A Desert Island Survey in the Gulf of Corinth Author(S): Timothy E

A Desert Island survey in the Gulf of Corinth Author(s): Timothy E. Gregory Source: Archaeology, Vol. 39, No. 3 (May/June 1986), pp. 16-21 Published by: Archaeological Institute of America Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/41730349 Accessed: 31-10-2019 15:07 UTC

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This content downloaded from 128.148.254.57 on Thu, 31 Oct 2019 15:07:37 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms /';-=09 )(8* =-0/']

This content downloaded from 128.148.254.57 on Thu, 31 Oct 2019 15:07:37 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms naturally involved considerable diffi- l^ouveli is a small island about two culties, not least of which were the kilometers south of the Boeotian harsh conditions and the necessity of coast. It is roughly triangular in bringing with us all our supplies of shape, less than a kilometer in length, food and water. Team members were low-lying in its southern extremity, frequently scattered in various parts but rising to a height of 60 meters of the harsh landscape and com- near the center of the island. It is munication and coordination were absolutely barren and desolate, with maintained by walkie-talkies. An un- steep rocky sides rising sharply from expected problem was the hostility Student team members assist the author the sea. There is only scrub vegetation of some of the modern inhabitants of in launching a boat for the journey across -no trees- and the island is pock- the islands- seagulls on Kouveli and the Gulf of Corinth. marked with scores of caves, some of wild rabbits on Makronisos! Pre- them large enough for temporary or sumably brought to the island by southwestern Boeotia. During field permanent habitation. settlers or rabbit-grazers of an earlier seasons in 1981, 1982 and 1984, ar- Makronisos (Long Island) is the age, these rabbits have multiplied chaeological survey was carried out easternmost of the three islands (the unhindered by any enemies except on the small offshore islands of Kou- others are Fonias and Gromboloura) the occasional visiting hunter. As a veli and Makronisos in the Gulf of which block the entrance to the Gulf result there are literally thousands of Domvrena. The purpose of these in- of Domvrena. It is about two kilom- rabbits on Makronisos. At night they vestigations was to see if indeed eters long and half a kilometer wide, raided our camp, biting through tents there were ancient settlements on dominated by a ridge as much as 120 and terrifying team members with those islands and, if so, to test Hood's meters high running down the center their sharp teeth and sheer numbers. hypothesis and learn as much as pos- of the island. Although its landscape After several sleepless nights we con-^ sible about these mysterious island is similar to that of Kouveli, Mak- firmed a suggestion made to us earlier sites. ronisos has considerable stands of -that the rabbits might be repelled pine trees, especially along its by a line of mothballs set out around northern side. the camp- and we were able to spend Exploration of the two islands our nights in relative peace. was carried out by teams of students, The systematic exploration of the most of them from Ohio State Univer- islands was carried out by teams sity and Kenyon College. The project made up of several individuals who

18 ARCHAEOLOGY

This content downloaded from 128.148.254.57 on Thu, 31 Oct 2019 15:07:37 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms were spaced at five-meter intervals. tombstone is inscribed "Damoklia," a(Below) Expedition team members explore Each team was responsible for the in- female name often found in ancient and measure the island landscape on vestigation of assigned areas to dis- Boeotia. Makronisos while Tim Crosby reconnoiters cover and record all significant traces The most interesting site on with a walkie-talkie. of ancient habitation. These traces Kouveli (K-3) is made up of at least were normally identified by architec- 21 buildings or parts of buildings. tural remains, although large quanti- They were constructed of large stones, ties of ancient and Mediaeval pottery roughly fitted together and undoubt- were also noted and recorded. Through- edly originally set in mud mortar and out our investigation we examined probably whitewashed. We were able only surface remains, and no excava- to record only those buildings which tion was carried out. Using this sys- were reasonably well preserved, but tematic method we were able to it is certain that the site originally investigate nearly every square meter contained many more structures. It of each island, except for the steepest is also clear that the community was slopes where even walking was relatively well organized, with a large impossible. building, perhaps a common store- On Kouveli four sizable "sites" house or stable, dominating the up- were discovered during the summer per part of the settlement. In the of 1981. One of these (K-l ) is domi- lower part were a number of small, nated by a large building, over 80 roughly rectangular structures, some meters long and of indeterminate with more than one room; these were width, divided into roughly rectangu- presumably houses. The settlement lar rooms. The floor of one room is contained at least two ovens, perhaps covered with waterproof cement, sug- designed for communal use, and the gesting that it was used as a cistern houses were arranged along a series or reservoir. Another site (K-4) in- of small streets. cluded a small single-aisled church, Virtually all of the archaeological only about six meters long. The altar material on Kouveli- including large of this church was an ancient tomb- quantities of pottery and a single stone, presumably brought from the coin- could be dated to the later mainland opposite the island ; the years of the Roman Empire and the

