Bryn Mawr College Scholarship, Research, and Creative Work at Bryn Mawr College Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology Faculty Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology Research and Scholarship 2008 Nemea Valley Archaeological Project, Excavations at Barnavos: Final Report James C. Wright Bryn Mawr College, [email protected] Evangelia Pappi Sevasti Triantaphyllou Mary K. Dabney Panagiotis Karkanas See next page for additional authors Let us know how access to this document benefits ouy . Follow this and additional works at: http://repository.brynmawr.edu/arch_pubs Part of the Classical Archaeology and Art History Commons, and the History of Art, Architecture, and Archaeology Commons Custom Citation Wright, James C., Evangelia Pappi, Sevasti Triantaphyllou, Mary K. Dabney, Panagiotis Karkanas, Georgia Kotzamani, and Alexandra Livarda. 2008. Nemea Valley Archaeological Project, Excavations at Barnavos: Final Report. Hesperia 77:607-654. This paper is posted at Scholarship, Research, and Creative Work at Bryn Mawr College. http://repository.brynmawr.edu/arch_pubs/61 For more information, please contact [email protected]. Authors James C. Wright, Evangelia Pappi, Sevasti Triantaphyllou, Mary K. Dabney, Panagiotis Karkanas, Georgia Kotzamani, and Alexandra Livarda This article is available at Scholarship, Research, and Creative Work at Bryn Mawr College: http://repository.brynmawr.edu/ arch_pubs/61 HESPERIA JJ (2OO8) NEMEA VALLEY Pages 607-654 ARCHAEOLOGICAL PROJECT, EXCAVATIONS AT BARNAVOS Final Report Irrj jLivrjjuT]xr\q TIepce(p6\n]q TaXavf) ABSTRACT In 2002 and 2003 the 4th Ephorate of Prehistoricand ClassicalAntiquities and the Nemea Valley Archaeological Project (NVAP) excavated a robbed Late Helladic (LH) IIIA2 chamber tomb at Barnavos, west of the village of Ancient Nemea. Through application of a novel method of stratigraphic analysis and careful documentation of the scattered remains, it was ascer- tained that the tomb was opened as many as six times for four or five inter- ments, including a child and probablyboth male and female adults.No other tomb was found in the vicinity.This is the first Mycenaean tomb discovered in the valley,and it belongs to the settlement atTsoungiza. This articlepresents the resultsof two seasonsof excavationof a plundered Mycenaeanchamber tomb at Barnavosat Ancient Nemea and a surveyof its environs(Fig. I).1The projectwas conceivedby James Wright, who, in July 2001, was shownthe robbedtomb by residentsof the village.In consulta- tion with the Ephor,Alexandras Mantis, a joint projectwas plannedwith EvangeliaPappi, Epimeletria of Antiquities,representing the 4th Epho- rate of Prehistoricand Classical Antiquities.Wright enlisted Sevasti Triantaphyllouand Mary Dabney as codirectors.Together they drewup a 1. The project was conducted as a Palaeoanthropology and Speleology of for further study. Michael Boyd (Uni- collaboration between Bryn Mawr Southern Greece, Ministry of Culture) versity of Cambridge) conducted College and the 4th Ephorate of Pre- carried out soil micromorphological preliminary geophysical prospection. historic and Classical Antiquities, analysis (Maria Kousoulaki, Fitch Geoffrey Compton (University of Greek Ministry of Culture. James Laboratory, British School of Archaeol- Michigan) was responsible for topo- Wright (Bryn Mawr College) and ogy, was prevented from participating graphical surveying and GIS analysis. Evangelia Pappi (4th Ephorate) as- due to unforeseen circumstances). Anastasia Papathanasiou (Ephorate of sumed overall direction of the project. Palaeobotanical remains were recovered Palaeoanthropology and Speleology) Sevasti Triantaphyllou (Sheffield by flotation and examined by Georgia and Kostas Moraitis (University of Centre for Aegean Archaeology) was in Kotzamani (Ephorate of Palaeoanthro- Athens) were enlisted for assistance charge of all bioarchaeological work, pology and Speleology of Southern with skeletal analysis. Giorgos Xyla- and Mary Dabney (Bryn Mawr Col- Greece) and Alexandra Livarda (Uni- petsidis (Kavalla Museum) conducted lege) directed the artifact analysis and versity of Leicester). all conservation work and was instru- managed the museum and records. Nancy Krahtopoulou visited to mental in site management. Additional Panagiotis Karkanas (Ephorate of examine the geoarchaeological issues acknowledgments are given below. © The American School of Classical Studies at Athens 608 JAMES C. WRIGHT ET AL. 1. of the Nemea proposal for the project that focused on methodical documentation of all Figure Map Valley locations mentioned in the finds in and around the tomb and with special emphasis on a bioarchaeo- showing text. files Greek to the burials. Digital courtesy Ministry logical approach of Agriculture;adapted by