The Thirteenth–Sixteenth-centuryKastroof Kephalos: A Contribution to the Archaeological Study of Medieval Paros and the Cyclades

Abstract

The thirteenth-to-sixteenth-century (“Venetian”) defended settlement of Kephalos on the island of Paros was surveyed by the Cyclades Research Project (CY.RE.P.). This article offers an archaeological case-study of the kastro by examining and interpreting its medieval material remains (defensive walls, chapels, cisterns, domestic structures and surface potsherds). Moreover, on the basis of combined information from written sources and comparable building projects in late medieval Italy and the Latin-dominated Levant, more light can be shed on aspects of daily life in the Aegean. Archaeological evidence suggests that the first phase of Kephalos could be placed in the later thirteenth century but it was extended with the addition of an outer defensive wall in the late fourteenth century and was inhabited until the legendary besiege of the corsair Barbarossa in 1537. Domestic remains within the kastro suggest that the site must have been densely built, housing a large number of peasants in single-roomed two-storey houses. Architectural remains and ceramic finds on the highest point of the site testify to the existence of a strong Catholic/upper class element on the most prominent portion of the kastro, reserved for the Latin lords and their agricultural produce. Extensive survey (by CY.RE.P.) in the valley below Kephalos has shown that a number of contemporary satellite settlements existed and functioned around the kastro, suggesting an agriculturally intensified use of the rural landscape. Additionally, the study and interpretation of the surface ceramic finds offer a window to late medieval living standards and food preferences in the Aegean

New insights on the relative sea level changes during the Late Holocene along the coast of Paros Island and the northern Cyclades (Greece)

“…Given that the last trace of trenches was identified at 2.48 m bmsl on the Agios Nikolaos coast (Figure 9c) and at 2.20 m bmsl on the Kampos coast (Figure 9b), and taking into consideration the depths of the building complex and the rock-cut tombs on the Kampos coast at 2.40 m and 2.75 m bmsl, respectively (Figure 9b), human activities could have been accomplished there with sea level 3.50 ± 0.20 m (sea level stand II) lower than at present. The hypothesis of Evans and Renfrew [1968] and Morrison [1968] that the partially submerged system of trenches on Paros, Antiparos and Revmatonisi was cut in Hellenistic times, which means in the period between 323 and 146 BC, but also the widespread Classical/Hellenistic ceramics in the area of Voutakos [Vionis, 2006], allow us to suggest that the sea level stand (II) could have lasted even during the Hellenistic period (Figuure 15a).…”

“…Evans and Renfrew [1968] and Morrison [1968] dated the trenches to the Hellenistic period. Specifically for the area of Voutakos, the Hellenistic dating could be related to the concentration of Classical/Hellenistic ceramics found north and west of the church of Agios Georgios [Vionis, 2006]. Auffray [2002] associated them with activities of the Geometric period around Oikonomou Island.…”

“…The castle of Naoussa (Figure 1c) was built in the late 13 th to the early 14 th c. A circular tower with firing apertures ("Castelli") was added at the entrance of the port for defensive purposes around 1500 [Christopoulou, 1984;Vionis, 2006]. Arranged around a small bay, the fortified town of Naoussa with its small harbour sheltered by moles-seawalls already existed in the 15 th c., according to the description of Buondelmonti (1420Buondelmonti ( [1897).…”

“…The coastal plain on the NE side of Lageri Bay (Figure 1c) was an area of intense agricultural activity in the recent past, as evidenced by at least five threshing floors preserved to date (Figure 14). According to Vionis [2006], it seems that during the Middle Byzantine period the settled landscape was transferred from the bay of Paroikia to that of Naoussa in the north, whereas small peasant communities made use of the fertile land surrounding rural settlements and the safe anchorage of bays around the island.…”