Archaeological Site of Eretria
The ruins of ancient Eretria saved scattered beneath the modern city, across from reaching the coast to the hill to the north, where was the Acropolis. The city was protected by a strong wall, built in the Archaic Period and repaired in the 4th century. BC Started from the citadel and reached the port, setting an almost rectangular area in plan and had approximately 4,000 m along the western part was just before the stream that flowed at the western edge of the city and its expansion was no jetty, now is below sea level. The east wall also reached to the coast and ended in a natural breakwater and along the coast the two strands were linked with the coastal wall. The precinct opened two main gates, one on the west side and one on the east. The west gate was the oldest and largest city, which was constructed above the stream, along with a bridge. The space inside the wall was transformed into three districts, eastern, western and northern, separated by two major roads. One way in EW direction connecting the two gates, which opened in the eastern and the western wall, while the second began about the middle of the first and led south, the temple of Apollo, which dominated the heart of the city. South of the temple was the ancient market square, with galleries, shops, the impressive dome-a-circular structure, fountains and temples. Right next to the southern, coastal wall were baths of the 3rd century. BC, workshops, warehouses and docks, while at the southwest end of town near the harbor, stood the temple of Isis and lower palaestra or gymnasium, built in the 4th century. BC, which were repaired after 198 BC At the foot of the hill, near the west gate was formed in the Geometric, Classical and Hellenistic times, the western district. Along the western wall of the south gate, there are magnificent buildings, including the memorial, rich graves of the Geometric period, the Palace I and II, majestic homes built in the 4th century. BC, a temple of the 5th century. BC North of the gate and the road is the temple of Dionysus and the theater, the most impressive monument of the city, built in the 5th century. BC and perfected in the 4th century. BC East of the theater is the top high school, built in the late Classical period and repaired after 198 BC, and the state, whose position is known from inscriptions and testimonials travelers. Even farther north, on the hillside, was the Thesmoforio the third century. BC and the Temple of Artemis, who was senior, but still used until the 3rd century. BC East, cross the intersection with another road, leading to the temple, the ruins of the famous "house with the mosaics," the fourth century. BC, which is characteristic of eretriakon houses and is among the best preserved, while a little further south in the central residential district divided and geometric phases of the Hellenistic era, and part circular building with an altar, perhaps Hercules. In this section survives massive walls, used for short periods (800-700 BC) and ruled the north and northwest side of town. The area was used in the Hellenistic period, while the western district, and until the Roman period. Outside the city walls were the cemeteries, that of archaic west and east of the second. The burials (cremations and burials normal) were in stone and marble sarcophagi, but also in tile graves.
History
In the fertile valley surrounded by hills to the west and Voudochi Zervouni the east, south of Chalcis and across the attic Oropos is Eretria, "kopilatis city" of the ancient (since the name comes from the verb eretto, ie row). Eretria was a great naval power of Greece as early as the 8th century. BC, with many colonies on the Aegean coast, the islands and Great Greece. The oldest signs of habitation in the area date from the late Neolithic period and limited to fragments of pottery, which are not associated with building remains, but showing contacts of local residents in the Aegean Sea and the North. During the early Greek and Middle Helladic period, the settlement from which scant building remains, was developed in the area between the temple of Apollo and the subsequent market town, but up to the citadel. An important finding is a pottery kiln, which proves the existence of craft facilities in the village. The few finds of Mycenaean indicate the high standard of living, which is confirmed by a reference list of Eretrians nion of Homer, although it seems that in this period was an important center of Eretria. From the 8th century. BC Eretria began to acquire urban character. The Mycenaean fortified citadel was used for the installation of the sacred and the central core of the city moved the market, which was further south. Eretria actively participated in the First colonization of the Greeks, founding colonies in the north (Panticapaeum Phanagoreia and the Crimea) and the West (Monkey establishment of colonization in Italy and Corfu) and became an important commercial center, had contacts with the eastern Mediterranean, as shown eretriaki pottery found on the coasts of Asia Minor, in syrofoinikikes coast and Cyprus. The expansion of Eretria in all directions worried Chalcis, and drove in two cities known Lelantine war (Irod., 5.99, and Thuc., 1.15.3). Despite the poor outcome of Lelantine war, the city continued to flourish in the Archaic period and Eretria and actively participated in the Second colonization. In the third quarter of the sixth century. BC had its own currency, while in the late sixth century. The political system was democratic and its development has seen a new impetus. In 494 BC helped Miletus to revolt against the Persians (Irod., 6.99, 7.101, Strabo. 3.448.5, Pause., 7.10.2), which led to destruction by the Ataferti Datis and four years later, in 490 BC C. He took part alongside the Greeks at the Battle of Artemisium and Salamis and conflicts of Plataea. He participated in the First Athenian Alliance, but in 411 BC he lifted the Athenian hegemony and recovered economically. Then the strengthened wall which protected the city, built new homes and magnificent public buildings, such as the western gateway and the theater. In the fourth century. BC The city was ruled by tyrants, who sometimes followed and sometimes filoathinaiki filothivaiki policy. In 338 BC after the battle of Chaeronea Eretria came under the domination of the Macedonians and the city began a new period of prosperity, economic and cultural. The walls were repaired and expanded, was built many private and public buildings, developed koroplastikis workshops and theater acquired its final form. Then built the upper gymnasium and stage, and even a gymnasium or palaestra near the port, which probably contained a temple of Eileithyia. The market is flanked by colonnades on all four sides and enriched with many monuments, most notably the dome, sacred buildings and fountains. Lived in Eretria painter Philoxenus, who created the painting of the Battle of Issus, the Achaean tragic poet, philosopher Menedimos, founder of Eretriakis School and stayed here for a while and the Macedonians king Cassander, Demetrius and Antigonus Gonatas Poliorketes. In 198 BC The city was conquered and destroyed by the Romans and then began to decline. In 87 BC allied with the king of Pontus Mithridates against the Romans, who destroyed a second time one year later. The city was gradually abandoned and deserted. About the ancient Eretria in recent years has given the first Sunday from Ancona in 1436, who designed the antiquities of the site. Later and other foreign tourists visited the area and provided information on the ancient city (Coronelli, WM Leake, R. Cockerell, L. Ross). The first excavations were made by the Chr. Tsounta in 1885 by the American Archaeological School during the 1891-1895 period. Kourouniotis MR and later J. Papadakis continued the excavations, and by early 20th century excavations undertaken by the Archaeological Service and the Archaeological Society. Since 1962 the western sector of the city with the temple of Apollo excavated the Swiss School of Archaeology.
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