Kamari Gouva (C173) Reconsidered

In my last post I discussed the location of a site called 'Gouva', near Kamari (UMME 236).  Gouva was a large tholos tomb from the LHIII A.  And just to recap some of the main points:

a. It has been robbed and destroyed. [1]

b. It had been so large that when the central dome collapsed (or was dug out) it left two little hills. [2]

c. These two 'bumps' on the landscape could still be seen from a nearby highway as late as the 1960's by investigators such as McDonald and Simpson.[3]

In that post I looked over all the constraints and decided on a location at  37.292614° N, 21.78284° E and I gave various reasons for why I thought that was the right location.

But now I have reason to think that I was wrong and that the real location is just a bit to the north.  A correspondent of mine in Greece, Pete, has actually been to this ridge and walked the whole length of it looking for features that might fit our tholos.  He reports:

"I took a general walk around the area either side of the ridge. Going much further south got difficult as the ridge was overgrown and I was weary of snakes in the undergrowth. Of course low scrub and trees make judging any details difficult but I can usually spot a point of interest or identify an area that might fit the bill. So none of this is conclusive, but I offer a suggestion for consideration.

I note that the report stated that the mounds were on the skyline and looked like two small hills. Or some such. So I took a walk along the skyline ridge route. I started a little further to the south of the area you had indicated and walked north, along the top of the little valley and up to the highest point some tens of meters away. Just beyond that high point (mostly covered by bushes) there was a cleared stony/earth field with a somewhat obvious mound near the higher, west side. The mound had a shallow dip in the middle."[4]

What does he mean?

This next image shows the area that he's talking about.  The various camera icons indicate where Pete was standing when he took these photos; the color matching rays indicate the direction the camera was facing.  (Photo 12 is a panorama.)  His suggested tholos location is the white circle and its lat/lon position is 37.293955° N, 21.782660° E.  North is at the top.

And in order to see his suggested mound clearly let's look at Photo 10:[5]

Proposed Kamari: Gouva tholos as seen from E.
For credit see fn. 5.

And from the SE facing NW here is photo 7:[5]

Proposed Kamari: Gouva tholos as seen from SE.
For credit see fn. 5.

Photo 8 shows the mound from the S:[5]

Gouva Mound(?) from the SE.
For credit see fn. 5.

Photo 9 shows the mound from the SW.[5]

Pete has this to say about Photo 9:

"Image 9 is taken from 'behind' the mound in question I walked though the gap in the bush to the SW of the mound as I wanted to see what the other side was like. The mound was not so obvious at this point. It was "lost" in a long linear patch of shrub and undergrowth. In fact if anything there seemed to be a short, steep bank (which the shrubs followed) instead of a smooth sloped side to the mound.

In the photo one can see that the nearest olive trees are smaller and so I suppose this immediate area has been bulldozed in the last 50 years (probably 20 or so). That might explain the missing west slope of the suggested site. It had been removed by bulldozer and  the "cut-edge" left exposed and left to weather. I could not get too close but when I tried to see if there were any stones showing I was not able to see any clearly. I did not see any regular pattern of placement of stone or anything proving or strongly supporting this as a site for a tholos. The exposed parts of the bank were composed of a gritty red earth with a lot of stones."[6]

Photo 12 is a panorama which looks at the site from the NE.[5]

Gouva Mound(?) from the NE.
For credit see fn. 5.

So.  Is this site correct?  Or at least does it fit the description in Messenia III?

Here's what McDonald and Simpson report:

"As one travels w on the road from Kopanaki to Kamari past the spring of Sanova, he sees on the w skyline what appear to be two artificial mounds quite close together.  The N-S ridge on which they lie is at least 1 km. from any road.

   On close inspection it turns out that there was originally one large mound and that its center was deeply dug out.  From a distance the heightened banks of excavated earth create the impression of two mounds.   ...    The shrubs that have since grown up in the crater suggest that the excavation may have been as much as half a century ago.  Perhaps the crater explains the local toponym of Gouva ("hole")."[7]

Can we find the road?  Can we find the spot from which McDonald/Simpson were when they saw these two mounds?

