{{infobox academic , name = Christos Tsountas , native_name = Χρήστος Τσούντας , native_name_lang = el , image=Christos Tsountas.jpg , alt=Photograph of a young man with a moustache. , caption = Photographed in 1879 , birth_place =

Eastern Rumelia Eastern Rumelia (; ; ) was an autonomous province (''oblast'' in Bulgarian, ''vilayet'' in Turkish) of the Ottoman Empire with a total area of , which was created in 1878 by virtue of the Treaty of Berlin (1878), Treaty of Berlin and ''de facto'' ...

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

, birth_date = 1857 , death_date = {{death date and age, 1934, 06, 09, 1857 , nationality = Greek , discipline = Archaeology , sub_discipline = Greek prehistory , known_for = Study and naming of Cycladic culture , workplaces = {{plainlist, *

Greek Archaeological Service The Greek Archaeological Service () is a state service, under the auspices of the Greek Ministry of Culture (Greece), Ministry of Culture, responsible for the oversight of all archaeological excavations, museums and the country's archaeologic ...

University of Athens The National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA; , ''Ethnikó kai Kapodistriakó Panepistímio Athinón''), usually referred to simply as the University of Athens (UoA), is a public university in Athens, Greece, with various campuses alo ...

University of Thessaloniki The Aristotle University of Thessaloniki ( AUTh; ), often called the University of Thessaloniki, is the second oldest Tertiary education, tertiary education institution in Greece. Named after the philosopher Aristotle, who was born in Stagira (anc ...

, influences = {{plainlist, * Heinrich Brunn * Constantine Paparrigopoulos * Panagiotis Stamatakis , education = {{plainlist, * Royal College of Technology, Hannover *

University of Munich The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich, LMU or LMU Munich; ) is a public university, public research university in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. Originally established as the University of Ingolstadt in 1472 by Duke ...

University of Jena The University of Jena, officially the Friedrich Schiller University Jena (, abbreviated FSU, shortened form ''Uni Jena''), is a public research university located in Jena, Thuringia, Germany. The university was established in 1558 and is cou ...

, notable_students = {{plainlist, *

Christos Karouzos Christos Karouzos (Greek: Χρήστος Καρούζος; 14 March 1900 – 30 March 1967) was a Greek archaeologist. Born in Amfissa, he was educated at the University of Athens, where he was taught by Christos Tsountas. He joined the Greek ...

Semni Karouzou Semni Papaspyridi-Karouzou (; 1897 8 December 1994) was a Greek classical archaeologist who specialized in the study of pottery from ancient Greece. She was the first woman to join the Greek Archaeological Service; she excavated in Crete, Eub ...

* George Mylonas , signature = Christos Tsountas Signature.jpg , signature_alt = Flowing signature in the Greek alphabet , awards = {{plainlist, *

Order of the Redeemer The Order of the Redeemer (), also known as the Order of the Saviour, is an order of merit of Greece. The Order of the Redeemer is the oldest and highest decoration awarded by the modern Greek state. Establishment The establishment of the Orde ...

(Silver Cross and Gold Cross) *

Order of the Red Eagle The Order of the Red Eagle () was an order of chivalry of the Kingdom of Prussia. It was awarded to both military personnel and civilians, to recognize valor in combat, excellence in military leadership, long and faithful service to the kingdom, o ...

(4th class) Christos Tsountas ({{langx, el, Χρήστος Τσούντας; 1857 – 9 June 1934) was a Greek classical

archaeologist Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

. He is considered a pioneer of Greek archaeology and has been called "the first and most eminent Greek prehistorian".{{sfn, Voutsaki, 2017, p=130 Born in Stenimachos in

Thrace Thrace (, ; ; ; ) is a geographical and historical region in Southeast Europe roughly corresponding to the province of Thrace in the Roman Empire. Bounded by the Balkan Mountains to the north, the Aegean Sea to the south, and the Black Se ...

in 1857, Tsountas received his university education in Germany, at the universities of

Hannover Hanover ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the States of Germany, German state of Lower Saxony. Its population of 535,932 (2021) makes it the List of cities in Germany by population, 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-l ...

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

and

Jena Jena (; ) is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in Germany and the second largest city in Thuringia. Together with the nearby cities of Erfurt and Weimar, it forms the central metropolitan area of Thuringia with approximately 500,000 in ...

. 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

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 Thessaly ( ; ; ancient Aeolic Greek#Thessalian, Thessalian: , ) is a traditional geographic regions of Greece, geographic and modern administrative regions of Greece, administrative region of Greece, comprising most of the ancient Thessaly, a ...

, excavating several Mycenaean tombs in

Laconia Laconia or Lakonia (, , ) is a historical and Administrative regions of Greece, administrative region of Greece located on the southeastern part of the Peloponnese peninsula. Its administrative capital is Sparti (municipality), Sparta. The word ...

, and carrying out the first formal excavations of the citadel of

Mycenae Mycenae ( ; ; or , ''Mykē̂nai'' or ''Mykḗnē'') is an archaeological site near Mykines, Greece, Mykines in Argolis, north-eastern Peloponnese, Greece. It is located about south-west of Athens; north of Argos, Peloponnese, Argos; and sou ...

. In the late 1890s, his discoveries in the

Cyclades The CYCLADES computer network () was a French research network created in the early 1970s. It was one of the pioneering networks experimenting with the concept of packet switching and, unlike the ARPANET, was explicitly designed to facilitate i ...

generated the first evidence of Cycladic culture, to which Tsountas gave its name. Tsountas became a professor of the

in 1904, from which point he largely retired from practical archaeological work. He published several monographs and textbooks on prehistoric archaeology, including works which became standard works in the field. He moved to the

between 1925 and 1926, and died in 1934.

Early life, education and early career

Christos Tsountas was born to a Greek family in 1857{{Sfnm, 1a1=Muskett, 1y=2014, 1p=43, 2a1=Manteli, 2y=2021, 2p=309 in

, then part of the

.{{Sfn, Gallis, 1979, p=3{{Efn, Tsountas's birthplace is generally given as Stenimachos (present-day Asenovgrad in Bulgaria), but contemporaries also recorded it as Philippopolis (present-day Plovdiv in Bulgaria).{{sfn, Pliatsika, 2020, p=291 His

baptism Baptism (from ) is a Christians, Christian sacrament of initiation almost invariably with the use of water. It may be performed by aspersion, sprinkling or affusion, pouring water on the head, or by immersion baptism, immersing in water eit ...

al name may have been ''Christodoulos'' or ''Christopoulos''. He grew up in Stenimachos (present-day Asenovgrad); he completed his schooling there, in nearby Philippopolis (present-day Plovdiv) and in Athens.{{Sfn, Pliatsika, 2020, p=291 As was common for aspiring Greek archaeologists in the nineteenth century,{{sfn, Petrakos, 2015, p=20 Tsountas subsequently studied in Germany; initially, he read engineering at the Royal College of Technology in

