IKLAINA - 2010

Iklaina. M. Kosmopoulos (ASA) reports on continuing excavation in 2010.

In the south part of the excavation area, a complex of small dwellings was excavated (Fig. 1). The north building has three probable storerooms dating from LH II-LH IIIA1. Fragments of wall painting found in the fill within the rooms include depictions of part of a ship with rowers and dolphins beneath (Fig. 2), parts of female figures, and other subjects. The paintings likely decorated an upper-floor room.

South of this complex were a further two rooms with curved walls (perhaps to facilitate circulation). One, containing part of a round hearth, was dated to LH IIB-IIIA1 by pottery which included an early Mycenaean skyphos. Other rooms to the east, include one in which a roughly-made stone staircase is partially preserved. These rooms are dated by pottery from the end of the Middle Helladic period until LH II/LH IIIA1. One large open space to the east and south of the building complex was perhaps a garden or court. Small parts of other rooms were excavated further to the east and northwest: these seem to have been bordered by a road with water channels.

In the north sector of the excavation area, large parts of two rooms were revealed to the east of House B (Fig. 3). The southern one contained a deposit with plentiful LH II/IIIA1-LH IIIA2 pottery and a fragment of a Linear B tablet inscribed on both sides (Fig. 4). The excavator thus dates the tablet to LH IIIA2.

Further rooms were uncovered in the east part of Megaron Γ (Fig. 5), and to the south a new complex, House E, was discovered (Fig. 6). This consists of rooms characterised as workshops, one of which contained fragments of human and animal figurines (Fig. 7).