Klepini-Troulli: Dikaios's excavations

At Klepini-Troulli, a coastal Neolithic settlement on a promontory in the north, Porphyrios Dikaios recognised two occupations, a pre-ceramic and a ceramic phase; later scholars read the relation between them differently.^1,2 He worked for the Department of Antiquities in 1935 and 1941.³

A trial excavation is reported for 1935.³ The 1941 work was a rescue excavation after Dikaios was informed of looting. Clarke describes two soundings on the southern slopes and a large exposure called Area C on the leeward side of the hill; Yurtdaş and Şevketoğlu describe further excavation in three areas and a 5.4 m deep sounding on the southern slope.^1,2,3 Dikaios excavated in 20 cm spits.²

In Pit A, Clarke places aceramic material at 360 to 550 cm below the surface and ceramic material above it. Clarke gives Peltenburg's later reading, following Watkins, that the two phases were not contiguous but separated by a sterile layer, at least one metre deep in Pit A.² In Area C, Clarke reports four irregular structures and a passageway, with a free-standing building described as 25 m square.² Yurtdaş and Şevketoğlu describe a damaged circular feature with stone foundations and walls surviving to 50 cm, and place flint flakes, bone tools, obsidian blades and stone-vessel fragments in Troulli I deposits between 5.4 and 3.6 m deep, with pottery above 3.6 m in Troulli II.³ Yurtdaş and Şevketoğlu count 24 obsidian tools from the preliminary excavation.³

Yurtdaş and Şevketoğlu report that the settlement lies within the Teknecik Electric Power Plant, that erosion, looting and other environmental factors destroyed parts of it, that building the power plant in 1995 and later activity caused further damage, and that visiting requires a permit and supervision.³