THESPROTIA - Thesprotia Expedition - 2009

Thesprotia Expedition. B. Forsén (Finnish Institute at Athens) reports on the 2009 campaign.

Magnetometry survey was conducted at sites PS 12 (Neolithic to Bronze Age), PS 13 (Late Roman farmstead), PS 14 (possible monumental Hellenistic heroon, noting ca. 20 large blocks re-used in a stone wall) and PS 37 (Late Classical to Early Hellenistic farmstead). No clear surviving walls were found at PS 13. At PS 14 the possible location of the heroon was identified but no clear plan was obtained due to later disturbance. At PS 37 the farmstead was located and beside it a probable pottery kiln as well as two large pits. At PS 12 only a small part of the site was surveyed, revealing the straight continuation for at least 15m of the wall traced for 9m in a trial trench. This wall is likely a terrace, following the contour lines.

At PS 12, a C¹⁴ date of the start of the Late Bronze Age was obtained from a bone from the fill between the blocks of the terrace wall. Some 6m upslope from the terrace wall was a grave tumulus (ca. 9−10m in diameter) with a perimeter wall and a fill of stones and soil (Fig. 1). Within it were two badly-preserved child graves and, in the centre, an intact cist grave with the remains of two adults but no grave offerings. A C¹⁴ sample from the burial dates it to the Middle to Late Bronze Age transition. The tumulus was built upon a ca. 0.2m deep layer containing Early Bronze Age pottery mixed with a few Neolithic sherds. The pottery includes several spoons (Fig. 2) and corded ware which ties the site into a wide Balkan Early Bronze Age network. Remains of daub, a possible fireplace, several spindle-whorls and flint sickles with gloss from cutting grain were also found. Several C¹⁴ samples date the layer to the beginning of the Early Bronze Age. A further cist grave ca. 75m to the south was of similar construction to that in the tumulus. It had been looted and half of the burial thrown out; no grave goods were found. A C¹⁴ sample from the burial dates it to the beginning of the Late Bronze Age. It remains unclear whether this grave was part of a tumulus and/or constructed on top of an earlier settlement layer.

In sum, PS 12 seems to be a late Middle Bronze Age to early Late Bronze Age cemetery located on top of a mainly Early Bronze Age settlement. The terrace wall is roughly contemporary with the graves, and may form a border between them and the lower lying fields where the contemporary settlement may have been located.

At Ag. Donatos Zervochoriou (PS 25), a small fortified Early Hellenistic acropolis, excavation was pursued to investigate the architecture of the Early Roman villa rustica identified in 2008. Two rooms of the villa were revealed in their entirety. One (ca. 2.4m x 5m) had high-quality wall-paintings (panels in different colours with plant motifs). The other was a cellar with an entrance from the south and a dump of mainly Hellenistic pottery on the floor. Two small rooms were found to the north of the room with the wall-paintings. One was almost empty, whereas the other contained a thick layer of tiles below which was a dump containing a large quantity of animal bone and cooking pot sherds. The room was originally designed to collect rain-water: the floor and the lower parts of the walls are coated in hydraulic plaster, and a channel leads downhill from the room probably towards a cistern. Inside the channel, seven bronze coins were found: some are Early Hellenistic, but at least one, a first-century AD coin minted in Apollonia, has a direct connection to the villa.

Finally, a round room (ca. 5m in diameter), with hydraulic plaster on the floor and lower walls, was explored to clarify its function. Further cleaning and mapping of the visible opus incertum walls indicates that the villa measured ca. 90m x 40m, although the residents also used the Hellenistic tower some 20m to the east.