Argos : les fouilles de l'Aspis

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Summary

"The Prophet Elias hill, or Aspis, which rises to the northwest of the city of Argos, was first explored at the beginning of the 20th century by Wilhelm Vollgraff, a Dutch member of the French Scho...

"The Prophet Elias hill, or Aspis, which rises to the northwest of the city of Argos, was first explored at the beginning of the 20th century by Wilhelm Vollgraff, a Dutch member of the French School at Athens, who left only a brief account of his work. The new excavations, carried out between 1974 and 2011, have considerably increased our knowledge of the hill, which was briefly occupied from the end of the 4th millennium B.C. (Final Neolithic), then throughout the first half of the 2nd millennium (Middle Helladic), and intermittently from the Geometric to the Hellenistic period (8th-2nd centuries B.C.). first volume of the Aspis excavations, which integrates unpublished material from Vollgraff's campaigns, is devoted to the remains of the historical periods brought to light in the upper levels of the hill in the course of the last decades: the Geometric pottery and the Archaic votive material - which testify to the existence of one of the most ancient sanctuaries of Argos -and the Classical- Hellenistic fortifications and its associated constructions (buildings, cisterns) and material (ceramics, metal objects, architectural terracottas, textile tools, coins). Their study sheds new light on the Aspis' role within the Argive urban landscape during seven centuries of history. After being Argos' first acropolis in the second millennium, the Aspis became a sacred space during the formation of the polis before playing primarily a military role - of protection but also control of the city - in the Hellenistic period." -- Publisher

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