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Prehistoric 
Iron Age 
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4.23 Lagoudhera Valley: Hellenistic to Roman

There are two main foci of mining and other activity in the Hellenistic to Roman periods in the Lagoudhera Valley: the mining adits and settlement at Litharkies (.mov panorama) (TS05); and the slag heap and settlement at Mavrovouni (.mov panorama) (TS02). Both these areas had dense blankets of more than 200 Hellenistic to Roman sherds per 100m² in several SUs (e.g. SU0622, SU2605, SU2632, SU2648).

Mining cannot be carried out in isolation. Ore requires processing and smelting, and that requires water, fuel, flux and clay. Miners require places to live and food to eat. Understanding the mining in this area is to understand those who mined it, processed the ore, smelted, farmed and lived in the area. The interwoven relationship between Mavrovouni and Litharkies means they need to be analysed together. Litharkies served principally for living and mineral extraction, and Mavrovouni was vital to the processing and smelting of this extracted mineral. They operated together to produce the copper. Despite some pottery from the Iron Age, it is in the Hellenistic period at Litharkies (TS05) that the scale of the activity starts to grow. Pottery densities range up to 2.2 sherds per 100m², covering a much wider area than the Iron Age. Densities no greater than 1.2 sherds per 100m² and more widely spread distribution at the Mavrovouni slag heap indicate different or smaller scale activity. Given the good ore resources and poor agricultural resources of the area, this may indicate that mining at or around Alestos (TP005) and smelting at Mavrovouni (TP006) had begun by the Hellenistic period.

TS05 Xyliatos Litharkies

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The density of pottery increases both at Litharkies (over 3.8 sherds per 100m²) and at the smelting site of Mavrovouni (over 8.2 sherds per 100m²), where the distribution becomes geographically concentrated south of the slag heap during the Early Roman period. Distribution in the area south of the slag heap (TP006) becomes even more concentrated during the Late Roman period. This may indicate the period of greatest activity at Mavrovouni and Litharkies.

For those leaving Litharkies on the way to Mavrovouni, walking beneath the towering peak of Alestos with its adits (.mov panorama), the journey took them past what is almost certainly a tomb (TP146). Whether this contained friends, enemies, bosses or family members, passing it was a constant reminder that dying and burying was another part of this landscape. Given the nature of the main activity occurring here, it may also have served as a reminder of the ever-present dangers of mining.

The slag heap at Ayia Marina Mavrovouni (TP006) dates from the Roman period. Much of it has been quarried away in the 20th century, though this has revealed the stratigraphy (Given et al. 2002, 31-2).

TP006 Ayia Marina Mavrovouni

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While much of the ore processed at Mavrovouni clearly came from Alestos, that was not the only source of ore in the area. There is excellent evidence for mining activity at Xyliatos Ayios Kyriakos (TS10), 600m south of Mavrovouni slag heap. The mining is clearly small scale, and it is difficult to determine if this is small-scale exploration during the Roman period or else prehistoric mining. If it is Roman they may have stopped mining this area once the sources on Alestos began to be exploited.

TS10 Xyliatos Ayios Kyriakos

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Based on the scale of the slag heap at Mavrovouni, the adits at Ayios Kyriakos could not be the primary copper ore source. That was most likely Alestos. The mine at Alestos, the settlement at Litharkies and the slag heap and settlement at Mavrovouni were all clearly interdependent. The production and processing of copper was an operation that took place on a landscape scale.


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