CLASSICAL PERIOD

Remains of the previous period, 8^th , 7^th and 6^th centuries: Groups of Geometric and Archaic graves have been uncovered which form small or larger cemeteries of the period.

Such sites exist around the hill of the Geroulanos house at Trachones as far as Vouliagmenis Avenue, on the eastern foothills of Agia Anna hill, on the grounds of the 129 Air Base and at the site of Hasani. The corresponding settlement remains are poor in the area, as is the case throughout Attica.

Agia Anna hill: It was a centre of public and religious activity for the people of Halimous and at the same time a place of habitation. Settlement remains have been uncovered, mainly small or larger farmhouses on the southern foothills of Agia Anna hill and on its eastern slope, at the junction of today’s Alimou Avenue with Melpomenis Street, as well as further north on the foothills of Pani hill, next to today’s Agios Dimitrios stream.

Thesmophorion of Halimous: In 1929, when the first excavation on the hill was carried out by W. Wrede, the Thesmophorion of Halimous was uncovered; its ruins disappeared during the Second World War, when the German occupiers used the ancient building material to build their own fortifications.

The sanctuary was identified as the Thesmophorion from an altar cut in the rock and from numerous archaic figurines, as well as from fragments of reliefs and inscriptions of the 4^th century which confirmed the worship of Demeter.

The chasms on the top of the hill may have been used originally in antiquity for the special rituals of the Thesmophoria festival and were used again by the Germans, after being adapted, for fortification installations.

Ancient theatre of the deme of Halimous: The site of the ancient theatre of the deme of Halimous was uncovered during the excavation by the 2nd Ephorate of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities in 1986–1987, within a private plot on Marinou Antypa Street. Of the monument only the front row of seats survives in its original position, and behind it the rocky slope with various workings on its surface.

The front row consisted of six double thrones placed in a row and against the face of the natural rock, which had been cut vertically to receive them. Behind the backs of the thrones a wide passage had been formed for spectators to move along, while some cuttings higher up on the rock face probably indicate improvised places for spectators on the ground, or sockets for wooden seats.

A narrow passage at right angles to the thrones, cut into the hard rock and of disputed date, divided the spectators’ area diagonally into two parts.

Parts of two marble bases were also found, one bearing incised wreaths on its faces and the other a cornice. More fragments of the second survive and one of them preserves a fragment of an inscription, a very important element for the indisputable identification of the theatre site with the deme of Halimous. Many fragments of clay vessels of small and large size also survive, such as amphorae, pithoi, basins, cooking pots and so on. These finds date the use of the site from the 7^th – 4^th century BC.

It is very likely that the space originally served as a gathering place for the inhabitants to take common decisions, or as a meeting place for the women worshippers during the days of the annual Thesmophoria festival, or that it was connected with the events of that festival. It was also needed for other festivals, such as the Rural Dionysia, celebrated in the countryside in honour of the god Dionysus at the end of December, during which performances were given of dramas that had already been staged in Athens.

Thrones of the front row
Source: Kaza K., Kladia M.

Building of unknown identity: This building was discovered in the context of the Olympic Games in 2003, near a section of the ancient road that appears to have connected the coastal road with the northern cove of Cape Kolias. All we can say about this building is that it was probably public and dates to the 5^th – 4^th century BC.

Cape Kolias: Very few finds have so far been uncovered on the surface of the headland.

Settlement remains on M. Antypa, Thesmoforion, Kleious, Melpomenis, Ouranias and Geroulanou streets. These are mainly the foundations of houses, built sometimes on sloping and sometimes on level ground. On the whole they are built without particular care and consist of two or three rooms with a courtyard, reached directly through a passage.

Of particular interest are the remains on Kleious Street, which show careful construction because of the special use of that house.

More specifically, in the part investigated so far, that is one room, the wall plaster with painted band decoration and three superimposed floors of different types survive. This means, on the one hand, that the house was in use for a long time with continuous and careful rebuildings and, on the other, that its short distance from the Thesmophorion and the theatre may explain its non-private use. The excavated part of the ancient house is preserved and visible in the open ground floor of the modern Papaxian house, which was built according to an amended plan so that both the antiquities could be saved and the owner would not lose his property.

Quarries on Pani hill and at the former Elliniko airport: In the western part of Pani hill a fairly characteristic section of the ancient quarry has been uncovered. On the surface and the faces of the quarried rock we can make out the extraction channels and the methods of detaching the blocks, as well as the traces of the tools used. On the central spur of the hill another ancient quarry site with conglomerate rock was identified.

Another extensive quarry of the classical period, with conglomerate rock, was uncovered within the former Elliniko airport. In the quarry, which lay inside the grounds of the former airport, a hoard of 47 bronze coins was found. They are Attic coins of the Eleusinian series and coins of Salamis, very well preserved.

