A stroll down the historic eras of Kefalonia Αrchaeology An aition explaining the name of Cephallenia and reinforcing its cultural connections with Athens associates the island with the mythological figure of Cephalus, who helped Amphitryon of Mycenae in a war against the Taphians and Teleboans. He was rewarded with the island of Same, which thereafter came to be known as Cephallenia. Cephalonia has also been suggested as the Homeric Ithaca, the home of Odysseus, rather than the smaller island bearing this name today. Robert Bittlestone, in his book Odysseus Unbound, has suggested that Paliki, now a peninsula of Cephalonia, was a separate island during the late Bronze Age, and it may be this which Homer was referring to when he described Ithaca. A project which started in the Summer of 2007 and lasted three years has examined this possibility. Cephalonia is also referenced in relation to the goddess Britomartis, as the location where she is said to have ‘received divine honours from the inhabitants under the name of Laphria’. Αrchaeology In the Southwest of the island, in the area of Leivathos, an ongoing archaeological field survey by the Irish Institute at Athens has discovered dozens of sites, with dates ranging from the Palaeolithic to the Venetian period. From an archaeological point of view, Cephalonia is an extremely interesting island. Archaeological finds go back to 40,000 BP. Without doubt, the most important era for the island is the Mycenaean era, from approximately 1500-1100 B.C. The archaeological museum in Cephalonia’s capital Argostoli – although small – is regarded as the most important museum in Greece for its exhibits from this era. The Archaeological Museum of Argostoli in Kefalonia was founded in 1957 replacing the old building which was destroyed by the great earthquake of 1953. The new building was designed in 1955 by the architect Patroclus Karantinos (1903-1976), one of the most important representatives of the so-called “modern movement” in Greece. The extensive work of Karantinos had international appeal, especially in the field of museum design, because he was interested in the typology of the building as a museum and the “conversation” of sculptures with natural light. The new building originally housed all of the archaeological treasures that survived the 1953 disaster, which were kept safely packed in different banks of the city. However, it gradually began to succumb to the ravages of time. In 2000 the museum was repaired and re-opened under the direction of the Honorary General Director of Antiquities in the Hellenic Ministry of Culture, Dr. Lazaros Kolonas. The museum exhibits cover the entire chronological range from the Palaeolithic Era (50.000-10.000 BC) to the Late Roman period (5th-6th century AD.) . They come from archaeological excavations and surveys that began in the late 19th century and continue until today. The exhibition fills three halls and the findings are classified and organized chronologically, according to use and provenance. The exhibition is enriched with material that includes informative texts, drawings and photographs. The lobby houses a small gift shop, operated by the Archaeological Receipts Fund. It sells books, cards, and small gifts, such as a silver copy of a sealstone and a fish shaped pendant, to name a few. A large map covers an entire wall of the Lobby, portraying all known archaeological sites in Kefalonia up to date. The Palaeolithic period (50.000 -10.000 BC): The island has been inhabited since the Palaeolithic Age. The first settlers arrived here probably during an ice age, when sea level was at least 100 meters lower than today’s, and thus the distance of the island from mainland Greece was much less. Traces of habitation have been found in Sami, Fiskardo and Skala, where stone tools have been discovered. People did not live a sedentary life, but moved from place to place to ensure their food by hunting, fishing and gathering fruit from nature. They lived mostly in caves and wore animal skins. Primary material of the era was the stone, which was used to make tools for hunting, processing of wood and leather. All finds are made of chert, a very hard material, which is abundant on the island and they date to the Upper Palaeolithic period (40.000-10.000 BC); a time dominated by anatomically modern humans, the Homo Sapiens. The Neolithic period (6.000-3.000 BC): The second showcase houses objects from the Neolithic period and more specifically from . The cave exhibits periodic human habitation from the Neolithic Period to the early phase of the Prehistoric Era (mid 6th millennium BC – 2.400 BC). After a long period of abandonment, the cave was used again in historic times. From the 6th century BC onwards, especially during the Hellenistic period, the cave served as a place of worship of the god Pan and the Nymphs. It was