Romanos/Messenia: Pottery from Early Helladic II Well

From February 2007 until the end of January 2012, north of Pylos in Messenia, the applicant directed extensive rescue-excavations on behalf of the Greek Ministry of Culture in an area where there was to be constructed a huge hotel-complex with an 18 hole-golf course known as "Costa Navarino-Navarino Dunes". Aside from the documentation of remains of the Mycenaean, Early Iron Age and historical periods, the principal result was the discovery of a vast settlement of the EH I/II and EH II periods. The site covers an area of at least 40.000 m 2 and is the largest Early Helladic habitation yet known in Messenia. Its ground plan features similarly orientated, spacious, rectangular houses divided by streets set at right angles to each other. In addition to other finds that point to the existence of a highly organized community, an EH II well is of particular interest. The pottery from it has already been cleaned and labelled and is available for examination. The material from the well is a tremendous scientific `treasure`. Until now the EH II Period in Messenia has been largely unexplored and in the entirety of the western Peloponnese the only EH I/II EH II habitation site that had been excavated according to modern standards and published is Ayios Dhimitrios in Triphylia (Southern Elis). The abundant finds from the well in Romanos-Navarino Dunes, which consist of hundreds of complete and therefore typologically determinable vessel shapes, will permit for the first time the nature and character of EH II pottery in Messenia to be comprehensibly defined. In the process it will become obvious, how similar and different Messenian EH II pottery is in comparison to the contemporaneous ceramic production of other regions of the central and southern Greek mainland. Moreover, it is already clear that, among the material from the well, ceramic imports from distant areas such as the Cyclades are present, not surprisingly in consideration of the enormous quantity of Melian obsidian artefacts uncovered in the settlement. Besides these Cycladic ceramic imports, the earliest recognized in Messenia, there appear to be imports from Crete and from more northerly parts of the Greek Mainland. A limited amount of petrographic analysis within the limits of this project will allow the provenance of selected vessels to be more closely determined. All available evidence indicates that the settlement at Romanos- Navarino Dunes was a nodal point in early maritime trade networks, one that extended along the coasts of the Ionian Sea and, via Kythera, reached into the Aegean and perhaps even so far as Crete.

In the vicinity of the village Romanos in Messenia, Greece, a vast Early Bronze Age settlement near the Ionian Sea has been discovered was discovered and partially investigated. One very important find is a well that probably had ceased to be used as the result of an earthquake. Towards the end of the Early Helladic II period (about 2300 BC) the shaft had been filled up to the top with huge quantities of pottery. Three thick, steeply sloping, fills of dense ceramic debris had been dumped into the shaft from the south; these deposits were separated from each other by layers of earth that contained few fragments of ceramics. Until now, nearly 400 complete or almost complete ceramic vessels have been mended from the debris, then drawn and photographed for publication. These represent the largest known assemblage of completely preserved pottery vessels of the Early Helladic II period known from the Western Peloponnese. For the first time in the Southern and Central Greek Mainland it has been possible to determine accurately the weights of complete vases of different shapes and fabrics on a large scale. In addition, for the first time it had been possible to measure the capacity of vessels on a larger scale. For example, small ring-based saucers (drinking bowls) found in large quantities always have a capacity of roughly 0.34 liter. Sauceboats (pouring vessels with a projecting spout) occur in sizes with capacities of roughly 0.33L, 0.66L and 1.0L. It thus seems possible that there existed a capacity unit of measure of one third of a liter. Altogether 14 different pottery fabrics can be distinguished. Most of them must be local, but had not been previously described. Other fabrics are probably imported, an hypothesis that needs confirmation from the final results of the natural scientific (viz. petrographic thin section and chemical analysis). There are sporadic imports from the Attic-Cycladic area, the Corinthia, and possibly from the island of Kythera. Generally the pottery is deeply anchored within the koine of the Early Helladic II ceramic tradition, even though there several new vessel shapes are documented here for the first time e.g. a gigantic super-sized-sauceboat with three spouts. Such vessels attest to a certain regional originality. Moreover, influences from a Cycladic potters tradition can be detected on some locally manufactured vessels: e.g. decorative motifs, plastic details, and accessories. Small, conical saucers (e.g. shallow drinking bowls and plates) are the vessels most frequently represented in the well after the ring-based saucers; examples seem to have been produced on a slow wheel. These saucers also point to contacts with the area of the Aegean Sea, where they had become quite popular in the Cyclades (and elsewhere) in the late Early Cycladic II period (e.g. at Ayia Irini on Keos in phase III) or in Crete (for instance at Knossos during the periods Early Minoan IIA late and Early Minoan IIB). One critical question is why large quantities of complete ceramic vessels among them many fine-ware products and vases for drinking and pouring that were possibly used in communal feasting at banquettes or ceremonies were not reused but instead dumped into this well. Evidence from other Early Helladic or Early Minoan wells (e.g., the Eutresis chasm, the Corinth Cheliotomylos well, and the Knossos Palace Well) leads one to believe that filling the Romanos well may not have been a solely profane act but one connected with ritual activities, conducted in response to religious beliefs.