Panagiotis Kavvadias | |
|---|---|
Παναγιώτης Καββαδίας | |
 | |
| Born | 14 May [O.S. 2 May] 1850 Kothreas,Kephallonia, United States of the Ionian Islands |
| Died | 20 July 1928(1928-07-20) (aged 78) Athens, Greece |
| Alma mater | |
| Occupation | Archaeologist |
| Employer | Greek Archaeological Service |
| Known for | Excavations in Greece, particularly atEpidaurus and theAcropolis of Athens |
| Title | Ephor General (1885–1909) |
| Children | |
Panagiotis Kavvadias orCawadias[a] (Greek:Παναγιώτης Καββαδίας; 14 May [O.S. 2 May] 1850 – 20 July 1928)[b] was a Greekarchaeologist. He was responsible for the excavation of ancient sites in Greece, includingEpidaurus inArgolis and theAcropolis of Athens, as well as archaeological discoveries on his native island ofKephallonia. AsEphor General (the head of theGreek Archaeological Service) from 1885 until 1909, Kavvadias oversaw the expansion of the Archaeological Service and the introduction of Law 2646 of 1899, which increased the state's powers to address the illegal excavation andsmuggling of antiquities.
Kavvadias's work had a particular impact on the Acropolis of Athens, and has been credited with completing its "transformation [...] from castle to monument".[3] Between 1885 and 1890, he removed almost all of the Acropolis's remaining medieval and modern structures, uncovering many ancient monuments in the process. He also played a role in the extensive reconstruction of the site by the architect and engineerNikolaos Balanos. Though praised initially, the work caused considerable damage to several monuments and was almost completely deconstructed and rebuilt during the later 20th and early 21st centuries. Kavvadias oversaw the opening of theNational Archaeological Museum in Athens, organised its first collections, and wrote some of its first catalogues.
As an administrator, Kavvadias was regarded as energetic, centralising and autocratic. His career saw significant modernisation in the practice of archaeology in Greece, and he reformed and professionalised the Archaeological Service. His patronage of Athens's foreign archaeological schools was credited with promoting the development of Greek archaeology, but was also criticised by native Greek archaeologists. He created further discontent among theArchaeological Society of Athens by reducing its role in favour of the governmental Archaeological Service. After theGoudi coup of 1909, dissatisfaction in the Greek press and among his subordinates in the Archaeological Service led to his removal from office, from the Archaeological Society and from his professorship at theUniversity of Athens, though he was able to return to public and academic life from 1912, and remained active in Greek archaeology until his death in 1928.
Panagiotis Kavvadias was born on 14 May [O.S. 2 May] 1850 inKothreas [el], a village on the island ofKephallonia.[4][c] His family had been prominent during theVenetokratia, the period ofVenetian occupation which lasted from 1500 untilthe French conquest of 1797.[1] At the time of his birth, Kephallonia and the otherIonian Islands werea protectorate of the United Kingdom; they were transferred to Greece in 1864.[6]
Kavvadias studiedphilology at theNational University of Athens, and was awarded a scholarship by the Greek government for postgraduate study at theUniversity of Munich.[7] At Munich, he studied archaeology underHeinrich Brunn.[8] Brunn, credited as "perhaps the foremost German archaeologist of [his] era",[9] had revolutionised the study of Greek art history in the 1850s through his methodical, analytical study of literary texts alongside works of art.[10] His use of the anatomical details of ancient sculpture to draw conclusions about its chronology, place of origin and authorship has been called the most important influence in the nineteenth-century "narrowing and sharpening" of the discipline of Classicalart history, and therefore in moving the basis of the discipline away fromconnoisseurship towards empirical observation.[11] Kavvadias later credited Brunn as a great influence on his own archaeological practice.[8] Kavvadias also followed a course inepigraphy at theCollège de France in Paris underPaul Foucart,[12][13] a French epigrapher later credited as "thedoyen of our field" by the classical archaeologistSalomon Reinach,[14] and also studied in Berlin, London and Rome.[15]
After finishing his studies, Kavvadias returned to Greece, where he entered theArchaeological Service. In 1879, he was appointed as anephor, an official with the responsibility of supervising, managing and protecting archaeological heritage – the first such official to be retained by the Archaeological Service in addition to the Ephor General, its professional head.[16] In 1881, he published a short history of Greek archaeology.[12] One of his first postings was to the excavations of theFrench School at Athens on the island ofDelos,[17] which had been running since 1873:[18] he was there in 1882, working alongside Reinach, who later wrote that Kavvadias had seemed "full of enthusiasm and ambition".[19]
The first major excavations Kavvadias led personally were atEpidaurus inArgolis, which began in March 1881.[20] In their first year, the excavations uncoveredthe theatre,[17] and subsequently revealed several buildings and inscriptions within theSanctuary of Asclepius and the nearbySanctuary of Apollo Maleatas on Mount Kynortion.[21] Following the retirement ofPanagiotis Efstratiadis in 1884 and the death of his successor,Panagiotis Stamatakis, less than a year later, Kavvadias was elevated to the position of Ephor General in 1885.[1] He handed over responsibility for the site to his protégéValerios Stais,[22] but continued both to work at the site and publish the results of its excavation until his death in 1928.[23]
