Eleusis 2001 Overview

Eleusis in the Bronze Age Location Eleusis, Greece
Michael Cosmopoulos

The content and origins of the Eleusinian Mysteries are still covered with a thick veil of secrecy, partly because of the oath of silence taken by the initiates, which prevented the ancient writers from writing about the cult, and partly because the results of decades of archaeological excavations at the site are still not clear, as thousands of finds remain unpublished. In the absence of ancient testimonia, any hope to lift this veil of secrecy lies with the proper study and publication of the finds from those excavations.

The present project aims at filling this gap, by publishing in detail the more than 15,000 Bronze Age finds from the excavations conducted at Eleusis at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century. This extensive material covers all periods of Greek prehistory, from the middle of the third millennium to the end of the second and constitutes a valuable record of the origins and first steps of this important site. This project will publish this extensive material fully in order to establish the chronology and stratigraphy of the site in the Early, Middle, and Late Bronze Age. The study of the finds is also used as the basis for a synthetic study of the economic, social, political, and religious organization of Eleusis in the Bronze Age and of the origins of the Eleusinian Mysteries and other Greek mystery cults. The results of the project will be published in a two-volume book by the Athens Archaeological Society.