 

Funerary enclosures 

Former Elliniko airport: Within the airport perimeter, but at a higher level than the stream bed, fragmentary sections of walls built of large ashlar blocks were uncovered in the early 1960s; they probably belonged to a funerary enclosure.

The large funerary monument, built from material from the quarry, lay in the area where the central runway of the former eastern airport was laid out. However, the monument was looted over time and the evidence that survived was not sufficient for us to know whether it belonged to a family of Halimous or of Aixone.

Funerary monument of Elliniko
Source: www.tovima.gr/2017/10/20/culture/anazitwntas-ta-arxaia-toy-ellinikoy

Kleious Street: At 7 Kleious Street the funerary enclosure of the people of Halimous was found in 1999: a family tomb that lay in the immediate vicinity of the houses and public buildings.

Ground plan of the funerary enclosure with the burial pits and the ancient road
Source: Kaza K., Kladia M.

Pani hill: The surviving remains of another funerary enclosure were excavated in 1990 on the western foothills of Pani hill, when a digger brought up two small marble lions from the sculptural decoration of the monument.

The monument was initially described as a fountain because of insufficient evidence, but its identity was later restored when the two marble lions were connected with part of the base of a statue of a seated bull that had also been brought up by the digger.

Marble lion, Pani hill
Source: Kaza K.

Source: https://www.sansimera.gr/articles/1159

According to the book “Alimos, our city”, the Thesmophoria was a panhellenic religious festival in which only women took part; as we learn from Aristophanes’ comedy “Thesmophoriazusae”, the presence of men was forbidden. It was celebrated on the ninth day of the month Pyanepsion (at the end of October) in honour of Demeter Thesmophoros, the goddess who gave people institutions and rules.

The prevailing theory is that in Athens the Thesmophoria was held at the sanctuary of the goddess Demeter in the deme of Halimous. However, according to the book “Themelio” by Mr A. Thomopoulos, and according to what follows from the context and the dialogues, the Thesmophorion that Aristophanes mentions in the Thesmophoriazusae was near the Pnyx and does not concern the Thesmophorion of the deme of Halimous.

The festival was led by two women elected by the group of the other women. The first day was called Stenia and during it mockery and jesting were customary. On the second day, the Thesmophoria was celebrated in Alimos, while the other three days concerned the ceremony.

The first included the Anodos , that is the procession to the sanctuary of the goddess, with the participants carrying on their heads books of the institutions and rules; the “Mese” , which was in the middle of the festival and involved strict fasting; and the Kalligeneia. During the Mese the women sat near the statue of the goddess on branches of chaste tree and ate only “sesamountes”, sweets made of sesame seeds, something like pasteli. At night there was a torch procession and group dancing, while the women threw live piglets into circular pits or chasms in memory of the swineherd Eubouleus, who was swallowed by the earth together with his herd when Pluto seized Persephone. Later the “Antletriai” went down into the chasms and gathered the remains of the sacrificed piglets, and whatever was collected was placed on the altars. Then their ashes, mixed with cereals and other fruits, were scattered over the fields to ensure the fertility of the earth.

On the day of the Kalligeneia the fertility of the earth and the good and numerous childbearing of women were celebrated with festivities. The founding of civilised life, which began with the cultivation of the earth, was also celebrated.

The festival of the Thesmophoria closed with the Eupaidias contest, in which the prize went to the mother who had given birth to the most beautiful child of the year.

The centre of the deme of Euonymon was the Geroulanos hill. Although no extensive excavations have been carried out on the Geroulanos estate, the person who discovered and collected samples of the archaeological wealth of the area was Geroulanos himself, who took over the management and direction of the estate in 1929. Today its remaining area of 105 acres belongs to the company MAKRO and has been designated an archaeological park by ministerial decisions of 1987 and 1994 respectively.

Funerary and settlement remains: At various points on the estate, groups of graves have been excavated dating to the Late Geometric and Early Archaic years (8^th – 7^th century BC) and also to the 6^th – 5^th century BC. At one of these sites, remains of houses were also uncovered (5^th – 1^th century BC), while traces of a wall of the 8^th  – 7^th century BC were observed on the top of the Geroulanos house, attributed to the Acropolis of the people of Euonymon, as well as cart ruts at rocky points.

Theatre of Euonymon: East of today’s boundaries of the Geroulanos estate, excavation brought to light in 1973 the theatre of Euonymon, with a capacity of 2,500 spectators. Of the theatre there survive the stage building — the oldest surviving structure — the rectangular orchestra, the marble thrones of the front row and part of the cavea.

The important movable finds include part of a base with a dedicatory inscription, a fragment of a deme decree of the people of Euonymon and two headless marble statues of Dionysus found hidden in the proscenium.

The theatre was used for the first time in the 5th^th century BC and was abandoned before the middle of the 3rd^th century BC, most probably because of its unsuitable position, since it often flooded, and also because of the Chremonidean War.