Kavvadias excavated frequently around Kephallonia, aiming to discover so-called 'Homeric' sites[d] and remains ofOdysseus's Ithaca. He made his first excavations on theacropolis of the island ofSame, near the island known in modern times asIthaca, in 1883.[25] Kavvadias uncovered a gate, but considered his finds insignificant as the only material uncovered dated from theArchaic to theRoman period (that is,c. 850 BCE – c. 500 CE), rather than the 'Homeric' Late Bronze Age (c. 1600 – c. 1180 BCE). In 1889, he discoveredMycenaean chamber tombs and fragments of Mycenaean vessels in the area ofLeivatho, near the village of Mazarakata, which provided the first proof of the presence ofMycenaean civilisation on the island.[26] He excavated again at Same and Leivatho in 1899, with funding fromAdriaan Goekoop, a wealthy Dutch amateur archaeologist, finding more structures on Same but none which predated theClassical period.[25] He carried out further work on the island in 1908, in 1909 – when he discovered two small Mycenaeantholos tombs atKokolata [el] – and in 1913.[26]
Kavvadias published the first reports of his excavations in theGovernment Gazette (Greek:Ἐφημερίς τῆς Κυβερνήσεως), an official publication normally used for laws and royal decrees.[27] The Archaeological Service had lacked an official publication since 1860, when it had ceased to produce theArchaeological Newsletter (Ἀρχαιολογικὴ Ἐφημερίς), taken on in 1862 by theArchaeological Society of Athens as its own journal. Instead, news of its excavations and activities was normally released in journals or newsletters.[28] In 1888, Kavvadias began to publish the monthlyArchaeological Bulletin (Ἀρχαιολογικὸν Δελτίον) on behalf of the Service.[27] He edited all of its volumes between 1885 and 1892 himself,[29] after which publication of the journal ceased until 1915.[27]
During his period as Ephor General between 1885 and 1909, Kavvadias's main project was the excavation and subsequent restoration of theAcropolis of Athens. Until 1890, in collaboration with the German archaeologist and architectGeorg Kawerau, he excavated or re-excavated almost the whole site, removing nearly all of its remaining post-Classical structures[30] and discovering dozens of works of ancient sculpture, particularly Archaickorai.[31] After 1890, the work on the Acropolis primarily consisted of restoration, particularly of theParthenon,Erechtheion andPropylaia, overseen byNikolaos Balanos, who directed the project largely independently.[32]
Kavvadias initiated the excavation of theKabeirion inBoeotia in 1887, later continued by theGerman Archaeological Institute at Athens. In 1889, he conducted excavations at the sanctuary ofLycosura, which he took to be the sanctuary ofDespoina described by the Ancient Greek geographerPausanias.[33] He discovered part of a cult group of statues – the work of theMessenian sculptorDamophon – showing Despoina seated on a double throne alongsideDemeter, accompanied byArtemis and theTitanAnytos.[34] In 1900, duringrescue excavations in the OuterKerameikos, he uncovered theNessos Amphora, a late seventh-century BCEamphora which he took to be a container for acremation burial from the nearbyDipylon cemetery.[35] In modern times, the vase has become thename-piece of theNessos Painter, and was described byJohn Beazley as the "chief example" of earlyblack-figure vase painting, as well as establishing the Nessos Painter as "the earliest Greek artist whose personality we can grasp."[36][e]
In 1902–1903, he excavated theHeraion of Samos alongside the futureprime minister,Themistoklis Sofoulis, then a lecturer at theUniversity of Athens.[38] He also oversaw the first reconstruction of theTemple of Apollo at Bassae, excavated byKonstantinos Kourouniotis [el], between 1902 and 1908.[39] According to his obituary in the Greek newspaperSkrip, he also served as director of the archaeological department of the Ministry of Education.[40]
On 28 March [O.S. 15 March] 1881, Kavvadias began excavations on behalf of the Archaeological Society of Athens at Epidaurus, with the aim of uncovering the theatre described by Pausanias.[20] These were the first excavations undertaken by the Society outside Athens, apart from minor and small-scale rescue excavations.[20] In 1881, the excavations uncovered the theatre,[17] as well as twostelae (inscribed stone slabs) in the Sanctuary of Asclepius.[12] Thestelae, dating to the late fourth or early third century BCE[41] and sometimes called 'miracle inscriptions',[42] recorded the names of at least twenty individuals and the means by which they were healed – usually miraculous dreams or visions.[43] The excavation and publication of thesestelae contributed significantly to Kavvadias's early archaeological reputation.[12]
In 1882, Kavvadias uncovered thetholos (circular temple) and the Temple of Asclepius, followed by theabaton[f] in 1883.[45] In 1884, he excavated the Temple of Artemis and theGreat Propylaia,[17] and reconstructed a row of columns in the westernstoa of theabaton.[46] The excavations continued until 1927:[20] Valerios Stais, whom Kavvadias appointed as an ephor of the Archaeological Service in 1885,[16] joined them as a supervisor in early 1886,[47] after Kavvadias's elevation to Ephor General, and became field director in 1887.[22]
In 1896, Kavvadias excavated the first parts of the nearby Sanctuary of Apollo Maleatas on Mount Kynortion.[21] That year, the French architectural historianCharles Chipiez described the excavation of Epidaurus as "of capital importance to the history of Greek architecture",[48] though he criticised the restrained and limited reconstructions drawn up by the GermanWilhelm Dörpfeld,[49] who worked with Kavvadias and illustrated his publication of the excavations,[50] in favour of the more lavish reconstructions created in 1895 by the French architectAlphonse Defrasse[49] – reconstructions which, by the later 20th century, were considered largely erroneous.[51] Kavvadias's report on his excavations of the Roman-periododeion at the site, which he published in 1900, has been described as "invaluable" for the amount of evidence it preserves, much of which has been lost through later deterioration in the building's condition.[52]
