PITYOUSSA
(Chios) Greece.
So called in
ancient times because of its abundant pines, it is an
island in the Aegean separated from the W coast of
Turkey by a strait 8 km wide. Its earliest inhabitants included the Pelasgi, the Lydians, and the Carians; later
it was populated by people coming from the island of
Euboia. The capital of the island, also called Chios, is one
of the centers that claim to be the birthplace of Homer.
The modern city has developed over the ancient one.
It is situated in a rich industrial zone which made it a
commercial center, as is attested by the first silver stater
coins, issued in the late 7th and early 6th c. B.C. with a
sphinx as an emblem. It is known that at the end of the
7th c. B.C. the city had a democratic regime. It sided
with the Persians after their conquest of Asia Minor,
and then fell under their rule. After 477 Chios entered
the Delian League, remaining a member until 412, and
then entered into the second constitution under the aegis
of Athens. The center of the ancient city probably corresponded to the site of the ancient port. Inside the castle
there are traces of Roman constructions. A necropolis
of the 6th c. has been excavated, as have archaic houses
on isolated terraces. The museum houses ceramics and
sculpture, the finds from the excavations carried out at
Emporio, and architectural fragments and miscellaneous
objects dating between the 7th and 4th c. B.C. A ceramics
factory, which had first been placed at Naucrati, is now
attributed to Chios. The ware is characterized by decoration in black and polychrome on a white ground, and
its manufacture flourished towards the end of the 7th
c. B.C., when the products were exported all over the
Mediterranean. From Pliny (
HN 36.11) we know that
a family of artists was active at Chios: Melas, Mikkiades, and Archermos, the grandson of Melas and father of Boupalos and Athenis.
Delphinion, a small port situated 15 km N of Chios,
served as an Athenian naval base during the Peloponnesian War. The acropolis was destroyed by the Spartans
in 412 B.C. It was enclosed by a wall, parts of which
have been found, along with several towers. To the NE
of the acropolis an artificial platform has been discovered, dating from the end of the 4th c., on which there are the remains of houses datable from the 4th to the 2d c. B.C.
Emporio is located 7 km SE of Phyrgi. The horseshoe-shaped port is open to the SE, and immediately to
its N is the hill of the Prophet Elias, 240 m high. The
fortified city of the Early Bronze Age was on a small
promontory to the S of the port. Later the settlement
moved, occupying the whole hill on which the acropolis
was located, and a large area around its foot. The city
was destroyed and abandoned at the end of the Mycenaean period, ca. 1100 B.C. The pottery shows that the Mycenaean occupation of Emporio goes from Mycenaean III A to Mycenaean III C. Beneath the Mycenaean
land, there are six levels that seem to correspond to those
at Calcolitico in W Anatolia, and are contemporary with
Minoan I in Crete. The neolithic levels seem to belong
to the earliest emergence of the neolithic cultural age.
In the Classical and Roman periods there was a small
city near the port, but in a different location. Between
the port and the acropolis there are four successive retaining walls, one above the other; and on the top of this
terrace there are rich votive deposits dating from the end
of the 8th c. to 600 B.C. On the hill of the Prophet Elias,
N of the acropolis, a megaron and a Sanctuary to Athena
have been found. The city was probably abandoned in
600 B.C., while the sanctuary was frequented intermittently from the 8th c. The temple was constructed in the middle of the 6th c. and remained in use until the Hellenistic period. It has a rectangular plan, with a portico
and a square cella with a base for the cult statue and an
altar. It was destroyed and rebuilt in the 4th c. B.C. The
votive offerings were scattered on the floor of the cella
and heaped behind the altar. They come from three
distinct periods: ca. 600, mid 6th to mid 4th c. B.C., and
from the period of the reconstruction. The city is outside the acropolis wall to the W. The houses are of the megaron type, oriented to the S, with two columns in the portico, a central door, and three internal columns. Others are without portico, oriented either N or S, and have
a square plan. They were abandoned at the end of the
7th c. B.C. Beside the port are the remains of an apsidal
sanctuary from mid 5th c. with four Ionic prostyle columns; and the remnants of an earlier 4th c. sanctuary.
Hellenistic remains are rare. The construction was oriented to the E, with the entrance before the entrance
to the port. The basilica which in part overlays the temple is perhaps Roman, but the other remains are from the
6th and 7th c. A.D., when the basilica became a church
with a baptistery. The settlement ended with the arrival
of the Arabs in A.D. 665.
Pindakas or New Emporio, whose name perhaps derives from
πῖδαξ, meaning fountain or spring, is located
to the W. It is a small hill about 1.5 km from the port
of Emporio, in the S part of the island of Chios, in a
strategic position. A large polygonal wall has been explored which forms two terraces with the remains of
houses from the Classic and Hellenistic periods. The
finds show that the first period of occupation was not
earlier than mid 5th c. B.C., and continued until the end
of the 4th c., from which there are the incomplete remains of a building, perhaps a temple. On the lower
terrace there are late Roman constructions, abandoned
contemporaneously with the houses at the port of Emporio, in the 7th c. A.D.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
M. Foustel de Coulanges, “Mem. sur
l'ile de Chio,”
ArchMiss (1856) V; G. Gilbert,
Griechische Staatsaltertümer (1885) II 115; H. F. Tozer,
The
Islands of the Aegean (1890) 139; E. Busolt,
Griechische
Geschichte (1893) I 313; Escher, in Pauly-Wissowa
III (1899) 2286-2301, s.v. Chios; Head,
Historia Nummorum (1911) 599; K. Regling,
Antike Münze als Kunstwerk (1924) I n. 22; H. Price,
JHS 44 (1924) pl. 80; D.W.S. Hunt,
Arch.Anz. (1930) 144; (1934) 186; (1938) 579; id., “An Arch. Survey of the Classical Antiquities of the Island of Chios . . . March-July 1938,”
BSA 41 (1940-45 [1946]) 29; M. Hanfmann,
Ionia,
Leader or Follower? (1953) LXI 1ff; J. Boardman,
BCH
79 (1955) 286; 80 (1956) 326; id., “Delphinion in Chios,”
BSA 51 (1956) 41; id., “Excavations at Pindakas
in Chios,”
BSA 53-54 (1958-59) 295; id., “Underwater
Reconnaissance off the Island of Chios, 1954,”
BSA 56
(1961) 102; id.,
Greek Emporio: Excavations in Chios,
1952-55 (1967); W. G. Forrest, “The Inscriptions of
South-East Chios, I-II,”
BSA 58 (1963) 53; 59 (1964)
32; S. Hood,
Arch.Anz. (1964) pp. 216-17; (1968) pp.
95, 97; id.,
Excavations at Emporio, Chios, 1952-55, Atti
VI Congresso Internazionale delle Scienze Preistoriche
e Protostoriche II, 1963 (1965), pp. 224.
G. BERMOND MONTANARI
