Κίτρινη Λίμνη 1998 : ανασκαφή στο Ξεροπήγαδο Κοιλάδας
Part of : Το Αρχαιολογικό Έργο στη Μακεδονία και στη Θράκη ; Vol.12, No.1, 1998, pages 503-516
Issue:
Pages:
503-516
Parallel Title:
Kitrini Limni 1998 : an excavation at Xeropigado
Author:
Abstract:
The rescue excavation at Xeropigado in the community of Kilada, Kozani prefecture, in the Kitrini Limni (Sarigiol) basin was completed in 1998, having uncovered an organised prehistoric cemetery.Forty-two graves were investigated, most of them being graves surrounded by stones or built cist-graves, with some simple pit graves and children’s cistgraves constructed out of large vertical limestone blocks. In 2 cases, wide necked pithos- like jars and a fragment of a pithos were used for child burials.Quite a number of graves were covered with cairns, which were probably visible on the surface of the cemetery; and in fact some burials were located on top of the cairns of earlier burials.No cremation burial was found during this year’s excavation period. As arule, these are individual graves for people of all ages and both sexes, and they indicate that infant and child mortality was exceptionally high. The bodies were usually buried in a crouched position and oriented in the same direction (N-S orNE-SW). It is interesting to note that they were positioned differently accordingto their sex, men being laid on their right side and women usually on their left side.The grave goods consist of 1 or 2 small handmade clay pots, with very few other objects accompanying the dead: 2 clay spindle whorls, a shell amulet, and 3 earrings made of silver and an amalgam of silver and gold.The cemetery contains a total of 210 graves closely packed in an area of1,550 m2, and probably dates to the late 3rd and early 2nd millennium BC. It isone of the earliest cemeteries, and the best preserved, in Macedonia, and, since it has been entirely excavated, provides extremely interesting information about burial practices in a very little known period of prehistory.The same site was used much later, in the 5th and early 6th century AD. Afew remains of a building, with the foundations of the walls built of limestonerubble masonry, have been unearthed from this later phase. Two rooms arepreserved in a fragmentary state, in the interior of which utilitarian pottery andstorage jars were found in situ. They may belong to a farmstead, with which are connected 16 pit graves of the same period, which were excavated in the surrounding area. Those that were undesecrated contained clay oenochoes,copper jewellery, necklaces made of pieces of glass and amber, and bronze coins of the 5th and early 6th century AD.
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Subject (LC):
Keywords:
Κοζάνη, συνέδρια
Notes:
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