Olynthos - 2018

Olynthos. Bettina Tsigarida (Ephorate of Antiquities of Pella), Zosia Archibald (Liverpool) and Lisa Nevett (Michigan) report on a fifth season of this collaborative project seeking to recover a uniquely detailed picture of Greek households as social and economic units, within their broader urban and regional settings (Fig. 1).
Goals for the 2018 season on the North Hill were to continue investigation of house B ix 6, working towards completely revealing its final occupation phase and investigating the range and distribution of activities taking place there; re-opening of Test Trench 3 (TT03) in order to clarify the character of activities along the north-east periphery of the hill; and continued investigation of the organisation of settlement and the distribution of activities across the hill through continued surface collection on the eastern and southern parts of the hill not previously investigated.
As a result, the picture of the layout of house B ix 6 in its final phase is now more coherent (Figs. 2-3). As hypothesised in 2015, the house was entered from the street on the south via corridor i. Space h is now identified as an andron, on the basis of its position and other features, although a plaster or mosaic floor has not been located. West of the andron the southern façade of the house is poorly preserved. In contrast, the western boundary wall of the house is very well-preserved with a well-built socle surviving to a height of at least five courses in places, acting as a terrace to retain the soil beneath the floors – at a significantly higher level – of neighbouring house B ix 4 to the west. The southern edge of the pastas roof can now be seen to have been supported by a series of three columns or posts, for which square limestone bases survive. Interestingly, contrary to many of the reconstructions which have been offered of Olynthian house blocks, the southern pastas walls in B ix 6 and B ix 4 seem not to have been aligned, raising questions about roof design and drainage across the strip of five adjoining houses. Within the B ix 6 pastas, traces of a north-south wall running between the central base and the south wall now appear to result from a reconfiguration of this area after the original construction of the house, perhaps seeking to accommodate an area with a considerable natural slope. The main room of the oikos unit (f) can now be seen to have been entered from the pastas via a doorway towards its western end. Within f a rectangular structure of baked clay was partially revealed, which may have been used for some kind of manufacturing or processing (the absence of ashes or signs of burning suggests that it was not a hearth). Finally, the flue (b) was apparently not entered directly from f as no trace of a doorway was found in its west wall.
One of the outstanding questions that the project is seeking to answer concerns the range of identifiable activities, or functional areas, in different sectors of the North Hill. Geophysical survey in the northeast periphery of the hill indicated an organization different from the grid-pattern observed on much of the North Hill. TT03, first investigated following discovery of an unusually large magnetic anomaly by geophysical survey in 2014, revealed an exceptionally large – possibly unique – clay pithos, over 1.5m in diameter, adjacent to two stone walls, perpendicular to one another, and an enigmatic cylindrical feature, which appeared to be of ritual character. Given the generally non-residential features in this trench, re-investigation offered an opportunity to collect useful comparative data to house Bix6, as well as to clarify its function and significance.
TT03 was extended on its western side as Trench 31. The finely constructed wall of schist slabs, which runs west-east across TT03, was found to continue further into TT31. A wall of cobble stones was revealed roughly following a similar alignment to the wall previously found in TT03 and bisecting the trench. The combined configuration of walls in TT03 and its extension (TT31) at this stage of the investigation resembles a parallelogram, composed of three walls, each comprising a different lithic matrix, with an apparent opening on the west. Faint outlines of two circular features may be traces of postholes. The finds from TT31 confirm the associations noted in 2014 with non-residential activities, notably three beehives and a complete grinding stone with a lateral lead clamp still attached to one side.
Surface collections were carried out on a total of 80 30 x 30m grid squares (0.07 sq. km.) on the hill (Fig. 4). The material indicated dense settlement across the hill in Antiquity and the majority of the pottery was dated to the Classical period.
On the South Hill, work continued in stratigraphic trench TT23, located in the southwestern part of the ancient city, started in 2017 in order to investigate the potential date at which the grid was established (Fig. 5). GPR data had indicated the existence of early deposits and features there, approximately 1.50 m. below the current surface. Under the paved surface of the road identified in 2017 we located a preparation deposit and beneath that an earlier paved street composed of smaller stones. A clay-like deposit comprising collapsed architectural material, mudbricks, pottery, shells and fragments of bone extended below these contexts, most probably belonging to earlier buildings that were destroyed and re-used to fill the area. When this deposit was removed a semi-circular ash-like deposit came to light, an installation or hearth, dating to the Archaic period, before the Persian destruction. Investigation of the pit showed that it was lined with stones and was cut down into an earlier, larger pit. The larger pit was cut down into deposits extending under the second paved street.
Beyond the confines of the archaeological site field walking continued in 2018 over an area of 1.11 sq. km. (a total of 297 units) of the Lower City (Fig. 6). The majority of the work covered a strip of land some 600m to the north of the North Hill. Artefact density was relatively low here, although one concentration was noted on top of a hill overlooking the river and the northern edge of the city. As in previous years, most of the material discovered dated to the Classical period. There was a small amount of Byzantine ceramic material (identified by a green or white glaze) and a small amount of Late Roman pottery (e.g., amphora body sherds with a combed surface). Little else demonstrably belonged to other periods.