Listed 3 sub titles with search on: Archaeological sites for wider area of: "DORION Municipality MESSINIA" .
KATO MALTHI (Settlement) TRIFYLIA
In Malthi (the homeric Dorio), the biggest acropolis of the 2nd century, there is the best-preserved domed tomb of Greece. The construction of its upper part is still saved today as well as the stone of the ceiling which is called Kleidi (Key) and sealed the top of its beehive-like construction.
This extract is cited March 2003 from the Messenia Prefecture Tourism Promotion Commission URL below, which contains image.
DORION (Prehistoric settlement) TRIFYLIA
Malthi/The Swedish Messenia expedition
Malthi is the name of the northern spur of the mountain range of Ramovouni
in northern Messenia. The village of Vasiliko is situated some kms northeast of
Malthi. In 1926 Natan Valmin came to the region and was shown two tholos tombs
which he excavated the same year. Later on a third tholos was identified, but
it was destroyed before there was time to excavate it. The tholos tombs are situated
just west of the Malthi acropolis, by the small village of Malthi (former Bodia).
Tholos I was robbed and contained a mixture of Mycenaean pottery sherds and later
material. The diametre of the circular chamber was 6.85 m and the height was 5.80
m. Tholos II was partly collapsed at the time of excavation and this tomb had
also been robbed. Both tombs were obviously cut out from the cliff (according
to Hope Simpson & Dickinson, A gazetteer of Aegean civilization in the Bronze
Age, Vol I: The mainland and islands, 1979, 174) and were not built directly on
flat ground as Valmin states. The next year Valmin excavated two more tholoi:
one west of Kopanaki and another between Vasiliko and Bouga-Kallirrhoi. The results
are published in Bulletin de la Societe Royale des Lettres de Lund 1926-1927,
190 ff.
The same year, 1927, the excavation of the settlement on top of the
acropolis started. Excavations continued in 1929, 1933 and 1934. During these
years the entire settlement, which is encircled by a wall, was uncovered. The
area within the wall measures 140 x 80 m. Valmin stated that the earliest habitation
was Neolithic. This he called Dorion I. Dorion II was larger och would, according
to Valmin, belong to the Early Bronze Age. The wall around the settlement was
erected during Dorion IV in the Middle Bronze Age. This habitation continued down
into Mycenaean times.
Valmin describes how Dorion IV was divided into three separate parts:
the central area where the architecture seemed to be more of a monumental character
and where there were workshops in the northern part, the area which runs along
the interior of the wall, and the empty areas where there was no habitation.
A number of 47 graves were excavated in the settlement within the walls. They were situated beneath and between the buildings. They are either simple pitgraves or cist graves, the sides of which consisted of stone slabs or were built by smaller stones. Single burials were most common, although some of the graves held two individuals and some held several. Two of the graves held no human bones. Nine of the burials were adults and the rest were children. Valmin searched in vain for chamber tombs in the region during all the excavation campaigns.
It is now believed that the earliest habitation at Malthi cannot be
dated earlier than the Middle Bronze Age. The pottery which Valmin called coarse
'Adriatic Ware' and which he found throughout the layers in the habitation beginning
in the so-called Neolithic settlement, has proved to be typical for the local
Middle Bronze Age in Messenia ((R.J. Howell i W.A. McDonald, 'Excavations at Nichoria:
1972-1973', Hesperia 44, 1975, 111). The encircling wall is now dated to the Late
Helladic period (P. Darque, L?architecture domestique mycenienne. These du III°
cycle, Paris 1980, 32f.).
A building or part of a settlement dating to the Late Bronze Age was
excavated in 1936 in the same area, where the two tholoi were excavated in 1926.
In 1929 Valmin travelled around Messenia and some of his observations
are recorded in Etudes topographiques sur la Messenie ancienne, 1930. After his
travels Valmin saw reason to return and conduct excavations at two archaeological
sites which he had found being of special interest. One of the sites was a temple
to the rivergod Pamisos in Hagios Floros, ca 5 km east of Messene. The finds from
this excavation indicate that this cult place had been in use from Archic down
to Roman times. The other site was Koroni in southeastern Messenia (the colony
of the inhabitants from Asine in the Argolid). Just north of the town Valmin excavated
a Roman mosaic in a room supposed to have been a larger complex: a villa or a
gymnasium. Dionysos is the central motif of the mosaic.
Many of the finds from the various excavations conducted by Valmin
and his colleagues were restored and put on display in the local museum of Vasiliki.
This museum is now closed. The finds from his excavation are now in the Kalamata
Museum.
The following excavations under the direction of Valmin are published
in The Swedish Messenia Expedition, 1938:
The two tholos tombs of Malthi (Bodia).
The settlement of Malthi including the tombs.
The temple of Pamisos at Hagios Floros.
The Roman mosaic at Hagia Triada close to Koroni.
Ann-Louise Schallin, ed.
This text is cited Jun 2005 from The Swedish Institute at Athens URL below
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