,{{Sfn, Panagiotopoulos, 2015 before moving to the

to read

philology Philology () is the study of language in Oral tradition, oral and writing, written historical sources. It is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics with strong ties to etymology. Philology is also de ...

under the classical archaeologist Heinrich Brunn. He completed his doctoral studies at the

in 1880.{{Sfn, Masouridi, 2017, p=148 On returning from Jena, Tsountas taught for a year at the Zariphios School, a Greek school in Philippopolis. In 1882, Tsountas was hired by the Archaeological Society of Athens, a

learned society A learned society ( ; also scholarly, intellectual, or academic society) is an organization that exists to promote an academic discipline, profession, or a group of related disciplines such as the arts and sciences. Membership may be open to al ...

involved in the excavation and conservation of ancient monuments. One of his first postings was in 1882, to the excavations of the British architect Francis Penrose at the Temple of Zeus at Olympia.{{Sfn, Masouridi, 2017, p=148 In the same year, Panagiotis Stamatakis, the Ephor General in charge of the

, invited Tsountas to accompany him on a tour of

Boeotia Boeotia ( ), sometimes Latinisation of names, Latinized as Boiotia or Beotia (; modern Greek, modern: ; ancient Greek, ancient: ), is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the modern regions of Greece, region of Central Greece (adm ...

, combatting the illicit trade in antiquities — an event which has been described by the archaeological historian Eleni Konstantinidi-Syvridi as the beginning of Tsountas's

apprenticeship Apprenticeship is a system for training a potential new practitioners of a trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study. Apprenticeships may also enable practitioners to gain a license to practice in a regulat ...

to Stamatakis.{{sfn, Konstantinidi-Syvridi, 2020, p=285 In 1883, Tsountas joined the Greek Archaeological Service, during its first major period of expansion. Before 1879, the Service had consisted entirely of the Ephor General, sometimes with an assistant. After the hiring of

Panagiotis Kavvadias Panagiotis Kavvadias or Cawadias (; – 20 July 1928) was a Greek Archaeology, archaeologist. He was responsible for the excavation of ancient sites in Greece, including Epidaurus in Argolis and the Acropolis of Athens, as well as archaeolog ...

in 1879 and of

Konstantinos Dimitriadis Konstantinos Dimitriadis (Κωνσταντίνος Δημητριάδης) (1879 or 1881 - 28 October 1943) was a Greek sculptor who won a gold medal at the art competitions at the 1924 Summer Olympics for his sculpture ''Finnish discus thrower' ...

in 1881, Tsountas was recruited by Stamatakis as an

ephor The ephors were a board of five magistrates in ancient Sparta. They had an extensive range of judicial, religious, legislative, and military powers, and could shape Sparta's home and foreign affairs. The word "''ephors''" (Ancient Greek ''éph ...

alongside Demetrios Philios; they would be joined by

Valerios Stais Valerios Stais (; Kythira, 1857 – Athens, 1923) was a Greek archaeologist. Biography He initially studied medicine but later switched to archaeology obtaining his Doctorate from the University of Halle (Saale) in 1885. He worked for the Nation ...

, Vasileios Leonardos and Georgios Lampakis in 1885.{{Sfn, Petrakos, 2011, p=4 On {{OldStyleDate, 17 August, 1883, 5 August, he was promoted to be the Service's ephor for Arta and

Aetolia-Acarnania Aetolia-Acarnania (, ''Aitoloakarnanía'', ) is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the geographic regions of Greece, geographic region of Central Greece (geographic region), Central Greece and the administrative regions of Greece, ...

, both in northwestern Greece, but remained in Athens, working for both the Archaeological Service and the Archaeological Society.{{Sfn, Masouridi, 2017, p=148 He was primarily based at the National Archaeological Museum of Athens.{{Sfn, Pliatsika, 2020, p=291

Excavations

Most of Tsountas's excavations took place in his early career, with a particular concentration between 1886 and 1908.{{Sfn, Voutsaki, 2017, p=130 Between 1880 and 1891, Tsountas excavated in the southern Greek region of

. His excavations there included the {{Lang, grc, tholos tomb at Vapheio; although the tomb had previously been cleared in 1805, Tsountas discovered an intact burial in its floor, with grave goods including the two Vapheio Cups.{{Sfnm, 1a1=Gere, 1y=2006, 1p=102, 2a1=Panagiotopoulos, 2y=2015 Tsountas was the first modern archaeologist to excavate and publish a burial in a {{lang, grc, tholos, demonstrating that the monuments were constructed as tombs and disproving the then-widespread belief that they were constructed as royal treasuries.{{sfn, Gere, 2006, p=102 Tsountas's campaign in Laconia also included the excavation, in 1890, of the Mycenaean shrine known as the Amyklaion.{{Sfn, Panagiotopoulos, 2015 There, he discovered two sculpted heads, known as the " Amyklai Heads", which have been variously dated to the Mycenaean and the

Geometric Geometry (; ) is a branch of mathematics concerned with properties of space such as the distance, shape, size, and relative position of figures. Geometry is, along with arithmetic, one of the oldest branches of mathematics. A mathematician w ...

periods, and one of which may have represented the god

Apollo Apollo is one of the Twelve Olympians, Olympian deities in Ancient Greek religion, ancient Greek and Ancient Roman religion, Roman religion and Greek mythology, Greek and Roman mythology. Apollo has been recognized as a god of archery, mu ...

.{{Sfn, Langdon, 1998, pp=253–254 From 1884, he worked on the

Acropolis of Athens The Acropolis of Athens (; ) is an ancient citadel located on a rocky outcrop above the city of Athens, Greece, and contains the remains of several Ancient Greek architecture, ancient buildings of great architectural and historical significance, ...

.{{Sfn, Panagiotopoulos, 2015 In 1884, he led an underwater survey to investigate the site of the

Battle of Salamis The Battle of Salamis ( ) was a naval battle fought in 480 BC, between an alliance of Greek city-states under Themistocles, and the Achaemenid Empire under King Xerxes. It resulted in a victory for the outnumbered Greeks. The battle was fou ...

