369-398

Polymylos, Kozani prefecture, 1999

• Καραμήτρου-Μεντεσίδη, Γεωργία
• Βατάλη, Μαρία

In 1999, the excavation in the village of Polymylos continued and was almost completed. Owing to the construction of the main route and the junction of the via Egnatia, the excavated area eventually covered 20,000 m2.I. North sector: prehistoric periodThough the Bronze Age habitation remains were scanty this year too, they were nonetheless sufficient to give us some idea of the layout of the early settlement, and they also enable us to link the site with the dense habitation on the Kitrini Limni plateau. A total of 5 stone-built tumuli were excavated S and SE of the early wall, 3 last year and 2 this year. The fourth tumulus has a diameter of 4.5 m and the fifth a diameter of 7.5 m, each was used for 2 pit burials, and the grave goods (hand-made kantharoi and beads) were collected, together with Mycenaean and matt-painted pottery and stone tools such as axes, adzes, burins, and flint blades.II. North sector: Hellenistic and Roman periodThe settlement proper developed during the Hellenistic period and survived until Roman times, particularly in the S sector, whither it seems to have relocated in the Roman period. Three basic construction phases are discernible. The houses have an average area of 220 m2.111. HousesThe houses consisted of a central roofed rectangle surrounded by rooms. Corners of rooms are commonly found to contain stone-built structures, the purpose of which was to make it easier for a single person to use the stone handmills, and grain was processed here. The hearths are round or square. Pithoi were buried in the storerooms, their stone stoppers at ground level. Their small number suggests that storage needs were probably met by pits dug in the ground. The settlement’s water-supply network of clay pipes, which brought water from springs on Bermion, has been located at 2 points. A 2 m-square area coated with hydraulic mortar and having a clay conduit has been identified as a lavatory. The 2 sections of a rectangular structure have been identified as impluvia.112. WorkshopsThe town’s workshops were located on the SE edge of the settlement, the potters being very close to 3 rectangular and 2 circular brick-built kilns. The firebars survive in both. One of the kilns is strikingly large and, in view of its fine state of preservation, might well be described as a ‘monumental’ work of ancient technology. Four small pyriform kilns were also excavated, which served the inhabitants’ limited needs. It is an undeniable fact that the humble monuments of ancient kilns are significant in many ways: they indicate a town’s workshop facilities, the standard of living, economic range, productive capacity, and occupations of the inhabitants, and their commercial and cultural contacts and dealings. We have found material from pottery kilns in many settlements in Kozani prefecture, and this testifies to strong political and social structures, art, and overall development and prosperity in an area of Upper Macedonia in which, in the light of the recent excavational data, a new historical reality is taking shape. Apart from the pottery workshops, evidence of stonecutting workshops has also been noted in the form of quantities of chippings and also the products of the local workshops, which include complete and unfinished artefacts, such as stelai and statues. Indicative of metal processing are the frequent appearance of iron slag, an area roofed with pieces of iron slag, and quantities of iron artefacts.113. Cult areaA complex covering a total area of 625 m2 dates to the later Hellenistic phase and encloses a semi-open courtyard with sides 10 m long and containing an altar-cum- hearth. The 5 square column bases supported the N and W stoas, and the finds — which include the stela from a lustral water basin with a representation of Zeus Hypsistos, Athena, and a horseman, small marble basins with a spout, clay replicas of tables, and a small bone tile with a representation of a female figure — suggest that this was a sacred area for a domestic cult or for more general cult practices.114. Burials of the Hellenistic periodA group of 10 pit graves and one jar burial of the Late Hellenistic period were uncovered S of the prehistoric tumuli. The burials were positioned one after the other along a specific axis and the bodies are laid E-W. Apart from one child burial, each of the others was accompanied by between 3 and 8 clay vessels, the most common of which were Macedonian amphoras, oenochoes, nippled plates (fish plates), relief skyphoi, small handleless skyphoi, and the occasional unguentarium and ‘salt cellar’. Two of the burials were also accompanied by some rare forms, such as a relief basket and a krater. The women in 3 of the burials had very luxurious jewellery, such as 2 pairs of gold earrings with Nikes and beads of rock-crystal. The bronze coins found in 3 of the burials are of Philip V, Perseus, and the Bottiaians.III. walls of the Roman periodThe slope of the ground and the difficulty of draining off rainwater, which was creating rivulets and eroded channels and causing damage to parts of the settlement, had made it necessary to shore up the plateau with 3 successive walls, shoddy rubblestone structures. These did not resolve the problem, and so the inhabitants were forced to abandon the site in the Roman period and to move further S. One safe area of the hillside, on the NE, was used as a burial ground in the Early Christian and Byzantine period.IV. South sectorThe settlement relocated in the 1st century BC to a site that was nearby, but not in the immediate vicinity of the previous one, because the pooling water rendered the terrain unsuitable. Four main phases of buttressed buildings were uncovered here, dating up to the 4th century AD.Having completed the investigations at Polymylos, we repeat our view regarding its identification with an ancient city. Of Megara, Graia/Greia, and Euia — all attested in inscriptions found at Kapnohori and Kilada — we consider it most likely that it should be identified as Euia (where Diodoros tells us the troops of Olympias and Eurydice fought), following the discovery in Beroia of an inscription describing the W gate as the ‘Euian’ gate. That is to say, it bears the name of the first city encountered to the W when coming from Kastania.

• History and Archaeology

• Ανασκαφές (Αρχαιολογία)

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