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A Mycenaean IIIB Dagger from the Palaeolithic Site of Kastritsa in Epirus, Greece*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 May 2014

S. I. Dakaris
S. I. Dakaris
Affiliation:
University of Ioannina
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Extract

When a team of the Archaeological and Anthropological Department of the Cambridge University, working under Mr. Eric Higgs, recently discovered a Mycenaean dagger at the foot of the Kastritsa Mountain (altitude 757 metres), a few metres west of the mouth of the paleolithic cave, it came as no great surprise: for, in the last 15 years, about 10 bronze swords and daggers of Mycenaean provenance have been found in Epirus.

On the other hand, the discovery of the paleolithic cave itself at the western foot of the Kastritsa Mountain, and the finds yielded by its excavation, were as unexpected as they were important. It is hoped that continued excavations of the cave with its deep deposits and clear stratification will throw light on some of the problems connected with Homo Sapiens: his origins, the time of his appearance in Europe, his relation to other groups in Epirus and outside it, the civilization he evolved, and the ecological conditions in which he lived in the last phase of the last Ice Age (Würm III).

A fresh and more extensive excavation of the prehistoric settlement north of the village of Kastritsa, at the eastern foot of the mountain, would not be devoid of interest either, for it would complete the cycle of prehistoric research and probably throw light on the mesolithic occupation of which little is yet known in Greece.

Type
Research Article
Information
Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society , Volume 33 , February 1968 , pp. 30 - 36
Copyright
Copyright © The Prehistoric Society 1968

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References

page 30 note 1 For the published swords and daggers from Dodona (a), Kalbaki (1), “Perama” (2) and Nekromangeion (1), see Dakaris, S. I., Eph. Arch., 1956, 114–53Google Scholar; idem, Arch. Delt., 18 (1963), Chronika, 153–4, fig. 4, Pl. 187 e; Sandars, N. K., AJA, 67 (1967), 120, 137, 145, 151Google Scholar; Hammond, N. G. L., Epirus, 1967, 318 f.Google Scholar That the two horned swords published by me in Eph. Arch. 1956 were not found at Perama, but at Mesoyefira, in North East Epirus, see N. G. L. Hammond, loc. cit., 321. Hammond suggests that there must originally have been two separate pairs, one from Mesoyefira, the other from Perama, the last been lost. For the dagger from a cist tomb of Paramythia (Fig. 3), see Arch. Delt., 19 (1964)Google ScholarChronika (not yet published). Another dagger, found at Kalyvia of the village Elaphotopos, in the district of Zagoria, North East of Kalbaki, is not yet published.

page 30 note 2 Practika, 1951, 173–83Google Scholar; 1952, 362–86. A survey of the prehistoric finds from the Middle Palaeolithic to the end of the prehistoric period is given by Lepore, E., Ricerche sull' antico Epiro (Collana di Studi Greci), 1962, 71 f.Google Scholar; Dakaris, S. I., Οἱ Гενεαλογικοί Μῦθοι τῶν Μολοσσῶν Ἀθῆγαι, (1954), 1–13Google Scholar and Hammond, N. G. L., Epirus, 289–340Google Scholar.

page 30 note 3 Epirus, 292.

page 31 note 1 Practika, 1951, 178–80Google Scholar; 1952, 369–73; Caskey, J. L., Hesperia, XXIX (1960)Google Scholar, pl. 70 i, where others examples are given; idem Charistirion to An. Orlandos Г′ (1956), 151–2, pl. LIV, fig. 15 and 17, pl. LV, fig. 21 from Lerna IV (E.H. III). For the pottery type II, cf. the bowl of pl. LV, fig. 22 of Lerna IV. See also Hammond, N. G. L., Epirus, 292, 308 f.Google Scholar

page 31 note 2 Practika, 1951, 180–2Google Scholar; 1952, 279, fig. 1, 373–381 and 385; Hammond, N. G. L., Epirus, 295–9Google Scholar; cf. Heurtley, W., Prehistoric Macedonia, 1939, 99, 227Google Scholar, figs. 98–101, nos. 459–65; idemBSA, 28 (1927–28), 158 f.

