THESSALONIKI Toumba - 2008

Thessaloniki, Toumba. S. Andreou (Aristotelian University, Thessaloniki) presents an overview of continuing study following excavations which took place between 1984 and 1998, and again from 2006−2008. The goal of the latter phase of excavation was a close understanding of the settlement from the end of the BA and the transition to the EIA.

Study of old excavation material revealed that the earliest occupation on the slopes of the Toumba spans the MH period (building phases 14−9) and is characterized by monochrome pottery in a significant variety of shapes. With the start of the LH (phases 8−6), settlement was confined to the upper terraces, and the pottery enriched with a small number of decorated vases (with incised decoration in phase 7 and in phase 6, incised and matt-painted examples and one LHII Myc sherd). Primary studies of the pottery are: K. Psaraki, Υλική και κοινωνική διάσταση του στιλ της κεραμεικής: η χειροποίητη κεραμεική της εποχής χαλκού από την Τούμπα της Θεσσαλονίκης (PhD thesis, Aristotelian University, Thessaloniki 2004; http://cds.lib.auth.gr//archive.shtml?base= Griza&id=gri-2004-444); S. Andreou and K. Psaraki, ‘Tradition and innovation in the Bronze Age pottery of the Thessaloniki Toumba’, in M. Stefanovich, H. Todorova and G. Ivanov (eds), The Struma/Strymon River Valley in Prehistory. Proceedings of the International Symposium ‘Strymon Prehistoricus’, 27 September to 10 October 2004. Blagoevgrad (Sofia, Gerda Henkel Stiftung 2007), 397−420.

The plan of the settlement on the top of the Toumba (Fig. 1), with narrow cobbled streets between multi-roomed mud-brick complexes, remained stable throughout the later stages of the LBA (phase 2A). LHIIIB wheelmade vessels remained few in phase 5, but wheelmade pottery was much more common in phases 4−2A (LHIIIC E and M in the 4 subphases of phase 4, LHIIIC M and L and perhaps SubMyc in phases 3 and 2B, and EPGeo with concentric circle decoration in phase 2A). See S. Andreou, ‘Stratified wheelmade pottery deposits and absolute chronology of the LBA to the EIA transition at Thessaloniki Toumba’, in S. Deger-Jalkotzy and A. Bächle (eds), LH III C Chronology and Synchronisms III, LH IIIC Late and the Transition to the Early Iron Age: proceedings of the international workshop held at the Austrian Academy of Sciences at Vienna, February 23rd and 24th, 2007 (Vienna, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften 2009), 15−40.

From 2006 onwards, excavation focused on uncovering building complexes B and E on the E part of the hill, of which only small parts were previously known. The aim was a better understanding of changes in the organization of the settlement and in these particular complexes during phases 4−2A, via comparison between the 2 new buildings and complex A, which was almost completely excavated between 1985 and 1998 (this consists of more than 15 rooms and covers an area of some 230m²). A further aim of this excavation was better understanding of the transition to the EIA through the location of stratified assemblages of phases 3, 2B and 2A, which are rare or completely absent from complex A and the other areas of the previous excavations.

Non-joining parts of well-built stone foundations which are associated with fill containing Ar and Cl pottery, domestic material and animal bone, although with no secure link to particular floor levels, were partially uncovered in the surface level. This appears to be the abandonment and destruction layer of 2 or 3 houses which were built during the 2nd half of the 6th Ct and into the M5thCt. An irregularly shaped pit (maximum di. 5m, d. 1.5m), which was perhaps intended to hold material with which to make brick for later houses, destroyed older walls and fills back to the end of the LBA in the SE part of building B. It contains building material and pottery of the end of the 5th and the E4thCts.

The walls of the Ar and Cl periods sit directly on, or have partially destroyed, the walls and fills of the later phases of complexes B and E, complexes which are bounded on 3 sides by roads which divide them from each other and from the other buildings located to the S and N (Fig. 1). The building techniques, and the extent and spatial organization of complexes B and E (to date, 7 and 11 rooms or spaces, respectively, have been excavated), show similarities with complex A. Successive rebuilding, floors and stratified fills of the end of the LBA and beginning of the EIA have been located in both complexes (phases 2A−4A).

