Ancient Troizina

Ancient Troizina (Troezen) was a city that flourished during significant periods, while in other periods it played a secondary role, overshadowed by larger centers. It is also certain that it had a financially strong class, which displayed its wealth and participated in Panhellenic sports games.

The needs of this class were served by the creation of a local center for the production of bronze vessels, which were popular as grave goods for at least two centuries. The Ancient City, which had Walls, an Acropolis, an Agora and many Sanctuaries, was located to the west of the modern settlement, built on the northern slope of Mount Aderes and in part of the alluvial plain.

The Agora was located in the flat area at the foot of the mountain, while the “most prominent” (Pausanias II.32.1) shrine of Hippolytus was located outside the city walls, to the west of the Gefyraio stream, about 800 meters from the ancient agora and at a higher level of the foothills of the same mountain.

As mentioned above, at the top of the hill was the Acropolis, separately fortified, and on it was the temple of Sthenia Athena. Parts of the walls of the Ancient City, as well as parts of the fortification wall, are also preserved. One of the towers of the fortification wall, in fact, is a landmark for the area due to its preserved height. East and west of the Ancient City, the Cemeteries extended into a rural area with soft soil on the banks of the rivers.

During the excavation of the archaeologist Maria Giannopoulou in the eastern ancient cemetery of Troizina, a grave of an infant was found, along with a clay breast pump and three other vases that had been deposited as an offering on the small urn. The find dates from the early 7th century BC.

Other findings from the same excavation include a seated ancient doll “Plaggona”, two winged Eros figures, one of whom is depicted as a child wrapped in a himation and the other as a naked adolescent, as well as two female figurines of dancers with lively movement, two massive iron rings, some vases, and two more breast pumps that came to light in another child’s burial, dating back to the Hellenistic period. It was a burial in a “pithos”, which had been repaired with lead joints, as was often done in antiquity. Two more burials of children, one from the end of the 8th century BC and the other from the 7th century BC, were also found decorated with small vases. The burial activity begins in the Proto-Geometric era, as evidenced by a jar burial (enchytrism) on a painted amphora from the 10th century BC and reaches the Hellenistic period, as Mrs. Giannopoulou says.

In the recent excavations, a total of fifteen burials of all kinds (box-shaped, ceramic-roofed, jar burials ‘enchytrisms’, in a pit, cremation, in an urn and in a pithos) as well as a marble burial enclosure of the 4th century BC came to light. Particularly impressive were the findings from three of the tombs which contained bronze objects, such as mirrors, bells with an iron tongue, a drinking cup ‘cantharus’, a gold ring, but also iron strigils, iron arrowheads, as well as a lead pyxis and several vessels, such as one that has the shape of a boy’s head.

“The bronze vessels and utensils from the classical and early Hellenistic tombs of Troizina are small in size and related to the serving and drinking of wine” says Mrs. Giannopoulou.

“As for the bronze bells together with the bronze vessels, they can be considered chthonic objects, as it is believed that they are related to the Dionysus cult” she adds. The presence of many objects made of bronze, moreover, and even of excellent quality, is considered by her to perhaps indicate the presence of local metalworking workshops, a hypothesis that is supported by the findings of copper casting waste in the fill of a reservoir of Roman times.

In conclusion, therefore, and as the archaeologist always says, in Ancient Troizina there was a diachronic closed, conservative society of an agricultural character, without much commercial activity.