Kastraki: A New Settlement of the Bronze Age, in the Achaea Phthiotis

Lemnos of the prehistoric times with at least three powerful settlements - Poliochni, Myrina and Koukonisi - as well as numerous sites with building remains, like that of Mikro Kastelli, Vrlokastro, Progomylo, Agariones, Axia, Kaspaka etc.. held an important place in the culture of the North Aegean. With its strategic geographical position at the entrance of the straits of the Hellespont and on the sea routes from and to the Euxine Pontus, it constituted the station through which goods and ideas were circulated. Also, it constituted the base for the sevelopement of metallurgy of raw materials and the technical know-how which came from the wealthy centers of the Black sea.

The settlement of Myrina is founded on the west coast of the island, opposite the Chalkidiki and the Sporades. It has the characteristics of a coastal settlement with a geomorphology that assured it self-sufficiency from agricultural, stockraising and fishing point of view, while it composed a safe anchorage for its inhabitants but also a revictualling station of for the merchants and the mariners.

Rescue excavations begun by the XXth Ephorate of Antiquities in 1986 have uncovered on the coastal area of Richa Nera, remains of a settlement with urban character, fortified with mighty wall. The rich movable finds give some sight into the occupations and the everyday life of the inhabitants. Agriculture animal husbandry and fishing, form the occupations that have relationship with the dietary and the economy of the people of the settlement. Moreover, the inhabitants develop processing activities (bone-working, stone-working, spinning, metallurgy) and are occupied with carpentry, pottery, textile weaving, basketry, trade and seafaring.

The archaeological researches up to now date the settlement from the Late Neolithic Period to the Early Bronze Age with affinities to the blue, the green and the beginning of the red Poliochni.