New evidence on early helladic laconia

The Annual of the British School at Athens

Volumn 94, Issue , 1999, Pages 63-79

  Banou, Emilia ^a  

^a The Heritage Management Organisation   (United Kingdom)

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EID: 85007112370     PISSN: 00682454     EISSN: 20452403     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0068245400000514     Document Type: Article

References (43)

1. Surveys primarily aimed at the discovery or the better understanding of Mycenaean sites; results are included in my dissertation: E. Banou. Beitrag zum Studium Lakomens in der mykenischen Zeit (Munich. 1996). My thanks are due to the anonymous referee for his/her valuable suggestions. I am also indebted to Professor J. Rutter for the confirmation of the identification of the Light-on-Dark Patterned sherd from Agios Georgios.
2. It is worth noting thai since the publication of Waterhouse and Hope Simpson's fundamental articles on prehistoric Laconia in BSA (see below; nn. 7 and 9) over thirty years ago. nothing analogous has appeared. Note also Dickinson's statement about Mycenaean Laconia. which, however, could be applied to all prehistoric periods: ‘. but the state of evidence is such that a single new find could alter this picture’ (O. T. P. K. Dickinson. The Origins of Mycenaean Civilization (SIMA 49: Göteborg. 1977). 91). In May 199b the second volume of the Laconia Survey was published including the finds of an intensive survey undertaken between 1983 and 1988, see W. Cavanagh, J. Crouwel. R. W. V. Catling, and G. Shipley. Continuity and Change in a Greek Rural Landscape. The Laconia Survey, ii: Archaeological Data (BSA Supplementary Volume 27: London, 1996). It covered an area of 70 km.2 from the Eurotas in the west to Chrysapha in the east and from the Menelaion in the south to Palaiogoulas in the north: although much of the area surveyed is mountainous and arid, it resulted in the discovery, inter alia, of 33 new EH sites (Cavanagh et al., Surveys primarily aimed at the discovery or the better understanding of Mycenaean sites. 6). This exemplifies how promising Laconia can be for further research.
3. For the sites corresponding to each number see Banou (n. 1). 11-23. plan 1.
4. For a satellite system of settlements in the EH period see M. Cosmopoulos. The Early Bronze Age 2 in the Aegean (SIMA 98; Jonsered, 1991). 5 (in Laconia) and 12 (in general); C. Mee and H. Forbes (eds). A Rough and Rocky Place: The Landscape and Settlement History of the Methana Peninsula. Greece (Liverpool, 1997), 52 : C. N. Runnels and T. H. van Andel, ‘The evolution of settlement in the Southern Argolid. Greece: an economic explanation’. Hesp. 56 (1987). 313 10.2307/148096. for a two- or three-tier hierarchy including hamlets or farmsteads, villages (corresponding to satellite settlements), and towns.
5. W. M. Leake. Travels in the Morea (London. 1830). i. 193-4.
6. Banou (n. 1). 82 5.
7. H. Waterhouse and R. Hope Simpson. ‘Prehistoric Laconia: Part I’, BSA 55 (1960), 81.
8. Banou (n. 1). 37 9.
9. H. Waterhouse and R. Hope Simpson. ‘Prehistoric Laconia: Part II’. BSA 56 (1961), 117.
10. Waterhouse Hope Simpson (n. 9). 118.
11. Banou (n. 1), 94 6.
12. J. Renard. Le Peloponnèse au bronze ancien (Aegaeum. 13: Liège. 1995). 87.
13. Waterhouse-Hope Simpson (n. 9). 140.
14. Banou (n. 1). 49 and also Daimonia: Kastelli (above).
15. Banou (n. 1). 74.
16. Banou (n. 1). 75-6.
17. The following presentation of EH pottery must be considered as a confirmation of the habitation of the sites in that period and not as an exhaustive treatment of all EH sherds collected. Clay colour designations refer to Muusell Soil Color Charts (rev. edn., 1994). All finds are kept at Gytheion Museum.
