Elateia

In antiquity Elateia was the capital of Phokis and second only to Delphi in significance. The valley of Elateia has been famous for its fertility since ancient times, while its strategic position as a key-city in the conquest of southern Greece and the mainland became the reason for its entanglement in almost all the wars of antiquity.This resulted in its being destroyed and rebuilt in succession. Elateia occupies a significant position in the prehistory of Greece, since some of the older sites of the Neolithic period have been located here. The excavations in the cemetery of vaulted tombs at Alonaki, which date from the Mycenaean years, confirm that, at least since the early fourteenth century BC, Elateia has been an active participant in the civilization that goes by the same name. In the classic period Elateia was still an important city. The excavations of its cemetery, which lies far from the Neolithic one, had been planned in three phases and were completed in 1991. At the end of each excavational phase, the participating archaeologists organized a special briefing for the inhabitants, an initiative that proved to be very successful in many ways. It stirred the enthusiasm of the locals and multiplied the interest in their cultural heritage; as a result smuggling, the scourge of antiquities, decreased while cases of handing over findings or pointing out the location of unknown antique works or archaeological sites increased impressively. The entire excavational enterprise had the rnaterial and moral support of the mayor of Elateia Mr. G. Goghos and the council of the city who also funded the recent exhibition of photographs and effigies of archaeological items found mainly in the Greek-Austrian excavation at Alonaki.