Radiocarbon Dating of the Amphipolis Bridge in Northern Greece, Maintained and Functioned for 2500 Years

Autor: H Koukouli-Chryssanthaki, D Malamidou, Yorgos Facorellis, Yannis Maniatis
Rok vydání: 2010
Předmět:
Zdroj: Radiocarbon. 52:41-63
ISSN: 1945-5755
0033-8222
Popis: The remains of a wooden construction, recovered in the 1970s at the northwest sector of the walls of the ancient city of Amphipolis (northern Greece), have been recognized as foundation remains of a wooden bridge described by Thucydides in his description of the events that took place at Amphipolis in 424-422 BC, during the Peloponnesian War. Fre- quent repairs in the Roman, Byzantine, and even Ottoman periods are very probable. In the last 10 yr, conservation has been done to enhance this unique monument. This work involves systematic investigation with radiocarbon dating of all the veri- fied or suspected phases of this wooden bridge. The dating results reveal the beginning of construction most probably in the Archaic period and confirm beyond a doubt that the major construction phase took place in Classical times. Successive phases, related to repairs rather than to major reconstructions, have been detected during the Hellenistic, Roman, Early Chris- tian, and Byzantine periods as well as the Ottoman era. The combined archaeometric and archaeological evidence leads to the remarkable conclusion that this bridge was functioning for about 2500 yr. Amphipolis is located on the mouth of the Strymon River in eastern Macedonia, northern Greece (Figures 1 and 2). The ancient city was situated on the southwest foothills of Pangaeon Mountain. This mountain played a major role in the development of Amphipolis, providing timber from its dense forests and gold and silver from its mines. The Strymon River, surrounding the city to the north, west, and south, kept open the city's communications with the lower Strymon Valley, rich in agricultural products. The Strymonikos Gulf, comprising the southern border of the Amphipolis area, provided easy commercial and cultural access to the Greek cities of the Aegean Sea (Lazaridis 1972). In antiquity, the estuary of the Strymon River was located more to the east, in the area of the ancient Eion, the port of Amphipolis (Figure 1). There is strong evidence of human habitation in several sites of the broader area already from the Neolithic (6th millennium BC). The prehistoric site nearest to Amphipolis is located on Hill 133 (Figures 1 and 2), 2 km northeast of the ancient city. At this site, surface finds and excavations have uncovered a Neolithic settlement and—probably after a hiatus during the Bronze Age—an Early Iron Age settlement (Lazaridis 1965; Vanterpool 1965), associated with a tumuli cemetery on the neighboring Kastas Hill (Lazaridis 1977a, 1978). The findings of the burial tumuli are dated between the 10th and 7th century BC (Koukouli-Chryssanthaki 1993).
Databáze: OpenAIRE
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