Site Number: 002

Name of Site
Koprisies
Periods Represented
Pottery: A?, C, (HL), HL?, ER?, (LR), LR-Byz?
Tile: A?, C-HL?, ER-LR?, (Byz?)
Summary of Artifacts Collected
Total Count: 149
Total Weight: 7,270
Collection Method
Transects and Grabs (1984)
Bearing of T1: 15û
Lengths of Principal Axes: 110 (T1-T3) x 110 (T2-T4)
Average Visibility
30%

Dense concentration of tile associated with low density distribution of sherds on the southwest slope of ridge in the bend of dirt road on the lower slopes of Mt. Liofata. The site is centered in a field, not recently plowed and now covered with weeds and low scrubs with some scattered trees; it extended into a field of plowed olives farther southwest but not onto the top of the flat brow of the ridge to the northeast. To the southeast the site probably extends farther but dense maquis made it impossible adequately to investigate its limits in this direction. Near the center of the site lay a large stone block (ca. 1.5 x 0.5 x 0.27 m.), perhaps an architectural member.

Site Number: 003

Name of Site
Shinohoritika
Periods Represented
Pottery (first collection): N, N?, (EH), EH?, (LH), LH?, (Byz), (Byz?), (Turk?), (Mod?), Pre, (Pre?), (Hist), UD
Tile (first collection): (ER?), (LR?), Byz?, Turk?, Mod?, Hist
Pottery (revisitation): N, N?, EH, EH?, (MH), (MH?), LH, LH?, PG, G, A, CL, HL, ER, (LR), Byz, Turk, Mod, (Mod?), Pre, Pre?, Hist, UD
Tile (revisitation): (ER?), (LR?), Byz?, Turk?, Mod, Mod?, Pre
Summary of Artifacts Collected:
Collection Method
Transects and Grabs (1984); additional grab samples collected in 1989.
Bearing of T1: 6û
Lengths of Principal Axes: 60 (T1-T3) x 140 (T2-T4) m.
Average Visibility
20%

Low density distribution of pottery and tile on a knoll at the northeastern end of a ridge running ENE from Profitis Elias. Finds are concentrated around a mound of earth and rubble (considered to be artificial by Demitrack), just north of a modern agricultural road that skirts the site on the south and west; finds are distributed in lower densities over the slopes of the knoll. West of the knoll is a large enclosure (known locally as Shinohoritika), 48 m. (N-S) by 110 m. (E-W). The knoll and the top of the ridge are covered by weedy olives; their slopes by weeds and bushes. But in all parts of the site visibility is poor. Pope in 1984 concluded that the geomorphologic structure of the site is similar to that of Tsoungiza, in that, although the site as a whole is much eroded, pockets of deposits up to a couple meters in depth probably remain in situ.

The site was revisted in 1989. From the area of the enclosure, additional grab samples of pottery were collected in an attempt to study in more detail early modern occupation at this site.

Site Number: 004

Name of Site
Ayia Paraskevi
Periods Represented
Pottery (first collection): (EH?), (LH?), (G?), A, A?, C, C?, HL?, ER?, LR?, (Byz), Byz?, (Turk?), (Mod?), Hist, UD
Tile (first collection): A?, C?, HL?, ER?, LR?, (Hist?)
Pottery (revisitations): N?, (EH), ER?, (LH), A, A?, C, C?, HL?, (Byz), Byz?, (Turk?), (Mod?), Hist, UD
Tile (revisitations): A?, C?, HL?, ER?, LR?, (Hist)
Summary of Artifacts Collected
Total Count: 680
Total Weight: 27,380
Collection Method
Transects and Grabs (1984) with a fifth transect oriented SE (140û); additional grab samples collected in two subsequent revisits (1984).
Bearing of T1: N
Lengths of Principal Axes: 150 N-S (T1-T3) x 200 E-W (T2-T4); 120 to SE of site center.
Average Visibility
30%

The site is located on the back of a ridge (running E-W), southeast of the church of Ayia Paraskevi, bounded on the north by the road to the church, on the east by the junction of this road and a bulldozer track running to the southwest, and on the south by a ravine. To the west, surface densities drop dramatically about 50 m. from site center, corresponding with a dramatic shift in soil color from marl (highest densities) to terrarossa (lower densities). Finds include abundant fragments of tile and moderate amounts of pottery; a small cut block of stone (ca. 5x15x20 cm.) was observed SE of the center of the site. Highest artifactual densities were noted on the back of the ridge itself, amidst olive and fruit trees, overgrown with weeds. Bulldozed terraces have been cut into the south slope of the ridge, promoting sheet erosion; artifacts recovered from this slope are worn and seem to have been transported from farther north. Subsurface deposits are likely to be limited to a much smaller area than that over which artifacts are currently distributed. [Geomorphological observations are based in part on observations by Kevin Pope].

Site Number: 005

Name of Site
Ayios Taxiarhis
Periods Represented
Pottery: (C), (HL?), ER?, LR?, Byz?, Turk?, (Mod), Mod?, Hist, (UD)
Tile: ER?, LR?, Byz?, Turk?, Mod, Mod?, Hist
Summary of Artifacts Collected
Total Count: 78
Total Weight: 10,428
Collection Method
Transects and Grabs (1984).
Bearing of T1: 8
Lengths of Principal Axes: 60 N-S (T1-T3) x 100 E-W (T2-T4).
Average Visibility
20%

A distribution of abundant tile and relatively little pottery focussed on a small rural chapel of Ayios Taxiarhis (restored in 1902), just east of the asphalt road connecting Old Nemea to the coast of the Corinthian Gulf at Vrahati. The church stands today in a small clearing on the brow of a ridge running east-west from the lower slopes of Mt. Liofata to the valley floor of the Nemea River. The clearing itself is covered by weeds and low scrub and is bordered by denser forest to the north and east, with mixed pine and cypress forest to the south.

The church is itself of some interest and architectural observations here reported are based on tentative observations provided to the project by Professor Anna Kartsonis in 1986. The apse is built on earlier foundations. Small pits have been dug near the apse, likely to rob graves; guards at the Nemea Museum report that finds from these are now in their care. Several blocks in the exterior walls of the church preserve hollows, originally intended to hold glazed plates (cf. recently G. Sanders, "Three Peloponnesian Churches and Their Importance for the Chronology of Late 13th- and early 14th-Century Pottery in the Eastern Mediterranean," in P. DŽroche and J.-M. Spieser eds., Recherches sur la cŽramique byzantine (BCH Supplement 18) 1989, pp. 189-99. A marble threshold block is visible outside in the west wall and may have belonged to an earlier structure. Nearby to the west of the church lies a monolithic marble column with an Ionic capital.

