PKey Report
      
PKC995
TITLEArkines
WGS84 36.908129° N, 22.404629° E
Accuracy 50 m.

LAT/LON 36.908129, 22.404629
LON/LAT 22.404629, 36.908129

DMS 36° 54' 29.2644" N,22° 24' 16.6644" E

W3Wmansions, wheezes, conforming
UTM34 S, 625132, 4085602
EGSA87 357725, 4085581

Elevation m691
Elevation feet 2267.1
RegionLaconia







GENERAL SITE TYPE  Tholos

TYPE

1.    Artifacts.   BCH [1990], 734    ' ... deux épingles géométriques à tête d'oiseaux.'

2.    Cem.   Banou [1996], 39    '...hatte Tsountas 1888 ein kleines Tholosgrab ausgegraben ...'

3.    Settlement.   Cavanagh et al. [1996], 294    'LH settlement and tombs; ... '

4.    Tholos.   Cavanagh et al. [1996], 294    ' ...; tholos tomb; ... '

5.    Tholos.   BCH [1990], 734    ' ... une tombe à tholos ... '

6.    Tholos.   Simpson [1981], 103    '... the discovery of two small and poorly constructed tholos tombs in a high, stony and wooded valley just south of the summit of Taygetos, ...'

7.    Tholos.   Ålin [1962], 94    'Zwei Tholosgräber wurden hier von Tsountas und Sotiriadis untersucht.'

8.    Tholos.   Pelon [1976], 185    'Un ensemble de plusieurs tholoi, peut-être quatre au total, ...'

9.    Tholos.   Ormerod [1909], 66    'Close to the village Tsountas discovered and excavated a small tholos tomb and in March 1910 the dromos of a similar tomb was uncovered by the owner digging for stones.'

10.    Tholos.   Laconia II, 128    ' ... the two small and poorly constructed Mycenaean tholos tombs at Arkines, ... '



PERIOD (High Chronology)

1. Late Helladic: (1700 BC - 1050 BC)

    a.    Laconia II: 128, 'But among debris found round the tomb by J.F. Lazenby and R. Hope Simpson in July 1960 were some very small sherds of L.H. date, ... '

    b.    Cavanagh et al. [1996]: 294, 'LH settlement and tombs; ... '

    c.    BCH [1990]: 734, ' ... de la fin de l'époque mycénienne, ... '

2. Late Helladic III: (1410 BC - 1060 BC)

    a.    Ålin [1962]: 94, 'Waterhouse datiert die Gräber mit Funden in SH III.'

3. Late Helladic IIIA: (1410 BC - 1315 BC)

    a.    Simpson [1981]: 103, 'LH III(A-B) C'

    b.    Pelon [1976]: 185, 'Waterhouse et Hope Simpson proposent une datation a l'HR IIIA mais en l'absence d'éléments indiscutables une datation à l'HR IIIB ne peut être exclue.'

    c.    Banou [1996]: 40, 'Die von Hope Simpson gefundenen Scherben wurden im SH IIIA-B datiert...'

    d.    Laconia II: 128, 'The date of Tsountas’ tomb is uncertain, since there were few finds, and little chronological information can be derived ... , but there are slight indications that it may belong to the LH IIIA period.'

4. Late Helladic IIIB: (1320 BC - 1190 BC)

    a.    Simpson [1981]: 103, 'LH III(A-B) C'

    b.    Pelon [1976]: 185, 'Waterhouse et Hope Simpson proposent une datation a l'HR IIIA mais en l'absence d'éléments indiscutables une datation à l'HR IIIB ne peut être exclue.'

    c.    Banou [1996]: 40, 'Die von Hope Simpson gefundenen Scherben wurden im SH IIIA-B datiert...'

5. Late Helladic IIIC: (1190 BC - 1060 BC)

    a.    Simpson [1981]: 103, 'LH III(A-B) C'

6. Geometric: (900 BC - 700 BC)

    a.    Cavanagh et al. [1996]: 294, ' ...; finds include Geometric.'

    b.    BCH [1990]: 734, ' ... deux épingles géométriques à tête d'oiseaux.


NOTES

1.  Considerable ambiguity surrounds the locations of these small tholoi.  The primary difficulty is that even the modern names seem to have changed since the early part of the twentieth century when the original research and reporting was being done.  The main points are these:

  1. This mountain country is a wild jumble of high, cross-cutting ridges and the names given in the literature for some of these ridges, 'Gazeika' for example, cannot now be found on current maps.

  2. A river valley runs EW from just S of Potamia (F6537) in Laconia directly west to the NS ridge joining Aghios Ilias (Mount Taygetus, F1265) to the peak at Anina (F4621).  An ancient road seems to have followed this river valley (Simpson [1957] 236; B. Sergent [1978]) joining Laconia and Messenia from the S.  This valley terminates at the NS ridge at a col (F4622).  The river that runs in this valley (and just S of Gorani) is called the 'Goranoi' by Waterhouse and Simpson [1961] 128.  Present-day names for this river are 'Gherakari' and, its main tributary in the W just below Taygetus, the 'Chaos'.  It is in this river valley that our tholoi lie.

