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Excavation on the Kofinà Ridge, Chios

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 October 2013

Extract

The School's decision to undertake work in the island of Chios was made possible by the generosity of an anonymous donor. The work was placed under my direction, and in the first year (1952) excavations were carried out on a limited scale during three weeks of June on the Kofinà ridge in Chios town, while soundings were made on an Early Bronze Age site at Emporio near Pyrgi on the south coast of the island, where work has since continued.

The site of Kofinà was chosen because Archaic sherds on the surface raised a hope that it might be possible to uncover something of the Archaic city there. As it turned out, the Kofinà area was on the very edge of the ancient city, as of the modern town. The excavations at Kofinà were begun by myself, assisted by Mr. J. K. Anderson, and after the first ten days they were continued and completed by Mr. Anderson and Mr. R. V. Nicholls. The results of the excavations are here published in full by Mr. Anderson.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Council, British School at Athens 1954

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References

* The section on the ancient city of Chios (pp. 123–128) is by Mr. J. Boardman. The Map (Fig. 1) was compiled by Mr. Boardman, Mr. Smollett, and myself, with the active and generous help of Mr. A. P. Stephanou, Epimeletes of Antiquities, on the basis of evidence provided by Mr. Anderson's exploration of the area in the Spring of 1952 before the excavations. We are very much indebted to the kindness of Mr. A. P. Salliares, District Engineer in Chios, who most generously placed a large-scale map of Chios town at our disposal, from which the map (Fig. 1) was traced. Further acknowledgments by Mr. Boardman and Mr. Anderson will be found below, nn. 2 and 25.

1 On the late traditions which place the ancient city above the monastery Coronata (modern Kournà), see Hunt, , BSA XLI 31.Google Scholar They site the city on H. Markos hill 5 km. west of the modern town; but on its plateau top the only remains are traces of mediaeval walls, including a circuit wall, and reported tile graves, none earlier than our era. See also Zolotas in Ἀθηνᾶ XXVIII (1916), 17 ff., and the fullest account of the ancient city in Zolotas Ἱστορία τῆς Χίου Α 2 2 ff., where details of early chance finds of walls and tombs in the modern town are recorded: it is not usually possible to judge the date of the finds Zolotas mentions, and of course Christian tombs do not afford evidence about the city limits; but the information he has collected is still of the greatest value.

2 Dr. N. Kondoleon has given freely of his knowledge of the town. We are also most deeply indebted to Mr. A. P. Stephanou, Epimeletes of Antiquities, who has done invaluable work in rescuing and recording chance finds, and retrieving earlier unpublished accounts of excavations. The reports of this work have been published in local newspapers, which Mr. Stephanou has kindly made available; and from these reports come most of the unacknowledged references to tombs and finds in the town mentioned below (see note 5). Other authorities and sources are quoted in the text. Bracketed numbers refer to points on the plan.

3 Richard Chandler, visiting the island in 1764, remarked later ‘we found by the sea-side, near the town, three stones with inscriptions, which had been brought for ballast from the continent of Asia’; cf. Zolotas, op. cit. A 1 323, 2 24. This collecting of worked stones, usually for building in the Kastro and around Bounaki, vitiates Bürchner's deduction, from inscription find-places, that the agora lay between Palaiokastro and Bounaki (RE s.v. ‘Chios’ 2298).

4 Zolotas, op. cit. A 2 10 f.

5 Archives des missions scientifiques et littéraires V (1856), 492–5. Earlier excavation for building stone on Bounaki and Palaiokastro by Xanthakes is recorded in the papers of Dr. G. K. Pittaoules, part of which have been published by Stephanou in Τὰ Νέα τοῦ Βροντάδου.

6 XI 3. A traitor magistrate had the harbour boom overhauled and the roofs of the dockyard, stoa and tower repaired to provide an excuse for convenient ladders. Guards were reduced as an economy measure and hunting nets and sails with ropes hung over the walls to assist the attackers. Hunter (ΑΙΝΕΙΟY ΠΟΛΙΟPΚΗΤΙΚΑ 136) refers the event to the revolt from Athens in 357, but there is no reason to believe that this involved revolution in the city rather than a simple declaration of alliance against Athens. It would better suit some pro-Athenian intrigue during the Peloponnesian War after 412, when the city was Spartan but the Athenians were stationed at Delphinion with a fleet only 13 km. away, or even earlier at the time of the plot recorded by Thucydides (VIII 24, 6). Hunter adduces the dating of this event to 357 as a terminus post quem for Aeneas' work.

