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Excavations at Phlius, 1924 the Prehistoric Deposits

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Excavations at Phlius, 1924 the Prehistoric Deposits EXCAVATIONS AT PHLIUS, 1924 THE PREHISTORICDEPOSITS (PLATES 113-118) J N 1924 the AmericanSchool of ClassicalStudies undertooka test excavationat the site of ancient Phlius, which is situated in the Peloponnesos west of the site of ancient Nemea. Designed as a preliminary investigation prior to further excava- tions, the excavators sank numerous trenches on and around the hill which contains the acropolis of the ancient city. A large amount of material was recovered from the scattered trenches but it was never studied and only an abbreviated excavation report was published.' At the end of the season most of the finds from the excavation were packed in wooden boxes, without any preliminary washing, sorting or mending, and stored in the Old Museum at Old Corinth. They rested where they had been placed for forty years until they were unpacked and studied by this writer beginning in the summer of 1964.2 They were found to belong to practically all periods of Greek history, beginning with the Early Neolithic and extending to the Turkish. The boxes unfortunately yielded thoroughly mixed contents, due to the test nature of the excava- tion itself and the circumstances of storage where some mixing had occurred throtlglh collapses. The prehistoric material could, however, be readily identified and segre- gated for study and it is with this material that this article is concerned. A later article will treat a Votive Deposit datable to the seventh and sixth centuries B.C.which was also found on the site. THE EXCAVATION The site of Phlius is situated in a broad plain and consists of a long ridge, which extends westwards from the encircling hills, and the plain immediately around it on its north, south and west sides (Fig. 1). The ridge descends towards the west in a series of flat plateaus from a high central terrace with its highest points at its eastern and western extremities. 1 C. W. Blegen, " Excavations at Phlius 1924," Art and Archaeology, XX, 1925, pp. 23-33. 2 These finds formed the nucleus of my dissertation " Investigations at Phlius " which was submitted to the University of Pennsylvania in 1968 in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. I must here thank Professor Carl W. Blegen, the Assistant Director of the 1924 excavation under B. H. Hill, for permission to study the material. The work was undertaken while I was holding the post of Secretary of the American School from- 1964 to 1968, and I would like to thank Professor Henry S. Robinson, then Director of the School, and the Managing Committee of the School for the appointment. Appreciation must also be expressed to the staff of the Corinth Excavations for their cheerful help, to Helen Besi who drew the profiles and to Ero Tranhanatzis who drew the sketch plan of Figure 1. Professor Saul S. Weinberg kindly read the manuscript, which has been greatly improved as a result. Hesperia, XXXVIII, 4 American School of Classical Studies at Athens is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve, and extend access to Hesperia ® www.jstor.org 444 WILLIAM R. BIERS Deposits of prehistoric pottery came to light at several places about the site, both in the plain and on the hill itself. Three distinct areas yielded deposits; in the plain, south and west of the hill (labelled as Area 1 on the plan, Fig. 1), at the east SKETCH PLAN OF THE ACROPOLIS OF PHLIUS DISTRIBUTION OF PREHISTORIC FINDS EN - Early Neolithic MN - Middle Neolithic N LN-EH - Late Neolithic - Early Helladic EH - Early Helladic 0 100 200 LH - Late Helladic / M. z~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ >~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ XH rn FIG. 1. end of the upper, western area of the high central terrace (Area 2), and at the ter- race's high eastern extremity (Area 3). The pottery recovered belongs mainly to the Neolithic and Early Helladic Periods. EXCAVATIONSAT PHLIUS, 1924,THE PREHISTORICDEPOSITS 445 Neolithic remains were found only in the plain and belonged primarily to the Early Neolithic Period, with a few sherds datable to the Middle Neolithic. Only a few sherds datable to the Late Neolithic Period were found at Phlius, mixed with later sherds in a trench on the western portion of the high, central terrace (Area 2).3 The trenches in general appear to have been thoroughly confused and little strati- graphical information could be obtained. Byzantine sherds as well as the prehistoric were found even in boxes labelled as coming from just above hardpan. The upper levels yielded only Byzantine sherds. No habitation levels were reported between the prehistoric deposit and the Byzantine. Blegen considered the disturbances in this area to be the result of levelling in the Byzantine Period.4 No architectural remains were reported which could be assigned to the Neolithic Period. The test trenches of 1924 yielded quantities of pottery assignable to the Early Helladic Period, both in the plain, mixed in confusion with the Neolithic and Byzan- tine sherds, and also in several trenches on the acropolis itself. Some slight evidence is available in regards to architectural remains for this period. The upper part of the prehistoric fill in the plain was reported to have yielded " carelessly built walls . evidently foundations of small houses." 