THESPROTIA - Thesprotia Expedition - 2010

Thesprotia Expedition. B. Forsén (Finnish Institute at Athens) reports on the seventh and final field season conducted in 2010.
Trial excavation was made in PS 12, a prehistoric site where a transitional Middle-Late Bronze Age cemetery is located on top of an Early Bronze Age settlement. PS 12 is a key site for our understanding of the Bronze Age of Thesprotia, since no EBA stratified site has so far been excavated in the region and the earliest graves previously known date to the end of the LBA.
Work in 2010 concentrated in two main areas: Area 2 is located at the tumulus found in 2009, and Area 3 next to the cist grave some 75m to the south, also found in 2009. Excavation of the tumulus revealed another child burial in addition to those found last year, this time in the layer just above the tumulus fill (thus postdating the tumulus): the grave dates to the very end of the MBA or the beginning of the LBA (1780-1610 BC). Otherwise work in Area 2 concentrated on the rich EBA cultural layer below the tumulus. C¹⁴ analysis indicates an EBA date for this layer, which also contains a few Neolithic sherds, and a cremation burial close to the centre of the tumulus. A medium-coarse wide-mouthed jar, probably of MBA date, and a bone needle were found just above, or in connection with, the heavily burnt area. C¹⁴ analysis of charcoal found in connection with the cremation dates it to the MBA (1955-1755 cal. BC and 1980-1865 cal. BC), making it the oldest known grave in Thesprotia. This was probably a primary cremation in a shallow pit dug into the EBA settlement layer. Approximately 100 years later, the tumulus was erected on top of the grave.
The EBA layer in Area 2 produced the following repertoire of finds. The fine to medium-coarse pottery is mostly dark, either black or brown, and either plain or burnished on the interior. Rims are either square-cut or slightly flaring; no out-turned rims are found. A red slipped ware, burnished on the exterior and with incised lip, recalls pottery from other EBA sites in central and southern Greece. The cooking ware usually has a scored surface or carries a ‘crust’. Common surface decoration consists of fingernail impressions. An impressive amount of corded ware was collected, usually black, although reddish-yellow and brown fabrics occur. The white-crusted filling remained in only a few corded ware sherds. Six more spoons were found, bringing the site total to 11: two standard sizes are represented. There is a striking overall resemblance with the EBA pottery of Pevkakia in Thessaly, noting also the lack of southern imports. PS 12 thus belongs to a more northerly network characterised by the use of corded ware. However, more exotic pottery reached the site, as indicated by fragmentary vessels, possibly of Anatolian origin, with rolled impressed surfaces. Spindle whorls are either biconical or pierced sherds. Two bobbins likewise indicate wool production, as do bone needles (Fig. 1). Several sickles (with gloss) indicate agricultural activities, and the large amount of animal bones from the EBA cultural layer provide a good picture of animal husbandry.
C¹⁴ analysis gives a date range of 1690-1490 cal. BC for the single cist grave (Grave I) identified and excavated in 2009 ca.75m south of the tumulus, making the two graves roughly contemporary. Excavation of the area surrounding Grave I (Area 3: Fig. 2) determined that this grave did not belong to a second tumulus, but was surrounded by a small circle of stones (ca. 3m in diameter). Attached to this circle were at least three and possibly four further circles each with a large cist grave (Graves III-VI) in the centre. Detached from this conglomeration was a smaller single stone circle (diameter ca. 1.5m) with a small cist grave (Grave II) for a child. None of the graves contained grave goods, although the cist graves were well built, some with huge cover slabs. Pottery scattered around the cist graves, partly inside the stone circles, seems on stratigraphical grounds to be either contemporary with, or slightly later than, the burials themselves. It consists of orange and orange-red ware with out-turned or flaring rims, large horizontal handles sometimes formed as horns (paralleled at Ephyra and considered to be of MBA date), as well as LBA wishbone handles. Large flat-rimmed cooking pots with sloppily made bands probably also belong to the MBA, LBA, or even EIA, repertoire. A preliminary study of the skeletal remains from the six cist graves in Area 3, as well as from the cist grave found in 2009 in the centre of the tumulus, reveals aspects of the burial customs. All graves, except for the child burial in Grave II and possibly also the robbed Grave I, contained several individuals. However, none of the skeletons is intact, and from some of the deceased only a couple of bones are represented. The placing of the bones inside the cists indicates that, at the time of interment, they must already have decomposed and/or been defleshed: the cists thus functioned as ossuaries with the original burial site(s) located elsewhere.