Thanks to an inscription found in its orchestra which mentions Olympiodoros the Second, son of Diotimos, a known man of Euonymon, the correctness of the identification of the area with the ancient deme of Euonymon was confirmed. Of particular interest is also the shape of the orchestra, which is rectangular, and the stage building, which is the oldest stage structure preserved.

Theatre of Trachones (Euonymon)
Source: Municipality of Alimos

In the 4th^th century BC a few rows of stone seats were built in the three-sided cavea, while wooden seats were placed at its rear part. From the middle of the 4th^th century BC there were rectangular inscribed marble slabs of the front row on the first tier, and at the end of the same century thrones of the front row were added at the north-eastern corner of the orchestra.

Of the sculptural decoration of the orchestra, two marble male statues survive, dated to the second half of the 4th^th century BC. One of them held a kantharos, an element that points to Dionysus.

Theatre of Trachones (Euonymon)
Source: https://slideplayer.gr/slide/4874531/

Enclosure and graves: At the level of Gounari, Lakonias and Aigaiou streets to the north of the theatre, and to its south, that is on Marathonomachon and Agias Lavras streets, scattered graves and funerary enclosures have been uncovered, showing that a road must have passed through this spot. The building of ashlar blocks with two graves that came to light in 1968 at the junction of Koumoundourou and Lakonias streets must also have been an enclosure, to which part of the 4th^th century BC grave stele found there belonged.

On the site now called Marathonomachon Square an important funerary enclosure has been uncovered, as well as an extensive workshop for building materials. Of the enclosure the south-west corner survives; during the excavations two marble sarcophagi, two child burials in clay larnakes and a pyre with clay vessels and alabastra of the 5th^th century were uncovered. The statue of a sphinx found 30 m south of the funerary enclosure, on the site of the pottery workshop, must also come from its sculptural decoration.

Pottery workshop: In Marathonomachon Square a pottery workshop was found that operated from the 4th^th – 2^th century BC. Its long life was perhaps due to the successful choice of site, since it lay at the crossroads of two main arteries of the area (Alimou – Vouliagmenis) and close to Cape Kolias, from where the necessary supplies of clay were obtained.

Besides the workshop areas, which included open tanks communicating with each other through a system of conduits, two kilns for firing and a surface suitable for the first drying of the ceramic products, remains of a house of the 4th^th century BC with carefully built masonry were found at the same spot, probably belonging to the owner or the foreman of the workshop. The most important movable find of the site is part of a grave stele with fragments of a relief scene of a handshake and the incised name of a citizen of Euonymon.

Cemetery of the Elliniko Air Base: On the grounds of the Elliniko Air Base, to the right of its main entrance and a short distance from the western pavement of Vouliagmenis Avenue, remains of a cemetery have been uncovered from time to time, dating from the Late Geometric period (8th^th – 4^th century BC). This cemetery included poros sarcophagi, cist graves, pyres and other types of burial and is attributed to the deme of Euonymon because of two inscriptions found at the site.

Cemetery at the Elliniko tram depot: Some 300 m west of the cemetery of the Air Base, an important cemetery was excavated in 2002–2004, dating from the 8th^th – 4^th century BC and appearing to be directly related to the previous one.

Part of the excavation at the tram depot site
Source: https://www.reader.gr/news/stories/ayta-einai-ta-arhaia-poy-apeiloyn-tin-ependysi-sto-elliniko-pics

Its importance lies in the fact that, first, an unlooted funerary enclosure with its sculptural decoration in situ was found for the first time since the excavations in the Kerameikos a hundred years earlier and, second, because the palmette stele and the pedimental crowns of the other two stelae bear inscriptions with the names of three members of a family from Euonymon.

Thanks to these inscriptions and to a juror’s ticket with the name of another man of Euonymon, it can be attributed with great certainty that the area belonged to the ancient deme of Euonymon.

The cemetery includes a well-preserved Π-shaped enclosure, a second one that suffered violations and interventions already in antiquity, and a large number of independent graves. The total number of graves remains unknown. In all, 130 graves of various types were excavated, such as pot burials, stone sarcophagi, cist graves, simple pit graves, tile-covered graves and so on.

Hasani hill: The site where the cemetery lay occupied the eastern part of the village of Hasani and must have belonged to the deme of Euonymon and not to the deme of Halimous.

The western part of the village, near the coast, on the site later occupied by the former western airport of Elliniko, must have belonged to Halimous. Although the form of the hill has been greatly altered by hundreds of tonnes of deposited fill, a low hill still survives today within the boundaries of the Air Base, about 300 m from the cemetery at the tram depot.

The abundant ancient traces — the ancient wall along the southern slope, the fragments of clay vessels of the Early Helladic and Classical periods, and the natural and artificial workings on the rock surface — testify to intensive use of the area in antiquity, and perhaps to the existence of a settlement core of ancient Euonymon connected with the cemetery at the tram depot.

Hasani hill (today)
Source: https://www.liberal.gr/politics/fotografisame-ta-archaia-tou-ellinikou/169707