210-216

Geometric fortification in Cyclades

Αρχαιολογικά χρονικά

• Ζαφειροπούλου, Φωτεινή

The excavations on lonely Donoussa, and Amorgos, were continued in the an islet of the neighbourhood of Naxos summer of 1970 on the site of the Geometric settlement, found on a rocky windswept promontory, jutting into the sea, with a bay on its west side. The settlement was built with a fortification wall on the neck, separating it from the rest of the island.The exploration of a part of the wall, with a gate near the east end, has proved that the fortification was made in three different stages (figs. 1-3, plan 1 ), all of them during the Geometric period. Geometric settlements with a similar fortification wall are found in the area of the Aegean Sea; in the Cyclades, at Siphnos ( Ag. Andreas ), at Andros ( Zagora ), and now at Donoussa. The urgent need for protectionmust have been the major factor, which led them to build these strong fortification walls. The exceptional result of a short campaign at Ano Koufonissi again, in the summer of 1970, consists of the discovery of a "sema" on an EC tomb ( f i g. 5 ). The "sema", a rough oblong stone, 0.61 m. high, was erected among a heap of smaller stones, under which the dead was laid on a plateau made at the foot of the west slope of the hill. With the dead were put many offerings the most important among which is a plastic vase in the form of a bird (fig. 6 ), the first known specimen from the Cyclades. Is it an import from Crete?

• History and Archaeology

• Ανασκαφές (Αρχαιολογία)
• Fortification, Greek

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