ARACHAMITAI Ag. Paraskevi - 2007

Agia Paraskevi Arachamitai. B. Forsén (Finnish Institute) reports on a project conducted in 2006−2007 to clarify whether column drums allegedly found here in the 1930s could belong to an anc. temple. The site is located at the highest point of the pass leading from Asea to Arachamitai: magnetometry revealed at least 2 monumental buildings, one rectangular (ca. 30 x 11m), the other square (ca. 65 x 65m) with a large central courtyard. Trial trenches showed that the rectangular building is a stoa, open towards the N and with a series of square rooms along the S side, and likely Hel on the basis of form. A Lakedaimonian coin found below the collapsed roof offers a tpq of 50−25 BC for the destruction of the stoa.

S of the stoa lay a shallow pit filled with dark soil, much pottery and other small finds. The pottery includes many mouldmade bowl fragments, both imbricate and floral bowls of ca. 225−50 BC and some long petal bowls of ca. 150−80 BC, as well as miniatures, cooking pots, amphorae, jugs and some lamps, plus a few female figurines of the 2nd Ct BC (Fig. 1). At the S end of this trench lay a terracotta water channel, and next to it L5th−M3rd Ct BC bg pottery and a foot fragment from a 2nd half 6th Ct BC bronze hydria. These finds may be the remains of ritual dining common in sanctuaries. Two tile stamps, one beginning AΡTEM… and the other DEΣΠ…, might indicate the cult of Artemis Despoina, although further research is needed. Further work is also required to explain the date and function of the larger square courtyard structure.