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Excavations in Ithaca: Tris Langadas

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 September 2013

Sylvia Benton  and
Helen Waterhouse
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The site was discovered by Andreas Lekatsas, then proprietor of the Stavros Hotel, in his vineyard, and excavated for the British School, at his generous invitation, in two campaigns in 1937 and 1938. It lies on a steeply sloping hillside just above the path leading up from the cave side of Polis Bay, and commands a splendid view down the Ithaca channel towards Same in Kephallenia (plate 1a). Its main area (christened TL), presumably a sizeable house, consisted of a ramp leading up to a heap of large roughly dressed stones, with one large loose rock in the middle; this suggested that the house had been destroyed by a fall of rock caused by an earthquake. On a terrace leading eastwards from the house were the remains of three small curvilinear huts, impinging upon one another, built of small stones; this area, L, was dug and planned by F. H. Stubbings. On a higher terrace beyond L we found some walls of a rectangular house with more regular stonework; this, House T, was dug and planned by H. Thomas.

Type
Research Article
Information
Annual of the British School at Athens , Volume 68 , November 1973 , pp. 1 - 24
Copyright
Copyright © The Council, British School at Athens 1973

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References

Abbreviations additional to those in standard use:

ChT = Wace, A. J. B., ‘Chamber Tombs at Mycenae’, Archaeologia lxxxiiGoogle Scholar.

Deiras = J. Deshayes, Argos, les fouilles de la Deiras.

FM = Furumark Motive number; MP 236 ff.

FS = Furumark Shape number: MP 585 ff.

French (I) = French, E., ‘Late Helladic IIIA 1 pottery from Mycenae’; BSA lix (1964) 241 ff.Google Scholar

French (2) = French, E., ‘Late Helladic IIIA 2 pottery from Mycenae’; BSA lx (1965) 159 ff.Google Scholar

Kirrha = L. Dor, J. Jannoray, H. and M. Van Effenterre, Kirrha, essai de préhistoire phocidienne.

Korakou = C. W. Blegen, Korakou, a Prehistoric Settlement near Corinth.

MP = A. Furumark, The Mycenaean Pottery.

Polis = Benton, S., ‘Excavations in Ithaca III: The Cave at Polis II’; BSA xxxix (1939) I ff.Google Scholar

Prosymna = C. W. Blegen, Prosymna.

Zygouries = C. W. Blegen, Zygouries, The Helladic Settlement in the Valley qf Cleonae.

1 Somewhat to the right of centre in the photograph BSA xxxv fig. 1.

2 Miss Benton generously invited the excavators of L and T to contribute the reports on their own sections, while retaining over-all responsibility for the text, and in fact arranging for most of the illustrations. Her text, with excellent new drawings for which we are indebted to Roger Howell, was almost complete when, on her retirement to Scotland, I undertook to prepare it for printing. Speed in performing this task has seemed more important than the addition of all the latest comparative material. Unfortunately I have not been able to study the pottery (except that from T) in corpore. (H. Waterhouse.)

3 The plan was drawn in 1938 by F. H. Stubbings; for its final form we thank J. Boardman and Mrs. M. Cox of the Ashmolean. By 1938 Lekatsas had removed many of the TL stones to build a terrace wall.

4 This included a Corinthian round aryballos base with leaves and bowl base with fine lines, an Attic cup base, and twelve clay spindle-whorls. In his original gift of pottery Andreas included a Corinthian ‘onion’ aryballos; there is no certainty that it came from the vineyard. Corinthian pottery was common in the graves round the hotel, cf. BSA xlvii. 227 ff.

5 Polis I ff.

6 BSA xxxv (1934–5) I ff.

7 Spirals with the tangent running down from left to right are comparatively rare, though not of course absent at any period or site where running spirals were used in decoration; this holds good also for Crete (see Popham, SIMA xii where his fig. 6.5 contrasts with our vase, and see also the assemblage on his pl. 39a). I have collected a few mainland examples: Mycenae, ChT pl. 45.5: Asine, Frödin, and Persson, Asine fig. 26.8: Monemvasia, Dimakopoulou, K., ADelt xxiii pl. 77 no. 52Google Scholar: Eutresis. Goldman, Eutresis fig. 260.1; Pylos, , Blegen, , and Rawson, , Pylos i. 2 fig. 346Google Scholar; Lakkithra, , EA 1932 pl. 11.159Google Scholar: and commonly at Krisa, , BCH lxii. 138 ff.Google Scholar figs. 19 and 21.

