Thread: GREECE, the Ancient Diolkos is calling out for help!

Just some more words, since the HEC site has some technical problems and hasn't included the latest... latest developments... which are:

Faced with three inquiries from various control bodies, the Ministry of Culture has finally produced a "Master Plan" for Diolkos (actually comprising the basic info about the monument), which has been approved by the Central Archaeological Council; whose deliberation, in turn, "orders" immediate temporary measures.

No measures have been taken, instead, and one more block has fallen during the last weeks of October (you can see it in the petition photo). Rainy weather makes more stones ready to fall...

One more meeting at the Ministry of Culture, last week, seems to have given some good results, generally announced by the Head of the Local Ephorate. However, the Diolkos has been crumbling all these years under false statements of interest, so there need to be more than words...

Opening up the matter to the international community (and to as many people as possible) I think is a GUARANTEE that the abuse of the defenseless monument will come to an end!!!

Thanks for supporting the Diolkos!!!

Although the Greek Ministry of Culture has been forced to some movimentation for Diolkos, no substantial rescue operations have taken place as yet, other than supporting a few stones of the long erosion front..

Recently, the italian archaeology magazine SALTERNUM presented an article (written by me) in which there is mention of the distorted information about the state of the monunent, given to the Prime Minister's Office by the General Secretary of the Ministry of Culture, Mr. Zahopoulos in october 2006. Between other untrue statements, Mr. Zahopoulos mentioned that the waves "have by now begun to erode the monument's substrate", hiding the tragic state of the monunent.

The information was clearly coming from the Corinth Ephorate, headed at the time by Mr. Alexandros Mantis, today head of the first ephorate (Acropolis). Although Mr Mantis was responsible for Diolkos from the summer of 2001 to November 2006, the Diolkos remained totally unprotected during all this time; Mr. Mantis was also vehemently denying rescue actions.

Articles about the dramatic decay of Diolkos have been also presented in the british edition of the TIMES.

You can see the first article (scanned by me) at:
[url="http://www.greece.org:8080/opencms/opencms/HEC_Projects/DIOLKOS/media/New_Papers/Times_-_July_10x_2006.html"]www.greece.org:8080/opencms/opencms/HEC ... _2006.html[/url]
... and the second at:
[url="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/court_and_social/article1409377.ece"]www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_styl ... 409377.ece[/url]

Although the TIMES archaeology correspondent, Norman Hammond, (Prof. of archaeology at the Boston University) mentions that rescue operations would be forthcoming (an information included in MY reports, too), the only thing done was to support some stones, letting the erosion go on beneath them! The situation at the monument is worse now, of course. Two more ancient blocks have fallen since last February and the deterioration of the already fallen parts of Diolkos is also constant...

I am giving again the site for those who would like to sign the Diolkos petition, asking them to please send it over to friends, too: [url="http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/870477005"]www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/870477005[/url]

Respect and attention for Diolkos are still lacking although there are PAPERS stating the "interest" of the Authorities involved...

In November, the Directorate for the Restoration of Ancient Monuments (DAAM) sent a technical team to retrieve two ancient blocks that have fallen in 2007 from the part designated with the letter G in Werner's plan (you can see this in the link I am giving below). Nevertheless, they recovered only one of the two stones, since the second stone they brought up was NOT the one fallen last February (as instead they thought and aso wrote in their official report!).

This happened although I had personally shown images of the two stones (in two occasions) to the present Head of the Ephorate. Apparently, DAAM and the local ephorate did not coordinate...

During the recent DAAM team's visit, additional supports were place under the stones of the sector E which are now eaten by erosion. To do so, the team entered the sane part of Diolkos WITH THEIR VAN although there is a very convenient access from another point. The official report states that this operation was done in collaboration with the local ephorate; a lady archaeologist was also present, from what I hear (although I don't know who or from what body of the Ministry she was); so THIS leads us to be sure that neither the local ephorate people nor DAAM Knew or cared to look for the other access that wouldn't have a vehicle go over the ancient monument!!!

==-===

One more thing that shows how deplorable the role of the local ephorate has been under the former Head, Mr. Mantis (today at the Acropolis!!!), is this:

I had written to ask about a damage I had noticed on the part of Diolkos that is on the Attica side of the Canal (and is free from erosion). Although I had mentioned where this damage was, Mr. Mantis wrote to his superiors stating that they had performed an autopsy and nothing was wrong!!!!!

You can see the damage between the images at

[url="http://www.greece.org:8080/opencms/opencms/HEC_Projects/DIOLKOS/Gallery.html"]http://www.greece.org:8080/opencms/open ... llery.html[/url]

It is on the double row of stones, a very interesting feature of Diolkos. Their western end has been removed (by a bulldozer I think - sometime between 1978 and 1984) and then replaced haphazardly. My recent photo shows only one of the two series (the one at left in the 1960 images which you can also see) but the other end is also damaged.

I DO hope Mr. Mantis fares better as Head of the ACROPOLIS ephorate!