KEPHALLONIA - Tzannata - 2011

Tzannata (Katsivelata, Riza). A. Vasilakis (former Director, ΛΕ΄ ΕΠΚΑ) reports on the first season of excavation of a Mycenaean settlement close to the well-known tholos tomb at Bourtzi (fig. 1).

Despite the creation of a protected zone in 1999, damage continued to occur to important remains including the monumental prehistoric peribolos on the Katsivelata hill (on the property of E. Menegatos) ca. 350m northeast of the tholos tomb. Excavation was therefore undertaken to investigate the character of the peribolos and of the scattered ancient building remains, fragments of tile from Roman tile graves, and prehistoric pottery.

The ca.2.3m-thick peribolos wall ran north-south for some 40m. The peribolos was the latest construction on site, dating ca.1200 BC, at which time a cobbled road was built parallel and to the west of it. This road (ca.2.2m wide) was bordered on the west side by a row of large stones. At a deeper level was a small building of uncertain character, the four metre-long curved wall of which was preserved under the road surface.

The third and principal period of use of the site was revealed at a deeper level and over an area of some 50m2.
Remains of a large building were found, consisting of a curved wall 1.5m wide and over 10m long, and a straight wall 1.8m wide. The undisturbed stratum (which varied in depth from 0.15-0.6m) sloped to the south and was exposed over an area of ca. 150m2. Finds to date are a curved construction (2m in diameter) which is probably a refuse dump, a round clay hearth, masses of clay, and a small stone cist containing a medium-sized vessel. The stratum contained many sherds of vessels of various shapes, sizes and fabrics, which on an initial reading date to the 14th and 13th centuries (LH IIIB – late Mycenaean period). Terracotta whorls of different shapes and sizes were found with tens of small stone and flint tools, a prismatic steatite bead, and a unique seal-ornament (fig. 2) – a long, droplet-shaped basalt pendant, 0.04m long and 0.0012m in diameter at the mid-point, broken on the suspension end and with a seal image which is hard to read on the curved lower face.

An older phase of occupation was revealed in the northwest area of the excavation, in the form of straight walls and a little pottery which is probably 15th-century if hard to date precisely as yet.