eTheses Repository - University of Birmingham

eleventh century BCE. However, general consensus, supported by comparison to hydraulic
works at Gla, asserts that they went out of use sometime at the end of the LHIIIB period or in
the LHIIIC period (e.g. Knauss 1988; 1999; 1990; Knauss et al. 1986; Dickinson 1994, p.163-
4; Iakovides 2003).
6.2.5: Protogeometric evidence of the everyday in Greece
Evidence that can be dated to the PG period is slightly more plentiful than that designated as
SM. In the Peloponnese there are examples of houses at Nichoria (Coulson et al. 1983),
Argos (Caskey 1971), and Asine (Wells 1983). Snodgrass ([1971]2000, p.58) also suggests
that habitation continued at Isthmia and Old Korinth. Unfortunately, it is not clear on what
evidence this view is based, although at Korinth a SM/EPG house was excavated in 1959
(Weinberg 1960). Nichoria is a particularly important site and this period sees the
construction of the ‘chieftains’ large apsidal dwelling (Unit IV-I; Coulson et al. 1983) and,
outside of the Peloponnese, at Lefkandi, evidence exists for resettlement of Xeropolis later in
the period (Popham 1979, p.3). At Dimini, a PG settlement (Iolkos) stood beside the
Mycenaean palace (Volos-Palia) (Adrimi-Sismani, 1992, 1994, 2000, 2002) where houses,
unusually for mainland Greece, were stone built and rectangular, similar to those at sites on
Crete (e.g. Karfi) and at Grotta on Naxos, where the LHIIIC settlement was rebuilt
(Desborough 1964, p.149; Snodgrass 2000, p.363).
6.2.6: Protogeometric evidence of the everyday in Arkadia
PG sites in Arkadia are few in number and those that do exist have produced very little
evidence. At Khotoussa-Ayios Yioryios (15) in the lower Orchomenos plain and Ptolis-
Gortsouli (27) in the Mantinean plain, evidence is limited to one or two sherds (Howell 1970,
n.1 & n.11) which can indicate very little other than these areas were not entirely deserted at
this time. Both these areas will be considered in more detail in Case Study A and B.
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