I think we can.  The stretch of road along which they were travelling is shown here:

The yellow line is the road of travel.  In Google Maps the road is labelled 'Epar. Od. Chanion-Naou Epikouriou Apollonos'.  Kopanaki is in the lower right under the red arrow and Kamari is on the upper left center under another red arrow.  The stretch of road from which McDonald/Simpson could have seen the twin mounds is somewhere along the yellow line and inside the i km. circle which is centered on the proposed new location.  This stretch of road leaves Nea Agrilia going NW and the traveler drops from the plateau on which Nea Agrilia is situated into a little valley (some 15 m. or so vertical distance) through which flows a stream (Topoguide says that it's called the 'Kopitsa') whose origin is on the N side of this road.  It turns out that the proposed stretch of the ridge on which the proposed location is positioned is only visible from the very edge of this plateau just before the drop into the valley.  This position is just to the right of the 1 km. circle on the line which represent the road.

Here's a viewshed of these valleys and ridges; it has its origin on the plateau edge as I just suggested

And I have another way of demonstrating this.  Incredibly Google Street View is available for this entire road.   I've made a photo of what that ridge line looks like from the suggested observer's position on top of the plateau.  Here it is:

O.k.  This requires a little explanation.  The road in the foreground (we're facing NNW) is the road to Kamari.  What's that gray thing?  It turns out that when you draw a line in Google Earth and the extend it down to the ground you can often see that extended line in Google Street View.  This scene places us on the right road looking more or less west to the ridge.  The line here was drawn starting at the  proposed tholos position and extended to the observer's position just ahead of us on  the road.  I then extended it to create this unmissable indicator.  The left vertical edge of this figure is directly over the tholos and the ragged corner here imitates the changing elevation of the ridges between us and the observer.  To see where the line hits the ridge line it is enough to continue the edges with arrows to the point where they meet on the ridge.

If Pete is right then this is the area of the ridge that MacDonald/Simpson would have seen.   

Can we see two little mounds from here given that we know that they're there?  I'm just not sure.  The bumps on this ridge are consistent with what M/S saw but whether they're exactly the same we cannot now know.

Anyway, Pete's suggested position (which I will be adopting for C173 in the atlas) is:  37.293955° N, 21.782660° E.

A shout-out to Pete for his extraordinary work on this ridge!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

There's just one more mystery to clear up.  Simpson says: 

"As one travels w on the road from Kopanaki to Kamari past the spring of Sanova, ... "[8]

Where is the spring Sanova?  I'll deal with that in my next post.

Footnotes

[1] Messenia III, 137. ' ..., there is practically no doubt that this was a large tholos tomb that was excavated (presumably illicitly) and completely destroyed.  The shrubs that have since grown up in the crater suggest that the excavation may have been as much as half a century ago.'  This article appeared in 1969.  All the authors known to me who have described this tomb are simply repeating McDonald and Simpson.

[2] Messenia III, 137.  ' ... [the traveler] sees on the w skyline what appear to be two artificial mounds quite close together.  The N-S ridge on which they lie is at least 1 km. from any road.'

[3] Idem.

[4] Personal communication on July 18, 2021.

[5] Pete's photos were heavily post-processed by me in Photoshop before publishing.  Typical operations consisted of contrast adjustment (sometimes selective), color-balance and enhancement, and sharpening.   

All of Pete's photographs are licensed under the Creative Commons Licence: Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0).  This license means, in brief, that anyone may use, modify, or tweak this data, even for commercial use, as long as credit is given to the original author(s).

[6] Personal communication on July 13, 2021.

[7] Messenia III, 137-8.

[8] Messenia III, 137.

Bibliography  

(All of the sources listed here simply copy Messenia III.  Aside from these there are no other reports of Gouva to my knowledge.)

Boyd [2001]:  Boyd, Michael John, Middle Helladic And Early Mycenaean Mortuary Practices In The Southern And Western Peloponnese, 2001   pg. 212   'Unexcavated Tholos Tombs'.  It is online here.

Cavanagh and Mee [1998]: Cavanagh, W., Mee, Ch., A private place: death in prehistoric Greece ((Studies in Mediterranean Archaeology, 125)).1998.  ISBN: 91-7081-178-4

McDonald and Rapp [1972]:  McDonald, William A. and George R. Rapp, Jr.,  The Minnesota Messenia Expedition: Reconstructing a Bronze Age Regional Environment.  University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, Minnesota.  USA. 1972.   pg. 298, no. 236, 'Kamari: Gouva'.

