No.

2 The Prehistoric Society 1967

A Mycenaean 1MB Dagger from the Palaeolithic Site of

Kastritsa in Epirus, Greece*
By S. I. DAKARIS
University of Ioannina

W HEN a team of the Archaeological and Anthropological Department of

the Cambridge University, working under Mr. Eric Higgs, recently
discovered a Mycenaean dagger at the foot of the Kastritsa Mountain
(altitude 757 metres), a few metres west of the mouth of the paleolithic cave, it
came as no great surprise: for, in the last 15 years, about 10 bronze swords and
daggers of Mycenaean provenance have been found in Epirus.1
On the other hand, the discovery of the paleolithic cave itself at the western
foot of the Kastritsa Mountain, and the finds yielded by its excavation, were as
unexpected as they were important. It is hoped that continued excavations of the
cave with its deep deposits and clear stratification will throw light on some of the
problems connected with Homo Sapiens: his origins, the time of his appearance in
Europe, his relation to other groups in Epirus and outside it, the civilization he
evolved, and the ecological conditions in which he lived in the last phase of the
last Ice Age (Wiirm III).
A fresh and more extensive excavation of the prehistoric settlement north of
the village of Kastritsa, at the eastern foot of the mountain, would not be devoid of
interest either, for it would complete the cycle of prehistoric research and probably
throw light on the mesolithic occupation of which little is yet known in Greece.
In the years 1948 and 1949, while digging a trench alongside the foot of the
mountain for the drainage of the Kastritsa and Koutselio Plain, a few neolithic
A2 incised sherds and abundant sherds of the Bronze Age came to light. A trial dig
in the walls of the ditch which I carried out in the years 1951 and 1952, though it
yielded no neolithic sherds, did reveal abundant potsherds of the three other
categories II, III and IV2 pottery, which Hammond, in his important work, has
designated by the letters K2, K3, and K4 (Kastritsa 2, 3, 4). 3
* The author and editors are most grateful to Mr Stavros Papastavrou, Fellow of Peterhouse, Cambridge,
for his
1
kindness in translating this article into English.
For the published swords and daggers from Dodona (a), Kalbaki (1), "Perama" (2) and Nekromangeion (1),
see S. I. Dakaris, Eph. Arch., 1956, 114-53; idem, Arch. Delt., 18 (1963), Chronika, 153-4, fig. 4, PI. 187 e;
N. K. Sandars, AJA, 67 (1967), 120, 137, 145, 151; N. G. L. Hammond, Epirus, 1967, 318 f. That the two
horned swords published by me in Eph. Arch. 1956 were not found at Perama, but at Mesoyefira, in North
East Epirus, see N. G. L. Hammond, he. cit., 321. Hammond suggests that there must originally have been
two separate pairs, one from Mesoyefira, the other from Perama, the last been lost. For the dagger from a cist
tomb of Paramythia (Fig. 3), see Arch. Delt., 19 (1964) Chronika (not yet published). Another dagger, found
at Kalyvia of the village Elaphotopos, in the district of Zagoria, North East of Kalbaki, is not yet published.
2
Practika, 1951, 173-83; 1952, 362-86. A survey of the prehistoric finds from the Middle Palaeolithic to the
end of the prehistoric period is given by E. Lepore, Ricerche suit' antico Epiro (Collana di Studi Greet), 1962,
71 f.; S. I. Dakaris, 01 TevtaXoyiKoi MuOoi TWV MoXoaaiov 'ASiJvai, (1954), 1-13 and N. G. L. Hammond, Epirus,
289-340.
" Epirus, 292.

