On Friday, 9 August 2019, as part of the 48th Olympus Festival, one of the longest-running features in the festival’s annual calendar, the Archaeological Talks, took place. The brainchild of archaeology professor Dimitrios Pantermalis, this year’s very interesting event was co-organised by the Olympus Festival Organisation (ORFEO) and the Katerini Branch of AHEPA Hellas.
Prof Pantermalis, who is president of the Acropolis Museum and for many years headed the excavation project at Dion, the sacred city of ancient Macedonians, gave a talk entitled “Tales of the Parthenon Sculptures”.
Zanet Battinou, Director of the Jewish Museum of Greece and archaeologist, was invited to participate at the event at the proposal of the Embassy of Israel, the country of honour at this year’s festival. Briefly touching on the mission and work of the JMG, she then spoke on “Jewish inscriptions in Greece”, based on the recent publication (2018) of Corpus Inscriptionum Judaicarum Graeciae (CIJG): Corpus of Jewish and Hebrew Inscriptions from Mainland and Island Greece (late 4th c. BCE–15th century), the result of a long-term JMG academic project. She presented selected epigraphic documents from throughout the country, providing an overview of their geographical distribution, substance, content, language, dating and explaining the importance of this valuable archaeological material.
In addition to the talks by the two archaeologists, the evening included a musical performance by the Camerata Academica Katerini ensemble under the direction of Mikis Michaelides.
The event was coordinated and presented by Olympus Festival Organization board member and Communications Officer Periklis Hatzigiannis.
