German Woman Returns 4th-Century BC Greek Column Head to Ancient Olympia

A Greek file caput dating to the 4th period BC that has been returned from Germany was the taxable of a repatriation ceremonial successful past Olympia. Credit: Wikimedia Commons CC BY SA 2.0

A precious ancient Greek file caput dating to the 4th period BC that has been returned from Germany was the taxable of a peculiar repatriation ceremonial that took spot astatine the Ancient Olympia Conference Center.

The fragment of the Ionic file superior (as is the archaeological term) comes from the Leonidaion of Ancient Olympia and was removed illegally successful the 1960s.

According to an announcement by the Ministry of Culture, it is simply a fragment of an Ionic capital, made of limestone, which preserves immoderate plaster successful places. It has maximum surviving dimensions of 24 cm (9.5 inches) tallness by 33.5 cm (13.2 inches) width and shows stylistic similarities with published Ionic capitals from the tract of Ancient Olympia.

The Leonidaion, named aft its donor Leonidas of Naxos, is located extracurricular Altes, successful the southwestern portion of the sanctuary of Olympia. It is the largest gathering successful the sanctuary measuring 74.80 m. (82 yards) by 81.08 m. (88.7 yards ), with diagnostic Ionic arcades connected the extracurricular connected each 4 sides.

Leonidaion was erected successful the 2nd fractional of the 4th period BC and served arsenic accommodation premises for salient visitors to the sanctuary. Its bluish portion had already been uncovered during the archetypal German excavations successful Olympia, betwixt 1875 and 1881, portion its excavation was completed during the 1953-1956 period.

An past Greek file caput from the 4th period BC that was taken from Olympia has been returned to Greece by the University of Munster successful Germany. Credit: AMNA / Ministry of Culture

The repatriation of the past Greek file head

The repatriation of the superior was made imaginable acknowledgment to the sensitivity and courageousness of a German woman, who had owned it since the 1960s, aft collecting it from the Leonidaion country during a sojourn to the site. Motivated by the caller returns of important antiquities from the University of Münster to their countries of origin, she decided to manus it implicit to the university. In turn, the assemblage returned the precious past Greek file caput to Greece and Ancient Olympia.

The University of Münster has collaborated earlier with Greece’s Ministry of Culture in  proving to beryllium a changeless collaborator successful the instrumentality of taste treasures to their spot of origin. In 2019, it proceeded with the instrumentality of the alleged skoufos (skull cup) of Spyros Louis, the Olympic champion runner astatine the archetypal Olympic Games successful Athens successful 1896, which is presently exhibited astatine the Museum of the Ancient Olympic Games, their birthplace. In 2024, Münster returned a Roman marble antheral caput from a cemetery successful Thessaloniki, which present adorns the Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki.

Dr. Torben Schreiber, curator of the Archaeological Museum of the University of Münster, stressed the Museum’s steadfast volition to instrumentality immoderate entity that proves to beryllium the merchandise of amerciable trafficking, stating that it is ne'er excessively precocious to bash the right, the motivation and the just. During the repatriation ceremony, the Secretary General of Culture, Georgios Didaskalou, thanked the representatives of the Archaeological Museum of the University of Münster and stated: “This is simply a peculiarly moving moment. This enactment proves that civilization and past cognize nary borders but necessitate cooperation, work and communal respect. Every specified instrumentality is an enactment of restoring justness and astatine the aforesaid clip a span of relationship betwixt peoples.”