Chapter 4. Area P

Area P, located in the middle Lower Town, was opened during the 2007 campaign in order to investigate the chronological and occupational sequence of the Lower Town and the topographic relation between the Lower Town and the depression surrounding the rampart of the Acropolis during the Middle Bronze Age. During the 2008-2010 season the excavation of trench DhV6+DhV7 brought to light a long occupational sequence of the EBA with several phases and sub-phases spanning from the early EB III to the end of the EB IVB period: Phase 4A-D (c. 2300/2200-2000 BC) - domestic area with mud-brick structures and storage facilities with several re-floorings; Phase 5 (2450?-2400 BC) - funerary open area with two child pit burials with goblets as funerary assemblages, showing shapes related to an early EB IVA horizon; Phases 6-7 – large area for storage and processing of cereals and foodstuffs with two main phases of circular silos, storage bins and plastered installations associated with compact layers of crumbled limestone used as floored areas in between the storage pits and filled with burnt deposits rich in organic materials, charcoals, charred seeds of barley, wheat, olive stones, and other plant remains; Phases 8-10 - below these levels other three EB III phases have been identified, characterized by a completely different functional use of the area. An occupation by structures equipped with benches, small kilns and large furnaces, plastered installations, platforms and lined pits, can be related to handicraft activities and pottery manufacture as testified by homogeneous fillings rich in pottery sherds together with slags, by-products and discarded sherds of pottery firing and furnaces activities Phases 6-10 can be dated to the EB III (c. 2700-2450 BC) although it is still difficult to propose an inner chronological division of the sequence, due to the lack of evident pottery types development. The northern sector of Area P includes an area of 9 x 14 m at the end of the 2010 season. With the exception of some pits with pottery sherds dating to the LB I (Phase 1A), located immediately under the surface, all the phases singled out can be dated to the Middle Bronze Age. Several large pits, rich in organic materials, pottery and small finds testify that during the last period of the Middle Bronze Age the area was used to discharge materials and rubbish (Phase 1B, c. 1700-1600 BC). Below this refuse area two superimposed streets paved with cobblestones and pottery fragments, the earlier of which showed also the presence of under-floor jar-burials of infants (Phases 2-3) can be dated to MB IIA (c. 1800/1750-1700 BC). Two main architectural phases has been identified and linked to the MB I period: the later phase (Phase 4, MB IB/IIA, c. 1900-1800/1750 BC) shows small domestic units separated by streets; the earlier one (Phase 5, MB IA-B) is actually documented only by two thick joined walls and by a small portion of a related floor, suggesting that at the beginning of MB I a massive building was present in the area.