ORCHOMENOS - 2007

Orchomenos. V. Aravantinos (Director, Θ' ΕΠΚΑ) announces the discovery of a small rural shrine located W of Orchomenos, in the foothills S of Mt Akontio and immediately N of the river Kifisos, at a site where the construction of an irrigation channel in the 1950s had destroyed anc. walls. Architectural remains are few: retaining walls, periboloi and an offering pit cut into the bedrock. Thousands of ECl−Hel votives include miniature vases (mostly kotyliskoi, hydriskoi and krateriskoi), terracotta figurines (seated and standing females, animals and female protomai), lamps, skyphoi, kantharoi, etc. Terracotta imitations of wreaths of corn and flowers are noted as unique. The deity, while certainly female and connected with nature and fertility, has not been securely identified. However, Pindar and Pausanias’ reports of worship of the Graces at Orchomenos may be related to the inscription on a loomweight from the sanctuary of the name ΕΥΡΥΝΟΜΗ (the name of the mother of the Graces according to Hesiod, Theogony).

An anc. cemetery of cist graves uncovered close by continues to be investigated; it has been robbed and severely damaged by ploughing. This must have been established when the sanctuary was in decline, since a stele bearing an inscription related to the sanctuary was reused in the construction of a tomb.