BURIED TREASURE

Waikato Times, Volume 124, Issue 20821, 3 June 1939, Page 22 (Supplement)

BURIED TREASURE

RECOVERED IN GREECE SITE OF ANCIENT TEMPLE (Times Air Mall Service) LONDON. May 10 Buried treasure, mostly of fine gold. ' and including a gold and ivory statue of Apollo, has been discovered on the site of the great Temple of Apollo at Delphi, says the News Chronicle. j In addition to the statue of Apollo, 1 other Ivory and gold statues and silver, gold and ivory ornaments and gold leaves with inscriptions were unearthed. Archaeologists found the treasure by chance, reports Reuter from Athens. M. Pierre Delacot. Director of the Eeole des Hautes Etudes. Paris, and M. Pierre Amandry, member of the French archaeological school in Athens, have been working for some time on excavations on the site of the temple where the famous oracle was heard. Under the Paving They decided to remove the paving stones of the Sacred Way, which winds up to the temple, and were surprised to find the treasure in a hole beneath the paving. They say that now for the first time they can realise how such gold and ivory statues were made. “It was also news to us.” they add, “that such statues were executed before the days of Phidias," who fashioned the famous statue on the Acropolis at Athens. Hands, feet and face arc in ivory and the remainder in gold. After a Fire? There is much speculation as to how the treasure came to be buried. The objects are of Geek workmanship, and appear to date from about 600 B.C. It is suggested that the treasure was part of the huge wealth of the temple of Apollo, and that after a fire It was buried, since it belonged to the gods, so that it might never fall Into the hands of man. An authority at the department of Greek Antiquities, British Museum, said the discoveries appear to be “extremely important.” Delphi was mentioned by Homer and was famed for its oracle, who sat in a small chamber in the Temple of Apollo and delivered her prophecies. The fourth temple was destryoed by fire in 548 B.C. In the time of Pliny there were 3000 statues in Delphi, and within the temple for a long time stood a golden statue of Apollo.