The locality ‘Asteria’ of Glyfada is on the Pounta promontory, between the Agios Kosmas and the Kavouri-Vouliagmeni peninsulas. Excavations in the area were begum 25 years ago and have brought to light abundant antiquities at two sites, which are dated from prehistoric times into the Early Byzantine period. Revealed at one site was a workshop area of hundreds of square metres, for metallurgical activities in the early third millennium BC. Sometime later, in the same area, a cemetery developed, with underground family graves inside a large enclosure. Directly related to the cemetery is a deposit of ritual offerings, with a host of vases smashed on the spot, Cycladic figurines, beads, obsidians, and so on.
All the finds bear witness to intensive activity of the inhabitants in processing, producing and circulating goods, as well as their contacts with coastal settlements in the Aegean from as early as the third millennium BC. The second archaeological site at ‘Asteria’ also seems to have had workshop use, with domestic craft-industrial activities, as well as metallurgical ones, during the Early Helladic and the Middle Helladic period. In the early second millennium BC, the available space was limited by a large Π-shaped enclosure, which in Early Christian times was breached when a cemetery was founded. So far, 42 graves have been investigated, yielding many finds that accompanied the dead as grave goods.
Image source: Kostas Xenikakis, Giannis Asvestas
