At Assiros the settlement covers the LBA and EIA period. Wardle divides the duration of the settlement into 9 phases, of which phases 4 (1050-1000 BC) to 1 (750-650 BC) belong to the EIA and A period. According to A. Mazarakis Ainian it is possible that one should restore single rooms or units flanked by, or centred around, courtyards. The circular hearths appear to have been in the courtyards recalling a similar practice at Kastanas. The settlement at Assiros Toumba was first established around 2000 BC and continued to be an important centre in the district until ca. 900 BC when it was abandoned for well over a hundred years. During this time the timber-framed mudbrick houses were reconstructed several times and the defensive banks surrounding the settlement, were regularly raised and reinforced, until the Toumba reached a height of some 14m. Throughout this long period of occupation there are signs of contact with southern Greece, (Mycenaean and then PG pottery), while in the 13th century BC it was clearly a central place providing granaries for a much larger community than that dwelling on the relatively restricted summit. By the beginning of the IA the area available on the summit of the mound was reduced to some 70x40m. and it must have been abandoned for a more spacious site, after one or more destructions caused by fire. Around 750 BC, new buildings were constructed on the summit, unlike in form of their predecessors. Instead of the regularly arranged rectangular houses of the previous centuries, 2 large apsidal structures were erected across the southern end of the mound, while a number of smaller ancillary structures were built in the E and N, leaving an open space in the centre of the buildings (perhaps a courtyard).

Records

• 1975-1989: Systematic Excavation by K.A. Wardle (British School at Athens, Uni of Birmingham)
  

References: Primary

• Newton, M. & Wardle, K.A. & Kuniholm, P.I., 2003. Dendrochronology and Radiocarbon determinations from Assiros and the beginning of the Greek Iron Age, AEMTH 17: 173–190
• Wardle, K.A. & Wardle, D., 2004. Assiros Toumba in the 8th and 7th centuries BC: the apsidal structures of Phase 1 and their function, http://artsweb.bham.ac.uk/aha/kaw/assiros/assirosphase1.htm:
• Wardle, K.A. 1983. Assiros: A Macedonian Settlement of the Late Bronze and Early Iron Age, in Ancient Macedonia III. Third International Symposium held in Thessaloniki, Sept. 21-25, 1977, Thessalonike: 301–303
• Wardle, K.A., 1980. Excavations at Assiros, 1975-9. A settlement site in Central Macedonia and its significance for the prehistory of South-East Europe, BSA 75: 253–267
• Wardle, K.A., 1987. Excavations at Assiros Toumba 1986. A preliminary report, BSA 82: 313–321
• Wardle, K.A., 1988. Excavations at Assiros Toumba 1987. A preliminary report, , BSA 83: 375–380
• Wardle, K.A., 1989. Excavations at Assiros Toumba 1988. A preliminary report, BSA 84: 449–455
• Wardle, K.A., 1996. Change or continuity: Assiros Toumba at the transition from bronze to iron age, AEMTH 10A: 446–460

References: Secondary

• Lemos, I.S., 2002. The Protogeometric Aegean: The Archaeology of the Late Eleventh and Tenth Centuries BC, Oxford: 7
• Mazarakis Ainian, A., 1997. From Rulers’ Dwellings to Temples, Architecture, Religion and Society in Early Iron Age Greece (1100-700 BC), Jonsered: 249
• Moschonissioti, S., 2012. Το εργαστήριο γραπτής κεραμικής της Μένδης από τον 8ο έως τον 5ο αι. π.Χ. – Τα ευρήματα τουνεκροταφείου, University of Athens (unpublished PhD thesis): 69
• Soueref, K., 2011. Τοπογραφικά και Αρχαιολογικά Κεντρικής Μακεδονίας, Thessaloniki: 309–310

Written Sources

• None