Halai
Halai ( Greek Ἁλαί ) is an archaeological site in eastern Lokris in central Greece . It is located near the coastal town of Theologos, which belongs to the municipality of Lokri, on the Gulf of Evia .
history
The settlement of the place goes back to the Neolithic . So far there have been no finds from the Bronze Age . Extensive necropolises on the northern and eastern edge of the settlement, of which 280 graves were excavated, testify to the Greek settlement from the Archaic to Hellenism . In classical times , Halai had a fortified acropolis ; Finds from the classical period are sparse. During the Archaic and Classical Periods, Halai was a member of the Ostlokrischen Bund , in Hellenism it belonged to the Boeotian League .
85 BC Halai was destroyed by Sulla's troops. Apparently the settlement was rebuilt later and remained inhabited through the entire Roman Empire and into the 6th century AD. A Byzantine church seems to have been in operation until the 12th or 13th century even after the settlement was abandoned.
Mentioned in ancient sources
The accounts of halai in ancient literature are sparse. Pausanias (9, 24, 5) describes the location of the city of Halai on the Evia- facing coast east of the mouth of the Platanios River . Plutarch ( Sulla , 26, 3–4) reports of the destruction of the city by Sulla's troops and of the repopulation of Halai.
Excavations
The first archaeological excavations took place from 1911 to 1935 on behalf of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens under the direction of Hetty Goldman and Alice L. Walker . The Greek and Roman finds from these excavations are now in the Archaeological Museum in Thebes , the Neolithic in the National Archaeological Museum in Athens . Between 1988 and 1996 there were repeated excavations of the responsible ephoria for prehistoric and classical antiquities . Cornell University is currently exploring the site as part of the Cornell Halai and East Lokris Project .
Web links
Coordinates: 38 ° 39 ′ 28.8 ″ N , 23 ° 11 ′ 24.1 ″ E