Lefkandi-Xeropolis study season 2014
Assessment and Analysis: Study season
Irene Lemos (Oxford) reports on continuing study. In collaboration with the Swiss School of Archaeology in Greece (Eretria excavations) and Dr Matthieu Ghilardi (CNRS), cores were drilled at Lefkandi, Eretria, and Aliveri for a project to investigate the evolution of the coastline of central and southwest Euboea. Preliminary examination indicates that cores from the eastern harbour of Xeropolis include marine incursions and macro fauna. Study of the architecture and stratigraphy of Xeropolis focused on Area P, and the ‘hearth’ inside the north end of Building M1 which remained an important feature during the long period of use of successive megara. In Area P, the earliest excavated building, P1 (part of the South House), had two main phases of occupation dating to Lefkandi Phase 2b (with Middle Protogeometric floor levels) and Lefkandi Phase 2b/3. The successive structures were on different alignments, probably due to subsidence requiring levelling. Building P2a, located by the north baulk of Area P and reconstructed on the basis of Sub-Protogeometric plaster floors and fragmentary walls, is a rare ninth-century building on Xeropolis. It was a large structure (the western apse is 5.8 m in diameter), larger than the Late Geometric house excavated by Popham and Sackett. Building P3 (on the floor of which the ‘centaur’ figurine was excavated in 2006) is also ninth-century but postdates P2.
Active in 2014.
Lemos, Professor Irene S.