Site 151: A Hellenistic Farmhouse

Plan of the Hellenistic Farmhouse and outlying structure at the end of the 1996 excavation season. Click on any of the highlighted areas of the plan to see detailed views and photographs as well as artifacts discovered in that area.

Overhead view of the site. Photograph taken from a cherry picker at the end of the 1996 excavation season.

View of Site 151 from the air. Photograph taken at the end of the 1998 season, after the conservation project for the site had been completed.

Site 151 as seen from space: a zoom view of the site from an Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) satellite, acquired in October 1997.

By far the most common shape in black gloss found at the site was the kantharos, a drinking cup with strong connections to Dionysos, the god of wine. These ubiquitous vessels probably had uses in a domestic cult of Dionysos, which was also evidenced by the large scale terracotta figure of a satyr found during the 1995 excavation season. Some of the kantharoi were decorated with patterns of tendrils and ivy leaves using incised lines and white paint. The closest parallels for these vessels are to be found at the Black Sea site of Olbia, but the decorative motifs are part of the artistic common vocabulary of the early Hellenistic period.