Kavvadias returned to Epidaurus throughout his career: in a 1929 obituary, the British archaeologistRobert Carr Bosanquet wrote that the summer excavation season there was "almost the only holiday [Kavvadias] permitted himself".[53] In 1902, he discovered the first parts of a building adjacent to the stadium (which had already been discovered by 1893),[54] connected directly to it by means of an entrance tunnel. The findings from the building's excavation were never fully published; in 1992, the archaeologistStephen G. Miller suggested that it may have been anapodyterion (changing room) for the athletes.[55] In 1903, Kavvadias published part of the inscription upon a thirdstele, detailing further accounts of miraculous healings; he published the inscription in full in 1918.[56] In his last excavation season at Epidaurus, which lasted from June 1928 until shortly before his death in July, he uncovered an elaborate building, possibly used by athletes preparing for competition, to the north of the stadium.[57]
The excavation of Epidaurus has been described as a "landmark", both for its place in the institutional history of Greek archaeology and for the finds uncovered there.[20] Reinach called the excavations one of Kavvadias's "two immortal daughters", the other being his work on the Acropolis of Athens.[56] Kavvadias was more ambivalent about his work there: when showing a fellow archaeologist, Stratis Paraskeviadis, around the site, he pointed to the theatre and said "there I sacrificed and destroyed". Vasileios Petrakos, a historian of Greek archaeology, has suggested that he may have been alluding to the clearing of an expansive forest which had originally covered the ruins.[20]
Kavvadias's predecessor as Ephor General of Antiquities,Panagiotis Stamatakis, had planned to complete the excavation of the Acropolis of Athens, but died suddenly in 1884 before work could commence. Kavvadias therefore carried out the excavations with funding from the Archaeological Society of Athens.[19] He undertook the work, which lasted from 23 November [O.S. 11 November] 1885[30] until the end of 1890,[58] in collaboration with the German architectGeorg Kawerau.[59] Kavvadias excavated the entire Acropolis down tobedrock, leaving, as he claimed, "not the slightest quantity of soil ... which has not been investigated."[60] All remaining post-Classical buildings on the site were demolished. The excavation has been described as "unsystematic":[30] it has also been criticised for keeping no record ofstratigraphy, and for only making partial records through drawing and photography.[61]
Throughout 1885, the excavations moved from the western side of the Acropolis, beginning near the Propylaia (the monumental gateway to the site), towards the east. In 1886, three areas were added: the part of the North Circuit Wall between the Erechtheion and the Propylaia; the area between the Parthenon and the Erechtheion (which contained the remains of theArchaios Naos or "Old Temple of Athena") and the area east of the Parthenon. In 1887, Kavvadias excavated the area to the east of the Erechtheion, along the East Circuit Wall to the Belvedere tower, and from the Belvedere tower to the area between the Parthenon and theAcropolis Museum. In 1888, he excavated the area around the museum, as well as the area between the Parthenon and the South Circuit Wall, and uncovered the Parthenon'sstylobate to its full depth of 14 metres (46 ft), or twenty-two levels of masonry.[62] In 1889, most of the southern and western part of the Acropolis was cleared of post-Classical remains, as were the interiors of the Parthenon and the Pinakotheke (a chamber in the monument's northern wing)[63] of the Propylaia. Finally, in 1890, Kavvadias cleared the route onto the Acropolis from theBeulé Gate.[62]
The excavations uncovered thousands of fragments of Archaic and pre-Classical art – the largest quantity of such material ever discovered. In particular, the 1887 and 1888 excavations found the remaining parts of the sculptures of theHekatompedon pediment, and a group ofHerakles and theHydra, which once formed thepediment of another structure.[64] Much of this material came from the so-calledPerserschutt, the layer of debris left by thePersian destruction of the Acropolis in 480 BCE and the ritual burial of the damaged statuary by the Athenians after the Persian Wars. A particularly fruitful area was the so-called'kore pit', north-west of the Erechtheion, which is the major known source forkore andkouros sculptures of the Archaic period:[31] Kavvadias uncovered somewhere between nine and fourteenkorai in the initial excavation alone.[65] Other notable finds from thePerserschutt included thePersian Rider sculpture.[66]
Kavvadias also excavated an early Christian church,[67] as well as significant remains of Mycenaean fortification of the western side of the Acropolis near the Propylaia.[68] On the northern side of the Acropolis, Kavvadias excavated in 1887 a cave (later identified by the archaeologistOscar Broneer as part of the Sanctuary ofEros andAphrodite)[69] in which he found pieces of black-figure pottery, the head of a female sculpture,[70] and what he believed were traces of the secret route described by Pausanias as being used by thearrephoroi during the rite of theArrhephoria.[71] Modern research by Rachel Rosenzweig has questioned whether this secret route, only vaguely described by Pausanias, ever truly existed.[72] His excavations also uncovered the remains of the Archaic 'Building B' beneath the Pinakotheke of the Propylaia, as well as theBrauroneion, theChalkotheke and theTemple of Roma and Augustus.[61] The archaeological finds from the excavations, including sculptures, vases, architectural remains, figurines and inscriptions, became the core of the collection of theOld Acropolis Museum.