Fortifications on the Kastro peninsula, Antykithera – ’Great Eastern Tower’

Abstract

The Great Eastern Tower is built on the highest ‘acropolis’ section of the site, formed by a ridge. The foundations of the tower are cut into very hard, grey calcareous metamorphic stone, and the majority of the construction blocks of the tower in its present state have been cut locally from this stone too. In various places a second, softer and more easily worked, calcite stone, yellowish in colour and quarried from the slopes below locally, is used to patch gaps in the construction. Presumably this rock was also used to construct the higher courses of the structure. The total frontage of the Great Eastern Tower from the SE corner to the SW corner (not including any steps) was 17.08 m. Despite its rugged appearance, due to weathering of the grey metamorphic rock, the Great Eastern Tower, from its position and from the orientation of its walls, undoubtedly dates to the original fortifications of the site constructed in 333 BC. Among the sherds that were recovered were the following fragments, which were presumably washed out of the fill of the tower: fragment of a small bowl (fig. 2: a), fragment of a fish-plate (fig. 2: b), fragment of open-bowl (fig. 2: c), fragment of the foot of kantharos (fig. 2: d). The tower itself was recorded both by photographs and drawings (figs. 1, 3–10).