7 XIV 1, 35. See also Lehmann-Hartleben, , Die antiken Hafenanlagen 82, 107 f.Google Scholar, who found no certain evidence in literary sources that the harbour was enclosed by the walls, and Robert, , REG XLII 38.Google Scholar Herod the Great had restored in Chios at his own expense a stoa which had been destroyed in the Mithridatic War (Josephus, , AJ XVI 2, 2)Google Scholar; on a tradition that he deepened and widened the harbour, see Zolotas, op. cit. A 2 22.

8 Kondoleon will publish this material, and kindly allows me to mention it here. Nearby finds seemed to Zolotas (op. cit. A 2 14) to indicate a fountain house.

9 The Chians were assembled there before deportation by Mithridates (Appian, , Mithr. 47Google Scholar).

10 BCH XLIV 412.

11 One such now serves as a water tank in Bounaki gardens.

12 There was also a church S. Giorgio di Serapione, cf. Zolotas, op. cit. A 1 381 f., B 74.

13 Cf. ‘Archaeology in Greece, 1953’; in JHS LXXIV. Stephanou publishes in Χιακὸς Λαός a fragmentary inscription from the town bearing part of a dedication to Demeter.

14 Op. cit. A 2 12–17 on the walls and finds in the town: he notes different types of stone employed and infers several periods and perhaps different circuits.

15 X 16, 9.

16 Thuc. IV 51. Its earlier condition may be as for the rest of Ionia after the Peace of Callias, cf. Wade-Gery, , Athenian Studies Presented to W. S. Ferguson 141.Google Scholar

17 NH XXXVI 6, 46.

18 Ἀθηνᾶ XX 167, 183, Zolotas, op. cit. A 1 388, B 163 (where he suggests that the walls may have suffered from the same earthquake that destroyed part of those of Rhodes as well as the Colossus there). See also Magie, , Roman Rule in Asia Minor II 891, n. 97.Google Scholar

19 Cf. Bürchner's plan in RE s.v. ‘Chios’ and the plan after p. 620 in Zolotas, op. cit. A 2.

20 Zolotas, op. cit. A 2 25. On other tombs about Chios town, see Kanellakes, in πιερία-Αίγαίον (1896), 237 ff.Google Scholar

21 JHS LXXIII 124, BCH LXXVII 232.

22 Op. cit. 492.

23 ADelt I 67: they are not decorated: but cf. the unique relief fragment ibid. 71, fig. 5; and Hunt, op. cit. 33, records the report of a painted example found south of the town.

24 The tombs reported by Zolotas (op. cit. A 2 14 f., 24 f.) seem to be late, but Stephanou has located several Hellenistic graves immediately east of the church.

24a Τὴν ἀκρόπολιν τῶν Χίων taken by Kratesippides (D.S. XIII 65, 3) refers to Chios city and not to a ‘castle hill’ in it.

25 Miss J. E. Dawson, Mr. and Mrs. W. J. M. Synge, Mr. D. Smollett, and Mr. David Nicolson helped in the work of excavation. The plans and sections of trenches were drawn by Mr. Nicholls. Most of the drawings of pottery from the graves are by Miss Dawson. Miss E. A. Petty drew the stamps from loom-weights and the fragments of relief pithos shown in Fig. 14, and made fair copies of the plans and sections. The rest of the drawings (by far the greater number) are by Miss V. M. Rogers, to whose skill and patience I am much indebted. My obligations to Mr. Hood and Mr. Nicholls are far greater than I can say; I have acknowledged a few of their suggestions in the proper places; many more I have adopted without acknowledgment.

Of other scholars, I am most indebted to Mr. J. M. Cook and Miss Sylvia Benton. Without the knowledge gained by watching them at work I would have been quite unable to deal with this material.

That I am greatly obliged to the staff of the American Excavations in the Athenian Agora goes without saying; my chief regret is that I was unable to make more use of the learning and experience which their generosity places at the disposal of all enquirers. Miss Virginia Grace's kindness in visiting Chios to examine the fragments of amphorae found has been acknowledged in the proper places.

