Excavations
Much of the material on this website was generated by excavations carried out at Nemea by the University of California at Berkeley from 1971 to 2004 operating under the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, and with the permission and supervision of the Archaeological Service of the Ministry of Culture of the Hellenic Republic. The Director of those excavations was Professor Stephen G. Miller, now retired.
Excavations had been carried out around the Sanctuary in 1884 by a French team, and again in 1924-1926, 1962 and 1964 by the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, funded in part by the University of Cincinnati. The work by Berkeley was funded by private contributions mostly gathered in the U.S.A., except for the Temple reconstruction which was started in the U.S.A., but came to be funded by private sources in Greece.
Significant Dates
July 1971 – Miller appointed by the faculty of the Department of Classics to direct the Nemea Excavations.
May-July 1973 – Purchase of most of the property in the stadium and the sanctuary; preliminary work at the site including establishing grid reference system tied to Greek Army survey.
April-July 1974 – First full season of excavation with four crews in the sanctuary and one in the stadium.
July 19, 1974 – Discovery of starting line of stadium at a depth of 6.85 m. below the modern surface.
March, 1975 – Construction begins on museum.
May 3, 1978 – Discovery of the vaulted entrance tunnel of the stadium.
June-July, 1979 – Discovery of the Hero Shrine of Opheltes.
1980-1982 – Architectural study of the temple undertaken by F.A. Cooper.
April 1983 – Exhibition on the Temple of Nemean Zeus at the Benaki Museum in Athens.
May 28, 1984 – Dedication of the Museum.
July 6, 1994 – Dedication of the stadium park.
June 1, 1996 – First Modern Nemead.
July 25, 1999 – Inauguration of Temple Reconstruction.
June 3, 2000 – Second Modern Nemead.
May-July, 2001 – Discovery of first traces of hippodrome.
July 3, 2002 – Completion of first phase of the reconstruction of the Temple of Nemean Zeus.
July 31, 2004 – Third Modern Nemead.
December 31, 2004 – Miller retires.
July 1, 2005 – Kim Shelton becomes Director, Nemea Center for Classical Archaeology.
June 21, 2008 – Fourth Modern Nemead.
June 23, 2012 – Fifth Modern Nemead.
June 2, 2013 – Dedication of Opheltes Column in Papalexopoulos Square (Press Release #17)
June 15, 2013 – Formal completion of the second phase of the reconstruction of the Temple of Zeus
October 12, 2013 – Pankration competition in stadium.
June 13, 2014 – Visit by ICOMOS.
June 11, 2016 – Sixth Modern Nemead.
August 11, 2021 – Professor Miller past away.
June 25, 2022 – Seventh Modern Nemead.
Bibliography
Nemea I = Birge, Darice E., Lynn H. Kraynak, and Stephen G. Miller, The Sacred Square, the Xenon, and the Bath (University of California Press 1992).
Nemea II = Stephen G. Miller, The Early Hellenistic Stadium (UC Press 2001).
Nemea III = Robert C. Knapp and John D. Mac Isaac, The Coins (UC Press 2005).
Nemea IV = Jorge J. Bravo III, The Shrine of Opheltes (UC Press 2018).
Stephen G. Miller, Nemea, A Guide to the Site and Museum (Ministry of Culture, Athens 2004) with earlier bibliography.
