List of early travelers to Thasos

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The early travelers were diplomats , historians and military personnel from the 15th century , and increasingly geologists and archaeologists from the 19th century who followed and described the mapping of the island of Thasos and the rediscovery of the ancient sites lying in ruins. At the beginning of the 20th century (1911) the École française d'Athènes took over the detailed recordings and systematic excavations.

In the following the years of visit, names, occupation, life dates and travel reports relating to Thasos are listed.

Until 1475: under Genoese rule

  • 1419/20/22 Buondelmonti , Christoforo, cartographer (1386 / 90–1430): Emile Legrand: Description des Iles de L'Archipel Grec by Christophe Buondelmonti, version grecques du Liber insularum archipelagi , Florence 1420. Buondelmonti maps the island and describes it from my own point of view as very populous and fertile, with three fortified villages . Karl Bayer: "Liber insularum Archipelagi", transcription, translation and commentary, Wiesbaden 2007.
  • 1444/45 Cyriacus of Ancona , merchant, epigrapher (1391-1455): Cyriac of Ancona, Later Travels , under Diary II, p. 91: Travels in the Northern Aegean , pp. 109-121 and 135-147, edited and translated by Edward W. Bodnar, London 2003. The author admires the largely preserved marble city wall, the towers and gates. He deciphered the names of archons and theors and the inscriptions on a large number of sarcophagi, funerary steles and monuments inside and outside the walls, discovered the theater and described the Acropolis-Citadel. The encounter with the Genoese ruler of the island, Francesco III. , is described.

1475–1813: under Ottoman rule

  • 1528 Bordone , Benedetto , book and map painter (1445–1530): Libro Di Benedetto Bordone nel qual si ragiona de tutte l'isole del mondo (1528), (CD-ROM edition, Verlag Harald Fischer, Erlangen 2006). In connection with the southern peninsula of Athos, Bordone created a first cartographic draft of Thasos and gave a brief description of the island.
  • 1547 Belon , Pierre , natural scientist and botanist (1517–1564): Les observations de plusieurs singularites et choses memorables, trouvées en Grèce, Asie, Indée, Egypte, Arabie et autres pays estranges, redigees en trois liures , chap. 34: Voyage de Lemnos en l'isle de Tassos , pp. 33–34, Paris 1553. About the 3-day stay, the author makes very general comments about the marble ruins of the ancient city, gives very little botanical information, mentions them mighty mining heaps and in this context draws on the well-known statements of Herodotus and Thucydides.
  • 1572 Porcacchi , Tommaso (1530–1585): L'isole piu famose del mondo , p. 71, Venice 1590. Porcacchi very probably did not visit Thasos. Classical authors and the reports of earlier travelers served as a source base. He speaks of a densely populated, rich island and three fortresses.
  • 1688 Piacenza , Francesco : L'Egeo redivivo, o 'sia chorographia dell' Arcipelago,… che della Grecia, Morea, o 'Peloponnese, di Candia, e Cipri , Modona 1688, VIII, p. 684, IDN: 151587868.
  • 1808 Murhard , Friederich Wilhelm August , legal scholar (1778-1853): Painting of the Greek Archipelagos , Volume 2, Berlin (1808) and Constantinople and St. Petersburg, the Orient and the North , German magazines of the 18th and 19th centuries, Hildesheim 1805, Electronic Resource, IDN: 547654-9

  • Thasos after Benedetto Bordone (1528)

  • Thasos after Chevalier Lapie (1826)

  • Thasos after George Perrot (1864)

  • Thasos after ECB Miller (1889)

