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Modern Description: Kiapha Thiti is a prominent acropolis in Eastern Attica, strategically located on a high summit, rising steeply from the coastal plain of Vari and dominating the landscape between Hymettos, the southwestern Attic coast and the Mesogaia plain. The site was excavated in 1982 and 1983 by the German Archaeological Institute, and excavations continued in 1986 and 1988 by the Canadian Institute (Professor Dietmar K. Hagel, Queen’s University). In the last decade, the 2nd Ephorate of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities conducted rescue excavations on the lower eastern and western slopes of the hill.
Archaeological investigations established that the site was settled at the end of the Neolithic (Final Neolithic period, 4th millennium BC) and was also inhabited during the Early, Middle and Late Bronze Ages. The most impressive find is the extensive Mycenaean fortification, constructed at the end of the Middle Bronze Age period (ca. 1600 BC) and used until the end of Late Helladic II (ca. 1400 BC). The steep natural terrain, divided into three terraces, was reinforced by wide circular walls, angular buttresses and circular bastions. In the Geometric and Archaic periods, Kiapha Thiti gained a religious importance; there are remains of a sanctuary, most likely for the worship of a female deity, perhaps the Nymphs. A few finds indicate that the sanctuary was used in the Classical and Hellenistic periods, but less intensively. The site also preserves a Christian church, dated to the 5th - 6th century CE.
Margarita Nazou studied the earliest (Final Neolithic-Early Bronze Age) ceramics excavated from Kiapha Thiti in her PhD thesis (Institute of Archaeology, University College London). The study of ceramics through macroscopic fabric group analysis revealed that there is imported pottery from the neighbouring island of Aegina, indicating maritime connections and exchange among prehistoric communities during the 4th and 3rd millennia BC. (http://www.cig-icg.gr/sites/default/files/docs/Bulletin33.pdf)
"The middle part of the hill (‘Mittelburg’), at a height of 175 m, is protected with an Early Byzantine fortification wall which encloses the north and the west part of the hill, running for ca. 100 m, while the other sides are naturally protected through the steep slopes. The wall has a width of 1.5 m, and although it is generally rather badly preserved, it survives up to 2 m at its east end. It is built of solid rubble masonry set in mud. The stones show two ‘faces’, between which smaller stones form the core of the wall. No gate was preserved, but the excavators assume that one must have existed. Inside the fortified area a small LRom/EByz building with two rooms was excavated. Despite thorough investigation, the excavators did not find remains of any other building of this period in the encircled area. In the lower part of the hill (‘Unterburg’), beneath the fortification wall, a manmade terrace was found, the soil of which contained a number of pagan votive gifts related to the Hellenistic sanctuary. The excavators conclude that this soil was transported from the top of the hill to the bottom, in order to expand the terrace; this must have happened in correlation with the erection and the use of the church which was built on the top of the hill. Two sherds of a late period were also contained in this soil; the excavators date them to the LRom/EByz times, but they are also compatible with a dating in the Middle Byzantine period. The most important finds were excavated on the top of the hill: a second fortification wall, with a few rooms attached to its inner face, and a small basilica in the centre of the fortified area. It encloses the west and the north part of the summit (therefore having a direction similar to the one of the wall on the ‘Mittelburg’), while the east and south parts are protected through the steep slopes. The enclosed area of the summit has therefore a surface of 35 x 20 m. The fortification wall has a width of ca. 1,3 m and an original height of 3-4 m. Its masonry is the same as the one of the lower fortification wall, while a gate has been located on its north side. The chronology of the fortification wall is based (a) on the fact that it lies upon a Hellenistic structure, which appears to have laid in ruins for a significant amount of time before the fortification wall was built; (b) on the assumption that it must have been related to the two-room building and to the church on the top of the hill; both structures were dated to Late Roman or Early Byzantine times. The church occupies the centre of this area. It has three building phases, the first of which has been dated to the 5th or early 6th c. on the basis of four screen plaques, decorated in relief of crude workmanship, which were revealed among the church ruins, and on the earliest group of pottery found on the summit. The date of construction of the fortification wall and the rooms is not clear, but the excavators argue that the wall was built at the same time (or soon after) the church was constructed, and that it was repaired at some point in the Middle Byzantine period. ... The pottery of the second group of Kiapha Thiti can therefore be dated to the 7th-8th c., thus showing that that the use of the site continued during the ‘Dark-Age’ period." (Tzavella , p. 265ff)
Trismegistos Geo: 37763

Info: Canadian Institute

(Canadian Institute in Greece, Portal to the Past)

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