Arcesine or Arkesine (Ancient Greek: Ἀρκεσίνη) was an ancient town on the island of Amorgos in the eastern Cyclades. It was one of the three main settlements on the island in antiquity.
Location
The site of ancient Arkesine was identified in the 19th century from the large number of inscriptions found there. It was situated on the northern coast of Amorgos, not far from the southwestern end of the island, at a place known as Kastri, ca. 1.5 km north of the modern village of Vroutsi. The most conspicuous topographical feature of the site is a steep rocky promontory overlooking the sea, on which the acropolis of the ancient town was located. Substantial remains of the ancient circuit wall of the acropolis survive.
Ancient Arkesine should not be confused with the modern village of the same name, which lies further inland, several kilometers to the southwest. At Sto Chorio near the chapel of Agia Triada, just north of the modern village, stands a small but well-preserved fort of late Classical or early Hellenistic date, consisting of a rectangular tower with a fortified enclosure.
References
- Stephanus of Byzantium, Ethnica s.v.v. Ἀρκεσίνη, Ἀμοργός.
- The earliest published description is that of Ludwig Ross, who visited the site in 1841: see L. Ross, Reisen auf den griechischen inseln des Ägäischen Meeres, vol. 2 (Stuttgart and Tübingen, 1843), p. 47. Other 19th-century descriptions include R. Weil, "Von den griechischen Inseln: Amorgos," Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, Athenische Abteilung 1 (1876), pp. 329–350, at pp. 333-334; J. Bent, The Cyclades, or Life among the Insular Greeks (London 1885), pp. 496-498. The inscriptions discovered through the early 20th century were published in Inscriptiones Graecae XII,7 (1908), edited by J. Delamarre.
- R. W. V. Catling and R. E. Jones, "Protogeometric Vases from Amorgos in the Museum of the British School", Annual of the British School at Athens 84 (1989), pp. 177–185, at p. 177; Georges Rougemont et al., "Recherches à Amorgos: Le site et le rempart d'Arkésinè", in Recherches dans les Cyclades: Résultat des travaux de la RCP 583 (Lyon 1993), pp. 97–122, at pp. 103-104; R. Talbert, ed., Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World (Princeton 2000), map 61; TopoText place ID 368258PArk.
- The walls are described in detail in Rougemont et al., "Recherches à Amorgos", pp. 104-122, with copious illustrations.
- "Αρχαίος πύργος Αγίας Τριάδας Αμοργού (Greek Ministry of Culture); TopoText place ID 368258FAtr. Early descriptions of the tower can be found in Ross, Reisen auf den griechischen inseln, vol. 2, p. 47; Bent, The Cyclades, pp. 499-500. For the excavation and restoration work conducted in the 1990s, see L. Marangou, Αμοργός II: Οι αρχαίοι πύργοι (Athens 2005).
36°48′35″N 25°49′03″E / 36.809778°N 25.817472°E / 36.809778; 25.817472
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