Researchers from Austria were involved in the excavation of the famous temple of the sea god Poseidon on the west coast of the Peloponnese in Greece. The monumental ancient shrine is 28 meters long and over nine meters wide. The search for the temple had been going on for more than a century.
Archaeologists have discovered the sanctuary of Poseidon of Samikon on the west coast of the Peloponnese and uncovered a large temple. Austrian and Greek researchers, together with geophysicists and geoarchaeologists, were able to locate the foundation walls as early as 2021. The excavations confirm the information of the ancient historian Strabo, who described the sanctuary as the religious center of the Triphylic cities.
The entire length of the building was visible
Now, researchers with the participation of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW) have uncovered the entire length of the structure and also made new discoveries.
The 28 meter long temple, which probably dates from the 6th century BC. BC, is divided into two rooms, which are structured by interior pillars and a vestibule with columns. The roof was built around 300 BC. Disassembled and stored in the building. This explains Birgitta Eder, researcher at the Austrian Archaeological Institute of the ÖAW, who also heads the Athens branch.
Marble basin and bronze plaque discovered
During the excavations funded by the Gerda Henkel Foundation and the ÖAW, the archaeologists also discovered fragments of a large archaic marble pool with a diameter of about one meter, a ritual purification vessel called a “perirrhanterion”. It was repaired in ancient times with iron brackets. Together with a part found in 2022, it can now be almost completely reconstructed.
In addition, a large-format bronze plaque originally attached to one of the temple’s mud brick walls was found. The panel is in a very fragile condition and therefore had to be placed back in the block with the surrounding ground.
Wall as protection against lagoons
Strabo described Poseidon’s sanctuary as a ‘grove of wild olive trees’. That’s why the scientists also searched around the temple to find out more about the size of the complex. After clearing the dense vegetation north of the temple, they were even able to document the course of a massive double-shell wall. This may have marked Poseidon’s sacred area and probably served as protection from the lagoons that were nearby at the time.
The site near Kleidi-Samikon, located near a group of hills, is in a landscape dominated by lagoons and coastal marshes. Due to its exposed and safe location near the sea, a settlement was founded there in Mycenaean times, which lasted for several centuries and from which the route through the marshes could be controlled.
Source: Krone
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