VAPHEIO - 2011

Vapheio (Palaiopyrgi). L. Hitchcock (AAIA/Melbourne), A. Chapin (AAIA/Brevard), and E. Banou (University of the Peloponnese) report on a project to record and document quarry cuttings in the valley midway between Vapheio and Palaiopyrgi (Fig. 1). Study focused on a conglomerate quarry discovered in 2006 with a column base and other cuttings preserved in situ. Cleaning exposed a 7.2 × 2m area, plus two further (2.4 x 2.0m and 1.4 x 1.8m) trapezoidal areas.

The conglomerate consists of water-worn and waterborne pebble- and cobble-sized clasts in a matrix of fine-grained sediments. The quality is variable, with the best cemented stone appearing in a semi-circular cutting directly south of the column base. The matrix was more eroded on the southwest, exposing an uneven surface of pebble-sized clasts, while to the north there were several 0.3-0.4m thick strata of conglomerate. Work in the area may have been abandoned (based on the quality of the stone) or the current condition could be the result of weathering.

The column base, at ca.0.8m in diameter, is comparable to examples from the citadel at Mycenae and to an amygdalite base in the well of room Π at Petsas House. Semi-circular, vertical cuttings range in diameter from 1.1 to 1.8m and in depth from 0.36-1.1m. Uneven circular surfaces at the bottom of some of these suggest that column bases were separated from these positions. The best preserved, directly south of the column base, is 0.7m in diameter. The column base itself is 0.3m high on the east, but just 0.15 m high at the northwest end. At the southwest end, the base remains unfinished, and its edge where visible is flat. Where the edge of the column base has begun to be worked on the west, a 0.1m wide groove widens to 0.3m on the north as the base was shaped. The base appears to sit on a trapezoidal plinth. Some Mycenaean column bases do have plinths, but since these are frequently rounded the shape of the plinth as found in situ may be defined by the surrounding cuttings. The vertical faces of the ledges around the base and some of the cuttings show marks of sawing, probably using toothless saws, water and abrasive sand. The sediments become quite soft when wet, and water was likely also used to render the stone easier to cut. The circular trace of a quarried column base is preserved in two cuttings. There are also pry-holes above the cutting south of the column base and chisel marks in a small channel at the southwest end of the quarry.

The sparse pottery consists of 25 small, worn sherds mainly from the eastern and southern parts of the quarry (six Early Helladic sherds in sauceboat fabric, one possible Dark Minyan, 14 probable Mycenaean, one medieval, plus one handle of micaceous fabric and two of Oatmeal type).

While it is difficult to date surface features in stone such as quarries and walls, the project directors regard the quarry as Mycenaean because of its roughly equal proximity to two important Mycenaean sites (Vapheio and Palaiopyrgi), the nature of the quarry cuttings, and the material, conglomerate, which was used in Mycenaean prestige architecture in LH III.

Based on the numerous semi-circular cuttings, it is argued that the column base left in situ was one of several intended for a monumental Mycenaean building, while the large conglomerate blocks lying on the dromos and probably used for the lintel of the Vapheio tholos tomb may have come from this quarry or a similar one nearby. Although shallow, circular cuttings also imply the quarrying of disks for table-tops in the Byzantine period; marble seemed to be the preferred material for this purpose, and a later use for this quarry therefore seems unlikely. The earliest use of the Vapheio tholos dates to the transition from late LH IIA to LH IIB. Use continued into LH III, when the conglomerate quarry may have again been exploited for stone to enhance a palatial structure or other important building. It is unlikely that the column bases from the quarry were used in connection with a tomb, as preserved examples from tombs (e.g. the Treasury of Atreus and the Tomb of Clytemnestra) are decorative, engaged columns.