Architecture. – The most important new monuments are represented by those excavated by the American Archaeological School in the agora of Athens including the surely identified thólos, the stoa of Zeus Eleutherios and other buildings (see Athens, in this App.). On the Acropolis we must remember the refitting of the temple of Athena Nike by N. Balanos and the studies on the various monuments of the plateau made by GP Stevens and published in the magazine Hesperia.
On the architecture of Greek theaters the recent studies of C. Anti reach conclusions completely opposite to those of W. Dörpfeld regarding the origin from a primitive circular orchestra, supporting instead an original trapezoidal shape with seats arranged in a square. Excavation tests carried out in the theater of Syracuse would have confirmed this thesis, revealing an older phase with a trapezoidal cavea to be rebuilt in wood adapted to the slope of the hill, a second phase carved into the rock with a trapezoidal eurype, skené rectangular and corridor with scenic pit. This trapezoidal arrangement would be found by Anti even in the most ancient phases of other theaters, such as those of Dionysus in Athens, of Oropo, of Tera, of Torico, of Catania and in the Leneo of Athens, which he would recognize in remains before the Dionysion en Limnais. These primitive trapezoidal theaters would be linked to the Minoan theatrical areas and to the telesterî, buleuterî and odei. The first theater with a circular orchestra would be that of Epidaurus, of the century. IV a. C.
Ceramics. – In the field of studies on ceramics, the publication of the files of the Corpus Vasorum Antiqitorum continued and there is an increasing tendency to reconstruct the various workshops and the production of the various anonymous masters, to whom it is customary to give conventional names. JD Beazley’s studies have made fundamental contributions in this typological and stylistic classification. We also try to evaluate the artistic personality of the best known ceramographers with monographic and critical studies. The numerous excavations have greatly enriched the ceramic heritage and among the most notable finds is the beautiful series of proto-attic vases from the necropolis of Vari, now in the National Museum of Athens, as well as the numerous and important material returned from the excavations of the Pottery and the agora.. Among the signed vases we remember a crater of Exechia with the introduction of Heracles in Olympus and a fight over the corpse of Patroclus, from a well of the kylix of Epictetus with Heracles and Busiris and psychostasia from Caere, now at the Museum of Villa Giulia, a new hydria of Midia with Museum, now in New York. The new Hellenistic ceramic material is very numerous.