May/ June 1986 19

This content downloaded from 128.148.254.57 on Thu, 31 Oct 2019 15:07:37 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms From our maps we identified a occupied a prominent location over- likely landing place, on the western looking much of the site and was end of Makronisos at a spot which joined to several other buildings, the Greek inhabitants of the main- indicating an ecclesiastical complex land call Diporto (M-l ). The site lies of some size. Above the church were in a beautiful theatral setting, with several other large buildings, prob- high ridges shutting it in on three ably extensive private houses made sides and a harbor on the west. This up of many rooms, all of which en- harbor is almost completely enclosed, joyed a panoramic view out over the with the island of Gromboloura less settlement and the sea beyond. These than half a kilometer to the west and do not seem to have been joined to A team member records site information small spits of land protecting it on the ecclesiastical complex and were in the field on Makronisos. the north and south. The harbor is, in presumably occupied by wealthy fact, practically invisible, both from secular owners. the mainland and from the open sea, The location and size of all these early years of Byzantium, roughly and it forms an admirable refuge for buildings suggest both urban plan- from the third to the seventh sailors caught in one of the storms ning and social and economic dif- centuries after Christ. This chrono- that suddenly come up in Greek ferentiation, with the larger and logical spread suggests that the set- waters. On the southern edge of the presumably more expensive houses tlements on Kouveli had been harbor is a small island once joined located within the upper part of the occupied well before the Slavic inva- to Makronisos by an ancient man- settlement, while poorer houses were sions of the sixth century -evidence made stone breakwater, the remains probably mixed with warehouses and that casts considerable doubt on of which lie strewn on either side of workshops near the waterfront. Al- Hood's "Isles of Refuge" thesis. the narrow passage. though larger and more wealthy, the Furthermore, at least some of the island city of Hydra in the Saronic buildings suggested stability and Gulf may give some idea of the original permanence, much more than would Immediately upon our arrival at appearance of Diporto - houses and be expected in a refugee settlement. Diporto we stumbled across large shops grouped around and facing the What, then, was the purpose of amounts of ancient material- walls, harbor, with larger houses in the up- the settlements on Kouveli? Why did pottery, glass, and coins. It was ap- per part of the settlement and people come to this hostile environ- parent that the island settlement sys- churches located in prominent posi- ment and what did they do on the tem extended far beyond Kouveli and tions overlooking the site. island? Easy answers were not forth- that the site at Diporto was one of The surprising size and apparent coming, and it was decided to con- considerable size and importance. richness of the site at Diporto indi- tinue our investigation on the island The site was covered with thick scrub cated that we should carry out a full of Makronisos in the hope of finding growth. Erosion had carried away exploration of the rest of Makronisos, further information and a possible many of the walls, but we discovered and this was done during the summer answer to our questions. Full-scale 57 buildings or parts of buildings, of 1984. In the course of that explora- investigation was therefore con- most of them apparently houses. tion we discovered some ten other ducted on Makronisos in 1982 and These included dock facilities, the sites, most of them dating from late 1984. breakwater, and a moderately sized antiquity and the Early Byzantine single-aisled church. The church es- period. There was another harbor set- tablishment seems to have been par- tlement (M-3) similar to Diporto, but The site of Diporto on Makronisos as it ticularly important at Diporto. It considerably smaller. Most of the looks today. other settlements were in fact relatively small, and their location suggests that they were agricultural or pastoral in function. The largest of these (M-2) is probably the most interesting, since it presents evidence of use in four separate periods- two successive building phases in early modern times, between the seven- teenth and the nineteenth centuries, preceded by two phases at the end of antiquity. The early modern phases were characterized by large rectangular mandras, or pens, for sheep and goats. During this period the island was presumably used for seasonal herd- ing; there is no evidence of substan- tial human occupation. In many places, however, these late walls were built over the foundations of far

