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.

Icons for the Mycenaean Atlas Project

Three years ago when I first began to develop the Atlas of theMycenaean Bronze Age, I had an image in mind of a landscape scattered with icons that indicated what was found where.  I wanted a picture of the landscape of the Bronze Age.  Of course the work of specifying actual locations for Bronze Age find spots came first.  And up until now the web site has simply displayed orange paddle icons for any find whether it was a palace or a single potsherd.  It looked like this:

Not very helpful to be confronted with a map that was thickly populated with this icon because each icon had to be clicked on before you could tell even roughly what it was.

Now I’m pleased to announce that I have implemented a full range of pictorial icons that give some idea what a particular find is.  First is the ‘habitation’ icon

Currently this will be used to designate any habitation, house, building, palace, etc.

The artifacts icon will be used to symbolize any site from which the most significant finds consist of more than sherds.  So axes, blades, figurines, pins, loom weights, etc. will be symbolized with this:

This icon depicts a sword, an ax-head, and a psi-figurine.

Cemeteries will be symbolized with this icon:

Chamber Tombs will by symbolized like this:

…and tholoi like this:

Mounds, tumuli, and magoulas are symbolized with a mound icon:

Generalized vases finds are depicted like this:

Sites that are characterized principally by sherds use this icon:

Now that I have them displayed it appears that the quality is poor and the images blurry.  Remember that the originals are 32 pixels square and have been grossly enlarged to be visible in this post.   They look much better when displayed on the map.  Here's a map of Achaea with all the icons showing:

I think this makes a nice addition to the site and gives it a more intuitive appearance and feel.

There are some cautions:

First, many sites can be characterized in a multitude of ways.  Sites can be habitations, have mounds of sherds, and incorporate burials.  What icon do I use in that case?  I have attempted to use an icon that accounts for the preponderant importance of the site.  In the previous case I would use a habitation icon since the idea of habitation is probably the most important thing about that site.  There are, on the other hand, many sites which are indicated by an abundance of sherds and which are thought to have been sites but with no other evidence than the just sherds.  In that case I would probably use the sherds icon.  

So the icons are just indicators.  They're an attempt  to make the landscape more intuitively understandable but keep in mind that a single icon cannot and will not fully characterize the site. 

Aside from that the new icons operate in exactly the same way that the old ones did.  They feature tool-tips and an info box with a link to a full page report on the site.  There are still a few of the old orange paddle icons around.  These are for sites such as caves, wells, walls, etc. for which no new icons have been designed.

There have been no icon changes for the modern features.  They are still shown by a red paddle with an 'F' on it.

Here's another example - a map of the Argolid and southern Attica in the LHIII:

Software elements on the helladic.info website have been updated to support the new icons.

In addition to the icons there is a new database which was delivered on March 2, 2018.  It adds sundry minor corrections as well as thirty new sites, primarily in Crete.  The new DB is rev 0053.

If you like these posts then please follow me on Twitter where I am @Squinchpix

On Google Plus I am     Robert Consoli

You can e-mail me 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.

The Bronze Age in the Aigialeia

The major rail and roadway projects on the north coast of Achaea just a few years ago led to the discovery and emergency excavation of a number of new sites.  

I'm writing this post in an attempt to clarify some of the locations in this area and their significance.  

In the map above I show nearly the entire Gulf of Corinth.  Our interest is in the area around the classical city of Helike; the area in the red box.

Google has drawn in the major road and rail projects that I was talking about.

A closer picture of the area of interest.  Here we're looking south over part of the coast of northern Achaea. 

  The city of Aigion is just out of view to the right (west).  The rivers have been drawn in; from left to right (east to west) they are the Vouraikos, the Kerynites, and the Selinous.  The rivers have been one of the factors in creating the coastal plain which sits at the foot of the Arcadian massif.   But only one of the factors.  This is an active seismic zone and the coast has been subjected over millenia to both radical uplift and sinking movements of the earth's crust.  
   
  The most famous of these sinking movements occurred in 373 B.C. when the principal city of Aigialeia, Helike, was destroyed by a sudden sinking of the terrain.  A consequent tsumani flooded the city, killing everyone in it.  According to our sources the only things visible on the day after were the tops of the trees in the sanctuary of Poseidon.  The ruins beneath the waves were still visible in Pausanias' time.[1]  After that, though, the city was silted over, became invisible, and its location lost.  


Over the years the city of Helike became a goal of many archaeologists who considered that it must be a kind of Greek Pompeii; a city preserved not by lava but by submersion.  Spiridon Marinatos regarded it as the great unsolved puzzle of Greek archaeology and made strenuous attempts to find it - to no avail.  In the late 1960s Peter Throckmorton worked with Harold Edgerton and Jacques Cousteau in attempts to locate Helike in the waters off the coast but their efforts, too, were not successful.  

