Marion: Department of Antiquities rescue work, 1980–1997

The Department of Antiquities excavated tombs at Polis, ancient Marion, in 1980, 1983, 1987, 1995 and 1997^1,2,3,4. In 1980 a tomb registered as Tomb 2 yielded Attic black-glaze pottery, including two red-figure askoi decorated with a goose and a reclining panther, a black-glaze guttus and another decorated with a hare and dog, and a bowl bearing a long Cypriot syllabic graffito. Olivier Masson commented that this example, with ten signs, seemed the longest graffito known to him¹.

In 1983 a Hellenistic rock-cut tomb, PM 2547, Tomb 21/83, was excavated in plot 358. It had a large chamber with two alcoves and a small side chamber, and the assemblage included an alabastron, 49 vases, two strigils, an iron axe, a bronze mirror, a silver ring and bronze coffin fittings². In 1987 an intact tomb at Pervoli tou Englezou held amphorae, cooking pots, a painted skyphos (PM 2936/17), a gold ring set with a garnet (PM 2936/33) and a gold ring formed as a coiled snake (PM 2936/34)³. The 1995 excavations are recorded as conducted by Yiannis Ionas⁵.

In 1997 the Department excavated a Hellenistic-Roman rock-cut chamber tomb at Ambeli toun Englezou. It had a stepped dromos, four secondary chambers, five loculi and an ossuary cut into the north wall of the main chamber, and held multiple inhumations, some on wooden biers. The grave goods were pottery, bronze and glass objects, jewellery, and bronze and silver coins⁴.