The
Pyramid of Hellinikon is located in the plain of Argolid,
GreeceGreece , officially the Hellenic Republic , is a country in southeastern Europe, situated on the southern end of the Balkan Peninsula....
. In the times of
PausaniasPausanias was a Greek traveller and geographer of the 2nd century AD, who lived in the times of Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius. He is famous for his Description of Greece , a lengthy work that describes ancient Greece from firsthand observations, and is a crucial link between...
, it was considered to be a
tombA tomb is a repository for the remains of the dead. It is generally any structurally enclosed interment space or burial chamber, of varying sizes...
. Twentieth century researchers have suggested other possible uses.
At the Southeastern edge of the plain of Argolid, near the springs of the Erasinos river (nowadays Kephalari) and on the main
arterial roadAn arterial road is a moderate or high-capacity road which is immediately below a highway level of service. Much like a biological artery, an arterial road carries large volumes of traffic between areas in urban centres...
which in
antiquityClassical antiquity is a broad term for a long period of cultural history centered on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome collectively known as the Greco-Roman world...
led from
ArgosArgos is a city in Greece in the Peloponnese near Nafplion, which was its historic harbour .-Name:The region of Argos is known as the Argolis, Argolid, or Argeia...
to
TegeaTegea was a settlement in ancient Greece, and it is also a municipality in modern Arcadia, Greece, with its seat in the village Stadio.Ancient Tegea was an important religious center of ancient Greece, containing the Temple of Athena Alea. The temenos was founded by Aleus, Pausanias was informed...
and the rest of
ArcadiaArcadia, Arkadía , or Arcady is a region of Greece in the Peloponnesus. It takes its name from the mythological character Arcas.-Modern times:...
and Kynouria, there is a small structure extant known as the Pyramid of Hellenikon.
Although the pyramoid structures of Argolis are of great interest, written references are rather scarce.
The
Pyramid of Hellinikon is located in the plain of Argolid,
GreeceGreece , officially the Hellenic Republic , is a country in southeastern Europe, situated on the southern end of the Balkan Peninsula....
. In the times of
PausaniasPausanias was a Greek traveller and geographer of the 2nd century AD, who lived in the times of Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius. He is famous for his Description of Greece , a lengthy work that describes ancient Greece from firsthand observations, and is a crucial link between...
, it was considered to be a
tombA tomb is a repository for the remains of the dead. It is generally any structurally enclosed interment space or burial chamber, of varying sizes...
. Twentieth century researchers have suggested other possible uses.
Location
At the Southeastern edge of the plain of Argolid, near the springs of the Erasinos river (nowadays Kephalari) and on the main
arterial roadAn arterial road is a moderate or high-capacity road which is immediately below a highway level of service. Much like a biological artery, an arterial road carries large volumes of traffic between areas in urban centres...
which in
antiquityClassical antiquity is a broad term for a long period of cultural history centered on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome collectively known as the Greco-Roman world...
led from
ArgosArgos is a city in Greece in the Peloponnese near Nafplion, which was its historic harbour .-Name:The region of Argos is known as the Argolis, Argolid, or Argeia...
to
TegeaTegea was a settlement in ancient Greece, and it is also a municipality in modern Arcadia, Greece, with its seat in the village Stadio.Ancient Tegea was an important religious center of ancient Greece, containing the Temple of Athena Alea. The temenos was founded by Aleus, Pausanias was informed...
and the rest of
ArcadiaArcadia, Arkadía , or Arcady is a region of Greece in the Peloponnesus. It takes its name from the mythological character Arcas.-Modern times:...
and Kynouria, there is a small structure extant known as the Pyramid of Hellenikon.
Historical References
Although the pyramoid structures of Argolis are of great interest, written references are rather scarce.
PausaniasPausanias was a Greek traveller and geographer of the 2nd century AD, who lived in the times of Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius. He is famous for his Description of Greece , a lengthy work that describes ancient Greece from firsthand observations, and is a crucial link between...
