Yiannis Karamitros, the Man who Talks with the Ground

A programme dedicated to Yiannis Karamitros, the master craftsman of archaeological excavations, who for almost half a century, worked throughout Greece, digging up the country’s archaeological wealth. A simple craftsman from the start, he was the right hand of archaeologists who were later to become famous like Mylonas, Papadimitriou, Keramopoulos, Marinatos, Koumanoudis and Thompson. His first excavation was at the Stoa of Attalos. There, the architect Yiannis Travlos first noticed “the fingers which piously caressed the ground and avoided tools”. 12 years in Mycenae, 12 years in Brauron, as many years in Santorini, with in between stops in Elefsina and Porto Rafti. He has cleaned 3.000 tombs, discovered thousand of pots which he was the first to touch, and as many more amphorae and potsherds. His last excavation, a short while before retiring, was at the archaeological site of Ramnous in Marathon.