, which took place in 480 BCE; though poor weather made the enterprise largely unsuccessful, it may have been the first archaeological work to take place under water.{{Sfn, Muskett, 2014, p=43 He also excavated at the Mycenaean citadel of

Tiryns Tiryns ( or ; Ancient Greek: Τίρυνς; Modern Greek: Τίρυνθα) is a Mycenaean archaeological site in Argolis in the Peloponnese, and the location from which the mythical hero Heracles was said to have performed his Twelve Labours. It ...

in the

Argolid The regions of ancient Greece were sub-divisions of the Hellenic world as conceived by the ancient Greeks, shown by their presence in the works of ancient historians and geographers or in surviving legends and myths. Conceptually, there is no cl ...

between 1890 and 1891.{{refn, {{harvnb, Davis, 2022, loc=p. 101, n. 22; {{harvnb, Masouridi, 2017, p=148 (for the date). In 1887, Tsountas excavated the looted cemeteries of Tanagra in Boeotia.{{Sfn, Masouridi, 2017, p=148 He worked at Tiryns in 1890–1891,{{Sfn, Masouridi, 2013, p=30 and excavated the {{Transliteration, grc, tholos tomb at Kambos near Avia in Messenia in 1891, uncovering Minoan-type figurines.{{Sfn, Marabea, 2010, p=427 Between 1890 and 1892, he assisted Kavvadias, then Ephor General, in cataloguing the prehistoric material in the National Archaeological Museum.{{Sfnm, 1a1=Guzzetti, 1y=2012, 1p=144, 2a1=Kalessopoulou, 2y=2021, 2p=326 Tsountas was made curator of the museum's Mycenaean and Egyptian collections by 1896, by which point he had also written the catalogue for its Mycenaean material.{{Sfn, Manteli, 2021, p=312

Mycenae

{{Main, Mycenae#Excavations EB1911 Mycenae - plan of the citadel

Following the excavation of Grave Circle A at

under the German businessman

Heinrich Schliemann Johann Ludwig Heinrich Julius Schliemann (; 6 January 1822 – 26 December 1890) was a German businessman and an influential amateur archaeologist. He was an advocate of the historicity of places mentioned in the works of Homer and an archaeolo ...

and Stamatakis in 1876–1877, Tsountas took over the site from May 1886 until 1910.{{refn, {{harvnb, Voutsaki, 2017, p=130; {{harvnb, Masouridi, 2017, p=148; {{harvnb, Shelton, 2006, p=159 (for the dates); {{harvnb, Shelton, 2006, p=163 (for the Great Ramp). He made the first excavations in the Prehistoric Cemetery around the settlement of Mycenae and carried out the first major excavations of its

acropolis An acropolis was the settlement of an upper part of an ancient Greek city, especially a citadel, and frequently a hill with precipitous sides, mainly chosen for purposes of defense. The term is typically used to refer to the Acropolis of Athens ...

,{{Sfn, Shelton, 2010, p=25 where he uncovered the Great Ramp,{{sfn, Shelton, 2006, p=163 cleared the slopes of the citadel and uncovered a large proportion of its buildings.{{Sfn, Shelton, 2006, p=159 Tsountas's discovery of

Ancient Egypt Ancient Egypt () was a cradle of civilization concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in Northeast Africa. It emerged from prehistoric Egypt around 3150BC (according to conventional Egyptian chronology), when Upper and Lower E ...

ian material, including seven

faience Faience or faïence (; ) is the general English language term for fine tin-glazed pottery. The invention of a white Ceramic glaze, pottery glaze suitable for painted decoration, by the addition of an stannous oxide, oxide of tin to the Slip (c ...

plaques bearing the name of the pharaoh

Amenhotep III Amenhotep III ( , ; "Amun is satisfied"), also known as Amenhotep the Magnificent or Amenhotep the Great and Hellenization, Hellenized as Amenophis III, was the ninth pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt, Eighteenth Dynasty. According to d ...

,{{Sfn, Kelder, 2009, p=346 on the acropolis gave the first definitive evidence of the site's date in the Late Bronze Age ({{Circa, 1600, 1200 BCE);{{Sfn, Moore, Rowlands, Karadimas, 2014, pp=42–43 it had previously been dated only in vague terms, often described by travellers in terms such as "of the most ancient date", or considered to date to various periods around 1000 BCE.{{Sfn, Moore, Rowlands, Karadimas, 2014, pp=41–42 The main purpose of Tsountas's initial excavations of 1886 was to discover the palatial centre of the site of Mycenae.{{Sfn, Klein, 1997, p=250 In that year, he cleared the majority of the citadel, discovering the palace and {{Transliteration, grc,

megaron The ''megaron'' (; , , : ''megara'' ) was the great hall in very early Mycenae, Mycenean and Ancient Greece, ancient Greek palace complexes. Architecturally, it was a rectangular hall that was supported by four columns, fronted by an open, two- ...

and excavating the

Hellenistic In classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Greek history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the death of Cleopatra VII in 30 BC, which was followed by the ascendancy of the R ...

temple built atop the

; he would later remove the temple's remains, as well as most of those from post-Mycenaean periods, to further reveal the Bronze Age palace.{{Sfn, Shelton, 2006, pp=160–161 In the same year, he excavated on the western slope of the citadel, in the area of a Hellenistic tower, and uncovered a building complex later identified as part of the site's "Cult Centre".{{Sfn, Shelton, 2006, p=161 In 1887, Tsountas commenced his excavations of the cemeteries outside the citadel of Mycenae, considering the graves excavated in Circle A to be "royal" and consequently seeking to find what he considered the burials of the rest of the site's population. Between 1887 and 1898, Tsountas excavated 103 chamber tombs and three previously unknown {{Transliteration, grc, tholos tombs (known as the Tomb of Aegisthus, the Panagia Tholos and the Tomb of the Genii), while he also cleared four {{Transliteration, grc, tholoi that had already been discovered.{{Sfn, Shelton, 2006, pp=162–163 In 2006, Tsountas's excavations represented just under half of the total number of chamber tombs excavated at Mycenae, though the sparse documentation made by Tsountas has limited their use for archaeological study.{{Sfn, Shelton, 2006, p=163 In 1888, Tsountas made further excavations of the palace, as well as in the eastern part of the citadel, particularly the North East Extension and Mycenae's subterranean

cistern A cistern (; , ; ) is a waterproof receptacle for holding liquids, usually water. Cisterns are often built to catch and store rainwater. To prevent leakage, the interior of the cistern is often lined with hydraulic plaster. Cisterns are disti ...

,{{Sfn, Shelton, 2006, p=161 which he discovered.{{Sfn, Muskett, 2014, p=43 Excavations here continued in 1889, during which time Tsountas made further explorations of the south-western part of the citadel, uncovering a series of buildings over several seasons of work but making little record of them. In 1890, he cleared the northern and north-western slopes of the city; by 1893, he had progressed to the North Gate. In 1895 and 1896, he cleared the eastern and western slopes of the acropolis, and returned in 1896 to the south-western slope. This left unexcavated only a small area on the western slope of the citadel, now known as the "Citadel House" area.{{Sfn, Shelton, 2006, p=161 Tsountas's notes on the excavations of the site's chamber tombs were inconsistent, and often left little evidence as to which tomb was being referred to; in the 1990s, the archaeologist Kim Shelton established the correspondence between many of the tombs excavated and numbered by Tsountas and the archaeological remains still visible at the site.{{Sfn, Burns, 2010, pp=172–173 His discovery of Egyptian material within the citadel established its date as belonging to the Late Bronze Age.{{Sfn, Moore, Rowlands, Karadimas, 2014, pp=42–43 In the late 1880s, he excavated the two {{Transliteration, grc, tholos tombs known as Kato Phournos and Epano Phournos, which had previously been believed to be gates.{{Sfn, Moore, Rowlands, Karadimas, 2014, p=69 In 1891, he excavated the

Tomb of Clytemnestra The Tomb of Clytemnestra was a Mycenaean tholos type tomb built in c. 1250 BC. A number of architectural features such as the semi-column were largely adopted by later classical monuments of the first millennium BC, both in the Greek and Latin wor ...

