AZORIA - 2013

Azoria. D. Haggis (ASCSA/North Carolina) reports on renewed excavation in 2013. Stratigraphic soundings were made below the site’s main Late Archaic destruction horizon. One sounding within the Communal Dining Building revealed an underlying earlier wall, a possible spur wall, and an associated consolidated surface. The pottery recovered from the latter was Late Minoan IIIC, Late Geometric and seventh-century in date. A second test immediately downslope from the Communal Dining Building exposed two parallel spine walls running along the contour of the hill, interpreted as the foundations of the substantial slope modifications on which the Archaic structures rested. Material recovered from within the inner face of the lowermost wall gave a terminus ad quem/post quem of the late seventh century. A third sounding revealed a cobble fill dating between LM IIIC and the seventh century, and an underlying building with three walls and a floor which had LMIIIC pottery on it. A fourth sounding also revealed a cobble fill (again with the latest pottery dating to the late seventh century) against a spine wall to the west.

Further trenches were opened to explore areas of the site alongside those previously excavated. Exploration to the west of the Service Building produced no conclusive information about the nature of the space. A further expanse of the Northwest Building was exposed, consisting of six interconnecting rooms: two large adjoining halls, two storerooms, an internal hall, and a large square kitchen accommodating a hearth and space for 20 pot stands. Objects from the building include a marble basin, a miniature bronze shield boss, a lead ingot, an Attic exaleiptron and a terracotta krater stand. The area of the Early Iron Age-Orientalising building found in 2006 underlying an Archaic road was expanded. The building shows signs of alteration over time. The Late Geometric main hall with a central hearth was divided into two rooms in the Early Orientalising, and the seventh century witnessed the shortening of the front room, the insertion of a staircase, and the addition of a potter’s kiln at the rear of the building. The stratigraphy of the main room consisted of a deep deposit belonging to a long lasting Archaic dump, below which was a cobble fill. Two occupation layers were separated by a deep stratum of roofing material and tumble: the lower floor layer featured a rectangular hearth. The stratigraphy of the rear room, to the north, consisted of the sixth- to early fifth-century street which had two phases, and a deep clay packing, overlying a cobble fill. Under the cobble fill, the destruction debris of the building lay immediately over the floor. The floor deposit included a number of whole vases: a cooking pot, short-necked cups, a hydria, a coarse plain krater with an inscription, and an aryballos.