LYRKEIA - Anc. Orneai - 2000

Lyrkeia (ancient Orneai). A. Banaka-Dimaki (Director, Δ' ΕΠΚΑ) reports on assessment of an agricultural holding following a request to build in an area of known archaeological interest beside the Sterna-Lyrkeia road, close to the acropolis of Orneai.
Two caves were found on the hill of Daouli or Polemistres. The entrance to the larger was closed with an Ottoman wall within which were two rows of crenels; much of the interior was occupied with three rows of unworked stones and brick. The second cave, slightly higher up, contained a well. These remains, plus the local toponym Braibi, attest to the passage through this area of Ibraim during his Peloponnesian campaign in 1825. On the hill of Ag. Nikolaos (Tsolor), where the road runs parallel to the Inachos river, one of the pillars of the Hadrianic acqueduct was cleaned (Fig. 1). A few metres west of the hill at Pleta, a large mortarium was found in the olive grove of A. Nassi.