Excavating Royalism and Hellenism at Ancient Dekeleia

This talk offers a summary of recent archival work and site documentation completed at Palaiokastro, on the former Greek royal estate of Tatoi in North East Attica. The circuit wall at Palaiokastro has traditionally been considered the Spartan fort from the Dekeleian War, occupied by the Peloponnesians from 413–404 BCE. Following this archaeological update, I critically re-examine the work of Ludwig Münter in the 1880s and 1890s and Theophano Arvanitopoulou in the 1950s, in relation to the formation of royalism and Hellenism in the late nineteenth and twentieth century. While the vision of Hellenism articulated by Otto I of Greece and his officials has been assessed by a number of scholars, significantly less attention has been given to the archaeological projects pursued under the supervision of George I and his descendants. The so-called 'royal archaeological collection' at Tatoi offers a rich case study in the intersection of royalism and Hellenism in the historiography of Greek archaeology and the foreign archaeological schools in Athens.

The lecture in English will take place at 6:00 PM c.t. in the Gartensaal of the Wiegandhaus (entrance at Peter-Lenné-Str. 28). If you are interested, we kindly ask you to register in advance via email: veranstaltung.zentrale@dainst.de.

The lecture will also be streamed via Zoom. Please use the following link:

https://dainst-org.zoom.us/meeting/register/PEPaGkl4TGqBavlyfgA6ww