Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-zzh7m Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-29T00:42:30.877Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

THE FINDS FROM THE PREHISTORIC SITE OF AYIOS NIKOLAOS MYLON, SOUTHERN EUBOEA, GREECE1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 November 2011

Žarko Tankosić  and
Iro Mathioudaki
Žarko Tankosić*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Indiana University, Bloomington, USA
Iro Mathioudaki
Affiliation:
University of Athens, Greece
*
ztankosi@indiana.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In this paper we present the unpublished finds from the survey of Ayios Nikolaos Mylon. The site is located on one of the foothills of Mount Ochi, on a strategic defensive position overlooking the Bay of Karystos. The site, although unexcavated, is important for establishing the chronological sequence of events in southern Euboean prehistory, as it is the only locality in the area that has produced evidence for habitation which can be dated to the Middle Bronze Age. In the paper we analyse the material and offer some tentative interpretations not only of the archaeological evidence but also of the place of Ayios Nikolaos Mylon in the wider prehistoric world of the Aegean.

Τα ευρήματα από την προϊστορική θέση Άγιος Νικόλαος Μύλων, Νότια Εύβοια, Ελλάδα

Στο παρόν άρθρο παρουσιάζουμε τα αδημοσίευτα ευρήματα από την επιφανειακή έρευνα στον Άγιο Νικόλαο Μύλων. Η θέση βρίσκεται στους πρόποδες του όρους Όχη, σε στρατηγικά αμυντική τοποθεσία πάνω από τον κόλπο της Καρύστου. Η θέση αυτή, αν και δεν έχει ανασκαφεί, είναι πολύ σημαντική καθώς παρέχει στοιχεία για την χρονολογική σειρά των γεγονότων στη νοτιοευβοϊκή προϊστορία, αφού είναι η μοναδική θέση με κατοίκηση κατά την Μέση Εποχή του Χαλκού. Στο άρθρο αναλύουμε τα αρχαιολογικά ευρήματα και εξάγουμε κάποια προκαταρκτικά συμπεράσματα τόσο για το υλικό, όσο και για την σημασία του Αγίου Νικολάου Μύλων στον ευρύτερο προϊστορικό κόσμο του Αιγαίου.

Type
Articles
Information
Annual of the British School at Athens , Volume 106 , November 2011 , pp. 99 - 140
Copyright
Copyright © The Council, British School at Athens 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

1

A great number of people have in some way participated in the shaping of this article and, although we cannot mention them all, we owe them a debt of gratitude. We would like to particularly thank Dr Donald Keller and the Southern Euboea Exploration Project for generously allowing us to study and publish the material from Ay. Nikolaos and for his comments on earlier drafts of this paper. Without the generous financial support from the E. A. Schrader Endowment for Classical Archaeology at Indiana University our work would not have been possible. We would also like to thank Dr Catherine Perlès for deciding to participate in this paper with her brief but disproportionately significant contribution. We owe many thanks to a number of people who found time out of their busy schedules to read and comment on various drafts of this paper, namely Karen D. Vitelli, Tracey Cullen, Jere Wickens, Walter Gauss, and Fanis Mavridis; without them this paper would have been much poorer. We particularly thank Professor Oliver Dickinson and an anonymous BSA reviewer for their invaluable comments, suggestions, and edits. Nonetheless, all errors and transgressions in this paper remain absolutely our own and we alone take full responsibility for each and every one of them.

