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Excavations at Kouphovouno, Laconia: Results from the 2001 and 2002 Seasons1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 September 2013

W. Cavanagh
Affiliation:
University of Nottingham
C. Mee
Affiliation:
University of Liverpool
J. Renard
Affiliation:
Montpellier 3, Université Paul Valéry

Abstract

A final report is presented here on the excavation of four Areas at the prehistoric site of Kouphovouno, Sparta, Lakonia. Areas A and D were excavated as trials in 2001 and lie outside the land purchased by the BSA for the main campaigns, so they could not be excavated further, whilst Areas E and F had extensive deposits of historic date and were not further explored as being outside the remit of the main Kouphovouno Project. The excavations have yielded important Neolithic and Early Helladic II deposits, plus Bronze Age burials and later Roman remains. After summarising the aims of the Project and mentioning earlier work at the site, the report gives an account of the stratigraphy and finds and includes specialist reports on the human and animal bones, the ceramics, the chipped and ground stone and other finds. Also discussed is the relationship between the surface remains reported in BSA 99 and the excavated material.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © The Council, British School at Athens 2007

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References

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3 Renard.

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5 See further below the sections on each area.

6 Dr Lagia would like to thank the excavators for the invitation to participate in the Kouphovouno excavation, the orthopaedist Dr V. Vernardaki for his valuable advice on the study of the pathological lesions, and Annaïg Fremont for helping significantly in the processing of the skeletal remains in the laboratory.

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39 Elena Zavvou kindly showed us the pottery from Anthochori, which is predominantly late EH I and early EH II.

40 See Renard 128–9 and pl. 52 for EH bases with mat impressions from Kouphovouno.

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47 Papathanassopoulos, 225, no. 33.

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51 Two adult goats and two sheep on the basis of respectively 2 and 6 bone remains.

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66 Rmax M1 occl, Lmax M2 cerv, Lmand P1 neck, Rm and M1 crown and root.

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81 Phelps 115.

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83 Zachos 52–5.

84 Koumouzeli (n. 76), 157–8.

85 Zachos 52; Phelps 107.

86 Zachos 121–2.

87 Ibid. 121.

88 See Cavanagh, W., Crouwel, J., Catling, R. W. V., and Shipley, G., Continuity and Change in a Greek Rural Landscape: The Laconia Survey, ii (London, 1996)Google Scholar, FIG. 12. 1. 12.

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91 Teeth present: max Rdm 1 = Cr1/2, Ldi2 = Cr3/4-c, mand Ldm2 = Cr1/2.

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96 See nn. 69–70.

97 Distribution of porosity on the skull of 313: the wing of the right sphenoid, the squamous of the right temporal, the basilar of the occipital, the right maxilla, and the zygomatics.

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100 We are extremely grateful to Clare Pickersgill, who examined the pottery from Area E and provided detailed notes on the Roman sherds.

101 Vitelli i, FIG. 56a.

102 Ibid. 121.

103 Again we are grateful to Clare Pickersgil for her observations on the pottery from Area F.

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110 Ibid. 17–19.

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118 Respective lesions on the third infant (213b) are not observable due to the incompleteness of the remains.

119 Triantaphyllou (n. 117), 144.

120 Ibid. 145; Triantaphyllou observed higher calculus and low caries rates in her early populations (EN, EBA), suggesting that the early populations consumed high levels of meat, while the diet of the late populations (LBA, EIA) was richer in carbohydrates.

121 Cavanagh–Mee–Renard 102.