Finds

Compared to the ubiquitous roof-tile fragments, the quantity of pottery recovered in excavation around the tower was small. Nevertheless, frag-

[11] Whole tiles were too valuable to have been deliberately broken and used in this manner. Note, for example, how tiles are included in the plunder taken from Attica during the Dekeleian War, HellOxy . 12.4 (London), and note the evidence for prices paid for Lakonian-type roof files collected by Orlandos 1955, 109-12, and by Martin 1965, 82-83.

[12] A single block at the foot of the tower face, on the boundary between areas 3N and 4N in map 4, shows signs of having been roughly dressed into a rectangular shape, 1.20 m long by 0.40 m high. It is the only worked block on the site, and as a block in the lowest course of the tower, it may have been one of the first stones laid, after which it was derided that the base could be more economically built using unworked stones.

[13] Based on a rough estimate of the volume of rubble around the tower, the original height of the base can be calculated at approximately 2.45 meters, or a little less assuming that not all of the rubble was originally part of the base. The calculation is probably not far off, since the rubble base of the Hymettos tower, which closely resembles the Dema tower, has a floor surface partially preserved at a height of 2.15 meters (see Munn 1983, 406-10).

ments of at least eighteen vessels were found, including three black-glazed vessels with complete or nearly complete profiles, one complete beehive kalathos lid, and two intact late Roman lamps. In addition to the identifiable vessels, numerous undiagnostic coarse sherds and a few incised roof-tile fragments preserving portions of gameboards were found. Altogether, these finds make up a significant body of evidence for the nature and date of activity on this site.

Sherds on the surface were usually covered by hard encrustations of lime, making joins nearly impossible. All sherds recovered from the stratum of the mud-brick debris had become discolored and soft, apparently through the actions of soil and water. Black-glazed sherds often had only a few traces of glaze preserved. For these reasons, clay descriptions would be misleading and have been omitted from the catalog. It should be noted, however, that, with the possible exception of no. 6, all of the black-glazed sherds are probably Attic.^[14]