Iklaina-2015 Field Report-The Cyclopean Terace Complex

 

 

IKLAINA ARCHAEOLOGICAL PROJECT 2015 FIELD REPORT

 

Michael B. Cosmopoulos

The 2015 season of the Iklaina project took place from June 1 to July 7. The project is conducted under the auspices of the Athens Archaeological Society and funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities (Collaborative Grant RZ-51493-12), the Institute for Aegean Prehistory, the Pylos Archaeology Foundation, and the Hellenic Government-Karakas Foundation Professorship in Greek Studies at the University of Missouri-St. Louis.
The research team was composed of the archaeologists Jennifer Glaubius and Panagiotis Mihalopoulos (Site Supervisors); Aleksa Alaica, Jamie Aprile, Stavroula Drakopoulou, Deborah Ruscillo, Jason Earle, Elizabeth Fisher, Sarah Hilker, Thomas Ray, and Sophia Vakirtzi (trench supervisors); Michael Nelson (architect); Dale Tucker (Total Station Manager); Cynthia Shelmerdine, Joann Gulizio, and Patrick Thomas (ceramicists); Susan Allen, China Shelton, and Rachelanne Bolus (palaeobotanists); Deborah Ruscillo and Ximena Lemoine (faunal analysts); Haricleia Brekoulaki (fresco specialist); Stefania Veldemiri (conservator); Yannis Nakas (archaeological illustrator); George Vdokakis (project photographer); and Kirsten Clark (head cataloguer). In the project participated 16 students and volunteers from the University of Missouri-St. Louis, and other US, Canadian, and European universities.

This season’s work included a pre

-excavation study of the finds from the Cyclopean Terrace Complex, in preparation of the publication of the second volume in the Iklaina series, as well as new excavation in four areas (marked I-IV in Figure 1). This report presents the preliminary results of the excavation. 

   

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I.

 

Industrial area

A series of rectangular rooms excavated in the north part of the site (Figure 2, Figure 3, squares N13a10



2-



3-



3-



3-

 

3), appear to belong to the industrial complex that has been uncovered in 2010 and 2011.

 Rooms H1-H2

Rooms H1 and H2 have been partly excavated. To the north, east, and west they are defined by walls N-092, N-090, and N-088 but their south wall has not been excavated yet. They are rectangular, each measuring approximately 2.5 m x 4.5 m. Walls N-088, N-090, and N-089 are 0.50-0.60 m wide; N-090 and N-089 are constructed with three courses of stones (preserved height approximately 0.35 m), but N-088 is sturdier, with at least seven courses and a preserved height of 0.80 m. N-089, which divides H1 from H2, is founded at a higher point than the other walls and may represent a later division of an initially large room. In the interior of these rooms were found two pebble floors, each constructed of a layer of small, multicolored pebbles and packed earth. The earlier floor was found in the western part of H1 with a level corresponding to the bottom step of a low platform (w. 0.75 m, depth 0.60 m, height 0. 40 m), that projects from wall N-090 into the north part of H2 (Figure 4)

The later and best preserved floor was found in H2 ( Figure

5

): its surface slopes gently towards the north, but to the east and west it curves upward to cover the bottom rows of walls N-089 and N-088. In the fill below this pebble floor were found two terracotta figurines, an anthropomorphic Phi-type and a zoomorphic bovine. On a 3-5 cm-thick sediment that covers this pebble floor and at a distance of 0.60 m from the east façade of the corner of walls N-086 and N-092, was found a bathtub ( Figure

6

). The bathtub, measuring 0.80 x 0.50 m, is oriented approximately northwest-southeast, with its long axis parallel to the direction of wall N-086. Its walls are broken and only the bottom part is preserved to a height of 15-20 cm. Given the known association of bathtubs with industrial production in the Near East, one of our objectives in future studies will be to investigate whether it could have been used for cloth processing.

 Room K1

K1 is a rectangular room to the east of room H1, measuring 4.25 (northeast-southwest) x 4.75 m (northwest-southeast). It is defined by walls N-086, N-087, and N-084, all of which are 0.50 m. wide, but N-084 preserves two courses to a height of 0.35 m, whereas N-086 and N-087 preserve five courses to a height of 0.60 m. A notable feature in this room is a round hearth, 1.3 m in diameter and preserved to a height of 0.10 m, surrounded by five flat stones (Figure 3, Figure 7). The hearth sits on a floor surface made of hard-packed lime and plaster. The five surrounding stones have rounded edges with lengths and widths ranging from 0.26 to 0.45 m. and presumably functioned as column bases to hold up the ceiling around the opening that allowed smoke to escape the room. To the east of Room K1 there is a triangular space defined by wall N-083: this wall is a later addition, as it sits partly on N-084 and has a different orientation (north-south) than the walls of K1. Another room may have been defined by walls N-093 and N-094 to the northwest of rooms H1-H2-K1, but further excavation is needed to investigate its dimensions. 

