18 July 2025 The Future is the Product of the Past

Archaeologists may have found the Sanctuary of Samian Poseidon described in ancient texts

During excavations in the foothills at the ancient acropolis of Samicum in Greece, archaeologists may have found the sanctuary of Samian Poseidon.

According to the Greek Reporter, archaeologists unearthed large sections of the foundation of a building 9.4 meters (30.8 feet) wide with heavy stone walls .8 meters (2.6 feet) thick. The remains have been dated to the 6th century B.C.

The sanctuary of Poseidon in Samikos was the regionally important religious center of the six cities of Triphylia, according to ancient sources Strabo and Pausanias. They formed an amphictyony, a confederation dedicated to the defense, upkeep, and veneration of a cult site. Strabo’s Geographica, Book VIII: “Then comes the mountain of Triphylia that sees Macistia from Pisatis; then another river called Chalcis, and a spring called Cruni, and a settlement called Chalcis, and, after these, Samicum, where is the most highly revered temple of the Samian Poseidon. About the temple is a sacred precinct full of wild olive-trees. The people of Macistum used to have charge over it; and it was they, too, who used to proclaim the armistice-day called “Samian.” But all the Triphylians contribute to the maintenance of the temple.”

The location where the potential temple was found fits with texts by Ancient Greek geographer Strabo who wrote about the temple in his work Geographica.

Photo: Greek Ministry of Culture and Sports

Samicum, also called Samikon, was an ancient city during the middle and late Helladic periods, located in the Peloponnese at Kleidi Hill near Kato Samiko, halfway between the mouths of the Alpheius and the Neda.

Scholars have proposed based on ancient descriptions that the temple of Poseidon was on a plain below the ancient acropolis of Samikon whose remains are on the hilltop overlooking the Ionian Sea.

A possible site of the temple was suggested following ongoing investigations conducting geophysical surveys in 2017, 2018, and 2021. This year archaeologists from the Ephorate of Antiquities of Ilia, the Austrian Archaeological Institute, the University of Mainz, and the University of Kiel (Dr. Dennis Wilken) embarked on the first comprehensive excavation of the site as part of a five-year program to explore the area to identify the sanctuary and the ancient port of Samikos.

Photo: Greek Ministry of Culture and Sports

The Athens Branch of the Austrian Archaeological Institute explains in a Facebook post: “Thick layers of roof tiles fill the space between the walls. Based on the anomalies of the geophysics, a building of at least 28 meters (92 feet) in length can be calculated, which had two interior rooms as well as a pronaos and an opisthodome or adyton. The elongated large building can be nothing other than an archaic temple located on the site of the sanctuary of Poseidon, perhaps even dedicated to the god himself.”

In connection with the fragments of a laconic roof, the discovery of a marble perirrhanterion provides evidence for dating the large building to the Archaic period. The large marble vessel itself, imitating a bronze bowl, is characteristic of the inventory of a sanctuary.

This discovery sheds new light on the political and economic significance of the Triphylian cities’ amphictyony in the sixth century BC when the sanctuary of Poseidon at Samikon served as the center of their religious and ethnic identity.

Cover Photo: Greek Ministry of Culture and Sports

Related Articles

Study refutes previous assumptions, DNA evidence rewrites story of people buried in Pompeii eruption

8 November 2024

8 November 2024

Researchers from the University of Florence, Harvard University, and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig analyzed the...

Paleontologists Unearth Dozens of Giant Dinosaur Eggs in Fossilized Nest in Spain

15 November 2021

15 November 2021

Spain was the scene of a new paleontological discovery. Paleontologists extracted 30 Titanosaurus dinosaur eggs from a two-ton rock in...

A rare reliquary discovered during excavations in Poland

19 October 2023

19 October 2023

Archaeologists have unearthed a rare enkolpion -a medallion with an icon in the center worn around the neck by Eastern...

Archaeologists Uncover Elegant Rare Blue Frescoes of an Ancient Sanctuary in Pompeii

10 June 2024

10 June 2024

Archaeologists digging away at ash covering the ancient city of Pompeii have uncovered a room with walls frescoed in an...

3,500-Year-Old Hittite Linen Fabric Exhibited for the First Time

10 March 2025

10 March 2025

A remarkable artifact, a piece of Hittite linen fabric dating back 3,500 years, has been publicly exhibited for the first...

Kurt Tepesi: The Silent Sentinel in the Shadows of Göbeklitepe and Karahan Tepe – Unearthing the Forgotten Sister

31 May 2025

31 May 2025

In the arid plains of southeastern Anatolia, a quiet giant slumbers. While Göbekli Tepe has dazzled archaeologists and the global...

Rare 400-year-old Bronze Trumpets Discovered on a shipwreck in Croatia

12 July 2024

12 July 2024

Croatian underwater archaeologists have made an extraordinary discovery off the southern coast of Istria near Cape Kamenjak. They have unearthed...

World’s Smallest Stegosaurus Track Found

14 March 2021

14 March 2021

The smallest trace of stegosaurus in the world that lived 155 million years ago was found. Stegosaurus, a herbivorous dinosaur,...

A Rare Ancient Saber Discovered in Kyrgyzstan

5 August 2023

5 August 2023

An ancient saber (heavy military sword with a long cutting edge and, often, a curved blade) was found by three...

Saudi Archaeologists have discovered a pre-Islamic Musnad inscription and a bronze bullhead

18 February 2023

18 February 2023

Saudi archaeologists have discovered the longest pre-Islamic Musnad inscription -of the ancient south Arabian script- and three gold rings and...

Two rock chambers thought to be dining rooms unearthed at ‘House of Muses’ in southeastern Turkey

27 July 2021

27 July 2021

House of Muses, a Roman-era house named after the muse mosaics found in the area located in the ancient city...

Experts to uncover the secret of the monumental and three-dimensional Urartian statue found on Garibin Tepe

2 November 2024

2 November 2024

In an area where rescue excavations were conducted last year, archaeologists discovered a basalt stone statue from the Urartian period...

The ability to produce ceramic vessels came to Europe via Siberia and the Caspian Sea region

6 January 2023

6 January 2023

A new study suggests that the knowledge for making ceramic vessels came to Europe from the Middle East and the...

Incredibly Rare Tyrian Purple Discovered at Carlisle Roman bathhouse

5 May 2024

5 May 2024

A rare archaeological object – thought to be the only one of its type in the former Roman Empire –...

Philippines Cagayan Cave Art 3500 Years Old

29 June 2021

29 June 2021

A depiction depicting a human-like figure on a cave wall in Penablanca town, Cagayan province, is Southeast Asia’s first directly...