ASSIROS: THE PHASE 1 APSIDAL BUILDINGS 2

Both apsidal buildings had footings of stone and upper walls of timbers, branches and clay. Buildings of this type are well known in the Greek Dark Age, and some were certainly early temples. Nothing, however, was found at Assiros to suggest a cult use.

 

Reconstruction © Diana Wardle

 

Inside the buildings were large storage pithoi set in the floor and a large number of pottery vessels broken in the final destruction. These included numbers of cut-away-neck jugs and drinking cups with a single wishbone handle together with at least one very large bowl with wishbone handles whose terminals were decorated with horse-head protomes. 

Reconstruction © Diana Wardle

This assemblage suggests that the two buildings were used for eating and drinking. This could have been feasting of the kind familiar from Homeric epic, when a bard might entertain the guest with stories of heroic deeds. The two buildings could thus have served as the residence or audience chamber of a local chieftain, or at a different level, a meeting place for local inhabitants or for travellers.

The associated structures on the summit of the Toumba were all small and could not have housed any large number of people.

See also K.A. Wardle, Diana Wardle 'Assiros: The Geometric Settlement' in ed. P. Adam Veleni,  Μνημη Ιουλιας Βοκοτοπουλου, 653-673, Thessaloniki 2000.

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