NAUPAKTOS, OVRYOLAKA - 2007

Naupaktos, Ovryolaka (O.T. 235, Pappa and V. Stratou properties). The 22nd EBA reports the discovery on the Pappa property of a further part of the Byzantine cemetery with numerous pseudo-cist and tile-graves first excavated in 1990 on the Kaltsa property (FIG). A further seven pseudo-cists, one pit grave and four free burials were excavated. The pseudo-cists were defined by one to three series of irregularly shaped stones with, in several cases, a tile infill, and had large cover slabs. The bodies were oriented to the east. Only one Venetian coin was found.

On the neighbouring property to the east (V. Stratou), 20 tombs were found in two layers (tombs 1-16 above and 17-20 below). Six were pseudo-cists and the rest pit graves. The top cover was defined by small unworked stones in cement in a roughly rectangular shape, serving as a marker. Just under half of the graves (2, 6, 7, 9, 12, 14, 17, and 18) had a further, inner covering of large cover tiles: the remainder had only the skeleton. The consistent orientation of the burials, the large number and form of the graves found on the three properties, and the reasonable assumption that burials continued further west beneath Karakoulaki Street and the properties opposite, combine to suggest that this is the site of the main Byzantine cemetery on the northwest slopes of the kastro, a cemetery which may have continued in use into the first two centuries of the Tourkokratia.