Patras - Kotroni - 2014

Patras - Kotroni. Konstantina Aktipi (Ephorate of Antiquities of Achaia) reports the following:

Recent rescue excavations by the Ephorate of Antiquities of Achaea (former 6th Ephorate of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities) at Kotroni, 3.5 km north of the city centre of Patras, revealed parts of an Early Helladic settlement previously known only from scattered remains briefly reported in the Archaeologikon Deltion. The settlement lies on a gently sloping plateau, which rises about 6 m above the surrounding plain. The architectural remains, which indicate at least two successive phases of occupation during the EH II period, appear to cover an area of at least 20.000 m2. The buildings are solidly constructed on carefully prepared terraces, their floors made of small stones, pebbles, pottery fragments, and layers of clay. The rooms are mostly small, their walls made of medium-sized river stones at the base with mud brick above. The buildings are surrounded by open spaces, created by partially levelling the bedrock. The pottery recovered includes medium sized bowls and saucers with incurving rims and flat or ring bases, broad basins, sauceboats, and askoid vases, among other forms. Cooking wares were abundant. Large and medium-sized pithoi were also present, most of them decorated with various types of plastic bands and knobs. Other artefacts include bronze tools and needles, clay spindle whorls, a stone pestle, ground stone tools (querns, grinders, whetstones, pounders), flint cores, flint and obsidian blades, sickles, and a large number of stone flakes. The surrounding fertile plain, nearby river, and short distance to the coast, with its promontory and marshland, are the key topographical reasons for the establishment and development of the EH settlement at Kotroni, which is the only EH settlement excavated near Patras thus far and probably one of the most important EH sites in western Achaea.