[30] Kavvadias's work has been described by the archaeological historian Fani Mallouchou-Tufano as finishing "the transformation of the [Acropolis] from castle to monument". The demolished structures included a late Roman reservoir near the Propylaia, a structure known as thetholos near the Erechtheion, a medieval building to the south of the Parthenon, as well as various Late Roman fortifications.[3] Kavvadias also removed the 'walls' or 'panels' (Greek:πίνακες,romanised: pinakes),[73] built by his predecessorKyriakos Pittakis from various scattered antiquities.[3] Pittakis had intended thepinakes to prevent looting, but had been criticised in the contemporary press for presenting artefacts of different periods and provenances together, and for breaking up groups of sculptures that originally formed single ensembles into differentpinakes.[74]
Kavvadias made minor excavations in the caves on the northern side of the Acropolis during 1896 and 1897, uncovering one with what he believed to be the remains of an altar,[75] as well as ten marble plaques with inscriptions marking them as a dedication toApollo, who was identified by theepithet 'under the cliffs' (ὑπὸ Μάκραις orὑπ' Ἄκρας). The inscriptions, dating from between 40 CE and the later 3rd century CE, identified the dedicators as senior Athenian officials ('archons') and their secretaries from the Roman period, which has given the site the name of the 'Archons' Cult'.[76] Between 1887 and 1888, a second museum, nicknamed the 'little one' (μικρό;mikro), was built by Kawerau to the east of the main Acropolis museum, in the area of the building generally known as theSanctuary of Pandion.[3] During the Acropolis Museum's expansion in the 1950s, it was demolished and the space incorporated into the main structure.[77]
TheAtalanti earthquakes of 1894 damaged the Parthenon, causing the fall of parts of itsopisthodomos (rear porch).[32] The Archaeological Service, led by Kavvadias, commissioned the architectsFrancis Penrose,Josef Durm [de] andLucien Magne to investigate possible responses, and decided upon a partial reconstruction which would strengthen the damaged parts and replace, where necessary, ancient marble with modern.[32] They also decided to use, as far as possible, the original building methods (dry-stone masonry held together with metal clamps) in the restoration work, and Kavvadias later wrote in favour of this approach.[78] A full-scale reconstruction was ruled out, and the primary aim of the project was defined as strengthening the extent parts of the building which had suffered damage.[32]
Penrose, Durm and Magne formed a supervising committee, but the operational direction was delegated to the 'Committee for the Conservation of the Parthenon', a body which included academics, members of Athens's foreign schools of archaeology, and representatives of the Greek government. Nikolaos Balanos, Athens's Chief Engineer of Public Works, was invited to join this committee after its formation, and effectively took control of the reconstructions, operating, according to Mallouchou-Tufano, "independently and unchecked".[32]
Between 1898 and 1909, Balanos worked almost continuously on the Parthenon, the Erechtheion and the Propylaia.[g] His work was financed by the General Ephorate of Antiquities, of which Kavvadias was head, and by the Archaeological Society of Athens, of which Kavvadias was secretary.[80] The restorations were initially praised by contemporaries,[78] but were later criticised for their invasive methodology and for the lack of archaeological expertise shown in some of the work.[81] Balanos's use of reinforced concrete to fill the gaps in marble masonry led to water ingress and thecorrosion of the iron clamps used to reinforce the structure, cracking the marble and causing blocks to fall apart.[81] In the Erechtheion, this problem was compounded by corrosion caused by the exposure of the originalCaryatid sculptures to air pollution. In 1977, a programme was announced to address the consequences of Balanos's restorations, which included the removal of the Caryatids to the Acropolis Museum and their replacement on the temple byreplicas,[82] and eventually involved (at least partially) dismantling and rebuilding every structure on which Balanos had worked.[83]
In 1885,[7] Kavvadias, the favoured candidate of Prime MinisterCharilaos Trikoupis,[12] succeeded Panagiotis Stamatakis as Ephor General of Antiquities, the head of the Greek Archaeological Service.[17] Kavvadias's time as Ephor General saw the opening of theNational Archaeological Museum of Athens in 1889. He took a centralising approach to its collection, which he composed of material from all over Greece, except forOlympia andDelphi.[84] He produced two catalogues of its sculptures, published in 1890 and 1892,[85] assisted byChristos Tsountas for theprehistoric material.[86]
Under Kavvadias's leadership, the Archaeological Service expanded its portfolio of museums in Greece,[22] building on the work of his predecessor Stamatakis in opening museums for local archaeological collections around the country.[87] Kavvadias assisted with the planning and design of theHeraklion Archaeological Museum inOttoman-ruled Crete, which opened in 1883, drawing up the plan for the museum'sNeoclassical buildings in collaboration with Wilhelm Dörpfeld.[88] In 1909, he was invited, along with the historianGeorge Soteriadis and other members of the Archaeological Society, to arrange the first collections of theCyprus Museum.[89][h]
Between 1901 and 1905, Kavvadias organised the First International Archaeological Conference,[91] which was held in Athens from 14–26 April [O.S. 1–13 April] 1905. The conference has been described as a "flanking move" by Kavvadias to diminish the influence of the Archaeological Society in favour of the Archaeological Service: the Archaeological Society protested at the government's ownership of the conference, represented by Kavvadias and the Minister for Education,Emmanuel Stais. Pressure from the Society also forced Kavvadias to reverse his decision to exclude Greek archaeologists from the conference.[92]