References

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Angelopoulou, A. 2008. ‘The “Kastri Group”: Evidence from Korfari ton Amygdalion (Panormos) Naxos, Dhaskalio Keros and Akrotiri Thera’, in Brodie, N., Dole, J., Gavalas, G., and Renfrew, C. (eds), Horizon: A Colloquium on the Prehistory of the Cyclades (Cambridge), 149–164.Google Scholar
Aravantinos, V.L. 1987. ‘Mycenaean place names from Thebes: The new evidence’, in Killen, J.T., Melena, J.L. and Olivier, J.-P. (eds), Studies in Mycenaean and Classical Greek Presented to John Chadwick (Minos XX–XXII), 33–40.Google Scholar
Barber, R.L.N. 2007. ‘The Middle Cycladic pottery’, in Renfrew, A.C. (ed.), Excavations at Phylakopi in Melos 1974–77 (British School at Athens supp. vol. 42), 181–237.Google Scholar
Barber, R.L.N. 2008. ‘Unpublished pottery from Phylakopi’, Annual of the British School at Athens 103, 43–222.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barber, R.L.N. and MacGillivray, J.A. 1980. ‘The Early Cycladic period: Matters of definition and terminology’, American Journal of Archaeology 84(2), 141–157.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bass, G. 1967. Cape Gelidonya: A Bronze Age Shipwreck (Transactions of the American Philosophical Society 57).Google Scholar
Bosanquet, R. and Dawkins, R. 1923. Palaikastro (British School at Athens supp. vol. 1).Google Scholar
Branigan, K. 1974. Aegean Metalwork of the Early and Middle Bronze Age (Oxford).Google Scholar
Broodbank, C. 2000. An Island Archaeology of the Early Cyclades (Cambridge).Google Scholar
Calligas, P.C. 1983. ‘Euboea and the Cyclades’, in Fitton, J.L. (ed.), Cycladica: Studies in Memory of N.P. Goulandris. Proceedings of the seventh British Museum Classical Colloquium (London), 88–95.Google Scholar
Canuto, M.A. and Yaeger, J. (eds) 2000. The Archaeology of Communities: A New World Perspective (New York).Google Scholar
Carter, T. 2007. ‘The theatrics of technology: Consuming obsidian in the early Cycladic burial arena’, Archaeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association 17.1, 88–117.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Caskey, J.L. 1971. ‘Investigations in Keos, part I: Excavations and explorations, 1966–1970’, Hesperia 40, 358–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Caskey, J.L. 1972. ‘Investigations in Keos, part II: A conspectus of the pottery’, Hesperia 41, 357–401.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Caskey, J.L. 1979. ‘Ayia Irini, Keos: The successive periods of occupation’, American Journal of Archaeology 83, 412.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Caskey, J.L. and Caskey, E.G. 1960. ‘The earliest settlements at Eutresis: Supplementary excavations, 1958’, Hesperia 29, 126–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cherry, J.F., Davis, J.L. and Mantzourani, E. 1991. Landscape Archaeology as Long-Term History: Northern Keos in the Cycladic Islands (Monumenta Archaeologica 16, Los Angeles).Google Scholar
Christmann, E. 1996. Die deutschen Ausgrabungen auf der Pevkakia-Magula in Thessalien II: Die frühe Bronzezeit (Bonn).Google Scholar
Coleman, J.E. 1977. Keos I, Kephala: A Late Neolithic Settlement and Cemetery (Princeton).Google Scholar
Cullen, T., Talalay, L.E., Keller, D.R., Karimali, E. and Farrand, W.R. (forthcoming) The Prehistory of the Paximadhi Peninsula, Euboea (INSTAP Prehistory Monographs, Philadelphia).Google Scholar
Davis, J.L. 1986. Keos V, Ayia Irini: Period V (Mainz).Google Scholar
Davis, J.L. 1992. ‘Review of Aegean prehistory I: The islands of the Aegean’, American Journal of Archaeology 96, 699–756.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davis, J.L. and Williams, D.F. 1981. ‘Petrological examination of Later Middle Bronze Age pottery from Ay. Irini, Keos’, Hesperia 50, 291–300.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Demakopoulou, Κ. and Konsola, D. 1975. “Λείψανα Πρωτοελλαδικού, Μεσοελλαδικού και ϒστεροελλαδικού οικισμού στη Θήβα”, Αρχαιολογικόν Δελτίον 30, Μελέτες, 44–89.Google Scholar