.{{Sfn, Moore, Rowlands, Karadimas, 2014, p=78 In contrast to the orthodoxy then prevalent, Tsountas considered the chamber tombs and {{Transliteration, grc, tholoi at the site to postdate the shaft graves of Circle A.{{Sfn, Galanakis, 2007, p=242 He also disavowed the association, claimed by Schliemann, between the burials at Mycenae and the characters of the

Homer Homer (; , ; possibly born ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Despite doubts about his autho ...

ic epics.{{Sfn, Gere, 2006, p=97 From 1899 to 1903, he was responsible for the consolidation and restoration of the monuments at Mycenae.{{sfn, Pliatsika, 2020, p=296

Thessaly

The region of

, in northern Greece, had been the subject of brief and informal antiquarian investigations in the final decades of Ottoman rule prior to 1881. This included visits from foreign antiquarians as well as a study by the medical doctor Nikolaos Georgiades, who published a historical, geographical and topographical study of the region in 1880. The region was incorporated into the Greek state in 1881, and therefore came under the jurisdiction of the Greek Archaeological Service; this development intensified efforts to collect and conserve known antiquities, still largely on an informal basis – the headteachers of local ''gymnasia'' would often be designated by the Archaeological Service as "Occasional Collectors of Antiquities" and organise small collections of portable finds, sometimes working alongside foreign scholars such as the German archaeologist Habbo Gerhard Lolling.{{Sfn, Gallis, 1979, p=2 The Archaeological Service occasionally sent representatives to conduct rescue excavations, as did the Archaeological Society of Athens, which established several local collections of artefacts, including one in a primary school at

Larissa Larissa (; , , ) is the capital and largest city of the Thessaly region in Greece. It is the fifth-most populous city in Greece with a population of 148,562 in the city proper, according to the 2021 census. It is also the capital of the Larissa ...

which included 166 objects.{{Sfn, Gallis, 1979, pp=2–3 In 1889, Tsountas, who was by then the Head of Antiquities for the Archaeological Society, made the first systematic archaeological investigation of the area.{{sfn, Krahtopoulou, Frederick, Orengo, Dimoula, 2020, p=25 His first excavation was that of a Mycenaean burial tumulus at Marmariani.{{Sfn, Gallis, 1979, p=3 In the course of excavating five Mycenaean tombs at the site,{{Sfn, Runnels, 2008, p=14 he uncovered levels of settlement deposits dating to the

Neolithic The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revo ...

period, providing the first evidence of Neolithic material in Greece and demonstrating that mounds of this kinds, known as {{Transliteration, el, magoules, could be tells formed from the deposited layers of settlements of successive periods.{{sfn, Krahtopoulou, Frederick, Orengo, Dimoula, 2020, p=25 Tsountas subsequently excavated Mycenaean tombs at the mound known as {{Transliteration, el, Kastron (ancient

Iolkos Iolcus (; also rendered ''Iolkos'' ; and Ἰαωλκός; ; ) is an ancient city, a modern village and a former municipality in Magnesia, Thessaly, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of Volos, of which it is a municipal un ...

) near Volos in 1900,{{Sfn, Gallis, 1979, p=3 at Volos itself in 1901–1903,{{Sfnm, 1a1=Gallis, 1y=1979, 1p=3, 2a1=Masouridi, 2y=2017, 2p=148 and at

Sesklo Sesklo (; ) is a village in Greece that is located near Volos, a city located within the municipality of Aisonia. The municipality is located within the regional unit of Magnesia that is located within the administrative region of Thessaly. ...

from 1901 to 1902. His colleague Stais had conducted excacations at Dimini in 1901–1902; Stais subsequently withdrew from Thessaly to focus on his work in

Attica Attica (, ''Attikḗ'' (Ancient Greek) or , or ), or the Attic Peninsula, is a historical region that encompasses the entire Athens metropolitan area, which consists of the city of Athens, the capital city, capital of Greece and the core cit ...

, and Tsountas received permission from him and the Archaeological Society to carry on the excavation of Dimini. In 1903, he uncovered three defensive walls at the site.{{Sfn, Gallis, 1979, p=4 Volos, Sesklo and Dimini subsequently became considered

type site In archaeology, a type site (American English) or type-site (British English) is the site used to define a particular archaeological culture or other typological unit, which is often named after it. For example, discoveries at La Tène and H ...

s for the

period in Greece.{{refn, {{harvnb, Voutsaki, 2017, p=130; {{harvnb, Muskett, 2014, p=44 (for the dates). Tsountas continued to visit and conduct

field survey Field research, field studies, or fieldwork is the collection of raw data outside a laboratory, library, or workplace setting. The approaches and methods used in field research vary across disciplines. For example, biologists who conduct f ...

in Thessaly each summer until 1906.{{Sfn, Gallis, 1979, p=4

Cyclades and other islands

Tsountas was one of the first archaeologists to excavate in the Cycladic Islands.{{refn, {{harvnb, Muskett, 2014, p=43. The French archaeologist Gaston Deschamps excavated on

Amorgos Amorgos (, ; ) is the easternmost island of the Cyclades island group and the nearest island to the neighboring Dodecanese island group in Greece. Along with 16 neighbouring islets, the largest of which (by land area) is Nikouria Island, it compr ...

in 1888, the first person to do so there with governmental permission.{{sfn, Galanakis, 2013, p=191 In September 1894, he excavated the cemetery of

, an island already known for its quantity of prehistoric remains, including graves dating to the Early and

Middle Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...

.{{Sfn, Galanakis, 2013, pp=182–184 He was guided by a local priest, Dimitrios Prasinos, who had previously directed other archaeological visitors to the island and sold low-value antiquities to foreign archaeologists, including

Duncan Mackenzie Duncan Mackenzie (17 May 1861 – 25 August 1934) was a Scottish archaeologist who assisted Arthur Evans in his excavations of the Minoan palace at Knossos. Early biography Duncan MacKenzie was born on 17 May 1861 in the small Gaelic-spea ...

