The archaeological significance of the site was revealed in 1980[3] when a large

mound was discovered to contain two shaft graves, one with the remains of a man and
a woman under a large structure called by some a hērōön (ἡρῷον) or "hero's grave,"
the other held four horses which appear to have been sacrificed and were included
in the grave. Two of the horses were found with iron bits still in their mouths.
There is some dispute as to whether the structure was, in fact, a hērōön built to
commemorate a hero or whether it was instead the grave of a couple who were locally
important for other reasons. There are different theories of how the building was
constructed. The older and structurally questionable version of this monumental
building, built c. 950 BCE, envisages it to be 50 meters long and 13.8 meters wide.
The main feature of this solution is with a wooden verandah, foreshadowing the
peristasis of the temple architecture that started to appear with regularity some
two centuries later.[4] A structurally more probable solution is recently published
in the annual of the British school at Athens, which reduces the height of the
building and thus reducing the so-called veranda to a fence, surrounding the house.

One of the bodies in the grave had been cremated, the ashes being wrapped in a
fringed linen cloth then stored in a bronze amphora from Cyprus. The amphora was
engraved with a hunting scene and placed within a still larger bronze bowl. A sword
and other grave goods were nearby. It is believed that the ashes were those of a
man.

The woman's body was not cremated. Instead, she was buried alongside a wall and
adorned with jewelry, including a ring of electrum, a bronze braziere, and a gorget
believed to have come from Babylonia and already a thousand years old when it was
buried. An iron knife with an ivory handle was found near her shoulder. It is
unknown whether this woman was buried contemporaneously with the man's remains, or
at a later date. Scholars have suggested that the woman was slaughtered to be
buried with the man, possibly her husband, in a practice reminiscent of the Indian
custom of sati. Other scholars have pointed to the lack of conclusive evidence for
her being sacrificed, suggesting instead that this woman may have been an important
person in the community in her own right, who was interred with the man's ashes
after her death.

Like most of the Greek islands, Euboea was known by other names in antiquity, such
as Macris (Μάκρις) and Doliche (Δολίχη) from its elongated shape, or Ellopia, Aonia
and Abantis from the tribes inhabiting it.[3] Its ancient and current name, Εὔβοια,
derives from the words εὖ "good", and βοῦς "ox", meaning "(the land of) the well(-
fed) oxen".

In the Middle Ages, the island was often referred to by Byzantine authors by the
name of its capital, Chalcis (Χαλκίς) or Euripos (Εὔριπος, the name of the strait
that separates the island from the Greek mainland), although the ancient name
Euboea remained in use by classicizing authors until the 16th century.

The phrase στὸν Εὔριπον 'to Evripos', rebracketed as στὸ Νεὔριπον 'to Nevripos',
became Negroponte ("Black Bridge") in Italian by folk etymology, the ponte 'bridge'
being interpreted as the bridge of Chalcis. This name was most relevant when the
island was under Venetian rule.[4] That name entered common use in the West in the
13th century,[5] with other variants being Egripons, Negripo, and Negropont.[4]