Brauron

This site includes the remains of a temple, a stoa (colonnaded walkway), and a theatre, providing insights into the religious practices and social life of ancient Greece.In the 420s BCE, there was a period of significant architectural activity at the site, including the addition of the Π-shaped stoa, the bridge, and reconstruction work on the temple.Description of Greece 1.33.1The site was preserved from dilapidation by the silting of the nearby Erasinos river; however, a Christian basilica was built in the 6th century CE on the other side of the valley using spoliated material from the sanctuary.In one version of the myth, a surrogate sacrifice was provided through the divine intervention of Artemis, and the saved girl then became a priestess of the goddess among the Tauri, a people living near the Black Sea in the Crimean peninsula.In Euripides' version of the myth, the goddess Athena reveals that Iphigenia will make landfall in Brauron and there be the priestess of Artemis, die, and be buried:ATHENA: And Orestes, learn well my commands – for you hear the voice of the goddess although you are not present – set forth taking the (sacred) image and your sister, and when you reach god-built Athens, there is a place on the outermost borders of Attica, a neighbor of the Karustia ridge, sacred, and my people name it Halai.Build a temple there and set up the wooden image – named for the Tauric land and for your struggles, which you endured wandering through Greece due to the goads of the Furies.And set up this law: whenever the people keep the festival as a payment of your sacrifice, hold a sword at a man's throat and draw blood, so that by this the goddess may have her holy honors.The sanctuary of Artemis at Brauron (Modern Greek: Βραυρώνα - Vravrona) is an early sacred site on the eastern coast of Attica near the Aegean Sea in a small inlet.The sanctuary contained a small temple of Artemis, a unique stone bridge, cave shrines, a sacred spring, and a pi-shaped (Π) stoa that included dining rooms for ritual feasting.Votive dedications at the sanctuary include a number of statues of young children of both sexes, as well as many items pertaining to feminine life, such as jewelry boxes and mirrors.Large numbers of miniature kraters (krateriskoi) have been recovered from the site, many depicting young girls — either nude or clothed — racing or dancing.The Archaeological Museum of Brauron — located around a small hill 330 m to the ESE — contains an extensive and important collection of finds from the site throughout its period of use.[2] The first known temple at the sanctuary — dating to the late 6th century BCE — rests on a low rock spur south of the river and is aligned toward the east on a foundation measuring c. 11 by 20 m. Little is preserved beyond partial lower courses and cuttings in the bedrock for the same.Immediately north of the stoa and sharing a common wall was a structure of unknown function with elaborate entrances on both west and east sides.The Arkteia festival was celebrated every four years and involved a procession from the shrine of Artemis Brauronia on the acropolis of Athens, 24.5 km WNW of the sanctuary.[11] An epigram in the Anthologia Graeca concerns the offerings of childish playthings a nubile young girl dedicates to Artemis on the eve of marriage; many such tokens have been recovered from the spring at Brauron.Local lore suggests that the tower was of Venetian origin between 1394 and 1405, but archeological investigations show that it was probably built by the Burgundian Dukes De La Roche (1204–1311) at least one hundred years earlier.