permanently abandoned in the late 3rd c. BC, or early 2nd c. BC. The Prehistoric period (3.000-1.050 BC): The Prehistoric period (3000-1050 BC) is very well documented on the island with abundant traces of human habitation. The cist graves discovered in Kangelisses/Kokkolata (1.750 – 1.700/1.680 BC) date to the Middle Bronze Age (1.750 BC – 1550 BC). Characteristic vases from these tombs are exhibited in the third showcase, along with a number of finds from two Mycenaean tholos tombs (tholoi), that were subsequently built over the cist graves. The entire central Hall of the museum is dedicated to a very important period for the island, the Late Helladic, or Mycenaean. Although in the early and middle period (LH I-II, 1700/1680-1435/05 BC) identified sites are scarce and the findings meager, the last phase (LH III, 1435-1050 BC) has very specific characteristics and has produced a wealth of finds. The up to date archaeological record has shown that humans spread throughout the island and created a unified and unique culture, which is immediately recognizable by its homogeneous traits. Nine showcases in the second Hall house the most representative objects, demonstrating all aspects of the Mycenaean civilization (1.550 – 1.050 BC) on the island. Most of them come from graves in Prokopata, Diakata, Mazarakata, Metaxata, Lakkithra, Tzannata, Mavrata and Kontogenada. The tombs are divided into two basic categories: chamber tombs and tholos tombs (vaulted tombs). The chamber tombs are underground, dug into the soft sandstone, and consist of the dromos, the entrance and the burial chamber. The dromos leads to the entrance and into the chamber. The entrance is narrower than the dromos, not always regular in shape and is usually blocked after the burial with a stone wall. Inside the chambers there are several burial pits dug into the floor. Most of them are just big enough to contain the body, or slightly bigger. The pits vary greatly in depth and can reach up to 2.00 m. The dead were buried inside the pits in a contracted position, and each pit received multiple burials. The chamber tombs were used over and over again in the course of time, for both primary and secondary burials, since they also functioned as ossuaries. The tholos tombs are monumental tombs of circular plan, roofed by a dome which is built with successive rows of stones, perfectly assembled, so that each one protrudes slightly from the lower one. At the top there is a small opening blocked by a single slab, called the “key”. This stone ensured the stability and cohesion of the entire dome. This construction system is called “corbelled.”As far as local pottery is concerned, there is a preference towards certain shapes (such as bowls, stirrup jars, craters, conical kylikes, jugs, dippers, etc.) and decorative motifs (spirals, hatched and cross-hatched triangles, arcs, triglyphs, etc.). Also, there are some special types of vessels, such as handmade coarseware with punctured and incised decoration, which are rather foreign to the usual Mycenaean techniques and repertoire of motifs. This category of pottery is very well documented throughout the island in all Mycenaean sites, and according to some scholars, it may be reflecting the survival of older, pre-Mycenaean techniques and habits. According to others, it may be a loan from more conservative neighboring regions, such as Epirus, where the Mycenaean infiltration was weaker and handmade coarseware was more popular. Imported goods and raw materials, mainly metals and semi-precious stones, attest to sea communications with the rest of the known world. Such examples are the amber beads (electrum), a material which arrived in the Mycenaean world mainly from the Baltic Sea. The figure-of-eight fibula from Diakata, finds parallels in Italy and Central Europe; the pins, also from Diakata, show influence from Asia Minor, while Cypriot, or Cypriot inspired, vessels suggest contacts between the two islands. An Egyptian scarab, dating back to the Egyptian Pharaoh Tuthmosis III (1.504 – 1.450 BC), is a surface find and cannot be safely attributed to contacts with Egypt. The scarab is now on display at the Archaeological Museum of Argostoli. The Mycenaean exhibition is further enriched with bronze weapons (bronze daggers, knives, spearheads and a javelin head,) everyday tools, jewellery made of gold, precious and semiprecious stones, and superb sealstones with unique representations. The latter are objects of high aesthetic value and exquisite art, featuring geometric motifs and naturalistic depictions carved on a small, hard surface of 1-1.5cm in diameter. The sealstones were used as jewellery, amulets and as personal seals on unbaked clay. Historical Period (1.050 BC – 3rd century AD) Recent excavations have shown that human habitation continued during the Proto-Geometric and the Geometric period.