1813–1902: under Egyptian suzerainty

  • 1826 Lapie Chevalier , geographer (1749–1850): Carte d'une partie de la Macedoine , 1826. Possibly without having traveled to Thasos, Lapie provides a map of Macedonia with the island of Thasos that largely corresponds to today's knowledge.
The remains of the ancient city of Thasos according to G. Perrot (1856)
  • 1831 Cousinery , Esprit Marie , Diplomat (1747–1831): Voyage dans la Macedoine, contenant des Recherches sur l'histoire la Géographie et les Antiquités de ce Pays , Paris 1831, Volume 2, Chapter XIII: Voyage a l'ile de Thasos , Pp. 85 - 110. The author describes the island in detail, taking into account its ancient history and the conditions under Ottoman-Egyptian rule that he himself explored.
  • 1828 Prokesch von Osten , Anton , Diplomat and General (1795–1876): Memoirs and Recollections from the Orient , Volume 3, pp. 608–632, Stuttgart 1837. From August 14 to 20, 1828, the author undertakes a journey across the country the island. From the first of the early travelers, Prokesch provides the most detailed description of the country and population, the economic and political situation, but especially the ruins of the ancient sites. The history of the island is briefly touched on.
  • 1840 Ross , Ludwig , archaeologist (1806–1859): Travels on the Greek islands of the Aegean Sea , Stuttgart and Tübingen 1840
  • 1839/41 Grisebach , August , Botaniker (1814–1879): Journey through Rumelia and to Brussa in 1839. Volume 2, Göttingen 1841, pp. 211–226. Grisebach stayed on June 2nd and 3rd, 1839 in the plain at the "Port of Panagia" and in the valley of Kasaviti. It describes the lush vegetation and gives numerous botanical references.
The German archaeologist Alexander Conze (around 1870)
  • 1856 Perrot , Georges , archaeologist (1832–1914): Memoire de l'ile de Thasos , chap. VI .: “Etat actuel de l'ile, son administration, ses productions, caractere des habitants”, pp. 64-101, Paris 1864. Perrot traveled the island for a month in the autumn of 1856. In Chapter I of the memoirs he treated the Geography, in Chapter II-V the history up to 1856 (pp. 9–72) in great detail, in Chapter VI the situation at that time, the localities, administration, economy and population island (pp. 64–73) and in Chapter VII the ruins the ancient city and in the south of the island (pp. 74-103).
  • 1858 Conze , Alexander , Archaeologist (1831–1914): Journey on the islands of the Thracian Sea, Thasos pp. 2–41, Hanover 1860. “All remains of the old city of Thasos” are presented in great detail, the Conze “during an eight-day stay at this place ”, especially the city wall and the tombs and sarcophagi with their numerous inscriptions (pp. 3–23). Conze spends 3 weeks on a round trip through the island and describes all the then known places on the island and the antiquities found there, especially in Alyki , the marble quarries and ruins of the numerous towers in the south of the island (p. 23-41).
  • 1864 Miller , Emmanuel : Le Mont Athos, Vatopédi, l'ile de Thasos , Leroux Paris (1889), Thasos: pp. 387-405. After a 2-week tour of Thasos in June 1864, Miller carried out excavations for 4 weeks in the area of ​​the ancient city of Thasos and came across important monuments and inscriptions. Numerous artifacts are brought to the Louvre by him.
  • 1886/87 Bent , James Theodore , archaeologist (1852–1897): Aegean Islands. The Cyclades or life among the insular Greeks , Vol. 8, p. 409, Chicago 1887, new and enlarged by Al. N. Oikonomides, Chicago. Bent collects inscriptions and excavates the Arch of Caracalla, the theater, and Aliki . The artifacts are in the Istanbul Archaeological Museum .
  • 1875 Löher , Franz von , Reich Archives Director, Historian (1818–1892): Greek Coastal Trips , chap. III – VIII, pp. 33–114, Bielefeld and Leipzig 1876. Dr. Löher describes the experiences and insights of a five-day tour, including in detail the beauty of the island, its population and the economic situation.

1902–1912: under Ottoman rule

  • 1908 Fredrich , Carl , historian and archaeologist (1871–1930): In front of the Dardanelles, on ancient Greek islands and on Mount Athos , chap. 6, pp. 107–128: Thasos , Berlin 1915. For the most part, only general statements and data and statements taken from previous travelers are recorded.

List of early historians and scholars

  • 1851 Zinkeisen Johann Wilhelm , publicist (1803–1863): History of the Ottoman Empire in Europe , Part 2: The Empire at the height of its development (1453–1574), Gotha 1854, 1st chapter, pp. 18–38: Venetians and Genoese ; Chapter 2, pp. 70–79: Campaign against Serbia ; Chapter 3, pp. 226–246: Conquests on the islands of the Aegean Sea , p. 305
  • 1856 Finlay , George , Historiker (1799–1875): History of Greece from its conquest by the Romans to the present time , Volume V: Greece under Othoman and Venetian domination , Oxford 1877, p. 103
  • 1911 Barclay Vincent Head , numismatist (1844–1914): Historia numorum , 2nd edition, Oxford 1911, pp. 263–266 (on the Thai coins, not on the island)
  • 1912 Mendel , Gustave , curator of the Ottoman Museums in Constantinople: Musees Imperiaux Ottomans Catalog des sculptures greques, romaines et bycantines , Vol. 1, Konstantinopel 1912, Vol. I, pp. 336–348. Mendel describes in detail eight statues of women that were excavated by Theodor Macridy on Thasos in 1909 and brought to the Archaeological Museum in Istanbul.

Web links

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