8 Cf. also the fragments from Eleusis, Mylonas, 127 fig. 107.

9 French (1) pl. 70(d), L.H. IIIA 1. Other examples of this kind of pattern are a three-handled jar from Tomb xv at the Argive Heraion (Prosymna no. 157 figs. 425 and 718) and a L.H. IIIB bowl from Korakou (Korakou fig. 84). The closest parallels for both motives are L.H. IIIA 1.

10 ADelt xx (1965) 137 ff.

11 Compare the collection from Oikopeda (Kephallenia), EA 1932 fig. 4.

12 Cf. Vermeule, , AJA liv pl. 3 no. 25 from Patras.Google Scholar

13 ADelt 1917, 147 fig. 109 shows an example from Thebes. They occur late in L.H. IIIB at Pylos (op. cit. fig. 395. 457, 275, 580, shapes 68–71), and these are close to a L.H. IIIB example from the Cyclopean Terrace Building at Mycenae, BSA lvi. 83 fig. 2.

14 Cf. Korakou figs. 68 and 80 (L.H. II) and 96 (L.H. III).

15 Argos (Deiras) provides good comparative material and a discussion (p. 148) of the evolution of this shape. The closest to our 102 is DV 119, Tomb 19, dated to early L.H. IIIA 2. Earlier excavated examples are collected in ChT 168 apropos of T. 513.2 and T. 521.8—which have longer necks than ours. The five from Prosymna are 122 discussed in Prosymna 442.

16 MP 82 fig. 22; see especially S. Iakovidis, Perati B 248 f., 445. But ours is not exactly like these.

17 AJA liv pl. 1.

18 For the blobs compare Korakou fig. 35.9, matt-painted, probably from a jug.

19 An alternative might be the lid or straight-sided dish FS 334; two are illustrated in French (1) fig. 2.14, 15.

20 Korakou 44, 59, 72: Prosymna 379.

21 MP 34 ff.; on the continued use of MH-type ware in Mycenaean times see also MP 47 and 505.

22 MP 427.

23 e.g. Zygouries 183 no. 4 and references; pl. 20.19, Prosymna 349 f.

24 Iakovidis, Perati B 284 and references.

25 A. W. Persson, Royal Tombs at Dendra 87 f. fig. 62, from Chamber Tomb 3.

26 The necks have a general resemblance to the L.H. IIIB FS 105 and 128 (MP 35 fig. 7) but find earlier, L.H. IIIA 2, parallels at Berbati (G. Säflund, Excavations at Barbati 61 fig. 40, fig. 53), Mycenae (CAT 41 f., pl. 22 nos. 19 and 21), and Argos (Deiras pl. 50.6 from T 5).

27 Parisata, , PAE 1951, 185 f.Google Scholar; Mazarakata, ibid. 184 f.; Oikopeda, , AE 1932, 11 ff.Google Scholar

28 To the references given by Hope Simpson (loc. cit. 82 f., site 282) add PAE 1962, 127 ff.; 1963, 93 ff.; 1964, 60 ff.; 1965, 121 ff.

29 ADelt 1919 fig. 29: FS 8.1 and FM 46.44, Krater. FS 45.6 with FM 54, Plriform Jar. FS 171 with FM 18, Stirrup jar.

30 EA 1932 pl. 11; ibid. 37, fig. 36 records a Phi figurine from Pit Δ5.

31 Mycenaean Pottery in Italy 183 and 186.

32 Polis and BSA xxxv. 45 ff.: Aetos, : BSA xxxiii. 25 ff.Google Scholar; xliii, 1 ff., esp. 121 ff.; xlviii. 255 ff.