Ofrynio Toumba, an example of habitation in Eastern Macedonia (Northern Greece) in the Late Bronze Age Ioannis Soukantos a, Dimitria Malamidou b a Department of History-Archaeology and Social Anthropology, University of Thessaly, Argonauton & Fillelinon Str, Building complex of Papastratos, Volos, Greece; [email protected] b Ephorate of Antiquities of Serres, 48 Ethnikis Antistasis Str., Serres, Greece; [email protected] ABSTRACT Ofrynio Toumba is a typical Late Bronze Age (1600-1100 BC) site located 60 km west of the city of Kavala and 2 km southeast of the modern village of Ofrynio in the Municipality of Pangaion, in Northern Greece. The geographical position of the tell on the west bank of the Strymon river, near the coastline of Orphanos bay and south of the metalliferous Mount Pangaion, emphasizes its geostrategic role and attests to its character as an im- portant prehistoric settlement. Analogous sites east of the Strymon river are relatively rare unlike to what hap- pens in central Macedonia, the valley of Axios, around the Thermaicos gulf, the Langadas basin and Chalkidike. The systematic research in the field began in 2012 and continues to this day, under the supervision of the Ephorate of Antiquities of Kavala-Thasos and is supported financially by the Municipality of Pangaion and the INSTAP foundation (Institute of Aegean Prehistory). Excavation has already revealed important features, such as architectural remains, characteristic pottery of the Late Bronze Age, small artifacts mainly connected to the household equipment and a rich zooarchaeological material. The architectural remains (enclosure-apsidal building) unearthed till now, in the upper archaeological layer, are dated in the last period of the Late Bronze Age (LH IIIC/1200-1100 BC), according to the characteristic pottery. Ofrynio Toumba will allow an opportunity to study a settlement of the Late Bronze Age in the coastal area of Eastern Macedonia, decisively contributing to the enrichment of the archaeological record of the area. KEYWORDS Ofrynio toumba, Kavala, Northern Greece, Late Bronze Age, East Macedonia. Introduction The settlement of Ofrynio Toumba, a typical Late Bronze Age Τell (Andreou, Kotsakis 1987, 9-15) is located in Northern Greece, 60 km west of the city of Kavala and 2 km south- east of the modern village of Ofrynio in the Municipality of Pangaion (fig. 1). The top of the toumba lies 82m above sea level. The toumba measures 11m in height. It has a flat part, 1.950 sq.m wide, on its top, while the lower part measures up to 3.700 sq.m. The perimeter of it has been disturbed by trenches created during World War I by German-Bulgarian troops, during the fights for the control of the passage that connects the valley of Pieria to the Strymon River and Central Macedonia. The area around the toumba, mainly on its lower south/southeast parts, was cultivated thus resulting to the alteration of the original relief. However, the flat top of the hill did not suffer much change in surface, since it was only used for the cultivation of tobacco (20-25 years ago), a practice that does not afflict strata, not even superficial depositions (fig. 2). The geographical position of the toumba, on the west bank of the Strymon River, near Be-JA Бе-СА Supplementa 7 (2019) 191–210 Bulgarian e-Journal of Archaeology Българско е-Списание за Археология http://be-ja.org ISSN 2603-3216 Ioannis Soukantos, Dimitria Malamidou Fig. 1. Map of Northern Greece with locations of modern city of Kavala and Ofrynio village, such as the site of Ofrynio toumba (Google Earth) Обр. 1. Карта на Северна Гърция с местоположението на съвременния град Кавала и с. Офринио, както и мястото на Офринио тумба (Google Еarth) the coastline of Orphanos bay and south in the foothills of metalliferous Mount Pangaion (Vaxevanopoulos 2016;) which, as suggested, was mined as early as this era, emphasizes its geostrategic role and attests to its character as an important prehistoric settlement (fig. 3). The artifacts and the architectural remains excavated on the top, attest that the site was inhabited during the Late Bronze Age when it was abandoned without any further trace of habitation in historical times. All of the above characteristics attribute to it, an important geostrategic character, both in terms of habitation as well as for the role in the wider local network of settlements that have already been detected in the surrounding area after field’s surveys that took place in the past1, dated also in the Late Bronze Age (1600-1100 BC). History of research Analogous sites east of the Strymon river are relatively studied and excavated, in contradiction to what happens in central Macedonia, the valley of Axios, around the Ther- maicos gulf, the Langadas basin and Chalkidike peninsula (Andreou et al. 2001; Andreou 2001; 2010; 2012). Thessaloniki toumba (Andreou, Kotsakis 1995; 1997), Assiros toumba (Wardle 1980; 1983; 1989), Kastanas toumba (Hochstetter 1984; 1987; Hansel 1989), toumba of Agios Ma- mas (Horeijs 2007; Hansel, Aslanis 2010) and Aggelochori toumba (Stefani 2010;) are the most known and best excavated/studied sites of this type for that period. So far, we have only data from settlements in the hinterland of Eastern Macedonia territory, namely the 1 Sites of Palaiokastro toumba and Profitis Helias toumba. 