Posted on 03/01/2006 11:56:23 AM PST by blam
An ancient colony of Andros uncovered
The remains of buildings found in excellent condition at Argilos, an important commercial town, on the estuary of the Strymonas River
Houses in the foothills of Argilos dating from the sixth and fifth centuries BC. The surviving walls are up to 4 meters high. They form part of Argilos’s residential quarter, which spreads out on either side of a paved road leading from the port to the acropolis. The shape of the houses, the roads to either side and the organization of the city reflect island architecture and planning notions that the colonists brought with them from Andros. By Iota Myrtsioti - Kathimerini
The excavation of ancient Argilos, an important commercial center in the Archaic and Classical periods, reveals a little-known side of colonization by people from Andros in the northern Aegean.
The remains of buildings in the ancient city may not be as striking as other finds from Macedonia, but they are a part of a larger complex of great significance illuminated by recent excavation.
Hundreds of artifacts, including large ones such as island-style houses and a two-story mansion on the acropolis, are included in the site of the Andros colony that flourished 2,650 years ago at the mouth of the Strymonas River.
The finds give insight on the Thracians’ approach to life as well as the organization of a Greek colony set up to exploit the rich mineral resources of the Thracian hinterland in the mid-seventh century BC.
Archaeologist Zisis Bonias of the 18th Ephorate of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities, in collaboration with the University of Montreal and under the aegis of the Canadian Archaeological Institute, has added another important find to the long list from the area.
It is a metal oven dating from the sixth century BC, possibly the oldest found in northern Greece, which confirms that mining activity was carried out in the colonies founded by people from Andros.
GGG Ping.
It sounds like a place
Dr. Who's TARDIS would have
stopped at by mistake . . .
The Spartan commander Pausanias won the battle of Plataea in 479 B.C. against the Persians. Pausanias later conspired with Xerxes. According to Thucydides his treason was discovered when a man from Argilos who had been his boy-toy (paidika) informed on him.
Just a couple of notable moments in the history of Argilos...
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Did he get it in the end?
Well, he came to a bad end (starved to death).
Yeah, I was just making a Brokeback Hellenism joke. :-)
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