THORIKOS - 2012

Thorikos. Roald Docter (Belgian School) reports on continued excavation of the large cistern north of the Industrial Quarter (Fig. 1) and the beginning of field survey on the Velatouri Hill.

Investigations in and around Cistern No. 1 Workshop were concluded in 2012. The cistern was apparently part of a larger metallurgy workshop and is comparable with other industrial cisterns around Laurion. The fill included two stone layers from the collapsed superstructure of buildings further uphill, but may also have been part of a Late Roman to Early Byzantine dump. Pottery reflected the known major occupation periods of the Industrial Quarter, with a predominance of material dating to the fifth and fourth centuries BC, likely in secondary deposition. A small percentage of the material (ca 13%) is Late Antique (fourth- to eighth centuries AD), possibly a primary dump since the fragments are generally larger and include several joining fragments. The large capacity of the cistern (ca 209m³) in comparison with other water reservoirs in Thorikos suggests that this zone might have been the main water collection area for the Industrial Quarter.

A room to the south of the cistern had a door opening towards the south. Over the infill in the room ran a blocked-off channel with a north-south dividing wall, probably of Late Antique date. Connected with it was a large concentration of animal bones. The chronology of the workshop remains uncertain but comparison with other ergasteria in the area suggests that the Cistern No. 1 workshop was built towards the end of the fifth or during the fourth century BC. However, preliminary and partial study of the finds from within the cistern, from the blocked channel to the south, and from layers over bedrock adjacent to the cistern in the south, suggest a date for its construction and use within the fifth century.

Archaeological survey on the Velatouri hill (Fig. 2) aimed to clarify the function and periods of use of the area around the cistern. Evidence suggests that the fifth- to fourth-century material in the cistern fill had eroded from higher up the hill, but that this was not the case for the Late Antique finds. One east-west transect just under one kilometre in length (and 50m wide) was surveyed across the southern slope of the Velatouri, as well as two smaller areas to the south and southeast (Fig. 2), in order to understand the full chronological extent of the site’s use and to detect shifts in settlement patterns. This project aims in particular to locate the Archaic settlement, and to understand the status of the site from the Hellenistic period onward, as well as the relationship between the settlement and the recorded history of the site as the main centre of silver mining in Attica.

18,408 Final Neolithic to Early Modern sherds were recorded. Close attention was paid to all architectural remains, mine shafts and mine entrances, and rock graffiti visible on the surface.