AEP description of G2:

“The site is a small fortified settlement laid out around a small limestone peak overlooking a deep valley. It is located ca. 2.5 km W of Iliokastro village. A Classical fortification wall surrounds the remains on the hill. The SW and SE corners have nearly square towers of ashlar masonry with drafted corners. The S flank of the circuit may have had mud-brick walls on the preserved stone foundations. Other remains lie to the S and SE of the hill. A circular, stone-built ancient well is still in use E of the hill. The many traces of buildings with foundations of well-worked blocks within the circuit wall, along with similar building remains to the S, are laid out on an orthogonal plan. A limestone column S of the fortifications probably indicates the presence of a shrine. 38 sherds and roof tiles were collected. With the exception of 1 EH, 1 LH, at least 1 Archaic, and 1 Medieval sherd, all the identified sherds are mid-cent. V to late cent. III or early cent. II in date (most being earlier rather than later). These sherds include a variety of black-glazed cups, kraters, lamps, and closed shapes, a few of them figured, as well as domestic coarse wares. Many pieces of grinding slabs and hopper mills (noted but not collected) are also Classical. Possible LH graves were excavated by Filadhelfevs somewhere near here (1909; cf. Fimmen, 1924: 13), but they are no longer to be seen. Hope Simpson (1981: 31) reports finding LHIII sherds on the S slopes of the hill in 1959, and our LH III sherd comes from this area, outside the Classical wall, where there has been resent bulldozing” (Runnels, with Munn 1994, 519-521).

The map, Figure A.38 accompanied this entry and there were no photographs in Jameson, Runnels, and van Andel, 1994.

The area of Palaiokastro consisting of a fortified settlement and several outlying structures is situated on one of the lower ridges extending south from the lower slopes of the Adheres. Good views of the Iliokastro plateau are afforded from the SW tower which overlooks a small valley to the W of the area.

On August 21, 2003 the fields south of the fortifications, once marked by broad cereal terraces and planted with widely space olives, had been recently harrowed. Many new olives had been planted in the open spaces between and were under irrigation. Some of the derelict terrace lines remained as linear cairn piles. One of these piles, along the southern fortification line had been bulldozed into place and consisted of dozens of the large well worked ashlar blocks, do doubt from the southern foundations of the fortification wall itself. A second such terrace laid about 50 meters to the south. Comparisons with the 1981 field notes suggest that this bulldozing had occurred in the interim (the team also reported bulldozing in 1981, but their notes did not indicate that any of the ashlar wall stones had been displaced).

An old farm building with a second structure constructed into the fortification wall near the SW tower (located at N 37° 27.864 E 023° 16.561), which was still in use during the 1981 Verification Team survey is now abandoned and derelict. The lower halves of the rear walls of these two structures are comprised of the large ashlar blocks forming the foundation of the settlement’s southern fortification wall. A more recent concrete block farm structure has been constructed in the fields to the south.

The wells located near N 37° 27.830 E 023° 16.699 to the E across the main road from the SE tower were still in use. A rectangular well shaft, potentially of ancient date, had been fenced off.

AEP sites revisited

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