30
 S. /. Dakaris. Mycenaean NIB Bronze Dagger from Palaeolithic Site of Kastritsa in Epirus

Category II pottery, hand-made and crude, displays plastic decoration in

raised bands shaped like a chain or rope, minute discs like irregular studs, and
small concave impressions.
Category III consists of hand-made pottery in a plain gray-black and
black-brown clay; it is of better craftsmanship than the former, its surface
usually smooth and polished, and is akin to the black or gray-black Middle
Helladic and Early Helladic III pottery.1 It vividly recalls the black Lerna IV
(EH III) and the Middle Helladic Minyan pottery.
Finally, Category IV consists of hand-made, matt-painted pottery with
geometric designs and is similar in technique, shape and ornament to the Mace-
donian, particularly the western Bourbousti pottery.2 This pottery has been met
with in certain sites of South Albania; in the upper valley of the Drinus; near
Koritsa3; in Koutselio, south of Kastritsa, as also, further south, at Thermo and
Taxiarchis of Aetolia; in Leucas; in Ithaca; and in Olympia.4 The date of its
appearance in the Ioannina valley may be put at between the thirteenth and
twelfth centuries B.C. In any case, it was certainly still being made in the early
Iron Age and probably even as late as the beginning of the fourth century, if we
are to judge by the similar pottery found in Kastritsa and in the important
cemetry of Vitsa of the district of Zagoria north of Ioannina, which for the last
two years or so is being dug by Julia Kouleimani,5 curator of Antiquities. What
is of uncertain date is the first appearance of pottery II, which runs right through
the second millennium and probably into the third. However this may be, the
two categories: II and III) co-existed in the second millennium and were preserved
up to the end of the fifth or early fourth century B.C.; this assumption was finally
confirmed following the excavations of Dodone.6
Apart from these four groups of local pottery, some tall-stemmed cups
formed on the potter's wheel, which are certainly of Mycenaean origin and date
to the beginning of the fourth century B.C., also came to light. Another hand-
made tall-stemmed cup or goblet, older than the fourth century B.C., has a
matt-painted geometric decoration of type IV. 7 On the same site a cist tomb
was found in 1963, containing a stirrup-jar (pi. I, no. 1) of the LH III B-Ci
period8; and, again recently, in Dodona,9 east of the theatre, at III B-3 sherd,
1
Practika, 1951, 178-80; 1952, 369-73; J. L. Caskey, Hesperia, xxix (1960), pi. 70 i, where others examples
are given; idem Charistirion to An. Orlandos T' (1956), 151-2, pi. LIV, fig. 15 and 17, pi. LV, fig. 21 from Lerna
IV (E.H. III). For the pottery type II, cf. the bowl of pi. LV, fig. 22 of Lerna IV. See also N. G. L. Hammond,
Epirus,
a
292, 308 f.
Practika, 1951, 180-2; 1952, 279, fig. 1, 373-381 and 385; N. G. L. Hammond, Epirus, 295-9; cf. W.
Heurtley,
8
Prehistoric Macedonia, 1939, 99, 227, figs. 98-101, nos. 459-65; idem BSA, 28 (1927-28), 158 f.
N. G. L. Hammond, Epirus, 295 f. and 310.
* Practika, 1951, 182; 1952, 378-80.
6
Arch. Delt., 21 (1965) and 22 (1966) Chronika, not yet published. A jug with cut-away neck and side-spout,
without painted decoration of West Macedonian origin, was found in a tomb with bones of a child at Kastritsa
dating, according to the Stramatographic evidence, from the 4th Cent., Practika 1952, 382, fig. 21, 383 and 367.
Compare
6
the vase from Pateli, W. Heutrley, PM, pi. XXIIIb.
Practika, 1951, 179-80; 1952, 385; Eph. Arch. 1959, 19 f; N. G. L. Hammond, op. cit., 304-5, suggests on
typological reasons, that pottery II reached Epirus after 1700 B.C. Until a stromatography with good chronological
evidence will be obtained, the dating will be subject to discussion, because of the untypical character and the strong
conservatisme
7
of this pottery: some elements are subneolithic, others Early Helladic and some Middle Helladic.
8
Practika, 1951, 182, fig. 7, 3; 1952, 365, fig. 3.
Arch. Delt., 19 (1963) Chronika, 312-13, pi. 35id.
* Arch. Delt., 21 (1965) Chronika, not yet published.