Kavvadias spoke at the funeral of the German archaeologistHeinrich Schliemann in theFirst Cemetery of Athens on 4 January 1891 [O.S. 23 December 1890], giving a short eulogy in Greek.[93] He credited Schliemann with much of the creation of the study of Greek prehistory, and expressed his view that Greek archaeology was both "peculiarly Greek" and had "the whole civilised world for its home."[94] He was elected as a professor of the University of Athens on 24 February [O.S. 11 February] 1904, alongside Tsountas, by a vote of seventeen to two of the nineteen professor-electors present.[95]
Kavvadias's own appointment in 1879, made by Panagiotis Efstratiadis, had marked the beginning of the expansion of the Archaeological Service, raising the number of its ephors from one to two. Kavvadias continued the recruitment of new ephors: by the end of his tenure, the Service had recruited over a dozen (having previously employed only the Ephor General between 1836 and 1866),[i][97] includingHabbo Gerhard Lolling and Konstantinos Kourouniotis, and established operations on the island of Crete, thenan autonomous province of the Ottoman Empire.[98] He also imposed the first formal academic criteria for ephors – his predecessor as Ephor General, Panagiotis Stamatakis, had received no university education or formal archaeological training[99] – requiring that all ephors be graduates of the University of Athens, and either to have undertaken postgraduate study in archaeology or to pass an examination in archaeology, history, Ancient Greek and Latin.[100] In 1887, he imposed the stricter requirement that all potential ephors hold adoctorate in either philology or archaeology, and that they subsequently pass an interview before a board composed of professors of classics, archaeology and history, which included the Ephor General.[100]
Kavvadias created much of the bureaucratic apparatus of the modern Archaeological Service. Through a royal decree of 7 December [O.S. 25 November] 1885, he established theArchaeological Receipts Fund, which used the proceeds of the sales of tickets,casts and catalogues by museums to fund the conservation and restoration of ancient monuments.[101] He was also behind the Royal Decree of 20 January [O.S. 8 January] 1886, which created the first systematic division of Greece into archaeological regions.[102]
Kavvadias was an active member of the Archaeological Society of Athens, alearned society with a significant role in organising excavations and protectingcultural heritage in Greece. In particular, he mounted a long-running campaign to become secretary of the society, which has been interpreted by Petrakos, a later secretary and historian of the Archaeological Society, as a means of bringing its financial revenues under the effective control of the state.[103] From at least 1886, when Kavvadias intervened on behalf of the government in an investigation into the society's financial mismanagement, he acted to increase the influence of the General Ephorate over its affairs, creating animosity between the state and the society which had become noticed and regularly remarked upon in the press by 1888.[104] Although the Archaeological Society had traditionally supported the aims of the state,[105] tensions had already begun to develop between the society and the Archaeological Service,[106] particularly as the society often bore the cost for work initiated by Kavvadias in his capacity as the Service's Ephor General,[1] and ephors employed by the society were often seconded to work for the government: the society voted to end this practice in 1882.[103]
Kavvadias intensified his efforts to gain control of the society in 1894, using his own allies in the press and within the society to attack its secretary, Stefanos Koumanoudis. In December 1894, elections were held for the society's officers: Koumanoudis was re-elected as secretary, but resigned in protest after one of Kavvadias's allies was also appointed to the council.[107] Several of the newly elected officers followed Koumanoudis:Dimitrios Filios [el] resigned on 11 January 1895 [O.S. 30 December 1894], followed by thenumismatistIoannis Svoronos on 14 January [O.S. 2 January] 1895 and the folkloristNikolaos Politis [el].[108] Kavvadias therefore became secretary by a near-unanimous vote on 18 January [O.S. 6 January].[109] Svoronos was briefly imprisoned later in 1895 after Kavvadias sued him for insulting remarks Svoronos made about him at the society's general assembly on 4 August [O.S. 23 July].[110]
As secretary, Kavvadias increased the society's revenues as well as its activities in both excavations and restorations.[111] He initiated the drafting in 1895 of a new constitution for the society, which expanded its sphere of operations and made the Crown Prince of Greece,Constantine, its president. He also oversaw the society's move to new premises in 1899, and wrote a history of it to commemorate the occasion.[1]
