Pavlopetri, an Underwater Bronze Age Town in Laconia
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Pavlopetri, an Underwater Bronze Age Town in Laconia Author(s): Anthony Harding, Gerald Cadogan and Roger Howell Reviewed work(s): Source: The Annual of the British School at Athens, Vol. 64 (1969), pp. 113-142 Published by: British School at Athens Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/30103334 . Accessed: 25/01/2013 06:05 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. British School at Athens is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Annual of the British School at Athens. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded on Fri, 25 Jan 2013 06:05:23 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Vatika Plain 3 NORTH tp ,rcP E~o Pet i~aaa~~aaa~: ,b nE kL hphod 4'0 Poriki Isles LEa Ano~ 50 VA T KA BAY "d; SSi Nt. a00, Saracenf'koSaraceniko Bay "- ovo(i1" -M 4w0 4co a50 sea depthsin fathoms 0 km 1 2 3 t 5 6 sea miles 1 2 3 0 FIG. I. PAVLOPETRI, ELAPHONISOS AND THE BAY OF M.W. 3o . 496,. This content downloaded on Fri, 25 Jan 2013 06:05:23 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions tika Plain NORTH NE L VAT KA BAY Mt. 00' TW, o.ELAPHONSOSANDTHEBAYVATIA 'LOPETRI, ELAPHONISOS AND THE BAY OF VATIKA This content downloaded on Fri, 25 Jan 2013 06:05:23 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions PAVLOPETRI, AN UNDERWATER BRONZE AGE TOWN IN LACONIA (PLATES 24-33) IN 1967 N. C. Flemming of the Institute of Oceanography discovered a submerged settlement, probably of the Bronze Age, off the south coast of Laconia opposite Elaphonisos Island.' The following year the Cambridge Underwater Exploration Group formed an expedition to investi- gate the site. The main aims of the expedition were: I. To survey the visible remains of the site in order to produce the plan of a prehistorictown on a larger scale than is possible on land, where the time and cost of excavation are normally prohibitive. 2. To investigate sea- and land-level changes in the area, in particular by seeking traces of old shore-lines or of harbour-works. 3. To experiment with methods of planning extensive remains underwater, and especially with photography from a balloon. The expedition consisted of a nucleus of seven members and was led by R. C. Jones. It worked for six weeks in July and August 1968. Progresswas often hampered by the meltemi.2 GENERAL DESCRIPTION TOPOGRAPHY The site is mainly in the sea off that part of the Malea peninsula that lies opposite the island of Elaphonisos(FIG. I, PLATE 24, a, b). It was called Pavlopetriafter the small island of Pavlopetri which is some 200 metres from the shore and forms part of the site, though most of the site is now covered by 2-3 metres of water between the mainland and Pavlopetri Island. 700 metres to the south-west is the northern tip of Elaphonisos, which in Roman times was I ScienceJournal (April 1968) 51 ff. mention: they both spent a week at the site, and their find- 2 The project was sponsored by the British School at ings are included in this report. R. Hope Simpson also Athens, and financed by generous grants from the Faculty visited us, and gave us the benefit of his invaluable local Board of Classics at Cambridge University, the Exploration knowledge. Much help and advice has also been received Funds Committee, the Royal Geographical Society and from Flemming, and from Miss D. Kurtz, J. N. Cold- other bodies, to all of whom we are deeply indebted. We stream, 0. T. P. K. Dickinson, F. H. Stubbings, Lord must also thank S. Marinatos and the Greek Archaeo- William Taylour, and P. M. Warren. logical Service for allowing the work to take place, and Harding wrote the first draft of the report. Cadogan is especially A. Dhelivorias, Acting Ephor of Antiquities for responsible for the section dealing with the cemetery on Laconia, who visited us at the site and gave us much kind the shore and Howell for the description of the pottery. help. Cadogan rewrote the first draft and is mainly responsible Among the many individuals to whom thanks are due, for its present form. David Gubbins took and processed most Messrs. Gerald Cadogan and Roger Howell deserve special of the photographs; Michael Walton drew the text-figures. C 6659 I This content downloaded on Fri, 25 Jan 2013 06:05:23 