Carthaea or Karthaia ( grc, Κάρθαια) was one of the four ancient Greek

city-states A city-state is an independent sovereign city which serves as the center of political, economic, and cultural life over its contiguous territory. They have existed in many parts of the world since the dawn of history, including cities such as ...

on the island of

Ceos Kea ( el, Κέα), also known as Tzia ( el, Τζια) and in antiquity Keos ( el, Κέως, la, Ceos), is a Greek island in the Cyclades archipelago in the Aegean Sea. Kea is part of the Kea-Kythnos regional unit. Geography It is the island o ...

(today Kea or Tzia) in the

Cyclades The Cyclades (; el, Κυκλάδες, ) are an island group in the Aegean Sea, southeast of mainland Greece and a former administrative prefecture of Greece. They are one of the island groups which constitute the Aegean archipelago. The nam ...

. It was located on the southeastern coast of the island. Karthaia upper plateau

The site was inhabited continuously for c. 1,300 years, approximately from the 8th century BC (

Geometric period Geometric art is a phase of Greek art, characterized largely by geometric motifs in vase painting, that flourished towards the end of the Greek Dark Ages, . Its center was in Athens, and from there the style spread among the trading cities of th ...

) till the 6th century AD (

Late Antiquity Late antiquity is the time of transition from classical antiquity to the Middle Ages, generally spanning the 3rd–7th century in Europe and adjacent areas bordering the Mediterranean Basin. The popularization of this periodization in English ha ...

). From that time on Karthaia remained abandoned. The ruins of the

acropolis An acropolis was the settlement of an upper part of an ancient Greek city, especially a citadel, and frequently a hill with precipitous sides, mainly chosen for purposes of defense. The term is typically used to refer to the Acropolis of Athens, ...

, town-centre and fortifications of ancient Karthaia have been preserved for centuries on the Aspri Vigla hills,

Pindar Pindar (; grc-gre, Πίνδαρος , ; la, Pindarus; ) was an Ancient Greek lyric poet from Thebes. Of the canonical nine lyric poets of ancient Greece, his work is the best preserved. Quintilian wrote, "Of the nine lyric poets, Pindar is ...

’s “narrow ridge of land“. Two valleys, of the Kalamitsis on the east and the Vathypotamos on the west, and the sea on the south define the site completely, creating a closed unit with a beautiful natural landscape, a refuge for important populations of various species of bird-life, and a place conducive to a variety of endemic pharmaceutical and aromatic plants. Even today, Carthaea can be approached by land only on foot, walking for more or less an hour along cobbled paths, which in most cases follow the lines of ancient pathways, or by sea, by small boat, anchoring in the same place as the craft of previous periods, without the aid of modern harbour facilities.

Description of the archaeological site

The acropolis of Carthaea is surrounded by walls more than 2 kilometers long and dated to the 6th-4th centuries BC. On its lowest part two artificial terraces were constructed in order to create the necessary space for temples and public buildings. On the lower terrace, closer to the sea, there is the temple of Apollo Pythios dated to c. 530 BC. According to ancient texts it was the most important sacred building of the ancient city-state. On the terrace in front of the temple there were many dedications offered to the god, mainly statues, and the decrees of the

Deme In Ancient Greece, a deme or ( grc, δῆμος, plural: demoi, δημοι) was a suburb or a subdivision of Athens and other city-states. Demes as simple subdivisions of land in the countryside seem to have existed in the 6th century BC and ear ...

of Carthaea were put there on display. On the upper terrace there is a smaller temple from c. 500 BC dedicated to

Athena Athena or Athene, often given the epithet Pallas, is an ancient Greek goddess associated with wisdom, warfare, and handicraft who was later syncretized with the Roman goddess Minerva. Athena was regarded as the patron and protectress of ...

, according to some scholars. Marble architectural sculptures of this temple represented scenes of an

Amazonomachy In Greek mythology, Amazonomachy ( English translation: "Amazon battle"; plural, Amazonomachiai ( grc, Ἀμαζονομαχίαι) or Amazonomachies) was one of various mythical battles between the ancient Greeks and the Amazons, a nation of a ...

, scraps of which are kept in the Archaeological Museum of

Ioulis Ioulis or Ioulida ( el, Ιουλίς, Ιουλίδα; grc, Ἰουλίς), locally called Chora or Hora ( el, Χώρα) like the main towns of most Greek islands, and sometimes known by the island name of Kea or Keos (or earlier Zea), is the capit ...

. A classical monumental marble building, a

Propylon In ancient Greek architecture, a propylaea, propylea or propylaia (; Greek: προπύλαια) is a monumental gateway. They are seen as a partition, specifically for separating the secular and religious pieces of a city. The prototypical Gre ...

(mid-5th century BC) marked the main entrance to this terrace and to the acropolis. A sloping stone-paved way, dated to the first half of the 5th century BC, ascended to it from the west. On the eastern side an impressive

Late Archaic Late may refer to: * LATE, an acronym which could stand for: ** Limbic-predominant age-related TDP-43 encephalopathy, a proposed form of dementia ** Local-authority trading enterprise, a New Zealand business law ** Local average treatment effect, ...

flight of stairs partly carved in the bedrock led to a path (“processional way”) which connected the upper to the lower plateau. On the upper terrace stood also another public building of uncertain function, which is called Building D (c. 300 BC). A monumental flight of six stairs led to a

pronaos A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was widely used in ancient Greece and has influenced many cult ...