By the 1880s, it was clear that the legal mechanisms available for the protection of cultural heritage were inadequate to the challenge posed by illegal excavations and export of antiquities.[84] The main law governing antiquities was the Archaeological Law of 22 May [O.S. 10 May] 1834, which has been described as "loosely interpreted and even more loosely enforced": antiquities from unauthorised, illegal excavations were openly advertised for sale both within and outside Greece.[112] Under the 1834 law, antiquities discovered on private land could remain in private possession, despite legally being jointly owned by the state and the private 'owners': this created ambiguity which reduced the state's ability to control antiquities.[29] In the early 1870s, the looting of thenecropolis of Tanagra had seen some 10,000 tombs robbed and hundreds of antiquities, including vases andfigurines, sold abroad, which outraged the Greek press and raised the issue of archaeological crime among the general population.[113] During his tenure as Ephor General between 1864 and 1884, Panagiotis Efstratiadis had attempted to work against looters and smugglers, but was hamstrung by the legal framework then in place.[114] In 1866, he was legally forced to permit an excavation on private land by two Athenian art dealers, despite his distrust of their intentions.[115] He was also unable to prevent the export of significant antiquities, such as theAineta aryballos (a seventh-century BCECorinthian vase sold to theBritish Museum in 1866 by the epigrapher and art dealerAthanasios Rousopoulos [el]) and a series of funerary plaques, painted byExekias, sold illegally to the German archaeologistGustav Hirschfeld by the art dealerAnastasios Erneris in 1873.[116]
Kavvadias has been credited with shaping Law 2646 of 1899, subtitledOn Antiquities (Περὶ Ἀρχαιοτήτων).[27] Under the new law, all antiquities ever discovered in Greece, whether on public or private land, were considered property of the state, closing the previous 'joint ownership'loophole.[84] The law was dated 5 August [O.S. 24 July] 1899 and was followed on 23 August [O.S. 11 August] 1899 by a series of six royal decrees, giving the state additional powers to oversee the excavation of antiquities and to prevent their sale overseas.[117] This included the power to confiscate any antiquities not declared to the state within six months of excavation, a total prohibition on unauthorised excavations, and severe legal penalties for those contravening the new law. The law of 1899 also centralised power in the hands of the Ephor General, who was given the final decision over most critical matters.[118] It also, for the first time, formally identified theByzantine period as part of "Hellenism" – the idea of Greek history and culture – and has been described as part of "the rehabilitation and incorporation of Byzantium ... into the national narrative".[119] Greece's first ephor of Byzantine antiquities,Adamantios Adamantiou [el], was appointed under Kavvadias in 1908.[102]
Kavvadias was known for his determination to oppose the export of antiquities: Reinach wrote in his obituary of the "fever of confiscations" that Kavvadias launched. However, Reinach also judged that his efforts "produced hardly any useful effects", pointing to an 1886 case in which Kavvadias seized a group of fake terracotta plaques, which were being exported from Athens to Paris wrapped in pages from a journal with only a single subscriber in Athens, a merchant by the name of Lambros. Lambros had influence withKing George of Greece, and had a relative who was a tutor to the futureKing Constantine I; Kavvadias therefore abandoned the case.[19]
In 1887, several items were stolen from theNumismatic Museum of Athens by a thief namedPeriklis Raftopoulos, who was apprehended by police in Paris. Kavvadias dismissed the founder and director of the museum,Achilleus Postolakas [el], and accused him of complicity in the theft. Kavvadias also dismissed Ioannis Svoronos, Postolakas's deputy, and attempted to prosecute the French buyers who had attempted to purchase Raftoupoulos's stolen antiquities. One of those buyers killed himself before the French cabinet ministerÉdouard Lockroy, through his subordinateGustave Larroumet, made clear to Kavvadias that the French government would not pursue what he considered to be a matter for Greekcustoms. Postolakas was acquitted by an Athenian court in April 1889, and the affair made Kavvadias several enemies: Reinach later wrote that the Ephor General had "lost his head a little".[19]
On 10 September [O.S. 28 August] 1909, a group of army officers known as the 'Military League'[120] carried out theGoudi coup,[121] which led to popular demonstrations against the political establishment[120] and the resignation of the prime minister,Dimitrios Rallis.[122] Kavvadias's subordinates launched their own so-called "mutiny of the ephors", angered by his style of leadership,[123] which has since been described as both "authoritarian"[124] and "tyrannical".[7] Another source of opposition to Kavvadias within Greece was his support of the foreign schools of archaeology, which he was accused of privileging above the interests of native Greek archaeologists.[125]
Discontent with Kavvadias reached the Greek press on 22 November [O.S. 9 November] with an article in the newspaperChronos, considered the mouthpiece of the Military League. Entitled "Need for Honesty" (Ἀνάγκη Εἰλικρινείας), the article accused Kavvadias of "humiliating Greek science for the profit of foreign science" through being overly "accommodating" to the foreign schools, supporting them from Greek resources, and giving them access to the best archaeological sites in preference to Greek archaeologists.[110] Kavvadias's long-time opponent[126] Ioannis Svoronos was accused of being behind the article,[127] though he denied any involvement and expressed his support for the foreign schools. Three days later, the directors of the foreign schools published a joint riposte in the journalEstia, denying the accusations made inChronos and praising Kavvadias for his "dominant role" in "render[ing] Athens its former prestige asmetropolis for ancient studies".[128]
