337-368

Kozani prefecture 1999 : excavations on roads and by the wayside

• Καραμήτρου-Μεντεσίδη, Γεωργία

A large number of rescue excavations were carried out in Kozani prefecture in 1999, necessitated by the construction of national highways and provincial roads, which involved new routes, improvements, and extensions. My paper makes a brief presentation of the investigations carried out in 10 of the 15 sites that were excavated.XIROLIMNI: Excavations were carried out in Sector I, where there is a Neolithic and Bronze Age settlement, which was extensively reported on last year; in Sector II, where a sanctuary of Apollo has been uncovered; and in Sector III, which has a Late Roman cemetery.In SECTOR II, the architectural remains that are connected with the sanctuary complex are 3 walls, which give the ground plan of a building measuring 3.50x7 m with a S W-NE orientation. The vast quantities of coins led us to sift all the earth, and led treasure-seekers to strike boldly and repeatedly, even after we had taken such measures as posting a night- watchman to guard the site. The rest of the finds, such as stelai and statuettes, were scattered and fragmented. The context, which includes as a bronze statuette of Dionysos and a Hermaic stele, together with the epigraphical evidence, suggests that Dionysos and Artemis were jointly venerated in the sanctuary. The quantities of coins —some 3,500, 17 of them silver— from many parts of the ancient world show that the site was used from the 4th to the 3rd century BC. Most of them are from northern Greece (Pella, Thessalonike, Epiros) and we have identified coins minted under Kassander, Antigonos Gonatas, Pyrrhos, Philip V, and Perseus, and under such Roman emperors as Vespasian, Domitian, and Trajan. The earliest coin, a silver halfdrachma of Aigina with a tortoise on the obverse and a figure-of-eight shield in the sunken square on the reverse, can be dated to the 4th century BC. There is no lack of fragments of marble statuettes, such as heads and feet, and one stele represents an ear as an organ restored to health, a representation also known from Aiane and Karyohori. The site of the sanctuary on a major crossing, known nowadays as the Karayannion crossing, at the W end of the pass from Kozani to Voio, Kastoria, and W Greece seems to have made it especially popular.The inscriptions on the votive reliefs of Apollo Kitharodos are significant, such as the dedication of a man of Beroia: Κλεόνικος Λάμπρομάχου /Βεροιαίος Απόλλωνι Μονίωι. This is the first time Apollo is found with the epithet Nomios; while the epithet Messioriskos in Amyntas’s dedication, Αμύντας Σαβυττίου / Απόλλωνι Μεσιορίσκω / κατά επιταγήν, is not epigraphically attested and probably has something to do with the Latin word messor (reaper). In SECTOR III, towards the exit from the pass at Porta, level with Agona or Ahrista, a cemetery of the Roman period (3rd cent. BC) was located parallel to the course of the via Egnatia, on the relief-road which is under construction. A total of 16 pit burials and a refuse pit were unovered. Most of the burials that were uncovered were cremations, with grave goods consisting of utilitarian clay vessels (oinochoes, aryteres, and cooking pots of various kinds) and, more rarely, bronze vessels, bronze jewellery, and iron artefacts (knives, scissors, arrow- and spearheads), and bronze coins placed in the mouths of the corpses.MAVRODENDRI: At Stassi, we excavated 1,100 m2 of a Neolithic settlement, which belongs in the wider area of the Kitrini Limni basin, which is known to have been densely inhabited in the Neolithic period. We found building material in the form of masses of clay with the impression of branches, small sporadic groups of rubblestones, and a few post-holes. The excavated area may be the edge of a settlement which extends beyond the road, or it may be part of an organised residential entity consisting of small residential groups a short distance apart. These hypotheses are supported by a large quantity of pottery and by the absence of noteworthy habitation remains on the specific site, as also the fact that the surrounding area abounds in handmade pottery and stone tools.PONDOKOM1: At Avlagas or Avlagades, NW of the village, superficial investigation followed by trenches yielded pottery, particularly handmade pottery of the Late Bronze Age, leading us to excavate at 3 points along the route. We established that the handmade pottery, much of it with matt-painted decoration, belonged to layers of soil that had been carried down from higher points, owing to the slope of the ground. Only in one trench was found a large piriform pithos, identical to one found during the excavation of a nearby field in 1983. A group of Bronze Age cist graves was located nearby while a waterpipe was being laid.At Vryssi, we carried out further