Inside the church are reused fragments of earlier buildings, including capitals decorated with crosses inscribed in circles that originally supported an iconostatis and are perhaps Late Byzantine. Another capital is carved with an egg and dart motive and may be earlier in date than Byzantine; it in any case was not built for the column on which it now rests. In the north wall of the church, near the iconostasis are capitals carved with a plant design, a folk motive also present at Polyfengi.

Site Number: 006

Name of Site
Kolonitsa
Periods Represented
Pottery: ER?, LR?, Byz, Byz?, (Turk?), (Mod), (Mod?), Hist, UD
Tile: ER?, LR?, (Byz), Byz?, Hist, UD
Summary of Artifacts Collected
Total Count: 299
Total Weight: 5230
Collection Method
Transects and Grabs (1984).
Bearing of T1: 10û
Lengths of Principal Axes: 100 (T1-T3) x 90 (T2-T4)
Average Visibility
60%

Moderate quantities of pottery and tile amidst vineyards, grass, and weeds, north of Old Nemea, between the asphalt road to Vrahati and the Nemea River. Broneer (notebook in Nemea Museum) mentions ancient blocks at Kolonitsa, the name applied locally to Site 006 and its vicinity.

Site Number: 007

Name of Site
Tourkomnemata
Periods Represented
Pottery (original transects): ER?, LR?, Byz, Byz?, (Mod)
Tile (original transects): ER?, LR?, Byz, Byz?, Mod
Pottery (grabs): G?, A?, (C), C?, HL, HL?, ER, ER?, LR, LR?, Byz, Byz?, Turk?, Mod?, Pre, Pre?
Tile (grabs): (A?), (C?), (HL?), ER?, LR?, Byz?
Summary of Artifacts Collected
Total Count: 1233
Total Weight: 67,795
Collection Method
Transects without Grabs (1984); 17 grab samples collected in 1985 (see below).
Bearing of T1: 358o
Lengths of Principal Axes:
Average Visibility
70%

Abundant tile and pottery spread throughout many adjacent fields west of the Nemea River, on low lying ground at the foot of the eastern spurs of Mt. Profitis Elias. This site was first discovered in the summer of 1984. In the course of collecting the site by the Transect and Grab method, it became apparent that the size of the site had not been determined with sufficient accuracy before collection had commenced. Tracts had been improperly mapped at the time of initial fieldwalking. As a result density plots had yielded a mistaken impression of the extent of the site, and on this basis the center of the site had been placed at the south end of the site, rather than in its middle.

The site was consequently reinvestigated in the final days of the 1984 season. Tracts in the area were redefined and rewalked. On the basis of data provided by this means, an accurate impression of the overall size of the site was formed, and in 1985, because of its large size, it was decided to collect Site 007 according to a series of grab samples, roughly coextensive with modern cultivated fields. In the meantime, one principal field in the center of the site had been deep-plowed and finds, while dense and plentiful in almost all parts of the site, here were especially well-preserved. Collection from Site 007 produced a conglomerate millstone; numerous fragments of two types of drain pipes (one glazed inside), all with incrustration inside presumably from use as water pipes; some brick; tiles cemented together by mortar; fragments of human bones, perhaps from burials in tile graves; and both chert and obsidian stone tools and debitage.

Site Number: 100

Name of Site
Alepotrypes
Periods Represented
Pottery: (C?), (HL?), (ER?), (LR?), (Byz?), (Turk?), (Mod?), (Pre?), Hist, UD
Tile: (A?), (C?), (HL?), (ER?), LR?, Byz?, (PMHT)
Summary of Artifacts Collected
Total Count:
Total Weight:
Collection Method
Transects and Grabs (1984)
Orientation of T1: 40o
Lengths of Principal Axes: 50 N-S (T1-T3) x 10 E-W (T2-T4)
Average Visibility
30%

The site lies on top a knoll, covered with scrub and maquis, in the horseshoe-shaped ridge that separates the Nemea Valley from the area of the Tretos Pass, farther south. Moderate amounts of tile with a little pottery and chipped stone are concentrated around a roughly circular depression that varies in depth between 10 and 30 cms. and is the result of recent digging. Northwest of the depression is a pile of conglomerate blocks, some with flat surfaces, perhaps deriving from a wall removed by the excavation.

Site Number: 101

Name of Site
Profitis Elias
Periods Represented
Pottery: (EH), (EH?), A?, C, C?, HL?, (ER), ER?, (LR), LR?, Byz, Byz?, Turk?, Mod, Mod?, Hist, Hist?, UD
Tile: A?, C?, HL?, LR?, Byz?, Mod, (Mod?), PMHT
Summary of Artifacts Collected
Total Count: 360
Total Weight: 14,221
Collection Method
Transects with Grabs (1984)
Bearing of T1: 350o
Lengths of Principal Axes: 160 (T1-T3) x 160 (T2-T4)
Average Visibility
20%

The site consists of abudant tile fragments and pottery around the church of Profitis Elias and associated structures (chapel, cistern, storeroom, and goatpens), on top the highest peak in the mountain range bordering the valley of Nemea on the west (in antiquity, Mt. Trikaranon). In addition, walls and archaeological strata are visible in the scarp of the road leading to the church and much pottery and tile are eroding from it. In the church itself are preserved spolia from earlier structures including an engaged fluted pilaster, and, built into either side of the apse window, two Byzantine column capitals (ca. 48-49 cms. in width). The yard of the church is cleared but on all sides the site is bordered by trees, scrub and maquis; particularly to the east and west visibility is very bad and the surface scatter may extend farther in these directions than detected by our teams.