De Paepe, P. 1982. ‘A petrological examination of Final Neolithic pottery from Thorikos and Karystos’, in Studies in South Attica, I (Miscellanea Graeca 5, Ghent), 69–81.Google Scholar
Deshayes, J. 1966. Argos. Les Fouilles de la Deiras (Études péloponnésiennes 4, Paris).Google Scholar
Dickinson, O.T.P.K. 1977. The Origins of Mycenaean Civilisation (Gothenburg).Google Scholar
Efstratiou, K., Stathi, M. and Mathioudaki, I. 2009. ‘An EH I building from Loutsa Attikis’, in Vasilopoulou, V. and Katsarou-Tzeveleki, S. (eds), From Mesogeia to Argosaronikos (Athens), 221–35.Google Scholar
Forsén, J. 1992. The Twilight of the Early Helladics (Studies in Mediterranean Archaeology Pocketbook 116, Jonsered).Google Scholar
French, C.A.I. and Whitelaw, T.M. 1999. ‘Soil erosion, agricultural terracing and site formation processes at Markiani, Amorgos, Greece: The micromorphological perspective’, Geoarchaeology 14(2), 151–89.3.0.CO;2-R>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gauss, W. and Smetana, R. 2007. ‘Untersuchung zur früh- und mittelhelladischen Keramik von Ägina Kolonna’, in Asamer, B., Höglinger, P., Reinholdt, C., Smetana, R. and Wohlmayr, W. (eds), Temenos: Festgabe für Florens Felten und Stefan Hiller (Vienna), 11–19.Google Scholar
Goldman, H. 1931. Excavations at Eutresis in Boeotia (Cambridge, Mass.).Google Scholar
Hanschmann, I., and Milojčić, V. 1976. Die deutschen Ausgrabungen auf der Argissa-Magula in Thessalien III. Die frühe und beginnende mittlere Bronzezeit, Teil I (Bonn).Google Scholar
Hansen, H.D. 1937. ‘The prehistoric pottery on the north slope of the Acropolis. 1937’, Hesperia 6, 539–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Howell, R.J. 1966. ‘Euboea in the Middle Bronze Age’, in Sackett, L.H., Hankey, V., Howell, R.J., Jacobsen, T.W. and Popham, M.R., ‘Prehistoric Euboea: Contributions toward a survey’, Annual of the British School at Athens 61, 90–9.Google Scholar
Immerwahr, S.A. 1971. The Athenian Agora XIII: The Neolithic and Bronze Ages (Princeton).Google Scholar
Karabatsoli, A. 1997. ‘La production de l'industrie lithique taillée en Grèce centrale pendant le Bronze ancien’ (diss. Université Paris X, Paris).Google Scholar
Keller, D.R. 1982. ‘Final Neolithic Pottery from Plakari, Karystos’, in Studies in South Attica, I (Miscellanea Graeca 5, Ghent), 47–67.Google Scholar
Keller, D.R. 1985. ‘Archaeological Survey in Southern Euboea, Greece: A Reconstruction of Human Activity from Neolithic Times through the Byzantine Period’ (diss. Indiana University, Bloomington).Google Scholar
Keller, D.R. and Rupp, D.W. 1983. Archaeological Survey in the Mediterranean Region (British Archaeological Reports International Series 155, Oxford).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kunze, E. 1934. Orchomenos, III. Die Keramik der frühen Bronzezeit (Munich).Google Scholar
Lambert, N. (ed.) 1981. La Grotte préhistorique de Kitsos (Attique): Missions 1968–1978, Vol. 1, École Française d'Athènes.Google Scholar
Lindblom, M. 2001. Marks and Makers: Appearance, Distribution and Function of Middle and Late Helladic Manufacturers' Marks on Aeginetan Pottery (Jonsered).Google Scholar
MacGillivray, J.A. and Barber, R.L.N. (eds) 1984. The Prehistoric Cyclades: Contributions to a Workshop on Cycladic Chronology (Edinburgh).Google Scholar
Maran, J. 1992a. Die deutschen Ausgrabungen auf der Pevkakia-Magula in Thessalien III: Die mittlere Bronzezeit (Bonn).Google Scholar
Maran, J. 1992b. Kiapha-Thiti. Ergebnisse der Ausgrabungen II.2. Keramik und Kleinfunde, Marburger Winckelmann-Programm 1990 (Marburg).Google Scholar
Maran, J. 1998. Kulturwandel auf dem griechischen Festland und den Kykladen im späten 3. Jahrtausend v. Chr., Teil I and II, Universitätsforschungen zur prähistorischen Archäologie Band 53 (Bonn).Google Scholar
Mavridis, F. and Tankosić, Ž. 2009. ‘The Ayia Triadha cave, southern Euboea: Finds and implications of the earliest human habitation in the area (a preliminary report)’, Mediterranean Archaeology and Archaeometry 9(2), 47–59.Google Scholar
