Kalapodi

Kalapodi (Greek Καλαπόδι ) is a city in central Greece. It is near the larger town Atalanti in the community Locri and is known primarily for his archaeological site.

Sanctuary

The sanctuary was established in the Mycenaean period and seems to have been in use without interruption until the Roman empire. Therefore, the place of great importance for the study of the so-called Dark Ages on the Greek mainland. In the Archaic period two temples were built, one of which was probably dedicated to the god Apollo northern and the southern his sister Artemis. In 480 BC the sanctuary was destroyed by the Persians; only the northern temple was rebuilt thereafter.

The site is under the supervision of the 14th Ephorie of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities.

Archaeological research

Kalapodi was excavated 1972-1982 under the direction of Rainer FELSCH. Since 2004, the research will be continued as a project of the German Archaeological Institute of Athens in cooperation with ETH Zurich under the direction of Wolf -Dietrich Niemeier. The focus is on the southern temple and its predecessors, the latest findings v. at least to the 14th century BC, if not go back to the Middle Helladic period. Votive offerings from the prehistoric to the Roman period also shed light on the development of the cult. The results of these excavations suggest that the sanctuary of Kalapodi is the long-sought oracles of Abai.

During the campaign in the summer of 2009 the work was recorded in a project funded by the Gerda Henkel Foundation film project called Lisa video. The photographs were published in ten episodes on LISA, the science portal of the Gerda Henkel Foundation.