Editing Pythia (section)

===Excavations===
Beginning during 1892, a team of French archaeologists directed by [[Théophile Homolle]] of the [[Collège de France]] excavated the site at Delphi. Contrary to ancient literature, they found no fissure and no possible means for the production of fumes.

Adolphe [[Paul Oppé]] published an influential article<ref name=adv>[http://www.odysseyadventures.ca/articles/delphi/articleDelphi02.html# Delphi, the Oracle of Apollo] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120402131354/http://www.odysseyadventures.ca/articles/delphi/articleDelphi02.html |date=2012-04-02 }} from Adventures in Archaeology</ref> in 1904, which made three crucial claims: No chasm or vapor ever existed; no natural gas could create prophetic visions; and the recorded incidents of a priestess undergoing violent and often deadly reactions was inconsistent with the more customary reports. Oppé explained away all the ancient testimony as being reports of gullible travelers fooled by wily local guides who, Oppé believed, invented the details of a chasm and a vapor in the first place.<ref name=med>[http://medbherenn.com/oracle-at-delphi.html The Oracle at Delphi] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120402131330/http://medbherenn.com/oracle-at-delphi.html |date=2012-04-02 }} ''Medb hErren''</ref>

In accordance with this definitive statement, such scholars as Frederick Poulson, E. R. Dodds, Joseph Fontenrose, and Saul Levin all stated that there were no vapors and no chasm. For the decades to follow, scientists and scholars believed the ancient descriptions of a sacred, inspiring pneuma to be fallacious. During 1950, the French [[Hellenic studies|hellenist]] [[Pierre Amandry]], who had worked at Delphi and later directed the French excavations there, concurred with Oppé's pronouncements, claiming that gaseous emissions were not even possible in a volcanic zone such as Delphi. Neither Oppé nor Amandry were geologists, though, and no geologists had been involved in the debate up to that point.<ref name=adv />

Subsequent re-examination of the French excavations, however, has shown that this consensus may have been mistaken. Broad (2007) demonstrates that a French photograph of the excavated interior of the temple clearly depicts a springlike pool as well as a number of small vertical fissures, indicating numerous pathways by which vapors could enter the base of the temple.<ref>{{Harvnb|Broad|2007|p=146-147}}: "[A] French photo of the temple's interior showed not only a spring-like pool but fissures... in the bedrock, suggesting a specific pathway by which intoxicating gases could have risen into the oracle's sanctum... What delighted de Boer so much was not the verification of the spring-like pool at the heart of the chasm, as the revelation of the bedrock's composition... there right above the waterline, the photograph clearly showed vertical fissures running through the bedrock.  No denial could hide that fact, no scholarly disclaimer could deny the reality.... [The] cracks ...[showed] evidence of tectonic jolts and protracted flows of mineralized water."</ref>

During the 1980s, the interdisciplinary team of geologist Jelle Zeilinga de Boer,<ref>[http://www.wesleyan.edu/ees/people/emeritus.html Jelle Zeilinga de Boer] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060506231049/http://www.wesleyan.edu/ees/people/emeritus.html |date=2006-05-06 }} – Retrieved on 2006-10-01.</ref> archaeologist John R. Hale,<ref>[http://www.louisville.edu/a-s/lbst/staff/jhale.html John R. Hale] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060714234412/http://www.louisville.edu/a-s/lbst/staff/jhale.html |date=2006-07-14 }} – Retrieved on 2006-10-01.</ref> forensic chemist Jeffrey P. Chanton,<ref>[http://www.leopoldleadership.org/content/fellows/search-detail.jsp?id=106 Jeffrey P. Chanton] {{Webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20050407231545/http://www.leopoldleadership.org/content/fellows/search-detail.jsp?id=106 |date=2005-04-07 }} – Retrieved on 2006-10-01.</ref> and toxicologist Henry R. Spiller<ref>[http://www.krpc.com/index.html Henry R. Spiller] – Retrieved on 2006-10-01. [https://archive.today/20060512104245/http://www.krpc.com/index.html Dead link Archived]</ref> investigated the site at Delphi using this photograph and other sources as evidence, as part of a United Nations survey of all active [[Fault (geology)|faults]] in Greece.<ref name=med />

Jelle Zeilinga de Boer saw evidence of a fault line in Delphi that lay under the ruined temple.
During several expeditions, they discovered two major fault lines, one lying north–south, the Kerna fault, and the other lying east–west, the Delphic fault, which parallels the shore of the [[Corinthian Gulf]]. The [[rift]] of the Gulf of Corinth is one of the most geologically active sites on Earth; shifts there impose immense strains on nearby fault lines, such as those below Delphi. The two faults cross one another, and they intersect right below where the {{Lang|grc-latn|adyton}} was probably located. (The actual, original oracle chamber had been destroyed by the moving faults, but there is strong structural evidence that indicates where it was most likely located.){{sfn|Broad|2007|p=155-157}}

They also found evidence for underground passages and chambers, and drains for spring water. Additionally, they discovered at the site formations of [[travertine]], a form of calcite created when water flows through limestone and dissolves [[calcium carbonate]], which is later redeposited. Further investigation revealed that deep beneath the Delphi region lies a [[bitumen|bituminous]] deposit, rich in [[hydrocarbons]] and full of pitch, that has a petrochemical content as high as 20%. Friction created by earthquakes heat the bituminous layers resulting in vaporization of the hydrocarbons which rise to the surface through small fissures in the rock.{{sfn|Broad|2007|p=155-157}}