Greek fortifications 1 Aegosthena

[spyros]

The fortress of Aegosthena dates from the 4th-3rd century B.C. and is considered to be the best preserved ancient castle in Greece.



Due to its position on the borders of Attica, it changed hands several times between the Athenians and the Megarians. It belonged to the Achaean League and, for a while, to the League of the Boeotians.
Near the gate of the north section are located the ruins of firing galleries later turned into monks' shells.

http://s40.photobucket.com/albums/e238/ ... igosthena/

[D B Campbell]

Excellent photo resource.
I'm looking forward to more!

[Arthes]

Oh wow,
I can almost feel the sun and hot stones and soil under my feet...
in fact I would love to be there right now.....
Those are beautiful photos....

[spyros]

Oh wow,
I can almost feel the sun and hot stones and soil under my feet...
in fact I would love to be there right now.....
Those are beautiful photos....

Thank you Arthes, but believe you wouldn't want to be there. I came down from that hill soaking wet. I wouldn't want to stand guard on that frying pan for all the gold of Midas

I would like to ask our expert a question if I may. In the first of the galleries, which by the way showed no evidence of newer construction like the others I found a similar to this stone embeded in the stone floor
http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e238/ ... 290303.jpg

This a picture of the gallery I'm talking about.
http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e238/ ... 290299.jpg

Could this be the base of an oxybeles, gastrafetes or ballista?
http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e238/ ... phetes.jpg
http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e238/ ... beles3.jpg

[hoplite14gr]

Spyro you just showed a reason why garison troops were mostly "light" troops and I see no reason for guardsmen wearing petasos with the helmet handy nearby in case of trouble.
Although I had no problem on couple of hours sentry duty with a steel helmet
at a rather exposed position during my national service.

Kind regards

[D B Campbell]

Could this be the base of an oxybeles, gastrafetes or ballista?

It's almost certainly a millstone, Spyro. The garrison would have needed some means of grinding their grain ration.

You can see another one on the floor in your other photo:
[url:3sgsjn2n]http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e238/Spyros74/Aigosthena/P1290299.jpg[/url]

The two stones may actually be a pair, with the lower one fixed on the floor. That may be why it's cemented into place. (Unless it was modern consolidation work.)

(btw I'm 100% sure that an ancient catapult would not have required this kind of base!)

[conon394]

Plus something to go with your bread, this one is the base of a press I think?

http://s40.photobucket.com/albums/e238/ ... =imgAnch16

[spyros]

Yeah you are probably right. The other stone is from the second gallery. The galleries were used by monks in Byzantine and later years, so some changes could made. In the cetre of the keep is a small bassilica of Saint George. Good choise for a patron saint, yes?

Spyro you just showed a reason why garison troops were mostly "light" troops and I see no reason for guardsmen wearing petasos with the helmet handy nearby in case of trouble.
Although I had no problem on couple of hours sentry duty with a steel helmet
at a rather exposed position during my national service.

Who hasn't adelfe :wink: , except some vismata :evil: . That doesn't mean that I would it again. To be honest of course last Sunday was about 40 celsius. And I could kill for a canteen and a Petasos up there. The stones were so hot that even lizards were standing in the shade.

[Anonymous]

I have to disagree with the millstone interpretation, because the socket is square. The upper stone would need to turn on a rounded rod and, if you were to convert the square piece located in the centre of the lower stone to a rod above the surface thereof, you would lose grinding power where the top stone met the bare wood around the rod. I've got a quern and I find a deal of unground grain collects around the central pillar, even though mine is circular in cross-section.

I can't see why it would be used as a base for an artillery-piece, either, again because a circular hole would be more likely, so that the weapon could be "trained" from left to right. I suppose you could set the central support of the piece in the stone, and have the rotation taking place where the support meets the weapon. In either case, you'd have a one-legged artillery-piece, which strikes me as dangerously insecure.

[Peter Raftos]

Paul,
I agree that this is unlikely to be the base of an artillery piece but I have to disagree about the millstone - even some "modern" millstones have square eyes. This is to fit a metal support piece called the millrind.
If you look at heraldry there is a charge called a millrind. In English heraldic terms this is the fer de moline, and is a common charge in European heraldry. It is called anille in modern French blazon, but the English term clearly comes from the French (fer de moulin), meaning millrind (defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as "the iron which supports the upper millstone of a mill, and carries the eye which rests upon the end of the mill spindle"). From this charge comes the term Cross moline, a cross each of the arms of which terminates in two expanded and curved branches resembling the extremities of a millrind.