GALATAS Survey Project - 2007

Galatas Survey Project. L.V. Watrous (ASCSA) reports on the 3rd field season of the systematic survey around the palace of Galatas, under the supervision of P. Galanaki (ΚΓ' ΕΠΚΑ).
The area surveyed in 2007 was focused between the villages of Galatas, Zinta and Arkalochori: 48 new sites, ranging in date from Neo to Ot, bring the total number to 172.
On return to the palatial site of Galatas, to determine better the size of this settlement during the Protopalatial and Neopalatial periods, it has become clear that Galatas grew dramatically in size in the latter period: a number of massive cyclopean structures at the edge of the site appear to have been built then. Three large M settlements were identified S of Galatas, at Korakia, Kastellos, and Paratiritirion. Korakia and Kastellos are the 2 most important M sites in the area of Zinta. Following the LM IIIB period, the local population during the EIA occupied defensible hilltop sites separated from one another by a km or more: a large number of Geo-Ar settlements were discovered. One, atypically, sits on the unprotected valley bottom.
Rom occupation around the Galatas palace appears scarce during the 1st−7th Ct AD. The survey uncovered 18 sites, 2 of which had only an E occupation, 9 with E and L occupation, and 7 with only a L occupation. Settlement did increase by the 4th Ct AD, but was even so not substantial.
Study of the Byz through to mod. periods revealed that the paucity of Rom settlement continued into the Byz period, as only 8 of this season’s sites appear to have Byz phases. Ven sites are much more plentiful and typically continue into the Ot and mod. periods. These post-Byz sites often also display evidence for M phases, revealing that much of the land exploited in the M periods was not use again until the 13th Ct and later. Of particular note for the Ven period is the fortress surveyed near Meleses. A number of imports from Italy, N Greece and Cyprus have been observed.
The pattern of settlement in the area surveyed in 2007 differs in some respect from that of the previous 2 seasons. The earliest settlements are Neo and EM hilltop sites as before, but Protopalatial and Neopalatial settlement is largely nucleated on defensive locations away from valley bottoms . The dispersed Neopalatial pattern of settlement around the palace of Galatas does not seem to occur in the Zinta-Arkalochori area. Instead, such settlement is confined to large hilltop sites. While the population around Galatas moves to the site of Astritsi in the LM IIIC−Hel period, this pattern is not repeated in the 2007 survey zone. Here rather the EIA population remains dispersed on small and large sites. By the Cl period, several of these sites have been abandoned, presumably for larger settlements. Some evidence for assigning a Ven date for some ‘soroi’ has been gathered.