The Archaeological Department of the Greek Governance of Smyrna (1919–1922). Archaeology in the War Zone through Archival Testimonies

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The Greek occupation and administration of the Smyrna Zone began with the landing of the Greek army in the city’s harbour in May 1919, after the Allies’ approval, and ended with its disorderly retreat and complete annihilation of the Asia Minor Greeks in September 1922. Within these three years, the Greek state established and funded the High Commission, a local government scheme, formulated as a League of Nations mandate.

Greek archaeologists settled in Asia Minor a few months after the political and military forces, in October 1919. In the following years, the Archaeological Department of Smyrna of the local Directorate of Education achieved the safekeeping, preservation, rescue, research, and management of excavated remains, collection of endangered antiquities, rearrangement and enrichment of the Evangelical School Museum, and the establishment of a few public collections. After providing excavation permits to the foreign archaeological institutes of France, the UK, and the USA to proceed with their old excavations in Asia Minor, the High Commission decided to carry out excavations in three archaeological sites in the summer of 1921 and 1922; the ancient Greek cities of Klazomenai and Nysa on the Maeander and the Basilica of Hagios Ioannis Theologos in Ephesus.

This work presents unknown administrative records, unpublished photographs, and valuable evidence for the excavations conducted by the Greek archaeological mission. Archival material is also valuable for tracing the original find-spot of movable antiquities dispatched to collections and for revealing the role of military personnel in spotting antiquities in the occupied regions. It also demonstrates the decent and methodical work of the Greek archaeologists who managed to keep their distance from the national excitement of their times.