Nevertheless, criticism of Kavvadias continued to build. On 7 December [O.S. 24 November], Svoronos wrote a letter inChronos in which he accused Kavvadias of misappropriating 80,000drachmas from the sale of his museum catalogues, and another journal accused Kavvadias of improperly favouring foreign archaeologists, and criticised the Archaeological Society for its inaction. Kavvadias also came under pressure from within the government, and the Minister for Education advised him to step down.[56] He asked the board of the Archaeological Society for temporary leave from his role as secretary, which was granted.[110] Before the end of 1909, he had been removed from his post as Ephor General,[92] and ordered to leave Greece by theMilitary League, who labelled him "a dangerous reactionary" and had him escorted to the harbour of Piraeus by a military non-commissioned officer.[110] He left for Vienna,[110] and subsequently settled in Paris.[129] His protégé Stais, who had served on the Archaeological Society's council since 1896, was forced to resign at the same time,[124] and in 1910 Kavvadias was stripped of his professorship at the University of Athens.[130] Kavvadias's downfall was met by protests from many of the foreign schools, who had benefitted from his liberal attitudes towards their activities.[131] In Britain, the university professors Robert Carr Bosanquet,Percy Gardner andErnest Arthur Gardner organised a collection of funds to support him.[130]
Following Kavvadias's ousting, the Greek government reorganised the Archaeological Service. Kavvadias's duties were given to the archaeologistGabriel Byzantinos,[132] who was shortly afterwards[133] replaced byVasileios Leonardos [el], the director of Athens'sEpigraphical Museum. Under Law 3721, dated 13 April [O.S. 31 March] 1910,[134] the General Ephorate was abolished, in favour of a more collective system of management where the function of the Ephor General was assumed by the 'Archaeological Board', a ten-member committee of university professors, ephors and the directors of Athens's museums, on which the newly titled Director of the Archaeological Service had a single vote.[135] The country was re-divided into seven archaeological districts, replacing the nine established by Kavvadias in 1886.[92] A further outcome of the reforms was that the Archaeological Society was no longer permitted to conduct restoration work, which now had to be undertaken by the Archaeological Service.[136]
When the National Assembly waselected on 21 August [O.S. 8 August] 1910 – a measure negotiated in exchange for the Military League's disbandment byEleftherios Venizelos, a Cretan politician invited by the League's leaders to help negotiate a political settlement to the coup[120] – Kavvadias was elected by the people of Kephallonia as their representative.[53] On the dissolution of the Assembly in 1912,[120] Kavvadias regained his post as secretary of the Archaeological Society, and subsequently held it until 1920.[137] He also regained his professorship at Athens,[129] which he would hold until 1922,[138] and became chairman of the Archaeological Board, which he remained until his resignation in 1920.[53] In February 1919, the Greek government asked the Archaeological Society of Athens to re-establish the "Practical School of Art History", an archaeological training centre which had been closed down after commencing small-scale operations in 1894. Kavvadias was appointed as one of its founding professors, alongside Tsountas, Svoronos, Adamantiou, Soteriadis, Kourouniotis,Sokratis Kougeas [el],Antonios Keramopoulos and Politis, who was elected as the school's director by the other professors.[139] The school's thirty-six students in its first year includedSemni Papaspyridi,Christos Karouzos andSpyridon Marinatos, all of whom went on to become leading figures in twentieth-century Greek archaeology.[140]
In 1920, Kavvadias began work on acorpus of Greek mosaics, funded by the Greek government and theUnion Académique Internationale, which remained unfinished at the time of his death.[56] He returned to Epidaurus for the final time in June 1928. There, he suffered aseizure.[53] He returned to Athens,[19] where he died on 20 July.[15]
In 1910, the journal of the BritishClassical Association described Kavvadias as a "household name" among archaeologists.[130] His work at Epidaurus was recognised in his lifetime as a crowning achievement:[56] a 1909 American handbook, written while much of Kavvadias's excavations there remained unfinished, described Epidaurus as "one of the most important sites in Greece",[141] and the excavations of the Acropolis under Kavvadias as the most important achievement of the Archaeological Society of Athens.[142] Writing of his work on the Acropolis in theArchaeological Bulletin, Kavvadias boasted to have "deliver[ed] the Acropolis back to the civilised world, cleansed of all barbaric additions, a noble monument to the Greek genius, a modest and unique treasury of superb works of ancient art".[143] Within the field of Greek art history, his discovery ofred-figure pottery in the debris of thePerserschutt provided aterminus ante quem demonstrating that this style had been in use before 479 BCE, which contradicted the then-current understanding of the chronological relationship between red-figure and black-figure vase painting.[142] For his own part, Kavvadias described the findings of his work on the Acropolis as "most significant, unexpected and awesome".[144]
He was also notable in the study of epigraphy, a field of archaeology closely linked with the identity of the nineteenth-century Greek state.[145] In 1906, he was listed in a French academic journal as one of the three "particularly illustrious" epigraphers of his day, alongside Koumanoudis andKonstantinos Karapanos [el].[146] Nikolaos Papazarkadas, a modern historian of Greek epigraphy, has also praised Kavvadias's work on the inscriptions he uncovered on the Acropolis, as well as the 'miracle inscriptions' from Epidaurus.[42]
