New Evidence for Long-Term Occupation of the Artemision District in Thasos

Martin Perron is an Archaeologist at Parks Canada and Research Associate wth the Maison de l’Orient et de la Méditerranée, Lyon

Since 2002, the French School at Athens and the 18^th Ephoreia of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities of Kavala have undertaken a joint excavation in Thasos (Thrace, Northern Greece) in an area located on the western foothill of the Acropolis in the vicinity of the sanctuary of Artemis and the Passage des Théores. This area, located at the hearth of the ancient Parian colony, overlooks the eastern fringe of the classical agora and lies a few dozen meters of the 1960s Paul Bernard and the 1970s Sodini-Picard test-trenches which have yielded the remains of several continuous occupations dating back to the late Iron Age to the protobyzantine period. The new French School excavations, undertaken by Professor Arthur Muller, seek to extensively document the whole stratigraphic sequence recorded in this area in order to shed light on the Parian colonial venture, the urban development of the colony, the emergence of the Thasian polis, and several other topics related with this 1,500 year-long occupation of the area. This lecture will present some of the most recent discoveries made at the site and will focus on the excavations carried out on a luxurious protobyzantine domus dated to the 4^th c. to the 7^th centuries A.D. and an Archaic building lying right underneath it.