The Olynthos Project 2014-2019: Season 2014
Excavation: Research excavation
In the first of the residential units explored, a party wall between two houses had on the west side a cobbled surface covered with fallen roof tiles, and on the east, a further tile concentration on a floor identified by a light layer of white lime. A small amount of utilitarian pottery was retrieved. Excavation in another part of the same unit revealed a probable floor surface with numerous fragmentary vessels perhaps fallen from a shelf or upper storey. In the second unit explored, a trench was placed over the anticipated junction of two walls which define three spaces (apparently representing what Robinson termed a pastas with two adjacent rooms behind). The walls of one of these spaces were coated with red plaster which continued onto the floor. The second space contained a coarse limestone anta capital with a relief cornice. Investigation of a circular magnetic anomaly in the northern part of the North Hill revealed a north–south rubble wall with a large pithos to the east of it, and to the west of it a circular pit- or well-like construction covered with tiles and ringed with stones. Inside the stone ring were two large and complete upturned ceramic vessels, together with a shallow bronze bowl. At a lower level lay an east–west wall of more carefully dressed blocks. Investigation of the supposed fortification wall revealed a 1.5 m-wide layer of river stones which may represent the foundation of a mud-brick defensive wall.
Active in 2014.