Initially, the professor, who taught classics in Berkeley's College of Letters and Science, was scoffed at as he began digging in a hollow on a hill for a 2,300-year-old athletic stadium. "I'd hear big mutterings in the coffeehouse," said Miller, 54. "They'd say, 'There's no stadium there, just a pit. All Miller is doing is making another pit."
But after 22 years of watching Miller uncover physical proof of their history - including the stadium, a track, the world's oldest existing athletic locker room and a vaulted, graffiti-inscribed tunnel - and watching dignitaries, scholars and reporters flock to what became a 45-acre archaeological site and museum, the residents' doubt turned to pride.
For one day last summer the sleepy village opened its doors to the world, inviting visitors not only to view the past, but to experience it firsthand.
On June 1, led by Miller and a group called the Society for the Revival of the Nemean Games, Ancient Nemea hosted the 1996 Nemean Games, a revival of ancient foot races once held in the stadium. The Panhellenic Games, as they were called, also took place long ago in Olympia, Delphi and Isthmia.
Early on the morning of the 1996 Nemean Games, tour buses and rental cars poured into Ancient Nemea, where the sun already was burning hot in a bright blue sky. Authentic costumes sewn by local women were worn by those playing the roles of judges, slaves, heralds and trumpeters. Judges wore long black togas, laurel wreaths and sandals and carried switches to flog unruly athletes.
Spectators watched the foot races for free, and many spent the entire day camped on the steep, grassy banks of the stadium. Chairs were available, but many people lounged on rag rugs collected by villagers.
The runners, ages 12 to 88, signed in outside the ancient locker room, its aging columns covered by a large canvas tent. For the sprint, they would run, separated by age and gender, in groups of 12. Slaves inside the tent handed each group white tunics and plastic crates to stow belongings.
In ancient times, the Greeks competed nude, but at the 1996 games, the 500 participants only were required to run barefoot in the stadium. Small clay jugs of olive oil were hanging in the tent for runners who wished to rub some on their bodies the way ancient athletes once did. While women were forbidden from competing in - or watching - the Panhellenic Games, more than 200 women and girls ran in the 1996 games.
As they entered the 120-foot-long tunnel, the sprinters felt their bare feet meet cool, spongy clay. They passed graffiti scratched into the walls by ancient athletes.
The runners' adrenaline surged as they exited the tunnel. A trumpet blast signaled the spectators to stop talking, and each competitor's name was read. The group then advanced to the starting line and positioned themselves behind an ancient starting mechanism, the hysplex, that Miller reconstructed from wood and cord in 1993.
After a starter shouted, "Apite!" (Go!), the runners took off, the crowd wildly cheering even those who finished last. No loudspeakers were used during the races, and the sound of bare feet slapping the clay track - also cool and soft from recent rains - could be clearly heard.
"I'm probably as impressed and excited about this as I am about the modern Olympics in Atlanta. To step on the same soil as athletes did in antiquity really has an impact on the emotions," said Payton Jordan, 79, a
former U.S. Olympic track and field coach, after winning his race. Jordan was one of the few trained runners at the Nemean Games.
The winner of each of the nearly 50 sprints held that day, as well as the winner of the afternoon long distance race, received a palm branch and had a white ribbon with "Nemea 1996" tied around his or her head. All the victors were crowned with wild celery at the closing ceremonies that evening.
Chancellor Chang-Lin Tien, who arrived in Ancient Nemea at midnight, eight hours before the games began, finished his race for men ages 57 to 60. But he had witnessed several people fall or pull muscles in prior races that day. "I was trying to be careful," he said. "I have to go to China tomorrow, and I didn't want to hurt myself."
At the end of the day, the town hosted a party outside St. Andrews Greek Orthodox church. Local residents fed the runners homemade delicacies and led Greek dances in the moonlight.
Then, as quickly as Ancient Nemea had filled
that morning, it returned to its tranquil self. But no one who had witnessed
the Nemean Games would soon forget the day. 
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