Mills, B.J. 1989. ‘Integrating functional analyses of vessels and sherds through models of ceramic assemblage formation’, World Archaeology 21(1), 133–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Overbeck, J.C. 1982. ‘The hub of commerce: Keos and Middle Helladic Greece’, Temple University Aegean Symposium 7, 38–49.Google Scholar
Overbeck, J.C. 1989. Keos VIII, Ayia Irini: Period IV (Mainz).Google Scholar
Overbeck, J.C. 2007. ‘The Middle Bronze Age sequences of Kea and Aegina’, in Felten, F., Gauss, W. and Smetana, R. (eds), Middle Helladic Pottery and Synchronisms (Vienna), 339–46.Google Scholar
Pantelidou-Gofa, M. 2005. Tσέπι Μαραθώνος. Το Πρωτοελλαδικό Νεκροταφείο (Athens).Google Scholar
Pantelidou-Gofa, M. 2008. ‘The EH I Deposit at Tsepi, Marathon: Features, formation and the breakage of the finds’, in Renfrew, A.C., Brodie, N., Gavalas, G. and Doole, J. (eds), Horizon. A Colloquium on the Prehistory of the Cyclades (Cambridge), 281–9.Google Scholar
Papageorgiou, D. 2008. ‘Sea routes in the prehistoric Cyclades’, in Renfrew, A.C., Brodie, N., Gavalas, G. and Doole, J. (eds), Horizon. A Colloquium on the Prehistory of the Cyclades (Cambridge), 339–48.Google Scholar
Pavuk, P. 2002. ‘Troia VI and VIIa. The Blegen pottery shapes: Towards a typology’, Studia Troica 12, 37–71.Google Scholar
Petrakos, B.C. 2004. Το Έργον της Αρχαιολογικής Εταιρείας κατά το 2003 (Athens).Google Scholar
Popham, M.R., and Sackett, L.H. (eds) 1968. Excavations at Lefkandi, Euboea 1964–66: A Preliminary Report (London).Google Scholar
Rambach, J. 2000. Kykladen I-II. Die frühe Bronzezeit. 1: Grab- und Siedlungsbefunde. 2: Frühbronzezeitliche Beigabensittenkreise auf den Kykladen, relative Chronologie und Verbreitung (Bonn).Google Scholar
Renfrew, C. and Evans, R.K. 2007. ‘The Early Bronze Age pottery’, in Renfrew, A.C. (ed.), Excavations at Phylakopi in Melos 1974–77 (British School at Athens supp. vol. 42), 129–80.Google Scholar
Rice, P.M. 1976. ‘Rethinking the ware concept’, American Antiquity 41, 538–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rutter, J.B. 1979. Ceramic Change in the Aegean Early Bronze Age: The Kastri Group, Lefkandi I, and Lerna IV: A Theory Concerning the Origin of Early Helladic III Ceramics (Occasional Paper No. 5, Institute of Archaeology, University of California, Los Angeles).Google Scholar
Rutter, J.B. 1983. ‘Some observations on the Cyclades in the later third and early second millennia’, American Journal of Archaeology 87, 69–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rutter, J.B. 1984. ‘The “Early Cycladic III Gap”: What it is and how to go about filling it without making it go away’, in MacGillivray and Barber (eds) 1984, 95–107.Google Scholar
Rutter, J.B. 1986. ‘Some comments on the nature and significance of the ceramic transition from Early Helladic III to Middle Helladic’, HYDRA 2, 29–43.Google Scholar
Rutter, J.B. 1989. ‘A ceramic definition of Late Helladic I from Tsoungiza’, HYDRA 6, 1–19.Google Scholar
Rutter, J.B. 1990. ‘Pottery groups of the end of the Middle Bronze Age from Tsoungiza’, Hesperia 59, 375–458.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rutter, J.B. 1993. ‘Review of Aegean prehistory II: The prepalatial Bronze Age of the southern and central Greek mainland’, American Journal of Archaeology 97, 745–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rutter, J.B. 1995. Lerna III, The Pottery of Lerna IV (Princeton, New Jersey).Google Scholar
Sackett, L.H., Hankey, V., Howell, R.J., Jacobsen, T.W. and Popham, M.R. 1966. ‘Prehistoric Euboea: Contributions toward a survey’, Annual of the British School at Athens 61, 33–112.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sampson, A. 1980. Η Νεολιθική και η Πρωτοελλαδική στην Εύβοια (Αthens).Google Scholar
Sampson, A. 1985. Manika I (Athens).Google Scholar
Sampson, A. 1981. Η Νεολιθική και Πρωτοελλαδική Ι στην Εύβοια (Αthens).Google Scholar
Sampson, A. 1987. “Ένας Μεσοελλαδικός Οικισμός στην Αιδηψό και Παρατηρήσεις πάνω στη ΜΕ περίοδο της Εύβοιας”, Αthens Αnnals of Αrchaeology 20, 172–83.Google Scholar
