Excavations at Kato Phana, Chios: 1999, 2000, and 2001

2004 ◽  
Vol 99 ◽  
pp. 201-255 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hugh Beames ◽  
Angeliki Tsigkou ◽  
Nicola Wardle ◽  
Lesley Beaumont ◽  
Aglaia Archontidou-Argyri

This article presents a preliminary report on the excavation campaigns of 1999 to 2001 conducted in the Sanctuary of Apollo Phanaios at Kato Phana on Chios by the 20th Ephorate of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities in collaboration with the British School at Athens. An account of the stratigraphy and architectural remains encountered is first presented, followed by a selected catalogue of the ceramic and small finds. The report concludes with a discussion of the chronological development of the site. While prior to the resumption of excavation work at Kato Phana in 1999 it was commonly held that the sanctuary had been established in the Late Geometric period, the new finds suggest that the history of cult worship here may extend back to the Late Mycenaean and the subsequent Protogeometric, Early Geometric and Middle Geometric periods. Excavation results now also reveal that by the seventh century BC the sanctuary had been architecturally embellished with permanent stone structures, with further architectural remodelling taking place on at least two subsequent occasions during the Archaic period. Though the paucity of Classical, Hellenistic and Roman finds from the site is puzzling, the Early Christian period provides a wealth of ceramic and small finds and architectural remains.

1999 ◽  
Vol 94 ◽  
pp. 265-287 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lesley Beaumont ◽  
Aglaia Archontidou-Argyri

The first two fieldwork seasons of the Kato Phana Archaeological Project took place in 1997 and 1998 as a collaborative venture between the British School at Athens and the Mytilene Ephorate of the Greek Archaeological Service. The work comprised archaelogical surface survey and mapping of the lower Kato Phana Valley, cleaning and planning of the sanctuary of Apollo Phanaios and geophysical testing of selected areas around the sanctuary site. This article first sets out the aims of the Project and describes earlier work at the cult centre (Geometric to Early Christian periods) by K. Kourouniotes and W. Lamb. This is followed by an account of the survey methodology and of the results gained: these include the location of Bronze Age findspots NE and SW of the cult centre and a dense concentration of sherds, tile and ancient masonry, ranging in date from the Archaic to Early Christion periods, radiating out from the sanctuary, particularly to the S and SE. To the NW, the survey also succeeded in identifying the ancient quarry site from which grey limestone blocks were cut for the sanctuary constructing. The paper concludes with an account of the geophysical testing carried out at Kato Phana, and looks forward to the next projected phase of the Project's fieldwork.


Author(s):  
Anna R. Stelow

This chapter studies the cult of Menelaus and Helen at Therapne. A ‘happy congruence’ of evidence, from the seventh century BC onward, indicates that Menelaus and Helen were honoured at a place known in antiquity as Therapne. Indeed, authors from the early archaic period through the end of the era attest to the presence of a shrine to Menelaus and/or Menelaus and Helen on the hills across the Eurotas River from modern Sparta. The site, comprising an archaic shrine built next to and atop an extensive Mycenaean site, was well-studied by the British School early and late in the twentieth century. Moreover, inscriptional evidence corresponds with the ancient testimonia to indicate that Menelaus and Helen were worshiped at the place already known in antiquity as the Menelaion. Dedications to Helen and Menelaus dated to the seventh and sixth centuries BC are among the earliest reported inscriptional evidence for the worship of any Homeric hero in Greece. The archaic cult at the Menelaion is frequently discussed both for the study of hero cult in itself and for the question as to how early Greek cult did intersect with the proliferation of epic poetry.


1964 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
pp. 185-190
Author(s):  
Michael Gough

Last year, during the months of July and August, the Institute completed a third season of excavation at Alahan Monastery in Isauria and, although the season was fairly short—six weeks in all—more workmen were taken on to ensure a maximum effort. Many of these, with six or seven years experience of early Christian excavations at Daǧ Pazarı and Alahan, quickly instructed the newcomers. Of the British staff, Mr. Guthrie and Mr. Martineau helped Mrs. Gough with the administration as well as on the site. Miss Hall, Mr. Harper and Mr. Hayes acted as site supervisors, while Mrs. Gerard Bakker was again responsible for pottery and small finds. The expedition's architect and draughtsman was Mr. Adrian Cave, of the Architectural Institute. Finally, by a happy coincidence, the representative of the Turkish Government was Bay Süleyman Gönçer, who found himself after his retirement from the Directorship of the Afyon Museum with a British expedition again, after so many years of collaboration between the wars with Dr. Winifred Lamb at Kusura and with Sir William Calder during his Phrygian explorations.


