352-357

Sanctuary of Poseidon at akovitika near Kalamata

Αρχαιολογικά χρονικά

• Θέμελης, Πέτρος Γ.

A large scale excavation was carried out this summer 500 m. South of the village Akovitika (3-4 klm. West of Kalamata ). The site, lying 650 m. North of the seaside was already known by trial trenches dug here in 1958 by the Ephor N. Yalouris.A. Architectural RemainsThe North side ( 33 m. long ) of a large rectangular building (plan 1 ) with a doric inner peristyle was revealed (fig. 3 ). By the NW corner of the central court a carefully constructed well was uncovered (fig. 3 ). A long continuous hall runs around the stoa; a number of rectangular poros bases placed in a regular row closer to the external North wall of this long room may have been used to support a wooden colonnade (figs. 1,2). The roof - tiles of the building were Laconian in type; some of them bear the letters D or DA inscribed on them, which may be read : ΔΑ[ΜΟΣΙΟΣ]According to the pottery the site was occupied from the Protogeometric to the classical period. The first architectural phase of the building ( a long wooden colonnade ) seems to have been destroyed by fire at the end of the 7th c. B.C.The small finds were not abundant: A number of bronze and iron objects, most of them in the form of tiny oars or rudders (fig. 6 ), must be votive offerings dedicated by poor fishermen or boatmen.The fragment of a pithos rim inscribed (fig. 4 ) :AN]ΕΘΕΚΕ ΘΙί----is enough evidence for the existence of a sanctuary on the site.A dipinto : Π]ΟΗΟΙΔΑ[ΝΙ on a cup fragment of the 5th c. B.C. gives the name of the worshipped God.I think that the group of bronze statuettes found by chance in 1957 a few metres East of the peristyle must be explained as dedicatory to Poseidon, whose temple must be nearby.It seems probable that the Games ΠοΗοίδαια or Ποσείδαια of Thouria took place in the sanctuary of Akovitika.Finally some fragmentary clay moulds (fig. 5 ) indicate that we have here the traces of a local bronze workshop.

• History and Archaeology

• Αρχαιολογία
• Ανασκαφές (Αρχαιολογία)

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