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4.6 Atsas Valley: Iron Age

The most striking activities that took place here in the Iron Age consist of making offerings to a deity and burying the dead. The Archaic rural sanctuary of Khalospitia (TP215) lies on a slight rise above and north of a bend in the Atsas River, on rolling land with good views in all directions.

TP215 Evrykhou Khalospitia

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The Archaic cemetery of Evrykhou Kamilaries lies 450m to the south-east (TP248), on a shallow uncultivated spur. At least 25 tombs have been cut into fossiliferous limestone, making the spur into an arena for burying family members, mourning and renegotiating social identities. The tombs have been looted, but one example has a clear dromos and collapsed chamber. There was a substantial scatter of Archaic pottery of fine quality.

The other substantial concentration of Iron Age material lies on the opposite, southern side of the River Atsas, in the area of the later settlement of Lemonas. Immediately round the village the Iron Age pottery peaks at 1.6 sherds per 100m², with a thinner scatter to its south. This material includes some figurine fragments, possibly associated with the sanctuary across the river, or else perhaps from another sanctuary or tombs closer to Lemonas.


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