Messenia III:   McDonald, William A. and Richard Hope Simpson. ‘Further Explorations in Southwestern Peloponnese: 1964-1968’, American Journal of Archaeology (73:2) (Apr., 1969), pp. 123-177., '23D. Gouva (Kamari)', pg. 137. Online here.

Pelon [1976]:  Pelon, Olivier . Tholoi, tumuli et cercles funéraires; Recherches sur les monuments funéraires de plan circulaire dan l'Égée de l’Âge du Bronze (IIIe at IIe millénaires av. J.-C).  Bibliothèques de l'École française d'Athènes et de Rome - Série Athènes, 229. 1976.   pg. 465, 'Gouva'.   It is online here.

Simpson and Dickinson [1979]:  Simpson, Richard Hope and O.T.P.K. Dickinson.  A Gazetteer of Aegean Civilization in the Bronze Age, Vol. I: The Mainland and the Islands. Paul Åströms Förlag, Goteborg. 1979.   pg. 177, 'D 236 Kamari: Gouva.'  It is online here.

Simpson [1981]:  Simpson, Richard Hope.  Mycenaean Greece. Park Ridge, New Jersey: Noyes Press, 1981.   pg. 137   'F 209 Kamari: Gouva'.

Zavadil [2012]:  Zavadil, Michaela  Monumenta: Studien zu mittel- und späthelladischen Gräbern in Messenien.  Wien:Osterreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften Philosophisch-Historische Klasse Denkschriften. 2012.   pg. 411, 'KAMARI/GOUVA (EP. TRIPHYLIAS)'.  It is online here.

What does 'site aspect' mean? Reviewing a paper by Malaperdas and Zacharias

I’ve been looking at Malaperdas and Zacharias’ paper from 2018 and using the helladic.info Site Aspect pages to check some of their figures.[1]  This very interesting paper examines 18 Mycenaean sites in Messenia from the geophysiological viewpoint. The authors examine site aspect, slopes, water resources, and site geology in an attempt to derive clues to explain why the Mycenaeans established settlements where they did.

The concept of site aspect is a complex one. First there’s the problem of determining what aspect actually is. I take this word to mean the direction of the largest slope. Aspect can change radically as one gets further away from the site. I’m not aware that there is an agreed distance at which the slopes for determining aspect should be calculated.

In the Mycenaean Atlas Project each site elevation is matched to eight other elevations. These ‘sample’ elevations are taken at 150 m and 300 m in each cardinal direction (N, S, E, and W). That means there are two slopes calculable for each site in each of the four directions, one at 150 m and one at 300 m.   For each site the direction with largest slope at 150 m and direction with the largest slope at 300 m are used to determine ‘Site Aspect’. There are ten possible results: N, E, S, W, NW, NE, SW, SE, NS, and EW. For each site the aspects at 150 m and at 300 m may very well differ.

Site Aspect Map for Messenia. Blue arrows indicate aspect.  Clicking on
an arrow brings up an info-box for that site.  Mousing over the arrow
gives you the name of that site.

More than the problem of determining aspect mathematically there is the consideration that many sites are large and complex. It is quite reasonable to associate different parts of a site with different aspects. I do not generally take this factor into account in the Mycenaean Atlas.

Sites with very low slopes (< 3º) in every direction have no meaningful aspect in my opinion.

Malaperdas and Zacharias [2018] are not explicit about how site aspect was determined. I compared my site aspect results to theirs. (All numbers in the form Cnnn or Cnnnn are references to the Mycenaean Atlas Project at www.helladic.info.

1. Ano Englianos (C219). This large and complex site lies on both sides of a ridge that runs approximately NE-SW. Nestor’s Palace itself actually sits on a part of that ridge that runs more directly EW. Malaperdas and Zacharias [2018] give its aspect as ‘South’. In fact, its real aspect is North-West-South, that is, orthogonally away from its ridge in both directions (NS) and with a clear view of the ocean (W).

2. Koryfasio-Beylerbey (C238). This little site sits on top of a tiny plateau (elev. 31 m. a.s.l.) and has very little slope in any direction. Only to the N and W at 150 m. does its slope amount to ‘slight’. Malaperdas and Zacharias have its aspect as ‘Southeast’. A better value would be NW but, in fact, aspect has little meaning for this site.

