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Notes from the Dodecanese II

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 September 2013

R. Hope Simpson  and
J. F. Lazenby
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Summary

Our campaigns of 1967 and 1968 have confirmed and supplemented that of 1960, especially concerning the Late Bronze Age habitation of the Dodecanese. Pottery of Mycenaean type has been found for the first time on Patmos, Leros, and Syme, and further Mycenaean settlements have been identified in the northern part of Kos, at Asklúpi and Palaiópyli. On many sites it has not been possible to determine from the surface finds the exact period of prehistoric habitation, but pre-Mycenaean material has been noted for the first time on the islands of Patmos, Leros, Telos (?), Syme, and Kasos. A particularly interesting early phase is represented by the sherds from Troúlli on Kos. Among the finds from periods subsequent to the Bronze Age, the most interesting are perhaps the Geometric sherds from Kastélli on Patmos and from the Kástro at Pólin on Kasos. A remarkable phenomenon also is the size and strength of the Hellenistic fortifications on some of the smaller islands, namely Patmos, Telos, Syme, and Castellorizo. It would appear that these islands probably enjoyed at this time a prosperity disproportionate to their size and agricultural resources.

Type
Research Article
Information
Annual of the British School at Athens , Volume 65 , November 1970 , pp. 47 - 77
Copyright
Copyright © The Council, British School at Athens 1970

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References

1 BSA lvii (1962) 154–75.

2 By Hope Simpson in 1967 and 1968.

3 By Lazenby in 1968.

4 We acknowledge with gratitude all the help given by the Greek Archaeological Service, thanking especially Miss K. Romiopoulou, Miss K. Demakopoulou, Mr. G. Konstantinopoulos (Ephor for the Dodecanese), Miss E. Zervoudakis and Mr. E. Kollias (Epimeletes), Mr. M. Nikolaides (Epimelete of Kos), and Mr. M. Samarkos (Special Epimelete of Leros), together with the guards of the Rhodes and Kos museums. Among the many who gave guidance during our travels we thank particularly Messrs. A. Skiathitis (Leros), N. Gambierakis (Lipsoi), A. Pandelis (Patmos), K. Chondros (Kos), I. Pharmakidis (Syme), M. Panayiotakis (Telos), M. Pyliaris (Karpathos), A. Chalkitis (Kasos), and E. Oikonomos (Castellorizo).

5 We would like to thank Professors A. W. Lawrence and F. E. Winter and Mr. J. N. Coldstream for their help concerning these later antiquities, although they are not to be held responsible for the views or identifications given here. In accordance with instructions from the Greek Archaeological Service, the surface sherds collected have either been deposited in the Museums or local collections (on Rhodes, Kos, and Leros) or else entrusted to the care of the local police.

6 By Susini, G., Manganaro, G., and Carratelli, G. Pugliese in Ann. xli–xlii (1963–1964).Google Scholar

7 Visits to Kámbos and Gríkou, the other fertile areas on the island, were unrewarded. There is, however, a medieval hermitage, in a huge rock named Kallikátsou Pétra, on the headland which forms the south side of Gríkou Bay. The hermit occupied an enlarged cave in the centre of the rock, and the only access was from the top down a set of steep rock-cut steps.

8 A photograph of part of this sector is given by Pace, B., Ann. i (1914) 370–2 and fig. 10Google Scholar; and Scranton, , Greek Walls 174Google Scholar, classes the walls here ‘Pseudo-isodomic Trapezoidal’, but the anomalies in construction seem mainly due to the terrain.

9 The tower was partly cleared by the Greek Archaeological Service (PAE 1958, 241; BCH 1959, 196).

10 BSA lii. 135–6.

11 Cf. BSA lvii. 168 and 169 n. 144 on the difficulty of attribution.

12 BSA lii. 136, where the site and its environs are fully described.

13 Despite the problematical sherd discussed in BICS Suppl. no. 6 (1965) 189.

14 Ancient Leros 16–19; cf. BSA lii. 134.

15 BSA xii. 172.

16 Ancient Leros 19. The promontories are illustrated in the Admiralty Handbook Dodecanese (1943) in the photo opposite p. 115.Google Scholar

17 The hillock is the property of Mr. Pandelís Gríllis, the owner of the cottage on the adjacent spur to the north-east.

18 Ancient Leros 2–5.

19 BSA lii. 134–5.

20 Ann. ii. 61–6 and figs. 54–8.

21 The area comprises all that is visible in the foreground of Gerola's photo (loc. cit., fig. 57), as well as some ground to the right of the picture (i.e. to the south).

