During the installation of wind parks in the greater area of the Karystos Municipality, Anatoli and Trikorfo in Marmari employees of ENEL and Silsio renewable energy companies discovered three ancient marble quarries.
The coastal town of Karystos or Carystus has about 5,000 inhabitants and falls under the supervision of the Ephorate of Antiquities of Euboea island. Karystos lies 129 km south of Chalkis and from Athens it is accessible by ferry via Marmari from the port of Rafina.
The quarry of Anatoli in Kafireas (feature image) was found during works on the new main road to the Anatoli wind park managed by the ENEL Company, northwest of the village of Amygdalia. An ancient shale marble quarry was unearthed, with two principal mining fronts faced by small areas covered with soil, Tornos News reported.
While the greater quarry area was being archaeologically cleaned, two half finished columns were located in a clean layer of fine mining gravel, which led to another quarry, the first one of Trikorfo, loacetd exactly above the main road of the works by the Silsio Company. The second ancient quarry of Trikorfo was found north west of the first one and is much larger in size.
This is a very important discovery bound to shed light on the region’s marble extraction activity, for which it was renowned in ancient years.
Karystos was renowned for its marble and the ancient quarries are found on the southern flanks of Mt Ochi, between the villages of Mekounida and Aetos. Strabo writes about the magnificent monolithic “Karystian columns”. Julius Ceasar and Augustus preferred Karystian marble for the construction of monolithic pillars in Rome. It was also used in the paving of floors and walls in temples and he Roman Agora. In Athens one can still admire the majestic Karystian monolithic pillars in Hadrian’s Library in Monastiraki and in ‘Kylindri’, at the top of the valley of Myloi.
