GREMOULIAS - 2007

Gremoulias (Kalavryta). G. Alexopoulou (Στ' ΕΠΚΑ) and G. Ladstätter (Director, Austrian Institute) report on continued excavation on the Gremoulias saddle, 3.5km NE of Kalavryta.

Soundings in 2005 and 2006 had revealed the substructure of a Doric peripteral temple in limestone with a peristasis of 6 x 14 columns (euthynteria: 13.9 x 34.75m). Many fragments of a Cor marble roof were ascribed to this building. Ιn 2007, excavation continued along the S peristasis; a sounding following the central axis of the temple examined the area E of its E façade to a distance of 12m. Previous conclusions about the substructure (preserved in situ) were supported. The euthynteria is built of clamp-linked limestone blocks, their edges finished in anathyrosis, on a foundation of limestone slabs. Occasional limestone blocks from the lowermost level of the krepidoma have survived. In addition to a multitude of heavily damaged limestone blocks from the substructure and the Doric elements above it, a more substantially preserved part of a Doric column drum(lower di. 0.84m) and a very informative fragment of a Doric capital (lower di. 0.67m, abacus 0.98m), the echinus curve of which does not predate the 4th Ct BC, were found outside the S peristasis (Fig. 1). The E sounding also revealed limestone fragments from the temple, roughly as they had fallen, up to a distance of 4.8m: immediately E of the peristasis, a fragment of a horizontal geison joined the one discovered in 2001, fully completing this element. Further E, lay a fragment of a sloped geison from the pediment, as well as part of its roof ridge. The architectural elements recovered permit the reconstruction of the temple from the euthynteria up to the pediment.

As in 2005 and 2006, the surrounding soil contained innumerable small fragments of the stroters and calypters of a Cor marble roof, but no evidence of clay tiles anywhere near the temple. Inside the peristasis, in the area where the sekos is to be expected, the marble tile fragments lay upon a thick deposit of lime powder. This suggests that the marble roof was deliberately smashed to be burnt into lime in more recent times. No evidence for the execution of the sekos, which probably had higher foundations than the peristasis, has been revealed in the areas so far excavated due to this disturbance.

To the E of the limestone temple, at a distance of 10.2m, where there is a marked increase in the angle of the upward slope, a parallel limestone foundation with a carefully finished levelling course was revealed. The bedrock to the E was cut away diagonally to permit the laying of the wall stones, indicating that this wall supported a terrace.

To the W of this setting, several worked blocks of crystalline limestone, clearly part of the wall’s superstructure, had fallen westward together with some of the fill behind it. They included blocks with anathyrosis, fragments of Doric column drums and 2 Doric capitals. Some of these spolia had been subject to secondary cutting before they were built into the wall; the polygonal cutting of the originally rectangular blocks indicates that the stability of the terrace wall was a priority. The echinus curve and the distribution of the annuli on the better preserved capital (lower di. 0.55m, abacus 1.02m) suggest a L6th Ct BC date. The use of crystalline limestone and the identical techniques used on these pieces indicate that they belong together in a LAr Doric building. The terrace fill contained several diagnostic fragments of a Cor marble roof (stroters, calypters, lion’s-head waterspouts and a well-preserved piece of the pedimental sima), largely identical with the fragments of the roof of the limestone temple and of LAr date.

Although it is only partially verified archaeologically, the following architectural development can be deduced for the sanctuary on the saddle of Gremoulias. In the L6th Ct, a monumental Doric limestone temple with a Cor marble roof was erected. Since the plateau was too small to hold several monumental buildings, this structure can be connected with the foundations of the later limestone temple, the elongated proportions of which may well belong to such an early date. The LAr structure was thus a peripteral temple.
For reasons as yet unclear, this building was replaced, not before the 4th Ct BC, by a peripteral limestone temple, re-using the original Cor marble roof. In the context of these modifications, the retaining wall to the E was erected from fragments of the older temple, the debris of which was deposited in the fill behind it.
Between the E façade of the limestone temple and the E wall, 2 further limestone blocks in situ suggest the position of an altar. Here a small area contained numerous lance or spearheads, mostly of iron, both full size and miniature. In the absence of written sources, this material provides the only evidence for the cult performed at the Gremoulias sanctuary.