Site Number: 102

Name of Site
Evangelismos tou Theotokou
Periods Represented
Pottery: (A?), (C?), (HL?), ER?, LR?, Byz?, (Turk?), Mod, (Mod?), Hist
Tile: A?, C?, HL?, ER?, LR?, Byz?, Mod, PMHT
Summary of Artifacts Collected
Total Count: 305
Total Weight: 17,115
Collection Method
Transects with Grabs (1984)
Bearing of T1: 346o
Lengths of Principal Axes: 150 (T1-T3) x 90 (T2-T4)
Average Visibility
40%

Ruins of a basilica, west of the modern church of Evangelismos tou Theotokou. In 18/4/47 a resident of Ancient Nemea, Vasiliki Gotsi, saw a vision of the Virgin Mary, who instructed her to excavate on top the prominent hill southeast of Ancient Nemea, now known as Evangelistria. According to local tradition, the ruins of the basilica were found at that time, in their midst an icon of the Virgin. The remains were properly excavated and studied by Orlandos (A.C. Orlandos, "Les monuments palŽochrŽtiens discouverts ou ŽtudiŽs en Grce de 1938 ˆ 1954," p. 112 and plan 3, in Actes du Ve congrs international d'archŽolgoie chrŽtienne, 1954. Paris 1957). Architecturely the structure is similar to the basilica of the 5-6th c. A.D. excavated in the Sanctuary of Zeus at Nemea (M. Landon, "The Basilica and the Early Christian Community," in S.G. Miller ed., Nemea: A Guide to the Site and Museum. Berkeley 1990).

Walls of the basilica are preserved to a height of ca. 50 cms. (3-4 courses of stone) on the average, with the apse a bit higher; the church was ca. 12 m. wide and 28 m. long. The plan published by Orlandos records remains of two short stubs of walls running in a north-south direction and attached to the north wall of the basilica; these are no longer apparent. Various architectural members piled inside the apse include parts of double engaged columns and capitals, assigned by Orlandos to two "fentres bilobŽes" in the apse, and an octogonal column base.

Although fragments of tile were abundant, few sherds of pottery were recovered by our teams and the date of the basilica must rest more on its architectural style than on any associated ceramics.

Site Number: 103

Name of Site
Triandafylissa
Periods Represented
Pottery:
Tile:
Summary of Artifacts Collected
Total Count:
Total Weight:
Collection Method
Grid (1984).
Orientation of Grid: 40o
Average Visibility
90%

Sparse amounts of pottery and moderate quantities of chipped stone on a narrow interfluve near head of the Nemea Valley, bordered by wide uncultivated rema bottoms. The top of the interfluve had been plowed and recently planted with olives; most of the field is covered with a deep red Pleistocene soil, with pockets of gravels, especially on the slopes of the interfluve. Examination by Keven Pope suggested that there had originally been a depression in the marl here, that it had been infilled with stream-borne gravels that had subsequently weathered in place to produce the red soil, now infiltrated with nodules of pedogenic carbonate concentrations; van Andel and Zangger, on later examination of the site, considered this soil to be relatively young in comparison with Pleistocene soils elsewhere in the survey area, e.g. in the Diaselo area in the pass between the valleys of Old and New Nemea. Collection of artifacts and mapping of the soil and pockets of gravels suggest that lithics are eroding from the gravel.

Site Number: 300

Name of Site
Evangelistria Halkeiou
Periods Represented
Pottery: (EH), (LH), (LH?), A?, C?, HL?, ER?, LR, LR?, Byz, Byz?, Turk?, Mod, Mod?, Hist, UD
Tile: A?, C?, HL?, (ER?), (LR?), Byz?, Turk?, Mod, Mod?, PMHT
Summary of Artifacts Collected
Total Count: 830
Total Weight: 15,565
Collection Method
Transects and Grabs (1985)
Bearing of T1: 350o
Lengths of Principal Axes: 190 m. (T1-T3) x 100 m. (T2-T4)
Visibility
40%

Abundant pottery and tile in a vineyard comprised of old unstaked vines that have grown together to form a dense ground cover. The site lies immediately west of the church of Evangelistria, and is reached from a modern field road that runs west from the Old Nemea-Vrahati asphalt road to cross the Nemea River nearby. Both church and site lie at the eastern end of an interfluve overlooking the narrow flood plain of the river; the site is bordered on the south by a steep ravine. Visibility is overall not good. To the north investigation of the extent of the site was curtailed by a steep brush-covered bank; to the south, by the ravine. The church of Evangelistria is itself dated by an inscription to the 1890s (the final numeral in the date is illegible); left of the doorway is a large ashlar block, almost certainly recycled from a Classical structure. An abandoned building (7.5 m. x 6.0 m.) stands east of the church, another (6.0 m. x 5.5 m.), which appears to have been employed principally for storage, to the south. The walls of both are of stone and mortar, and the owner of the adjacent field informed us that they were in use in the 1940s and 1950s.

Site Number: 301

Name of Site
Koutsi
Periods Represented
Pottery: (ER?), LR?, (Byz), Byz?, Hist
Tile: Byz?
Summary of Artifacts Collected
Total Count: 158
Total Weight: 9902
Collection Method
Transects and Grabs (1985)
Bearing of T1: 360o
Lengths of Principal Axes: 60 m. (T1-T3) x 80 m. (T2-T4)
Visibility
50%

Abundant tile and moderate amounts of pottery on a small bluff at the head of a ravine approx. 600 m. northeast of Koutsi. The site lies immediately east of a dirt road that provides access to the fields near the western end of the Dourmiza Ravine. A tractor track leads east from the dirt road, terminating at the eastern end of the bluff where there is a mound of rubble, now much overgrown with vegetation, that contains a worked limestone block (19 cms. x 68 cm.) with traces of anathyrosis on one end, and a projecting fascia at its top; the bottom of the block is smoothed with one dowel cutting and two other irregular cuttings. Immediately southwest of the mound in the adjacent field is another worked limestone block. Tile is eroding from the scarp of the tractor path. Most of the site is covered by vineyards, with olives at its eastern edge on the steeper slopes of the ravine.

