Aigeira - 2023

Aigeira. W. Gauss (Austrian Archaeological Institute in Athens) reports on the second excavation season of a five-year programme with the aim of clarifying how ancient Aigeira developed in the centuries following the collapse of the Mycenaean palatial system to the Hellenistic Period.

Excavation work concentrated on four trenches in the so-called saddle area (Fig. 1), revealing mainly Late Classical (4th century) to early 3rd century pottery. The layers where these finds are located are associated with walls, which even though were always visible, were never interpreted properly. They indicate to a major fortification protect that encircled the entire acropolis plateau, and it seems that these fortifications are older than the mid-3rd century city wall excavated by Alexander Sokolicek and his team at various spots of the Hellenistic lower town between 2017 and 2021. 

Elsewhere, in an area filled with debris, levels full of broken corinthian and laconian roof tiles, pottery of late archaic and early classical pottery, and other artefacts were exposed, including table and kitchen ware, a terracotta horse-rider, a bronze brid and a number of completely preserved loom-weights, all without stamps (Fig. 4). These finds suggest that fill comprises of debris from the sanctuary on the summit of the acropolis. In another trench, the remains of a massive, ca. 1.6m wide double-shell wall were uncovered immediately beneath top surface. In layers associated with the construction of the wall, a number of small fragments of corinthian roof tiles and architectural terracotta were found, as well as a clay pipeline in the lowest courses of the foundations of the wall.