Mr. Kondoleon, Ephor of Antiquities, and Mr. A. Stephanou, Assistant Master at Chios Gymnasium and Curator of the Museum, were kindness itself; besides assisting in innumerable ways before, during and after the excavation they allowed us to turn the whole Museum into a workshop: we would otherwise have been unable to deal with the mass of material found.

My personal expenses, as far as they were not covered by the Macmillan Studentship which I held at the time, were met by grants from the Oxford Craven Committee and from Christ Church, Oxford, for which I am most grateful.

This paper was written before the publication of the Hellenistic material from the American excavations at Tarsus, and I have not had an opportunity of comparing the Chios and Tarsus finds in detail. But the close resemblance between the ‘West Slope’ ware from the two sites is obvious, and I believe that the absolute chronology which I have suggested for our finds should be revised to agree with that established (by coins) at Tarsus. Probably my dates are rather too high, and the three deposits from the Well cover the whole of the third century B.C. instead of only the first half of it.

26 All dates are B.C. unless they are expressly said to be A.D.

27 BSA XXXV 161, fig. 12, 8.

28 See Technau, , AM LIV 14Google Scholar, and Beilage 5, nos. 2, 7, and 6.

29 E.g. JHS XLIV, pl. 12, nos. 3 and 4.

30 Petrie, Flinders, Naucratis I, pl. 16, no. 4.Google Scholar

31 I have classified all the lamps found in the excavation according to the system laid down by Broneer in Corinth IV ii, and must be understood to refer to this work when I speak of lamps of Type I, Type II, etc.

32 See plan, Fig. 3.

33 Technau, op. cit. 53, fig. 45. Sixth century.

34 See plan, Fig. 3, and section, Fig. 4.

35 AA 1914, figs. 53 and 44; ibid. col. 231.

36 Petrie, Flinders, Naucratis I, pl. 16, 7.Google Scholar

37 Vanderpool, , Hesperia XV 278Google Scholar, no. 27 (and pl. 28). From the upper filling of Vanderpool's Rectangular Rock-cut Shaft.

38 Campbell, , Hesperia VII 608, nos. 211–16Google Scholar. From a well-filling of the late sixth and early fifth centuries; but these seem to have rather less bulgy necks.

39 Mr. P. E. Corbett examined drawings of the sections of fragments from this pit (not published) and gave me much useful advice. I must also express my gratitude to Mr. R. C. Moore, of Christ Church, Oxford, who discussed these pieces with me in Chios.

40 Among these were pieces of rims and feet resembling Bloesch, Formen attischer Schalen, pls. 3.2, 35.4, 36.1, 2, 4.

41 Winter's reference to British Museum E 23 is surely wrong: probably E 61 is meant, by Makron (Beazley, , Attic Red-Figure Vase Painters 307Google Scholar).

42 Dinsmoor has examined very closely the dating of palmette chains on Attic vases of the late Archaic period (AJA L 86 ff.).

43 van Buren, , Figurative Terracotta Revetments in Etruria and Latium, pl. 23.Google Scholar

44 No particular description will be given of the fabric of these vases unless it differs in some way from that of ordinary Attic black glaze.

45 Olynthus V, pls. 157–9.

46 Thompson, Hesperia III, ‘Two Centuries of Hellenistic Pottery’;. I shall refer to this article, upon which all discussion of the dating of Hellenistic pottery must be based, as ‘Thompson’.

47 E.g. Olynthus V, pl. 172, no. 823.

48 But on the lid of a lekanis from Rhodes (Clara Rhodes VII 516–17, figs. 45–6)Google Scholar somewhat similar ladies confront griffons.

49 Olynthus V, pls. 119–24.

50 Olynthus V, pl. 171, no. 806.

51 Op. cit. 340, fig. 20.

52 See Polemon, in Athenaeus XI 478Google Scholar c (quoted by Thompson).

53 Jacopi, , Clara Rhodos III 45, fig. 31.Google Scholar

54 Nos. 162, 163 below.

55 See Broneer, , Corinth IV ii 45 ff.Google Scholar, where evidence is given that this type began at the end of the fifth century and continued throughout the fourth. Ours is by no means one of the latest.

