Ernst CurtiusBorn 2 Sep 1814; died 1896 .German archaeologist and historian who directed the excavation of Olympia from 1875-1881, the most opulent and sacred religious shrine of ancient Greece and site of the original Olympic Games (from 776 B.C. to 393 A.D.). The excavations cleared the whole of the sacred precinct and some buildings that lay outside it. The position of the stadium was located by exploratory trenches. Thus the plan of a great Greek sanctuary was revealed for the first time. The excavation also unearthed the only major surviving sculpture by Praxiteles, “Hermes Carrying the young Dionysus” found in the cella of the temple in 1877, now one of the most prized possessions of the Olympia Museum. |