(2nd century AD) regards the structure as a tomb (Description of Greece: 2, 25, 7):
On the way from Argos to Epidauria there is on the right a building made very like a pyramid, and on it in relief are wrought shields of the Argive shape. Here took place a fight for the throne between Proetus and Acrisius; the contest, they say, ended in a draw, and a reconciliation resulted afterwards, as neither could gain a decisive victory. The story is that they and their hosts were armed with shields, which were first used in this battle. For those that fell on either side was built here a common tomb, as they were fellow citizens and kinsmen.
Pausanias says that in this battle, shields were employed for the first time. This later remark by Pausanias is indicative of the great antiquity of the structure, as estimated by him and his contemporaries.
Dating
Arvanitopoulos believes that the monument dates to the
Mycenean eraMycenaean Greece is a cultural period of Ancient Greece taking its name from the archaeological site of Mycenae in northeastern Argolis, in the Peloponnese of southern Greece. Athens, Pylos, Thebes, and Tiryns are also important Mycenaean sites...
(1600 BC-1100 BC).
Christos TsountasChristos Tsountas was a Greek classical archaeologist. He was born in Thracian Stenimachos, . In 1886, he discovered and identified the Mycenean palace at Tiryns. He also conducted important excavations at the palace of Mycenae, and he conducted surveys of the Greek mainland and identified more...
, Manat, Curtius and Donaldson believe it is from the
6th century BCThe sixth century BC started the first day of 600 BC and ended the last day of 501 BC.In India, Panini, sometime during this century, composed a grammar for Sanskrit, which is the one of oldest extant grammar of any language after 15 other proto-dravidian languages like Brahmi.In the Near East,...
. The most common belief, supported by Leak, Ross, Fischer, Clark, Fraccia and Lord was that the structure was from the early Hellenistic era, more specifically late
4th century BCThe 4th century BC started the first day of 400 BC and ended the last day of 300 BC. It is considered part of the Classical era, epoch, or historical period.-Overview:This century marked the height of Classical Greek civilization in all of its aspects...
.
The
Academy of AthensAcademy of Athens may refer to:* Platonic Academy* Academy of Athens...
published results of dating samples taken from the Hellenikon pyramid (9-2-1995). Dating measurements were performed by the Laboratory of Archaeometry at Democritus Research Institute in
AthensAthens , the capital and largest city of Greece, dominates the Attica periphery; as one of the world's oldest cities, its recorded history spans around 3,400 years....
and by the Nuclear Dating Laboratory of the department of Physics at the
University of EdinburghThe University of Edinburgh founded in 1582, is an internationally renowned centre for teaching and research in Edinburgh, Scotland, UK. It is the sixth university to be established in the British Isles, making it one of the ancient universities of the United Kingdom.The university is amongst the...
in
ScotlandScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
.
The new and experimental method of optical thermoluminescence was employed to date samples taken from the pyramid. It was determined that the samples which had been tested had been quarried at about 2720 BC ± 580 years. The method used, while scientifically sound, has yet to be calibrated. The results, producing a date considered too early for the structure, have not been accepted by the archaeological community. In the absence of a full excavation, the exact dating of the structure will remain unknown. Adamantios Sampson, archaeologist and
EphorAn ephor was an official of ancient Sparta...
of Antiquities, writing in the Magazine
Archaeologia kai Technes (December 1995) repeats the accepted line that "the excavational data and our knowledge of the protohelladic period in the entire Greek area exclude the construction of similar edifices in such early years".
Sources
- Theodore Wiegand, Monograph of 1901.
- Louis E. Lord, The "Pyramids" of Argolis, Hesperia, Vol. 7, No. 4 (1938), pp. 481-527, doi:10.2307/146570, http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0018-098X(1938)7%3A4%3C481%3AT%22OA%3E2.0.CO%3B2-X.
- Louis E. Lord, M. Alison Frantz, Carl Roebuck, Blockhouses in the Argolid, Hesperia, Vol. 10, No. 2 (Apr. - Jun., 1941), pp. 93-112 doi:10.2307/146534 http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0018-098X%28194104%2F06%2910%3A2%3C93%3ABITA%3E2.0.CO%3B2-J&size=LARGE.
External links