22 Cf. Ancient Leros, pl. 2, for the location. We are indebted to Mr. Konstantinopoulos for permission to publish this find. Unfortunately, there was no time (at the very end of the 1967 visit) to examine the area indicated.

23 Ancient Leros 27–30.

24 BSA lii. 134.

25 BSA xii. 172–4, cf. Scranton, Greek Walls 176.

26 Cf. Ann. xli–xlii (1963–4) 300 f. and figs. 1–2.

27 Professor Benson has kindly called my attention also to the review by Cook, of Ancient Leros in CR xiv (1964) 355–6Google Scholar, where scepticism concerning Mycenaean habitation here is implied. Cf. also the ‘Cyclopean’ walling on Telos (below), which may be Hellenistic.

28 Ann. xliii–xliv (1965–6) 5–311; cf. Boll. d'Arte xxxv (1950) 316–31. In BSA lvii. 171 we incorrectly placed the Eleóna tombs at the hamlet of Eleóna near Kardhámena—a lucky mistake, since it gave rise to our discovery of a fresh Mycenaean site there (no. 12 on Fig. 5).

29 Cf. Ann. xliii–xliv fig. 1 on p. 8 and fig. 2 on p. 9.

30 Op. cit. 306; cf. BSA lvii. 171 n. 157. For the L.H. pottery cf. also Desborough, V. R. d'A., The Last Mycenaeans and their Successors (1964) 153, 227, and 253 f.Google Scholar

31 This site and nos. 5, 7, 10, and 11 below were discovered by Hope Simpson together with Mr. John D. Walker, of the Department of the History of Medicine and Science, the University of British Columbia. Mr. Walker was in Kos studying the practice of ancient medicine, and also preparing a historical guide to the island. His assistance and company (during most of the 1967 and 1968 visits) were alike invaluable.

32 Boll. d'Arte xxxv (1950) 324–5 and figs. 98, 101, and 102; cf. Ann. xliii–xliv. 306. Comparisons are made with Troy settlements III and IV. Of the eight vases from Asklúpi only two are illustrated in detail (Boll. d'Arte xxxv, fig. 98), namely a ladle and a bulbous jar with side lugs. Another similar jar was found, as well as a deeper ladle, three bulbous jugs, and a small rounded bowl with thick side handle. The impression is that the vases form a homogeneous group.

33 We are indebted to Mr. Nikolaides and to Mr. K. Chondros (a guard at the Kos museum) for showing us the location both of these burials and of the pithos burial at Mesariá below.

34 Cf. Moderna, Memorie map and index s.v. Kokkinonero and Burina. On the way to Kokkinónero, on the south-east bank of the stream, and about a kilometre south-southwest of the Asklepieion, we noted a Late Roman site, about 200 by 100 m. in extent, on a rocky spur overlooking the Asklepieion. We visited the spring chamber (Hellenistic?) at Burinna in July 1968, when it was opened up for us (the spring now constitutes the main source of water supply for the town of Kos) by the Superintendent of Works, by kind permission of the Lord Mayor of Kos. We found no traces of prehistoric habitation in the vicinity, and we note that previous reports of Mycenaean finds here are mistaken (cf. Fimmen, , Die Kretisch-Mykenische Kultur (1921) 16Google Scholar).

35 JHS Suppl., Archaeological Reports for 1958 16.

36 Some small flat and broad dagger blades were also found within the pithos.

37 Herzog, R., AA 1901, 138–9Google Scholar, Abb. 8 (the site from the south-east); Gerola, G., Ann. ii (1916) 46–8 and figs. 40–2Google Scholar (fig. 40 is from the south and fig. 41 from the north).

38 Well shown on Ann. ii. 47, fig. 41.

39 We are indebted to Messrs. Konstantinopoulos and Nikolaides for permission to make this brief mention of the contents in advance of publication.

