Plakari in Karystos

Plakari's archeological site

(Information taken from the Website: www.plakariproject.com)

Plakari is situated on a low seaside hill on the east side of the town of Karystos, in Evia Island, Greece.

The 2011-2014 excavations on Plakari's hill brought to light a Late Classical two room building and over 5.500 amphora fragments (over 70 kgr), proving that part of the building functioned as store room. Also, walls and foundations support the idea that during the 4th century BC a major reorganization of the sanctuary at Plakari took place. Not only were a roofed building and a forecourt but also on a lower terrace a large open space was created with the help of enormous deposits of stones, perhaps serving to accommodate relatively large groups of people. Access to this area was possibly provided by a gate building.

Apart from buildings and stone structures, a large number of stone tools were found in the prehistoric layers. They included hand stones, hammer stones and axes, as well as blades, flakes and projectile points of obsidian and flint. Pottery contained a variety of closed and open shapes including fragments of cheese pots. Several spindle whorls were also found. Both pottery and the different varieties of obsidian and flint can help us to reconstruct external networks in which the population at Plakari participated. They included both nearby places (eastern Attica, northern Cyclades ) and far-off regions (southern Cyclades, possibly eastern Aegean).

Taking evidence together (walls, building structures, pottery), archaeologists may come to a conclusion that these find spots represent a number of habitation nuclei. If this is correct we may picture a considerable settlement consisting of small hut clusters dispersed over the hilltop, protected in some places by a large terrace or defence wall.

The presence of grapes, olives, pulses and cereals in the soil samples from Plakari suggests that land use around the settlement was characterised by the typical Mediterranean polyculture system. The agricultural products may have been consumed at Plakari as part of sacrificial feasts. Besides,, barley performed a role in animal sacrifices.

In the autumn of 2014, charcoal samples examined in the American School of Classical Studies at Athens showed that the site's surroundings did not consist solely of agricultural fields. The charcoal assemblage included stawberry tree (Arbutus, a typical Mediterranean shrub land-type tree) and olive wood but the large majority (about 90%) are of oak wood. Oak trees were apparently so common that they could be used for almost anything, ranging from firewood to construction wood and wood for making objects. This in its turn could suggest that - in stark contrast to the situation today-oak forests must have existed in the close vicinity within walking distance of the settlement.