18. A. J. B. Wace and C. W. Blegen. ‘The Pre-Mycenaean pottery of the mainland’. BSA 22 (1919). 175-89. hereafter referred to as Wace and Blegen. Their categorization (with groups la. Ib. IIa. IIb. IIIa. IV. and V corresponding to Zygouries AI. AII. BI. BII. CI. D. and E. Group IIIb. in which Light-on-Dark Patterned Ware belongs, is not represented a Zygouries) was primarily based on the surface treatment of the pottery, which, provided the sherd material is not very worn, provides a most distinctive criterion for distinguishing among different phases of the EH period. A different approach, based primarily on profiles and secondarily on fabric is followed by W. Cavanagh and J. Crouwel, in Cavanagh et al. (n. 2). ch. 11. ‘The Early Helladie pottery’ hereafter referred to as Cavanagh and Crouweli. 5 n. I. because of the bad preservation of most of the EH sherds collected.
19. C. Blegen. Zrgouries: A Prehistoric Settlement in the Valley of Cleonae (Cambridge. Mass., 1928). hereafter referred to as Zrgouries. Blegen's remarks concerning both surface treatment and manufacture of the EH pottery have proved a valuable guide in distinguishing and dating the sherd material.
20. H. Goldman. Excavations at Eutresis in Boeotia (Cambridge. 1931). hereafter referred to as Eutresis.
21. J. M. Fossey and M. Mogelonsky. ‘The typology of Early Helladic pottery: a comparison of the Vouliagmeni (Perachora)―Asine system with the proposed Tiryns system’. PZ 58 (1983). 106-13. hereafter referred to as Fossey and Mogelonsky. which offers a useful concordance of these two systems (107. fig. 1). The categorization of EH pottery proposed by Fossey and Mogelonsky is also to be found in M. Mogelonsky. The Development in Form of Early Helladie I-II Pottery: A Chronological and Geographical Study (M.Sc. thesis. Cornell University, 1983). For the Laconia Survey see above, n. 19.
22. See also Cavanagh and Crouwel. 6 n. 10, on a bowl classification devised by Weisshaar.
23. W. P. Donovan. A Study of Early Helladic Pottery with Painted Decoration (Ph.D. diss. University of Cincinnati. 1961). 25.
24. J. B. Rutter. Lerna: A Preclassical Site in the Argolid, Vol. III: The Pottery Lerna IV (Princeton. 1995). hereafter referred 10 as Lerna.
25. Waterhouse Hope Simpson (n. 7). 91 n. 117. pl. 22 a. 3.
26. For a sherd resembling the Vouno Panagias sherd. although the paint of the latter is thinner, sec no. I.9 on p. 144 in J. L. Caskey and E. G. Caskey, ‘The earliest settlements of Eutresis: supplementary excavations, 1958’. Hesp. 29 (1960). 126-6710.2307/147291 and also Eutresis. p. 121. fig. 166. 3.
27. E. J. Holmberg, The Swedish Excavations at Asea in Arcadia (Göteborg, 1944), 65 fig. 68 i, hereafter referred to as Asea.
28. Cavanagh et al. (n. 2), 15.
29. Eutresis, 93.
30. C. W. Blegen. Korakow: A Prehistoric Settlement near Corinth (Boston and New York. 1921.
31. E. Kunze. Orchomenos III: Die Keramik der Frühen Bronzezeit (Munich. 1934).
32. T. Carter and M. Ydo. ‘The chipped and ground stone’ in Cavanagh et al. (n. 2). ch. 18. 141-82.
33. Cavanagh et al. (n. 2). 339.
34. A. Dousougli. ‘Makrovouni: Kephalari Magoula―Talioti. Bemerkungen zu den Stufen FHI und II in der Argolis’. PZ 62 (1987). 177.
35. Cavanagh et al. (n. 2). 15.
36. For a list of all Laconian sites occupied in each period see Banou (n. I). 12-23. MH material from the sites mentioned in this article has come to light during our surveys, thus indicating continuous habitation through the Bronze Age: it will appear in another article.
37. Kouphovouno could be associated with the settlement on the Menelaion and Asteri: Dragatsoula with Asteri: Karayiousi. The case of Boza needs special treatment, since seems to be equally important to the neighbouring site of Goulas and also both are coastal sites.
38. See above, n. 4. and also M. Heath Wiencke. ‘Change in Early Helladic Il’. AJA 93 (1989), 499 10.2307/505325.
39. Wiencke (n. 41), 498-9.
40. Waterhouse Hope Simpson (n. 7). 91 n. 117. pl. 22 a 3.
41. Wiencke (n. 41). 500.
42. Waterhouse Hope Simpson (n. 7). 168. Note also Rutter's statement: ‘Finally, in Messenia and Laconia we are altogether ignorant of contemporary ceramic development because no potter) recognizable as BHIII has yet been found’, in J. B. Rutter. ‘Early Helladic III vase painting. Ceramic regionalism and the influence of basketry’, in E. B. French and K. A. Wardle (eds). Problems in Greek Prehistory (Bristol. 1988). 74 Cavanagh and Crouwel. 16.
43. J. Renard. Le site néolithique et helladique ancien de Kouphovouno (Laconie): fouilles de 0. W. von Vacano (1941) (Aegaeum 4: Liège. 1989). 92.