Idalion: the Berlin Museums' excavations under Ohnefalsch-Richter

At the sanctuary on the eastern acropolis of Idalion, earlier carved stonework and statuary, including votive capitals and a stele, had been built into the wall that enclosed the precinct. The catalogue says the shrine was found to have been fortified, probably early in the Ptolemaic Age. Only a small part of the sanctuary could be excavated.^1,2

Max Ohnefalsch-Richter identified the sanctuary in 1887, and the catalogue states that it was excavated in 1888 and 1894.¹ Horacek describes the 1888 work as a small sondage at spot S1 with Abraami Charalambos.³ The main campaign began on 24 May 1894 and lasted ten days, at spots S1 and N2 and in trench 6, with Adolf Furtwängler on site for the Berlin museums; Ohnefalsch-Richter stated that the work was commissioned by the Emperor. A permit had been obtained for 1894 but was withdrawn before January 1895. Ohnefalsch-Richter began digging on 25 January anyway, having misinterpreted the telegram, and dug for seven days.^2,3 He also reported opening tombs in the necropolis, among them one with archaic gold leaves from breastplates and a grave, No. 26, whose share went to the Cyprus Museum.²

The finds were divided and dispersed. The Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna acquired a votive capital in July 1895 (I 717), which Horacek identifies as no. 8 in the excavator's list, where Masson and Hermary had it as no. 12. Capital no. 9 passed to Valentin Weisbach and in 1898 to the Museum für Völkerkunde in Leipzig, and a capital with a Hathor head is in Berlin (Skulpt. 1849).^2,3 The planned final volume, Tamassos und Idalion, was never completed; its typewritten chapters survive in the archives of the Antikensammlung in Berlin.²