Stadium

ANCIENT NEMEA* EARLY HELLENISTIC STADIUM

Aerial View of Stadium from the Northwest

The ancient stadium at Nemea was constructed circa 330 BC when the games returned from Argos. This stadium is similar to others constructed during the Early Hellenistic such as the stadia at Olympia and Epidaurus. The southern portion of the stadium was carved into a natural depression between two hills, where as the north was built up using fill material from the excavations to the south.

General view of the Stadium from the Southeast

The stadium was in use as long as the games were held at Nemea which lasted until circa 271 BC. During the Roman and Early Christian periods the stadium was used for non-athletic activities such as farming and herding. After abandonment, the stadium fell into disrepair and was forgotten. See below for links to stadium features.
 

General plan of the Stadium

 

 

This information originated on Professor Emeritus S.G. Miller's Nemea.org website, now archived at http://www.nemea.org.

 

Temple of Zeus Reconstruction Project

 

Built c. 330 BC over the remains of an earlier temple, the Temple of Zeus lies in the center of the Sanctuary of Zeus at Nemea.  The 9,240 square foot Temple played a significant role in the Nemea Games, one of the original Pan-Hellenic Games of Ancient Greece.  It was before  this Temple that, prior to the Nemea Games, the athletes would pay homage to the father of their gods, Zeus.  The Temple’s construction included three Greek architectural forms, the Doric, the Corinthian, and the Ionic.  32 limestone columns each standing 42 feet tall, and  composed of 13 cylindrical stones, called “drums”, each weighing approximately, 2.5 tons, surrounded the Temple of Zeus. Of those 32 original columns, only three columns remain standing today, the rest gave way to nature, specifically, earthquakes and human intervention—the latter through looting and the removal of the Temple’s material to build other monuments.

Professor Stephen Miller, former Director of the Nemea Excavations,  conceived the quest to reconstruct the Temple of Zeus as part of his ongoing efforts to preserve the Ancient Nemea site. Beginning work on the Temple’s reconstruction was aided by the previous work of Professor Frederick Cooper, Professor of Architecture, University of Minnesota, under whose leadership 1,100 stone blocks located on and around the Temple’s ground were catalogued.  It would be in part these catalogued blocks that would be used to re-erect the columns.  In 2002 with the Greek government’s permission, Professor Miller began the reconstruction of two columns on the north side, near to where  the three original columns still stand.  Just prior to his retirement in 2004, and after successfully reconstructing the two columns, Professor Miller, formally established the Temple of Zeus Reconstruction Project, with the Earthquake Engineering Research Center (EERC) and the Nemea Center providing oversight and guidance for the project.  Although the Nemea Center is primarily responsible for the conduct and work on the project, Dr. Nicos Makris, Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, University of Patras (Greece), Senior Research Engineer, University of California, Berkeley, is the on-site project director, since 2004, responsible for overseeing the day-to-day reconstruction of four additional columns

Due to issues of the reconciliation of ancient architectural “refinements” and the natural settling that has occurred over time, along with the difficult procurement of substantially sized blocks, the progress of the reconstruction has been substantially slowed, but it is anticipated that all of the four columns will be re-erected by the end of 2009.   To date, significant work has been completed on the foundations and krepidoma on the east end and in the pronaos, as well as the completion of the placement of all the drums, the reconstruction of three columns on the east side, and the final carving of their exterior surfaces.  All the columns have been re-erected by using as many of the available original stones, previously catalogued by Professor Cooper, and by the extraction of limestone from a nearby rock quarry, from which the additional blocks are made. The reconstruction project is a costly venture with each column roughly costing a quarter–million euros.  Although Professors Miller and Makris raised much of the funds, including donations from Mr. T. Papalexopoulos, the Opheltes Foundationand the Club Hotel Casino Loutraki, additional private donations are  needed to complete the reconstruction of the Temple, including funds for the positioning of the epistyles that will provide the need stability and endurance to the newly re-erected columns.

When completed, the reconstruction of the Temple of Zeus will provide the visitor with a clearer sense of the magnitude and magnificence of the original Greek temple, and most importantly the site will be preserved for generations to come.

For more detail account on the progress of the reconstruction project, please refer to the following five Progress Reports which are attached below:
2008 - Progress Report (pending)
2007 - Progress Report
2006 - Progress Report
2005 - Progress Report (unavailable at this time)
2004 - Progress Report

Attachment	Size
Temple2007report.pdf	747 KB
Temple2006report.pdf	1.02 MB
Temple2004report.pdf	2.07 MB

Basilica

The Basilica Project 

Aerial picture of the Early Christian Basilica

Along with the Temple of Zeus and the stadium, the early Christian Basilica is one of Ancient Nemea’s major monuments.  Considered one of the earliest Christian structures founded in the Peloponnese, the Basilica was constructed during the 5th century A.D., under the reign of the Byzantine Emperor, Theodosius II.  Situated approximately 100 meters south of the Temple of Zeus, like other monuments of its time, the Basilica was not only built on top of an earlier structure of antiquity, in this case the Xenon (a hotel where Nemean games participants once stayed), but the Basilica was also constructed largely of materials pillaged from the 4th century B.C. Temple of Zeus. The Corinthian columns that once graced the interior of the Temple of Zeus for example, were used for constructing the interior of the Basilica.

