Panagiotis Efstratiadis

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Dear Mr. Giannopoulos,
Three days ago, when you suggested the climb up the Acropolis to me, I declined it as well … I most greatly want to avoid this climb, because I can see nothing good that will come of it. Mr. Efstratiadis will be tempted, I think, to take our completely natural and innocent visit as something else altogether – as an act of espionage. I have this idea because I have known him for a long time, and he is a suspicious man … Don't you notice that the excavation started months ago … and he has not said anything about it at the meetings of the Council? I noticed that, because I know his habits from many years' experience. He does not want anyone to interfere in his work. [58]

Efstratiadis maintained a friendly correspondence with his former teacher, August Böckh, [59] and sought his advice on behalf of the Archaeological Society in 1851 over the reading of an inscription, now known to be from the base of the Phrasikleia Kore. [60] [lower-alpha 7] In the same year, he wrote to Ludwig Ross, who had been dismissed from his professorship at Athens following the 3 September 1843 Revolution, [62] which had forced King Otto to remove Ross and most of his fellow northern Europeans from public service. [62] Ross sent Efstratiadis what Petrakos has termed an "affectionate and laudatory" reply. [63]

Honours and legacy

According to an 1889 obituary, Efstratiadis was considered the foremost Greek epigrapher of his day. [9] He was awarded the Order of Merit of the Prussian Crown, [9] and elected as both a corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences in Berlin [10] and a member of the German Archaeological Institute at Rome  [ de ]. [9] In 1868, he was awarded the silver cross (the lowest grade, also known as knight) of the Greek Order of the Redeemer, [9] Greece's national order of merit. [64]

Efstratiadis was considered a key figure in the foundation of the National Archaeological Museum of Athens. Skokos judged that the museum "would undoubtedly not exist without [Efstratiadis's] tireless efforts." [9] In 2021, Costaki described him as one of the "founding fathers" of Greek archaeology, alongside Pittakis and Koumanoudis. [65]

A conference in Efstratiadis's memory was held at the National Archaeological Museum of Athens in December 2015, hosted by the Greek Epigraphical Society (Greek : Ελληνική Επιγραφική Εταιρεία). [66]

Footnotes

Explanatory notes

  1. Until 1923, Greece used the Julian Calendar, known as the 'Old Style'. [1]
  2. Lesbos had been under Ottoman control since 1462, and would remain so throughout Efstratiadis' life; it was annexed by Greece in 1912. [2]
  3. Skokos gives the date as November 1813. [4]
  4. Approximately equivalent to €72,400 in 2023, based on conversion rates in Bikelas 1868.
  5. The date and circumstances of the tower's construction are unclear: it is likely to have been constructed by the Frankish and Florentine dukes who ruled Athens between 1205 and 1458. [34] Nineteenth-century observers also hypothesised that it may have been constructed by the Venetians or the Ottoman Turks. [35]
  6. Since 1881, the museum has been known as the National Archaeological Museum. [51]
  7. The kore statue itself was discovered and associated with the base inscription in 1972. [61]

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Bibliography

Panagiotis Efstratiadis
Παναγιώτης Ευστρατιάδης
Born1815
Died7 August [O.S. 26 July] 1888 (aged 72–73)
Athens
OccupationArchaeologist
Title Ephor General of Antiquities (1864–1884)
ChildrenAt least one (Michael)
Awards Order of the Redeemer, silver cross
Academic background
Education
Preceded by Ephor-General of Antiquities
1864-1884
Succeeded by