Ancient Tenea - 2011

Ancient Tenea. Konstantinos Kissas and Georgios Giannakopoulos (LZ’ EPKA) report on the excavation held in ancient Tenea, which revealed 37 more tombs, and the continuation of the carriage road towards the N and the S.

An extensive cemetery on both sides of the ancient street came to light, dated between 560 to early third century BC. The burials were organized in four clusters, developed on either side of the carriageway, about 3.50 m from it.

The ancient street was oriented SE-NW and it was revealed in its total length (21 m.). It was definitely identified as the well-known from the sources “Kontoporeia”, the short road connecting Corinth to Argos, and leading towards the “Stena” in the S (as mentioned by Xenophon in his Hellenica (fig. 1,2).

A total of 77 tombs were discovered. Of these, 44 were tuff-stone sarcophagi, 30 were cist graves, covered with tiles or tuff-stone slabs, two were jar-burials, and one was a built tomb. 26 of them were dated in the Archaic period (560-480 BC), while 34 of them were dated in the Classical times, ten were dated in the early Hellenistic times, and the built tomb was dated in the Roman times (six burials were not certainly dated). Only 19 burials were of children. Every single one of them were burials (no cremations were recorded). Most of the deceased individuals had been buried in outstretched position, while few were buried in semi-flexed position. The burials are rich in grave-goods, and the offerings are very similar to those of the Northern Cemetery of the metropolitan Corinth. The vast majority are clay vessels, with Corinthian production outpacing that of Attic origin by approximately 70-30%. Common grave-good were iron or bronze scrapers, silver and bronze coins.

Two marble kouroi, dated between 530 and 525 BC, based on their typological characteristics and the archaeological context were a street side sepulchral constitution, intended to perpetuate the memory of two men, of about the same age (according to the preliminary results of the anthropological examination). The two deceased individuals were buried in two sarcophagi, in front of which the ancient street formed a junction, acquiring a second route towards the N.

[Entry created by E. Kourti]