   Dora Katsonopoulou (Cornell) and her team tried sonar investigation of the same waters but were also unsuccessful.  Recourse to the original texts that described Helike's destruction convinced Dr. Katsonopoulou and her partner, the physicist Steven Soter, that Helike had been situated not on the coast but inland on a lagoon and consequently the place to search for Helike would be inland on the alluvial plain.[2]  They turned to the land and proceeded to use bore-holes in a systematic attempt to find the city.  By the early 2000's they were turning up evidence that the plain had been densely occupied in every period including the Bronze Age.  The search for classical Helike led to a much better understanding of the Mycenaean period in this area.

The most striking finds, from my perspective, were towns and cemeteries from the Bronze Age.

An EH habitation (C5004)

I started by trying to find the position of the EH town.  There is a detailed map of the bore-hole exploration results and I copied and positioned that map in Google Earth as an overlay.

Here is the map as it appears on the www.helike.org website[3].  The EH occupation site is the brown diamond at the end of the Roman road (the red line).

I overlaid this sketch map in Google Earth to try to get the most accurate position possible.  I show this in the next image.

Overlay of Helike Project map onto the Aigialeia showing the location of the EH site discovery.

Marking the EH settlement and then removing the overlay leaves us this:

The proposed EH site is just a short distance from the modern town of Rizomylo.  

The EH hab that I've been describing turns out not to be the primary focus of EH habitation in this area.  A short time after the discovery I've just been describing another EH discovery was made consequent to the building of the Corinth-Patras highway.  This was of a much larger habitation for which C5004 might have been the port.

The Primary EH habitation site near Rizomylos (C5008)

That rescue operation uncovered a major EH habitation site at the southern end of Nea Keryneia which borders Rizomylos to the NW.[4]  The location of the site can be determined from the Google Earth October 25, 2013 image.  I reproduce it here:

The visible houses at the upper right are in Nea Keryneia.  The highway is the major new Corinth to Patras highway.  This excavation had to be ongoing during 2011 at least because there's a Google Street View of this area from November of that year.

The excavated area shown in these pictures is about 2000 square meters but Dr. Kolias estimates its size at 50,000 square m. or about 5 hectares.  To give you an idea of how large this is I drew a circle of 126 m. radius (area of 50,000 sq. m.) over the site.  This does not give the configuration of the site; it merely suggests how large the site may have been compared to what's been excavated.  

Dr. Kolia says: 'The long period of occupation and the large settlement area indicate its central (administrative) role in the area of Helike during the 3rd millennium. Moreover, it has been established that early proto-urban centers were being formed in the Peloponnese during this period and the extended Early Helladic settlement in Keryneia should be included in that group'.[5]

The LH cemetery and Habitation at Kallithea (C5005)


On the hills overlooking the northward bend of the Kerynites river and not far east of Rizomylo there are two named areas, Lagades and Kallithea.  I show them in the next illustration:

Here we're looking at a close-up of the transition from the inland hills to the coastal plain.  The Kerynites river is at the lower right.  This is where it makes its final bend to the north and the Gulf of Corinth.  Lagades is the area in the upper center.  Kallithea is the continuation of that ridge at the lower left.  Between the two is a major Mycenaean cemetery [6].  

Extent of the Mycenaean Cemetery at Kallithea.  Recreation of Petropoulos [2004], pg. 269, fig. 2.

Giannopoulos says that the construction of a cistern in 1993 destroyed Grave no. 1 in that complex.[7]  The cistern is indicated by an arrow in the above illustration.

The LH Habitation at Kallithea (C5006)

The associated Mycenaean settlement was harder to find.  I found an online journal which described the site.[8]  The next illustration is their picture of it at the time when the excavation was still open.

To find the site I traversed the main highway in Google Earth which stretches from Athens to Patras and just beneath the named area of Kallithea.  I finally found it here:

It's located on the north side of the highway at 38.204560° N, 22.142454° E.  The Google Earth picture shows the site after it was finished and covered (with what looks like sand).

Let's put these Bronze Age sites all together:

Sites in white are Bronze Age.  Sites in red are modern towns.

In this illustration the four sites I described are labelled in white.  Modern towns are in red.


Positions of Interest:

a. EH Settlement 1 (Port?)  (C5004) 38.217707° N, 22.136815° E

b. EH Settlement (Primary Habitation) (C5008)  38.211994° N, 22.124381° E

c. LH Cemetery (C5005)  38.201882° N,  22.14287° E

b. LH Settlement (C5006) 38.204560° N, 22.142454° E


Please don't hesitate to write with reactions to this blog post.  I want to hear from you!

