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PITSA (Village) XYLOKASTRO
A modern village S of ancient Aigira on the N side of Mt. Chelydorea
(Paus. 7.17.5) near the summit of which a rich votive deposit in a deep cave (Cave
of Saphtoulis) has been excavated. Extending to a depth of over 20 m and divided
into several chambers, the cave was a cult center for the worship of chthonic
deities, especially the nymphs and possibly Demeter, from ca. 700 B.C. into the
Roman Imperial period.
The finds, which remain largely unpublished, are in the nearby museum
of Sikyon and in the National Museum of Athens. They include numerous terracotta
figurines, votive pottery (mainly Corinthian), bronze mirrors and jewelry, Corinthian
and Sikyonian coins, wooden statuettes, bone dice, etc. The cave is famous, however,
for its beautifully painted and well-preserved wooden plaques. Represented on
one plaque in free-style, polychrome technique of ca. 550 B.C. is a sacrificial
procession with dipinto name-labels and the incomplete signature of a Corinthian
painter in the epichoric Corinthian alphabet. Dipinti on this and on another plaque
also show that these objects were dedicated to the nymphs. The four plaques from
the cave are dated ca. 550-500 B.C. and supply almost unique evidence for nonceramic
Corinthian painting of this period.
R. Stroud, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
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