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Modern Description: From Platána on the coast to the south of the port, a road leads uphill to the west for 3 km as far as the archaeological site at Ano Potamiá (9 km) on the summit of a steep, conical hill. (Access is easiest by the west slope; the east slope, which preserves substantial stretches of wall, is densely covered with oak and undergrowth.) The ruins extend over a large area: at the crown of the hill is the well-preserved base of a fortress of Hellenistic times, including the remains of adjacent buildings – possibly barracks – and dwellings, one one of which possesses a baking oven. The area is scattered with potsherds, broken tiles, and fragments of white marble. The earliest habitation on the site goes back to Neolithic times (4th millennium BC), at which time the settlement was located in the saddle between this and the hill to the south. The small museum (no fixed opening times: ask locally for the ‘phylax') in a converted hall beside the church in the nearby village of Potamiá, contains the artefacts from the various period which have been founds at the site.
The debate as to whether the remains on this hill are those of the ancient town of Oechalia, mentioned by Pausanias (Descrip. IV.2.3), cannot be resolved on the basis of existing evidence.
Wikidata ID: Q112743967
Trismegistos Geo: 52221
Manto: 9906413

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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