Keratea, Attica: Early Helladic silver-lead metallurgy and its pottery context.

At Zapani at Keratea region, Attica three Early Helladic sites were excavated in 2006 – 2008 during the construction works of the new Industrial Area of Keratea. All three sites yielded litharge items. The preliminary study of the pottery indicates that habitation started in EH I, but the main bulk of it dates to the EH II phase.
The density that the litharge items presented at Site 1 is only comparable to their density at the EH I Lambrika cupellation workshop. Although no installations similar to those at Lambrika were found, the site should be connected to silver production. Site 2 was most probably an area for open-air communal activities comprising eating and drinking and Site 3 was a settlement area. The presence of litharge items on these latter sites is compared to this in other EH
settlements in the Mesogeia plain. The distribution of the sites which yielded litharge items in east Attica implies that silver-lead metallurgy developed on a peripheral pattern around the mining area of Lavreotiki.