Magoula Visviki revisited: comparing past excavations’ data to recent geophysical research

Presented by Eva Alram-Stern, Mario Börner, Kaliopi Almatzi, Polyxeni Arachoviti, Vasso Rondiri, Despina Efstathiou, Evangelia Stamelou, Konstantinos Vouzaxakis, Apostolos Sarris, Carmen Cuenca García, Tuna Kalayci, François-Xavier Simon, Gianluca Cantoro, Jamieson Donati, and Meropi Manataki
In track Posters

In 1941 the German Professor Hans Reinerth and his team of the Reichsamt für Vorgeschichte carried through excavations on the Neolithic tell site of Visviki Magoula near Lake Karla. According to the mapping of the site, the German expedition dug two deep soundings at the flank of the tell to reconstruct its settlement history. Trench A produced a stratigraphic sequence starting in a late phase of the Early Neolithic period. In contrast, trench B, situated at the edge of the tell, produced mainly irregular loam layers; the lowest, steeply sloping clay layer possibly representing a ditch-like structure. At the highest point of the mound the German team excavated an area of 30 x 20 m to yield information about the settlement ground-plan. According to the newly studied drawings, the ground-plan combined several settlement phases. Project “Visviki Magoula” was financed by the Austrian Science Fund, carried through by the Institute for Oriental and European Archaeology, Austrian Academy of Sciences.
Recently, Innovative Geophysical Approaches for the Study of Early Agricultural Villages of Neolithic Thessaly project (IGEAN), carried out by the GeoSat ReSeArch Laboratory of the Institute for Mediterranean Studies – Foundation for Research and Technology (IMS-FORTH) in Crete in cooperation with the ΙΓ’ Ephorate of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities in Volos, was able to scan the whole magoula through geophysical mapping techniques. The survey was carried out via multi-sensor magnetic arrays and GPR systems. The project was implemented under the “ARISTEIA” Action of the “OPERATIONAL PROGRAMME EDUCATION AND LIFELONG LEARNING” which is co-funded by the European Social Fund (ESF) and National Resources.
The above projects allowed an integration of a) the old (1941) excavation drawings, b) the new study and interpretation (“Visviki Magoula” project) of the older plans and c) the geophysical survey results of the IGEAN project. Based on these it was possible to confirm the large rectangular structure that was excavated from the German expedition and in addition to verify the existence of one of the ditched that run around the settlement. The fusion of the results of the above studies will contribute to our further understanding of the settlement layout and its relation to the surrounding area.