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 114 ANTHONY HARDING, GERALD CADOGAN, AND ROGER HOWELL joined to the mainland3 and could still be reached by fording in I677:4 nowadays the channel is 500 metres wide and 3 metres deep. Part of a causeway still stretches across the gap, the top of its stonework lying about a metre below the present surface of the sea. Leake visited the area in I806 and describes it as follows: 'The strait between Elafonisi and the main is three to four hundred yards over, and so shallow that none but the smallest boats can pass. ... The eastern end of the strait or western point of the Bay of Vitika, is a low point of rock covered with sand. Here, near a ruined tower, are several ancient sepulchreshewn in the rock, and nearly filled with sand. A little further inland there is a salt lake, lying between a range of sandy hills bordering the western shore of the Bay of Vatika, and the rocky ground upon which I found the ruins. This lake is about two miles long... .'s His description mentions most of the chief points. The site is at the extreme west of the Bay of Vatika and lies off a long sandy beach, called Pounda. Behind the beach are sand dunes, some of which cover low ridges of soft limestone. In one of these ridges are the tombs of the cemetery Leake noticed (PLATE 25a-e). They spread down to the sea, and some are now under water. Behind this ridge is the salt lake, known today as Strongyli. From the lake a rock-cut channel leads past the eastern end of the cemetery to the sea (FIG.2, PLATE 26b): it presumably drew salt water into the lake for evaporation. It is full of sand nowadays, and salt is no longer panned in the lake. A small arched bridge crossesthe channel, and is perhaps of (?Late) Roman date or maybe much later. As the channel is not more than 1-50 m. wide and can easily be crossed, there must have been a road of importance here at some time to justify the bridge. It probably went along the edge of the bay to what is now Elaphonisos. Behind the salt lake is a stretch of flat ground which merges at the east into the main part of the Vatika plain and at the north meets a line of limestone cliffs 70 m. high, known as Vigles, at the village of Vigladhia. On the low ground to the west are the remains of a large quarry, Latomion, which Leake and Hope Simpson have described.6Leake remarks,'The convenience of situation for the embarkationof the stone was probably the chief motive for quarrying in these places'; and rockwas also quarriedfrom the ridge with the cemetery, and from Pavlopetri Island. The Vatika plain is today very fertile and supportsa good crop of corn as well as olives, citrus fruits, and cucurbits, though it does benefit from a modern irrigation system. In the Bronze Age it was quite well populated: notably there are chamber tombs at Ayios Giorgios and a Mycenaean settlementwith tombs at Neapolis. ElaphonisosIsland is less amenable to agriculture but has a remarkableamount of Helladic material and some Late Helladic.7 produced ' Early 3 Str. viii. 5. 1:Eis 8b Ma agSrrp6 i~c o aKoafoi'V B8ollKovTra L. Radermacher (2nd ed. (1954) 163 f.) or W. B. Stanford l "Ovov yv ov have hinted at the KarcrKoX-Orr3ov-rtsai 1 "rcrrTEIV'vXEpp6vrlaov ((1958) 189), only pun. MvSoT-pu TrrEvraKoai{v 81 4 Covel, cited in BSA xiv n. 2. "T$v MaAsXv, EiKOaI (rrp6iKETrat KaraT (1907-8) 167 -rorrovKiOrlpa lv -rerTapdKov-rraarabilot....)... (measured from s Travels in the Morea i (1830) 509. Tainaron).... .E-rah "Ovov A E Boia 6 Ibid. BSA Ivi ff., yvadeo,Xltpa EXovUaasra rr6xtS" 50o8; (1961) 144 fig. 14. e-ra Mcraar 5'EIs acrrt d&rr6-ri'a "Ovov yvaeov IrrTEvTKovra 7 Ibid. I41 ft., for a full account of the prehistoric an- KalIKrT6V. tiquities of the Vatika plain and around, and of Elapho- Ptol. iii. 16. 9: "Ovov yvdreos Kp .... nisos. Paus. iii. 22. o0: AKpa 86 dnviovaa iEs0Aaaaav dpqoa-rlKyEv Hope Simpson gave much help with the local geography, AaoarroO 86 and made several corrections to his which was SlaK6aiao-raStab KOaOart "Ovovyvd&ov "rv K6pav. 1961 map, A pun on "OvouyvdOos in Aristophanes, Ran. 186 f. has based on a wartime R.A.F. map of limited reliability. been kindly mentioned to us by P. H. J. Lloyd-Jones. Thus the salt lake and its entrances, and the beach in Charon is speaking: general, are shown there rather inaccurately.