  3. The hamlet of Arkines, material to locating these tholoi, is now vanished (at least I can find no trace of it).  One hundred years ago it had already been reduced to no more than a couple of miserable hovels. Ormerod [1909] 66 says ' ... an important road passes over the col between Hagias Elias (the Taygetus, RHC) and Anina (F4621), above Arkines. ... the hamlet now consists only of two or three rude huts, ...'  He provides a map that suggests that Arkines lay just to the E of a NS line joining Taygetus and Anina (F4621) and, simultaneously, well to the W of Gorani (F1245).

  4. A map provided in Waterhouse and Simpson [1961], 129 (Fig. 9) is consistent with this supposition.  Here Arkines is marked to the NW of the town of Spartias (F3462) and well to the W of Gorani (F1245) and, if the map scale is to be believed, these tholoi are a mere half kilometer to the NE of Spartias.  It appears, unfortunately, that the map scale cannot be relied upon.  If we were to believe this map then the tholoi would not even be in the right river valley.

  5. A map provided by E. Banou [1996] offers a way out of the difficulties.  Her Plan 8. 'Arkines. Die Tholosgräber', can be overlain on Topoguide's topographic map with surprising fidelity and the tholoi simply marked off.  The accuracy for each tholos placement is, perhaps, on the order of fifty meters.  The Topoguide map with the suggested overlay accompanies this article.



2.  I have placed the general marker for C995 arbitrarily on one of the tholoi. The others I have made features: F3501, F3502, F3491. It isn't possible at the present to say which is the excavated tholos of the four. It may very well be that no one knows the exact position of these tholoi and that it would require a ground investigation to reestablish them.

rhc

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1.  BCH [1990]:  Bulletin de correspondance hellénique. Volume 114. 1990., 'Spartia (Arna).', pg. 734. Online here.

2.  Ålin [1962]:  Ålin, Per. Das Ende der mykenischen Fundstätten auf dem griechischen Festland. Carl Bloms Boktryckeri A.-B., Lund, 1962., 'Arkines', pg. 94.

3.  Banou [1996]:  Banou, Emilia. Beitrag zum Studium Lakoniens in der mykenischen Zeit. Albert-Ludwigs-Universität zu Freiburg. 1996, '11. Arkines', pg. 39. 'aber auch heute schwerzugänglichen Tal des Taygetus...'

4.  Cavanagh et al. [1996]:  Cavanagh, William with Joost Crouwel, R.W.V. Catling, Graham Shipley and others. Continuity and Change in a Greek Rural Landscape: The Laconia Survey. Volume II: Archaeological Data. British School at Athens. 1996, 'HH116. Gazeika, Arkines', pg. 294. Online here.

5.  Ormerod [1909]:  Ormerod, H.A.. ‘Laconia: II. Topography’, The Annual of the British School at Athens (16) 62-71. 1909/1910., 'Section 2. - WESTERN BARDOUNIA AND NORTHERN MAINA.', pg. 66. Online here.

6.  Pelon [1976]:  Pelon, Olivier. Tholoi, tumuli et cercles funéraires; Recherches sur les monuments funéraires de plan circulaire dan l'Égée de l’Âge du Bronze (IIIe at IIe millénaires av. J.-C). Bibliothèques de l'École française d'Athènes et de Rome - Série Athènes, 229. 1976., '9. Arkines', pg. 185. Online here.

7.  Sergent [1978]:  Sergent, B.. ‘LA SITUATION POLITIQUE DE LA MESSÉNIE DU SUD-EST A L'ÉPOQUE MYCÉNIENNE’, Revue Archéologique, Nouvelle Série, Fasc. 1 (1978), pp. 3-26., 'footnote 80', pg. 18. Online here.

8.  Simpson [1981]:  Simpson, Richard Hope. Mycenaean Greece. Park Ridge, New Jersey: Noyes Press, 1981., 'E 9 Arkines', pg. 103. Online here.

9.  Simpson [1957]:  Simpson, Richard Hope. ‘Identifying a Mycenaean State’, The Annual of the British School at Athens, 52, 231-259. 1957., '', pg. 236. Online here.

10.  Laconia II:  Waterhouse, Helen and R. Hope Simpson. ‘Prehistoric Laconia: Part II’, The Annual of the British School at Athens, Vol. 56, pp. 114-175, 1961, 'Arkines', pg. 128. Online here.



PHOTOS AND IMAGES


Topoguide area map overlain with Plan. 8 from Emilia Banou [1996].
Overlay from Banou [1996], Plan 8.

The distance from C995 to the closest shoreline at 36.83193° N, 22.27872° E is 14 km and 60 m.