G. Compton The existence of this tomb near the excavated Mycenaean settlement of Tsoungiza offered an opportunity both to gain information about the population and to compare evidence from one of the cemeteries of Tsoun- giza with the extensive record of settlement recoveredfrom its excavation.2 Funding was secured, a permit was issued, and excavation began on May 26 and continued through July 6, 2002. Study and processing of finds was conducted throughout the season and continued through July 13, 2002. In 2003 a smaller team supervised excavation of exploratorytrenches on both sides of the ravine in which the tomb is located and conducted subsurface surveyof a field on the eastern slope of the ravineusing ground-penetrating radar.No evidence of other tombs was found.3 2. Despite the excavationof scores 3. Team assistantsin 2003 were of Mycenaeanchamber tomb cemeter- JessicaMiller and Eliza Wallace from ies, there has been little attention to a Bryn Mawr College, Dimitri Nakassis coordinatedproject systematically from the Universityof Texas at Austin, recoveringhuman skeletal materialand and Nicolaus Wright from Reed Col- comparingit to evidence from con- lege. Donald Barberof the Department trolled excavationof the accompanying of Geology, Bryn Mawr College, con- settlement;cf. Triantaphyllou2000; ducted geophysicalprospecting using Iezzi 2001. ground-penetratingradar (GPR). EXCAVATIONS AT BARNAVOS 609 2. View of Figure Barnavos, looking THE SITE south. PhotoJ. C. Wright The areaknown as Barnavos,or Marditsa,is locatedjust west of Ancient Nemea (Figs.1, 2). It is a ravinewith a thickgrowth of cypressesand white pines.The tomb is locatedon the westernhillside just at the edge of the trees.Sherds and humanbone fragmentscould be seen spillingdown the slopeto the eastand southeast, thrown out of the tombchamber by robbers (Fig. 3). To the northeastthe hillsidedrops away less steeplyas the ravine opensout to a fieldthat borders the roadto the village(Fig. 4). To the north andwest the hill curvesaround several terraces planted with olives. The dry streambedof the ravineis deeplyincised; directly above to the west is an earlierchannel along which a path meandersup through cypressesto the headof the ravine.Above the paththe ravineslope is very steep (40%grade) and consistsof a calichepalaeosol (asvesti) atop marl (kimilia)interspersed with looselycemented conglomerate. Higher up the westernside of the ravinethe land is plantedwith barleyand olives and slopesat abouta 20%grade. It is at the lowereast end of this agricultural areathat the tomb is located.North and east of the tomb,where modern agriculturalactivity has transformedthe landscape,the hardcaliche is not apparent;instead marl predominates, again interspersed with conglomer- ate.The calichereappears on the northwestside of the hill as it fallsaway to anotherravine farther west. On the facingslope east of the tombis a moderngoat-shed, and below it an agriculturalroad winds up the easternside of the ravine.Above the shed the lowerhillside is plantedwith barleyand olives,and pine forestis presentabove the roadcut. The southslope of the ravinehere is verysteep 6lO JAMES C. WRIGHT ET AL. Figure 3. View of spoil heap from robbing of the tomb's chamber, looking south. PhotoJ. C. Wright Figure 4. Topographical map of Barnavos area showing the location of excavation units. G. Compton EXCAVATIONS AT BARNAVOS 6ll andbends westward as it risesto the west (Fig. 4). This slopeis evenmore extensivelycovered with cypressesand white pine than the oppositeside, and again,most of the surfaceis hardcaliche or exposedsoft marl. Throughoutthis area,especially on the northernand western side of the ravine,were numerouspits and slit trenchesdug by robbersin search of tombs.These led us to thinkthere were likely to be manytombs farther up the ravineand aroundon its southernfacing slope. We decidedfirst to make a topographicplan (Fig. 4). This was done by GeoffreyCompton using a SokkiaSet 30 total stationin conjunctionwith the GIS package ArcView 3.0. At the sametime, we preparedthe tomb site for excavation. The tomb'schamber had collapsed, and considerable plant growth covered the debrisleft behindby the tomb robbers.It was also apparentthat the robbershad dug into the sideof the chamber,undermining it in areaswhere they had penetrateddeeply into the marl.As noted above,they createda largespoil heap as theythrew soil out of the chamber,and bone and artifact debrisspilled down the slope(Fig. 3). It was necessaryto excavatethis area beforebeginning work in the chamber,especially because the dromosof the tomb lay somewherebeneath the heap. THE EXCAVATION Excavationat Barnavosbegan with laying out a gridand clearing the surface aroundthe tombin orderto exposeany other tombs. To the souththis work was madevery