1. Geographic location

The Greco-Roman town lies within its own large, fertile plain and associated hilland, set between ridges of Mount Helicon to the north, west and south and bordered till the 19th century AD by Lake Copais on its east (fig. 1). It occupies a prominent steep isolated hill. It is therefore with its territory a natural isolated unit of settlement, or Siedlungskammer as German historical geographers would describe it.

2. Topography and remains

Earlier research by Western Travellers, followed by Classical topographers and archaeologists produced a very thin picture of the long-term development of occupation at the city-site. Some prehistoric sherds suggested early settlement, and although mentioned as a town in the Homeric Catalogue of Ships, little was noted to confirm a major role in the Bronze Age nor even in the Geometric period, either from surface finds or architectural traces. Elements of an acropolis wall in polygonal masonry on the east and west edges of the hilltop have been dated to late Archaic or even early Classical times (fig. 2). Various visitors in the 19th century observed standing remains of a Lower City wall, especially on the lower southern slopes of the hill, together with remains of public buildings (including a temple) on the upper south slopes. In a deep hollow in the south-east lower hill researchers suggested the location of the theatre. On almost the highest point of the hilltop massive vaulting in mixed construction of typical Roman or Late Roman type was seen as a bathhouse, hence the local name for the acropolis of Loutro. Finally on a low hillock at the south-eastern hill-foot stand remains of a medieval tower (fig. 3). At some point limited excavations on the south-western corner of the acropolis (not published) uncovered late antique walls made of spolia, at times suggested to mark an Early Christian church. Lauffer (1986) located traces of a Roman Imperial aqueduct running towards the city from powerful springs, several kilometres distant on the slopes of Mount Helicon to the south-west, near the modern village of Koroneia.

3. History

Historic sources and coins add a little further information. The city was in existence and a significant centre from late Archaic times into the Late Hellenistic era, often minting its own coinage. It was not one of the major towns of Boeotia, only awarded one third of a share in one of the eleven districts into which the Boeotian Confederacy was divided for military and political organisation. A long-lasting opponent of Roman influence in Greece, its population was carried off to slavery and the town was sacked in the early 2nd century BC, but the Senate’s clemency restored its citizens and approved the rebuilding of its Acropolis walls alone. A decline followed as in much of Boeotia, but positive steps to aid the city are documented through inscriptions which bear witness to imperial patronage in the Early Empire, including funds to repair dikes which protected the city’s land against flooding from Lake Copais, and the gift of an aqueduct. Earthquake destruction in the 6th century AD did not bring an end to some kind of community, as bishops are recorded after this date. However there is no certainty that they resided at the ancient site, and indeed there is a current Bishop of Koroneia while the ancient hill has been abandoned since Late Medieval times.

4. The "Ancient Cities of Boeotia" project and the information on Coronea

In 2006 the Leiden-Ljubljana "Ancient Cities of Boeotia Project", directed by myself and Bozidar Slapsak, began a detailed study of the ancient city hill (see annual preliminary reports in the journal Pharos from volume 14, 2007 up to present). After the summer-season of 2010 we had created and collected surface ceramics and architectural records from 841 grid units across the town, each some 400 square metres, and covering we estimate 30 hectares within the around 40 hectare walled town. The diagnostic pottery from each unit will allow us to analyse the expansion and contraction of the settlement over time. It is already possible to sketch in the general development of the ancient city.

In prehistoric times activity is slight and dispersed, indicating village or farm habitation and limited population on the hill. This continues through the Early Iron Age, and it is only in Late Geometric and Archaic times that the community is gradually transformed into a true town. Especially in the 6th century the Polis appears to have become a sizeable regional centre, and perhaps now the Acropolis received its polygonal wall. In the Classical and Early Hellenistic era the town probably reached its maximum extent, reaching to the foot of the hill on the east and south-east but probably only half way down or higher on the other faces of the hill. Traces of the Lower Town wall have been found in two separate stretches at the north-east foot of the hill, and from a series of stamped official tiles from its roof in an early form of letters this was probably constructed at the latest in early Classical times (fig. 4). Agreeing with earlier visitors, we have identified two plateaux on the southern slopes of the hill with abundant public architectural fragments as the ancient Agora. From late Archaic into Hellenistic times a series of cemeteries and a small sanctuary have been recognized ringing the line of the Lower City wall to its south and east, whilst Roman architectural finds indicate continuity of parts of these necropoleis. However surface finds from Early Imperial times suggest a smaller occupied area, which contracts even further in Late Roman times. From this last era are possible traces of a new mortared wall around the Acropolis, within which remains of rudimentary houses incorporating spolia may indicate a shift towards a small Kastro or fortified refuge village at the site in the 5th-7th centuries and perhaps into the following ‘Dark Ages’. Nonetheless the very large vaulted complex near the summit of the Acropolis seems on recent restudy to represent a major building of the 6th century AD, perhaps a Bishop’s palace (fig. 5).

Only scattered sherds of Byzantine pottery may hint at some nearby settlement in the 9th-12th centuries AD, but in the 13th century a Frankish estate centre focussed on a tower was erected on a low hillock at the base of the city hill, which was associated with a small extramural hamlet. Whether this settlement represents Greek feudal villagers or Frankish service staff to the tower residents is still unclear. The site and indeed the whole hill is abandoned in the 14th century AD.

5. The survival of Koroneia in modern times

The availability of the local Ottoman tax records from as early as 1466 clarifies the origin of modern villages within the territory of ancient Koroneia. Modern Koroneia village is actually an Albanian-Arvanitic colony from around 1400 AD (formerly Kutumula), and the descendants of the Koroneia Medieval peasants at the ancient city site most likely left for the modern village of Agios Georgios at this time, described as one of the rare Greek villages in the first Ottoman tax register. We have recorded several traditional houses in the latter village, longhouses which appear to form the regional style of domestic construction going back into the very beginnings of these 15th century communities.