LEONTIO - Plakomenos - 2003

Leontio, Plakomenos (property of D. Banagi and I. Andrianakou). Z. Aslamatzidou-Kostourou (Δ’ ΕΠΚΑ) reports the discovery of a votive deposit in a field south of the road from Nemea to Leontio, in the foothills of Mt Koukougeras on the south side of the Phliasian plain. The material, found in a natural fissure, is not in situ, but was washed down from a higher point on the hill. It consisted mostly of figurines and miniature vessels, with a very few full-sized vessels and bronze items, plus a ring, a lamp, and spindle whorl and two lead points.
The figurines mostly depicted enthroned females wearing a polos (with moulded head and handmade body), but there were also standing women, a woman holding a child, a warrior with a shield, nude men, bird-headed figures, riders, ring dances, animals (horses, rams, birds, and a tortoise), a ship, and a model of an apsidal building containing two standing bird-headed figures and two couchant lions. Most figurines date to the seventh and sixth centuries BC, with some continuing into the fifth century.
Miniature vessels (kylikes, skyphoi, oinochoae, phiales and pyxides) were most common: the few full-sized vessels included a Corinthian aryballos of the Warrior Group, a krater and other black-figure sherds (including an anthropomorphic vase), and a black-figure skyphos with an inscription to Aphrodite (ΤΑΣ ΑΦΡΟΔΙΤΑΣ ΕΙΜΙ).
A small trial excavation higher on the hill (in the neighbouring field to the west) revealed architectural members (column fragments, small columns etc.), and a bronze mirror.