31
 No. 2 The Prehistoric Society, ' 1967
probably Mycenaean, was revealed along with several stems of cup devoid of
decoration, resembling the stemmed cups of Kastritsa. It therefore arises that
an important prehistoric settlement existed at the eastern foot of the Kastritsa
Mountain, and survived there, probably from the middle of the Neolithic
period,1 up to about 400 B.C.
The prehistoric settlement seems then to have been abandoned and its
inhabitants to have taken refuge on the mountain heights2: a strong polygonal wall
of the fourth century B.C. with towers and gates of about 2,600 metres in circum-
ference protected the new city (pi. II) which may be identified with ancient
Tecmon. 3 On the capture of Epirus by the Romans (168-7 B-c-) th e city does
not seem to have escaped destruction, though restorations of Roman times
bear witness to its continued existence. The inhabitants seem to have been
finally driven from the ancient city,4 following the invasions of the Goths in the
fifth and sixth centuries A.D. and the powerful earthquake of A.D. 551. They
may have taken refuge in the new walled city founded in about A.D. 530 by
Justinian in the natural fastness offered by the peninsula of the Lake of Ioannina,5
roughly where the Castle of Despots of Epirus (thirteenth to fourteenth century
A.D.) and of Ali Pasha (1780-1812) stands to this day.
Later research has revealed still clearer traces of Mycenaean settlements on
the western coast of Epirus. One of them is Ephyra, a Mycenaean colony in the
valley of the Lower Acheron, 600 metres north of the Oracle of the Dead, both
mentioned by Homer. Of the three Cyclopaen walls, the lower one has been
shown by excavation to be of Late Helladic times.6 Again, several Mycenaean
sherds found on the Acropolis and on the hill of the Oracle of the Dead, in
addition to certain other finds, like the Mycenaean type of dagger,7 show that
these settlements, thanks to the sea which washed their shores, were in fairly close
touch with the South. A few kilometres north-west of Ephyra, at the place
Kiperi, a 3 kilometres east of Parga, a tholos tomb was found containing
provincial Mycenaean III B sherds, and a leaf-shaped bronze spear-head of
northern type.8 Probably hereabouts lay the Mycenaean colony of Toryne,
identified with the Hellenistic ruins of Parga or of St Kyriake, 2 kilometres east
of the tomb. 9
1
A few neolithic sherds Ai were found in a cave, between Sideri and Aetos, to the South of Filiates, Arch.
Delt., 17 (1961-62), 195. fig. 2, pi. 225 a. The cave has been visited later by the archaeologist Aug. Sordinas, who
made some superficial investigations and brought to the Museum of Ioannina a lot of sherds, a few broken
neolithic
2
vases and human bone remains.
Practika, 1951, 183; 1952, 367 and 385. For the historical background about 400 B.C., see S. I. Dakaris, note
2, 503 f.
See S. I. Dakaris, 'A<j>Upu>iw. ei's rijv Hweipov, 1954 (Els Min/fiTju Xp. SoiiArj), 46 ff. For a description of the
ancient remains with photographs and plan, see N. G. L. Hammond, Epirus, 173 f., plan 15 and pi. XIa, who
attributes the remains to Eurymenai, mentioned from Diodorus Siculus 19.88, for the year 312 B.C.; see also
pp. 527 and 632.
4
At the same time Christian Dodona was abandoned, according to the archaeological finds, D. Evangelides
and S.
6
I. Dacaris, To lepov rijs AuScuvrjs", AE, 1959, 150 and 151—2.
See, S. I. Dakaris, 'Luawiva, 17 Necurepiy Eupoia', Epir. Estia, A (1952), 537-554; idem., Practika, 1951,
174, 6n. 2 and 183.
7
Practika, 1958, 111-2, pi. 85 band 86. The Thresprotian Ephyra is mentioned in Odyss., a 259 = b 328.
8
Arch. Delt., 18 (1963), 153-4, plan 4, pi. i87e; Practika, 1958, p. i n ; 1963. 9'-2; To "Epyov 1963, 61-3.
Practika, i960, 123-6, plan 3, 92y,8 and 93.
• S.I. Dakaris, see note 2, 3, n. 2 and Arch. Delt., 16 (i960) Chronika, 205. That the place name Toryne is a
place name of Middle or Late Helladic age, see E. Lepore, Richerche, 98-9 and note 162.

