MAVROMANTILIA - 2005

Mavromantilia. G. Riginos (Η’ ΕΠΚΑ) reports the discovery of Geometric to Late Hellenistic settlement remains, plus tile and bone from a destroyed tile grave, during the opening of a drainage trench on the Prodromio plain, ca. 200m east of the river Kokytos. An 0.5m-thick cultural level (ca. 50m long), found at a depth of 1.5m below the modern surface, contained small and medium-sized fieldstones, traces of burning, fragments of (mostly animal) bone, and sherds of pithoi and other vessels. A ca. 10 x 1m section of stone pavement was located on the north side of the trench. The grave remains came from the east side of the trench at a depth of 0.6m.

Finds comprised largely pottery, including sherds with Geometric decoration in black or brown paint on a cream slip (of vertical and horizontal lines, zigzags, herringbone pattern, meanders, and semicircles), pithos sherds (some with rope decoration), an intact small two-handled vessel, terracotta figurines (three animal heads and a bird), a conical terracotta loomweight, small bronze and iron objects (hooks and sheet), part of a stone tool, and a very few pieces of worked stone.