.{{refn, {{harvnb, Galanakis, 2013, pages=190–192. Mackenzie is better known as a collaborator of Arthur Evans at Knossos: on which, see {{harvnb, MacGillivray, 2000, pages=171–172. During a short visit to the island, Tsountas discovered that the island's two largest cemeteries, at Kapros and Dokathismata, had been extensively looted by illegal excavators, among whom he named Prasinos and Ioannis Palailogos. Palailogos was arrested in September 1894 for smuggling looted antiquities from Amorgos to Athens, and Tsountas was called to make a report on the smuggled goods.{{Sfn, Galanakis, 2013, p=193 In 1897, Tsountas excavated the cemetery of Krasades on Antiparos.{{Sfn, Delvoye, 1947, p=48 Tsountas coined the term Cycladic culture after his research of 1898–1899.{{Sfn, Muskett, 2014, p=44 In those two years,{{Sfn, Thimme, 1977, p=185 he excavated the cemetery of Chalandriani and the associated fortified settlement of Kastri on the island of

Syros Syros ( ), also known as Siros or Syra, is a Greece, Greek island in the Cyclades, in the Aegean Sea. It is south-east of Athens. The area of the island is and at the 2021 census it had 21,124 inhabitants. The largest towns are Ermoupoli, Ano S ...

.{{Sfn, Fitton, 1999, p=8 He also excavated several hundred other Cycladic graves in cemeteries on the islands of Siphnos,

Paros Paros (; ; ) is a Greek island in the central Aegean Sea. Part of the Cyclades island group, it lies to the west of Naxos (island), Naxos, from which it is separated by a channel about wide. It lies approximately south-east of Piraeus. The Co ...

and Despotiko.{{sfnm, 1a1=Fitton, 1y=1999, 1p=8, 2a1=Muskett, 2y=2014, 2p=44 On Siphnos, he excavated the site of Agios Andreas, uncovering the site's double circuit walls with its towers.{{sfn, Caskey, 1958, pages=135–136 Tsountas published his findings from the Cyclades in the ''Archaeological Journal'', a scholarly publication of the Archaeological Society of Athens: his 1898 article may have been the first systematic study of the economic life of an archaeological site, though his conclusion that fish played only a small role in the Cycladic diet has since been overturned.{{refn, {{harvnb, Mylona, 2003, p=193. The article is {{harvnb, Tsountas, 1898. Tsountas excavated frequently on the island of

Euboea Euboea ( ; , ), also known by its modern spelling Evia ( ; , ), is the second-largest Greek island in area and population, after Crete, and the sixth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. It is separated from Boeotia in mainland Greece by ...

, which he considered an important influence on the Cycladic Syros culture.{{Sfn, Sapouna-Sakellarakis, 1987, p=264 In 1885, he excavated the necropolis to the west of the ancient city of

Eretria Eretria (; , , , , 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 ...

.{{Sfn, Rous, Huguenot, Gerin, 2017, p=9 In 1886, 1891 and 1892, Tsountas made further excavations of the cemeteries around the city, which had been looted by antiquities traders;{{Sfn, Masouridi, 2017, p=148 from 1886 onwards, he also supervised excavations undertaken by private landowners on their own land near Eretria.{{Sfn, Rous, Huguenot, Gerin, 2017, p=9 He worked on Euboea again in 1903, excavating six tombs at the cemetery of Manika near Chalkis.{{Sfn, Sapouna-Sakellarakis, 1987, p=233 In March–May 1905,{{Efn, Published sources disagree as to whether the journey took place in 1903 or 1905, though Tsountas's journal dates it to 1905, making this the most likely possibility in the view of the archaeological historian Katia Manteli.{{sfn, Manteli, 2021, p=310 Tsountas made a 46-day visit to Crete, then an autonomous province of the Ottoman Empire, at the request of the board of the Archaeological Society, surveying its archaeological remains.{{Sfn, Manteli, 2021, p=307 He was assisted by {{Ill, Stefanos Xanthoudidis, el, Στέφανος Ξανθουδίδης, the Ephor of Antiquities for Crete; {{Ill, Iosif Chatzidakis, de, the founder of the

Heraklion Archaeological Museum The Heraklion Archaeological Museum is a museum located in Heraklion on Crete. It is one of the largest museums in Greece, and the best in the world for Minoan art, as it contains by far the most important and complete collection of artefacts of t ...

;

Arthur Evans Sir Arthur John Evans (8 July 1851 – 11 July 1941) was a British archaeologist and pioneer in the study of Aegean civilization in the Bronze Age. The first excavations at the Minoan palace of Knossos on the List of islands of Greece, Gree ...

, the archaeologist of the Minoan palace of

Knossos Knossos (; , ; Linear B: ''Ko-no-so'') is a Bronze Age archaeological site in Crete. The site was a major centre of the Minoan civilization and is known for its association with the Greek myth of Theseus and the minotaur. It is located on th ...

; and Harriet Boyd, who had discovered and excavated the site of Gournia.{{Sfn, Manteli, 2021, p=310 The following year, the Cretan government accepted a request from the Archaeological Society for an excavation at the site of Malia: the project was due to begin in the same year under Tsountas.{{Sfn, Manteli, 2021, p=308

Later career

On {{OldStyleDate, 24 February, 1904, 11 February,{{efn, Greece adopted the

Gregorian calendar The Gregorian calendar is the calendar used in most parts of the world. It went into effect in October 1582 following the papal bull issued by Pope Gregory XIII, which introduced it as a modification of, and replacement for, the Julian cale ...

in 1923; {{OldStyleDateNY, 28 February, 15 February was followed by 1 March.{{sfn, Kiminas, 2009, p=23 In this article, this date and all subsequent dates are given in the 'New Style' Gregorian calendar, while dates before it are given in the 'Old Style'

Julian calendar The Julian calendar is a solar calendar of 365 days in every year with an additional leap day every fourth year (without exception). The Julian calendar is still used as a religious calendar in parts of the Eastern Orthodox Church and in parts ...

. Tsountas was elected as Professor of the History of Ancient Art of the

; Kavvadias was also elected to a professorship on the same occasion.{{refn, {{harvnb, Christodoulou, 2009, pages=106–107; {{harvnb, Pliatsika, 2020, p=292 (for Tsountas's title). According to the archaeologist

, who studied under Tsountas, he was reluctant to accept the post, but was persuaded to do so by the university.{{refn, {{harvnb, Karouzos, 1934, p=564. For the context of the debate over demotic and {{Transliteration, el,

katharevousa Katharevousa (, , literally "purifying anguage) is a conservative form of the Modern Greek language conceived in the late 18th century as both a literary language and a compromise between Ancient Greek and the contemporary vernacular, Demotic ...

, see

Greek language question The Greek language question (, ) was a dispute about whether the vernacular of the Greek people (Demotic Greek) or a cultivated literary language based on Ancient Greek (Katharevousa) should be the prevailing language of the people and governmen ...