32
 S. /. Dakaris. Mycenaean IIIB Bronze Dagger from Palaeolithic Site of Kastritsa in Epirus

Hence, the discovery near the paleolithic cave of a new dagger of Mycenaean
type is not surprising. The place lies between Dodone one of the most important
prehellenic centres of worship, and Kastritsa one of the most important pre-
historic settlements of Central Epirus. The western coasts of the area which

Fig. i. The newly excavated bronze dagger from Kastritsa ($).

Fig. 2. The bronze spear-head from Paramythia ($)
Fig. 3. The bronze dagger of Paramythia (J).

were ruled by the ancient Thesprotians, afforded the possibility of fairly frequent
communication by sea with southern Greece, particularly during the fourteenth
and thirteenth century B.C.1 We find echoes of these relations between the
1
S. I. Dakaris, Eph. Arch., 1956, 120-2; Practika, i960, 125-6; S. I. Dakaris, note, 2 p. sjf.; Arch. Delt., 18
('963)1 154; R- d'A. Desborough, The Last Mcyenaeans and their Successors, 1964, 102.

33
 No. 2 The Prehistoric Society 1967

Mycenaean world and the shores of Thesprotia in the Homeric epics which refer
to conditions of the thirteenth century B.C.1 The ten Mycenaean swords or
daggers found, including also the most recent one of Kastritsa, are obviously to
be explained as products of this traffic between Epirus and Mycenaean Greece.
The latter dagger (pi. I, no. 2; fig. 1) was a funeral gift, deposited in a tomb,
to the existence of which only some human bones now bear witness. The dagger,
oxidized to a grey-green colour, was 39 centimetres long, the blade being 29
centimetres; the pommel was 5-6 centimetres wide and the cross guard
4*9 centimetres. The extensive wear of the blade suggests a great deal of use.
The middle of the blade is strengthened to a thickness of 0-4 centimetres, and
tapers abruptly at both cutting edges. Five holes designed for the rivets that
held in place by a grip, probably wooden, have been bored by a revolving sort
of drill. Three of these holes occur down the length of the hilt and two are
placed horizontally on the shoulder. The shallow flange of the dagger running
along both sides of the hilt and shoulder leaves only the corners of the pommel
free. Two parallel lines are incised down the rim of hilt and pommel. The
pommel is oblong and rather low in comparison with the daggers of Paramythia
(p. I, nos. 5 and fig. 3) and of Kalbaki (pi. I, no. 4).2 Immediately below the
pommel, the hilt forms an imperceptible depression, or neck.
This dagger belongs to a type undoubtedly Mycenaean in origin, which first
appeared at the end of the fourteenth century B.C. and went on being used up to
the twelfth, perhaps even up to the eleventh century. Its characteristic features are
the hilt with crescent-shaped pommel and flat blade, with rounded shoulder in
the older specimens, which go back to the fourteenth century, or with rectangular
shoulder and longer blade in the later. There are six examples of the latter group
in Epirus, and the predilection shown for this type seems to be due to the greater
advantages offered by the longer blade,3 both as a thrusting and slashing weapon.
Miss N. K. Sandars distinguishes the older, fourteenth century type of dagger,
from its subsequent counterpart, grouping it under Eii; the later group F, how-
ever, also derives thence, and the distinction, therefore, does not seem to me
necessary, particularly since the basic features of both are the same, their only
difference being in the roundness of the shoulder, the width and length of the
blade and its sharp or blunt edge.
In the thirteenth and twelfth centuries, new developments are to be observed
in the shape, chiefly of the pommels, and partly also of the hilt and the shoulder.
In the twelfth century the hilt and pommel display elaborate shapes and a
tendency to decorative effect.4
Compared with a similar sword (length 58-5 centimetres) found in tomb A of
the Mouliana, and which Miss N. K. Sandars places in the twelfth century; or
with the dagger of Perati of IIIC i period (Granary and Close Style with some
1
2
See Iliad and Odyss., passim, 259. Cf. S. I. Dakaris, note 2, p. 7 f. and Eph. Arch., 1956, 123 f., and 149 f.
Arch. Delt., 19 (1964) Chronika, not yet published (dagger of Paramythia); Ephem. Arch., 1956, 115, fig. 1;
N. K.
8
Sandars, AJA, 67 (1963), pi. 25, 35.
4
N. K. Sandars, see note 1, p. 133.
Eph. Arch., 1956, 142; N. K. Sandars, op. cit., 133. This decorative character have also the two bronze
weapons from Elis, a dagger of type Fii and a hooked short sword G2 (C2 Furumark), from tombs 1 and 4 with
submycenaean pottery, N. Yalouris, Practika 1963, 138, p.l 115b, y.

