Aphyssou Tsakona Excavation
It was apparent to the survey team which identified the Tsakona sanctuary in 1984 that this hilltop site had suffered greatly from erosion; this potentially poor state of preservation was greatly aggravated a year later when the farmer with grazing rights to the land cultivated part of it with a heavy tractor-drawn plough, scraping off much of the surface soil in the process. The final blow came in July 1988 when, during July and August, the site was badly burned at the S limit of disastrous fires that destroyed thousands of olive trees from N of Sellasia, through the village lands of Voutianoi, Ayios Ioannis Theologos, Kalyvia Theologou, Klada, Kokkinorachi and the N outskirts of Aphyssou. This left the Tsakona hill completely bare and exposed to what was feared would be a greatly accelerated rate of erosion. Surface finds made by the survey, including architectural terracottas, potsherds and many complete and fragmentary handmade terracottas, suggested the site was of interest, and that an effort to salvage what information might still survive would be justified, even though it was recognized that very little would have escaped unscathed the vicissitudes described above. Inspection of the site in late summer 1988 showed no time was to be lost; thanks to the most helpful response from all the authorities concerned, it proved possible to undertake an excavation from 8 May-9 June and 14-18 August, 1989, during which the surviving structures on the site were completely excavated, and tests were made on the hill-slopes to N and S.
Active from 08/05/1989 to 18/08/1989.
Catling, Dr H. W. O.B.E, C.B.E.
Catling, H. W. 1990. A Sanctuary of Zeus Messapeus: Excavations at Aphyssou, Tsakona, 1989. BSA 85: 15-35. Direct link