GREECE PELOPONNESE LAKONIA SKALA AGIOS STEFANOS

Near Skala there is a dirt track signposted to the archaeological site of Agios Stefanos. It is situated on a low hill from where the plain up to the sea can be overlooked, but drill-cores proved that it was a promontory in the Bronze Age. At this time it was a rural settlement and a medium-sized port which relied on trade, fishing and metal-working with contacts to Aegina in the Middle Helladic period.

Near Agios Stefanos there was perhaps a deposit of 'Lapis Lacedaemonius', a green-flecked porphyry, much awed and very popular in Minoan and Mycenaean times. This rare stone was exported to Kythera and Crete, where it was turned into luxury goods in Minoan palatial workshops. There are also indications that Minoan potters might have been resident at Agios Stefanos in the late MH (= MM IIIB) period.

Two signs on a stone at Agios Stefanos have been tentatively identified as constituting a short Linear A inscription (almost the only one on the Greek mainland). Nevertheless, Agios Stefanos never was a Minoan settlement like Kastri on Kythera, nor a heavily Minoanized one like Phylakopi on Melos, but kept its mainland culture.

The site was excavated by the British School in 1959, 1960 and 1963. However, there are hardly any ancient remains to be seen today.