The fills associated with the latest construction phase of the foundations of complex B are disturbed. However the floors in rooms B7−B9 are preserved (ca. 2.15−2.20m d.), as well as part of the fill of the immediately preceding phase, which is linked to the first appearance of several EPGeo closed vessels and skyphoi decorated with concentric circles (phase 2A), the presence of bone and stone tools, and the debris of stoneworking. A large pithos stood in situ in room B9 and room B7 contained traces of constructions for heating. Remains of this period were less well preserved in rooms B2−B4, which had previously been partially excavated.

A floor of the immediately preceding phase (2B) with LHIIIC L wheelmade pottery, which can be easily distinguished in rooms B2/3 of the older excavations, was traced only in area B9. This is due to the fact that in the course of phase 3, the NW part of the building complex (B9) was demolished and reused only in the 2nd half of phase 2B (traces of use are found at a d. of ca. 2.5m). Notable fills of phase 3 (floors at a d. of ca. 3.3m) have so far been located only in the S part of the building (B4), where 2 very regular shallow pits probably indicate the existence of 2 more baskets next to one of which traces were clearly visible in the 1990 excavation, plus a pithos which remained in position from phase 4. A notable quantity of fragmentary murex shells, which must be linked to the production of purple dye in B2/3, complete the picture from the older excavations of phase 3. For a study of this dye production, see R. Veropoulidou, S. Andreou and K. Kotsakis, ‘Small scale purple-dye production in the Bronze Age of Northern Greece: The evidence from the Thessaloniki Toumba’, in C. Afrano and L. Karali (eds), Vestidios, Textiles y Tintes. Estudios Sobre la Produccion de Bienes de Consume en la Antiguedad. Actas del II Symposium Internacional Sobre Textiles y Tintes del Mediterraneo en el Mundo Antiguo (Atenas, 24 al 26 de Noviembre, 2005) (Valencia, Universitat de València 2008), 171−80.

A large pithos lay exactly below the later one in B9, while in the W part of B7, a layer was located with large pithos sherds and red clay. Large pithos sherds and red clay also covered and went partially under the skeleton of an adolescent male which had been carefully placed, extended, face down, and with the arms by the sides, partially in the opening in the N wall of the room and partially in the road outside. The deceased, who was perhaps placed inside a pithos, was accompanied by a spondylus shell, a whetstone and 2 LBA handmade vessels (Fig. 2), while a bronze knife which was found slightly further inside the room could also belong to the same assemblage. The burial was probably placed here and covered with clay at the end of phase 3 or at some point in phase 2B, in the course of which the N part of building B seems to have been unused. Excavation continued down further into the fills of phase 4 only in the unexcavated parts of rooms B2/3 and B4. To the significant number of pithoi located in rooms B1 and B2/3, should be added one more in B2/3 and one in B4.

Only fills of phases 3 and 4 were preserved in building complex E, since the more recent levels had been destroyed by Ar and Cl construction. The fills and floor of phase 3, with LHIIIC M pottery, were themselves partially disturbed by more recent building activity, while it is likely that part of the complex was abandoned in phase 2B. There was a bin or basket in E8, while quantities of fragmentary murex shells, part of a metallurgical crucible and traces of burning in room E3 are associated with the production of purple dye and with metal-working inside the complex, similar to those activities located in other buildings. See M. Vavelidis and S. Andreou, ‘Gold and gold working in Late Bronze Age northern Greece’, Naturwissenschaften 95 (2008), 361−66. The beginning of phase 3 and phase 4A are characterized by particularly intense activity, with many and frequent relaying of floors. To phase 4 belongs a structure made of stone slabs with a flat top which may be linked to food production (B9) and an oven (B7) which continued in use into phase 3 and is associated with a thick layer of ash rich in archaeobotanical remains. In the E part of the complex, which had been partially excavated previously, there is a striking presence of storage spaces with quite large pithoi in situ. From this view, building complexes E and B reinforce the picture of centralized, large-scale storage which is plain in building complex Ain phase 4, but which stands in contrast to the small-scale and dispersed storage of phases 3, 2B and 2A in the 2 recently excavated complexes.