409-423

Excavation at Mendi

• Βοκοτοπούλου, Ιουλία Π.

In 1989 two sectors were excavated at Mendi: I. Proasteion, M. Nikolaides’ field. The research of the successive building phases, dated from the 4th to the 9th centuries, was continued. The western part and two rooms of the four at least which constituted house A were excavated. The phases of the pavement and the side-walls of the avenue running east from house A were also discovered. The oldest pavement dates to the end of the 5th century B.C., while remains of a ceramic workshop of the mid-4th century B.C., a pit filled with yellow clay and a clay corridor, were found on the pavement of the early 4th century. Two more rooms of house B, dated to the second quarter of the 6th century B.C. were excavated. A marble implement of a fisherman was found on the floor. A layer of fire was discovered 2,10-2,30 m. deep; this fire destroyed two houses, Δ and E, of the late 7th-early 6th centuries B.C. Narrow streets were located between them and east of them. House Δ was founded on the walls of house Στ, destroyed by fire about the end of the 7th century B.C.; the neighbouring house Z, which yielded sherds of three vases decorated with the linear style of the islands, influenced by the Cyclades, was also destroyed by the same fire. A great quantity of local pottery with geometric decoration was found in the lower layers of the stratigraphic trench, which was carried out up to 3,40 m. deep in 1989.II. The coastal cemetery. Part of the coastal cemetery was excavated at the beach,along hotel MENDI. 174 burials were found 0,20 to 1 m. deep from the surface; these comprised 130 burials inside pots, 42 pit-graves and two cist-graves. The orientation of the graves is parallel to the sea, while the lip of the burial pots are always to the east. Apart from ten, the rest are burials of infants, babies and small children, according to the custom of ancient Greeks to bury young persons in separate areas, near the cemeteries. The burial pots are mainly amphorae and pithoi. Six of them bear incised Geometric decoration, very similar to that found on vases from Eretria and the Cyclades. 41 amphorae and pithoi bear elaborate decoration; some of them recall the pottery from Central Macedonia, while the rest, although original creations, display influence from the Cyclades, Corinth and Aeolis. Just a few grave offerings were found: proto-Corinthian aryballoi and red kylices without foot. Trial trenches were also carried out at Poseidi, the pointed promontory 4 km. west from Mendi. The excavation by the light-house yielded the foundations of two buildings. By the larger one, at the level of its foundation, sherds of Attic, Corinthian and Ionic small vases of the second half of the 6th and the beginning of the 5th century B.C. were found. Some of them preserve parts of votive inscriptions, and thus we can read the name Poseidon. The promontory was named after Poseidon in the antiquity and the name survived.

• History and Archaeology

• Ανασκαφές (Αρχαιολογία)

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