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Archaic Weapons: Graves and Sanctuaries (Part 2)

Thasos and her sanctuaries

Around the second quarter of the 7th century, the first indications of an organized Greek settlement can be identified on and around the Thasos acropolis. The sanctuaries of Apollo and Athena on the acropolis hill, and of Heracles and Artemis near the 6th-century agora are established. The material recovered from these sanctuaries consists primarily of fine pottery, jewelry, loom weights, figurines and statuary. Unfortunately, very little in the way of early votive weaponry has been recovered from these holy sites. This is quite interesting: in the central and southern Aegean, weapon dedications in sanctuaries are considerably more common than in the Thasian sphere during the 7th and particularly the 6th century.

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Early Weapons: Spears, Swords and Pocket-knives (Part 1)

In previous posts, we established the basic geographical and historical context of our study; it is now time to discuss the actual archaeological evidence. We will begin with the earliest, pre-apoikism periods, and have a closer look at what types of weaponry have been brought to light.

The blades of Kastri

Thasos, and specifically the site of Kastri, has provided us with the most extensive corpus of early knife and dagger blades on the island. More than fifty distinct blades (both bronze and iron) have been identified, primarily from the cemeteries of the settlement. Their typology is varied (Koukouli-Chrysanthaki, in her original study, Protohistoric Thasos, identifies at least five separate bronze types, and several more iron ones). It is difficult to establish a strict typological sequence, given the partial state of preservation of many of the blades and the disturbed stratigraphy of many of the graves: these built chamber tombs had been frequently re-used during antiquity, in some cases several dozen times.

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Thasos, the Gulf of Kavala and the Greek Colonisation (Part 2)

Last time, we discussed the geography of Thasos and its peraea. This time, we will be having a very brief look at the history of the region, from the early years of the Early Iron Age (beginning at ca. 1100 BCE in the north-eastern Aegean) to the Early Archaic transitional phases (ca. 700-675/50 BCE), to the ‘post-colonisation’ period (or ‘post-apoikism’ period, if we may utilise the Greek term, to avoid the non-applicable connotations of the modern ‘colonial’ terminology)

The Early Iron Age (EIA)

This period is, ironically, both poorly and extensively explored in the Thasian region. On the one hand, Kastri has been explored in detail (especially the four cemeteries surrounding the acropolis), and the typological studies focusing on the pottery of the site (particularly Dr. Koukouli-Chrysanthaki’s doctoral dissertation Protohistoric Thasos: the cemeteries of the Kastri settlement) have been invaluable for dating EIA material culture elements, not just for Thasos, but for the entirety of eastern Macedonia and coastal Thrace. On the other hand, Kastri is the only site in the Thasian region where EIA stratigraphy has been explored and published thoroughly. This means that the Early Iron Age remains a relatively ‘Dark’ Age for Thasos and its peraea as a whole. Continue reading “Thasos, the Gulf of Kavala and the Greek Colonisation (Part 2)”

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Thasos, the Gulf of Kavala and the Greek Colonisation (Part 1)

Understanding the geography and history of the Gulf of Kavala is an intuitive way to start, moreso because it sheds some light on the context of the Warriors project. And, of course, because it’s best to place the sites that we will be discussing on the map as soon as possible.

Geography

To begin with, observe the map below:


­­–The Gulf of Kavala and neighbouring regions

Sites marked in red are ‘core’ sites for the project (i.e. sites that lie in Thasos itself or its immediate peraea). Sites marked in blue are sites that I am interested in exploring as points of comparison. They lie beyond the Gulf of Kavala, but they are contemporary to some of our ‘core’ sites, and I believe I can better answer my research questions if I investigate the differences and similarities between the Thasian region and its immediate surroundings. Continue reading “Thasos, the Gulf of Kavala and the Greek Colonisation (Part 1)”