Sampson, A. 1993. Καλογερόβρυση. Ένας οικισμός της Πρώιμης και Μέσης Χαλκοκρατίας στα Φύλλα της Εύβοιας (Αthens).Google Scholar
Sarri, K. 2010. Orchomenos IV, Orchomenos in der mittleren Bronzezeit (Munich).Google Scholar
Schliemann, H. 1880. Ilios (London).Google Scholar
Shelmerdine, C.W. (ed.) 2008. The Cambridge Companion to the Aegean Bronze Age (Cambridge).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Siedentopf, H.B. 1991. Alt-Ägina vol. IV.2: Mattbemalte Keramik der mittleren Bronzezeit (Mainz).Google Scholar
Sotirakopoulou, P. 1993. ‘The chronology of the ‘Kastri Group’ reconsidered’, Annual of the British School at Athens 88, 5–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Talalay, L.E., Cullen, T., Keller, D.R. and Karimali, E. 2005. ‘Prehistoric occupation in southern Euboea: An overview’, in Kennell, N.M. and Tomlinson, J.E. (eds), Ancient Greece at the Turn of the Millennium: Recent Work and Future Perspectives (Athens), 21–44.Google Scholar
Tankosić, Ž. 2008. ‘The Karystian Kampos survey project: Results of the fieldwork from the seasons of 2006 and 2007’ (paper presented at American Institute of Archaeology Meetings, Chicago 2008).Google Scholar
Televantou, C.A. 1994. “Άνδρος”, Αρχαιολογικόν Δελτίον 49, Χρονικά, 678–87.Google Scholar
Televantou, C.A. 1999. “Άνδρος. Από τους Νεολιθικούς στους Πρωτοκυκλαδικούς Oικισμούς”, in Marthari, M.E. (ed.), The Early Bronze Age in the Cyclades in the Light of recent Research at Settlement Sites. Proceedings of a one-day colloquium, Hermoupolis, Syros (Hermoupolis, Syros), 7–36.Google Scholar
Televantou, C.A. 2008. ‘Strofilas: A Neolithic settlement on Andros’, in Renfrew, A.C., Brodie, N., Gavalas, G. and Doole, J. (eds), Horizon. A Colloquium on the Prehistory of the Cyclades (Cambridge), 43–53.Google Scholar
Theocharis, D.R. 1953–4. “Ασκηταριό, ΠΕ ακρόπολις παρά την Ραφήνα”, Αρχαιολογική Εφημερίς 1953–4, Part 3, 59–76.Google Scholar
Televantou, C.A. 1959. “Εκ της Προϊστορίας της Ευβοίας και της Σκύρου”, Αρχείον Ευβοϊκών Μελετών 6, 279–328.Google Scholar
Torrence, R. 1981. ‘A technological approach to Cycladic blade industries’, in Davis, J.L. and Cherry, J.F. (eds), Papers in Cycladic Prehistory (Los Angeles), 66–86.Google Scholar
Touchais, G. 2007. ‘Coarse ware from the Middle Helladic settlement of Aspis, Argos: Local production and imports’, in Felten, F., Gauss, W. and Smetana, R. (eds), Middle Helladic Pottery and Synchronisms (Vienna), 81–96.Google Scholar
Tzavella-Evjen, H. 1984. Λιθαρές, Publications of the ArchDelt no. 32 (Αthens).Google Scholar
Vaughan, S.J. 1990. ‘Petrographic analysis of the early Cycladic wares from Akrotiri, Thera’, in Hardy, D.A., Doumas, C.G., Sakellarakis, J.A. and Warren, P.M. (eds), Thera and the Aegean World III. Vol. 1: Archaeology. Proceedings of the Third International Congress, Santorini, Greece, 3–9 September 1989 (London), 470–87.Google Scholar
Vaughan, S.J. and Williams, D. 2007. ‘The pottery fabrics’, in Renfrew, A.C. (ed), Excavations at Phylakopi in Melos 1974–77 (British School at Athens supp. vol. 42), 91–125.Google Scholar
Wilson, D.E. 1987. ‘Keos and east Attike in Early Bronze II: Beyond pottery typology’, in Fossey, J.M. (ed.), ΣϒΝΕΙΣΦΟΡΑ McGill: Papers in Greek Archaeology and History in Memory of Colin D. Gordon (Amsterdam), 35–49.Google Scholar
Wilson, D.E. 1999. Keos IX, Ay. Irini: Periods I–III, The Neolithic and Early Bronze Age Settlements, Part I: Pottery and Small Finds (Mainz).Google Scholar
Zerner, C.W. 1978. ‘The Beginning of the Middle Helladic period at Lerna’ (diss. University of Cincinnati).Google Scholar
Zerner, C.W. 1986. ‘Middle Helladic and Late Helladic I pottery from Lerna’, HYDRA 2, 58–72.Google Scholar
Zerner, C.W. 1993. ‘New perspectives on trade in the Middle and Early Late Helladic periods on the mainland’, in Zerner, C.W., Zerner, P.C. and Winder, J. (eds), Wace and Blegen: Pottery as Evidence for Trade in the Aegean Bronze Age (Amsterdam), 39–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar