Description:
The research was initiated in the summer of 2018 with geo-physical (geo-radar and geo-electrical) surveys and is the final outcome of long archival research and study of the materials that have made it possible to have a complete picture of all activities (excavations, restorations, knocking down structures) carried out in the area starting from the 19th century without overlooking even older prints and drawings. In September 2018, in the south-western section of the sanctuary, in a site measuring approximately 400 m2, after a careful study of the results of the geo-physical surveys, two small assays were set up (SS. 242, 243 of the Italian-French mission) at a short distance from each other.

The stratigraphy survey in the northernmost assay (S. 242), about 15 m from the base of the Athenaion, in the space between the sixth and the eighth column of the southern side of the peristasis, made it possible to trace the southern edge of an old trench that had cut anthropic activity levels, fortunately still intact. Excavating these levels made it possible to recognise a thick and very compacted layer of travertine chips and dust, very likely used to obliterate more ancient remains and to raise the height of a more ancient walking surface of the sanctuary. The latter, a well-preserved archaic compacted soil floor, was covered by an accumulation of tiles, fictile architectural elements and fragments of votive coroplastic figurines. The items recovered in the pile include the remains of the arm of an Athena Promachos statuette and a ‘horned’ type antefix.

In the assay executed more to the south (S. 243), the ancient stratigraphy is impaired first by the planting and later uprooting of a row of cypresses which, in the 1930s, marked the boundary of the archaeological area of the Temple of Ceres.

For visitors: A selection of the materials of the so-called Votive Offerings of Ceres (architectural and votive terracottas, metals and especially weapons, fragments of painted vases and other objects) has been displayed at the Museum in the exhibition The weapons of Athena, now an integral part of the museum’s pathway. The research, which then led to the archaeological investigation, is illustrated in the catalogue of the exhibition (see the bibliography item).