Site Number: 302

Name of Site
Dourmiza
Periods Represented
Pottery: (PG?), (G?), A?, C?, HL?, ER?, (LR), LR?, Byz, Byz?, Turk?, (Mod), Mod?, Pre?, Hist
Tile: (Byz?)
Summary of Artifacts Collected
Total Count: 280
Total Weight: 3349
Collection Method
Transects and Grabs by Fields (1985)
Bearing of T1: 360o
Lengths of Principal Axes: 100 m. (T1-T3) x 210 m. (T2-T4)
Visibility
40%

Abundant pottery and tile, chipped stone, ground stone, a marble bowl fragment, and a Neolithic figurine on an interfluve overlooking the Dourmiza Ravine, north of the main agricultural road leading from the Nemea Valley near Halki to Koutsi, approx. one kilometer west of the Nemea River. Finds are concentrated on the neck of the ridge north of an abandoned farmhouse and its associated facilities; the site does not appear to extend so far as the knoll at the northern end of the interfluve. Most of the site is covered with vines, with a few olives at both the north and south. North of the house is a small grove of almonds. Visibility is only moderately good. The site was last deep-plowed ca. eight years before we visited it. The farmhouse consists of two rooms. That at the south (4.5 m. x 7.0 m.) is built of stones with a tile roof, now caved in and with rotten rafters; attached to it on the north is a mudbrick storeroom (4.5 m. x 5.5 m.). House and site are reached from the Koutsi road via a subsidiary dirt road, which forks at the house itself. In the fork of the road are current-drying floors, and it was in the floor of one of these that the Neolithic figurine was discovered. Because of the large size of this site, it was divided into twelve sub-regions and a grab sample was collected from each.

Site Number: 303

Name of Site
Mantzourou Horafi
Periods Represented
Pottery: A?, C?, HL?, ER?, LR?, Byz, Byz?, (Turk), Turk?, Mod?, Hist, UD
Tile: A?, C?, HL?, ER?, LR?, Byz, Byz?, Turk?, Mod?, UD
Summary of Artifacts Collected
Total Count: 287
Total Weight: 9720
Collection Method
Transects and Grabs by Fields (1985)
Bearing of T1: 20o
Lengths of Principal Axes: 160 m. (T1-T3) x 90 m. (T2-T4)
Visibility
40%

Abundant fragments of tile and moderate amounts of pottery, associated with collapsed buildings and terrace walls and an olive press, immediately west of the main dirt road leading from Afhin Foukas along the western slope of Mt. Foukas, approx. 300 m. north of the Mantzourou Horafi trigonometric marker; the focus of the site is a grassy clearing, bordered on the south by a deep ravine and by dense vegetation to the north and west. Several holes have been dug near the middle of the clearing, possibly by arhaiokapili; one has exposed a completely preserved olive press carved of conglomerate rock. North and northeast of the press are two segments of walls, not in alignment with each other (ca. 16 m. long and 80 cms. high; ca. 14 m. long and 1.0 m. high); a fragment of a millstone of Melian volcanic stone (mylopetra) was built into the longer of the two. Approx. 120 m. south of the olive press, near the bottom of the ravine, is preserved what appears to be the corner of a building (max. pres. length ca. 7 m. x 9 m.). Between it and the press are other piles of rubble and tile within which one can imagine the lines of additional walls. Much of the area of the site is covered with grass and, in places, dense ferns. Transects in all directions were curtailed because of bad conditions for visibility; the site may, therefore, be larger than our estimates.

Site Number: 304

Name of Site
Mantzourou Horafi
Periods Represented
Pottery: EH, (LH), (G?), A, A?, C, C?, HL?, (Byz?), (Turk?), (Mod), (Mod?), (Pre), Pre?, Hist, Hist?
Tile: A?, C?, HL?
Summary of Artifacts Collected
Total Count: 224
Total Weight: 341
Collection Method
Transects and Grid Squares (1985)
Bearing of T1: 360o
Lengths of Principal Axes: 130 m. (T1-T3) x 250 m. (T2-T4)
Visibility
60%

Abundant pottery and tile; a corticated non-flake fragment of chipped stone with retouch; and a seated Corinthian terracotta figurine of Archaic date. The finds are concentrated on the top of a rounded spur of Mt. Foukas, downslope from the main dirt road running north along the western slopes of the mountain from Afhin Foukas (periferiako tou Fouka). The spur slopes gently to the southwest, down a succession of cultivated terraces, and is bordered north and south by ravines of moderate depths. The site at the time of its discovery had been recently deep-plowed in part for the planting of apricot trees, and, subsequent to our collection of surface finds, trenches were dug through the site for the placement of irigation pipes. The presence of the figurine raises the possibility that there was a sanctuary at this site in Greek antiquity. No traces of monumental architecture were observed at the time of initial surface collection. In 1986, however, the site was further investigated with a magnetometer; the results of this study suggested the presence of a buried structure of circular shape.

Site Number: 305

Name of Site
Velanidies
Periods Represented
Pottery: (G), G?, A?, C?, HL?, (LR?), Byz, Byz?, Turk?, Mod?, Hist
Tile: A?, C?, HL?, Byz?, Turk?, (Mod), Mod?
Summary of Artifacts Collected
Total Count: 165
Total Weight: 7665
Collection Method
Transects and Grabs (1985)
Bearing of T1: 60o
Lengths of Principal Axes: 20 m. (T1-T3) x 130m. (T2-T4)
Visibility
30%

Abundant fragments of tile and moderate amounts of pottery at the western edge of the summit plateau of Mt. Foukas, north of the monastery of the Panayia; artifacts are scattered over the rocks and cliffs west of the site. The artifacts are associated with numerous piles of rubble (the largest 4.3 m. x 9.7 m.), amidst which can be recognized traces of walls, apparently the remains of houses and public building (a church?) belonging to the Medieval and early Modern village of Velanidies, mentioned in Venetian sources. The most substantial architectural unit consists of the corner of a large building, one segment (2.1 m. wide) of which is oriented approx. northwest-southeast and is preserved to a length of 80 m. Depressions in the centers of several piles of rubble may be the result of digging by looters. Much of the site consists of exposed bedrock; maquis makes search conditions difficult. A few pre-medieval finds are likely to be associated with activities at Site 306 to the east.

