III. —Thalamae: IV.—The Ἑρμαί on the N.E. Frontier

Extract

᾿Ανατείνε δὲ ὑπὲρ τὰς κώμας ὄρος ᾿Πάρνων,καὶ Λακεδαιμονίων ἐπαὐτοῦ πρὸς ᾿Αγείους ὄροι καὶ Τεγεάτας εἰσίν ἐστήκασι δὲ ἐπὶ τοῖς ὀροις῾Ερμαῖ λίθου, καὶ τοῦ χωρίου τὸ ὄνομά ἐστιν ἀπ᾿ αὐτῶν —Paus. II. 38. 7.

An excavation of the three mounds of stones and earth at the spot called στοὺς Φονεμένους between Hagios Petros and Arachova, undertaken by me last July, showed that these mounds were formed in ancient times, and made it highly probable, if not certain, that they are the ῾Ερμαῖ mentioned by Pausanias as marking the boundaries between Laconian territory and that of Argos and Tegea. The most important find is a slab of common schist, mutilated on the left hand side, and bearing in large characters the inscription (Fig. 1). Although I have not been able to find a name ending with precisely these letters, it is certainly a man's name in the nominative, and the slab must be explained as a tombstone. There were also found a small piece of an archaic gorgoneion of terracotta, a small vase without its neck resembling the spherical Corinthian aryballoi, and some insignificant fragments of small vases, covered with glaze-paint, and of roof-tiles.