Buildings 1 and 2 (Sanctuaries of Aphrodite and Samothracian Gods?)

GENERAL

The site is identified with the ancient capital of the island, the homonymous "Kythnos", which was inhabited from the beginning of the Early Iron Age down to the 6th-7th c. A.D.

The Middle Plateau lies on the Upper Town, alongside the fortification wall. It follows the ridge of the hill (+112/+110m above sea level), at mid distance between the acropolis (Demeter) and the sanctuary of the North extremity of the Middle Plateau (Apollo and Artemis?). Here, several structures can be seen, including two monumental rectangular buildings and a rectangular altar.

MONUMENTS

BUILDING 1

The southern (Building 1), measuring 17,00 by 11,60 m, was presumably entered from the East long side. It was divided into two rooms which opened onto a stoa of Doric order. The Northern room preserves even today its pebbled floor. Against the East stylobate there was a cistern which communicated with a basin. Nearby, inside the Doric stoa, a semicircular worked marble block is all that remains from an exedra.

BUILDING 2

The northern structure (Building 2) is larger, measuring 20,20 by 8,50 m, but its internal divisions are not visible above ground level.The edifice most probable was a temple, though a secular public function cannot be overruled.

ALTAR

Rectangular altar at rhe NE corner of Building 1 and therefore probably associated with this edifice. It is Π-shaped and its dimensions estimated 7,00m by 2,90m. During the cleaning around it, evidence for ashes and animal bones was recovered, suggesting the function of the structure with an altar.

FINDS

Two fragmentary Doric capitals could belong, due to the place of their discovery, to the stoa of Building 1.

A marble statue of a female draped figure of the Hellenistic period was found a few metres to the West, below Buildings 1 and 2. According to P. Themelis, who studied the statue, it could belong to a colossal staue of Aphrodite Anadyomene, which, as attested by an honorific decree found at Messene in the SW Peloponnese, was the work of Damophon, who was active towards the beginning of the 2nd c. BC. In 1994, our team discovered lower down the slopes of the hill, near the harbour, an incribed base of the 4th c. BC., belonging to a small statue, also dedicated to Aphrodite. The hypothesis that Kythnos had close ties with Cyprus is also based on Herodotus' statement (VI, 90), according to whom the oldest inhabitants of the island, the Dryopians were forced to migrate to Cyprus when the Ionians from Athens settled the island.

CHRONOLOGY

The two inscriptions and the statue fragment are late and the specific cults (of the Samothracian Gods and Ammon Zeus) should be placed in the Hellenistic period. The cult of Aphrodite was presumably earlier (see Herodotus VI, 90). The area was certainly frequented already in the Geometric and Archaic periods, as attested by a few surface finds dating to this period. These were collected in and around Buildings 1 and 2.

IDENTIFICATION

It seems likely that the southern edifice (Building 1), with its unusual plan, was related to the cult of the Gods of Samothrace. An inscribed stele dedicated to the Gods of Samothrace (IG XII 5, 1057) was found during the survey.

If the identification of the statue with Damophon's Aphrodite proves to be correct, the northern edifice (Building 2) could represent the deity's temple. Her cult is also attested by an incribed base of a statuette, uncovered during the survey near the ancient harbour (see "Aphrodision"). One, however, cannot exclude the possibility that other gods were worshiped here instead.

RECORDS

Survey Date: 1990-1994, new surface cleaning in 2015

Institution/Excavator: A. Mazarakis Ainian

Excavation/Survey Type: Systematic

REFERENCES

Primary Publications:

• Mazarakis Ainian A., 1995.Επιφανειακές έρευνες στη νήσο Κύθνο: Έκθεση για τις ερευνητικές περιόδους 1991-1995, Πρακτικά της Αρχαιολογικής Εταιρείας, 137-209.
• Mazarakis Ainian A., 1995. Ricognizioni Archeologiche nell'isola di Kithnos, in Le Cicladi ed il Mondo Egeo, Atti del Seminario Internazionale di Studi, Roma 19-21 Novembre 1992, D. Schilardi-E. Lanzillotta (eds), Roma, 245-273.
• Mazarakis Ainian A., 1998. The Kythnos Survey Project. A Preliminary Report, in Kea-Kythnos. History and Archaeology, Acts of an International Symposium, 22-25 June 1994, L. Mendoni & A. Mazarakis Ainian (eds) (MELETHMATA 27, ΚΕΡΑ-ΕΙΕ), Αthens, 363-379 (text), 397-435 (figs).
• Mazarakis Ainian A.,2005. Επιφανειακές έρευνες στην αρχαία πόλη της Κύθνου, in Πρακτικά Β' Κυκλαδολογικού Συνεδρίου, Θήρα 31 Αυγ. - 3 Σεπτ. 1995, Επετηρίς Εταιρείας Κυκλαδικών Μελετών ΙΗ’, 2002-2003, Athens, 154-186.