Persaina - Church of St. George - 2010

Persaina - Church of St. George. Panagiotis Moutzouridis (Z’ EPKA) reports on the rescue excavation that took place around St’ George’s church in the abandoned village of Persaina, due to information about illegal excavations. Seven Mycenaean chamber burials were revealed, only one of which was partially uncovered (fig. 1).

The burials bore the characteristics of the Peloponnese graves: long dromoi, oriented SW-NE, some of which had conchs in their side walls, seemingly destined to host post-burial offerings (fig. 2). The chambers were large and contained more than one burial. The deceased individual was placed directly on the floor, and the previous burials were pushed on the sides when a new one was placed inside the chamber. The cemetery revealed large amounts of fine pottery, dated between the late Helladic and the late Mycenaean period (LHIIIC/LM), especially from the four tombs with intact roofs (fig. 3). The cemetery was in use between the sub-Mycenaean and the early Geometric times, which was noteworthy, since these eras were previously almost nonexistent in Ilia.

One of the chamber tombs was exceptionally small and it contained no skeletal remains. One single pottery vessel (a serving vessel) was located as a grave-good. It was thought to be the burial of an infant or a child.

[Entry created by E. Kourti]