LEFKANDI - 2011

Lefkandi, Xeropolis. I.S. Lemos (BSA/Oxford) reports on limited excavation undertaken to clarify the history of the so-called Megara and associated structures. The successive Megara A and B were the main elite residences on site: research in 2011 focused on their origins and the earlier construction history of the area, and on their relationship to certain structures identified in previous years. (Fig. 1) Earlier walls under Megaron A formed part of an LH IIIC Early house plan standard for the known multi-roomed houses on Xeropolis: these differ from the Megara in orientation and plan. The walls had two construction phases equivalent to Lefkandi 1a and 1b, each associated with more than one phase of occupation. The construction of Megaron A began during Lefkandi Phase 2a. A number of pictorial vases were found within the structure and in its newly discovered north-east room, at or below floor level (Fig. 2).

The complexity of the area around the hearth at the northern end of the Megara underlines the significance of these buildings during the last stages of LH IIIC.(Fig. 3) The hearth had three main phases. First, a low rectangular platform was raised just above floor level. The floors of Megaron A then accumulated around it and began to cover it. In the second phase, soil heaped up along the earlier borders raised the hearth’s sides and left a depression which was given a new base. The third phase saw the construction of a freestanding mud-brick hearth.
Megaron A had a supplementary north-east room which contained a number of large pots of Lefkandi Phase 1b/2a and was thus initially contemporary with the first phase of Megaron A. It was evidently used for food storage and processing, since vases associated with these activities were found together with querns and hand-stones. (Fig. 4) A pictorial krater suggests the storage of vessels used for drinking and food consumption (Fig. 2), and evidence of burning is also found in the north of the room. The room continued in use throughout the life of Megaron A and the two structures were probably abandoned at the same time. The room’s contents lay under the collapse of its mud-brick walls, but there is no certain evidence that the later Megaron B extended over the debris. Instead the area probably remained an open space while Megaron B was occupied.

Full exposure of the so-called Annexe also revealed a complex use history. The initial phase was connected to a substantial pebble surface. This first structure was replaced by a short, Π-shaped building open to the north: the ends of its west and east walls were probably marked by posts supporting the roof. A large pithos set into a pit indicates that the space was used for storage at least during this second phase. At some point in the life of Megaron A the Annexe was enlarged by extending the side walls, but the exact timing of this is unresolved. An east-west corridor probably gave access to the Annexe and to the north-east room, as well as to Megaron A through its east wall. Another north-south access route, the passageway between the Annexe and the Megaron, gave direct access to these adjunct rooms from the south side of the Megaron.

The construction of Megaron B began in Lefkandi Phase 2b/3. During the initial phase of use, the mud-brick hearth of Megaron A survived, repaired and slightly sunken into the floor: it is unclear whether it went out of use during the life of Megaron B. The north, east and south walls of the Megaron were rebuilt on previous foundations, with the east wall considerably strengthened. The west wall, however, was moved to the west and constructed in a different fashion: its large, flat and squared limestone blocks created an imposing façade when approached along the east-west roadway from the west and central area of the settlement. Later use of the building into the Sub-Mycenaean and Early Protogeometric periods requires further study. One further episode may belong with the end of Megaron A or of Megaron B: two pits were filled with pottery and animal bones, probably after a single feasting event, and were then closed off with piles of stones and pebbles.

Identification of a substantial later structure confirms that the Annexe area was occupied after the period of the Megara. The existence of an internal space here had previously been confirmed, but no walls or associated surfaces had hitherto been recognized. A set of thin floors observed in the south baulk section were traced westwards, half-way along the south face of the Megaron, and related to features including terracotta bins and a pit. Further study is required to determine whether this ‘room’ was initially associated with a late phase of the Megaron.

Preliminary conclusions from ongoing zoo-archaeological analysis indicate that the inhabitants of prehistoric Lefkandi broadly favoured husbandry of domesticated species including sheep and goat (which were the best represented, over cattle and pigs), with clear evidence also for some dogs and equids. This was almost to the exclusion of all other wild species, with the significant exception of red deer (and, to a much lesser degree, fallow deer) which were selectively hunted.