page 31 note 3 Hammond, N. G. L., Epirus, 295 fGoogle Scholar. and 310.

page 31 note 4 Practika, 1951, 182Google Scholar; 1952, 378–80.

page 31 note 5 Arch. Delt., 21 (1965)Google Scholar and 22 (1966) Chronika, not yet published. A jug with cut-away neck and side-spout, without painted decoration of West Macedonian origin, was found in a tomb with bones of a child at Kastritsa dating, according to the Stramatographic evidence, from the 4th Cent., Practika 1952, 382Google Scholar, fig. 21, 383 and 367. Compare the vase from Pateli, W. Heutrley, PM, pl. XXIIIb.

page 31 note 6 Practika, 1951, 179–80Google Scholar; 1952, 385; Eph. Arch. 1959, 19 fGoogle Scholar; N. G. L. Hammond, op. cit., 304–5, suggests on typological reasons, that pottery II reached Epirus after 1700 B.C. Until a stromatography with good chronological evidence will be obtained, the dating will be subject to discussion, because of the untypical character and the strong conservatisme of this pottery: some elements are subneolithic, others Early Helladic and some Middle Helladic.

page 31 note 7 Practika, 1951, 182Google Scholar, fig. 7, 3; 1952, 365, fig. 3.

page 31 note 8 Arch. Delt., 19 (1963Google Scholar) Chronika, 312–13, pl. 351d.

page 31 note 9 Arch. Delt., 21 (1965)Google ScholarChronika, not yet published.

page 32 note 1 A few neolithic sherds A1 were found in a cave, between Sideri and Aetos, to the South of Filiates, Arch. Delt., 17 (1961–1962), 195Google Scholar. fig. 2, pl. 225 a. The cave has been visited later by the archaeologist Aug. Sordinas, who made some superficial investigations and brought to the Museum of Ioannina a lot of sherds, a few broken neolithic vases and human bone remains.

page 32 note 2 Practika, 1951, 183Google Scholar; 1952, 367 and 385. For the historical background about 400 B.C., see S. I. Dakaris, note 2, 50 f.

page 32 note 3 See Dakaris, S. I., Ἀϕιέρωμα εἰς τήν Ηπειρον, 1954 (Εἰς Μνήμην Xρ. Σούλη), 46 ffGoogle Scholar. For a description of the ancient remains with photographs and plan, see Hammond, N. G. L., Epirus, 173 f.Google Scholar, plan 15 and pl. XIa, who attributes the remains to Eurymenai, mentioned from Diodorus Siculus 19.88, for the year 312 B.C.; see also pp. 527 and 632.

page 32 note 4 At the same time Christian Dodona was abandoned, according to the archaeological finds, D. Evangelides and Dacaris, S. I., Τὸ ἱερὸυ τῆς Δωδώνης”, AE, 1959, 150 and 151–2Google Scholar.

page 32 note 5 See, Dakaris, S. I., ‘Ιωάγγινα, ἡ Νεώτερη Εὔροια’ Epir. Estia, A (1952), 537–554Google Scholar; idem., Practika, 1951, 174, n. 2 and 183.

page 32 note 6 Practika, 1958, 111–2Google Scholar, pl. 85 band 86. The Thresprotian Ephyra is mentioned in Odyss., a 259 = b 328.

page 32 note 7 Arch. Delt., 18 (1963), 153–4Google Scholar, plan 4, pl. 187e; Practika, 1958, p. 111Google Scholar; 1963. 91–2; Τό Ἒργον 1963, 61–3Google Scholar.

page 32 note 8 Practika, 1960, 123–6Google Scholar, plan 3, 92γ,δ and 93.

page 32 note 9 S.I. Dakaris, see note 2, 3, n. 2 and Arch. Delt., 16 (1960)Google ScholarChronika, 205. That the place name Toryne is a place name of Middle or Late Helladic age, see Lepore, E., Richerche, 98–9Google Scholar and note 162.

