RADIOCARBON DATING OF THE ARCHITECTURAL PARTS OF THE MIDDLE BYZANTINE MONASTERY OF HOSIOS LOUKAS, BOEOTIA, GREECE Yorgos Facorellis 1 • Dionysis Mourelatos 2 1 Department of Antiquities and Works of Art Conservation, Faculty of Fine Arts and Design, Technological Educational Institute of Athens, Aghiou Spyridonos, 12243 Egaleo-Athens, Greece. 2 Department of Archaeology & History of Art, School of Philosophy, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, University Campus, 15784 Athens, Greece. ABSTRACT. The Monastery of Hosios Loukas is situated at an altitude of 430m (38°23′43.12′′N, 22°44′48.22′′E) in the western foothills of Mount Helikon, near the village of Steiri, Boeotia, Greece. It is one of the most important monuments of Middle Byzantine art and architecture and has been recognized by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. Information varies concerning the construction date of the magnificent church to house the Hosios Loukas relics. Moreover, little is known about the time when the rest of the monastic complex was built. This paper aims to shed light on these chronological questions. For this purpose, 15 wood samples, originating from the outermost rings of the wooden timber preserved from the initial scaffolding of the church and its four supporting buttresses and another two from the wooden gate of the monastery, were radiocarbon ( 14 C) dated using the conventional gas-counting technique. Our results show that the church was built in the beginning of the 11th century. The four buttresses were built in at least two phases, during the 15th through 19th centuries, and the monastery gate may be also attributed to the 19th century. KEYWORDS: radiocarbon dating, Hosios Loukas Monastery, wood dating. INTRODUCTION The Monastery of Hosios Loukas, dedicated to Hosios Loukas the Steiriotis (29 July 896 to 7 February 953 AD; Figure 1), is situated at an altitude of 430 m (38°23′43.12′′N, 22°44′48.22′′E) in the western foothills of Mount Helikon below the citadel of the ancient town of Steiri near the village of Steiri, Boeotia, Greece. It is one of the most important monuments of Middle Byzantine art and architecture and is included in UNESCO’s list of World Heritage Sites. ARCHITECTURAL HISTORY The monastery of Hosios Loukas stands on a scenic hillside where a temple of Demeter Steiritida once stood. It is surrounded by a plateau covered by an olive grove. The landscape has not been altered by residential or other activity and therefore retains its authenticity. Information about the history of the monastery drawn from the life of Hosios Loukas (Sofianos 1989), an anonymous work from 962 AD, and the texts of the Dormition and the Disposing of the Saint’s Corpse services, which are sources considered reliable (Oikonomides 1992). According to these sources, Hosios Loukas is the founder of the monastic life in the monastery, where he lived for the last seven years of his life (946–953 AD). He was born in Kastri, Phocis, in 896 AD and his parents were refugees from Aegina. He followed early monasticism and at the end of 910 or 911 AD he became monk in Athens, and then in various retreats in Phocis and at the opposite coast of the Corinthian Gulf. His movements where dictated by the threat of the Bulgarians of Simeon. In 946/947 AD, he settled on the site of today’s monastery, where he died in 953 AD. Information diverges concerning the construction date of the new, magnificent, church to house his relics. Moreover, very little is known about the time when the rest of the buildings of the monastic complex were built. This paper aims to shed light on these chronological questions. More specifically, it is generally accepted that a church dedicated to Virgin Mary was built in the 10th century (Bouras 2015; Mylonas 2005 [who dates it more probably to the early *Corresponding author. Email: yfacorel@teiath.gr. Radiocarbon, 2017, p. 1–11 DOI:10.1017/RDC.2017.26 Selected Papers from the 8th Radiocarbon & Archaeology Symposium, Edinburgh, UK, 27 June–1 July 2016 © 2017 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/RDC.2017.26 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 94.66.58.121, on 27 Jul 2017 at 06:20:31, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at