ASSIROS: THE PHASE 1 APSIDAL BUILDINGS 1
see extended discussion:
Assiros Toumba in the 8th and 7th centuries BC:
The apsidal structures of Phase 1 and their function.
After the makeshift settlement represented by the structures of Phase 1.5 was abandoned, the summit of the mound was no longer occupied. It is possible that the inhabitants moved to a much more spacious site some three kilometers away (Assiros, Agia Anna) where an Iron Age settlement has been detected but not tested by excavation. This site has the form of a Table - a large flat topped site with a steeply sloping (?defensive) perimeter of the kind which becomes widespread in Central Macedonia during the 9th century BC and remains in use until at least the Late Classical and Hellenistic periods (Olynthos for example).
During this time a single pithos burial was made in the ruins of the buildings. This was used for the burial first of an infant and then some time later for the burial of a young woman. Similar burials are known in the tumuli at Vergina as well as other sites, but at Assiros only a single bronze button was found with the skeletal remains.
Some time later, perhaps in the middle of the 8th Century, or around its end, new buildings were erected with a very different plans from those of earlier periods.
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A large (8x13m) apsidal ended building was erected running E-W across the mound, and, soon after, it was remodelled and a second added close beside it to the south. Other rectangular structures were erected to the north and east, but the apsidal buildings remain outstanding in terms of their form and size. |
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