ANTIRRION - 2002

Antirrion, Dragatsia (approach road for the Rion-Antirrion crossing). F. Saranti (then Στ’ ΕΠΚΑ) reports on excavation for road construction at a site 350m from the crossroads with the national road from Antirrion to Ioannina, northwest of the crossing point.

An area of 0.5ha was excavated, revealing about half the estimated area of the settlement. Part of a large rural villa was found, with a square tower in the northeast and a courtyard, plus parts of at least four further buildings.

The tower walls, of well-worked sandstone blocks, were preserved to a height of 1.4m, with at least one further course implied by cuttings in the upper faces. The tower had two internal spaces divided at foundation level by a wall: there was red plaster on the interior walls. In front of the entrance (in the northwest corner) was a pebble floor which was not contemporary with the initial construction. South of the tower was a large square courtyard (15 x 17m), which did not communicate directly with the tower: a small area of its pebble paving was preserved. In the south part of the courtyard were the remains of workshops in use during the final phase of the settlement. Two long shallow cisterns were used for the preparation of potter’s clay (shaped masses of clay were found nearby). On the west and south sides of the court was a stoa with five column bases (two of which were found collapsed on the final destruction level). The columns and many other limestone spolia (column capitals, half columns, parts of the epistyle, and building blocks) derived from a major earlier building, probably a temple, somewhere in the area. Little is known about the rooms surrounding the courtyard: in the final phase, building extensions around the court and in other open spaces in the settlement improved the available space. A large number of storage pithoi, mostly for grain and olives, were scattered across the settlement during this phase.

The complex had a peribolos preserved on the northeast side around the tower: this had a double face of stone blocks with a filling of small stones. The same type of construction is found in other less monumental structures dating to the first phase of the settlement in the fourth century BC. Later walls were narrower and built from unworked stones and tile. This later phase is dated by pottery and other finds in the destruction level, including coins of the Aetolian League (279-168 BC) to the third-second centuries BC.

In the remaining area of the settlement, around the central residence, evidence was more fragmentary. The remains of at least four further buildings were found, plus sections of wall from many others, all on the same orientation. A large dump (ca. 15 x 13m) on the west edge of the excavation area was probably created following extensive cleaning of the settlement. It contained stones, tile, plaster, pieces of flooring, numerous loomweights, and a large quantity of small finds many of which are lead (clamps, weights, buttons etc.). This deposit covered a round kiln of which only the foundation survives.

The Antirrion rural villa belongs to a form of Late Classical and Hellenistic fortified residence which fulfilled the need to oversee cultivation and secure the supply of agricultural products. It is the first evidence of settlement in the area of Antirrion (ancient Antirrio or Molykriko Rio).