Van 1971 tot 2004 hebben
de Amerikaanse archeologen opgravingen verricht in Nemea en een keur aan gebouwen
maar ook aan voorwerpen uitgegraven. Men zou dus verwachten dat al deze
inspanningen beloond werden maar niets is minder waar. Sinds december 2017
hangt er een bordje aan het toegangshek met de boodschap dat de site en het
museum gesloten zijn wegens een tekort aan bewakingspersoneel. Niet te geloven,
toch?
De geïnteresseerde
toerist komt er bekaaid van af maar heel waarschijnlijk kunnen de illegale
verzamelaars er intussen wel vrij hun gang gaan, denk ik dan?
De man die al die jaren deze
opgravingen geleid heeft, Professor Stephen G. Miller van de University of
California, Berkeley, pikt dit niet zomaar en heeft een zure brief naar het
Griekse Ministerie voor Cultuur gestuurd, waarvan hieronder de tekst:
Today was a bright, sunny day
with temperatures around 12oC. I decided to go for a walk to the museum, about
15 minutes distant from the office. It was wonderful, but when I arrived the
museum and the archaeological site were closed as they have been since November
23. There were two rented cars in the parking lot, and eight people looking
over the fence at the Temple
of Nemean Zeus. They were
two families with a husband and wife and two teenage children each.
It emerged that they were
neighbors from Santa Cruz, California,
and that one of the wives had been a student at the University
of California at Berkeley while I was still actively teaching
there. She had heard about my work at Nemea then, and had managed to persuade
her husband, and then her neighbors, to come to Greece
during the Christmas break this year with a visit to Nemea
as the highlight. They were all very disappointed that Nemea
was closed and asked me how that had happened.
I tried to explain that, at least
for the last 50 years, the Greek state had decided that tourists only came to Greece for the
island beaches in the summer months. Hence, at least in the recent past, a very
small crew of guards was on duty for the whole year, and supplemental guards
hired from April until October. I confessed that I did not understand why 17
additional staff was added at Nemea for those
seven months, when 12 would have been adequate and the other five kept for the
winter when the site closes at 3 p.m. shortly before the sun goes down. During
the summer it is open for an additional 4-5 hours which requires more personnel.
I also found it difficult to
explain why, in 2016, our Society for the Revival of the Nemean Games was
allowed to pay for four extra guards for the first four months which netted
nearly €11,000 in ticket sales for the Ministry of Culture, but this year our
written offer, supported by the local archaeological office, has been ignored.
At this point one of the men
pulled out a guide book, opened it and asked if I knew Stephen Miller. I
admitted that I am Stephen Miller and that I had, since 1973, created the
archaeological site of Nemea, constructed and equipped the museum, discovered
the stadium with its vaulted entrance tunnel (which I subsequently
consolidated), reconstructed several columns of the temple, planted trees and
grass and flowers, fenced the whole area, and carried out maintenance such as
painting and cutting weeds, especially in the stadium. I had also published
many of my discoveries, some in guide books that are locked away inside the
museum. I am now very frustrated that my discoveries were not being shared with
visitors. The Ministry of Culture seems uninterested in the pedagogical aspects
of ancient Greece.
They asked me about the story of
the discovery of the starting line in 1974 after 12 weeks of excavation without
any sign of previous human life in the emerging earth. That happened on our
last day of excavation, Friday, July 19, 1974. I explained the joy we felt,
which was turned upside the next day when Cyprus was invaded. One of the boys
asked if there was any way to get into the stadium. He had been looking forward
to standing on the ancient line like ancient Greek athlete. Again I apologized
that my discoveries were locked away.
I also explained that everything
I have done at Nemea has been done with funds
raised from private donors, mostly Americans of non-Greek ancestry. In fact,
two of the seven marble plaques with their names could be seen in the distance
behind the locked entrance gate. I had persuaded those people to invest in Greece, and now
their investment is wasted. So is mine.
We shook hands and said good-by,
and I expressed the hope that they might come back. Surely Nemea
will open again someday. One of the mothers noted that the holiday period is
best for all of their families to come to Greece. She was surprised that Greece did not
understand that.
Stephen G. Miller
Professor emeritus
University of California,
Berkeley