Site Number: 306

Name of Site
Foukas. Ash Altar of Zeus
Periods Represented
Pottery: PG?, G, G?, A, A?, C?, (HL), HL?, (ER), ER?, LR?, Byz?, (Turk?), (Mod?), (Pre?), Hist, Hist? UD
Tile: A?, C?, HL? ER?, (LR?), UD
Summary of Artifacts Collected
Total Count:
Total Weight:
Collection Method
Transects and Grid Squares (1985)
Bearing of T1: 360o
Lengths of Principal Axes: 40 m. (T1-T3) x 50 m. (T2-T4)
Visibility
20%

Abundant tiny fragments of pottery, small amounts of tile, and calcined bones in dark ashy soil at the eastern end of the summit plateau of Mt. Foukas, presumably the remains of the ash altar of Zeus which Pausanias places atop Mt. Apesas (the ancient name for this mountain). Because of the highly fragmentary character of the pottery all sherds were collected by our teams, regardless of their size. The artifacts and ash are concentrated around the older (1952) of two trigonometric markers erected at the eastern end of the plateau. Most of the ceramic finds are very dirty from the ash, small, burnt, and badly worn; pottery consists of fine wares and coarse wares, including cooking vessels with an unusually high proportion of fine wares (just over 60%). Signs of cult other than fine pottery (e.g., figurines or bronze objects) were notably absent. Here and there small holes have been dug into the ash by modern visitors. Prior to our investigations many finds had been collected at the site by members of The University of California at Berkeley Nemea Excavations.

The central focus of the site is covered with low dead grass and goat dung; much of the remainder of the site consists of heavily grazed prickly oak and arbutus growing in pockets of soil amidst limestone boulders and exposed bedrock. On the north, south, and east, the site is bordered by steep cliffs, in places sheer.

There are a few traces of architecture at the northwestern edge of the site, perhaps to be associated with use of the sanctuary. Approx. 30 m. northwest of the older trigonometric marker, a shallow gully once provided access to the plateau from the north; the passage has been blocked at its upper end by a wall of massive undressed blocks, somewhat Cyclopean in appearance. Approx. 15 m. southwest of the gully is a mound of rubble (approx. 4 m. x 6 m.) with a sunken area in its middle, perhaps the remains of a collapsed house to be associated with the fragments of tile found at the site. Approx. 10 m. southwest is a small shallow rock-cut basin (possibly with a spout at one end), approx. 35 x 64 cm., cut into the bedrock with a flattened recess around its rim.

Site Number: 400

Name of Site
Diaselo
Periods Represented
Pottery: (EH?), LH, LH?, (G?), A, A?, C?, (HL?), ER?, LR?, (Byz), Byz?, Mod, (Pre?), Hist
Tile: A?, C?, (Mod), (Mod?)
Summary of Artifacts Collected
Total Count: 148
Total Weight: 3800
Collection Method
Transects followed by collection on a 20-m. grid (1985)
Bearing of T1: 360o
Lengths of Principal Axes: 120 m. (T1-T3) x 170 m. (T2-T4)
Average Visibility
70%

Concentration of abundant tile and moderate amounts of pottery, centered on a trigonometric point marker on top a low knoll in the pass at the southern end of Mt. Aigalaion that connects the valleys of New and Ancient Nemea. The knoll lies immediately north of the modern asphalt road, adjacent to a dirt road leading to the summit of Profitis Elias. The summit of the knoll beneath the marker is covered with scrub and maquis, while its slopes have been plowed and are now covered with carefully tended olives.

Walls and wall spurs appear to protrude from the summit, both to the east and west. Examination of the summit by Demitrack suggests that it is mainly composed of stones that have been brought to this site as building material; any natural outcropping of bedrock here is limited in extent. The slopes of the knoll consist largely of colluvium, formed close to its present location and not transported any great distance.

Orthogonal transects were used to determine the approximate size of the site; to the north of the site is dense maquis and it was impossible to adequately examine this area. The site was also not well defined to the west; very low densities of finds continued more than 120 m. Subsequently a 20-m. grid was established so as to cover the area of highest surface densities.

NEWSITES

Site Number: 401

Name of Site
Koutsomodi
Periods Represented
Pottery: (MH), (MH?), A?, (C), C?, HL?, ER?, 26?, Byz?, Turk?, (Mod?), (Pre), (Pre?), Hist
Tile: A?, C?, HL?, (ER?), (LR?), (Byz?)
Summary of Artifacts Collected
Total Count: 153
Total Weight: 11,662
Collection Method
Transects and Grabs (1985)
Bearing of T1: 270o
Lengths of Principal Axes: 50 m. (T1-T3) x 50 m. (T2-T4)
Average Visibility
20%

Heavy concentration of tile and pottery in garrique, low maquis, and weedy olives, with large fragments of tile, pithoi, and fine wares (including black-glazed) and blocks of building stone exposed in places by deep-plowing. The site overlooks the head of the second major ravine north of the contemporary village of Koutsomodi.

Site Number: 402

Name of Site
Magoula
Periods Represented
Pottery: (LH?), A?, C?, HL?, ER?, LR, LR?, Byz?, Turk?, Mod?, Hist?
Tile: A?, C?, HL?, (ER?), LR?, Byz?, (Turk?), Mod, Mod?
Summary of Artifacts Collected
Total Count:
Total Weight:
Collection Method
Transects and Grabs (1985)
Bearing of T1: 360o
Lengths of Principal Axes: 250 m. (T1-T3) x 270 m. (T2-T4)
Average Visibility
60%

Abundant tile and moderate quanities of pottery on the top and slopes of a low knoll, almost exactly one kilometer north of the village of the Sanctuary of Zeus at Nemea, adjacent to the asphalt road. The site was entirely covered by vines and stubble from the grain harvest. According to the staff of the Nemea Museum excavations were conducted here in 1977-78 by Papahristodoulou, in which a "cistern" and "Turkish artifacts" were found. No report on the results of these investigations appears yet to have been published, but the location has been declared an "archaeological site" and is currently under the protection of the Byzantine Ephoreia.

On the north slope of the hill a complete pithos buried in the ground remains visible. Three worked blocks were recorded as surface finds by our teams, as well as a circular stone with a central groove.

Site Number: 600

Name of Site
Heraklion Cemetery/Turkish Fountain
Periods Represented
Pottery: (LH?), (PG?), (G?), (A?), (C), C?, (HL), HL?, ER, ER?, (LR), LR?, Byz, Byz?, Turk?, Mod, Mod?, Hist, (Hist?), UD
Tile: ER?, LR?, Byz?, (Turk?), (Mod), Hist, (Hist?), PMHT
Summary of Artifacts Collected
Total Count: 1578
Total Weight: 31,452
Collection Method
Field Middle and Field Grabs (1986)
Approximate Size of Site:
Average Visibility
Visibility variable.

