Archaeologist Maria-Fotini Papaconstantinou
recently revealed details of a sanctuary of Asklepios discovered in the 2005-2007
construction of the Patras-Athens-Thessaloniki-Evzonoi Highway in the area
of the Malian Gulf.
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| Aerial view of site and road construction |
Unfortunately, the site was discovered at a
very late stage during the construction of the road and Papaconstantinou’s team
had to “race against time” to excavate, record and relocate the finds before
the bulldozers moved in. “It was just before the deadline for excavation when
we would have had to hand over the site to construction,” she said. The excavations were carried out at
speed, with the work being completed in six months. The remains of the
sanctuary were transported stone by stone to an adjacent site and a restoration
and presentation project followed.
The sanctuary was part of the ancient city
of Daphnous that was located at "Isiomata" in hills to the south of Aghios Konstantinos in Phthiotida.
The modern town is identified with the ancient city’s harbour and is on the
Euboean sea some 200 kilometres north of Athens, near the city of Lamia. The
city of Daphnous was possibly occupied in Archaic times, with occupation
continuing into Classical times. By the time of Strabo, who suggests it was
founded by the Phocians (9.3.17), the city was in ruins. In fact, not a great
deal is so far known about Daphnous, whether it was a originally Phocian or
Lokrian city, but certainly it
came to be known as a city of the Opuntian Lokrians.
The excavation brought to light parts of
the ancient city and the cemeteries, with the most important discovery being the
Sanctuary of Asklepios, which is among the earliest Asklepieia in the Greek mainland. The sanctuary was previously unknown and dates to the fifth century
BCE. It is very well preserved, though quite small. Its modest size, 30 by 15
metres, suggests that the town it served was quite small. The
identity of the sanctuary as an Asklepeion was confirmed by the discovery of snake-shaped
offerings and shards of pottery bearing the healing god’s name. Asklepios was
the son of Apollo, and the god of medicine and healing. His sanctuaries typically
include an area for patients to stay for their cure, and are often adjacent to a
theatre as the Greeks took a holistic view of medicine, believing in treatment
for the mind as well as for the body. When the excavation reports are published it will be interesting to know more about the constituent parts of the Sanctuary.
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