SKALA OROPOU - 2008

Skala Oropou. A. Mazarakis Ainian reports on continued excavation. In 2008, the remaining section of building ΛΒ was excavated and proved to be elliptical (4.3m x 7.3m) with an entrance at the south side and walls 0.5m d. (Fig. 6). To the east of the stone hearth found in 2007 a pit full of ashes was revealed. From these two hearths ash had spread all over the floor of the building. Sherds of the 2nd half of the 8th century were found, with loomweights and a serpentine seal depicting a bird. North of the building, two 12m long stretches of peribolos walls, one contemporaneous with the elliptical building, the other later, perhaps defined the southern section of an ancient road. A few meters away to the northwest two other elliptical structures, ΛΔ and ΛΕ, came to light built one on top of the other, along with remains of other buildings and periboloi. Building ΛΔ, 8.6m long, and 5.4m wide, built partially on top of the older ΛΕ, belongs to a transitional period from the Geometric to the Early Archaic and was in use until the 6th century. The interior was paved with large stones and contained much ash and carbonized fruit. In the south part of the building a hearth was found built with fragments of large pots within a circle of small stones. The door, on the South side, had a threshold of large stones. The northeast quarter of the interior is separated from the rest by a wall. Inside the building and along the wall were found clay loomweights, beads, stone weights, metal objects, mainly iron, and Early Archaic sherds. Outside building ΛΒ to the southeast was found a pit filled with ash, which may be the remains of a posthole to be associated with another parallel to the building’s west wall, which may have supported a roof to protect the building from rain, or may belong to a 3rd elliptical structure. Of the older building ΛΕ (9m l., 5.5m w.) only a small section was investigated. Pottery from the structure dates to the end of the 8th century, while outside the building part of the neck of a Late Geometric Attic amphora was discovered. The peribolos, outside and west of buildings ΛΔ and ΛΕ, was 1m thick, remarkable for the site. East of the 2 elliptical buildings, 3 other walls (2 Geometric, 1 Archaic) were exposed.