Visviki Magula/Velestino

The project Visviki Magula aims a comprehensive study, evaluation and publication of the excavations as well as of the finds from the excavations undertaken by Hans Reinerth, head of the Reichsbund für Vorgeschichte, and his team during 1941 on the settlement mound of Visviki Magula near Velestino in Southern Thessaly. The excavations at the highest point of the mound brought to light a large building which was published in the Völkischer Beobachter in 1942. Therefore Visviki belongs to one of the few known Late Neolithic sites in Greece with substantial structures. Their reconstruction as a "megaron" was interpreted by the excavators in succession of the Central European long houses and thus as a result of a first Northern immigration during the Late Neolithic period. The plan of this house has been incorporated in the most important reference books on Neolithic Greece (D. Theocharis, Neolithic Greece, 1973; K. Gallis, contribution in the book to the exhibition "Neolithic Culture in Greece", 1996). But a new look at the plans in the archives makes apparent that this original interpretation of the architecture was probably an image resulting from National Socialist ideas and has to be revised. The major part of the finds from the "megaron" was returned to Greece in 1947 by the German Archaeological Institute and is now stored in the National Museum at Athens. The majority of the material (entire vessels, mostly decorated pottery fragments, stone tools, clay tools, bone and antler tools, decorative objects, figurines, stone vases, daub and shells) belongs to its main habitation periods (Arapi and Dimini phases - 5000-4500 BC), but the material also includes the early phase of the Late Neolithic (Tsangli phase - 5300-5000 BC). Another part of the pottery is still stored at the Pfahlbaumuseum in Unteruhldingen. It is partly of Early Neolithic date (Proto-Sesklo period - 6500-5800 BC) and comes from a trench from the German excavations in 1941 which is still unpublished. The study of the shapes and decoration as well as of the petrographic composition of the pottery should help to reconstruct relations between the settlements of the Thessalian plain. The study of the tools as well as of slag will shed light on the activities at the site, and the study of the obsidian will enlarge our understanding of long distance connections in the Aegean during the Late Neolithic period. An elaborate study of the archaeobotanical material by Franz Bertsch as well as an evaluation of the archaeozoological finds will illustrate the subsistence pattern of the site. Furthermore, the archives of the National Museum of Athens and of the Pfahlbaumuseum at Unteruhldingen and other German archives house documents and letters concerning the permit and the process of the excavations. Together with a study on the people connected with these excavations they will present a new picture of the history of one of the excavations executed by the programme Sonderstab Vorgeschichte of the Reichsbund für Vorgeschichte to legitimate the invasion of German troops during World War II to Greece.

Visviki Maguola, a Neolithic tell settlement in the Southeastern Thessalian plain in the area of Lake Karla is one of the excavations in Greece which were conducted in 1941 by Hans Reinerth, head of the Reichsamt für Vorgeschichte, under the auspices of the Sonderkommando Griechenland of the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg. A discussion of the letters and biographies of the excavation team showed that the results published in the Völkischer Beobachter were influenced by National Socialist ideology. The excavation is well-known by the find of a so-called megaron dating to the Late Neolithic Arapi phase which was interpreted as a Nordic house. However, according to the plans and sections the settlement remains of the uppermost levels of the Tel were not part of a megaron but belonged to several settlement phases. Thus a clay-built oven and the corresponding mud brick walls built on stone plinths possibly date to the Arapi phase while various stone foundations as well as the substructure of a round hearth probably belong to the Dimini phase. All in all more than 3000 pottery sherds have survived. The two lowermost strata of trench A in the Northwestern part of the tell point to a start of habitation of the site during the earliest phase of the Middle Neolithic period. Use of the site during the later phase of the Middle Neolithic as well as the start of the Late Neolithic period is attested by a few sherds. Only a few fragments definitely point to a use of the site during the Final Neolithic or Chalcolithic period of Thessaly as well as to the start of the Early Bronze Age. The bulk of decorated and monochrome pottery belongs to the Late Neolithic Arapi- and Dimini phases. While pattern painted pottery of the Arapi phase shows a variety of shapes, the painted decorated pottery of the Dimini phase is mainly comprised of bowls. For the Dimini phase it is difficult to follow a further differentiation into earlier and later phases postulated in the literature. In any case, Brown on Cream Dimini ware seems to be only present in the uppermost layers and therefore argues for a late appearance of this ware. Incised ware is produced in a limited repertoire of shapes which is dominated by deep bowls with triangular lugs. Other features are wishbone handles with fine incised lines which have parallels in Pevkakia Magoula. According to their shape monochrome pottery of the Arapi phase was frequently used for dining. However, monochrome pottery of the Dimini phase was more frequently used for cooking and storage. Petrographic analysis shows that Visviki Magoula was part of a network which had connections to the Northeast and Northwest of the Thessalian plain. However, shape and decoration of the rich sample of polychrome pottery shows similarities with Pevkakia Magoula at the Gulf of Volos which are not known from the Northeastern Thessalian plain. A similar connection may also have existed during the Dimini phase. Otherwise, within its distribution area the pottery of the Dimini phase is more homogenous in typological and stylistic terms than pottery of the previous phase. Evidence for subsistence is limited to a small assemblage of animal bones as well as to a manuscript on plant remains. At the site about 500 chipped stone tools were collected. While 18 % were made of brown flint with its source in the Pindos Mountains, 80 % of them were made of obsidian from Melos. Apparently the chipping of obsidian was carried out by specialists and mainly took place in coastal areas from which inland sites were supplied. In contrast, a production of Spondylus shell rings is attested in Visviki-Magula. This means that not only coastal sites, but a variety of places, including households were involved in the production of spondylus objects.