MIKRIS VOLVIS - 2006

Mikris Volvis. A. Lioutas and S. Kotsas (ΙΖ' ΕΠΚΑ) report on rescue excavation within a Neo settlement on a hill 1.5km from the mod. village. In the E part of the excavation area was a L Antique cemetery: W of this were pits containing Neo material, principally pottery. The estimated settlement area is ca. 200 x 150m. Only the small sector threatened by road construction was excavated (N−NE parts). 138 pits were located (0.5−1.8m di. and 0.3−1.2m d., one stonelined and another 2 possibly to be interpreted as house basements), scattered over the entire excavation area. Remains of 3 houses were also revealed. The function of the pits is hard to determine: finds come mostly from fill introduced when they were closed, and they cannot be connected with any particular house. The houses were built with wooden frames coated in clay: 2 had hearths with stone frames. A tomb containing a single extended inhumation, but no goods, was located in the centre of the excavation area and is presumed to be contemporary with the settlement. Numerous sherds were collected from the settlement fills, mostly local plainwares (poorly fired, red or red-brown clay with limestone inclusions), but with some black burnished ware: there was no painted pottery (although a few sherds with incised decoration). The best preserved pottery comes from the pits: the most common shapes are bowls and flat-bottomed basins, chytrae, cups, round-bodied closed vessels and pithoid jars: conical bowls are rarer. Small finds are mostly stone tools: other finds include stone axes, pestles and millstones with traces of use, a few figurines, 2 clay seals and 3 stone pendants (1 anthropoid and the other 2 geometric in design). The closest parallels for the pottery date to the earlier Neo phases.

The L Antique cemetery contained 113 tombs arranged along common N−S walls, plus the stone foundations of a building of the same period. There were 98 cist tombs, 14 pits and a vaulted tomb (3.1m x 3m, 1.6m h., with a step down into the chamber). The vaulted tomb is built of flat stone sections set horizontally and cemented with lime mortar: the interior has a 0.01m thick layer of white plaster. All the burials in the cemetery were inhumations: 61 contained goods such as plainware oinochoai, lamps, ladles and bowls. Metalwork comprised silver and bronze coins and earrings, bronze rings, gold sheet, and glass, bronze and faience beads. Architectural remains and pottery contemporary with the cemetery were found during fieldwalking on a low hill N of the cemetery.