Askitario
Askitario ( Greek Ασκηταριό ) is an archaeological site on the small peninsula of the same name in eastern Attica . It is located about 1.7 km southeast of the port of Rafina . In the north, the beach of Marikes ( Παραλία Μαρίκες ) borders the peninsula.
Surname
The modern Greek name Askitario means hermitage . An artificial cave was created in the cliff near the sea. Presumably this is an ancient grave. The cave was later converted into a hermitage by a monk from Pendeli Monastery . The peninsula is also called Kalogeros or Aetos .
description
In 1953, the Greek archaeologist Dimitris Theocharis carried out test excavations on Askitario. In the following two years he exposed an early Helladic settlement at the highest point about 25 m above sea level . The settlement had the shape of an equilateral triangle with an edge length of about 100 m and a size of about 5000 m². The northern and eastern sides are now formed by the steeply sloping terrain, and on the southwest side there was a wall about 100 m long from which Theocharis was able to expose 32 m. The wall was about 2.50 m thick and originally about 3 m high. No walls could be detected on the northern and eastern sides. However, it is possible that erosion has eroded the site and the walls have fallen down.
You can see the area well from the cape. The view extends in the north to Pendeli and the Bay of Marathon , in the east to Süduböa and in the south to Makronisos and the mountains near Porto Rafti . For this reason, a lookout post was built by the Wehrmacht in the northeast of the site during World War II . Part of the prehistoric settlement was destroyed.
Theocharis was able to prove three phases of the early Helladic settlement. In addition, there were still a few finds from the Mycenaean period .
Askitario I
Ash, animal bones, shards of vessels and only a few stone walls were found in the bottom layer. Based on the ceramic, it can be dated to FH I (3300–2800 BC). The vessels were monochrome with thick walls and the clay used contained sand and stones. They were heavily polished and mostly reddish or brownish and rarely light in color. A color gradient can be used to infer irregular fires . It is a simple, functional ceramic with a subneolithic character. The manufacturing technique is reminiscent of the oldest Cycladic vessels, and three vessel fragments resemble models from the Aegean Neolithic. For this reason, Theocharis suspected that the settlement was founded at the end of the Neolithic.
Askitario II
Only a few finds and architectural remains come from the layer above. It dates to the time FH II Früh (around 2800–2700 BC). The ceramic is blue-black or red, has a firm original varnish glaze, and the clay used was purer than before. The most common form of vessel is the simple bowl, followed by the so-called sauce boat . Large vessels such as pithoi and amphorae were not glazed. There were also painted vessels similar to those found on Syros and Naxos .
Askitario III
The top layer from the Early Helladic dates back to FH II developed (around 2700-2400 BC). The ceramic used is a further development of the previous phase. The glaze is usually only watery and shiny. The most common vessels are bowls with a diameter of 0.10 m to 0.15 m, followed by sauce boats. There is a greater variety in ceramic shapes. From this time eight houses were excavated in the north of the excavation site, five of which (houses Α, Β, Γ, Ε and Θ) were complete. The fortification wall in the southeast also dates from this period.
The most important buildings are houses Α and Ε. They have a large main room with a stove, a smaller anteroom, a narrow corridor and an inner courtyard with an oven, but without bothros . The doors are not in the axis of the building. The house walls were like in Agios Kosmas part of small stones with mortar in Herringbone technology built in. The walls around the courtyard were lower and were probably built later. The main room of house Α was paved but only partially plastered. For this reason, the position of the stove can no longer be determined. House Ε's stove was in the middle of the main room. It consisted of a clay bowl that stood on the tamped clay floor. Along the west wall there were five depressions 0.25 m deep and 0.25 m in diameter. They contained leftovers and potsherds. A children's grave was found under the floor in front of the west wall of the anteroom. The child was buried on a paved floor with legs drawn up and hands behind the neck. The body had been covered with fragments of a large pitho.
The small house Ζ had a smaller main room, an anteroom and a courtyard. Here, too, the stove was in the middle of the main room. The front entrance to the house was closed by the later construction of house Θ. Other buildings are often laid out irregularly and have sloping walls. Further building remains were found in the south of the site. Part of a horseshoe-shaped wall was found to the west near the fortification wall. It probably belonged to an apsidal building. The remains of a child were found in a test trench. They are likely from another intramural child funeral.
At the beginning of the FH III period (around 2300 BC) the settlement was abandoned.
Mycenaean finds
In the Mycenaean period, Askitario was settled again. Since some of the finds were directly on the surface or only a few centimeters below, they were severely disturbed by erosion and other influences. Only a few small buildings have been identified. The few sherds date from SH II to SH III A (approx. 1500–1300 BC).
graveyard
The Early Helladic cemetery was located east of the settlement on a lower part of the cape. It was partially destroyed by the construction of defenses by the Wehrmacht during the Second World War. In addition, the area was mined . Although the mines had already been cleared, Dimitris Theocharis found it too dangerous to dig deeper here. For this reason, only the surface was walked here. Here, plastering of the walls of the graves, bones and parts of Cycladic handle scales were found , which were typical grave goods in early Cycladic and early Helladic graves.
Finds
The finds are now in the National Archaeological Museum in Athens . They mainly consist of ceramic vessels and shards. These include sauce boats, a jug with a handle decorated with a herringbone pattern, bowls with and without feet, pithoi and amphorae. A 1.20 m high pithos from House E has a scratched dog image on its neck. After similar representations from Egypt , Theocharis suspected that this could also be an ideogram . A crater-shaped vessel, about 0.30 m high, was one of the few painted ceramics found in Askitario. Furthermore, a grate made of clay with four legs was found, a four-legged object that was probably used to store barbecue skewers and a large clay bowl for the stove.
The only metal objects found were an 8 cm long copper needle, a “ bar ” made of lead , a piece of sheet copper and a tubular lead object. Mill stones and rubstones, a stone ax, flint blades and cores, part of a marble figure and a fragment of a marble disc were found made of stone.
literature
- Dimitris R. Theocharis: Ασκηταριό. In: Αρχαιολογική Εφημερίς. Volume 92-93, 1953/54, pp. 59-76. (on-line)
- Dimitris R. Theocharis: Άνασκαφή έν Άραφήνι. In: Πρακτικά της Aρχαιολογικής Eταιρείας , Volume 109, 1954, pp. 104-113. (on-line)
- Dimitris R. Theocharis: Άνασκαφή έν Άραφήνι. In: Πρακτικά της Aρχαιολογικής Eταιρείας , Volume 110, 1955, pp. 109-116. (on-line)
- John Travlos : Bildlexikon zur Topografie des Antique Attika , Tübingen 1988, ISBN 3-8030-1036-5 , pp. 380–387.
- Mariya Ivanova: Fortified settlements in the Balkans, in the Aegean Sea and in Western Anatolia, approx. 5,000–2,000 BC Chr. Waxmann, Münster 2008, ISBN 978-3-8309-1937-7 , pp. 273-274. ( online )
Web links
Coordinates: 38 ° 0 ′ 31.1 ″ N , 24 ° 1 ′ 22.5 ″ E