A dense and very extensive scatter of pottery, tile, and other artifacts. The principal focus of the site lies northeast of the Stadium of the Sanctuary of Zeus, around a fountain of Turkish date (see E. Dodwell, A Classical and Topographical Tour Through Greece II [London 1819] 209, there called Langia; W.M. Leake, Travels in the Morea III [London 1830] 330) in the pass between Evangelistria and Liofata, just north of the modern road that links Heraklion to Kleonai and the area of the Tretos Pass.

The north end of the Stadium lies at the southwestern edge of the site. At the time of our explorations, it lay north of the asphalt road, which bisected the Stadium. In 1989, the asphalt road was shifted farther north to its present location so that the Stadium in its entirety could be united once again as a single archaeological site. Blegen in 1925 ("The December Excavations at Nemea," Art and Archaeology 22 [1926] 130-31; see also Michael Goethals, "The Stadium," in S.G. Miller ed., Nemea: A Guide to the Site and Museum [Berkeley 1990] 171-91) uncovered that part of the Stadium that lay north of the road for the first time and found that the floor of the stadium lay very close to the surface of the earth; other than a course for water, no built structures such as seating or a retaining wall were uncovered.

Tests in late fall of 1926 clarified the natural of this monument and Blegen concluded that a natural hollow in the northern slope of Evangelistria had been cleared, and that subsequently "the earth dug away to bring the hollow to a flat surface was thrown out upon the lower ground to the north, raising the latter to the proper level, and forming a tongue projecting northward from the hillside...there was no stone construction whatever, so far as one may judge from the evidence today." Our own investigations also failed to produce evidence for any such construction, and it seems very likely that at least some of the surface finds collected by our teams were originally part of this earthen fill employed to build the northern end of the Stadium.

The principal focus of Site 600, in any case, lies several hundred meters farther to the northeast on higher ground. There stand the well-preserved remains of the Turkish spring house, once presumably fed from an aqueduct that led water from a spring in the ravine just to the northeast, "tapped by a tunnel with a vaulted ceiling cut back some 16.4 m. into the bedrock", an improvement that may be contemporary with the construction of the Bath in the fourth c. B.C. (S.G. Miller, "The Bath," in Nemea, p. 111-13 and figs. 37 and 38). Today the water has been diverted for use in irrigating nearby fields. Remains of a rock-cut channel on the lower slopes of Liofata at the northern end of the site suggest, however, that water may have been conducted to this area from sources farther north, and there are also traces of an aqueduct near the location where Blegen excavated a deposit of Archaic votive pottery and figurines (see below). It has been suggested, and seems likely, that the spring northeast of the Turkish fountain was the source of water both for the stadium and for the Bath in the Sanctuary of Zeus, and was carried from it in terracotta conduits and pipes (Goethals, p. 179), although the precise courses of such aqueducts remain unclear.

The spring, tunnel, and the spring house (e§me) are discussed in detail by S.G. Miller in "The Bath," in Excavations at Nemea I, pp. 220-27. In addition to the remains of aqueducts investigated by us, he discusses remains of an aqueduct uncovered in 1964 when the ravine was bulldozed. About 100 m. west of the Turkish fountain and ca. 75 m. north of it, on the northern side of the ravine Charles Williams investigated remains of an aqueduct consisting of stone orthostats set on a foundation course so as to form a triangular-shaped channel. Miller speculates that the blocks may be reused from the Temple of Zeus and suggests that this aqueduct is later than the fourth century Bath.

To the northwest of the fountain, in a field belonging to a Spiros Peppas, on the lower slope of a heavily terraced hill overlooking the cemetery of the village of Heraklion (an area known locally as Pezoulia), Blegen discovered in the fall of 1925 a cache of votive pottery and figurines that appeared to have been cleared from a shrine, most of them intentionally stacked inside each other in a pit hollowed in the bedrock to receive them. According to Blegen, the pottery included "a few specimens of the Geometric style, though the bulk of the vases seem to be Proto-Corinthian and Corinthian fabrics; and the main part of the deposit thus appears to belong to the seventh and the sixth centuries B.C." Additional testing by Broneer, who excavated the deposit for Blegen, in the vicinity did not uncover remains of the shrine itself, and Blegen considered the possibility that the votives derived from the Sanctuary of Zeus itself.

The deposit has never been published but a catalogue composed by Marian Rawson remains on file at the University of Cincinnati. The total collection amounts to 380 vases, two lamps, thirteen figurines, and the bases of five hundred thirty additional pots, too fragmentary to be restored and, in addition to Corinthian products included several Attic black figured sherds. Blegen's lack of success in locating Archaic structures in this area was echoed by our own results which suggest that the principal period of settlement at the site occurred in Byzantine times.

Other remains of interest discovered at Site 600 included an epistyle block from the Temple of Zeus, now transported to the Nemea Museum, as well as other cut blocks left in situ.

Site Number: 601

Name of Site
Koprisies
Periods Represented
Pottery:
Tile:
Summary of Artifacts Collected
Total Count: 510
Total Weight: 7650
Collection Method
Transects and Grabs (1986)
Bearing of T1: 350o
Lengths of Principal Axes: 130 m. (T1-T3) x 180 m. (T2-T4)
Average Visibility
30%

Low density scatter of sherds and tile spread over the gentle southwest slope of a low knoll approx. a kilometer north of modern Heraklion; the site lies north of a dirt track trending eastwards from the asphalt road to Vrahati and ascending the lower slopes of Mt. Liofata. A fragment of a volcanic millestone was found during a revisit to the site. Weeds made visibility difficult in both the olive grove and vineyard where finds were densest but the artifacts did not appear to be eroding from the top of the knoll.