34
 S. /. Dakarls. Mycenaean IIIB Bronze Dagger from Palaeolithic Site of Kastritsa In Epirus

III B elements),1 this dagger seems more ancient. In the Mouliana sword, the
pommel is oblong and flat and the constriction under the pommel more sharply
defined. It is in any case later than the dagger found in tomb I of Kalbaki, along
with a long, leaf-shaped spear-head and a small knife of the early Urnfield-Culture.
The date of the latter, as also of the dagger, is put at the thirteenth century. At
the time, the leaf-shaped spear-head led me to date the tomb 2 roughly to about
the end of II B or early C i. The discovery since then in Epirus of leaf-shaped
spear-heads or javelins belonging of period III B, now puts the date of the
tomb somewhere in the thirteenth century.3 The dagger of Kastritsa, however,
shows a close similarity to the dagger (2548) in the Athens National Museum,
coming from the greater treasure of Mycenae, which Tsountas discovered in
1890. 4
Catling, on the strength of various finds, puts the date at about 1300 or a
little later.6 According to Miss N. K. Sandars, "although nothing in the hoards
requires a date much before 1200, all the objects could have been hidden during
the following century; individual pieces, however, were doubtless made earlier".6
Yet I find nothing in the contents of the Treasure to suggest a date later than
1200. Moreover, it is not impossible to place some of the finds—like the violin-bow
fibulae and the northern-type sword Naue II—in the mid- or early thirteenth
century. The same date would seem to be suggested, by the short leaf-shaped
spear-head in the same Mycenaean treasure,7 which is exactly similar to one found
in the cist tomb of Paramythia (PL I, no. 6 and fig. 2) unearthed in 1965. The
illustrated dagger of period III A or the beginnings of III B, also comes from the
same grave (PI. I, no. 5 and fig. 3). It closely resembles the dagger in the chamber-
tomb (95) of the Zapher Papoura cemetery, of which Miss N. K. Sandars puts
the date at the fourteenth century, in the transitional phase from type Eii to F:
roughly, that is to say, at the end of that century (LH III A2).8 Therefore, the
most probable date of our own dagger from the cist-tomb of Paramythia, the
oldest in the series of the six known ones of the same type from Epirus, would
probably be at about the same time, around 13 50-1300.
The long use of the Paramythia dagger9 would admit of a somewhat later
date for the spear-head and of the construction of the tomb, but, in any case,
not later than the middle of the century (1300-1250). Consequently, there can
be no very great discrepancy between the dates of the two daggers—that of
Mycenae and that of Paramythia—which were accompanied by an identical
1
2
See note I, 134 and 135; G. Iakovides, Practika, 1955, 104, pi. 30b; idem, Practika, 1963 (1966), 39.
3
Arch, Eph., 1956, 144.
Besides the leaf-shaped spear-head found in the cist-tomb i of Kalbaki (LH III B), a second came from the
tholos tomb at Kiperi, near Parga, with LH III B pottery, and a third from the cist-tomb of Paramythia, with
the dagger PI. II, no. 5 of LH III A-B. Cf. also V. Desborough, 'The Greek Mainland, c. 115c—c. 1000 B.C.',
PPS, 31 (1965). 222.
•6 Ephem. Arch., 1891, 25-6; 1897, n o , pi. (8, 4) Cf. also Eph. Arch., 1956, 138, fig. 8.
See note 59, in N. K. Sandars, AJA, op. cit.
*7 N. K. Sandars, see note 1, 136-37.
8
N. K. Sandars, op. cit., pi. 25, 37, who dates this point of spear not much before 1200.
N. K. Sandars, op. cit., 133, The dagger has close affinities to the Sandars Class Eii daggers of the
fourteenth century, op. cit., 133, pi. 25, 30, 31.
" The dagger has seven rivet holes, two in the pommel, one in the grip and four in the shoulders, one pair in
each shoulder. The first in the pommel and the two of the shoulders, one on each side, were made by reworking
it in antiquity. The withered blade points also to long use.