5 Rough walls, one or two courses in height, approximately 0.55 m. in width and bonded with earth were found in a trench sunk at the eastern extremity of the upper terrace of the acropolis. Here, according to the notebook, a " floor, upon which rested broken pots," came to light between two of the walls. The sherds were gathered up and placed in crates labelled " below 1.60," where they were found in 1964. The excavator apparently did not recognize the material as prehistoric and thus no account of the find was published. The sherds from this deposit are identical in fabric, technique and date to those found in the plain and in other trenches on the acropolis. Unfortunately no shapes couldbe reconstructed. THE POTTERY 6 3This material is further discussed below, pp. 446 ff. 4Blegen, op. cit., p. 26; not "Hellenistic rebuilding" which has been substituted for what w ould be the correct " Byzantine rebuilding " by a typographical error in R. Hope Simpson, A Gazeteer and Atlas of Mycenaean Sites, University of London, Institute of Classical Studies, Bulletin Supplement No. 16, 1965, p. 27. Blegen, op. cit., p. 26. 6 The inventoried objects from the excavation of 1924 are stored in the New M\useum at Old Corinth. The context material (Lots 1-11, 25, 29, 32, 33 contain Bronze Age material) has been returned to the Old Museum. The following abbreviations are used in this article: Aghios Kosmas: G. E. Mylonas, Aghios Kosmas, An Early Bronze Age Settlement and Cemetery in Attica, Princeton, 1959. Asea: E. J. Holmberg, The Swedish Excavations at Asea in Arcadia, Lund, 1944. Asine: 0. Frodin and A. Persson, Asine, Results of the Swedish Excavations, 1922-1930, Stockholm, 1938. 446 WILLIAM R. BIERS NEOLITHIC The Early Neolithic sherds from Phlius are representative of most of the known types of Early Neolithic wares common in the Peloponnesos. All the material was badly worn and very few whole pots or complete profiles could be recovered; never- theless, enough could be salvaged to give an idea of the principal types and shapes. The pottery in general is inferior in technique to that of the neighboring sites of Lerna, Corinth and especially Nemea. Although some of the black variety of Variegated (Rainbow) Ware is technically quite fine, most of the sherds are definitely inferior in firing and decoration; this is particularly true in the category of Red Slip Ware. The largest percentage of the sherds belonged to the type of Neolithic ware known as " Spongy Ware " which has been found at nearly all Early Neolithic sites in the Peloponnesos.7 The fabric is quite coarse and contains many inclusions of limestone and plant matter which exploded or burnt out upon firing, leaving the surface pitted in such a way as to give the ware its name. The coarseness of the fabric in our examples varies considerably from thick and heavy with many pits on the surface to lighter and thinner examples with fewer pits and containing white inclusions. The color varies from an almost white to brick red, gray, and black-brown. A few examples exhibit red slip on their exterior surfaces but most are simply smoothed on their exteriors. One or two appear to show a thin, colorless self-slip on their exterior surfaces. The shapes are quite simple, mainly large open bowls with gently curving vertical sides, but no complete examples could be reconstituted. The lip usually shows a simple straight profile tapering to the top (P1. 113, 1); several sherds show a pronounced flaring lip (Fig. 2, P1. 113; 2, 3); occasionally a rim will Corinth: S. Weinberg, "Remains from Prehistoric Corinth," Hesperia, VI, 1937, pp. 487-524. Elateia: S. Weinberg, "Excavations at Prehistoric Elateia, 1959," Hesperia, XXXI, 1962, pp. 158-209. Eutresis (I): Hetty Goldman, Excavations at Eutresis in Boeotia, Cambridge, Mass., 1931. Eutresis (II): J. L. and E. G. Caskey, " The Earliest Settlements at Eutresis, Supplementary Excavations, 1958," Hesperia, XXIX, 1960, pp. 126-167. Gonid: C. W. Blegen, " Oonia," Metropolitan Museum Studies, III, 1930-1931, pp. 55-80. Korakou: C. W. Blegen, Korakou, a Prehistoric Settlement near Corinth, Boston and New York, 1921. Prosymna: C. W. Blegen, Prosymna, The Helladic Settlement Preceding the Argive Heraeumn, Cambridge, 1937. Tiryns, IV: K. Muller, Tiryns, Die Ergebnisse der Ausgrabungen des Instituts, IV, Die Urfir- niskeramik, Munich, 1938. Zygouries: C. W. Blegen, Zygouries, A Prehistoric Settlement in the Valley of Cleonae, Cam- bridge, Mass., 1928.
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