Olynthus 1931:  The Mary Ross Ellingson Photo Archive

by Alan Kaiser

University of Evansville, Department of Archaeology

Last updated April 22, 2004

"I am really awfully enthusiastic about being an archaeologist."

 Mary Ross Ellingson in a letter to her family dated July 1, 1931.

Mary Ross Ellingson (left holding the shovel) and an unidentified woman preparing for Ellingson's departure to join the Johns Hopkins University team to excavate at Olynthus in 1931.

Introduction 

In 1931 Mary Ross Ellingson joined David Robinson's excavations at Olynthus in the Chalcide of northeastern Greece.  Ellingson was a graduate student in archaeology studying under Robinson and was entrusted with the supervision of up to 60 Greek workmen excavating 5 different houses at the site.  Ellingson took pictures of the excavations in progress which she later organized into a scrapbook.  When Ellingson passed away in 1994, her daughter donated the scrapbook, along with an assortment of letters Ellingson Ross wrote to her family during the excavation and some newspaper clippings about her adventures in Greece to the University of Evansville where Ellingson had been a faculty member in the English and Foreign Languages Departments.  The scrapbook now resides in the Department of Archaeology.

The Robinson's excavations at Olynthus continue to be of great importance to classical archaeologists.  Robinson discovered a number of houses that had been destroyed by Philip II of Macedon, Alexander the Great's father, in 348 BCE.  After the city fell, Philip's troops looted and burned the city.  The site was then forgotten and was disturbed very little until Robinson began excavations in 1928.  He found a destruction layer across the site that was still intact, with many artifacts resting where they had fallen during the destruction of the site in 348 BCE.  Thus Olynthus offers unrivaled evidence for ancient Greek domestic architecture and life in the average home which is simply not found at any other Greek site.

Ellingson's photographs illustrate this historic excavation in progress and offer some insight into the techniques the excavators used.  They also document what life was like in the village of Myriophito where the crew lived for both the excavators and their Greek hosts and workmen. 

Click on one of the links below for a glimpse of a moment in archaeology and a moment in modern Greek history that has long since disappeared.

Photo Gallery 1: 

Archaeologists at Olynthus (17 photos).

Click on the picture to the left to enter the gallery.

Photo Gallery 2: 

Archaeology at Olynthus (22 photos).

Click on the picture to the left to enter the gallery.

Photo Gallery 3: 

Greek village life (25 photos).

Click on the picture to the right to enter the gallery.

Photo Gallery 4: 

Post-excavation work in Thessaloniki (8 photos).

Click on the picture to the right to enter the gallery.