35
 No. 2 The Prehistoric Society 1967

spear-head, while any date later than the middle of the thirteenth century for
dagger 2548, seems improbable. Hence, our similar Kastritsa dagger should be
placed nearer the middle or during the first half rather than towards the end of
the thirteenth century.1
Tsountas arrived at the conclusion, I think rightly, that the two Mycenaean
treasures were hidden to protect them from dangers of looting.2 We know now that
at about the second half of the thirteenth century, when Mycenaean pottery III B
was at its last stage of development, displaying certain elements of early III C
pottery, the Acropolis of Mycenae was destroyed by a first wave of invasions. The
settlement near Zygouries suffered the same fate, as did also Heraeum Argos and
the Palaces of Tiryns and of Nestor in Pylos. Blegen places the destruction of the
latter at the end of the thirteenth century, B.C., "when pottery of Mycenaean III C
was beginning to be made and to displace the wares of III B". 3 It follows from the
above that the treasures of Mycenae must have been hidden roughly in the middle
of the century, or a little later. During those years, new tribes coming from West
Macedonia or Albania,4 settled in the Ioannina valley. The matt-painted pottery
IV of the prehistoric settlements of Kastritsa, of Koutseliou and Vitsa, bears
witness to their erstwhile presence there. These new tribes may be identified
with the Molossians of historical times 5 ; the Vitsa tombs too, with their similar
pottery, belong to these new tribes. At a time of such upheavals it would have
been difficult for a Mycenaean dagger from southern Greece to have found its
way to the very heart of the Ioannina valley. It must, therefore, be older than
the painted pottery IV of the prehistoric settlement of Kastritsa and the invaders
who settled in the valley during the end of the thirteenth and the twelfth century.
To determine more exactly the date on which the painted pottery IV made its
appearance in the valley, would make an interesting subject of research.
1
This dagger should be older than the dagger of Nekromanteion (PI. I, no. 3) and of the same time of the
dagger
2
from Dodona, see Eph. Arch., 1856, 141, and fig. 19, no. 15; N. G. L. Hammond, Epirus, fig. 19 F.
8
Eph. Arch., 1891, 25; 1897, n o .
4
C. Blegen, The Palace of Nestor at Pylos in Western Messenia 1966, vol. 1, 421 f.
See note 6, especially p. 313, and my note 7; S. I. Dakaris, see note 2, p. 8-10. The invaders entered in
central Epirus along the west side of Pindos, probably via Koritsa or through the upper valley of Drin: the Mace-
donian
6
pottery found at Vitsa points closer connections to the pottery IV of these areas (see note 6).
Practika, 1982, 380-1 and 385; Eph. Arch., 1956, 130-1, 144-5; S. I. Dakaris, see note 2, 8-10; E. Lepore,
Ricerche, 95, 98-9, 102 f. and note 168.
 PLATE

Mycenaean finds from Epirus, Greece.

no. i. Late Mycenaean III B-C stirrup-jar from a cist-tomb at Kastritsa. New Museum, Ioannina.
nos. 2-4. Bronze daggers from Kastritsa, Nekromanteion and Kalbaki. New Museum, Ioannina.
nos. 5-6. Bronze dagger and spear-head from Paramythia. Archaeological collection of Paramythia.
facing p. 32
 PLATE I I

Prehistoric settlement at Kastritsa, Epirus, Greece.

Upper: East circuit wall with Roman repairs.
Lower: Secondary east gate.