56 Op. cit., fig. 116.

57 A. 14–18.

58 I believe that it is now customary to describe only those vases which are decorated with incised checkerboards and similar ‘subgeometric’ patterns as ‘West Slope’. I hope that I may be excused using the words (as Thompson does in Hesperia III) in a wider sense. I am not immediately convinced of the usefulness of a restricted definition, that would separate (for example) Thompson's B.5 from C. 11. I have not seen a single sherd with ‘subgeometric’ West Slope decoration in Chios; but no Late Hellenistic site has been excavated in the island.

59 Young, , ‘Sepulturae intra urbem’, Hesperia XX 122, and pl. 52 a.Google Scholar

60 Cf. Broneer, , Corinth IV ii, fig. 14, 36 and pl. 3, no. 137.Google Scholar Very rare at Corinth.

61 A.45.

62 Thompson A.41–4; also Young, , Hesperia XX 122, pyre 7, nos. 1 and 2.Google Scholar Young places this group of material at about the turn of the fourth and third centuries.

63 Miss Virginia Grace has kindly undertaken to publish the stamped handles found in the excavation.

64 Several plain unslipped vessels are included in this section because their shape connects them with the slipped drinking-cups. The slipped ware is now very degenerate and obviously on the verge of extinction.

65 See below, p. 168.

66 Waage, op. cit. 15–16.

67 Goldmann, , Hesperia IX 485, no. 15.Google Scholar

68 Boehringer and Krauss, op. cit. pl. 57 g. 10.

69 AA 1910, 211, figs. 9 and 10.

70 Boehringer and Krauss, op. cit. pl. 57 g. 1, 2.

71 Boehringer and Krauss, op. cit., pl. 57 h. 2.

72 Perdrizet, , FdD V 173Google Scholar, fig. 730. It seems probable, as M. Perdrizet (ibid. 172) says, that the Hellenistic vases from this tomb form one group, whatever the circumstances in which they found their way there. There is an earlier vase of this type, with better glaze but somewhat similar decoration in the British Museum (BM 86. 3–10, 18, from Karpathos). I would rather regard them as small decanters than as lamp-fillers.

72 Perdrizet, op. cit. 173, fig. 731.

73 Watzinger, op. cit. 83, no. 33.

74 Waage, op. cit., fig. 8, nos. 17, 19 and (more especially) 20.

75 Broneer, op. cit. 47 ff. Fairly early in the third century.

76 Thompson, op. cit. 461.

77 Named ‘the Cnidus type’ by Walters, , Catalogue of the Greek and Roman Lamps in the British Museum (nos. 350–89).Google Scholar

78 These are the same type; the toe was made in a separate piece and sometimes broke off.

79 Juvenal, , Sat. XII 60Google Scholarcum ventre lagoenae.

80 Horace, , Ep. II 2, 133–4Google Scholar, … posset qui ignoscere servis et signo laeso non insanire lagoenae. Martial IX 87, 7 nunc signat meus anulus lagoenam. Cf. also Cicero's account of his mother's economies (Ep. Fam. XVI 26, 2). These seals have, of course, nothing to do with stamps on the handles of jars.

81 Pliny the Younger, Ep. II 6, 2.

82 Curc. I i 78.

83 Anth. Pal. VI 248 and IX 246, quoted by Leroux op. cit. 76–7. Note also the inscription σύνπλανος on Leroux's no. 133a.

84 E.g. Boehringer and Krauss, op. cit., pl. 59 a, a large column-krater in the white-slipped, painted ‘Pitane’ style. Another white-slipped example from Delos is Leroux, Lagynos 55 and 56, no. 107.

85 Op. cit. 416, fig. 102.

86 The date of the deposit is discussed below.

87 On the subject of Tanning, see Mau in RE s.v. ‘Coriarius’.

88 The stamped amphora handles may be regarded as an exception. I believe that Miss Grace's chronology agrees substantially with mine.

89 Megarian Bowls may very probably have appeared later in Chios than in Athens, but the imitation of Attic shapes and the actual presence of imported Attic pieces show that, though Athens set the fashion, Chios followed not far behind.

