Plaka, Leonidio - Evrias and Makros sites - 2011

Plaka, Leonidio - Evrias and Makros sites (private property of P. Porfyris). Grigoris Grigorakakis (ΛΘ’ ΕΠΚΑ) reports on the excavation in the private property of Mr. Porfyris. The excavation took place due to some cleanings of vegetation, which revealed the N part of the fortification.

The fortification’s inside area was organized by solid walls which supported the main walls, and which formed tower-like constructions. It appeared that the inside walls were part of the general defence system. The wall must have been the source of construction materials for all the settlements in the area, for centuries.

Evrias was an extended archeological site, with foundations of buildings visible over a large area. The site was thought to be the ancient city of Prasies. The city was destroyed during the Peloponnesian war (430 and 414 BC), while it entered the Lakedaimonian commune during the second century BC and the Eleutherolakonon commune later. The settlement moved in a higher altitude during the Byzantine times.

Makros was a Mycenean cemetery, in the S side of the ancient acropolis. Part of a built chamber tomb was visible in the area, probably destroyed during the digging for the road leading to Poulithra.

Architectural remains (fig. 1) were located in one of the trenches, on the W side of the building. The rooms were surrounded by drains filled with sand, seemingly opened after the abandonment of the area, by the sixth century BC. The existence of drains proved that running or steady waters existed in the area. The sherds found were dated between the third and the sixth century AD. It was the first ever indication of Roman and post-Roman habitation in the Plaka region. It appeared that in the entire Kynouria new settlements were created during the Roman Imperial times, mostly close to the coast (Astra, Ag. Anastasia, Ag. Stefanos, Ag. Andreas, Eva-Loukou).

The area did not have a port, which was not the information the verbal tradition had given the excavators.

[Entry created by E. Kourti]