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24-459: Its site is located near the modern Kokkinia . 36°47′39″N 22°47′07″E  /  36.794176°N 22.785366°E  / 36.794176; 22.785366 This article about a location in ancient Laconia is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Ancient Laconia Laconia or Lakonia ( Greek : Λακωνία , Lakonía , [lakoˈni.a] ) is a historical and administrative region of Greece located on

48-464: A devastating fire ruined the finest olive crops in the northern part of the prefecture, and affected the area of Sellasia along with Oinountas and its surrounding areas. Firefighters, helicopters and planes battled for days to put out the horrific fire. In early 2006, flooding ruined olive and citrus crops as well as properties and villages along the Eurotas river. In the summer 2006, a fire devastated

72-486: A height of about 6 m (20 ft). The main objects found there were transferred to the National Archaeological Museum of Athens , where many remain on display. Many are regarded as Minoan art , while others are thought to have been made on mainland Greece. The pottery in the tomb dates to around 1500 to 1450 BC, but the gold and carved gem seals might have been old when buried. The Cretan one of

96-481: A part of the Mani Peninsula, ruining forests, crops, and numerous villages. The regional unit, Laconia, is subdivided into five municipalities. These are (number as in the map in the infobox): As a part of the 2011 Kallikratis government reform, regional unit Laconia was created out of the former prefecture Laconia ( Greek : Νομός Λακωνίας ). The prefecture had the same territory as the present regional unit. At

120-513: A remarkable resemblance to the description of the beginning of the ritual of consecration for the laws of Atlantis described in Plato's dialogue Critias , where bulls are captured for sacrifice, using no iron tools or weapons. These "form perhaps the most perfect works of Mycenaean or Minoan art which have survived", according to Marcus Niebuhr Tod . Sir Kenneth Clark observed that even on such evolved works "the men are insignificant compared to

144-417: Is famous for its tholos or beehive tomb, excavated in 1889 by Christos Tsountas . This consists of a walled approach, about 97 ft (30 m) long, leading to a vaulted chamber some 33 ft (10 m) in diameter, in the floor of which the actual grave was cut. The tomb suffered considerable damage in the decades following its excavation. During conservation work in 1962 the walls were restored to

168-686: The Alepotrypa cave site. Significant archaeological recovery exists at the Vaphio-tomb site in Laconia. Found there is advanced Bronze Age art as well as evidence of cultural associations with the contemporaneous Minoan culture on Crete . At the end of the Mycenean period, the population of Laconia sharply declined. In classical Greece , Laconia was Spartan territory but from the 4th century BC onward Sparta lost control of various ports, towns and areas. From

192-694: The Myrtoan Sea to the east and by the Laconian Gulf and the Mediterranean Sea to the south. It encompasses Cape Malea and Cape Tainaron and a large part of the Mani Peninsula . The Mani Peninsula is in the west region of Laconia. The islands of Kythira and Antikythera lie to the south, but they administratively belong to the Attica regional unit of islands . The island, Elafonisos , situated between

216-711: The Palaiologoi . The capital of the Despotate, Mystras , was a major site of the Palaiologan Renaissance , the last flowering of Byzantine culture . With the fall of the Despotate to the Ottomans in 1460, Laconia was conquered as well. With the exception of a 30-year interval of Venetian rule, Laconia remained under Ottoman control until the outbreak of the Greek War of Independence of 1821. Following independence, Sparta

240-757: The Taygetus 2,407 m (7,897 ft) in the west and the Parnon 1,961 m (6,434 ft) in the northeast. Taygetus, known as Pentadaktylos ( five-fingers ) throughout the Middle Ages, is west of Sparta and the Evrotas Valley . It is the highest mountain in Laconia and the Peloponnese and is mostly covered with pine trees. Two roads join the Messenia and Laconia prefectures: one is a tortuous mountain pass through Taygetus and

264-490: The bull-leaping activities practised by the Minoan civilization of Crete , or for sacrifice. On one, with three scenes, a cow is used to lure a bull; they mate, and a rear leg is then roped; this is sometimes called the "Peaceful Cup" or the "Quiet Cup". In the other, the "Violent Cup", bulls are stampeded into nets, although one seems to escape, shoving catchers aside. The so-called "Violent Cup", showing netting of bulls, bears

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288-530: The Laconian mainland and Kythira, is part of Laconia. The Evrotas is the longest river in the prefecture. The Evrotas Valley is predominantly an agricultural region that contains many citrus groves, olive groves, and pasture lands. It is the location of the largest orange production in the Peloponnese and probably in all of Greece. Lakonia , a brand of orange juice, is based in Amykles . The main mountain ranges are

