FROM the NEOLITHIC to the LATE BRONZE AGE So a Dimaki

chapter nine

FROM THE NEOLITHIC TO THE LATE BRONZE AGE

So a Dimaki*

The waste land1 We shall not cease from exploration And the end of all our exploring Will be to arrive where we started And know the place for the  rst time —T.S. Eliot, Little Giddings (Four Quartets)

Archaeological research has been going on in Phthiotis for over a century. However, until recently, the prehistoric bibliography was based on generic but fundamental work mainly relating to pottery that had been conducted in the  rst half of the twentieth century by Wace and Thompson, Arvani- topoulos, Sotiriadis, Goldman and Weinberg.2 The establishment of the local Ephorate of Antiquities in 1973 with G. Hourmouziades as its  rst director3 signalled the beginning of the completion of the archaeological map which could at that time be described as a tabula rasa. Rescue and systematic excavations,  eld surveys undertaken by both the Hellenic Archaeological Service and foreign schools and large-scale public works were the main fac- tors that contributed to that outcome. In recent years the publication of articles, papers and postgraduate doctoral theses on this area, supported by background studies, has been gradually  lling in the missing pieces of the puzzle which is, however, still far from complete.

* Fourteenth Ephorate of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities. 1 The title is borrowed from the poem of T.S. Eliot “Waste Land”. 2 P–T: Lianokladi, Manesi (modern Leochori), Drachmani (modern Elateia), 171–191, 202–205. Arvanitopoulos 1910: 198–199; Sotiriadis 1904, 1905, 1906a, 1906b, 1908a, 1908b, 1909, 1910, 1911, 1912; Goldman 1940: 381–514 and Weinberg 1962. 3 AD 29 1973–1974: Chron. 513. 396 sofia dimaki

The focus of this study is the Locris region,4 which covers the southern part of Phthiotis. Its main geographical features are the mountain ranges, particularly Callidromus in the northwest, its extension Chlomon to the south and Mt. Cnemis in the east. To the north, the region opens up towards the alluvial plain of the Spercheius River while in the east it meets the coastline of the north Euboean and Malian Gulfs. Between these mountain ranges, there is a particularly diverse landscape, characterized by semi- mountainous and hilly areas, small lakes, rivers, small valleys and delta estuaries. The subsoil of the region contains old sediments dating from the Late Miocene, Plio-Pleistocene and Late Pleistocene ages in which various specimens of fauna and ora fossils have been found.5 The part of Locris called Epicnemidia includes the northern part of the region, whose natural borders are Thermopylae in the north, Cnemis to the south and west, and Mt. Callidromus, which separates it from ancient Opun- tian Locris, northeast Phocis and Doris. While examining the region’s sedi- mentation timeline, researchers face a particular challenge. Ancient sources such as Pausanias and Strabo, foreign travellers like Lolling, Leake, Gell, and scholars like Oldfather and Pritchett are only some of those who engaged in the ancient topography of this area. As far as prehistory is concerned, our knowledge is strictly limited to the combined contribution of a few survey  nds and rescue excavations.6 Epicnemidian Locris was  rst settled in the Neolithic period. Public works and in particular the construction of the Tithorea/Lianokladi section of the new Athens-Thessalonica railway line stumbled upon an unknown archaeological site at the intersection of the road from the Athens-Lamia highway to the village of Rengini. The site is on the low hill of Trilofo near the Liapatorema, on river deposits. The structural remains of a villa rus- tica dated to late second-mid-third century ad were found at the highest point of the southern slope of the hill.7 Along the eastern slope of this

4 Locris, together with Phthiotis, Doris and Parnassida became a province of the Phocis- Locris Prefecture in 1837. It was a province that included, according to the ancient topography of the historical period, Οpuntian, Εpicnemidian and Hypocnemidian Locris, northeast Phocis and Doris, and was abolished with the creation of the Capodistrean municipalities in 1997: Klados 1837. 5 Athanassiou 2006: In the Locris region fossils were found of an Aceratherium (Agioi Anargyroi), Equus, Bos or Leptobos (Harma), Hippopotamus (Karavydia), 119, Eucladokeros sp. and a mammuthus; cf. meridionalis (Rengini), 123–126. Kranis 2007: 362 and  gs. 2, 7: geological maps of the Locris Basin. 6 Bibliography based mainly on GAMS and GAC I. 7 Geological elements of the Rengini area: supra 5.2, 362. Papastathopoulou 2007: 143– 153.