553-567

The sanctuary of the hero Auloneites on Mt. Pangaion

• Κουκούλη - Χρυσανθάκη, Χάιδω
• Μαλαμίδου, Δήμητρα

The sanctuary of the hero Auloneites is located at the feet of Mt. Pangaion, on a hill north from the road from Kavala to Thessaloniki, between the villages Kepia and Akrovouni. The site was located in 1968 and many pieces of relief sculpture, inscriptions, fragments of statues and architectural members have been collected since then. The hero is represented as a «Thracian rider» in the statues and relief sculpture, while he is recorded as «Auloneites» in the inscriptions. The name is probably related to the area, the passage -—«αυλώνα»— from the valley of Pieria to the plain of Drama; the hero was probably considered to be the guard of this passage. The systematic excavation of the sanctuary started in 1985; two buildings werelocated and the excavation of one of them was continued in 1989. A rectangular perimeter wall (23x16 m.) enclosing small oblong rooms which communicated with astoa with an open courtyard and an altar in front were discovered. The destruction layer of building II included late Roman pottery. The sherds of amphorae with ΘΕ or ΗΡΩΟΣ stamps, obviously cult vessels, are very interesting. Meanwhile the coins of the emperors of Constantine’s the Great family, dated up to the third quarter of the 4th century A.D., suggested the latest dating of the destruction layer. Below the Roman phase of building II, part of a wall and a late Hellenistic filling (2nd century B.C.) were found. Finally, a relief of the riding hero bearing the inscription ΗΡΩΣ ΕΠΗΚΟΟΣ as well as a few red-figure sherds scattered in the area of the sanctuary can be dated to the 3rd century B.C. Thus, a continuous and long use of the sanctuary from the Hellenistic to the late Roman period is implied. The sanctuary is among the earliest known ones of a herorider, while the 2nd century, the peak of the neighbouring Roman colony of Philippi, was probably the period of peak of the sanctuary, too, since it seems that it was closely related to the colony. The destruction of the sanctuary in the late 4th century A.D., was during the period of the destruction of all pagan precincts.

• History and Archaeology

• Ιστορία, Αρχαία
• Θρησκεία

αρχαία ελληνική θρησκεία, Καβάλα, συνέδρια

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