3. Iklaina (C223). I have taken our authors to mean ‘Ikaina-Traganes’ which is the major site on the Iklaina plateau. Iklaina is located near the S edge of a large plateau which falls away precipitously to the S and W but that’s not enough to give the site a south-westerly aspect. In fact C223 has no more or less aspect than any other site on that plateau which is essentially flat.

4. Koukounara (C421). Koukounara is part of an enormous complex of BA sites (mostly tombs) each of which differs from the others. It has never, to my knowledge, been adequately mapped.[2] The first task is to try and figure out what Malaperdas and Zacharias mean when they say ‘Koukounara’. The Potamou tou Arapi is a rema or gully (as we say in America) that runs roughly N-S. At one point two separate remas come together and create a southwest-facing promontory and the little settlement (C421) sits on that promontory facing S. I have its aspect as West at 150 m and South at 300 m. so I make its aspect to be predominantly S and W. Malaperdas et al. make this aspect to be S and E.

5. Yialova: Palaiochori (C249). For the exact location of this settlement see McDonald and Simpson [1961].[3] It sits on the west end of a ridge running EW. We are explicitly told that the site sits on the summit of the westernmost bump on that ridge.[4] As a result it has aspect to the N, W, and S. Malaperdas’ suggested value of ‘Southeast’ is not adequate.

6. Metaxada-Kalopsana (C203). This little site lies at the bottom of a valley which runs N-S. We would expect, by inspection, that its aspects would be N-S. But it also lies on a small ridge running E-W in that valley and so it has a non-negligible westerly slope. Nevertheless, I make its aspect to be South at both distances. Malaperdas et al. make the aspect here to be Southeast. I do not see how that is possible.

7. Rizomylos-Nichoria (C159). Nichoria is situated on a ridge that runs nearly perfectly E-W. (260º). A road ran through the settlement and parallel to the ridge. It is completely open on all sides and, while a little valley does open to the south, the idea of aspect is nearly meaningless with respect to this site. Its site would not, for example, shelter it from the north wind.

8. Thouria-Ellinika (C403). I take Malaperdas et al. to be referring to a site which, in the Mycenaean Atlas, I call C403. This is the same as the ‘Myc. Site’ on Richard Hope Simpson’s map in his article from 1966 [5] This little settlement sits directly on top of the Thouria ridge and just to the south of the chamber tomb complex dug into that ridge. Mathematically its aspect is East and West and inspection confirms this. Its slope to the south is slight (4.29 and 4.76 at 150m and 300m respectively).

9. Pidma – Agios Ioannis (C113). This site is open to the N, W, and S. It backs against those cliffs which bound the Pamisos valley on the east. We would expect its dominant aspect to be away from the cliffs and to the W. This is so but the slopes to the three cardinal directions are so slight that it can hardly be said to have aspect at all.

10. Kalamata Kastro (C111). The Kastro sits on top of a small plateau and is open to the sky in all directions. Even though there is strong slope in all directions at 150m this is purely an artifact of the plateau edge and cannot figure into any calculation of aspect. The concept of aspect at this site does not apply.

11. Kardamyli Kastro (C103). The location of the Kastro of Kardamyle is given in Simpson [1957] 234-6. It is the high plateau (+110 m) that stretches out about 800 m to the NW of the modern town. Simpson provides an excellent map.[6] Malaverdas et al. seem to have picked a different place. To judge by their reported elevation they apparently chose the little height about 400 m to the southwest. But this is not the Kastro of Kardamyle. Simpson reports activities on both sides of this high acropolis. Indeed, activities on the south side have southern aspect and activities on the north side have northern aspect. The acropolis itself, however, is flat and has both N, W, and S aspect. It has, for example, shelter only from the east. Otherwise none.

12. Leuktra: Stoupa (C447) Southeast of the little town of Stoupa a volcanic plug rises suddenly out of the plain to a height of about 50 m. (72 m a.s.l.) above the surrounding level. The top of this plug is relatively flat and it measures ca. 118 m. northeast to southwest, and as much as 35 m. northwest-southeast at its widest point. In the LH a Mycenaean site of little consequence was placed here – sherds have been found. Again, as in previous examples, this site has no aspect. It is completely open in every direction. The Mycenaean Atlas reports strong slope in every direction but that is not enough to establish any directional aspect.