Site Number: 602

Name of Site
Ayia Sotira
Periods Represented
Pottery: (LH), (LH?), (A?), (C), (C?), ER?,LR?, Byz, Byz?, Turk?, (Mod?), Hist, UD
Tile: A?, C?, HL?, ER?, LR?, (Byz), Byz?, (Hist)
Summary of Artifacts Collected
Total Count: 323
Total Weight: 13,190
Collection Method
Grabs and Transects (1986)
Bearing of T1: 30o
Lengths of Principal Axes: 60 m. (T1-T3) x 110 m. (T2-T4)
Average Visibility
60%

Site Number: 603

Name of Site
Ayia Sotira
Periods Represented
Pottery: ER?, LR?, Byz, Byz?, Hist
Tile: LR?, Byz?, Turk?, (Mod), (Hist)
Summary of Artifacts Collected
Total Count: 132
Total Weight: 4565
Collection Method
Grabs and Transects (1986)
Bearing of T1: 30o
Lengths of Principal Axes: 30 m. (T1-T3) x 80 m. (T2-T4)
Average Visibility
40%

Moderate amounts of pottery and tile in a deep-plowed grassy almond orchard, northeast of Site 602, and east of the dirt track that crosses the ravine separating the two sites. The corner of a collapsed stone structure is visible in the middle of the orchard; there is another collapsed stone building at the edge of the pine forest immediately west of the road. Surface finds are concentrated in a remarkably small area, although densities are higher than average over the entire slope of the ridge, between the site and the asphalt road from Koutsomodi. The finds from Site 603 are more restricted in chronological range than those from Site 602 and there is no pottery or tile that is definitely earlier in date than the Byzantine period.

Site Number: 604

Name of Site
Koutsomodi
Periods Represented
Pottery: (LH), LH?, (A), A?, (C), C?, HL?, ER?, LR?, Byz?, (Hist), UD
Tile: A?, C?, HL?, ER?, LR?
Summary of Artifacts Collected
Total Count: 187
Total Weight: 22,640
Collection Method
Grabs and Transects (1986)
Bearing of T1: 3600
Lengths of Principal Axes: 50 m. (T1-T3) x 20 m. (T2-T4)
Average Visibility
30%

Large pieces of tile, pithos rims, and other pottery in several concentrations within a small recently deep-plowed field approx. 350 m. northwest of Site 603 on the same ridge on the lower slopes of Mt. Profitis Elias. The field is planted with olives but covered with tall grass and garrigue and is almost entirely surrounded by macquis and pine forest.

Site Number: 920

Name of Site
Graves
Periods Represented
Pottery: C, HL, (LR)
Tile: C?, HL?
Summary of Artifacts Collected
Total Count: 100
Total Weight: 5780
Collection Method
Grabs and Transects (1989)
Bearing of T1: 200
Lengths of Principal Axes: 30 m. (T1-T3) x 50 m. (T2-T4)
Average Visibility
80%

Moderate amounts of pottery and abundant tile concentrated on stoney garrigue-covered slopes at the edge of pine forest and in the southwest corner of a large olive grove, west of the Nemea River at the foot of Mt. Profitis Elias. The site lies immediately north of a deep ravine that separates it from the area of Site 007, farther south. A dirt track ascends the slopes of the mountain at the south side of the site. The soil that contains the artifacts is a brown cobble-filled colluvium; on the unplowed slopes west of the olives the soil is darker brown and very stoney.

Site Number: 921

Name of Site
Graves
Periods Represented
Pottery: C, (Byz?)
Tile: C
Summary of Artifacts Collected
Total Count: 123
Total Weight: 17,675
Collection Method
Grabs and Transects (1989)
Bearing of T1: 3600
Lengths of Principal Axes: 40 m. (T1-T3) x 15 m. (T2-T4)
Average Visibility
90%

Extremely dense concentration of pottery and tile includings loomweights, a spool, and a black-glazed lamp, in a field of irrigated tomatoes and flowers with scattered olives, adjacent to the dirt road from the Nemea Valley leading to Koutsi via Dourmiza. Visibility is excellent everywhere. Deep-plowing had recently brought to the surface exceptionally large fragments of tile and pottery which appear to have been dragged by it to the south from the middle of the field. Many artifacts had subsequently been piled by farmers in heaps on the ridges between the furrows of the plow. The size is the site is extremely small and there are remarkably few artifacts outside this concentration. Spacing of collection units along our transects was variable in order to avoid damage to tomato plants and irrigation channels.

Site Number: 922

Name of Site
Bekiri Rahi
Periods Represented
Pottery: (N), N?, EH, EH?, (MH), LH, LH?, (PG?), (G), (G?), (A), A?, (C), C?, (HL), HL?, ER?, LR, LR?, Byz?, Turk?, Mod, Mod?, Pre, Pre?, Hist, Hist?, UD
Tile:
Summary of Artifacts Collected
Total Count: 1948
Total Weight: 20,000
Collection Method
Transects and 20-m. Grid Squares (1989)
Bearing of T1: 3400
Lengths of Principal Axes: 190 m. x 230 m. (T2-T4)
Average Visibility
90%

Abudant pottery with moderate amounts of tile, chipped stone, and ground stone on and around a small knoll near the north end of the ridge of Bekiri Rahi, at the east side of the Nemea Valley. A dirt track leads ascends the ridge immediately north of the site from the asphalt road leading from Ancient Nemea to Vrahati, then skirts the west side of the site. The entire site is covered by an olive grove, recent plowed when examined by NVAP; visibility was almost uniformly excellent. Artifact densities fall off gradually to the north and south of the knoll, more drastically to the east and west as the sides of the ridge become steeper. At the south end of the site visibility was considerably worse than elsewhere and it is possible that archaeological deposits extend farther in that direction. The knoll-top itself has been plowed level and there is a pile of stones at its highest point; modern trash has been dumped down the northwest side of the knoll.

Site Number: 924

Name of Site
Afhin Foukas
Periods Represented
Pottery: A?, (C), C?, HL, HL?, ER?, (LR), LR?, Byz, Byz, Hist, UD
Tile: A?, C?, HL?, (ER?), (LR?), Byz?, Hist, Hist?
Summary of Artifacts Collected
Total Count: 516
Total Weight: 27,555
Collection Method
Grabs and Transects (1989)
Bearing of T1: 200
Lengths of Principal Axes: 10 m. (T1-T3) x 120 m. (T2-T4)
Average Visibility
90%

Abundant tile and pottery with some chipped stone and fragments of bone concentrated on a single small knoll and its western slopes, west of the main dirt road that ascends Mt. Foukas from the Nemea Valley. The knoll, located at the narrowest point of the ridge that joins Mt. Liofata and Mt. Foukas with a magnificent view west over the ravine dividing Hioti Rahi from Bekiris Rahi, has been so extensively bulldozed and deep-plowed that it preserves little of its original topography. The soil at the site varies from plowed marl bedrock to brown collovium with patches of deep red terrarossa and is covered with grass and weeds. Finds are almost totally restricted to the brown soils. Adjacent to the road, at the east side of the site, is a large pile of stones, tile, and pithos sherds. Both east and west of the site visibility is poor; to the east the transect was terminated amidst thick weeds, bushes, and olive prunings, to the west admidst high macquis and thick pine forest.

