Koukounaries Hill 2003 Overview

Koukounaries Hill, Paros, Cyclades, Greece
Robert Koehl

This grant will support research and manuscript preparation for the publication of the Mycenaean pottery excavated on the acropolis of the Koukounaries Hill, Paros, Cyclades, Greece.

Under the direction of Prof. D.U.Schilardi, the Greek Archaeological Society conducted excavations on the Koukounaries Hill, overlooking the Bay of Naoussa, on the northwest coast of Paros, from 1976-1991. While its terraces and summit have yielded evidence for occupation from the Late Neolithic to the Classical period, the largest and best-preserved structure is a Mycenaean building that covers the plateau on the summit. Excavated from 1976-1985, the building measures approximately 22 meters (N-S) x 16.50 meters (E-W). The plan, composed of two corridors that intersect at a right angle, with rooms on each side of the corridors, conforms to a type of Mycenaean house familiar from several sites on the Greek mainland.

At the invitation of the director, the present applicant began to study the pottery from this building in 1981 and 1982. Because of shortages of storage and study space, work had to stop until 1996. Since then, there have been seven annual summer study seasons. Five major ceramic assemblages and several smaller ones were selected for study and publication in the series of final excavation reports. The major deposits come from the building’s three basement storerooms, its east-west corridor, and a small room at the north end, perhaps a shrine. The smaller deposits come from trenches dug below the floor levels and a few post-destruction, re-occupation contexts.

To date, over 35,000 fine and medium coarse decorated and undecorated Mycenaean sherds have been counted, representing a minimum of 3,100 vessels. Of these, approximately 1,500 specimens have been catalogued and digitally photographed, and all but 150 have been drawn. More than 200 have been mended and restored for display in the Paros Archaeological Museum. The cooking vessels and pithoi will be studied in the future, when adequate conditions for their sorting, cleaning and restoration become available.

The monograph, as planned, will comprise a full publication of the ceramics from these deposits, including sherd counts, catalogues, profile drawings, and photographs. There will also be separate chapters on vase shapes, motifs, and their stylistic affinities, room or space function, based on distribution analyses of the pottery, imports and trade relations, chronology, and cultural/historical conclusions. Preliminary studies indicate that the building was constructed and destroyed during the Late Helladic IIIC Middle, phase 1, with small areas re-inhabited during Late Helladic IIIC Middle, phase 2. The publication of this material should lead to a more precise and nuanced understanding of the cultural history of the Aegean and eastern Mediterranean during this still relatively obscure period of the Late Bronze Age.