KORONEIA
(Koroni) Attica, Greece.
A
headland which closes the S side of the bay of Porto
Raphti on the E coast. It lay in the territory of the deme
of Prasiai but was sparsely inhabited, if at all, except
during the Chremonidean War, 265-261 B.C., when it
served as a fortified camp and base of operations for the
Ptolemaic fleet, which, under the admiral Patroklos, came
to aid Athens against its Macedonian besiegers. The fleet
departed unsuccessful, and Koroneia, like the Ptolemaic
bases at Patroklos' Island, at Rhamnous, and elsewhere,
was abandoned (
Paus. 1.1.1; 1.7.3; 3.6.4-6).
Remains investigated in 1960 illustrate well the features of a Greek fortified military camp (cf. Polyb.
6.42). The peninsula, ca. 1 km in length and width, is a
naturally strong position, connected with the mainland
only by a low, sandy isthmus. Its center rises to a natural
acropolis, ca. 120 m high, from which steep, inaccessible
slopes fall off to the NW, the N and the E. A long ridge
forms a boundary to the peninsula at the S, toward the
isthmus; at its W it is separated from the acropolis by
a valley, sloping gently to the sea, while at the E it is
joined by a broad saddle to the acropolis.
The camp was defended by two lines of fortifications.
A dry-rubble wall 2.25 m thick and ca. 950 m long
runs the entire length of the ridge, protecting the peninsula on the landward side. Nine towers strengthen its
lower, W portion, but there are no gates, and the camp
was evidently supplied by sea. A second wall, 1.50 m
thick and standing in places to its original height of over
2 m, encircles the acropolis. One tower commands a
view of the S part of the peninsula and of the sea lanes
to Keos. Three narrow posterns on the N and three wider
passages on the S gave access through the wall to the
acropolis.
Within the acropolis and on the saddle are the roughly
built structures of the garrison. They were constructed
of rubble with no regular plan and roofed with reused
tiles. A small house near the peak consisting of a main
room and anteroom, may have served the officer of the
watch. A larger structure nearby, with five rooms, to
judge from its profusion of plates and bowls, may have
been an officers' mess. Small storerooms lined the inner
face of the acropolis wall. On the saddle, a complex of
more than 20 rooms was probably a barrack, with
rough, stone benches for beds.
Furnishings were utilitarian—kantharoi and plates,
cooking ware, and wine amphorai to store and carry
water on a site unprovided with wells or cisterns. Much
of these furnishings may have been requisitioned from
neighboring demes. There is a variety of fabric and
shape among the pots, but the pervasive coins of Ptolemy
II are consistent and confirm both the date and the character of the site.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
H. G. Lolling, “Prasiä,”
AthMitt 4
(1897); E. Vanderpool, J. R. McCredie, & A. Steinberg,
“Koroni: A Ptolemaic Camp on the East Coast of Attica,”
Hesperia 31 (1962)
MPI; “Koroni: The Date of the
Camp and the Pottery,”
Hesperia 33 (1964); G. R. Edwards, “Koroni: The Hellenistic Pottery,”
Hesperia 32
(1963); G. R. Edwards & V. R. Grace, “Notes on the
Amphoras from the Koroni Peninsula,”
Hesperia 33
(1964); J. R. McCredie,
Fortified Military Camps in
Attica, Hesperia Suppl. Vol. xi (1966).
JAMES R. MC CREDIE
