Papapostolou I.A. Early Thermos: New Excavations 1992-2003

Archaeological Society at Athens, 2012. — 360 p. — (Archaeological Society at Athens Library 277).The author's interest in Thermos goes back to the time when he served as Ephor of Antiquities for Achaia and Aitoloakarnania (1976-1983). It was his obligation to deal with archaeological matters of that site, such as the arrangement of the agora. Thus, when, in 1983, at the request of the Archaeological Society in Athens, he undertook the continuation of the excavation of Thermos, which had been conducted by Rhomaios until 1932, he began with the agora. Yet the burning archaeological questions of Thermos had mainly to do with the monuments and with the stratigraphical sequence below the horizon of the early archaic temples, in the context of the prehistoric settlement with Megaron A, the establishment of the first centuries after the disintegration of the Mycenaean world, Megaron B with its hypothetical colonnade and the ash altar. In archaeological circles, indeed, the prevailing idea was that those questions, which had already been raised again in the past by Drerup, Wesenberg, Schmaltz, Coulson, Mallwitz and others before them, should indeed be reexamined. Much time had passed, moreover, since the first revealing researches of the two succesive excavators, George Soteriades and K.A. Rhomaios (1897-1916). The present monograph, translated in english by Miriam Caskey, is a condensed, but in some places also revised and supplemented edition of the greek publication entitled "Thermos. Megaron and the Early Sanctuary".