. His appointment largely marked the end of his career as an excavator: from 1904, he focused his academic work on teaching and writing.{{Sfn, Pliatsika, 2020, p=292 Between 1909 and 1911, he served as secretary of the Archaeological Society of Athens.{{Sfn, Panagiotopoulos, 2015 In February 1919, Tsountas was appointed as a founding professor of the "Practical School of Art History", an archaeological training centre administered by the Archaeological Society on behalf of the Greek government.{{Refn, {{harvnb, Petrakos, 1995, pages=120–121. Petrakos gives the school's name in Greek, as {{lang, el, Πρακτικῆς Σχολῆς τῆς ἱστορίας τῆς τέχνης. The school's thirty-six students in its first year included Karouzos, Semni Papaspyridi and Spyridon Marinatos, all of whom went on to become leading figures in twentieth-century Greek archaeology.{{Sfn, Petrakos, 1995, p=122 Tsountas has been credited as a particular influence on Papaspyridi, and marked one of the examination papers necessary for her to join the Archaeological Service in 1921.{{Sfn, Nikolaidou, Kokkinidou, 2005, pp=246–247 Encouraged by Arthur Evans, Tsountas granted permission for the British archaeologist Alan Wace to excavate at Mycenae in the early 1920s. Wace subsequently excavated in the Tomb of Aegisthus, which Tsountas had discovered in 1892, and throughout the site of Mycenae: his investigations confirmed several of Tsountas's theories as to the chronology of the site and the nature of Mycenaean civilisation.{{sfn, Galanakis, 2007, p=240 Another of Tsountas's students was George E. Mylonas, who would later direct the excavation of Mycenae between 1957 and 1985.{{refn, {{harvnb, Vogeikoff-Brogan, 2020 (for Mylonas's study under Tsountas); {{harvnb, Shelton, 2010, p=26 (for Mylonas at Mycenae). Tsountas retired from the University of Athens in 1925, though taught for the 1925–1926 academic year at the

.{{Sfn, Robinson, Blegen, 1935, p=379 In 1926, he was made a member of the Academy of Athens, Greece's

national academy A national academy is an organizational body, usually operating with state financial support and approval, that co-ordinates scholarly research activities and standards for academic disciplines, and serves as a public policy advisors, research ...

.{{Sfn, Masouridi, 2017, pp=148–149 He died in 1934.{{Sfn, Muskett, 2014, p=44 The place of his burial is unknown: the historian Eleni Manteli has suggested that the Greek state likely neglected to organise a funeral or memorial for him.{{Sfn, Manteli, 2021, p=313

Beliefs about Greek culture

Tsountas believed that Greek culture had existed in a continuous form since the prehistoric period, developing the ideas of historians such as Constantine Paparrigopoulos,{{sfn, Pliatsika, 2020, p=292 who had sought in the mid-nineteenth century to challenge the then-popular view that the population of modern Greece had no biological or cultural descent from that of the classical period.{{sfnm, 1a1=Hamilakis, 1a2=Yalouri, 1y=1999, 1p=129, 2a1=Curta, 2y=2011, 2p=1 Though he did not engage in the contemporary debate as to the geographic origins of the Mycenaean population, he reconstructed a rivalry between Mycenae and Troy which he described as part of the "eternal Eastern Question", connecting the mythical Trojan War with the

Greco-Persian Wars The Greco-Persian Wars (also often called the Persian Wars) were a series of conflicts between the Achaemenid Empire and Polis, Greek city-states that started in 499 BC and lasted until 449 BC. The collision between the fractious political world ...

of the classical period and the

Greek War of Independence The Greek War of Independence, also known as the Greek Revolution or the Greek Revolution of 1821, was a successful war of independence by Greek revolutionaries against the Ottoman Empire between 1821 and 1829. In 1826, the Greeks were assisted ...

.{{Sfn, Gere, 2006, p=107 Tsountas argued in particular that Mycenaean civilisation was fundamentally Greek,{{Sfn, Voutsaki, 2017, p=130 and directed his reconstruction of prehistory towards the construction of contemporary Greek national identity. Though such efforts were common among Greek archaeologists of the nineteenth century, by the end of the century, Tsountas was one of extremely few who continued to espouse

Romantic nationalism Romantic nationalism (also national romanticism, organic nationalism, identity nationalism) is the form of nationalism in which the state claims its political legitimacy as an organic consequence of the unity of those it governs. This includes ...

and to view his archaeological work through its paradigm.{{Sfn, Voutsaki, 2017, p=131 Tsountas argued that the Mycenaeans had originally been immigrants from northern Europe, with genetic commonalities with the Germans, Celts and Italians.{{Sfn, Voutsaki, 2017, p=133 Like other archaeologists and folklorists of his day, such as the German Arthur Milchhöfer and the French Georges Perrot, Tsountas assessed the cultural continuity of Greece through perceived similarities in vernacular customs and architecture; he drew attention, for example, to the similar shape of hearths found in Mycenaean dwellings and modern Greek peasant homes.{{Sfn, Voutsaki, 2017, pp=135–136 Tsountas was relatively unusual among Greek intellectuals of his time in considering the Byzantine period – then generally viewed as a period of foreign domination – a vital part of the Greek national narrative.{{Refn, {{harvnb, Voutsaki, 2017, p=132 (for Tsountas's beliefs). For the wider perception of Byzantium at the time, see {{harvnb, Marano, 2019, pages=76–77. The historiographical debate over the role of Byzantium in Greek history was partly played out through the

: the national debate as to whether Greek should be spoken in the prestige {{Transliteration, el,

dialect, which attempted to minimise post-classical features in favour of those found in

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

, or in the

demotic Demotic may refer to: * Demotic Greek, the modern vernacular form of the Greek language * Demotic (Egyptian), an ancient Egyptian script and version of the language * Chữ Nôm Chữ Nôm (, ) is a logographic writing system formerly used t ...

dialect, which represented the natural language of most Greeks and implied an acceptance of the changes in the language that took place, {{Lang, la, inter alia, during the Byzantine period.{{Sfn, Marano, 2019, p=77 In 1914, Tsountas appeared as a witness in the Nafplio Trial, a court case over the closure of a girls' school which had broken educational norms by teaching in demotic instead {{Transliteration, el, katharevousa; Tsountas testified in favour of the use of demotic.{{sfn, Karouzos, 1934, p=564 His positive views of the Byzantine period were unpopular within the Archaeological Society of Athens, described by the historian Fani Mallouchou-Tufano as "an intransigent ideological exponent of pure

Classicism Classicism, in the arts, refers generally to a high regard for a classical period, classical antiquity in the Western tradition, as setting standards for taste which the classicists seek to emulate. In its purest form, classicism is an aesthe ...

