic Center of Argos, Greece

Two cities of Greece represent outstanding examples of the same problem for, while very many modern towns are built directly upon the remains of their prehistoric, classical and mediaeval predecessors, in Thebes and Argos the rate of constructing new buildings (largely for commercial or rental purposes) has proceeded at a horrifying rate over the last four decades. In advance of each new building the ground plots must be investigated by the local administration ("ephorate") of antiquities to determine the nature of any archaeological remains which will be affected by the construction, and in many cases the result is a full-scale excavation. While these rescue excavations do indeed save the remains from complete destruction, they seldom preserve them from oblivion; the number of such excavations and the limited size of the personnel qualified to carry them out result quite simply in the recording of structural remains and the placing of mobile finds in the local museum's storerooms with no further possibility of proper examination and publication, beyond what may be included in a brief notice of a particular year's work in the Khroniká of the Arkhaiologikón Dheltíon, when that does appear; the journal is running several years behind schedule and certain ephorates (including that for the Argos area) have not contributed such accounts for many issues before the hiatus.