Stratigraphy

Limestone rubble covered most of the excavation area to a depth of 0.40 to 0.50 meters, occasionally up to I meter against the face of the tower. This scatter of stones was continuous between the tower and the inner face of the enclosure wall in area 2S, while in 3S and 4S, the scatter generally ended 3 meters from the tower. Roof-file fragments were found

[4] Two crudely built circles of rubble, each about 1.50 m across, standing to 0.50 to 0.60 m, located in areas 4N and 5N of map 4 are probably nineteenth- or twentieth-century constructions, rifle pits (tambouria ) in the opinion of local workmen. Similar constructions have been noted on the Dema wall, see DEMA 171. A hollow in the rubble of the tower may have a similar explanation, according to DEMA 173 note 48, but see below, under Later Activity, for an alternative suggestion.

[5] Rubble was also moved away from the face of the tower in areas 2N, 3N, and 4N, and a strip was cleared through rubble in area 2N between the tower and the enclosure wall in order to see if any structural remains could be identified; none were found. Artifacts previously found at the Dema tower include only tiles and a base fragment of a beehive kalathos; see DEMA 186 and note 121. These sherds are now in the collection of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, site A-19; see catalog nos. 20, 22, below. Excavation was carried out between October 14 and November 21, 1979, and preliminary reports appear in the Unpublished Papers of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens (Munn 1979a), and in the proceedings of the 82nd General Meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America (Munn 1981).

in this rubble as well as below it, amidst smaller stones on the soil or bedrock surface. Fragments of pottery were also found on the soil or bedrock surface immediately below the scatter of rubble.^[6]

Below the rubble, islands of bedrock protruded from the soil, although not so prominently here as elsewhere in the enclosure. The soil around this bedrock, with the exception of dark-gray surface patches formed by the decomposition of plant remains, was uniformly a loose, crumbly red earth, usually mixed with a moderate amount of small stone chips but sometimes free of them. Alongside the tower, and up to two to three meters away from it, this soil frequently contained large concentrations of roof-tile fragments, filling cavities and depressions in the bedrock (figure 27). Roof tiles and earth together formed a layer usually no more than 0.20 meters thick, depending on the contours of the bedrock below. This red earth is certainly the disintegrated debris of sun-dried mud brick which has eroded and washed over the site.^[7] Part of this mud brick, however, had been deliberately laid down, with the concentrations of files as a packing to level the ground in connection with the construction of secondary structures to be described below. Sherds were found in this mud-brick debris, both with the concentrations of tiles and in earth relatively free of tiles. It is significant that sherds associated with the tile concentrations were always found among the uppermost files of those packings.^[8]

The soil below this, wherever bedrock lay deeper down, was a red earth similar to the mud-brick debris but distinct in that it contained many stone chips and pebbles, all somewhat worn and rounded by water, whereas the chips in the upper layer had rougher edges. This lower soil also contained no sherds or tile fragments except at its uppermost

[6] The following artifacts were found on soil or bedrock surfaces under rubble: one fragment of catalog no. 1, no. 4, no. 11, most fragments of no. 15, no. 17, some fragments of the beehive kalathoi listed under no. 20, and some of the roof-tile fragments described under no. 24.

[7] The nature of this soil is the same as that described as decomposed mud brick on other sites; cf., e.g., "Dema House" 77 and "Vail House" 360. Soil and tile fragments were usually found mixed together at the Dema tower, but in some places a layer of clear soil from 0.10 to 0.18 meters deep overlay concentrations of tiles and could have accumulated there only after these files were in place. Since the site is at the summit of a hill, no topsoil could have been washed there from elsewhere. It must have been deposited there by erosion either from the tower or from structures immediately adjacent to the tower and must therefore represent manmade debris (i.e., mud brick).

[8] The following artifacts were found buried in the mud-brick debris: one fragment of catalog no. 1, no. 2, no. 3, no. 7, no. 8, no. 12, no. 14, some fragments of no. 16, no. 18, no. 19, some fragments of beehive kalathoi listed under no. 20, no. 21, no. 23, the majority of the tile fragments described under no. 24, and no. 25. The following artifacts were found in mud-brick debris atop roof-tile packings: no. 5, no. 6, no. 9, no. 10, no. 13, and some fragments of no. 20.

level. It is evident that this sterile soil formed the original ground level before the deposition of the mud-brick and tile debris.