363-387

Excavation at ancient Oisyme

• Γιούρη, Ευγενία
• Κουκούλη - Χρυσανθάκη, Χάιδω

The first data of the excavation at ancient Oisyme, a colony of the Thasian"peraia” in 1987 are presented in this paper. The excavation was carried out on the top of the fortified citadel of the city where a sanctuary, probably of Athena Poliouchos —protector of the city— was discovered. Furthermore, part of an archaic temple was found below the floor of a building of the Classical period which was built with local granite stones. Retaining walls of various phases are partially excavated north of the subsequent temples; these walls form terraces and a rock-cut cistern. The finds of the Archaic layer date the sanctuary to the end of the 7th century B.C. and document its use down to the beginning of the 5th century B.C. Pottery is quite illuminating: "Melian” type pottery, ("pseudo-Chian” or Thasian type pottery together with Corinthian and Attic pots. Vases made in Eastern-Ionian workshops are also present; the concentration of local pottery with red-figure or linear decoration, attributed to Thasean workshops is high. A female figure in the type of the seated mother goddess having a polos on the head and the standing kore (maiden) are the two dominant types among the terracotta figurines. Laconian antefixes decorated with relief gorgoneion were used for the roof of theArchaic temple. The close relation of the Thasian colony of Oisyme with the metropolis is recorded in the finds. The major part of the floor of the Classical building was destroyed and was used as a cemetery in the Byzantine period. A destruction of the sanctuary in the late Hellenistic period (2nd century B.C.) is recorded in the disturbed filling of the area. The existence of a layer dated to the period before the colonization below the floor of the Archaic temple is very significant. The Early Iron Age pottery with grooved decoration documents the existence of ancient Oisyme in the Geometric period, supporting the identification of the city with Homeric Aisyme, as it was suggested by Stephanos Byzantius.

• History and Archaeology

• Ανασκαφές (Αρχαιολογία)

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