312-399: The cups were probably not by the same artist, and had stylistic differences. Ellen Davis suggested that at least one of the cups was produced in mainland Greece. Davis illustrates both the compositional and stylistic differences between the cups, demonstrating that one appears to be Minoan and the other Mycenaean. Hood agreed, and this is now the usual view. There is a difference in quality,

336-545: The famous pair of gold Vaphio Cups perhaps dates to the previous century. The objects include a large number of carved gem seals and amethyst beads, together with articles in gold, silver, bronze , iron , lead , amber and crystal . Many of the seals and rings found in the tholos have such strong affinities in style and subject matter with contemporary Minoan seals that archaeologists find it impossible to determine whether they were locally made or imported from Crete . Sinclair Hood believed that at this date "it

360-850: The highest summer average maximum temperatures in Greece. In July 2012 the city registered an average maximum temperature of 38.3 °C (100.9 °F), making it Greece's second highest monthly average maximum temperature to date after the 38.6 °C (101.5 °F) recorded in Stylida in July 2023. The highest temperature ever recorded in Sparta is 45.7 °C (114.3 °F) in August 2021. On average, Sparta records 5 days per year with temperatures of over 40.0 °C (104.0 °F). Evidence of Neolithic settlement in southern Laconia has been found during excavations of

384-749: The late Middle Ages. Following the Fourth Crusade , Laconia was gradually conquered by the Frankish Principality of Achaea . In the 1260s, the Byzantines recovered Mystras and other fortresses in the region and managed to evict the Franks from Laconia, which became the nucleus of a new Byzantine province. By the mid-14th century, this evolved into the Despotate of the Morea , held by the last Greek ruling dynasty,

408-617: The mid-2nd century BC until 395 AD, Laconia was a part of the Roman Empire . In the medieval period, Laconia formed part of the Byzantine Empire . In the 7th century, Slavic tribes settled in the Peloponnese. Two of them, the Melingoi and the Ezeritai , who settled in parts of Laconia, survived the subsequent Byzantine reconquest and re-Hellenization of the Peloponnese, and are attested until

432-458: The origin of many pieces. The 43 seals in the tomb include a variety of fine stones, and gold, and several have parallels in Cretan finds. The princely figure buried there seems to have worn them on his wrists, like a modern charm bracelet . By far the finest of the grave goods are a pair of golden cups decorated with scenes in relief, showing two different methods of capturing bulls, perhaps for

456-471: The other bypasses the mountain via the Mani district to the south. The stalactite cave, Dirou, a major tourist attraction, is located south of Areopolis in the southwest of Laconia. The city of Sparta enjoys a sunny and warm Mediterranean climate ( Köppen : Csa ). January highs are around 14 °C (57 °F) while July and August highs are around 36 °C (97 °F) in the city proper. Sparta records

480-549: The same time, the municipalities were reorganised, according to the table below. Note: Provinces no longer hold any legal status in Greece . The main cities and towns of Laconia are (ranked by 2021 census population): Vaphio Vaphio , Vafio or Vapheio is an ancient site in Laconia , Greece , on the right bank of the Eurotas , some 5 mi (8.0 km) south of Sparta . It

504-452: The southeastern part of the Peloponnese peninsula. Its administrative capital is Sparta . The word laconic —to speak in a blunt, concise way—is derived from the name of this region, a reference to the ancient Spartans who were renowned for their verbal austerity and blunt, often pithy remarks. Laconia is bordered by Messenia to the west and Arcadia to the north and is surrounded by

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528-479: The stupendous bulls". It seems likely that these Vaphio Cups do not represent a local art but that at least one was imported from Crete, which at that early period was far ahead of mainland Greece in artistic development. As further support for the connection to Crete, C. Michael Hogan notes that a charging bull painting is evocative of an image extant at the Palace of Knossos on Crete. It had long been recognised that

552-476: Was broadly speaking possible to classify the finer seals as being of Cretan, the more crudely engraved of mainland manufacture", but that "this criterion no longer applies after the mainland conquest of Crete c. 1450". Vaphio is the largest find in the Aegean of Mycenaen and Minoan seals (as opposed to "sealings" - impressions on clay). Like Grave Circle A at Mycenae , the group has generated much discussion as to

576-532: Was selected as the capital of the modern prefecture, and its economy and agriculture expanded. With the incorporation of the British-ruled Ionian Islands into Greece in 1864, Elafonissos became part of the prefecture. After World War II and the Greek Civil War , its population began to somewhat decline, as people moved from the villages toward the larger cities of Greece and abroad. In 1992,

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