13. Kato Melpia: Krebeni (C121). You can see Kato Melpia in Google Street View at the location 37.328513°, 21.933230° and looking directly N. Kato Melpia is not the high peaks but the shelf lying about half-way down. It has some shelter from the N and I make its aspect to be south and west. In this I agree with Malaperdas et al.

14. Malthi-Gouves (C149) The site selected by Malaperdas et al. Is not Malthi-Gouves. Judging by their reported elevation they seem to have selected the primary tholos at the bottom of the Malthi hill (C1207), and not the actual settlement which is at the top of the hill about 125 m. above it. The settlement itself covers the top of the hill and is unsheltered in every direction. The concept of aspect really does not apply to it although inspection of the photographs here() show a slight incline towards the south. The site seems, however, to have been chosen purely for the sake of the visibility it affords over the central Soulima valley. The site selected by Malaperdas as ‘Malthi’ is a large tholos tomb, not badly preserved, but which is tucked into the Malthi ridge at its base on the West side. They give it an aspect of southeast but I do not see what relevance aspect has in this context.[7]

15. Dorio-Kontra (C126). The little settlement of Dorio sits on the top of a conical hill more than 100 m above the surrounding valley of Stenyklaros. As such it has no aspect. The nearest hills to the N are about 3 km distant. It seems clear that this site was chosen for the visibility it has over its surrounds.

16. Filiatra – Ayios Christoforos (C188). This site is located on a plateau. Ayios Christoforos is where it is probably because it affords a view of the entire coast to the west. Immediately to its N is a large hill which shelters it from the N. Its aspect is S and W.

17. Myron-Peristeria (C183). This is a complex site with multiple aspects. Aside from the several tholoi (placed, I am convinced, for maximum visibility), C183 is a building occupying a position which Simpson and Dickinson [1979] 167 call an ‘acropolis’. Like Malthi (C149), it overlooks the Soulima valley to the north and its measurable aspect is N and W.

18. Mouriatadha-Elliniko (C180). This site occupies a northwest-southeast ridge in the center of a valley running EW. It sits on the top and south of this little ridge but immediately to its south is another and larger ridge running east-west. To the extent that this settlement has any aspect at all it is east-west.

Conclusion

If there are any lessons to be learned from looking at settlement site aspect they are these:

1. Sites near the sea usually face the sea.

2. Whichever way the slope faces the site faces the same direction. That is if a ridge slopes down to the N then sites on that slope face N, etc. There are about as many sites on N-facing slopes as S-facing.

3. Sites on top of a ridge or on saddles have aspect in opposite directions orthogonally away from the direction in which the ridge runs.

4. Aspect is much less meaningful for sites on peaks or in valleys (or located on plateaus) and for sites on ground where the slope is less than 0.05 (2.86°) in any direction.

These are general ideas only and can be heavily affected by local conditions: access to water, tillable fields, etc.

Footnotes

[1] Malaperdas and Zacharias [2018].

[2] See Zavadil, Monumenta [2012] 454-455 for remarks about this.   Also definitely this.

[3] McDonald and Simpson [1961] 242, '58. Palaiochori (Gialova)'. And for more see Mycenaean Atlas Project website at hellenic.info for C249.

[4] Idem.

[5] Simpson [1966] 122, fig. 6 ‘Ancient Thouria’. And see this.

[6] Simpson [1957] 234-6. Simpson gives a textual description on p. 234 and an unmistakable map on 235.

[7] Photos and discussion of this tholos (C1207) are here.  There are photos of the actual settlement (C149) here.

Bibliography

Malaperdas and Zacharias [2018]: Malaperdas, George and Nikolaos Zacharias. “A Geospatial Analysis of Mycenaean Habitation Sites Using a Geocumulative versus Habitation Approach”, Journal of Geoscience and Environment Protection (6) 111-131. 2018. Online here.

McDonald and Simpson [1961]: McDonald, William A. and Richard Hope Simpson. ‘Prehistoric Habitation in Southwestern Peloponnese’, American Journal of Archaeology. (65:3) 221-260.  Online here.

Simpson [1957] : Simpson, Richard Hope. ‘Identifying a Mycenaean State’, The Annual of the British School at Athens (52) 231-259. Online here.

