KLEONAI - 2010
General Information
Record ID
2076
Activity Date
2010
Chronology
Key-words
Type of Operation
Institution
Localisation
Linked Record
Report
Kleonai. T. Mattern (DAI/Marburg) reports on the 2010 excavation season, focused on buildings by the agora (a flat area at the foot of the city hill, bounded to the south by the city wall). Fig. 1. A path or road which crossed the urban area here ran from a pass between the city hills, continuing to the east of the excavated area, and on towards the city wall in the south where there is likely to have been a gate.
Building remains lie to the north of the agora, where the terrain rises in steps. Between the agora, these structures and the road, inscribed blocks from exedrae have been recovered. Those found in 2006 include the inscriptions of the sculptors Xenophilos and Straton: a further inscribed block found in 2010 formed part of a larger monument with a multi-line inscription which had been erased. Architectural remains were found in all three trenches opened (Fig. 2). An apsidal structure stretched across a natural terrace onto the agora. At a higher level but on the same orientation, was a terracotta pavement. That paving and the associated walls were cut by cist graves (built of spolia) which contained burials without goods. All trenches yielded mixed pottery.
An apsidal building, perhaps a church, was erected here among important roads: the significance of the location is confirmed by the Late Classical-Hellenistic inscribed monuments and statues. That the church was founded on older structures (perhaps a sanctuary) is indicated by the earlier walls and exedrae, by numerous and sometimes well preserved Late Classical and Hellenistic spolia (especially capitals and columns), and by the rise in terrain. The church continued to be used after its destruction: burials were cut through the floor paving, and a chapel perhaps continued in use.
In sum, the unusual location of the agora and the course of the city wall to the north may reflect an extension of the city perhaps related to the integration of new inhabitants after the conquest of Mycenae in 465/464 BC.
Author
Catherine MORGAN
Bibliographic reference(s)
Unpublished field report, DAI (T. Mattern)
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Date of creation
2011-06-18 00:00:00
Last modification
2023-10-09 10:27:02
Picture(s)
Fig. 1/ Kleonai: plan of contexts at the edge of the agora, indicated by phase. Phase 2 is the apsidal building (church).
Fig. 2/ Kleonai: overhead view of trenches from the south.