Greek Archaeological Service in the context of "Semni Karouzou"

Eretria (/əˈriːtriə/; Greek: Ερέτρια, Erétria, Ancient Greek: Ἐρέτρια, Erétria, literally 'city of the rowers') is a town in Euboea, Greece, facing the coast of Attica across the narrow South Euboean Gulf. It was an important Greek polis in the 6th and 5th century BC, mentioned by many famous writers and actively involved in significant historical events.

Excavations of the ancient city began in the 1890s and have been conducted since 1964 by the Greek Archaeological Service (11th Ephorate of Antiquities) and the Swiss School of Archaeology in Greece.

The Central Archaeological Council and Museums Council (Greek: Κεντρικό Αρχαιολογικό Συμβούλιο και Συμβούλιο Μουσείων, romanized: Kentrikó Archaiologikó Symvoúlio kai Symvoúlio Mouseíon), commonly known simply by its older abbreviation KAS (Κ.Α.Σ.), is the supreme advisory body for all matters pertaining to the "protection of antiquities and cultural patrimony in general" in Greece.

Its present form and functions are regulated by Law 3028/2002, but its origins date back to 1834, when the Central Committee (Κεντρική Ἐπιτροπὴ, Kentrikí Epitropí) of the Greek Archaeological Service was established. This was renamed to Archaeological Committee (Ἀρχαιολογικὴ Ἐπιτροπὴ, Archaiologikí Epitropí) and given broader powers in 1899, to Archaeological Council (Ἀρχαιολογικόν Συμβούλιον, Archaiologikón Symvoúlion) in 1910, and to Central Archaeological Council (Κεντρικό Αρχαιολογικό Συμβούλιο, Kentrikó Archaiologikó Symvoúlio) in 1977.

Spyridon Marinatos (Greek: Σπυρίδων Μαρινάτος; 17 November [O.S. 4 November] 1901 – 1 October 1974) was a Greek archaeologist who specialised in the Minoan and Mycenaean civilizations of the Aegean Bronze Age. He is best known for the excavation of the Minoan site of Akrotiri on Thera, which he conducted between 1967 and 1974. He received many honours in Greece and abroad, and was considered one of the most important Greek archaeologists of his day.

A native of Kephallonia, Marinatos was educated at the University of Athens, the Friedrich Wilhelms University of Berlin, and the University of Halle. His early teachers included noted archaeologists such as Panagiotis Kavvadias, Christos Tsountas and Georg Karo. He joined the Greek Archaeological Service in 1919, and spent much of his early career on the island of Crete, where he excavated several Minoan sites, served as director of the Heraklion Museum, and formulated his theory that the collapse of Neopalatial Minoan society had been the result of the eruption of the volcanic island of Thera around 1600 BCE.

Christos Tsountas (Greek: Χρήστος Τσούντας; 1857 – 9 June 1934) was a Greek classical archaeologist. He is considered a pioneer of Greek archaeology and has been called "the first and most eminent Greek prehistorian".

Born in Stenimachos in Thrace in 1857, Tsountas received his university education in Germany, at the universities of Hannover, Munich and Jena. After a brief period working as a teacher, he was hired by the Archaeological Society of Athens as an archaeological official in 1882, and joined the Greek Archaeological Service the following year. He was most active as a field archaeologist in the early decades of his life, carrying out the first archaeological survey of Thessaly, excavating several Mycenaean tombs in Laconia, and carrying out the first formal excavations of the citadel of Mycenae. In the late 1890s, his discoveries in the Cyclades generated the first evidence of Cycladic culture, to which Tsountas gave its name.

Kyriakos S. Pittakis (also Pittakys; Greek: Κυριακός Σ. Πιττάκης; 1798 – 4 November [O.S. 23 October] 1863) was a Greek archaeologist. He was the first Greek to serve as Ephor General of Antiquities, the head of the Greek Archaeological Service, in which capacity he carried out the conservation and restoration of several monuments on the Acropolis of Athens. He has been described as a "dominant figure in Greek archaeology for 27 years", and as "one of the most important epigraphers of the nineteenth century".

Pittakis was largely self-taught as an archaeologist, and one of the few native Greeks active in the field during the late Ottoman period and the early years of the Kingdom of Greece. He played an influential role in the early years of the Greek Archaeological Service and was a founding member of the Archaeological Society of Athens, a private body which undertook the excavation, conservation and publication of archaeological finds. He was responsible for much of the early excavation and restoration of the Acropolis, including efforts to restore the Erechtheion, the Parthenon, the Temple of Athena Nike and the Propylaia. As ephor of the Central Public Museum for Antiquities from 1836, and later as Ephor General, he was largely responsible for the conservation and protection of many of the monuments and artefacts then known from Ancient Greece.

Panagiotis Kavvadias or Cawadias (Greek: Παναγιώτης Καββαδίας; 14 May [O.S. 2 May] 1850 – 20 July 1928) was a Greek archaeologist. He was responsible for the excavation of ancient sites in Greece, including Epidaurus in Argolis and the Acropolis of Athens, as well as archaeological discoveries on his native island of Kephallonia. As Ephor General (the head of the Greek Archaeological Service) from 1885 until 1909, Kavvadias oversaw the expansion of the Archaeological Service and the introduction of Law 2646 of 1899, which increased the state's powers to address the illegal excavation and smuggling of antiquities.

Kavvadias's work had a particular impact on the Acropolis of Athens, and has been credited with completing its "transformation [...] from castle to monument". Between 1885 and 1890, he removed almost all of the Acropolis's remaining medieval and modern structures, uncovering many ancient monuments in the process. He also played a role in the extensive reconstruction of the site by the architect and engineer Nikolaos Balanos. Though praised initially, the work caused considerable damage to several monuments and was almost completely deconstructed and rebuilt during the later 20th and early 21st centuries. Kavvadias oversaw the opening of the National Archaeological Museum in Athens, organised its first collections, and wrote some of its first catalogues.