Kourion Complex (Apollo) pre 1945

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Cesnola on or near the same site, was listed in the catalogue of the Cesnola Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. A squeeze was forthwith dispatched to the Museum. Within six weeks we had received word from the Museum that the two sherds, one found in 1876, and the other in 1936, fit perfectly and helped to complete the inscription (Figs. 4 & 5). The inscription now reads:

[handwritten: [ΑΠΟ]ΛΛΩΝΙΥΛΑΤΗ ΚΑΙ ΑΝΟΝΝΩΝΙ ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... [ΤΟ] ΛΥΚΤΗΤΟΣ ΤΙΜΩΝΟΣ ΚΡΕΠΑΜΕΥΣ ΕΥΧΗΝ]

The ancient name of the place was very likely Hyle. We know that there was an ancient small town in the island of Boeotia by this name. Now the Greek word, hyle, means a wood or forest, and we know that the Sanctuary in ancient times was surrounded by woods. Hence the "Apollo Hylates" of the inscription, Hylates probably being derived from Hyle. The same epithet "Hylates" appears in another inscription, subsequently found, on six fragments of a broken marble slab (Fig. 6).

During the first two weeks we sunk three trenches. The splendid view of the sea and the country round about the site from the point where we began the first trench, and the traces of walls appearing over the surface of the ground not far from where the stone post had been found, gave us a good hint where to dig.

It was not long before these trenches disclosed a plan of a long narrow temple, roughly 27 by 11 metres. (Plan Fig. 7). In the course of our excavations we had