SALAMIS - 2011

Salamis, Kanakia. Y. Lolos and C. Marabea (Ioannina) report on the 2011 season of excavation and survey.

On the Mycenaean acropolis (figs 1-2), excavation in the east part of the north wing of building Γ revealed a small storage or adjunct room (figs 3-4), entered from the northwest corner and with a sloping earth floor. This forms part of the north entrance complex of the central building, which includes a prothalamos or waiting room with a bench and terracotta bath, and is bounded to the north by a crudely constructed wall. The portable finds from the destruction layer and on the floor comprise: LH IIIB-IIIC sherds (including a prochoid kalathos, the upper part of a decorated amphoriskos, the lower part of an undecorated closed vessel and a small tripod cooking pot with a potter’s mark), and eight stone tools (six grinders and two percussion tools). Aerial photographs were taken of the acropolis.

On the Pyrgiakoni plateau southeast of the acropolis (the site of a Mycenaean and Classical-early Hellenistic shrine), a long, narrow Late Mycenaean building was uncovered to floor level (fig. 5). The building, which dates to the late 13th/early 12th century, is founded on a terrace (ca. 35x10m) immediately north of the Classical-early Hellenistic temenos (this had previously been associated with the later sanctuary). It is founded on bedrock and in stereo. On the east and north it is bounded by a well-built temenos wall which follows the east-west orientation of the building and was traced for some 20m. To the south rises the bedrock slope of the exedra and to the west bedrock outcrops. The building is in an open area removed from the acropolis settlement, and probably served a ritual purpose linked to the funerary cult in the neighbouring Mycenaean cenotaph and round platform to the east, with which it is aligned (the west part of the temenos wall round the cenotaph intervenes, but an opening in it formed the main entrance to the terrace).

The building is a large hypostyle hall (10x6m, fig. 6) with two wide entrances in exact correspondence on the east and west sides (in the latter case with an antechamber which has a small store or adjunct room immediately to the south). To the north was a series of rooms or spaces which do not intercommunicate. The walls, of two rows of medium-large stones (with fill between), neatly trimmed on the exterior, were poorly preserved: in the absence of evidence for the wall tumble or the use of other construction materials, it is likely that they were robbed for the construction of the later sanctuary. The floors were of beaten earth or trimmed bedrock. In the centre of the hall was a (probably) rectangular, paved hearth between two stone column bases (on the central axis of the room, fig. 7). On the floor on the west side were a semicircular stone ‘step’ in contact with the threshold of the main, west, entrance, and next to it what is probably a stone offering table (a thick orthogonal worked stone slab). Only two thin layers of fill covered the area. Portable finds mostly come from the lower, abandonment layer or the floors, although some finds come from the upper level mixed with Classical-early Hellenistic material mostly fallen from the exedra to the south (figs 8-9).

The building was abandoned in LH IIIC Early (early 12th century); it has a relatively short life in comparison with the main buildings on the neighbouring acropolis. In general the Mycenaean material includes a significant quantity of LH IIIB-IIIC Early sherds: tripod cooking pots (three with potter’s marks), flat based cooking pots, cookpot lids and coarse basins of Aiginetan production, kylikes, skyphoid kraters, amphorae, hydriae, prochoes, stirrup jars and other well-known shapes, 13 stone tools, a spindle whorl and a button both in steatite, three terracotta animal figurines, a terracotta Psi figurine and a number of other small finds (fig. 10). The pottery indicates that food preparation and drinking took place inside the hall. Sporadic Neolithic, Early and Middle Helladic sherds were also found in the lower layer. Classical-early Hellenistic portable finds from the terrace surface and the upper layer include: many black-glaze sherds, undecorated lekanes, transport amphorae (including two stamped handles), beehives, bronze wire, and over 20 small terracotta small objects or tools (including a small number of triangular objects of uncertain function).

Surface survey focused on selected parts of the woodland zone of Kanakia, in the area of Monastery of Ag. Nikolaos at Lemonia, in the wider area of the Salamis Equestrian Club, and over the ‘Skoupidia’ turning before the entrance to the holiday village of Kanakia. In the area of the monastery, the known ancient site was fully recorded and Final Neolithic, Early Helladic and Late Mycenaean sherds collected from points north and northeast of the monastery complex. On the south side of the complex, built into the exterior wall of an old (Ottoman?) building were a marble Early Byzantine Ionic column capital and a round stone (olive?) press with spout (figs 11-12).

Two new Neolithic sites were found in the Kanakia area, on a height east of the Salamis Equestrian Club (Philippikos Estate) and on a slope northeast/east of a major bend in the public road, known as ‘Skoupidia’, before the entrance to the holiday village (figs 13-17). Both sites were fully recorded, noting successive periboloi or retaining walls and scattered surface finds (stone tools, shells, and Late-Final Neolithic sherds, figs 15,19).

The precise location of the probable Mycenaean chamber tomb (perhaps part of a group) in the area of Maroudi (towards Perani) was recorded. It indicates the existence of a new Mycenaean chamber tomb cemetery in addition to those located in the city of Salamis (at Kanari Street-Ag. Theraponta, Akti Karaiskaki, the old high school-Ag. Kyriaki, Tsami), at Selinia (Limiona), Chalioti, and Pyrgiakoni.