: Tenos isl.
GENERAL
Xombourgo is a naturally defensive site located at the center of the southern part of the island (h.: 557 m). A cult place, the so-called “Procyclopean shrine”, has been uncovered on the terrace just outside the cyclopean fortification wall at the highest part of the south-western slopes of the mountain and in front of what it seems to have been its main gate to the settlement.
MONUMENTS
The newly excavated area consists of a series of pyre pits, most of them inside enclosure walls, an eschara and various other structures.
The pyre pits whose maximal dimensions are 0.40-1.10m in width and 0.50m in depth are more or less rounded and cut into the bedrock. They extend over an area of c. 150 m². Most of them are covered by the A fortification wall.
ver time the pits increased in number and most of them are set inside enclosure walls. Single pyre pits sometimes alternate with clusters of two or three pits occasionally joined to one another by a narrow channel and so forming distinct units.
Small stone tumuli or rounded stones used as offering tables and tiny, plain stelai or larger boulders were regular
markers over the pyre pits.
At a later stage an eschara and a bench opposite it were added to the center of the terrace. The pyre pits that existed in the area where the eschara and the bench were constructed were sealed and the area was paved with schist slabs while all the other pyre pits on the terrace remained in use. The eschara was partially covered by the archaic wall.
A small quadrangular structure was built later over the pyre pits of enclosure III. Its floor was a thin layer of beaten earth over the pyre pits of the Late Geometric period.
In the northeast corner of the structure a pithos was found on a well-built pedestal, while the remnants of another pedestal were excavated next to it. A short cylindrical stone that was found standing on the floor near the centre of the building raises some interpretation problems as it apparently belonged to the underlying pyre pit functioning as an offering table over it. The cylindrical stone was retained in situ over the new floor giving the impression of a baetyl.
MOVABLE FINDS: VOTIVE OFFERINGS & CULT EQUIPMENT
Inside the pyre pits were found ashes, charcoal, pebbles, burnt animal bones, as well as clay vessels (a large number of coarse-ware vessels, as well as fine-ware pottery), a few metal objects (dagger of bronze and iron and jewls) and rings of bone.
An iron sword, wrapped up and burnt, was found in the area. All these had been thrown into the fire. Inside the eschara were found white ash, burnt bones and coarse-ware pottery.
The mounts of bones seem to be refuse deposits, perhaps from funeral meals. On the other hand the concentration of manufacturing waste allows the hypothesis that the area could also have served as an organised workshop.
Fragments of an elaborate terracotta frieze decorated in relief with a chariot scene were found in the oikos. The frieze was decorated with a procession of chariots drawn by winged horses and led, at least in the preserved part, by a female figure wearing a high polos. The elaborately dressed female figure is accompanied by another female, also standing on the chariot, but looking back towards the next chariot that is following at close distance. Then the freeze can be dated to the first quarter of the 7th c.
CHRONOLOGY
The pyre pits date from the Late Protogeometric Period until the early 7th c. BC. The small quadrangular structure was built in the early 7th c. BC.
IDENTIFICATION
The kind of the activity at the site has not been clarified yet. The excavator proposes an initial association of the pyre pits with burial cult, that later was transformed into a communal chthonian cult. The establishment of the eschara and the bench denote this transfer. Further interpretation cannot be undertaken until the final publication of the archaeological evidence.
RECORDS
Excavation Date: 1994-until today
Institution/Excavator: University of Athens/Kourou N.
Excavation Type: Systematic
REFERENCES
Primary Publications:
Étienne, R., Kourou, N. & Simantoni-Bournia, E. . 2013. Η αρχαία Τήνος, Athens
Kourou N. 2002. Tenos – Xobourgo: From a refuge place to an extensive fortified settlement, Yeroulanou M., Stamatopoulou M. (eds), Architecture and Archaeology in the Cyclades. Papers in honour of J. J. Coulton, Oxford, 255-268
Kourou N. 2005. Ten Years of Archaeological Research at Xobourgo (Island of Tenos in the Cyclades), AAIA, Bulletin 3: 23-29
Kourou N. 2008. The Dawn of Images and Cultural Identity: The Case of Tenos, in Alba della citta, alba delle immagini? Da una suggestion di Bruno D’Agostino. Scuola Archeologica Italiana di Atene, Tripodes 7, Athens, 63-89
Kourou N. 2011. From the Dark Ages to the Rise of the Polis in the Cyclades: the case of Tenos, in Mazarakis Ainian A. (ed.), The “Dark Ages” revisited. Acts of an international symposium in memory of William D. E. Coulson. University of Thessaly, Volos, 14-17 June 2007, Volos, 399-414
Secondary Publications:
Mermoz J. 2010. La vie religieuse des Cyclades de l’HR IIIC à la fin de la période archaïque, Lyon, PhD Thesis, 194-198
Trantalidou K. 2011. Animal remains related to sacred areas on the Cycladic islands Amorgos and Tenos, during the Geometric period: Two distinct examples bearing evidence of sacrificial rites and bone working activities, in Mazarakis Ainian A. (ed), The “Dark Ages” revisited. Acts of an international symposium in memory of William D. E. Coulson. University of Thessaly, Volos, 14-17 June 2007, Volos, 1059-1105