Site Number: 925

Name of Site
Bekiris Rahi
Periods Represented
Pottery:
Tile:
Summary of Artifacts Collected
Total Count:
Total Weight:
Collection Method
Field Grabs and Field Middles (1989)
Approximate Size of Site:
Visibility
30-90%

Extensive distribution of pottery and tile on a spur of Mt. Liofata, east of Bekiris Rahi amidst plowed vines and olives. Visibility is excellent for the most part but obscured locally by weeds, grass, and brambles. There appear to be two main concentrations of artifacts: the focus of the medieval material on the northwest slope of the spur; the earlier Greek finds on the top of the ridge.

Site Number: 926

Name of Site
Graves
Periods Represented
Pottery: EH?, (LH), LH?, (A), A?, (C), C?, (HL), HL?, (LR), LR?, Byz, Byz?, (Pre?), Hist, UD
Tile: A?, C?, HL?, ER?, LR?
Summary of Artifacts Collected
Total Count: 205
Total Weight: 10,100
Collection Method
Grabs and Transects (1989)
Bearing of T1: 3600
Lengths of Principal Axes: 70 m. (T1-T3) x 100 m. (T2-T4)
Visibility
5-90%

Moderate amounts of pottery and abundant tile adjacent to a dirt road that leads from the Nemea Valley to Koutsi via the northeastern slopes of Mt. Profitis Elias. Artifacts are concentrated west of a collapsed stone structure (3.5 x 6 m.) approx. 25 m. north of the road. The building itself appears to be of considerable age, certainly earlier than the 20th century; tile and pithos fragments are built into its walls and there are artifacts in a mound of rubble next to it on the north and east. Olives and weeds cover the site; artifacts are most easily recognizable in the plowed earth beneath the trees.

Site Number: 927

Name of Site
Lekosi
Periods Represented
Pottery: A?, C?, HL?, ER?, (LR), LR?, Byz, Byz?, Turk?, Mod?, Hist, UD
Tile: A?, C?, HL?, ER?, LR?, Byz?, Turk?, PMHT
Summary of Artifacts Collected
Total Count: 172
Total Weight: 12,020
Collection Method
Grabs and Transects (1989)
Bearing of T1: 3600
Lengths of Principal Axes: 90 m. (T1-T3) x 80 m. (T2-T4)
Visibility
20%

Moderate amounts of pottery and abundant tile on a lower spur of Mt. Profitis Elias; the site is bisected by the dirt road that links the area of Lekosi to that of Dourmiza, after it climbs from the ravine north of Site 003. Visibility is generally poor; there is pine forest on the west, olives in the southeast, and elsewhere low scrub and weeds. About 30 meters north of the road is a pile of rubble in which can be discerned traces of walls defining a building, probably a small ruined church, approx. 11 x 15 m. Several blocks have worked surfaces. Fragments of painted plaster appear to derive from ecclesiastical frescoes.

Site Number: 928

Name of Site
Dourmiza
Periods Represented
Pottery: EH?, A?, (C), C?, HL?, UD
Tile: A?, C?, HL?, ER?, LR?
Summary of Artifacts Collected
Total Count: 137
Total Weight: 7200
Collection Method
Grabs and Transects (1989)
Bearing of T1: 3600
Lengths of Principal Axes: 70 m. (T1-T3) x 70 m. (T2-T4)
Visibility
80%

Small quantities of pottery and abudant tile focused on a knoll about 200 downslope from the road leading from the Nemea Valley to Koutsi via Dourmiza. The knoll has been bisected by a dirt track leading east from the Dourmiza road towards the floor of the valley. In the northern scarp of the road a layer of darkish brown soil (in places as much as 30 cm. deep) that is clearly cultural deposit; it lies above sterile marl bedrock and beneath a layer of topsoil approx. 30-40 cms. thick. Large fragments of tile are eroding from the brown soil. The top of the knoll is covered with scrub; vines and olives surround it. Visibility is generally good, particularly so in the bed of the road into which artifacts have been trampled.

Site Number: 929

Name of Site
Ayia Parskevi
Periods Represented
Pottery: (A?), (C?), (HL?), Mod
Tile: Mod
Summary of Artifacts Collected
Total Count: 28
Total Weight: 1980
Collection Method
Single Grab (1989)
Size of Site: 35 m. x 82 m.
Visibility
60%

Large quantities of pottery and tile within a large open rectangular enclosure (35 m. N-S x 82 m. E-W) on the crest of a lower spur of Mt. Profitis Elias overlooking the Nemea Valley, next to the main dirt road that leads from the Nemea Valley to the church of Ayia Paraskevi (at Site 003). The interior of the enclosure is planted with olives and is partly covered by weeds, brush, fig trees, and cypress. The enclosure, especially well preserved at its northwest corner, consists of an inner and an outer wall built of large conglomerate blocks with no mortar, with a open space about four meters wide left between the two walls; at the northwest corner a crosswall joining the inner and outer faces and another farther east suggests that a kind of casemate construction may have been generally employed. Near the northeast corner parts of the outer face of the external wall and of the inner face of the inner wall are discernible with difficulty within ta gentle bank of rubble and earth that leads down to the field east of the enclosure. At the southeast corner a wall face is also preserved.

There are tiles built into the enclosure walls, some of which appear Medieval to modern in date, others older. The outer wall at the northwest corner is as much as 60 cms. thick. No place in the circuit was it possible to measure the thickness of the inner wall. The south side of the enclosure has been almost completed destroyed by bulldozing, but is visible on the Greek Army 1:5000 maps of the area and was thus presumably still relatively well-preserved in the 1960s. South of the enclosure and the road, just above the ravine that borders the ridge, are other long conglomerate walls with large quantities of rubble and tile downslope; these may be terrace walls or check dams.

Nemea Valley Archaeological ProjectCatalogue of Sites

Nemea Valley Archaeological Project
Catalogue of Sites