House of the dead, or just a house?

I liked the morning view from our door at Camping Nissos. The blue sea sparking saying, "Time for a swim!" It was going to be difficult to leave.

Then this happened.

The occupant of the Campervan had every right to park in the pitch next to us. However, being German Swiss he was culturally naïve; he simply did not understand that the English don't just look at the view, they own it, because along with gravity, the steam engine, hydraulics, the mini-skirt and Marmite, 'The View' is an English invention. So to block an Englishman's view is not merely impolite, it's tantamount to declaring war. I decided he was surly, Gill judged him 'a bit creepy'. That was it, we had no option - we left immediately.

Our ferry to Brindisi is in a week's time. There is still some debate about quite what we will do and where we might stay, but we are going to start drifting northwards taking baby steps to Igoumetsita, which is less than 70kms away. 

Unlike our trip to the Peloponnese in 2015, the Ionian coast is not a place which bristles with ancient ruins. However, one archeological site caught my eye on the way down here, but we didn't have time to stop. The Acheron Nekromanteion is thought to be a place of pilgrimage associated with the cult of Persephone. On the other hand it might all be wishful thinking. Whichever the case, as we were passing the place again we decided to take a look.

In Greek myth the river Acheron was regarded as one of the entrances to the underworld, the kingdom of the dead ruled by Hades. So it is unsurprising that a sanctuary dedicated to Persephone, Hades' wife, would be located here, but it is difficult to prove its exact location.

For a long time archeology had a tail wagging the dog problem in so much as there was a tendency to view its findings as a kind of validation of written history or legend. Nineteenth century archeologists searched for Troy, or when they found a golden death mask at a tomb at Mycenae declared it to be Agamemnon's, even though there is no evidence that such a person existed outside of the Iliad. It's the same thing with Arthurian sites in the West Country - Tintagel, Camelot, really?

The remains of the Nekromanteion has a similar issue. The place is presented on the information boards and downloadable PDF guide. as a late Hellenistic sanctuary dedicated to Persephone - so around 100BCE probably.

So visitors today are invited to see the suite of rooms as they enter the ruins as lodgings for ancient pilgrims.

Next comes a the zigzag corridor, labelled as a 'labyrinth', then beyond, the sanctuary itself where adherents could commune with the spirits of the dead.

There's a spooky cellar beneath which may have been an earlier sanctuary.

More recent research has cast doubt on all of this, citing the dearth of figurines and other religious items unearthed during the dig as evidence that the place had a more mundane purpose and was in fact a large fortified farmhouse.

Does this matter? It is still a very beautiful place overlooking the mythical river Acheron. The odd awkward fact is not going to stop people romanticising it. For example, a sign off the main road just before you get to the turn-off to the sanctuary directs the visitor to Odysseus's Landing. This is because in the Odyssey Homer's hero  is sent to consult the ghost of the prophet Tiresias and in a chilling scene travels to underworld and communes with the spirits of the fallen heroes of Troy, then meets his long deceased mother. So the story goes - Odysseus went to the underworld, it's entry point is the river Acheron, so he must have landed near here. It's like visiting Nottingham and expecting to bump into the sheriff.

What I love about ancient sites is not so much what makes them famous, more the sense that the place has been peopled for millennia. Here, at some point a Byzantine church was built on top of the remains of the Hellenistic sanctuary, or farmhouse depending on which archeologist you believe. 

The massive jigsaw-like stonework from Classical era contrasts with the Byzantine mason's work, built in the Eighteenth century, but looking medieval.

By limiting the Greek part of the trip to the area between Igoumetsita and Lefkada we have missed out on some archeological sites, perhaps I regret that, but we do get to spend more time in Puglia. Everything is a compromise, Greek remains versus Italian cooking, not so much heart over head, more stomach over brain.