20 ARCHAEOLOGY

This content downloaded from 128.148.254.57 on Thu, 31 Oct 2019 15:07:37 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms earlier buildings of very different ports goods could be transported shape and design. These earlier build- with relative ease across the coasted ings were divided into several smaller ridge and into the interior of Boeotia. rooms and seem to have comprised a From there all of central Greece was number of houses and outbuildings. open to the merchant and trader. They are dated by pottery and coins The majority of people on Kouveli of the fourth through seventh cen- and Makronisos probably lived by turies a.D., showing that this settle- trade as merchants, sailors, ship- ment was contemporary with the wrights, and longshoremen, much as large city site at Diporto. Several ter- their descendants on Hydra, Spetses race walls, now in ruins and nearly and many other islands did centuries completely overgrown, indicate that later. Probably a few other people This small harbor is one of the many the settlement must have been de- were shepherds or farmers in the in- harbors ideal for sheltering boats in the voted at least partly to farming. terior of the small islands, but their unpredictable seas of the Gulf of Corinth. Other evidence points to a reoccu- existence must have been difficult pation of a cave on this site, perhaps and their primary function was to during the period of the Slavic inva- supply the larger commercial settle- sions or the Arab incursions into ments. lb judge by the enormous Greece during the seventh to eighth number of fragmentary ceramic bee- centuries. In a nearby settlement hives found on both islands, honey (M-4) apparently founded at about must have also been produced in this same time the inhabitants lived significant quantity. in a number of caves protected by a But what about water? Water is wall approximately 65 meters long, obviously a necessity and a condition which defended the beleaguered com- for settled life. We have found some munity from attack from the sea. Itcisterns, and these would have stored is noteworthy that this wall is the enough water for some of the smaller only defensive construction we en- settlements, but certainly not enough countered on the islands. for a place the size of Diporto. For But- to return to the larger issue that, the answer is remarkably simple: -during its period of efflorescence waterin was apparently carried over to the fifth, sixth and possibly seventh the islands from the copious fresh- centuries Makronisos seems to have water springs on the opposite main- supported a relatively complex three- land. This would have been easy, tiered settlement system, made up given of the commercial network pro- ( 1 ) the city at Diporto, ( 2 ) the village posed here, and it would also help ex- or villa at M-2, and ( 3 ) a number of plain the enormous quantities of isolated farms. Clearly, the economy transport amphoras found on the of these islands cannot have been sup-larger sites. This procedure parallels ported by agriculture alone: the land the practice, still used today, whereby The rugged coastline of the desert islands is simply too poor for that. If the waterless parts of the Greek country- is frequently harsh and uninviting. surviving remains are a reliable guide side are supplied by trucks and where, the vast majority of the population despite the growth of tourism and must have lived at Diporto on the sea.accompanying population pressure, on the mainland, but piracy and sea- In fact, both Kouveli and Mak- some of the larger waterless Greek borne invasions must have made life ronisos seem to have been part of aislands like Hydra are supplied with precarious there. widespread long-distance commercial water by boats from the mainland. Nevertheless, the coasts and is- network: ports of trade and commer- All of this suggests a very differ- lands of Greece seem to have been cial entrepots which provided central ent role for these desert islands from densely settled in the later Roman and Greece with its primary outlet to thewhat was believed before our survey. Early Byzantine eras. Commerce ap- sea. In antiquity, we should remember, The sites on these islands were not parently flourished, requiring many the sea linked settlements together primarily refugee settlements and ports, trading stations, and com- rather than separated them. These they do not reflect a period of collapse mercial centers. The desert island island communities are to be viewed and disintegration. Rather, they settlements in the Gulf of Domvrena as parts of a larger commercial and suggest a period of prosperity and appear to have been part of that settlement pattern in the Gulf of expansion with a significant role commercial network, and for the only Domvrena and beyond. Boeotia was, in long-distance trade. Eventually the time in history these barren and in- in fact, nearly land-locked toward the Arab invasions beginning in the hospitable islands witnessed a fever- south, and the Gulf of Domvrena mid-seventh century and the subse- ish activity. With the collapse of provided one of the few places where quent collapse of trade removed the the trading network the commercial ready access to the sea was possible. original raison d'être for these island settlements died, and quiet and isola- Settlements contemporary with settlements. As difficulties increased, tion again reigned on the islands- those on Kouveli and Makronisos scattered individuals may in fact a peace only broken in the twentieth have been identified on the main- have fled to the islands as temporary century by recent archaeological land at Vathy and Alyki. From these refuges from unsettled conditions investigation. □

May/June 1986 21

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