192 Ofrynio Toumba, an example of habitation in Eastern Macedonia (Northern Greece) in ... Fig. 2 Aerial view of Ofrynio Toumba from N/NE (by the author) Фиг.2 Въздушен изглед към Офринио Тумба от С/СИ (от автора) valleys of Serres and Drama. Specifically, we mention the sites of Railway Station of Aggista (Koukouli 1980), Faia Petra Sidirokastrou (Valla 2007) and Sfelinos Toumba (Tolia Christakou 2009) in the area of Serres, the cemeteries at Potamoi and Exochi (Grammenos 1979) north of Drama city and the settlement of Dikili Tash near Philippi (Treuil 1992). In addition, on the island of Tha- sos, the site of Kastri Theologos (Koukouli 1992) has been excavated and offers important information concerning this period (fig. 4). It is very interesting to ascertain whether and in what extent the characteristics of Ofrynio toumba repeat the norms of Central Macedonia (Andreou 2010;) or whether the site is rather more related to the ones in East Macedo- nia (Koukouli 1982; 2007; Papadopoulos 2010) and the Balkan inland (Stefanovich, Bankof 1998; Delev, Vulcheva 2002; Alexandrov et al. 2007; Leshtakov 2008;), in terms of intra- community organization and inter-communal relationships. In bibliography the site is known as “Lakkovikia” or with the name “Harman Tepe” as well. For the first time it is noted with the surveys made by David French in the ‘60s (French 1967), align with a number of prehistoric sites that are located in the surround- ing area. Superficial artifacts were collected by D. Grammenos and M. Fotiadis during the survey for chronicling the prehistoric sites in East Macedonia, in the beginning of the ‘80s (Grammenos, Fotiadis 1980; Grammenos 1980-1981). The tell, no longer cultivated for sev- eral years, presented in surface, only an important amount of handmade pottery of Late Bronze Age period. Excavation project The excavation program begun in 2012 and continued in 2013 as a rescue intervention 193 Ioannis Soukantos, Dimitria Malamidou Fig. 3. The location of Ofrynio Toumba and the wider area (by the author) Фиг. 3. Местоположението на Офринио Тумба и околността (от автора) (Soukantos et al. 2012; Malamidou et al.2013), after a recent attempt of an illegal excavation on the top of the toumba. The Municipality of Pangaion has been an important supporter, from the very start of this project both by funding the excavation and by offering a group of workers. From 2015 until today, the research of the project was carried out thanks to the financial support by INSTAP which granted with a New Research Grant along with the continuous support of the Municipality of Pangaion. The research continues as a system- atic excavation of the Ephorate of Antiquities of Kavala under the direction of Dr. Dimitria Malamidou2. An inter-disciplinary research team was put together consisting of PhD candidates and post graduates of archaeology (Msc), of various fields, a survey engineer and an archi- tect3. We first proceeded to the topographic mapping of the site and the creation of a general one square meter grid for the entire extent of the mount to support the archaeological field work. Prior to the beginning of the excavation, we used our own equipment for low altitude air photography. Eight sectors have been excavated on top of the toumba during the last 4 years. The end of each excavation season was followed by the archiving of all data using an electronic data base and by recording of sectors via aerial photogrammetry and air photog- raphy, with the aid also of computer-design techniques. After four excavation campaigns, the eight sectors on the flat top of the mount un- covered important architectural and domestic remains and it seems that we have already touched two different habitation levels. Archaeological Data Architectural/residential remains An enclosure (massive surrounding wall) 1m thick, was unearthed in two different parts at the top of the toumba in a depth of 0.5m from the surface (fig.6). This stone struc- ture which we interpreted as an enclosure seems to have collapsed to the East side (fig. 5). Following the axis S/SW-NE, it was unearthed at about 4.5m long in each part and covers a significant area of the excavated sectors. It consists of large irregular rocks, with a small quantity of clayey mud as binding material between them. Its location in the limits on the 2 Ephorate of Antiquities of Kavala, head supervisor of Archaeological Sites in Kavala and Thassos.