The tops of the mountains,  the sky and two ancient temples!  Across from each other,  up there on the mountains of Ilia and Messinia,  the well-known Epicurean Apollo on one side and a "new" temple,  which is only now being revealed,  on the other hand. At an altitude of 1000 meters and after traveling at least 7 kilometers of impassable, rural dirt road above the village of Ano Melpeia until you reach the hill with the chapel of the Prophet Ilias, the remains of this temple were discovered by the archaeologist Dr. Xeni Arapogianni, previously head of the Greek Antiquities Ephorate.

Dated late 6th – early 5th BC. century this unknown temple is preserved unfortunately only in terms of its foundation,  however, the space was scattered around it with architectural members, which had been used to build a small church.  As Mrs. Arapogianni says, when the small church was demolished to build a new one - eventually this was done on a neighboring hill -, the place was filled with letters,  triglyphs and other members of the ancient temple.

This is what happened 1995 but as soon as 2010   the excavation began,  which revealed not only the existence of the building but also extraordinary findings: Ceramics,  copper objects and the most interesting, a large number of iron weapons and mainly spearheads that were tributes to the temple. But also a bronze statuette of a naked man came to light,  probably a warrior since he is holding a spear in one hand.

"This fact allows us to conclude that the temple was dedicated to a war deity",  says Mrs. Arapogianni. Adding: "The direct visual contact with the temple of Epicurean Apollo but also the similarity of the vows, mainly of iron spears, they could attribute the temple of Ano Melpeia to Apollo, but without excluding the worship of Artemis or Athena".

The temple was found in "Petroula" which is located on the outskirts of Mount Tetrazi. The top of the hill where it was built had been leveled by the ancients just to accommodate the building. The temple was long,  according to calculations,  about the 23  meters,  although its maximum surviving dimensions are 20.65×10.75 meters while the thickness of the walls ranges from 0,80 to 0,90 μ. A part of it though,  the east,  it is completely destroyed, because it had served as the foundation of the Christian temple.

But the interesting thing is,  that inside it Mrs. Arapogiannis revealed a smaller building with surviving dimensions of 15.60x2.18 meters made of clay stones, without binding material, the eastern side of which was also damaged. The floor of the temple and the inner building was covered with small ones, almost slab-like stones connected with mortar.

“In my opinion this was the first temple, the archaic,  which dates back to the end of the 6th BC.  century. It was probably built by the Spartans who were the conquerors of Messinia and when later the Messinians were freed they built a bigger temple in the same place",  says the archaeologist.

Copper bracelets ending in a snake's head, copper small vessel a copper plate with a relief of a woman holding a branch, iron hilts and iron fittings of utensils and among them in excellent preservation a bronze cylindrical stem terminating in a lion's head. And of course the iron weapons and at least 20 spearheads. These are findings from the sanctuary ,  which the faithful dedicated to the worshiped deity. Also, one of the most important finds was a votive inscription, engraved on the rim of a portion of a clay vessel, where the word stands out: TOLERANCE.

But there is a problem:  No columns or capitals have been identified anywhere. Only epistles and triglyphs with metopes and cornices,  all stone. “I think it might have had wooden columns, but this was not usual at all. Therefore, further research is needed, are there somewhere...",  as Mrs. Arapogianni says. Except that she herself can no longer come back, after the "reserve" caught up.

Source : tovima.gr