Simpson [1966]: Simpson, Richard Hope. ‘The Seven Cities Offered by Agamemnon to Achilles’, The Annual of the British School at Athens (61) 113-131. Online here.

Simpson and Dickinson [1979]: Simpson, Richard Hope and O.T.P.K. Dickinson. A Gazetteer of Aegean Civilization in the Bronze Age, Vol. I: The Mainland and the Islands. Paul Åströms Förlag, Goteborg. 1979., 'D 200 Mirou: Peristeria', pg. 167.  Online here.

Zavadil [2012]: Zavadil, Michaela, Monumenta: Studien zu mittel- und späthelladischen Gräbern in Messenien, Wien:Osterreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften Philosophisch-Historische Klasse Denkschriften. 2012. Online here: 

Follow the telephone wires to Gargaliano Megas Kambos 1 (C390)

Gargaliani Megas Kambos is a Mycenaean site in Messenia that saw activity in the Late Helladic I-II and in the Late Hellladic IIIA – B.  We know about it  thanks to the Pylos Regional Archaeological Project which surveyed it in, I think, 1994.  The site is located in the extensive plains west of the town of Gargaliani in Messenia and is not very easy to find in all that flatness and in a landscape which is fundamentally nothing more than a carpet of olive trees.  As a result I’ve had it in the wrong position by about 300 m. ever since I added it to my Mycenaean Atlas.

Recently I acquired a copy of Davis and Bennet [2017] which is a retrospective of the PRAP effort and I have been revisiting many of the PRAP sites mentioned in my Mycenaean Atlas in the hope of finding additional information.  Here’s what Davis and Bennet have to say about Megas Kambos:

“The site lies on an elongated rise with a trigonometric point (104 masl) on top, ca. 3 km east of Marathopolis …  The rise is one in a series of knolls on the coastal plain west of the modern town of Gargaliani, and slopes gradually to the north, south, and west, with a more abrupt drop to the northeast.  On the southeastern slope is a bedrock cutting, perhaps a quarry.

Two distinct phases of ceramics are represented at the site: prehistoric, particularly LH I-II and III A-B, and Geometric-Roman.  A shaft-hole hammer-axe is probably of MH I date.”[1]

At the PRAP website there is additional material:

“The top is largely covered with maquis, dissected by goat paths, with some open grassy areas. The N and NW slopes are currently planted with grassy mature olives and there are occasional outcrops of bedrock. Intensive market gardening is being practiced on the E side of the hill. The S knoll has many exposed rock outcrops interspersed with grassy areas; at the bottom of the slope are extensive olive groves. On the SE slope is a bedrock cutting consisting of a vertical face with two short returns (perhaps a quarry)”[2]

So where is it?

There is one photograph in that book which, if it could be reproduced in Google Earth, would pinpoint the location of Megas Kambos.  Here’s the photograph:

Figure 1  Megas Kambos hill seen from the NE.   (Courtesy of The Department of Classics University of Cincinnati)

I’m using the color version which I found online.[3]   I encourage my readers to compare this post-processed photo with the original online.  One of my blog themes is that there is a lot of life left in these academic photos – but they need to be post-processed in order to bring out their full  potential.

Here is what the general area looks like in Google Earth:

Figure 2 Megas Kambos is somewhere in the center of this mono-cropped olive landscape.

The intersection of the two roads in the center of the picture is at 37.062327° N, 21.609643° E

Megas Kambos is in this picture – but where?  We are told that it is on a low hill; the ASL marker at the top is at 104 m. elevation.  But such a small hill is difficult to see in this landscape which has been terraformed for olive mono-cropping.

The key, believe it or not, is to locate in this landscape the telephone/electricity wires which are visible in Figure 1.  If you look carefully you’ll see that there is a near-by pole on the right and that it connects to two more poles that can be seen diminishing to the left (south).  The near pole is on a road and in my post-processed photo it’s clearer that this pole stands at an intersection of two field roads.  Can we find that pole/road/wire combination in this landscape?

Yes.   It turns out that we can.  If you look carefully at the clearest versions of these Google images (I’m using the Google Earth image from 11/28/2013) you’ll see a slight grey streak that turns out to be a telephone/electrical line.  Here’s the center of Figure 2 blown up with the lines indicated by arrows:

Figure 3 Wires at A.  They attach to a pole at B.