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NOTES

[1] In Strabo, Geography viii, 7. 2 (C384).  (English text here: 
http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Strabo/8G*.html#ref431)  

Diodorus Siculus, Library of History (xv, 48), says that it happened at night. (English text here: http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/15C*.html#ref20) 

Pausanias (vii.24.12-13) in Jones [1933] p. 219.  'The ruins of Helice too are visible, but not so plainly now as they were once, because they are corroded by the salt water.'

[2] http://www.helikeproject.gr/  also  www.helike.org

[3] And a very similar map in Katsonopoulou [2002], 179.

[4] Kolia [2013], 'IV. Keryneia'.

[5] Ibid.

[6] By Petropoulos in 1991.  See Giannopoulos [2008], 81.

[7] Giannopoulos [2008], 82, 'Nikoleika'.  "Bei Arbeiten für einen Zistemenbau, die 1993 die Gemeinde von Nikoleika ohne die Erlaubnis der Ephorie im Bereich des Gräberfeldes  durchführte, wurde mindestens ein Kammergrab zer­stört  (Grab 1)."

[8] Kolia [2013],  'Archaeological research in eastern Achaea'

Bibliography

Deger-Jalkotzy and Zavadil [2006]:   Deger-Jalkotzy, Sigrid and Michaela Zavadil (edd.), LH III C Chronology And Synchronisms II; LH III C Middle.  Proceedings of the International Workshop held at the Austrian Academy of Sciences at Vienna, October 29th and 30th, 2004.

Giannopoulos [2008]:   Giannopoulos, T., Die Letzte Elite der mykenischen Welt: Achaia in mykenischer Zeit und das Phanomen der Kriegerbestattungen im 12.-11. Jahrhundert v. Chr., Bonn: Habelt.  2008.,  "Nikoleika", 81.  Giannopoulos refers to this cemetery as 'Nikoleika' but it's clear that he means the cemetery between Kallithea and Lagades.

Jones [1933]:  Pausanias. Description of Greece, Volume III: Books 6-8.21 (Elis 2, Achaia, Arcadia). Translated by W. H. S. Jones. Loeb Classical Library 272. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1933.

Katsonopoulou [2002]:  Katsonopoulou, Dora, 'Helike and her Territory in Historical Times',  Pallas (58) Habitat et Urbanisme: dans le Monde Grec de la fin des Palais Mycéniens à la prise de Milet (494 av. J.-C.), Table ronde Internationale organisée à Toulouse les 9-10 mars 2001 par le GRACO (Groupe de Recherche sur l'Antiquité Classique et Orientale) (2002), pp. 175-182.  Find it online here   http://www.jstor.org/stable/43685013

Kolia [2013]:  Kolia, Erofili.  Archaeology & Arts, 'Archaeological research in eastern Achaea', December 16, 2013.  http://www.archaeology.wiki/blog/2013/12/16/archaeological-research-in-eastern-achaea/

Petropoulos [2004]: Petropoulos, Michalis.   'A Mycenaean Cemetery at Nikoleika near Aigion of Achaia', in Deger-Jalkotzy and Zavadil [2006], pp. 253-285, 2004.  Online here: https://www.academia.edu/9962359/M._Petropoulos_The_Mycenaean_Cemetery_at_Nikoleika_near_Aigion

Southeast promontories of Zakynthos

Location of the tholos tomb C576

In the southeast of the island of Zakynthos there were, before 2005, two major discoveries that can be plausibly dated to the Bronze Age.  Since 2005 Professor van Wijngaarden has led numerous surveys to this part of the island and considerably enlarged our understanding of this area.  But, right now,  I am concerned with the two primary discoveries which date back at least to the 1930’s.

First let’s look at the geography.  This area of Zakynthos consists of an east-facing plain bordered on the west by a range of low hills.  Cape Kalogeras is the severely eroded promontory at the upper right in our first image here.  At the base of Cape Kalogeras is the little populated area of Porto Roma. 

Proceeding to the extreme south we come to Cape Yerakas (variously transliterated as Gerakas and Gherakis).  Yerakas marks the southern boundary of Triodhia Bay.  The beach which it shelters on its east side is known as Gerakas Beach and the part of this same beach to the north is sometimes known as Triodi (Triodhia) Beach.  In the center of this little peninsula (and dominating what has been an agricultural area) is Vasilikos.  Up to the northwest is the range of small hills I mentioned and which average about 180 m. elevation.