1963 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
pp. 105-115
Author(s):  
Michael Gough

Excavations at Alahan Monastery were continued during the summer of 1962 for a period of exactly eight weeks, from early July until 1st September. The Director was accompanied by Mrs. Gough, and Mr. Robin Guthrie acted as his chief assistant. Messrs. Gerard Bakker and Anthony Harrison, the expedition's architects, were responsible for the survey and partial restoration of newly excavated buildings, and Miss Susan Harrison for pottery and small finds. Miss Caroline Pickard and Mr. David White were field assistants. Bayan Süheyla Keskil, Director of the Antakya Museum, acted as the official representative of the Turkish General Directorate of Museums and Antiquities. To her and to the Kaymakam of Mut the expedition is grateful for their co-operation. An average of twenty-four workmen was employed, many experienced from earlier excavations at Alahan and Dağ Pazarı, and Süleyman Yemenici was again a most efficient foreman. The number of visitors to the site showed a great increase over 1961, and if a jeep road could be built to cover the 300 metres of steep slope from the main road to the monastery, there is no doubt that this outstanding monument of the early Christian period would soon be better known and appreciated (Pl. XXXa).


2018 ◽  
Vol 49 ◽  
pp. 00019
Author(s):  
Monika Drab

For over fifty years of excavation work a lot of palaces, houses, crypts and a dozen churches and other sacred buildings have been unearthed. Based on excavation work in a Polish archaeological site in Old Dongola (Sudan), different ways of conducting an inventory in desert conditions are presented. Various methods of making an inventory and its advantages and disadvantages were considered as well as using them in such conditions, especially for the purpose of archaeological documentation of Christian sacred architecture.


2001 ◽  
Vol 32 ◽  
pp. 133-153 ◽  
Author(s):  
D.J. Mattingly ◽  
N. Brooks ◽  
F. Cole ◽  
J. Dore ◽  
N. Drake ◽  
...  

AbstractThe Fezzan Project completed its five-year fieldwork cycle in 2001. The geographical research team located numerous additional palaeolake sites within the Edeyen Ubari, using a combination of Remote Sensing technology and field visits. Additional samples were taken for analysis and dating from many lake edge locations, relating to both the large Pleistocene lake and to the numerous smaller Holocene lakes that have been identified by the team. The excavations at Old Germa were taken down through Garamantian occupation levels to the natural subsoil below the earliest cultural horizon. The earliest activity, represented by a few mudbrick walls and hearths built directly on the natural soil, is believed to date to c. 400-300 BC. Traces of several phases of Garamantian buildings were uncovered, along with numerous rubbish pits, which yielded a rich assemblage of finds, including, for the first time, examples of Garamantian figurines, small 3-D sculptures of humans and animals. Work on the various classes of finds (pottery, small finds, lithics and other stone artefacts, metallurgical evidence, etc.) complemented the excavation work. In addition, a small amount of further survey work was carried out on sites in the Wadi al-Ajal, along with a contour survey of Old Germa and standing building survey at a number of other sites.


Author(s):  
Matthew Suriano

The history of the Judahite bench tomb provides important insight into the meaning of mortuary practices, and by extension, death in the Hebrew Bible. The bench tomb appeared in Judah during Iron Age II. Although it included certain burial features that appear earlier in the Middle and Late Bronze Ages, such as burial benches, and the use of caves for extramural burials, the Judahite bench tomb uniquely incorporated these features into a specific plan that emulated domestic structures and facilitated multigenerational burials. During the seventh century, and continuing into the sixth, the bench tombs become popular in Jerusalem. The history of this type of burial shows a gradual development of cultural practices that were meant to control death and contain the dead. It is possible to observe within these cultural practices the tomb as a means of constructing identity for both the dead and the living.


Author(s):  
Charlotte R. Potts

Religious Architecture in Latium and Etruria, c. 900-500 BC presents the first comprehensive treatment of cult buildings in western central Italy from the Iron Age to the Archaic Period. By analysing the archaeological evidence for the form of early religious buildings and their role in ancient communities, it reconstructs a detailed history of early Latial and Etruscan religious architecture that brings together the buildings and the people who used them. The first part of the study examines the processes by which religious buildings changed from huts and shrines to monumental temples, and explores apparent differences between these processes in Latium and Etruria. The second part analyses the broader architectural, religious, and topographical contexts of the first Etrusco-Italic temples alongside possible rationales for their introduction. The result is a new and extensive account of when, where, and why monumental cult buildings became features of early central Italic society.


Author(s):  
Charles Hartman ◽  
Anthony DeBlasi

This chapter discusses how the full emergence of the centralized, aristocratic state in the seventh century brought about an official historiography that was part of the bureaucracy of that state. Beginning in the Tang, each dynastic court maintained an office of historiography. Over time, a regularized process evolved that, in theory and often in reality, turned the daily production of court bureaucratic documents into an official history of the dynasty. Although this process was ongoing throughout the dynasty, the final, standard ‘dynastic history’ was usually completed after the dynasty's demise by its successor state. Indeed, the very concept of a series of dynastic histories that, taken together, would present an official history of successive, legitimate Chinese states, dates from the eleventh century.


Author(s):  
Jan Moje

This chapter gives an overview of the history of recording and publishing epigraphic sources in Demotic language and script from the Late Period to Greco-Roman Egypt (seventh century bce to third century ce), for example, on stelae, offering tables, coffins, or votive gifts. The history of editing such texts and objects spans over two hundred years. Here, the important steps and pioneering publications on Demotic epigraphy are examined. They start from the beginning of the nineteenth century, when Napoleon’s expedition to Egypt found the Rosetta stone, until the twenty-first century.


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