Excavation of the Basilica began in the 1920’s and then resumed in the 1960’s and 1980’s.  Unfortunately, although the excavation of the Basilica provided scholars with an understanding of the 5th-6th century A.D. architecture and religious life, as well as visual access to the ancient Xenon, it also contributed to the deterioration of the Basilica’s foundation.   The excavations had exposed the Basilica to the elements, and by early 2000 the Basilica foundation began to display serious signs of deterioration due to the disintegration of the mortar and the collapse of masonry.  In keeping with its primary mission, the conservation and presentation of archaeological monuments, the Nemea Center, first under Professor Steve Miller and then under Director Kim Shelton took immediate action to conserve the Basilica. Professor Miller immediately on seeing the deterioration of the foundation, began to backfill the central hall of the Basilica with clean earth and to raise the soil level on the exterior as much as possible without obscuring the surrounding earlier remains.  Professor Shelton, as a supplement to the proposal of conservation submitted to the Greek Ministry of Culture (still outstanding), commissioned from Ms. Ioanna Dogani and Ms. Amerimni Galanou, of LITHOU SYNTIRISIS, Lithics Conservation & Conservation Resources (Greece), to conduct a study on the ancient mortar used in the foundation in order to recognize its components and create a substance to be used today in harmony with the ancient materials.

While the deterioration of the Basilica’s foundation has been temporarily abated, it is only with continual careful and deliberate conservation measures that will ensure the future possibility of research and visible understanding of the entire site’s complex and long history.  Specifically, the conservation of the Basilica will continue to provide scholars with research of the Early Christian sanctuary at Nemea and its relationship to the earlier pagan sanctuary of Zeus and visual access to the Xenon.  Although some of the conservation work is performed, under the direction of the Nemea Center’s Director, by the students participating in the archaeological field schools, as with all other Nemea Center projects, conservation of the Basilica is dependent on private donations.

 

New Excavations

Future excavation at Nemea will be an essential focus as we move ahead, hopefully for decades to come. This will happen over several multi-season campaigns interspersed with seasons of study and museum research and will encompass many different areas geographically within and around the site, as well as chronologically distinct periods. One interest is to discover more information and evidence of the early prehistory and history of the site, including the possibility of occupation and/or cult continuity down to the 6th century sanctuary and its development.  Other important areas of interest include the exploration of the area west of the Temple where the early stadium and hippodrome should be located, and the space between the two “sites” (sanctuary proper and stadium) to understand the circulation routes, access and structures associated with this part of the festival and to create a single unified archaeological park.

The first of the campaigns will be 2010-2012, having been granted a permit from the American School for Classical Studies at Athens.

The Nemea Center plans to continue and expand on the previous investigations, spatially and chronologically, by exploring to greater depth several areas in and around the sanctuary. The areas that will be targeted in these first three seasons of excavation indicate a strong potential for prehistoric and early historic architecture and ceramics, as well as possible well-stratified Archaic, Classical and Hellenistic remains that will aid in our continuing study and publication of the material from these periods.  

The primary research agenda for the 2010-2012 excavation campaign is to more fully access and understand the pre-Classical sanctuary and its nature, especially during the prehistoric and early historic periods.  We will also explore more generally the extent of occupation in the surrounding area during these periods.

The proposed work is likely to expose the potential domestic material of these earlier periods lying under the sanctuary. It should thus also highlight the period/s of the area’s use and illuminate the circumstances of the changing character and use of the area in the early historic period – changes that resulted in local hero worship and ultimately the pan-Hellenic sanctuary. There are still many questions about the early prehistoric and historic use of the sanctuary area, not to mention potential indications of the origin of cult and early cult use on the site and even the possibility of cult continuity from the prehistoric period. The other pan-Hellenic sanctuaries (Olympia, Delphi, Isthmia) all exhibit signs of prehistoric occupation, regional importance and possible indications of early cult practice. We should expect evidence of similar or related phenomena at Nemea.

The first season of renewed excavation in 2010 will provisionally begin in late May or early June. An archaeological field school will be part of the project with graduate and undergraduate student participation, as well as other interested parties. More detailed information and applications will be available in fall 2009.