Perivolia - Oresteion - 2013

Perivolia - Oresteion. Grigoris Grigorakakis (LTH’ EPKA) reports on the excavation held at Perivolia (fig. 1). The excavation revealed a monumental building, built on the side of an ancient road, linking Megalopoli to Palladium (fig. 2). 

The building was thought to be a streetside sanctuary of Artemis, as mentioned by Pausanias (near Oresteion, on the road between Megalopoli and Palladium). The foundations were formed by large, worked stones on the outside and unworked stones on the inside, and they formed a rectangular plan (fig. 3). The destruction layer of the roof revealed a bronze coin from Tegea, dated during the first half of the fourth century BC (obv. head of Athena, rev. owl), as well as a sherd of Archaic painter pottery (sixth century BC). The building’s public character was evident due to its large dimensions, and the architectural members forming the roof, such as the floral antefix and part of the seme, decorated with painted floral patterns (fig. 4).  

A Late Antiquity cemetery with 27 tile-roof burials was located ten meters W of the ancient road (fig. 5). One of the burials contained a child’s skeletal remains. Furthermore, some archaic jar-burials in pithoi were located W of the cemetery. 

[Entry created by E. Kourti]