Ancient CyprusAncient Cyprus

Excavator · Archaeologist · Scholar

Georghios Bakalakis

1908–1991 · Greece

Thessaloniki professor who directed the Greek excavation at Golgoi near Athienou in four seasons from 1969 to 1972 and published it in Greek in 1988.

Biography

Georghios Bakalakis led the University of Thessaloniki's first excavation on Cyprus, at the Classical city of Golgoi on the Giorkous hill north-east of Athienou. Four seasons ran from 1969 to 19721,5,10.

The first season opened part of the east sector, with houses of stone foundations and mudbrick walls, copper slag, Attic black-glazed pottery of the 4th century BC and two bronze coins of Salamis struck by Demetrios Poliorketes; the ash showed a destruction in the Ptolemaic-Antigonid conflict1,5. In 1970 the area was doubled and sections were cut to study the stratigraphy6. The third season cleared part of the city wall, which had a stone socle and a mudbrick upper wall, a postern with a stair between two bastions, and two fountains7. In 1972 the team found towers, a long stretch of wall with a ditch, 4th-century houses and six rooms of a Roman building4,8.

Bakalakis published the excavation in Greek in 1988 as Anaskaphe sto lopho Giorkous B.A. tes Athenainou, Kypros11,12. Counts reports that after the 1974 invasion the north and east of Athienou, including the Golgoi hill, were barred to archaeologists10. Later authors on the Athienou region cite the 1988 volume for the pottery, lamps and small finds from the dig10.

Life and work

  1. 1969
    Directed the first season of the University of Thessaloniki expedition at Golgoi (Athienou): part of the eastern sector of the city, houses of simple plan with mudbrick upper walls, three layers; copper slag and Attic black-glazed sherds of the 4th c. BC; Layer II destroyed in the Ptolemaic-Antigonid conflict (two bronze coins of Salamis struck by Demetrios Poliorketes on a wall). The Chronique notes it was the University of Salonica's first excavation on Cyprus.

    Golgoi, AthienouNicolaou 1976, p. 54Karageorghis 1970Nicolaou 1970

  2. 1970
    Second season ('Mission archeologique grecque de l'Universite de Salonique'): east sector of the town (houses of the late 1st c. BC begun in 1969), area doubled, sections cut to study stratigraphy.

    Golgoi, AthienouKarageorghis 1971Nicolaou 1972

  3. 1971
    Third season, confined to the east sector between the enclosure wall and the Archaic and Classical houses: city wall partly cleared (stone socle with mudbrick upper wall, postern with stair flanked by two bastions); two fountains excavated.

    Golgoi, AthienouKarageorghis 1972

  4. 1971
    Robertson's 1975 volume (papers of the 1971 Brock colloquium) names the Classical city of Golgoi as being investigated by a Greek expedition from the University of Salonica under Professor G. Bakalakis.

    Robertson 1975, p. 13

  5. 1972
    Fourth season: east part of the hill; 4th-c. BC houses, six rooms of a large Roman building, three towers and much of the enclosure wall, a 75 cm wide ditch parallel to the wall. Hermary (2004) credits Bakalakis with excavating a small three-aisled Early Christian basilica (16.60 x 11 m) at Golgoi in 1972.

    Golgoi, AthienouKarageorghis 1973Nicolaou 1973

  6. 1974
    After the 1974 invasion the north and east of Athienou, including the Golgoi hill, were barred to archaeologists; the 1969-72 excavation was not resumed.

    AthienouToumazou et al. 2011, p. 50

  7. 1988
    Published the excavation: Anaskaphe sto lopho Giorkous B.A. tes Athenainou, Kypros (Athens, Archaiologike Etaireia, Bibliotheke 108). Counts reports phases: I (Late Cypro-Archaic, with LBA/EIA sherds), II (Classical city with walls, towers, acropolis, reservoir, destroyed late 4th c. BC, perhaps by Demetrios Poliorketes), III (Roman and Early Christian). Hermary lists it as the publication of the Thessaloniki excavations of 1969-1972 and cites a review by O. Masson, REG 104 (1991).

    AthensToumazou et al. 2011, p. 50Hermary 1991

On Ancient Cyprus

1 page

Sources

  1. 1.K. Nicolaou (1976). “Archaeology in Cyprus, 1969-76”. Archaeological Reports 22.
  2. 2.Kyriakos Nicolaou (1970). “Archaeological News from Cyprus, 1969”. American Journal of Archaeology 74, 391-400.
  3. 3.Kyriakos Nicolaou (1972). “Archaeological News from Cyprus, 1970”. American Journal of Archaeology 76, 311-320.
  4. 4.Kyriakos Nicolaou (1973). “Archaeological News from Cyprus, 1972”. American Journal of Archaeology 77, 425-433.
  5. 5.V. Karageorghis (1970). “Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques à Chypre en 1969”. Bulletin de correspondance hellénique 94.
  6. 6.V. Karageorghis (1971). “Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques à Chypre en 1970”. Bulletin de correspondance hellénique 95.
  7. 7.V. Karageorghis (1972). “Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques à Chypre en 1971”. Bulletin de correspondance hellénique 96.
  8. 8.V. Karageorghis (1973). “Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques à Chypre en 1972”. Bulletin de correspondance hellénique 97.
  9. 9.N. Robertson (ed.) (1975). The Archaeology of Cyprus: Recent Developments. Park Ridge, N.J., Noyes Press.
  10. 10.M. K. Toumazou (ed.), P. N. Kardulias (ed.), D. B. Counts (ed.) (2011). Crossroads and Boundaries: The Archaeology of Past and Present in the Malloura Valley, Cyprus.
  11. 11.A. Hermary (1991). “Chronique d'archéologie chypriote: bibliographie, 1989-1990”. Cahiers du Centre d'Études Chypriotes 16.
  12. 12.G. Bakalakis (1988). Anaskaphe sto lopho Giorkous B.A. tes Athenainou, Kypros (Fouilles de la colline de Giorkos au Nord-Est d'Athienou, Chypre). Athens, Archaiologike Etaireia.
  13. 13.Wikidata/GND record: Georgios Bakalakes (1908-1991), Greek archaeologist. Online