   

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II.

 

Northeast part of the façade of the Cyclopean Terrace

Excavation this year continued in two spots along the north façade of the Cyclopean Terrace.

 Destruction deposit and drains

θ

 and

ζ 

 

In the northeast corner of the Terrace we continued clearing drains

parts of which had been discovered during previous seasons (Figure 8

). Drain  is the continuation of the open channel that drained the

waters from the paved area in front of the Cyclopean Terrace; it is 0.35 m wide and runs along the north façade of the Terrace for a distance of 2.50 m from the east corner of the Terrace, at which point it exits (the opening shown by the arrow in Figure 9). The exit of the drain opens in a short wall oriented N-S, built with six courses of unworked stones. Beyond this point, the waters of the drain seem to have been collected by a lower drain, whose covering slabs lie at a depth of 1.5 m lower than drain



. We were not able to clear this second drain, because the deposit that covers it includes a considerable amount of destruction debris, including ashlar blocks (Figure 10, left), burned soil, burned wood mixed with numerous (approximately 30) bronze nails (Figure 10, right), dissolved mudbricks, fragments of painted plaster, tiles, and possible clay drainage pipes. The pottery from this destruction level dates to LH IIIA2-IIIB. Further to the west, the waters flowed on top of a row of thick slabs that marked the floor in front of the Terrace; these slabs, 0.50 m. wide, continue along the entire façade of the Terrace.

 

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Drain



 , although parallel to drain



 on the east side of the Cyclopean Terrace, verges towards the north; among the tumble of stones, plaster, charcoal, and dissolved chunks of mudbrick, were three flat, rectangular stones (ca. 0.5 x 0.55 x 0.15 m in dimension) similar to the other cover stones of the drain. 

Wall CT-036

Wall CT-036, which was first excavated in 2011, was further delineated this season (Figure 11). This wall runs perpendicular to the Cyclopean Terrace in a north-south direction; its southern end lies under later walls and its relationship to the Terrace will be determined in future seasons. It is 1.60 m wide and has been exposed to a length of approximately 13 m. It is constructed of at least nine courses of alternating small and flat larger stones, with a

minimum height of 3 m. Excavation this season in squares N13a10γι, γθ, γη, and δθ traced CT

-036 north to where it seems to terminate in a structure, which will be excavated and better defined during a later season. Along the western façade of CT-036, partially dissolved mudbrick and bits of plaster were found, probably belonging to the superstructure. 

   

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Approximately 5 m from the northern end of CT-036 there is a layer of clay above the top of the wall with a thickness of about 10-15 cm. The clay is primarily 2.5 Y/R 4/8 (red) with irregular blackened patches. To the north of the patch of clay, approximately 8 small boulder-sized chalk stones were discovered, which had patches of mudbrick or clay similar to the material to the south preserved near the bottom of the stones. The stones show no sign of being worked, although that may be the result of natural weathering processes shaping the soft chalk limestone. This layer of clay may have been placed to facilitate movement of the large chalk stones.

III.

 

Northwest corner of the Cyclopean Terrace

In the northwest corner of the Cyclopean Terrace we removed part of the modern rubble that had been accumulated by the farmers and covered the Mycenaean level. The rubble was cleared to a depth of 1-1.5 m (Figure 12), allowing us to expose the northwest façade of the Terrace and to clear the row of yellow slabs that had appeared in 2013 and which seem to run along the north façade of the Terrace. 

At a distance of 6 m from the northwest corner of the Terrace and a depth of 3 m from the top preserved Cyclopean block a human burial was discovered; the burial has been covered by the rubble and pushed against the north façade of the Terrace (Figure 13, Figure 14). It belongs to a middle-aged woman, oriented east-west and resting on her right side. Some of the bones were broken during the accumulation of the modern rubble by a bulldozer. Immediately on top of the body were placed a young goat, a neonate puppy, and a bird. On the basis of the presence of the young goat and the neonate puppy, it appears that the burial occurred in early summer, but the date of the burial is not certain due to lack of diagnostic pottery or any burial gifts.

IV.

 

Paved road south of Building X

Excavation resumed in the area of the paved road south of Building X (Figure 15), which was exposed to a length of 13.1 m; the road has an average preserved width of 1.4 m. The continuation of the road to the east will be explored in future seasons. The surface and sides of the road were covered with a deposit containing mudbricks, large ceramic sherds, and bits of wall plaster. Both this deposit and the road were covered by a layer of rubble, containing cobble-sized 

unworked stones, that appear to have been placed as a leveling fill in the area from the southern edge of Building X to at least 2 m south of the road. Melted/dissolved mudbrick was found between the stones of the rubble layer indicating that a structure was probably constructed upon it. Above the rubble layer there is a mixture of later walls and accumulated sediment including large amounts of Byzantine tile and glazed pottery, which indicates the existence of a structure of the Byzantine period.