investigations in a settlement known since the early 1980s. The excavations covered an area of 0.9 ha along a 150 m stretch of the road and were completed in about half the area. The ground plans of 4 houses were uncovered, as well as parts of the water-supply system with pipes and cisterns, and 2 burial areas with 2 and 18 burials of the Archaic and Late Roman periods respectively.A layer with early pottery yielded the important epigraphical evidence of a Macedonian name, possibly the earliest such evidence uncovered to date. It is the name Μαχάτα, which is engraved on part of a type C Attic kylix. I do not think there can be any doubt that the name was engraved somewhere in Upper Macedonia, possibly in ancient Eordaia, to which the fmdspot of the inscribed kylix belonged geographically. So we can say once again that the lack of early epigraphical evidence in Macedonia was due to limited and unsystematic excavation and that Machatas, Apakos with a koppa (a name engraved on a bronze strigli of Aiane), and Arkapos (engraved on a roof-tile of Aiane), together with Piperia and Bergina, constitute the earliest epigraphical evidence of Macedonian personal names from the 5th century BC.MAVROP1YI: The archaeological site at Argoremma is part of the settlement of Kastro which occupies high plateaux on the hill and is known from previous excavations. Of a total of 8,400 m on 2 plateaux with little earthfi 11, 0.3 ha were systematically excavated. We uncovered walls of houses which fragmentarily defined 3 adjacent rooms and a one-roomed house that was more carefully built. Six intact and broken vessels (oinochoes and small pithoi and pitchers for storage) and 3 vessels that were burial offerings found in 2 graves suggest a dating in the 3rd and 2nd centuries AD? The Late Bronze Age and the Iron Age are suggested by a small intact handmade amphora with matt-painted decoration and sherds of another, both of which are similar to those from Aiane and elsewhere, and various bronze finds, such as armlets, crossbow fibulae, and intact amulets in the form of stylised seated male figures, similar to one found at Aiane.An archaeological stratum of 300 m2 was located in a flat area S of the nearby Ayios Markos hill. Ayios Markos hill, NNE of Kastro, was already known to us because of the walled acropolis on its summit. In our opinion, this walled area is connected with the settlement of Kastro (upper and lower), to which it is very close and with which it forms an administratively and politically unified entity. It should be noted that there are retaining walls, not fortifying walls, on the hill of Kastro, and we believe that the rocky summit of Ayios Markos hill was fortified for reasons of security and defence. The pottery from the site comprises 5 vessels (a kyathos, a cooking-pot, a pyxis lid, a small skyphos with anthemia stamped in the interior, and a large pitcher) and a small number of sherds, mostly coarse and unpainted. It is not clear what the site was used for. It was probably connected with workshops and storage areas.Mourtsovades is NW of Mavropiyi and on the boundary between Mavropiyi and Asvestopetra, to which it belongs administratively. The archaeological stratum covers an area of some 4,200 m2, of which some 2,200 m2 was excavated. Most of the large quantities of clay lumps and small stones are not building materials from in situ houses, because this is probably not an extensive thick layer of destruction fill, but small pits and deposits on the outskirts of a Late Neolithic settlement, which extended beyond the expropriated area.Everyday vessels and bronze coins of Maximian and Constantius II indicate the presence of a settlement of Late Antiquity on the same site.ANO KOMI: Regarding Ano Komi, I have to say simply that during this year’s season it was established that the habitation layer W of the cemetery is earlier than the cemetery and belongs to LH III A and B. I reached this conclusion after the completion of the excavation on and slightly beyond the route of the Rymnio-Kozani road, which is under construction, and also from examining the pottery. So the question of the earliness and precise dating of the Mycenaean finds, which was left open in last year’s presentation, has been answered. I considered it necessary to announce it early this year, because the new data help to further research into the Mycenaean presence in Upper Macedonia, and I repeat that, with regard to the middle stretch of the Haliakmon that borders on Thessaly, I believe it is natural that a network of mutual contacts, exchanges, and influences (known in earlier and later periods) should have been built up, and, lastly, that I do not rule out some form of Mycenaean settlement in the area.

• History and Archaeology

• Ανασκαφές (Αρχαιολογία)

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