As Ephor General, Kavvadias oversaw other significant archaeological excavations, particularly that of Delphi, which was undertaken between 1892 and 1903 by the French School at Athens as the Archaeological Society lacked the funding for the work.[27] He was also responsible for the recovery and study of theAntikythera mechanism under Valerios Stais from 1900 to 1902.[147] In Athens, Kavvadias's period as Ephor General saw significant excavations beyond the Acropolis: the partial excavation and identification ofHadrian's Library by Koumanoudis in 1885–1886, and excavations in theRoman Agora in 1890–1891, which involved the expropriation and demolition of several residential, religious and military buildings, including the total removal of Epameinondas Street.[148] According to Mallouchou-Tufano, his excavations, particularly on the Acropolis, provided "a huge impetus, both internationally and in Greece ... to the scientific investigation of the history of the [Acropolis] ... [and to] epigraphy, pottery and the history of ancient art." Although the restorations made under Kavvadias's supervision by Nikolaos Balanos were later criticised and mostly reversed, the vision of the Acropolis and its monuments they created has been termed "the 'trade-mark' of modern Greece".[30]
Kavvadias has been termed "a dominant personality" in Greek archaeology around the turn of the 20th century,[30] and his position as a "virtual dictatorship ... in archaeological matters".[53] The rapid expansion of the Archaeological Service between 1883 and 1908, nearly all of which Kavvadias oversaw, has been described as "the beginning of a new era in [its] history".[102] His approach to its organisation has been described as "centralising",[92] and as marked by the energetic way in which he pursued his objectives.[12] Several archaeologists hired as ephors under Kavvadias became significant figures in Greek archaeology: Kourouniotis, for example, would be director of the National Archaeological Museum (from 1922 to 1925) and serve two terms as director of the Archaeological Service (1914–1920 and 1925–1933).[149] As an administrator, Kavvadias has been praised for his archaeological and legal expertise, and the administrative and legal structures he created within the Archaeological Service and through laws and royal decrees have been credited with creating "the shape, in miniature" of the twenty-first century administration of antiquities in Greece.[102] Writing in 1995, Petrakos considered him the most influential of the Archaeological Service's directors.[150]
Kavvadias was recognised for his support of Athens's foreign archaeological institutes, which multiplied in number and activity during his tenure. TheBritish School at Athens was founded in 1886[58] and theAustrian Archaeological Institute at Athens in 1898;[27] theItalian School of Archaeology at Athens was founded in July 1909, shortly before Kavvadias's removal as Ephor General.[151] He had a particularly warm relationship withCharles Waldstein, director of theAmerican School of Classical Studies at Athens from 1889 until 1893.[152]Thomas Day Seymour, chairman of the school's managing committee,[153] remarked that Kavvadias, whom he usually judged "surly", became "genial" in Waldstein's presence, and suggested that Kavvadias would make Waldstein "a present of the whole Acropolis, if it were in his power".[154] It was at Waldstein's instigation that Kavvadias issued the American School its permit to excavate atEretria onEuboea in January 1891.[155] Kavvadias's contemporary Bosanquet wrote that his patronage of the foreign schools was a significant factor in promoting the "study and preservation of his country's heritage".[1] In 2007, Petrakos named the foreign schools, and the excavations, publications and lectures that have taken part under their auspices, as a substantial factor behind making Athens "the major centre of Greek archaeology".[156]
Within the Archaeological Service and the Archaeological Society, Kavvadias's style of leadership – described in modern times as "tyrannical"[7] and a "monocracy"[92] – was unpopular.[157] By the end of his tenure, he had made enemies among the Archaeological Society, among his subordinates and among university-based archaeologists.[158] Petrakos has accused him of "deliberate defamation" in his handling of the Archaeological Society of Athens,[159] and characterised his centralising approach to administration as "suffocating" the ephors who worked under him.[160] In turn, this discontent was a major factor behind Kavvadias's removal under the Military League in 1909.[126]
Kavvadias had two sons:Alexander Polycleitos Cawadias, a medical doctor known for his work onintersexuality,[15] andEpameinondas Kavvadias, anadmiral in theHellenic Navy who served as its commander during theSecond World War.[161]
He was elected an honorary member of the BritishSociety of Antiquaries in 1893,[53] acorresponding member of the FrenchAcadémie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres in 1894,[162] a member of theRoyal Academy of Belgium and a corresponding member of thePrussian Academy of Sciences in Berlin.[163] He was also awarded an honorary doctorate by theUniversity of Cambridge in 1904,[53] as well as an honorary professorship atLeipzig University.[164] In 1926, he was elected as a founding member of theAcademy of Athens, Greece'snational academy.[138] He was also an honorary member of theRoyal Society of Medicine.[5]
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link){{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link){{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link){{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link){{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)[165]{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link){{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link){{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link){{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link){{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link){{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help){{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)| Preceded by | Ephor General of Antiquities 1885–1909 | Office abolished |
