Place : Ay. Eirene
GENERAL
Aghia Irini is located in the N section of the harbour of Aghios Nikolaos, in the N part of the island. During the Early Iron Age, cult activity has been practised inside the shrine of the MH period.
MONUMENTS
Some of the rooms of the shrine complex, where cult activities had been performed since the MH period, were reused, while a small room within one of the larger units of the complex produced a large amount of LH IIIC and PG pottery. A rectangular chapel was built into the N corner of Room 6 using the old LHIIIC NE and NW walls. Benches were set at the long walls (shrine BB). The floor of Room 1 was provided with a stone pavement and the walls were made of blocks of stone.
A stone structure (0.90x I .10/1 .20 m and 0.65/0.50 m high) was found in the SE part of Room 3, within the same unit. The purpose of this structure is not known yet. It may have served as an offering table or an altar.
MOVABLE FINDS: VOTIVE OFFERINGS & CULT EQUIPMENT
At the floor of the new shrine (shrine BB) were found sherds, a bronze knife and a stone blossom bowl. The bronze knife was found outside the building, but at a correspoding floor level.
A clay head of a terracotta statue was found in situ on a circular stand in Room 1. In association with the clay head were found the lower part of the skirt of another figurine and sherds.
Near the stone structure were found clay vessels.
Lastly, scattered clay vessels were found E, N and NW of the Tower. A great fall of big blocks from BA fortifications was also discovered N of the Tower.
CHRONOLOGY
The offerings from shrine BB date from the Late Protogeometric until the Archaic period.
The terracotta statue, found in situ in Room 1, date to the LM IB/LH II. The figurine, found in association with the statue, date to the LBA. The sherds date from the Middle Geometric period until the beginning of the 7th c.
The sherds, found near the stone structure, date from the Late Protogeometric (second half of the 10th c. BC) until the Classical period.
The pottery, found near the Tower, dates to the A and C periods and was mixed together with a few LG or EA sherds.
None of the aforementioned sherds are of local production.
IDENTIFICATION
The cult of Dionysos is proved by a votive inscription to the god on a cup that dates from 500 BC and by the representation of a satyr holding an amphora on a kylix of type A. The character of some votives (many beads, a head of a female figurine, a seal stone representing a female that was found in shrine BB) could suggest that a female divinity was also worshipped here.
RECORDS
Excavation Date: 1961-1976
Institution/Excavator: University of Cincinnati/Caskey J.
Excavation Type: Systematic
REFERENCES
Primary Publications:
● Caskey, J. L. 1986. Keos II : The Temple at Ayia Irini, Part I : The Statues, Princeton, 11, 13, 39
● Caskey, M. E. 1981. Ayia Irini, Kea : The Terracotta Statues and the Cult in the Temple, R. Hägg - N. Marinatos (eds), Sanctuaries and Cults in the Aegean Bronze Age, Stockholm. 127-135
● Caskey, M. E. 1984. The Temple at Ayia Irini, Kea: Evidence for the Late Helladic IIIC Phases, J. A. MacGilivray - R. L. N. Barber (eds), The Prehistoric Cyclades, Edinburgh, 247, 252-253
● Caskey, M. E. 1998. Ayia Irini: Temple Studies, L.G. Mendoni - A. Mazarakis Ainian (eds), Kea-Kythnos: History and Archaeology. Proceedings of an International Symposium, Kea-Kythnos, 22-25 June 1994, Athens, Meletemata, 2, 127
Secondary Publications:
● Coldstream, N. 2003. Geometric Greece. London, 189, 311-312
● Ekschmitt, W. 1986. Die Kunst und Kultur der Kykladen, II, geometrische und archaische Zeit, Mainz
● Fagerström, K. 1988. Greek Iron Age Architecture : Developments through Changing Times, SIMA, 81, Göteborg, 73
● Gounaris, A. 2005. Cult places in the Cyclades during the Protogeometric and Geometric periods : their contribution in interpreting the rise of the Cycladic poleis, M. Yeroulanou - M. Stamatopoulou (eds), Architecture and Archaeology in the Cyclades. Papers in honour of J. J. Coulton, Oxford, 21, 30, 64-65
● Lemos, S. I. 2002. The Protogeometric Aegean. The Archaeology of the Late Eleventh and Tenth Centuries BC, Oxford, 207, 223-224
● Mazarakis Ainian, A. 1997. From rulers’ dwellings to temples. Architecture, religion and society in Early Iron Age Greece (1100-700 B.C.), Jonsered (Studies in Mediterranean Archaeology 122), 170-171
● Mermoz, J. 2010. La vie religieuse des Cyclades de l’HR IIIC à la fin de la période archaïque, Lyon, PhD Thesis, 279-287
● Vanschoonwinkel, J. 1991. L’Egée et la méditerranée orientale à la fin du Iie millénaire, témoignages archéologiques et sources écrites, Louvain-la- Neuve, Belgique, 146
