The cultural trajectory of the island
Hall E exhibits finds, as well as objects collected and handed over from excavations in various locations on Samothrace, which outline the cultural trajectory of the island from the end of the Middle Neolithic (mid-6th millennium BC) to the 19th century. First, there are finds from the excavations at Mikró Vouní and the region of the akropolis at Vrychós, which date from the prehistoric and protohistoric past respectively. Then, finds from the open-air sanctuaries of Bendis/Artemis at Mántal Panayiá and of Cybele / Mother of the Mountains at Kerasoúda, and from the pottery workshops at Keramidariá are presented. Hall E is completed with items collected and handed over from several localities on the island.
Mikró Vouní
At Mikró Vouní, on the southwest coast of Samothrace, rises the tell* of the prehistoric settlement occupied from the middle of the 6th millennium (ca. 5500 BC) to ca. 1600 BC, with a break in occupation between ca. 3800 and 2900 BC. Mikró Vouní is the earliest known prehistoric settlement on Samothrace, dating the arrival of the first farmers (end of the Middle Neolithic – very beginning of the Late Neolithic).
One of the most important discoveries at Mikró Vouní is that of some clay “mini-documents” of a Minoan (Knossian) archive (exhibited in Hall E), dating to the 18th century BC. The Minoan expansion to the northeast Aegean and Samothrace was a consequence of the commercial endeavors of the palace of Knossos. Two inscriptions in Linear A script are among its earliest uses outside Crete. The seal impressions depicting the first part of the so called “Minoan Libation Formula” or “Archanes Formula” on the Minoan clay mini documents from the excavation at Mikró Vouní underline the role of religious ideology in the economic activities of the Minoan elites.
*tell = artificial mound created by the accumulated deposits of successive building phases.
The journey of Linear A script to the Aegean
The fortification of Vrychόs
and the Thracians
A tribe of Thracian origin came to Samothrace during the tumultuous period at the end of the Late Bronze Age and the beginning of the Early Iron Age (11th cent. BC), and chose to settle the region of Vrychós. Along the narrow, relatively flat, summit of this hill, the ruins of an extensive fortification wall enclose an area of ca. 2 ¼ acres. Excavation has revealed only a section of a circular(?), stone foundation.
Open air sanctuaries of Bendis/Artemis and Cybele / Mother of the Mountains
In the locality of Mántal’ Panayiá, on the outskirts of an important Thracian settlement, there is an outdoor sanctuary (late 8th cent. BC–2nd cent. AD) dedicated to Bendis/Artemis. Three ceramic inscriptions incised on the lips of votive cups (late 6th–first half of 5th cent. BC) were considered to be Thracian, related to the Thracian votive ceramic inscriptions from the sanctuaries of the Great Gods and of Apollo in Zone, on the coast of the mainland opposite (6th–late 4th / early 3rd cent. BC). The name of the Thracian divinity Vendis can be recognized in two of the ceramic inscriptions from Mántal’ Panayiá.
To the southeast of Mántal’ Panayiá, in the locality of Kerasoúda, another open-air sanctuary dedicated to Cybele as “Mother” or “Mother of the Mountains”, was located at the base of a nearly vertical rock formation, high on the bank of a stream. The surface ceramics collected at Kerasoúda date from the mid-4th century BC onwards.
Pottery workshops
At Keramidariá, 5 km east of Palaiopolis, two workshops for the production of Hellenistic amphorae have been discovered. Excavation in the West Workshop brought to light a large, rectangular manufacturing area (1st cent. BC–1st cent. AD), and investigated the neighboring dump of wasters from an older workshop. The excavation of the dump produced a considerable number of stamped amphora handles with at least 70 types of different stamps, dating to the second half of the 4th century and to the 3rd century BC. In the East Workshop three kilns (1st–3rd cent. AD) were uncovered. Several other pottery workshops have also been located on the coast of Samothrace.
Samothrace of the Early Christian and Byzantine times
This period is mostly known from the excavations of the Early Christian basilicas in Palaiopolis and Kamariótissa, and of the Byzantine fort (10th cent.) in the Sanctuary of the Great Gods, the preservation/presentation work at the Genoese fort in Chóra and the Monastery of Christós, and the archaeological surveys conducted on the island. The southwest region of Samothrace shows a landscape with few scattered farmsteads during the Early Christian period (4th-8th cent.); the settlement pattern remained without changes but became denser in the 13th and 14th centuries. In the northeast region of the island, the main medieval components are the fort Kastéli (10th-13th cent.) and the settlement Chouvoulioú (13th cent. and later).
Τhe Tower of Phoniás
& the Monastery of Christós
The Tower of Phoniás (mid-13th–mid-14th cent.?) is square in plan and has a preserved height of ca. 12 m. Initially it served for the protection of the nearby settlement to which the small harbor installation at the mouth of the river Phoniás belonged. The walls are built of roughly hewn stones from the river laid in lime mortar, with tile fragments placed horizontally at the joints. Phoniás Tower consisted of a blind ground floor and three stories. The internal staircase had a vaulted form and it was built within the thickness of the wall.
The single-aisled late Byzantine (first half of 14th cent.) katholikón of the Monastery of Christós is one of the most important preserved medieval monuments on Samothrace. Spolia from the Sanctuary of the Great Gods, including inscriptions with lists of theoroi, were used in its construction.
The Gattilusi fortifications in Chóra and Palaiopolis
The Gattilusi were a family of Genoese entrepreneurs and merchants who controlled nearly the entire northern Aegean from the mid-14th century to the fall of Constantinople in 1453. Samothrace was ceded shortly before 1431 by the emperor Ioannis VIII Palaeologus to Palamede Gattilusio, who built two fortifications on the island, one in Chóra and one in Palaiopolis (in the ancient city). The fortification in Chóra consists of an inner (1431) and an outer (1433) part. Τhe fortification in Palaiopolis included a moat, an enclosure wall and three rectangular towers.
The olive oil mills
In modern times, the cultivation of olives and the olive oil industry have been among the most important occupations of the Samothracians. The olive oil mills were pre-industrial, proto-industrial and industrial oblong buildings with their rooms arranged linearly. They were mainly concentrated in the olive growing districts of Xeropótamo and Lákkoma, where the Y. Chanós’ mill, was the most monumental example of industrial architecture on Samothrace.
Chóra
Until the early 20th century, Chóra was the island’s only permanent settlement. It has retained its singular character in spite of its modern constructions, and the almost complete disappearance of the peasant-pastoral aïtsénio (aétsa= earthen terrace roof) house, which was one of the most primitive forms of a habitation unit in the Mediterranean.
