Vartholomio - Katsiveri site - 2010

Vartholomio - Katsiveri site. Christos Mantzanas (Z’ EPKA) reports on the continuation  of the excavation held close to the archeological site of Vartholomio. A large, unique for the area, Mycenaean tholos tomb (fig. 1) was revealed and excavated.

The tomb’s length was a total of 35 meters. A pyre was found on top of the roof’s destruction layer, with many burned bones of various animals, while a large number of sherds (mostly kylix) was found in the dromos. This destruction layer, consisting of the stones which formed the tholos, covered almost the entire tholos area. The area excavated produced burned human bones and burned pottery sherds.
This tomb was a hegemonic style tholos tomb, imitating a royal tholos tomb, as was the case usually with medium sized tholos tombs. The excavator’s estimate was that the deceased individual was definitely a qa-si-re-u (anax or king) of a Mycenaean palace.

Many sherds were found around and in the area of the dromos. Most of them were burned, but there were some handmade fine vessels, the type of which was known in W Greece.
The ritual of breaking pottery indicated a “rite de passage” type of ritual, during which the passage of the deceased on “the other side”  (and thus, the loss of all contact with them), was symbolized by the breaking of their ties to the world of the living. The ritual of breaking wine consumption related vessels was closely related to the tholos tombs and the royal environment of the anaktoro, and it was dated in the late Helladic times (LHIIIA-B). In said environment, but also in late Mycenaean times and early historical times, the dead were worshipped with the offering of sacrifices, usually in the form of pyres or burning of goods, and they were definitely related to the funerary feasts which took place inside or around the tombs.
This particular site did not contain animal bones or any other animal remains, neither in the dromos area, nor inside the tholos. The ritual “killing” of pottery must have been the ritual that took place in the site, as was verified by the pyre inside the tholos, where broken pottery was found next to burned human skeletal remains.
With the removal of the sandy fill (Fig. 2), the inner side of the S dromos wall (Fig. 3) was revealed. The first floor of the dromos was revealed in the E side of it. It was made of stepped on soil, and it seemed to be defined by a series of small stones on its edges. These series of stones seemed to be some sort of drain to channel the rainwater. It became apparent that the E side had at least two phases of use, with the upper being the one that was already mentioned, and the second being a downward floor, 2 m. lower than the first. This particular floor covered the entire width of the dromos, and there were intense signs of diagenesis, with black traces of manganese and perhaps combustion.

In the entrance of the tholos (aperture) (figs. 4-6) there were sherds and stones as well, but the important findings were mostly flakes of white flint, in various positions. It presented symmetrical recess on both sides, in relation to the dromos. The recess was later added on the N side, but it was initially there on the S side. The third transversal barrier was located on the S side of the aperture (the other two were in the W and the E sides of the dromos) (figs. 7,8). Part of a thin obsidian blade was located next to the inner side of the aperture’s S wall, on top of a sherd of burned flint.
Similar to other burials in the Peloponnese, the Vartholomio tomb had a very low-height entrance. This could be considered symbolic, due to the role the entrances had in the ritual related to the tholos tombs.

Obsidian and white flint flakes were also found in the tomb’s insides, below the destruction layer (fig. 9). Large stones, with one side red due to the fire, were found in the center on the N side of the tholos, and they were placed in their initial position on the pyre (located by the reddened soil of the spot) (fig. 10). A pseudo-mouthed amphora sherd, dated in the late Helladic times (LHIIIB) was found on the S side of the tholos (fig. 11). Other findings of the tholos area include pottery sherds and burned human bones (fig. 12).
The mixed pyre, containing offerings, both fully burned and partly burned (with the rest consumed by the attendants of the ceremony) (fig. 13) was located very easily, due to it being very close to the surface. It contained mostly burned animal bones, but also flakes of white and regular flint, as well as obsidian and pottery sherds. The pottery sherds were both of fine and coarse quality (fig. 14). A large stone, possibly the key to the grave, was also located in the pyre (fig. 15). While the center of the pyre was located (mostly due to the whiteness of the soil, fig. 16), the sherds found there do not present signs of burning (fig. 17).
While the tholos was still intact, the insides of the tomb must have been under cave-like circumstances, with intense water dripping, as was indicated by the existence of burned bones covered in calcium carbonate. The other assumption was that a fumigation ritual had took place, which was widely known in tholos and chamber tombs, to ritually purify the deceased, or to quell the stench of the decaying corpses by burning aromatic substances.

The type, size and construction revealed a strong central organizational power that, according to the model of the other Mycenaean hegemonies, implemented the tomb. This large and unique in many respects for the wider area vaulted tomb of Vartholomio indicated that some prominent hegemonic tribe of the Mycenaean era ruled the area. The tomb and its wider area may have been related to Ermina or Yrmini, one of the geographical political units of Ilia during the Mycenaean era, and to the nearby castle of Chlemoutsi, where the palace of the ruler of this fertile area would have had its place. Yrmini was one of the four regions of Epieis, as deducted by studies of the catalogue of ships in Homer’s Iliad.

[Entry created by E. Kourti]