Le Nord : revue internationale des Pays de Nord - 01.06.1944, Blaðsíða 79
SWEDISH EXCAVATIONS 69
the trustees of the Institute correspond to the committees for the
Greek and Egyptian undertakings.
It is evident that the arrangement with the setting up of
these committees, which, it should be emphasized, through their
great authority and the extraordinary interest shown by their
various members, have been of the greatest importance, cannot
in the long run be said to be an ideal solution of the question
how the activity of research in foreign countries is to be defini-
tively organized. The committee system, indeed, is exceedingly
pliant, and hitherto it has functioned without disadvantages, but
a more fixed and permanent governmental central institute,
which may unite and plan the various individual undertakings
for definite well-prepared tasks, however, would seem desirable
and convenient for Swedish conditions.
The Swedish excavation undertakings on classical soil, which
amount to no less than about fifty, are distributed among certain
units or uniformly directed expeditions. The number of parti-
cipants has changed considerably. Among these undertakings the
Asine Expedition is in a class apart, as this was the one in which
the young generation first came into contact with Greek soil
and learnt the method of excavation suitable for it. The Asine
Expedition worked with a comparatively large number of scien-
tifically trained assistants. The excavations were carried on in
five different campaigns between which the material of finds
was worked up, partly in Sweden, partly in Greece.
It may be said that the excavations at Dendra and Berbati
under the leadership of A. W. Persson are direct offshoots of the
Asine Expedition, whereas the work in Messenia in 1926—34
with Malthi as central place was directed by N. Valmin, and
the acropolis at Asea in 1936—39 was examined independently
by E. Holmberg.
Already in the year after the first Asine campaign, 1923,
E. Gjerstad in Cyprus started a two years’ expedition to conduct
minor excavations in connexion with his arrangement of the pre-
historic relics of the island. In the year 1927, however, the Cyprus
Committee was set up in order that these investigations might
be continued on a larger scale. A great working programme was
drawn up aiming at the investigation of all the ancient periods
of the island down to Christian times. The programme was car-
ried out systematically during four years of uninterrupted excava-
tions simultaneously on two fronts in 1927—31. In all some 25