Greece Archaeology Part 2

By | February 9, 2022

Investigations in the Asklepieion resumed in Messene: stratigraphic essays confirmed the dating of the temple to the first half of the 4th century BC, while the presence of layers with Neolithic material and protogeometric and geometric ceramics testify to an occupation of the site prior to the Theban foundation from 370-369 BC In the heroon south of the stadium a colossal marble statue representing a reclining heroic dead was found.

In Elide, the investigations into Elide’s theater and agora continued ; in Scillunte, the exploration of a sanctuary with a peripteral temple from the 4th century BC, equipped with an internal colonnade and pedimental sculptures, has been started. Investigations were also carried out in the necropolis of the classical age. The research in the sanctuary of Zeus in Olympia, in addition to the recovery of numerous votive objects and some architectural elements of the thesauròs of Sicyon, the Philippeion and the Palestra, reused in late constructions, made it possible to clarify the chronology of some buildings and to acquire new ones data on the topography of the complex.

In the islands of the Saronic Gulf, the most important searches were carried out in Aegina: in the sanctuary of Capo Colonna (north wall of the archaic temenos, new buildings of late archaism), and in Plakakia, where a vast necropolis was discovered and the first section of the walls of the classical era.

Islands of the Ionian Sea. – Episodic discoveries are reported in Kefalonia (tombs and houses from the Hellenistic period) and Lefkada (tombs from the 4th century BC, road and house from the 3rd century BC), while in Corfu new data have emerged on the topography of the city and other monuments are were brought to light: in the sanctuary of Kardaki, under the well-known temple, an archaic altar was discovered, perhaps for outdoor worship; in Kanoni remains of a settlement from the Archaic to the Roman age and a rich votive deposit buried in the years 550-530 BC; at Haghioi Theòdoroi an altar and a temple from the 5th century, perhaps that of Apollo Pitius; an archaic necropolis in the Garitsa district, an archaic tile factory in Figareto. In Ithaca the investigations on the hill of Aetòs, now identified as the seat of the ancient city, testify to an attendance that goes from the 13th century to the

Northern and central Greece. – According to Sportsqna, an intense research activity, planned or solicited by urgent interventions, has involved Epirus with important results for the knowledge of this region.

In Meropi, near the Albanian border, a vast necropolis was discovered, consisting of at least 60 tumuli, with tombs ranging from the 11th to the 4th century BC; a necropolis, structures and bothroi of the geometric age and houses of the Hellenistic age have been explored in Vitsa Zagoriou; remains of an inhabited area of ​​the 4th century BC and an archaic and classical necropolis in Pedinì. Research has resumed in the sanctuary of Zeus in Dodona, and, in particular, south of the bouleuterion, where two public buildings of the 3rd-2nd century BC have been explored, one of which a prytaneum, the other perhaps a public hotel to host the delegates of the koinon of the Epirotes. The team’s research continuedGreek-Germanic in the inhabited area of ​​Cassope, whose regularity of the insulae (30 m wide, with two bands of houses, divided by a median drainage channel) was detected, and important elements were acquired for the study of the housing typology of the region in the period from the 4th to the 2nd century BC Excavation tests were conducted in the agora, under the katagogeion(dated to the second half of the 3rd century BC), which overlapped a quadrangular building of similar functions of the late 4th-early 3rd century BC, and under the portico, where a 4th century building has been identified BC Other data for the study of late-classical and Hellenistic housing culture came from the excavations of the modern center of Arta, ancient Ambracia, where new sections of the circuit of the walls of the 5th-4th century BC were also explored., a second theater, tombs and funerary peribles from the 6th century to the Roman age. In Ammòtopos, 12 km north-west of Ambracia, research has been carried out in the fortifications and in the inhabited area, referable to an orthogonal city of the first half of the 4th century BC

Few investigations have involved Aetolia: exploration campaigns by the University of Utrecht; excavations of the Ecole française in the Hellenistic settlement of Kallion, where a large house was explored. Excavations have resumed in the southern portico of the agora of Thermòs, abandoned during construction when Philip V destroyed the sanctuary in 216 BC; among the finds, a fragment of the trophy of the Aetolians for the victory over the Galatians in 279 BC.

Among the discoveries in Phocis (essays on the 4th-3rd century BC fortifications of Galaxidi and Dìstomo; excavation of a strip of the geometric necropolis in Anavra, a necropolis from the first half of the 5th century BC to the Hellenistic age in Karakòlithos, perhaps the ancient Trachis; works of arrangement, control and restoration in Delphi), the excavation of the Germanic Archaeological Institute in the sanctuary of Kalapodi stands out, a cultural complex dating from the Mycenaean age to the classical period, with numerous Templar buildings that have provided exceptional data for the study of the forms and types of the Greek temple, especially for the transition phase from wooden to stone architecture. In Locride Ozolia few discoveries are reported in Naupatto (Hellenistic fortification and tombs from the 4th century BC) and to Anfissa (stretch of the walls from the 4th century BC and tombs from the Recent Geometric to the Roman age). Research conducted in Boeotia is more active (see this Appendix).

Greece Archaeology 2