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Modern Description: After Aipatia, which has a number of beautiful dovecots, the road climbs out of the valley towards the west coast and after 13 km joins the island's principal road at the junction of Stavropeda. 500m to the south of this junction is the isolated church of Aghia Triada: from here a path leads down to the archaeological site of Zagorá. (Access to the site is strenuous and takes 30 minutes each way: a stick may be necessary to clear cobwebs along the pathway. The path goes up the side of the church and branches to the right: after 15 minutes, at a T-junction, descend steeply to the right and then follow round to the left. The path skirts the slope of the mountain: it is best not to leave this path until you see a clear perpendicular track leading straight down to the neck of the headland.)
The site was first excavated in the 1960s by the University of Sydney, then again in 2012-14; the artefacts found here are now in the archaeological museum in Andros. Zagora's heyday was in the Late Geometric period, between 850 and 700 BC, though there is evidence of habitation as far back as the 10th century BC. There are not that many significant sites from this period in Greece; hence the importance of the excavations here.
From the path the layout of the site soon becomes clear: the neck of the headland, cut transversely by the remarkable man-made fortifications of the 9th century BC, and then the promotory itself, with its surrounding escarpment forming a natural curtain of fortification on the seaward sides. The foundations of houses and buildings within this perimeter can also be seen. The choice of site is clear, too, with its commanding views of Gyaros, Syros and Kea, a tiny port far below, and considerable natural protection; no source of water, however, is evident today. The site itself is a little confusing, not least because there is also some more recent walling and building which can cause confusion with the ancient remains.
The fortification wall is best preserved at the southern end. Constructed meticulously of schist rock, it was probably about 2.5m high, and varies in thickness from 2-4m. A gate is visible with the base of a bastion to its north: this took care of the exposed right-hand side of an external attacker. The town appears to have grown organically with no clear, predetermined plan. The remains of the houses are mainly concentrated in the centre of the site, though a number of buildings interestingly abut the inside of the walls and may have been used partly as magazines for defensive material. The houses would have been constructed of schist, with baked mud roofs over wooden beams. In the centre, at almost the highest point, the foundations of a temple are recognizsable: there is a pronaos, and a naos with the base for what was possibly a cult statue visible in the middle. This design indicates that we are looking here at a much later temple of the Archaic or Classical era, which was probably built over the site of an earlier place of worship of the Geometric era, and which was maintained after the general abandonment of the settlement. It is oriented on a due N/S axis. Nearby is a complex of houses and rooms – one with a central hearth and benches around it, all still clearly visible.
Wikidata ID: Q140345
Trismegistos Geo: 61399

Info: McGilchrist's Greek Islands

(From McGilchrist’s Greek Islands, © Nigel McGilchrist 2010, excerpted with his gracious permission. Click for the books)

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