(porch) with four semi-fluted

Doric column The Doric order was one of the three orders of ancient Greek and later Roman architecture; the other two canonical orders were the Ionic and the Corinthian. The Doric is most easily recognized by the simple circular capitals at the top of col ...

s “in antis”; the almost square cella was paved with a mosaic floor of white sea pebbles on the three sides of a central square with purple volcanic stones and a limestone cubic base. At the foot of the slope to the Vathypotamos stream is located the stone-built theater of the ancient city, dated to the 4th century BC. It accommodated almost 1,000 people. The theater is currently under excavation and preservation works. Next to the theater an impressive complex of

Roman baths In ancient Rome, (from Greek , "hot") and (from Greek ) were facilities for bathing. usually refers to the large imperial bath complexes, while were smaller-scale facilities, public or private, that existed in great numbers throughout ...

have been uncovered lately. Carthaea was a significant harbor of the Cyclades in ancient times. The submerged ancient jetty (c. 160 m in length and 35 m in width) is still discernible between the two bays; it was made of rocks, slabs and pebbles and reached to the small rocky islet of the bay. At the top of the Aspri Vigla hill, where the modern church of the

Theotokos ''Theotokos'' (Greek: ) is a title of Mary, mother of Jesus, used especially in Eastern Christianity. The usual Latin translations are ''Dei Genitrix'' or ''Deipara'' (approximately "parent (fem.) of God"). Familiar English translations are " ...

of the Myrtles now stands, there was another ancient temple dedicated to an unknown deity. An Early Christian

basilica In Ancient Roman architecture, a basilica is a large public building with multiple functions, typically built alongside the town's forum. The basilica was in the Latin West equivalent to a stoa in the Greek East. The building gave its name ...

lies in the bed of the Vathypotamos and is built with reused material from an ancient temple in the area, attributed to

Demeter In ancient Greek religion and mythology, Demeter (; Attic: ''Dēmḗtēr'' ; Doric: ''Dāmā́tēr'') is the Olympian goddess of the harvest and agriculture, presiding over crops, grains, food, and the fertility of the earth. Although s ...

. All over the slopes of the hill were constructed the private houses of the Carthaeans, of which many walls, thresholds, heaps of stones and minor objects (pottery and tools) bear witness. In several parts of the ancient city, e.g. south of the theater, east of the Apollo temple and along the way connecting the two terraces, there are remains of cisterns and pipes for the supply of water, dated to the Hellenistic until the Late Roman period. The ancient cemetery is located outside the city-wall, in the valley of Kalamitsis. After the collapse of the ancient monuments, during the 6th and 7th centuries AD, numerous graves were dug within the ruins of the temple of Apollo, in the terrace of the temple of Athena, in the destroyed Building D and on the slope of Vathypotamos. These graves, often made by ancient architectural members in second use, are the testimony of the last inhabitants of Carthaea. The territory (the ''chora'') of the ancient city-state of Carthaea extended over the southeastern part of the island of Keos; all over this area vestiges of numerous ancient settlements, ruins of farm sheds, of towers and traces of metallurgical activity have been detected. A network of ancient roads, which were often at a later time taken over by the traditional paths of Kea, facilitated the transport and contact of the ancient citizens.

Excavation and restoration

The fact that the ruins of Carthaea have always been visible, combined to the many references on the site in ancient texts compelled travellers to visit the area as early as the 17th century, but mostly in the 18th and 19th centuries. As no serious research had been conducted in the area till 1811, travellers identified the imposing ruins with

and situated Carthaea in the place of modern Chora, a frequent mistake marked also on maps of this period. A milestone for the investigation of Carthaea is the year 1811, when the Danish scholar and archaeologist P.O. Brøndsted, guessing the importance of the site and seeking out ancient Greek artifacts, he excavated for two or three weeks with thirty local workers. The site was for the first time correctly identified with Carthaea, as the name was mentioned in ancient inscriptions found in situ. Scientific archaeological research on the ancient city started practically shortly after 1900, with the work of the Belgian archaeologist P. Graindor. Excavation and restoration of the monuments of Carthaea was conducted by the

Greek Ministry of Culture The Ministry of Culture and Sports ( el, Υπουργείο Πολιτισμού και Αθλητισμού) is the government department of Greece entrusted with preserving the country's cultural heritage, promoting the arts, and overseeing sp ...

through the Committee for the “Conservation and Restoration of ancient Karthaia on Keos” in the years 2002-2008 and 2011-2015. The projects have been financed by the European Union. Work has been carried out on the temples of Apollo and Athena, on the Propylon, the Building D, the theater, and on their immediate surroundings.E. Simantoni-Bournia - L. Mendoni - T. Panagou, Καρθαία... ελαχύνωτον στέρνον χθονός, Athens 2009.

References

{{coord, 37, 33, 41.4, N, 24, 19, 50.6, E, display=title Kea (island) Populated places in the ancient Aegean islands Cities in ancient Greece History of the Cyclades Ancient Greek archaeological sites in Greece