GREECE FIELD SCHOOL, FALL 2012
TZANNATA LH SETTLEMENT PROJECT
The excavation, directed by Dr. Andonis Vasilakis, now Director Emeritus of the 35th Ephoreia of Antiquities of Kefalonia, took place in 2011 and 2012 at ‘Riza’ near the village Tzannata/Poros, in the SE part of the island of Kefallinia. Part of a LH settlement was discovered. The project was funded by the Society for Research of Prehistoric Kefalonia. SFU field school students participated in this project in the Fall semester of 2012.
A large apsidal-ovoid (or ellipsoid) building (Megaron A, in green) with 4 rooms of LH II B to LH III A2 date (1450-1300 BC) has been excavated. A paved road bordered by two long walls (in red) and a smaller apsidal building dated (in blue) to the LM III B-C period were also discovered, above the remains of the Megaron A. Five pure tile graves of the Late Roman period were also discovered to the east.
Room 1 of the ellipsoid megaron is in the south part of the structure. Half of the east part of the thick south round wall was totally destroyed by an olive tree and plowing, which went as deep as the bed rock. On its floor, which was of beaten earth, two small round stone built structures were used for pithoi. Two mud plastered pits/hearths were also discovered in the floor.
Room 2 is almost square and its east (exterior) and south walls are much destroyed. In its northeast angle ten river pebbles were discovered in situ, thus suggesting that the floor was paved. Much of the debris of this room, as was the case with Room A, was totally destroyed by plowing, thus only the destruction layer with the stones and the pottery beneath them was preserved intact. In the middle of the room close to the west wall, traces of wall of an earlier occupation were discovered.
Room 3 is the largest, the best preserved and the most complicated. Here the small apsidal building (Megaron B) was built after the destruction and abandonment of the large building (see bellow). Almost half of the room underlay the small apsidal building, and this makes its exploration very difficult. Only a small trial trench was made in the apse of the small building, uncovering the border of the western hearth and the traces of the southern separating wall. The excavation will continue here.
Room 4 was the last to be discovered and excavated in 2012. In its centre we left a square meter unexcavated to document the road. Of this room only the eastern part was completely excavated. The western part was left for the coming year. In the deepest layer traces of a wall from previous occupation of the site was discovered.
There is strong evidence - from remains of walls in all 3 rooms (but not in Room 1) and from pottery, collected from what seems to have been a deposit, on which the west and north part of the circular wall has been built - that these deep layers are dated to MH III and/or LH I (in brown). Main finds were: fine and coarse pottery of LH II and LH III periods, a boar tusk, many clay spindle weights, and a shaped triangular flint blade.
Andonis Vasilakis
