Nichoria

<h2 id="archaeological-finds">Archaeological finds</h2>

On the foot of the Nichoria <a href="/facts/Acropolis/5Je8NC6c">acropolis</a> there was discovered a burial circle, comprising a collective burial of 7 people; it was in use until the LH IIIA period, when the adjacent large <a href="/facts/Beehive_tomb/5WfmbLId">tholos tomb</a> was built. The latter, although looted in antiquity, yielded important finds. It had been built at a prominent position on the NW end of the acropolis of Nichoria. Its diameter was 6.60 meters and its height probably exceeded 6.50 meters. It contained four pits. The prominent position of the people buried there is attested also by the lavish grave goods which accompanied them: pottery vessels, sealing gems made of semi-precious stones and little items made of gold, ivory and faience. In a hole between the pits 1 and 2 was discovered a pile of bronze items and vessels, among which a bent sword with an ivory handle. It has been used in the course of the prime time of Nichoria (1400-1200 B.C.). However, there are also traces of use in the late <a href="/facts/Classical_Greece/WoUfexFx">classical</a> and <a href="/facts/Hellenistic_period/q6BgQsaF">Hellenistic</a> periods, related to the ancestors' cult, a practice particularly familiar in Messenia, but known also in the rest of Greece.

Around the acropolis of Nichoria extends a <a href="/facts/Necropolis/8CGLney2">necropolis</a> with various kinds of tombs dating from the 15th to the 8th century B.C. Although the excavations were not carried out in the entire region of Nichoria, trenches opened in the region of Karpophora revealed remains of the settlement, such as the main street and parts of buildings which were used clearly for habitation. The most important among them was probably the apsidal megaron of the Sub-mycenaean period, one of the largest dated in the so-called “<a href="/facts/Greek_Dark_Ages/PURxGWRh">Greek Dark Ages</a>” in the entire Greece: it was 13.6 m. long and 8 m. wide,<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:9" href="#fn:9">9</a> and it was accompanied by a circular construction with paved floor.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:10" href="#fn:10">10</a> It has been suggested that it might have had a ritual-religious character. Two more megaron-type constructions were discovered, dated to the LHII and to the LHIIIA1 period respectively, i.e. in the peak time of Nichoria.

<h2 id="citations">Citations</h2>

<ul><li>Davis, Jack; Alcock, Susan E. (1998). Sandy Pylos: An Archaeological History from Nestor to Navarino. Austin: University of Texas Press. <a href="/facts/ISBN_(identifier)/15AdSPa9">ISBN</a> 0-292-71594-3.</li>
<li>McDonald, William A. (1972). <a href="https://www.ascsa.edu.gr/uploads/media/hesperia/147682.pdf">"Excavations at Nichoria in Messenia: 1969-71"</a> (PDF). Hesperia. 41 (2): 218–273. <a href="/facts/JSTOR_(identifier)/YTeVmaJ7">JSTOR</a> <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/147682">147682</a>.</li>
<li>Palaima, Thomas G. (2000). <a href="https://www.academia.edu/19025264">"Θέμις in the Mycenaean Lexicon and the Etymology of the Place-Name *ti-mi-to a-ko"</a>. Faventia. 22 (1): 7–19.</li>
<li><a href="/facts/Cynthia_W._Shelmerdine/EcI7JcJ7">Shelmerdine, Cynthia W.</a> (1981). "Nichoria in Context: A Major Town in the Pylos Kingdom". American Journal of Archaeology. 85 (3): 319–325. <a href="/facts/Doi_(identifier)/muM9Etpq">doi</a>:<a href="https://doi.org/10.2307%2F504173">10.2307/504173</a>. <a href="/facts/JSTOR_(identifier)/YTeVmaJ7">JSTOR</a> <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/504173">504173</a>. <a href="/facts/S2CID_(identifier)/ldJsHa2Y">S2CID</a> <a href="https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:191376892">191376892</a>.</li></ul>

<h2 id="references">References</h2>

<ol>
<li id="fn:1">Jack L. Davis and Susan E. Alcock, Sandy Pylos: An Archaeological History from Nestor to Navarino (University of Texas Press, 1998: ISBN 0-292-71595-1), pp. 139, 167. <a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" target="_blank">/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)</a> <a href="#fnref:1" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:2">Palaima (2000), p. 17. <a href="#fnref:2" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:3">Davis and Alcock (1998), pp. 127-128. <a href="#fnref:3" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:4">Shelmerdine (1981). <a href="#fnref:4" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:5">Palaima (2000), p. 10. <a href="#fnref:5" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:6">Palaima (2000), p. 17. <a href="#fnref:6" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:7">Palaima (2000), pp. 11 & 14. <a href="#fnref:7" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:8">Davis (1998), p. 139. <a href="#fnref:8" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:9">McDonald 1972, p. 253: "The most important architectural discovery in this area was the foundations of a large apsidal building of the Early Iron Age. It occupied all or part of grids L23 TUVW klm. The long axis of the building is approximately east-west, although it faces slightly to the south of due east. One of the largest of its kind so far discovered, it measures 13.60 m. in length and 8.00 m. in width". - McDonald, William A. (1972). "Excavations at Nichoria in Messenia: 1969-71" (PDF). Hesperia. 41 (2): 218–273. JSTOR 147682. <a href="https://www.ascsa.edu.gr/uploads/media/hesperia/147682.pdf" target="_blank">https://www.ascsa.edu.gr/uploads/media/hesperia/147682.pdf</a> <a href="#fnref:9" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:10">McDonald 1972, p. 253: "The northern sector of the central room contains an interesting feature in the form of a cobbled circular area about 1.60 m. in diameter (P1. 47, c). Its function is as yet unknown". - McDonald, William A. (1972). "Excavations at Nichoria in Messenia: 1969-71" (PDF). Hesperia. 41 (2): 218–273. JSTOR 147682. <a href="https://www.ascsa.edu.gr/uploads/media/hesperia/147682.pdf" target="_blank">https://www.ascsa.edu.gr/uploads/media/hesperia/147682.pdf</a> <a href="#fnref:10" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
</ol>

Nichoria open-in-new

Nichoria