", which generally neglected the study of Byzantine archaeology in favour of that of the classical period.{{Refn, {{harvnb, Voutsaki, 2017, p=137. Mallouchou-Tufano's quotation is from {{harvnb, Mallouchou-Tufano, 2007, p=49.

Assessment and legacy

In an obituary of Tsountas published in the newspaper {{Transliteration, el, Nea Estia, his former student Karouzos described him as an "excellent teacher ... ndmodest man" with a " Socratic" appearance.{{Sfn, Karouzos, 1934, p=564 The French archaeologist Charles Picard, a former director of the

French School at Athens The French School at Athens (, EfA; ''Gallikí Scholí Athinón'') is one of the seventeen foreign archaeological institutes operating in Athens, Greece. History Founded in 1846, the EfA is the oldest foreign institute in Athens. Its early f ...

, similarly described him as "an enthusiastic savant, modest and courteous ... hoalways showed a most generous attitude towards the foreign schools of archaeology".{{refn, {{harvnb, Picard, 1934, p=185. For Picard's career, see {{harvnb, Delbo, 2002, pages=230–231.

Recognition and honours

On {{OldStyleDate, 24 November, 1892, 12 November, Tsountas was awarded the Silver Cross of the

, Greece's national

order of merit The Order of Merit () is an order of merit for the Commonwealth realms, recognising distinguished service in the armed forces, science, art, literature, or the promotion of culture. Established in 1902 by Edward VII, admission into the order r ...

, for services to archaeology. He was awarded the Prussian

(fourth class) on {{OldStyleDate, 20 February, 1900, 8 February, and the Gold Cross of the Order of the Redeemer on {{OldStyleDate, 3 September, 1914, 22 August.{{sfn, Pliatsika, 2020, p=292 He was made an honorary member of the British

Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic studies, Hellenic Studies, known as the Hellenic Society, was founded in 1879 to advance the study of Greek language, Greek literature, literature, Greek history, history, Greek art, art and Classical ar ...

.{{Sfn, Masouridi, 2017, p=149 The part of the Cult Centre which he excavated in 1886 is known as "Tsountas's House" after him.{{Sfnm, 1a1=Shelton, 1y=2006, 1p=161, 2a1=Muskett, 2y=2014, 2p=43

Reception of Tsountas's archaeological work

Tsountas has been considered an underappreciated figure in Aegean archaeology, particularly by comparison to non-Greek archaeologists such as Schliemann, Wace and Evans.{{Sfn, Traill, 1996, p=139 The archaeologist Sofia Voutsaki has named Tsountas as a pioneer of Greek archaeology and called him "the first and most eminent Greek prehistorian".{{sfn, Voutsaki, 2017, p=130 The archaeologist Jack Davis has judged that Tsountas had greater influence on the field of Greek prehistory than any other archaeologist.{{Sfn, Davis, 2022, loc=p. 101, n. 22 According to the historian Cathy Gere, Tsountas is "the individual who properly deserves the title of Father of the Greek Bronze Age".{{Sfn, Gere, 2006, p=96 Shelton has particularly credited Tsountas with taking the site of Mycenae and Mycenaean civilisation "out of Schliemann's spotlight".{{Sfn, Shelton, 2006, p=159 His excavations in Thessaly have been credited by the archaeologist Curtis Runnels as the beginning of the systematic investigation of the Greek Stone Age.{{Sfn, Runnels, 2008, p=9 Tsountas popularised the term ''Mycenaean'' to refer to the civilisation of the Greek mainland in the Late Bronze Age.{{Sfn, Davis, 2022, p=9 His book ''Mycenae and the Mycenaean Age'', first published in 1893,{{Sfn, Muskett, 2014, p=44 became a standard textbook on Greek prehistory.{{sfn, Voutsaki, 2017, p=130 He is credited with establishing Thessaly as the primary locus of research into Neolithic Greece,{{Sfn, Muskett, 2014, p=44 while his work in the Cyclades has been recognised with beginning the study of the prehistoric period in those islands.{{Sfn, Delvoye, 1947, p=48 He also played a large role in the formation of the National Archaeological Museum's collection of prehistoric artefacts.{{Sfn, Manteli, 2021, p=312 Tsountas's views of Mycenaean civilisation as fundamentally Greek were initially at odds with the prevailing opinion in scholarship outside Greece, which variously saw the burials in Grave Circle A – before Tsountas's work, considered the totality of evidence for Mycenaean civilisation – as belonging to Near Eastern, Egyptian, Slavic or northern-European cultures. The German philologist Ulrich Köhler, who directed the German Archaeological Institute at Athens, described them as having "nowhere a trace of the Greek spirit, nor of any Greek customs and beliefs", and as of "an exclusively oriental character".{{Refn, {{harvnb, Voutsaki, 2017, p=132; Voutsaki quotes Köhler from {{harvnb, Köhler, 1878, p=3. Tsountas has been criticised for underestimating the value of pottery as archaeological evidence, and for throwing away ceramic material during his excavations.{{Sfn, Gere, 2006, p=97 In most cases, he retained only finds of metal and of stone, as well as intact vases – which were extremely rare – and discarded the remainder.{{Sfn, Shelton, 2006, p=160 Though he kept notebooks during his excavations of Mycenae, averaging approximately ten pages of notes for every month of his work,{{Sfn, Shelton, 2006, p=160 he often excavated without keeping a journal and without the use of photography. The archaeological historian Vassiliki Pliatsika has written that modern archaeological standards, such as the systematic recording of finds and their contexts, are "deafeningly absent" from Tsountas's reports.{{sfn, Pliatsika, 2020, p=295 Since Tsountas's excavations, studies of the spoil created by them has revealed important potsherds, representing substantial fragments of vessels as well as evidence for the later occupation of Mycenae after the end of the Bronze Age.{{Sfn, Shelton, 2006, pp=161–162 Tsountas's hypothesis that Mycenae's multiple cemeteries reflected an original pattern of settlement in disparate villages, first advanced in his 1888 article on the excavation of Mycenae's tombs, became the accepted model for Mycenae and for Mycenaean civilisation in general, but was disproved by further study in the early 1990s.{{refn, {{harvnb, Shelton, 2006, pp=161–162. The article is {{harvnb, Tsountas, 1888. His assertion that Mycenaean society was illiterate was overturned by the discovery of

Linear B Linear B is a syllabary, syllabic script that was used for writing in Mycenaean Greek, the earliest Attested language, attested form of the Greek language. The script predates the Greek alphabet by several centuries, the earliest known examp ...

tablets at

Pylos Pylos (, ; ), historically also known as Navarino, is a town and a former Communities and Municipalities of Greece, municipality in Messenia, Peloponnese (region), Peloponnese, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform, it has been part of ...