I traced every visible wire in this area to see whether I could create something recognizable.  Here’s the result:

Figure 4 Telephone wires marked in blue.  Poles marked and numbered at the vertices.

Here the wires are traced in blue.  The telephone poles at each vertice are marked.  The wire east of Pole 4 appears to end at a structure a few meters on.  The wire does continue past pole 3 to the south but I cannot trace it in Google Earth.  The wires to the north of pole 5 go back to the main grid.

The pole that appears to the right in Figure 1 is at position 1 here.  The two poles that are visible to the left in that photo are poles 2 and 3.  The wires in Figure 1 clearly connect 1,2, and 3 just as they do in Google Earth.   

Now I have to admit that I’m simply presenting the conclusion here and omitting all of my false starts; during this whole process I traced half the wires in northern Messenia.  But is this really the right solution?  If it is then it should now be possible to recreate the Figure 1 in Google Earth.  Here it is:

Figure 5 Megas Kambos Hill

Figure 1 reproduced for comparison

This is about as close as I can come in Google Earth to reproducing the photo in Figure 1.  I drew in the  poles using Photoshop.  The only real difference between this picture and Figure 1 is the wires that run from pole 1 to pole 4.  They show up in Google Earth but I can’t see them at all in Figure 1.  It’s possible that this line (to a single structure) was put up sometime in the quarter century since Figure 1 was taken.  I have no other explanation for that omission.

Well, time to wrap it all up with a map that shows everything in its place.  In the next photograph north is to the left.

Figure 6  White arrow marks photo position.  Megas Kambos is at the right.

In this photo the wires are as they were.  Megas Kambos hill is at the lower right.  The ‘low hill’ mentioned by Davis and Bennet is in the center.  It was from the lower slope of that hill (white arrow) that the photo of Megas Kambos was made.  The direction of the photo was to the south-west (and not to the north-east as Davis and Bennet would have it.[4]

The interested reader can safely download a .kml of this demonstration from Google Drive here. 

I still need to correct this in Helladic.info  Right now C390 is still in the wrong position and will be until I deliver a new database in the next couple of days.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A new database for the Mycenaean Atlas Project (www.helladic.info) was delivered on April 23, 2018.  Approximately 73 new sites were added (based largely on Hood, Warren, Cadogan, Travels in Crete, 1962. BSA (59), pp. 50-99, 1964.  The new DB is rev 0058.

Also don't miss my review of the (overrated) Against the Grain by James C. Scott.  It's here: http://mycenaeanatlasproject.blogspot.com/2018/02/some-notes-on-james-c-scott-against.html

If you like these posts then please follow me on Twitter or Google Plus (Robert Consoli).

You can e-mail me (and I hope you will) at  bobconsoli   at   gmail.com

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If you'd like to have a copy of the Mycenaean Atlas database then e-mail me and tell me about your project.  And remember that useful .kml and/or .csv files can be generated directly from all the windows of the website helladic.info   Try it out!

NOTES

[1] Davis and Bennet [2017] 30, ‘D2 Gargaliani Megas Kambos (1)'

[2] http://classics.uc.edu/prap/db/sitedetail.php?site=D02

[3] http://classics.uc.edu/prap/db/imagedetail.php?SR=090.18   In Davis and Bennet [2017] this is Figure 17 on p. 30.

[4] Davis and Bennet [2017] 30, caption for Figure 17. This is stated correctly  on the web site.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Davis and Bennet [2017]: Davis, Jack L. and John Bennet, edd.   The Pylos Regional Archaeological Project, American School of Classical Studies at Athens, 2017.

A Possible CEM associated with the HAB at C397

In my last post I suggested that the correct position for C397 (UMME 139) was at 37.085266° N,  22.055458° E

In the same paragraph from Simpson which I quoted earlier we read this:

"About 500 m. to SW and considerably below the site just described, we noted prehistoric sherds about 2.50 m. down from the surface in the sides of a sunken track that leads up in a cleft between two hills to the convent of the Panayia.  The spot is only about 250 m. E of the outskirts of Thouria village.  There is a new concrete cistern about 30 m. to E, with a sluggish spring slightly higher to NE.  Among the most distinctive sherds are a flat ribbon handle of fine pink clay, a horizontal pinched handle of soft reddish brown fabric, and some plain rims and bases of darkish clay.  Several large pieces of thick pithoi might indicate that this was a cemetery.  The pottery seems to belong mainly to MH, but some may be LH.
  The material collected on the habitation site is not closely datable but confirms its use in prehistoric times.  It could have been associated with the "cemetery" below it."[1]

