DYSTOS
Euboia, Greece.
The ancient site is
to be associated with a rocky outcrop of conical shape,
some 300 m high, along the main road from Chalkis
to Karystos (ca. 20 km SE of Aliveri). It is prominently located in the middle of a marshy basin which is partially transformed into a lake during the rainy season.
(There is some evidence to indicate that efforts were made
to drain the basin in antiquity.)
Dystos is thought to have been founded by the Dryopians, early inhabitants of S Euboia, but little is known of its subsequent history. Surface reconnaissance has
shown that the site was occupied in prehistoric and Classical times, and there is epigraphical evidence to indicate that it had become a deme of Eretria at least by
the mid 4th c. B.C. It continued to be occupied in the
Hellenistic and Roman periods, and substantial remains
of a Venetian castle are to be found at the crest of the
hill.
Impressive remains of the Classical town can still be
seen on the lower slopes of the hill. These remains were
partially surveyed and subjected to brief excavation by
a German expedition in 1895. A fortification wall of
large stone masonry, about two-thirds of whose circuit is
preserved, enclosed the town. One of the best preserved
stretches is that at the E where, in the neighborhood of
the main city gate, the wall stands to a height of about
3 m. Numerous buildings thought to be largely residential
in character still can be seen at several points within the
fortifications. The largest of these is House J, near the
wall in the SE part of the town. Its plan is complete, and
its well-dressed stone walls are exposed to a level above
that of the ground floor. This and other houses here
have been dated to the 5th c. B.C. and, therefore, are
among the earliest known examples of domestic architecture of the Classical period in Greece. The extent and
preservation of the walls and other buildings render this
site worthy of further archaeological investigation.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
T. Wiegand, “Dystos,”
AthMitt 24
(1899)
PI; F. Geyer,
Topographie und Geschichte der
Insel Euböa (1903); L. Sackett et al., “Prehistoric Euboea: Contributions Toward a Survey,”
BSA 61 (1966)
M.
T. W. JACOBSEN
