Emporio · Nausitoo

Emporio is a Greek Bronze Age site in the south of the island of Chios, in the Aegean Sea. It lies 7 km south-east of the small town of Pyrgi. Emporio stands on a mountain peak but has a horseshoe-shaped harbour opening to the south-east, and immediately to its north is the hill of Prophet Elias, 240 m high. The fortified Early Bronze Age town (1800 BC) stood on a small promontory south of the harbour. Later the settlement moved, occupying the whole hill on which the acropolis stood as well as a large area around its base. The town was destroyed and abandoned at the end of the Mycenaean period, around 1100 BC. But archaeology attests its occupation in the Archaic period, in the 8th/7th centuries BC. Even so, Emporio is not listed as a polis in Hansen's inventory.

Structures between ásty and khóra: walls, necropoleis, sanctuaries.

Plan of the settlement with its main structures. The walled area runs around the summit, covering approximately 2.4 ha, dated on the basis of archaeological remains to the 8th or 7th century BC.
On the slope of the mountain called Prophet Elias, along streets following the contours, 7th-century BC buildings/houses have been excavated. The sanctuary of Athena on the Acropolis also dates from the Archaic period. The Megaron, which must be Mycenaean, was reoccupied in the 7th century BC.
The fact that the residential area lay on the mountainside, outside the walled enclosure, leads us to believe that the acropolis was an area of refuge

Emporio. General plan of the site and reconstructed outline.

Bibliography (1)

Frederiksen, R.; Greek City Walls of the Archaic Period, 900-480 BC (Oxford Monographs on Classical Archaeology)