Now that we know where everything is let’s see what Simpson has to say:

“The Kalogeros promontory is about a kilometre east of Vasiliko, and immediately east of the taverna at Porto Roma.  It is very eroded, and only about 150 m. east to west by 50 m. of top surface remains.  Parts of two houses were excavated.  The pottery (destroyed by the 1953 earthquake) ranged from LH I .. to LH III, of which a considerable quantity was found.  Not far to south of the site on the uninhabited Triodi beach on the headland of Yerakas at the farthest southeast tip of Zakynthos, is a ruined structure thought to be the remains of a Mycenaean tholos tomb … If this is so, it would presumably have been connected with the Kalogeros site, since the Yerakas promontory seems too exposed for a settlement.”[1]

So.  Simpson mentions the discovery of

A.  parts of two houses on Cape Kalogeras and

B.  a potential Mycenaean tholos tomb at a place called Triodi Beach and which is near Cape Yerakas. 

These discoveries go back to the activity of Miss Sylvia Benton and others in the 1930’s.  They were reported at that time.  Since then there has been further erosional activity at Cape Kalogeras.  Also the location of the Mycenaean tholos tomb has become, since that time, … somewhat obscure.

In 2010 Dr. van Wijngaarden led a survey in this area and one of the results was the rediscovery of the tomb.  In his survey report he describes the situation like this:

“During the  April campaign  we visited  an  area  near a popular beach,  which  was  inaccessible for survey  during  the  2006  campaign.  On  the  slopes  of  an  eroding  sandstone  ridge,  the  team encountered a very weathered round structure … , around which fragments of fine pottery were scattered. In all probability, these were the remains of a small Mycenaean tholos tomb, which is mentioned  by  several  authors,  but  which  we  had  been  unable  to  locate.  N.  Papadatos,  for  many years working in the Zakynthos museum, confirmed our ideas and informed us that in the 1970’s some basic restoring works aimed at stopping the erosion had been done. Nevertheless, the structure is nowadays very much in decay and hardly recognizable. During the summer campaign we were able to document the structure in some detail. It is roughly 3.50 m. in diameter and situated on a steep slope, which is subject to severe marine erosion. Pottery and bone fragments were collected,

confirming a Mycenaean date for the tomb.”[2]

Dr. van Wijngaarden clearly connects this tomb to the one mentioned by Simpson and others.  So, after having been … insecurely known it is now located.  Where?  Dr. van Wijngaarden does not tell us.  Can we find out?  Sure. 

I have already mentioned that Triodi beach is at the north and west end of the beach created by the shelter of Cape Yerakas.  We can see it clearly in Google Earth.  The first thing that jumps out at us is the section of extremely eroded sandstone ridges at 37.709080 N, 20.982875 E.  Generations of wind action have carved the sandstone into weird free-standing ridges.  A good example is this photograph from Panoramio which shows not only the sandstone ridges but Cape Yerakas in the distance.

(Picture by nikolagalabov)

These pictures strongly reminded me of the ‘Calanques’ in southern France near Cassis.  The photograph which Dr. Wijngaarden reproduces shows a smooth ridge on the skyline behind the tomb.  This doesn't look like the area of severest erosion.

(Picture by The Zakynthos Archaeology Project)

As a result I think that this picture was taken a little further down the beach.  Here is a picture taken just about 100 m. further to the east.  Here the arrow points to what looks like the same smooth ridgeline.

(picture by Kostas Ventouris)

 So, to wrap it all up I present this aerial view from Google Earth which shows the situation:

The location of the tholos tomb C576 on Zakynthos (within 50 m.)

This argument of mine is supported by Dr. Wijngaarden's own map which is reproduced in the 2010 Summary Report.[3]  Here it is:

The only point which Dr. Wijngaarden has marked in this region (F) is exactly where I propose that the tholos tomb is so I think we're good here to within 50 m.  

Over the years there has been a lack of clarity about which expeditions found what and where, precisely, things were found.  I hope this helps to clarify the location of the tholos tomb.

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

Status of the Mycenaean Atlas Project

Currently prototyping an alpha online version of the Atlas.  I'm probably about two months away from making it available.

I've recently received a large database of Bronze Age and Iron Age sites in continental Greece and the islands.  I estimate that it will add 1200 more unique sites in addition to additional information about the sites that I already have.

Anyone who would like to have a copy of the MAP database can send an e-mail to bobconsoli 'at' gmail.com or leave a comment on any of my posts.  

A large (about 2400 page) .pdf document which describes the entire database is available for the asking.

To run the MAP database requires a SQL server running on your desktop computer.   MySQL is such a server and it is powerful, industry-standard, and free.  

I can and will make .kml or .kmz files, which can be opened directly in Google Earth, available to those who would like them.

  

I can also create .csv files for people who would like to import Mycenaean Atlas Project data into Google Earth but would like it in tabular form.

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

Facebook?  Sorry.I.just.can't. 

Notes

[1] Simpson [1981], 155-6.

[2] van Wijngaarden [2010] 6.

[3] van Wijngaarden [2010] p. 2, fig. 2

Bibliography

Simpson[1981]: Simpson, Richard Hope. Mycenaean Greece. Park Ridge, New Jersey: Noyes Press, 1981.

van Wijngaarden [2010]: van Wijngaarden, Gert Jan.  ‘Zakynthos Archaeology Project 2010 Summary report’, online here.