LEMNOS. – Hephaestia - 2008

Hephaestia. E. Greco (Director, SAIA) reports on continuing excavation on the Lazaridis plot, S of the Isthmus wall, in the vicinity of the funerary enclosure (Fig. 1).
A rectangular strip was excavated, the long side of which was perpendicular to the boundary wall. The N edge of the trench is defined by the exterior wall of a LRom house, the walls of which obliterated the fortification wall. There were 2 phases of monumental construction. The later is represented by a short section of the foundation of a large wall; the earlier consists of a building complex, the so-called Lazaridis building, uncovered in 2005. Investigation in 2008 served to clarify several structural aspects of the W side of the building. Besides the discovery of the complete partition wall between the already known room B and a new adjoining room C, the floor of C was traced. A collapse deposit related to the support structure of the room provides pottery from the L6th and E5th Cts BC. In addition, trench 6 was extended to the E: this trench was opened in 2006 in one of the Byz rooms built within the ‘late’ curtain wall. Work has now reached the W boundary of the house.
A further trench was opened in the E part of the House of the Columns, in order to expose the structure. In the northernmost part of the trench, the SE corner of a room appeared, the threshold of which was preserved on the E side. The Ar wall ran immediately to the S. Investigation focused on the area between the Ar and ‘late’ walls, where in the E part the SE corner of the House of the Columns was exposed. At a considerable depth in the central part of the trench a level of collapse was investigated, and two final layers recognized which slope markedly from N to S, following the slope of the terrain.
Investigation in area 18 was aimed at the chronological and stratigraphical understanding of the wall on the summit of Hephaestia, along the promontory SE of the peninsula of Palaiopolis, in particular at the point where the NE tower is set against the defensive circuit. Excavation in area 26 (the Alteras plot) was completed (Fig. 2).
It proved possible to identify 4 phases of occupation: settlement dating back to the 7th Ct BC, urbanization of the district in the 5th−4th Ct BC, construction of a house with a central courtyard in the 4thCt BC and a final renovation in the 6thCt AD. Restoration was completed of the funerary enclosure of the end of the 4thCt BC, the so-called pyrgos (excavated in 1930), as well as that of the wall behind this monument.