Also in Simpson and Dickinson [1979] this:

"... About 500 m. SW, some MH sherds and others which may be LH were noted about 2.5 m. down from the surface in the sides of a sunken track between two hills on the way to the Panayia convent.  Some large pithos fragments suggest that the track may have cut through a prehistoric cemetery."[2]

So.  From the previously located site move 500 m. to SW (225°) and we should be in the vicinity of the CEM.  Let's look at the map.

This is what it looks like when I apply all of Simpson's constraints.  The large yellow circle is centered on C397 and has a radius of 500 m.   The azimuth line of 225° (SW) is included for reference.

Near where the azimuth line meets the circle I noticed two things.  The first is what appears to be a cistern and 30 m. distant to the left (W) is a road.  Simpson et al. clearly state that their finds were at the side of a road in the (visible) strata and about 2.5 m. from the top.

Here I've zoomed in on that location.  The circle is 30 m. in radius and it is centered on what I consider to be a cistern.  Another meter or two and we're on the roadside.  I propose this as the approximate location for C5407, our supposed CEM.

All of this fits precisely with Simpson's directions - except for one thing.  Where is the convent of the Panayia and does it fit Simpson's text?  This poses a problem because I can find no religious establishment with that specific name.  The two best candidates might be 1) Ayios Vlasios at 37.079550° N, 22.055526° E and 2) another unnamed church at 37.082563 N, 22.058166 E.  The two candidates can be seen in the next photo:

Ayios Vlasios is to the S and connected to C5407 by a driveable field trail.  But it looks like it might be too small to be more than a simple country church.  Here it is in close-up:

The second church complex looks like this:

In this photo I think we have two things.  One is the church itself and the other seems nothing more than tin-roofed farm buildings.  Truthfully these two church complexes both appear to be simple country chapels.

Nonetheless I slightly prefer the second church, the unnamed one, simply because it is reached through a path between hills.  In the next photo I have exaggerated the vertical by a factor of 2 in order to bring this idea out.

This picture shows the entire area.  Our proposed CEM (C5407) is at the lower left.  Ayios Vlasios is at the lower right.  The large complex right in the center looks to me like a private home.  That leaves 'Church 2' at the upper right as the most likely candidate for the convent but -  I am not sure.  The path in red that I have labelled 'trail' is taken from Topoguide.  It is here to emphasize that it is possible to walk from C5407 to 'Church 2' by means of a trail that goes between two hills.

If anyone has more information about these several structures then I would very much like to hear.   For right now I propose 37.081622° N, 22.052162° E (C5407) as the most likely position for Simpson's MH/LH CEM.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Check out my new icons on the website helladic.info

There is a new database which was delivered on March 21, 2018.  It adds sundry minor corrections as well as nearly fifty new sites in Crete.  The new DB is rev 0055.

If you like these posts then please follow me on Twitter or Google Plus (Robert Consoli).

You can e-mail me (and I hope you will) at  bobconsoli   at   gmail.com

And please remember - Friends don't let friends use Facebook.

If you'd like to have a copy of the Mycenaean Atlas database then e-mail me and tell me what your project involves.  And remember that useful .kml and/or .csv files can be generated directly from all the windows of the website helladic.info

NOTES

[1] Messenia III, p. 160, no 79B. 'Ayios Athanasios (Thouria)'.

[2] Simpson and Dickinson [1979]: 164.

BIBLIO
McDonald and Rapp [1972]: McDonald, William A. and George R. Rapp, Jr., The Minnesota Messenia Expedition: Reconstructing a Bronze Age Regional Environment, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, Minnesota.  USA. 1972

Messenia III: McDonald, William A. and Richard Hope Simpson. 1969. 'Further Explorations in Southwestern Peloponnese: 1964-1968'.  American Journal of Archaeology. (73:2), pp. 123-177.

Simpson, Richard Hope and O.T.P.K. Dickinson,  A Gazetteer of Aegean Civilization in the Bronze Age, Vol. I: The Mainland and the Islands, Paul Åströms Förlag, Goteborg. 1979.