Anc. APHYTOS Athytos - 2006

Athytos (anc. Aphytos). V. Misailidou-Despotidou (ΙΖ' ΕΠΚΑ) reports the completion of excavation of that part of the city cemetery on the land of A. Karagianni. 47 tombs of various types were found, dating from the end of the 6th/E5th−4th Ct BC: they include limestone sarcophagi, pits, cists and primary cremations, and belong to a part of the cemetery used for the burials of both adults and children. The choice of tomb type depended both on period and the age of the deceased: thus all 6 sarcophagi (all very carefully worked) hold adult burials of the 1st half of the 5th Ct and the 9 primary cremations are again probably of adults and date to the 2nd half of the 5th−4th Ct. Only 4 cist graves were found, all of the 5th Ct. Pits were used throughout: of the 28 excavated, 6 or 7 date to the end of the 6th−1st half of the 5th Ct and the remainder, child burials, in so far as it is possible to tell from grave goods, are split equally between the 2nd half of the 5th and 4th Cts. This appears to be the peak of use of this part of the cemetery. Cremation is preferred for adults, while children are interred in pits or cists. Grave orientation varies and no significance can be seen in it. The presence of jewellery is seen as a criterion of female burial. There was great variation in the quality and quantity of grave goods: pottery predominates, along with bronze, iron and some glass vessels, strigils, figurines, silver mouth-plates and a spool. Ten child burials and one adult lack goods. The oldest burial (L6th−E5th Ct), of a girl child, contained 75 items, including a little jewellery and much pottery − 49 kotyliskoi, 9 hydriskoi, 2 miniature lekanides, a kotyle, a conical oinochoe and a bg kylix (all Cor, apart from the kylix). Many sarcophagi contained particularly rich goods. The burial of a young man in grave 12 (2nd quarter of the 5th Ct) contained 16 items, including a rf lekythos, a bg skyphos and lekythoi, a glass amphoriskos, a bronze lebes, a trefoil-mouthed oinochoe and a strigil, a silver mouth-plate and an ostrich egg. Tomb 30 (ca. 480−470) contained 14 items, mostly Attic pots (among which is a rf lekythos depicting a lyre player, probably of the Berlin Painter’s workshop), Attic lekythoi, a Cor trefoil-mouthed oinochoe and a silver mouthplate decorated with a wheel in the middle and lotus flowers at either side. Bronze vessels in this tomb comprise an iron exaleiptron with bronze handles and lid, placed on a tripod with lion-paw feet, and a bronze lebes. The male burial in sarcophagus 20 (2nd half of the 5th Ct) is noted as the richest in the cemetery, with 53 items. 48 of these are pots (mostly Attic, bg, bf and rf lekythoi, also bf cups and 2 plastic vases in the form of korai), including a large (0.39m h.) rf lekythos by the Pan Painter showing Hermes preparing to kill Argos. There is also a bronze vessel and an iron exaleiptron.

The E part of the plot was not used for burials: here a walled, open area 21m x 5.5m was uncovered, which seems to have been used to hold waste items (undecorated and bg sherds of domestic and finewares including much bg and W Slope, lamps, figurine fragments, burnt clay, small metal items, loomweights and animal bone). This was probably originally a section of road serving the cemetery which was closed off after it went out of use. Thasian stamped amphora handles from this area include workshop names such as ΔΗΜΑΚΛΗΣ and ΧΑΙΡΕΑΣ and names on sealings include ΒΙΩΝΟΣ, ΚΑΛΛΙΜΑΧΟΥ, ΜΙΚΙΩΝΟΣ and ΤΙΜΑΙΝΕΤΟΥ. Debris from a potter’s workshop includes wasters and kiln supports. The variety of material found in this area indicates that it was part of a larger residential/craft area which contained a potter’s workshop. Pottery dates largely to the Hel period, with some of the 4th Ct BC: coins range from those of Philip II to those of Thessaloniki of 187−168 BC. The exterior wall of a large structure was traced for 21m on the E edge of the plot, next to the waste-disposal area: it continues into the neighbouring plot. The NW corner of this complex seems to consist of small rooms: it does not communicate with the waste-disposal area, but material from fill within the rooms is similar in date and type to that dumped (and there is a further coin of Thessaloniki of the same date). The destruction of the complex is dated to the 2nd half of the 1st Ct AD by a hoard of 5 coins within the destruction level in one room. While too little of the complex has been excavated to determine its function, it is surely the source of the dumped material. These are the first Hel finds from anc. Aphytos and confirm the view that the city centre was largely abandoned after the 4th Ct BC earthquake and activity thereafter moved outside the Cl city limits.