II.—Excavations at Sparta, 1906: § 6.—Remains of the Archaic Greek Period

The archaic remains, which the trial trenches have revealed at a level beneath the Roman building and temple described above, present in one respect a striking contrast. Except inscriptions, the later buildings have not yielded many small objects: their importance lies in their architectural arrangement and purpose. In the archaic stratum on the other hand, although some architectural fragments have already been found, and more are expected, the chief interest centres in the wonderful wealth of small objects, doubtless votive offerings, and the light they throw on the early stages of art in Sparta. Before our work this year, this deposit was accessible only from the side of the river, where erosion has produced a section of all the strata from the present surface down to virgin soil. This face, shewn in Fig. 1, p. 319, in its original condition before excavation, we have protected with a wall, to guard the site from the destructive effect of the floods to which the Eurotas is liable, the lowest remains being hardly higher than the level of the bed of the river. Work was begun at this naturally exposed face, where the lead figurines now in the Sparta Museum were found, which gave the first clue to the site, and the number of archaic objects unearthed in the first few hours immediately revealed its extraordinary richness.