90 Mrs. Varoucha-Christodoulopoulou very kindly cleaned and identified the coins.

91 See Plan (Fig. 3) for position of graves.

92 No traces of wood or covering was found for any of the bodies described as ‘unprotected’. The absence of nails makes wooden coffins unlikely.

93 BSA XLVIII 160, fig. 3.

94 See below p. 164.

95 Not much earth had penetrated between the tiles. Thus when the west end of the grave was uncovered the eastern part formed a sort of tunnel; this was cleared from the western end in order to save the expense of digging down from above.

96 Wiegand, and Schrader, , Priene 277 ff.Google Scholar, especially figs. 286, 290.

97 Young, G. M., BSA XLIV, especially Grave no. 14 (p. 88).Google Scholar

98 Thera II 283, fig. 280 d, and p. 284, n. 15.

99 Op. cit. 472–4.

100 See Waage, op. cit., pl. 3, 4.

101 Waage, op. cit., pl. 4, 5.

102 Called by Walters, op. cit. nos. 326–49, the Ephesus type.

103 C. 60, D. 61.

104 Compare similar counters from Pergamon, Boehringer, and Krauss, op. cit., pl. 60 p, nos. 10–12.

105 Onomasticon IX 110, 111 (ed. Dindorf).

106 Thompson, op. cit. E. 154–8. Other Late Hellenistic pieces from Samos, Technau, op. cit. 48 and Beilage 28, 2, and from Keryneia in Achaia, nos. 22–6 in my article, BSA XLVIII 161, fig. 4.

107 ‘See also Körte, , JdI, Ergänzungsheft V 196 ff.Google Scholar for earlier grey ware from Gordium. Mr. Dunbabin's sherds are now in the Ashmolean Museum.

108 Boehringer and Krauss, op. cit. 120 and pl. 57, d, 1–5.

109 Wiegand and Schrader, Priene 398, nos. 11–13 and fig. 526, no. 11.

110 But our material is hardly adequate to sustain a lengthy discussion.

111 Mr. Nicholls points out to me that the Laconian potters who copied classical Attic black glaze also usually fired their clay black. See his article in BSA XLV 290 ff. To have brown or red clay with red glaze would be easier.

112 Op. cit. 12 and pl. 2.

113 Op. cit. 434.

114 Waage, op. cit. 11 and pl. 1 (Shape 2).

115 MrsHomann-Wedeking, , BSA XLV 178, fig. 15E.Google Scholar

116 Op. Cit., nos. 1–121.

117 From Kato Phana, , Lamb, , BSA XXXV 161, fig. 12Google Scholar and Kourouniotes, , ADelt II 199, fig. 16Google Scholar; also from Naucratis and Aegina, see Price, , JHS XLIV 205.Google Scholar

118 Fouilles de Delphes V 171 ff.

119 AM XXVI 67 ff.

120 I have learned a great deal from Miss Grace and from Mr. J. M. Cook. Without their guidance I would probably never have attempted to classify the coarse pottery from the excavation. But the opinions here expressed are my own. A better account of the subject from these more learned scholars is much to be hoped for.

121 Naucratis I, pl. 16, no. 4.

122 See also Hesperia III 202, fig. 1, no. 1.

123 Drawn from a complete amphora found in the sea and now in private possession.

124 Feet were classified as follows:

Type of Fig. 9 j. Short toecap, distinctly set off from the body, with a wide, shallow hole in the underside.

Type of Fig. 9 k. Longer toecap, still distinct from the body, but the set-off not so sharply cut. The hole in the underside thin and deep.

Type of Fig. 9 l. The toe continues the line of the body with a barely perceptible break. Thin, deep hole in the underside.

Type of Fig. 9 m. Toecap distinct from the body, shape like Fig. 9 k, but solid.

Type of Fig. 9 n. Very long, thin toe; solid but with a slight circular depression on the underside.

Type of Fig. 9 o. Solid, long, pointed toe, not set off from the body at all.

Average examples of each type were chosen for illustration. Within the types, the length of particular toecaps varied, often as much as two or three centimetres. No account was taken of these variations in arranging the classification. While the figure makes it clear that the tendency is for toecaps to grow longer and longer, the toes of Types k, l, and m found in the second level of the well were not, as a whole, shorter than those of the same types in the upper deposit.

125 In private possession in Chios.

126 No Cat. no. 372.