in 1939, and subsequently, under Alan Wace, at Mycenae in 1952.{{Refn, {{harvnb, Fitton, 1996, p=106. For Pylos, see {{harvnb, Tracy, 2018, p=13; for Mycenae, see {{harvnb, Gill, 2004. Tsountas also argued that Mycenaean society had been matriarchal and that Mycenaean religion had been based around a "goddess of generation". By the late nineteenth century, this view was widely accepted, though it has since been overturned.{{Sfn, Gere, 2006, pp=105–106

Selected works

In 1893, Tsountas published ''Mycenae and the Mycenaean Civilisation'', which was expanded and translated into English in collaboration with the American classicist {{Ill, J. Irving Manatt, el, Τζέιμς Ίρβινγκ Μανάττ as ''The Mycenaean Age: A Study of the Monuments and Culture of Pre-Homeric Greece'' in 1897.{{Sfn, Gere, 2006, p=97 Tsountas's book was the first to attempt a synthesis of Mycenaean civilisation (though the available evidence limited Tsountas to investigating southern Greece), drawing on material from Mycenae alongside that from additional sites, including Tiryns and Tsountas's own excavations at Vapheio.{{Sfn, Shelton, 2006, p=159 He also published annual reports of his excavations at Mycenae in the ''Proceedings of the Archaeological Society of Athens'', as well as occasional articles in the society's journal, the ''Archaeological Journal'' ({{Langx, el, Ἀρχαιολογικὴ Ἐφημερίς, translit=Archaiologiki Efimeris).{{Sfn, Shelton, 2006, p=160 His published works include:

As sole author

* {{cite journal, last1=Tsountas, first1=Christos, year=1888, script-title=el:Ἀνασκαφαὶ τάφων ἐκ Μυκηνῶν, trans-title=Excavations of Tombs from Mycenae, language=el, journal=Ἀρχαιολογικὴ Ἐφημερίς, pages=119–180 * {{cite journal, last1=Tsountas, first1=Christos, author-mask=1, year=1898, script-title=el:Κυκλαδικά, trans-title=Cycladic Matters, language=el, journal=Ἀρχαιολογικὴ Ἐφημερίς, pages=137–212 * {{cite book, last1=Tsountas, first1=Christos, author-mask=1, script-title=el:Αί προΐστορικαί Ακροπόλεις Διµηνίου και Σέσκλου, trans-title=The Prehistoric Acropolises of Dimini and Sesklo, language=el, year=1908, place=Athens, publisher=Sakellarios, ref=none, oclc=1053678917

As co-author

* {{cite book, last1=Tsountas, first1=Christos, last2=Manatt, first2=J. Irving, year=1897, title=The Mycenaean Age: A Study of the Monuments and Culture of Pre-Homeric Greece, place=London, publisher=Macmillan, ref=none, oclc=1402927063

Footnotes

Explanatory notes

{{notelist

References

{{reflist, 20em

Works cited

{{refbegin, 30em, indent=yes * {{cite book, last=Burns, first=Bryan E., year=2010, title=Mycenaean Greece, Mediterranean Commerce, and the Formation of Identity, publisher=Cambridge University Press, place=Cambridge, isbn=978-0-521-11954-2 * {{cite journal, last=Caskey, first=John L., author-link=John Caskey, year=1958, title=Excavations at Lerna, 1957, journal=Hesperia, volume=27, number=2, pages=125–144, doi=10.2307/147056, jstor=147056 * {{cite journal, last=Christodoulou, first=Georgios, year=2009, language=el, script-title=el:Ο Ν. Γ. Πολίτης και η αρχαιολογία στο Πανεπιστήμιο Αθηνών, trans-title=N. G. Politis and Archaeology at the University of Athens, journal=

Mentor Mentorship is the patronage, influence, guidance, or direction given by a mentor. A mentor is someone who teaches or gives help and advice to a less experienced and often younger person. In an organizational setting, a mentor influences the perso ...

, pages=106–107, volume=93, url=https://www.archetai.gr/images/pdfs/mentor/Publ_MENTOR_93.pdf, access-date=19 February 2023, archive-date=22 September 2022, archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220922204722/https://www.archetai.gr/images/pdfs/mentor/Publ_MENTOR_93.pdf * {{cite book, last=Curta, first=Florin , author-link=Florin Curta, year=2011, title=The Edinburgh History of the Greeks, c. 500 to 1050, publisher=Edinburgh University Press, place=Edinburgh, isbn=978-0-7486-4489-6 * {{cite book, last1=Davis, first1=Jack L., year=2022, volume=75, author-link1=Jack L. Davis, title=A Greek State in Formation: The Origins of Civilisation in Mycenaean Pylos, publisher=University of California Press, jstor=j.ctv2rb75vw, jstor-access=free, place=Oakland, isbn=978-0-520-38724-9 * {{cite book, last=Delbo, first=Charlotte, author-link=Charlotte Delbo, year=2002, orig-date=1965, language=fr, title=Le Convoi du 24 janvier, trans-title=The Convoy of 24 January, publisher=Éditions de Minuit, place=Paris, isbn=978-2-7073-1638-7 * {{cite journal, last=Delvoye, first=Charles, year=1947, title=Quatre vases préhelléniques du Musée Archéologique de Charleroi, trans-title=Four Pre-Hellenic Vases in the Archaeological Museum of Charleroi, language=fr, journal=L'Antiquité Classique, volume=16, issue=1, pages=47–58, jstor=41642997 * {{cite book, last=Fitton, first=J. Lesley, author-link=Lesley Fitton, year=1996, title=The Discovery of the Greek Bronze Age, publisher=Harvard University Press, place=Cambridge, MA, isbn=978-0-674-21188-9 * {{cite book, last=Fitton, first=J. Lesley, author-link=Lesley Fitton, year=1999, title=Cycladic Art, publisher=British Museum Press, place=London, isbn=978-0-7141-2160-4 * {{cite journal, last=Galanakis, first=Yannis, year=2007, title=The Construction of the Aegisthus Tholos Tomb at Mycenae and the 'Helladic Heresy', journal=The Annual of the British School at Athens, volume=102, pages=239–256, doi=10.1017/S0068245400021481 , jstor=30245251, s2cid=162590402 * {{cite journal, last=Galanakis, first=Yannis, year=2013, title=Early Prehistoric Research on Amorgos and the Beginnings of Cycladic Archaeology, journal=American Journal of Archaeology, volume=117, number=2, pages=181–205, jstor=10.3764/aja.117.2.0181 * {{cite book, last=Gallis, first=Constantinos, year=1979, chapter=A Short Chronicle of the Greek Archaeological Investigations in Thessaly, from 1881 Until the Present Day, title=La Thessalie: Actes de la Table-Ronde, 21-24 juillet 1975, place=Lyon, editor-last=Bruno, editor-first=Helly, isbn=978-2-35668-034-1, 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