Aeolian Sanctuary of Klopedi

At the top of a plateau now overgrown with olive trees, north of Kalloni and west of Agia Paraskevi, is the archaeological site of Klopedi, where the Archaic aeolian sanctuary of Apollo Napaios was once built, the worship of which on the island of Lesbos is known to us from written sources (Strabo, Geographica, 9.4.5, Macrobius, Saturnalia, I.17.45, Stephanus of Byzantium, Ethnica, w. Napi, Comm. Aristophanes, The Clouds, 144). In ancient times, the site originally belonged to Arisvi and later to Mithymna, after its subjugation and annexation to the latter. The Archaic phase of the sanctuary in the 6th c. BC -when it acquires a monumental form, with the construction of the two magnificent temples of Aeolian style- should undoubtedly be associated with the power and supremacy of ancient Mithymna, the second most powerful city of Lesbos, after Mytilene.

At the end of the 19th c., the German architect and archaeologist, Robert Johann Koldewey (1855-1925), turned his interest to the present-day village of Napi and more specifically, to the chapel of Taxiarchis, where five aeolian capitals and other walled architectural elements were found, thus associating this particular location with the sanctuary of Apollo Napaios. It was there that the archaeologist and then Ephor of Antiquities, Dimitrios Evaggelidis (1886-1959), initially sought the sanctuary in 1919, but without the expected results. In 1924, however, on the recommendation of antiquities-lover and doctor from Lesbos, Orestis Kyprianos, Evaggelidis carried out the first excavations at Klopedi, under the auspices of the Archaeological Society of Athens, which lasted until 1928. The archaeological excavation successfully brought to light the architectural remains of two Archaic temples, the so-called Temples A and B, the only attested examples of temples of Aeolian style in Greece. In later times, the monument remained unprotected and suffered considerable damage, especially during the Second World War, but also afterwards, due to the ploughing of arable land, which had been granted by the church to landless people. The already poor state of preservation was greatly exacerbated by the extensive moving of stones in the area, so in the early 1960s, the archaeological site was fenced off in order to be procteted. In 1972, the architectural fragments of the temples scattered around the site and, in many cases, in second use, were found in the wider area and recovered from the adjacent fields and field walls. During the same period, a brief excavation to the east of Temple B revealed material remains of earlier building phases of the Geometric period. Between 1992-1993, a new excavation was carried out by the 10th Ephorate of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities in the site: the research in Temple B was completed and the first conservation work was carried out on the findings. Of decisive importance for the sanctuary were the protection, shaping and enhancement of the archaeological site of Klopedi, which took place between 2010 and 2014.

The excavation research at the site showed that the sanctuary was founded in the 8th c. BC on the remains of an earlier edifice dating back to the end of the 2nd millenn. (late Bronze Age). More specifically, fragmentarily preserved rectangular rooms, founded on natural rock with paved floors and wells, as well as handmade (pots, pithoi) and wheel-thrown pottery (cups, prochoi, bottles) were found, which testifies both to the close relations of the inhabitants of Lesbos with Troy, as well as the continuation of the tradition of wheeled vessels of the Mycenaean period, as known to us from Thermi and  Chalatses in the Gulf of Geras. Of particular importance, however, is a fragmentarily preserved 17 cm. high clay figurine head, depicting a female figure, which apparently indicates the beginnings of worship at the sanctuary, as early as the end of the 2nd millenn., probably to a deity of vegetation and fertility. The figure bears a pole (priestly hat), her eyebrows are arched, her round eyes are particularly extruding, and her mouth is small and narrow (rendered with a deep horizontal engraving). The stylistic and typological characteristics of the work show the tradition of Mycenaean figurative sculpture of the period.

The findings of the Geometric period (8th c. BC), which were discovered to the north of Temple B and under the pronaos of Temple A, are identifiable with the construction of a curvilinear cult building, which houses the earlier cult figurine of the goddess mentioned above. It is a two-part ellipsoidal building, measuring 13.50 x 8.50 m., with an E-W orientation and an entrance to the west, where a central doorway with a stone threshold was found. The building was divided by a transverse wall into two unequal-sized rooms: a large one to the west and a smaller, arched one at the back, in which a curved built-in desk, a circular structure of unknown use and a large number of portable finds were unearthed: bronze brooches, arrowheads, double axes, iron daggers and a golden earring. A circular enclosure delimited the area of the sanctuary, outside of which a funerary pyre was found,  designated for the offerings, i.e. the sacrifices related to the chthonic essence of the deity worshipped in the 8th c. BC. From the pottery of the Geometric period found on-site, two grey-coloured craters stand out, decorated with impressed and incised decoration and a dinos with incised circles on the shoulder.