40 Modona, , Memorie 33 and 103–4 with Tav. ii (a view of the interior of the vault).Google Scholar The inscription (Paton and Hicks no. 349) was found in the chapel. It was assigned to the latter part of the third century B.C. by Hiller von Gaertringen (Modona, loc. cit.). See also Schatzmann, P., JdI 49 (1934) 110 ff.Google Scholar

41 A view of this side of the chapel is given by Gerola, , Ann. ii. 49Google Scholar, fig. 43.

42 As expounded by Mr. George Soultanos of Kos.

43 Modona's map in Memorie (fold-out at the end) is a reduction from this.

44 i.e. the site discovered in 1960 (BSA lvii. 171).

45 BSA lvii. 168–9.

46 ÖJh vii. 287.

47 Ann. ii. 1–5, figs. 3–4.

48 Ann. ii. 4, fig. 4.

49 Cf. BSA lvii, pl. 45c.

50 Cf. also BSA lvii. 169 and n. 144.

51 Cf. BSA lvii. 169 and pl. 45b, The Tropaion is discussed by Maiuri, , Ann. iv–v. 456 f.Google Scholar

52 BSA ii 159–65.

53 BSA lii. 116–18.

54 Ann. xli–xlii. 261–90.

55 Ann. ii. 13–17.

56 BSA xii. 160, fig. 6 = Ann. ii. 16, fig. 14.

57 BSA xii. 161: ‘At the north-east corner the Greek wall still stands to a considerable height.’

58 This was also illustrated by Susini, , Ann. xli–xlii. 234Google Scholar, fig. 31, but mistakenly identified by him as part of the city wall of Brykous on Karpathos.

59 BSA xii. 162 and fig. 8. The wall was not of uniform quality. Scranton (Greek Walls 185) classes two sections as ‘Dry Rubble Masonry’.

60 BSA xii. 163, fig. 9; lii, pl. 24a; and Ann. xli–xlii. 264. fig. 51.

61 Ann. xli–xlii. 265, fig. 52.

62 Greek Walls 172.

63 BSA xii. 164, fig. 10.

64 BSA lii. 116–18.

65 BSA xii. 163 (Plate 24b here = Fig. 11 no. 1, and Plate 24c = Fig. 11 no. 3).

66 BSA lvii, 160–1. We discovered the site on the last day of our 1960 visit, and we were therefore unable then to measure it completely.

67 Charitonides, S. I., ADelt xvii (1961–1962) 32–76.Google Scholar

68 BSA lvii. 162–3.

69 BSA lvii. 163–5.

70 Ann. xli–xlii. 225–33, especially 231–3 with fig. 29 (the old map drawn by O. Dapper).

71 Cf. BSA lvii. 168 and Ann. xli–xlii. 203–5 with map, fig. 1.

72 Ann. xli–xlii. 206–8 and figs. 3–6.

73 Loc. cit. fig. 6.

74 Loc. cit. fig. 3.

75 Ann. xli–xlii. 213–16. Our note (BSA lvii. 168) should be emended accordingly.

76 BSA ix. 181–2 and fig. 2.

77 In 1960 we saw similar examples at Spóa and Ólimbos.

78 ADelt i (1915) Parart. 62–4.

79 BCH xvi. 304–5, xviii. 392, and xxiii. 333–4, as well as BCH xlvi. 554 and xlvii. 544 referring to Diamantaras's publications in a local periodical entitled ‘Θωνή τοῦ Δωδεκανήσου’.

80 It was chosen by the Gurkhas as the site of their antiaircraft gun emplacement in 1943.

81 This seems to be assumed by Kyparissis, op. cit. 64.

82 According to the Μεγάλη Ἑλληνική Ἐγκυκλοπαίδεια (s.v. Καστελλόριӡον) the Eighth Grand Master of Rhodes was responsible for the building of the ‘Red Castle’; cf. Myres, J. L., Geographical History in Greek Lands (Oxford, 1953) 301–2.Google Scholar

83 Op. cit. 63. He assigned them to the second Mycenaean period (whatever this may be taken to mean).

84 BSA lii. 70–1 and pl. 18d; cf. Robert, L., Études Anatoliennes (Paris, 1937) pls. 35 and 36, 1.Google Scholar

85 Cf. Bean, G. E., Turkey's Southern Shore (London, 1968) pl. 81.Google Scholar

86 Demargne, P., Fouilles de Xanthos i (Paris, 1958) 122–6Google Scholar, fig. 24, and pls. lvii–lviii.

87 BSA, loc. cit.

88 In particular, they are absent from Tomb R bis at Xanthos.