page 33 note 1 Dakaris, S. I., Eph. Arch., 1956, 120–2Google Scholar; Practika, 1960, 125–6Google Scholar; S. I. Dakaris, note, 2 p. 5f.; Arch. Delt., 18 (1963), 154Google Scholar; Desborough, R. d'A., The Last Mcyenaeans and their Successors, 1964, 102Google Scholar.

page 34 note 1 See Iliad and Odyss., passim, 259. Cf. S. I. Dakaris, note 2, p. 7 f. and Eph. Arch., 1956, 123 f., and 149 f.Google Scholar

page 34 note 2 Arch. Delt., 19 (1964)Google ScholarChronika, not yet published (dagger of Paramythia); Ephem. Arch., 1956, 115Google Scholar, fig. 1; Sandars, N. K., AJA, 67 (1963)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, pl. 25, 35.

page 34 note 3 N. K. Sandars, see note 1, p. 133.

page 34 note 4 Eph. Arch., 1956, 142Google Scholar; N. K. Sandars, op. cit., 133. This decorative character have also the two bronze weapons from Elis, a dagger of type Fii and a hooked short sword G2 (C2 Furumark), from tombs 1 and 4 with submycenaean pottery, Yalouris, N., Practika 1963, 138Google Scholar, p.l 115b, γ.

page 35 note 1 See note I, 134 and 135; Iakovides, G., Practika, 1955, 104Google Scholar, pl. 30b; idem, Practika, 1963 (1966), 39.

page 35 note 2 Arch, Eph., 1956, 144Google Scholar.

page 35 note 3 Besides the leaf-shaped spear-head found in the cist-tomb i of Kalbaki (LH III B), a second came from the tholos tomb at Kiperi, near Parga, with LH III B pottery, and a third from the cist-tomb of Paramythia, with the dagger Pl. II, no. 5 of LH III A-B. Cf. also Desborough, V., ‘The Greek Mainland, c. 115c–c. 1000 B.C.’, PPS, 31 (1965), 222Google Scholar.

page 35 note 4 Ephem. Arch., 1891, 25–6Google Scholar; 1897, no, pl. (8, 4) Cf. also Eph. Arch., 1956, 138Google Scholar, fig. 8.

page 35 note 5 See note 59, in N. K. Sandars, AJA, op. cit.

page 35 note 6 N. K. Sandars, see note 1, 136–37.

page 35 note 7 N. K. Sandars, op. cit., pl. 25, 37, who dates this point of spear not much before 1200.

page 35 note 8 N. K. Sandars, op. cit., 133, The dagger has close affinities to the Sandars Class Eii daggers of the fourteenth century, op. cit., 133, pl. 25, 30, 31.

page 35 note 9 The dagger has seven rivet holes, two in the pommel, one in the grip and four in the shoulders, one pair in each shoulder. The first in the pommel and the two of the shoulders, one on each side, were made by reworking it in antiquity. The withered blade points also to long use.

page 36 note 1 This dagger should be older than the dagger of Nekromanteion (Pl. I, no. 3) and of the same time of the dagger from Dodona, see Eph. Arch., 1856, 141Google Scholar, and fig. 19, no. 15; N. G. L. Hammond, Epirus, fig. 19 F.

page 36 note 2 Eph. Arch., 1891, 25Google Scholar; 1897, 110.

page 36 note 3 Blegen, C., The Palace of Nestor at Pylos in Western Messenia 1966, vol. 1, 421 f.Google Scholar

page 36 note 4 See note 6, especially p. 313, and my note 7; S. I. Dakaris, see note 2, p. 8–10. The invaders entered in central Epirus along the west side of Pindos, probably via Koritsa or through the upper valley of Drin: the Macedonian pottery found at Vitsa points closer connections to the pottery IV of these areas (see note 6).

page 36 note 5 Practika, 1982, 380–1 and 385Google Scholar; Eph. Arch., 1956, 130–1, 144–5Google Scholar; S. I. Dakaris, see note 2, 8–10; Lepore, E., Ricerche, 95, 98–9, 102 fGoogle Scholar. and note 168.