During the early Archaic period, in the 7th and 10th c. BC, in the area where Temple B was later built, a rectangular building with a deep antechamber and an enclosed main room was rebuilt, which was later replaced by a larger temple with internal, central pillars along the lenght of its axis. These changes, as reflected in the architecture of the cult buildings, are part of a wider context of transitions that took place in the sanctuary and are probably related to the succession of worship from the prehistoric female deity to Apollo.

The first monumental temple built in the sanctuary’s artificial terrace, shortly after the middle of the 6th c. BC, is the so-called Temple A, which included in its foundation, under the pronaos and the cella, earlier (Geometric and Archaic times) burial remains of prominent dead (witnesses, apparently of a chthonian ancestral cult) that were put there with great care. This fact was undoubtedly the basic reason for its unusual, almost square floor plan, with proportions 1:11/2. It is a former peripteral temple, with E-W orientation and with an entrance to the east, measuring 29.20 x 18.70 m., with a deep pronaos, a cella, a narrow rear facade and a double row of columns inside. The temple rested on a strong solid base, the south side of which was reinforced – due to the difference in height and the steep slope of the ground – with a large retaining wall. The wing columns were unshaped and topped with aeolian capitals. From the temple’s entablature, which was apparently made of perishable materials (clay and wood), only parts of the Ionic clay decorative strip are preserved. From the fragments of the rectangular covering tiles (imbrices) and the triangular-shaped rain tiles that have survived, it can be deduced that the temple’s roofing was of Corinthian style. The antefixes with palmettes were decorated on the lower part with a painted meander band, while the front was decorated with elaborate reliefs depicting wrestlers, lions devouring deer and gorgoneia.

Of the portable finds found in the site, particularly important are the fragments of the inscriptive engravings and the fragments of black-figure vessels, which provide important indications for the dating of the temple in the years shortly after the middle of the 6th century BC. These include an inscribed clay plaque with fragmentarily preserved engravings:

…[ΑΠΟΛ]ΛΩΝΟΣ

on its main side, which is undoubtedly an important testimony to the identity of the worshipped deity.

At the highest point of the artificial terrace, a few metres northeast of Temple A and almost next to the ellipsoidal cult building of the Geometric period, a second temple of Aeolian style, the so-called Temple B, was built in the Late Archaic period (near the end of the 6th c. BC). The temple was a peripteral building (with 8 x 17 wing columns), with dimensions of 38.15 x 16.90 m. (according to the typical proportions of temples of Archaic times 1:21/4) and made of local trachyte rock. Its state of preservation is fragmentary: much of the three-tiered crepidoma survives, as well as parts of the bases, the lower drums and the capitals of the wing’s columns. The entrance was located to the east, while inside the one-room deep cella, a pi-shaped colonnade surrounded the built, rectangular pedestal of the cult statue of the god, measuring 4.10 x 3.45 m. Of the portable finds (metal weapons, jewellery and tools) found at the site, the fragmentarily preserved bronze figurine of a Kouros stands out, which in this case discernibly refers us to the cult of Apollo. Few parts of the superstructure of the temple are preserved: fragments of a decorative strip made of stone in the style of Lesbos and fragments of relief clay plates with figurative decoration from the frieze. The temple’s roofing was of Corinthian style, with flat covering tiles (imbrices) and triangular-shaped rain tiles, while the fronts of the leading rain tiles were decorated in relief, consisting of double sprouts and palmettes.

The sanctuary of Apollo Napaios in Klopedi was a particularly important religious centre in ancient times. The worship in the area continued during the Hellenistic period, but also in the later Roman years, as can be seen from the rich findings of the older and more recent excavations (clay heads of female figurines with a high pole (priestly hat) and a coif of the 5th c. BC, a stoic building of Hellenistic times along the long southern side of Temple A, remains of an arched building of the Roman period in the area adjacent to the sanctuary).

In the context of the protection, configuration and promotion of the archaeological site of Klopedi (following the inclusion of the project in the NSRF 2010-2014), a series of important works were carried out, aiming not only at the cleaning and maintenance of the portable finds brought to light by the excavation research, but also the reconstruction and restoration – where feasible – of the building/architectural remains of the sanctuary preserved on-site (in situ) that were revealed by the archaeological excavation, both in the earlier and later periods. Today, the archaeological site of the Aeolian sanctuary of Klopedi is well organised and open to the public.

Location

Municipality: Western Lesbos

Municipal Section: Agia Paraskevi

Location: Klopedi

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