Trapeza - 2021

Trapeza. Andreas Vordos (Ephorate of Antiquities of Achaia) and Elisabetta Borgna (University of Udine) report on excavations from Trapeza, 8km SW of Aigio. The site is associated with Rupes, a city that flourished in early historical times, and founded Crotone in Magna Graecia.

Excavation focused on the site’s Mycenaean necropolis, located on the SW slope of the plateau and on the ancient road that led to the citadel in the historic periods. Graves include chamber tombs, carved into soft sandy soil. The graves were used extensively during the first palatial period, and significant reuse of the graves dates back to the twelfth century BC when the tombs were reopened repeatedly until the end of the eleventh century BC.

Grave goods from the necropolis included pottery vessels, seal stones, beads and jewellery made of various materials (glass, faience, gold, carnelian, rock crystal), also indicating trade contacts with the eastern Aegean and with Cyprus.

The chamber of Grave 8, in the shape of a rectangle and investigated this year, had a complex stratigraphy. In the first layer, dating to the twelfth century, three burials were found, adorned with amphorae. Bones from an earlier burial had been swept to the sides of the tomb; at the top, three inscribed clay alabasters and an amphora date the first burials to the fourteenth century.

Among the bones and grave goods, there was a clay horse figurine and a well preserved bronze sword. At the base of the pile of bones, two more intact bronze swords were found, which were intact apart from their handles. The swords were of different types (Sandars D and E) and date back to the main Mycenaean palace period. These finds (and spears of the same period found in nearby graves at Trapeza) are distinctive from graves found elsewhere in Achaia, and suggest dependency of the local community on powerful palatial centres, as the weapons are the products of palace workshops.

The location of the Mycenaean settlement of Trapeza is still not clear. It is possible that during the early use of the necropolis, the settlement was on a hill, about 100m to the S. In 2021, in parallel to excavation at the necropolis, excavations revealed part of a building, comprising a wide rectangular room, with a hearth, and pottery of the seventeenth century.