Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 17.djvu/827

L Y M P I A 767 Their work could not, however, be restricted to the Altis. It was necessary to dig beyond it, especially on the west, the south, and the east, where several ancient buildings existed, not included within the sacred precinct itself. The complexity of the task was further increased by the fact that in many places early Greek work had later Greek on top of it, or late Greek work had been overlaid with Roman. In a concise survey of the results obtained, it will be best to begin with the remains external to the precinct of Zeus. 1 I. REMAINS OUTSIDE THE ALTIS. A. West Side. The materials and the technical character of the wall bounding the Altis on the west are the same as those which belong to the western portion of the south Altis wall. Both be long to the earlier part of the Macedonian age, and to a time at which the Altis received its largest traceable extension to west, north-west, and south-west. In the west wall were two gates, one at its northern and the other at I _ I its southern extremity. Each in the form of a square, of which each side was about 64 metres long, enclosing an inner building surrounded by a Doric colon nade. Facing this inner building on north, east, and west were rooms of different sizes, to which doors or colonnades gave access. The chief entrances to the palaestra were at south-west and south-east, separated by a long Ionic porch which extended along the south side. 3. Near the palaestra on the south a Byzantine church forms the central point in a complex group of remains, (a) The church itself occupies the site of an older brick building, which is perhaps a remnant of the "workshop of Phidias " seen by Pausanias. (b) North of the church is a square fountain-house, of the Hellenic age. (c) West of this is a small circular structure, enclosed by square walls. An altar found (in situ) on the south side of the circular enclosure shows by an inscription that this was the Heroon, where worship of the heroes was practised down to a late period. (d) East of the fountain-house stood a large building, of Roman age at latest, arranged round an inner hall with colonnades. Its particular destination is uncertain, (e) So, too, is that of a long and narrow building on the south of the Byzantine church. It may have been the priests house mentioned by Pausanias, or it may have been occupied by the $cu5piWcu, those alleged "descend- Plan of Olympia. gate was wpSffrvXos, having before it on the west a colonnade con sisting of a double row of four columns. A third and smaller gate, at about the middle point of the west wall, and nearly opposite the Pelopion in the Altis, was probably of a later age. West of the west Altis wall, on the strip of ground between the Altis and the river Cladeus (of which the course is roughly parallel to the west Altis wall), the following buildings were traced. The order in which they are placed here is that in which they succeed each other from north to south. 1. Just outside the Altis at its north-west corner was a Gymna sium. A large open space, not regularly rectangular, was enclosed on two sides possibly on three by Doric colonnades. On the south it was bordered by a portico with a single row of columns in front ; on the east by a longer portico, with a similar colonnade in front, and a second row, parallel to the first, traversing the interior of the portico itself. At the south-east corner of the gymnasium, in the angle between the south and the east portico, was a Corinthian doorway, which a double row of columns divided into three passages. Immediately to the east of this doorway was the gate giving access to the Altis at its north-west corner. The gymnasium was used for practice in the first four exercises of the pentathlon leaping, quoit-throwing, javelin-throwing, running. The great length of the east portico is thus explained. 2. Immediately adjoining the gymnasium on the south was a Palaestra, the place of exercise for wrestlers and boxers. It was 1 Permission to use the accompanying plan of Olympia has kindly been given by the publisher, Herr Weidmann of Berlin. ants of Phidias " (Pans. v. 14) whose hereditary privi lege it was to keep the statue of Zeus clean. The so-called " workshop of Phidias" (see a) evidently owed its preservation to the fact that it continued to be used for actual work, and the adjacent building would have been a con venient lodging for the artists. 4. South of the group described above occur the remains of a large build- dating from the lato Hellenic or early Macedonian age. It is an oblong, of which the north and south sides measure about 80 metres, the east and west about 73. Its orientation differs from that of all the other build ings above mentioned, being not from north to south, but from west-south-west to east-north-east ; and there are signs that it was built before the west Altis wall. Externally it is an Ionic peri- pteros, enclosing suites of rooms, large and small, grouped round a small interior Doric peristyle. In Roman times it was altered in such a way as to distribute the rooms into (apparently) four quarters, each having an atrium with six or four columns. The most prob able conjecture is that it was used as a lodging for distinguished visitors during the games, such as the heads of the special missions from the various Greek cities (apwdtupoC), or Roman officials. Traces existing within the exterior porticos on north, west, and east indicate much carriage traffic. B. South Side. Although the limits of the Altis on the south (i.e., on the side towards the Alpheus) can be traced with approxi mate accuracy, the precise line of the south wall becomes doubtful after we have advanced a little more than one-third of the distance from the west to the east end of the south side. The middle and eastern portions of the south side were places at which architect- iiral changes, large or small, were numerous down to the latest times, and where the older buildings met with scant mercy. _ The westernmost and best -defined part of the south -wall line is, as already stated, coeval with the west wall, belonging to the early Macedonian age. 1. The Council Hall (Bovcvr4pur, Paus. v. 23) was just out side the Altis, nearly at the middle of its south wall. It comprised