Modern Description:
The tumulus cemetery at Ksirika, south of the town of Konstatia, in the region of Almopia (Pella Prefecture), was identified and excavated in 1995-2000. The cemetery lies at the west foot of Mount Paikos, at the beginning of the shortest road connecting Almopia with Vottiaia (modern Giannitsa region). It dates from the Iron Age and was probably used until the seventh century BC. Forty tumuli were identified alongside a stream with an east-south direction. Most tumuli are circular, with a diameter of 8-14 metres, except for two oblong tumuli, which measure 20x8 and 17x11 metres. They all consist of stone piles, their base defined by large boulders, covering a single-roomed chamber also made of boulders that were smoothened on the inside. On either side of the entrance, which is located on the east, two taller stones placed perpendicularly against the chamber's walls act as antae. Occasionally a flat stone symbolically sealed the entrance. The floor was paved with pebbles. Like the tumuli, the chambers and dromoi vary both in size - the largest chambers have a diameter of three meters - and shape (circular or more rectangular). The only intact grave excavated so far suggests that the graves were covered in the pseudo-load-bearing technique. Also, the lack of lintels over the entrances and the low height of the chambers (1-1.5 metres) indicate that the dromoi and entrances were symbolic and that for every new burial the tumulus was removed and then rebuilt. The intact grave excavated under Tumulus 2, was thoroughly investigated. Its chamber (2.20 metres long and 1.50 metres wide) contained several burials, which suggest that the graves were re-used continuously. It also contained some one hundred grave gifts, such as terracotta vases (two handled vases with knobbed handles, fluted kantharoi, jugs, bowls), loom-weights or beads, small iron knives, and jewellery (stone and glass beads, hair pins, bracelets, a circular pendant, figure-of-eight fibulae or hair-pins, and an arched fibula). The finds from the entire cemetery suggest that it was used throughout the Iron Age and until the seventh century BC. Further study of the material and the investigation of more intact tumuli might extend the cemetery's lifespan and provide new evidence on the people of Almopia, particularly regarding Thucydides's information that they were expelled from the area after the arrival of the Macedonians, probably in the sixth century BC.(http://odysseus.culture.gr/h/3/eh352.jsp?obj_id=6364)
Info: YP 
(Dr. Yannis Papadopoulos, with the support of the Laskaridis Foundation.)
