ARGILOS - 2003

Argilos. D. Malamidou (ΚΗ' ΕΠΚΑ) reports on rescue excavation in the E cemetery (site of Kallithea). A group of 4 tombs was found associated with an E−W retaining wall (finished only on the S side) which formed part of the landscaping of the cemetery into distinct levels. On the upper level was a tile-covered cremation containing an Attic squat lekythos of the last quarter of the 5th Ct BC, part of a Silen figurine, a silver coin of Argilos, an iron knife, a silver pin and bronze beads. In the fill over the tiles were a bronze strigil and a figurine of a papasilenus datable ca. 480−450. On the lower level was a tile grave without goods and 2 monolithic sarcophagi set parallel to each other within a 3 x 2m enclosure. Over the fill of these last tombs was a round limestone base, probably for the inscribed stele found in fragments S of the tomb. The text (in Ionic dialect), reproduced only in mod. Gr, reads: ‘Stand at this stele and inscription, the grave marker to Philtis of Samos, [who died] far from his home soil’. The N sarcophagus contained 2 burials, with a local LAr Ionianising amphora set at the feet, an Attic lekythos (2nd quarter 5th Ct), an iron object set mid-body and a bronze bead. The 2nd, slightly larger sarcophagus, for the burial of a youth, had on the interior a relief stone pillow and rounded angle ornament, and contained a plainware amphora and an olpe placed at the feet, and a bronze strigil in the left hand. In the fill around and above the sarcophagi were sherds of an Attic lekythos (perhaps circle of the Diosphos Painter, ca. 470) and a rf lekythos with a Nike (perhaps circle of the Bowdoin Painter, ca. 475−470). E of the enclosure was a small pyre, perhaps for offerings, with a collection of small vases. From the surface of a 2nd stone foundation, in the W part of the excavation area, came sherds of an Attic bf amphora depicting a procession of gods (ca. 530 onwards).