Chauchitza (Chauchitsa or Tsaousitsa) is the early name of a site near Pontoirakleia, Kilkis. The site includes a settlement in Toumba and a cemetery located on the East Hill. The site has been discovered in 1917 by the British Army during the war. The site revealed finds ranging from N to Rom times and the necropolis to the Iron Age. In 1921 and 1922 S. Casson conducted excavations on the cemetery and explored 36 graves (14 in 1921 -- numbered nos. 1 to 14 -- and 22 in 1922 -- numbered (1) to (22) in the publications). In 1917 and 1918, other graves were found on the foot of the hills along the ancient lake Artzan. The exact location is unclear (Bailey 1969) : the "Edinburg group" (Tomb A, B, C) and the Tombs D, E, F, G. Only the tombs A, C, D and probably B are dated to the 8th c. BC onward (the three first are reused in the 4th-3th c. BC). Moreover, we have to add the "Slab Grave" discovered in 1918 at 300 m. to the SE of the East hill and published by Casson (Casson 1919-1921). The cemetery of the East Hill is the most important. The graves were found on a natural rocky hill of 6 m high, 125 m. long and 45 m. wide, covered by a thin layer of earth. Inhumation is exclusive and most of the burials were found in shallow pits or in natural cavity, covered with piles of stones. For Casson, it served to covered and protect the burials. Gradually, the earth would have covered partially the hill and the tombs. On the contrary, for Hammond, the cemetery is a low tumulus of earth erected on the cairn burials -- the thin layer being eroded gradually. Without any clear stratigraphy of the cemetery, it is difficult to state about the general organisation. Moreover, the presence of a collective tumulus doesn't exclude the existence of isolated satellite graves. The association of "free" burials and cist graves covered with cairns of stones recall those found in Karathodoreika, located only 5-6 km away. On the contrary no cremation has been reported as the difference of the older cemetery of Paliogynaikokastro. The Chauchitsa cemetery, later in date than the Gunaikokastro cemetery, is dated by Savvopoulou 2004, 312 from the 8th to the 5th c. BC, but the detailed chronology of all the graves is not stated. No anthropological analysis has been done or published. Each grave seems to be individual. The burials with a certain quantity of jewellery must have belong to female deceased, however the determination of the sex based on material can be hasardous, especially for the tombs containing sharp knives, spindlewhorls and jewellery together. Concerning pottery, dominant is a particular type of jugs ("πρόχοι με βαθμιδωτό λαιμό"), while amphorae are absent. Limited is the presence of kantharoid vessels ("κανθαρόσχημα αγγεία"), phialai with horizontal handles and cups with vertical knobbed handle ("κύπελλα με κάθετη κομβιόσχημη λαβή"). Skyphoi with concentric semicircles, the characteristic Euboean shape, is attested in Chauchitsa, although in limited numbers. The handmade pottery finds parallel with the pottery found in the layer VII and VIII of Kastanas, so around the 8th-7th c. BC). Weapons and tools includes knives (cutlass or smaller knives). Jewellery are rich and the graves yielded a large number of spiral armlets, pins, beads and spectacle fibulae of bronze. Among the metal finds Chauchitsa’s bronze jewellery, which was conventionally termed “Macedonian bronzes” were studied by many scholars, especially by Jan Bouzek, in the following years, since they constitute, together with those from Vergina, an important Iron Age assemblage. Among the special grave goods, the gold mouth-pieces are associated with "male" and "female" burials. Besides, the large bronze disks find interesting parallels with the one worn by the "Priestess" of the Tomb 15 of the cemetery of Marvinci located in FYROM, further to the N in the Axios valley (Mitrevski, D., 1996-1997. Grave of paeonian priestess from Marvinci, Macedoniae Acta Archaeologica 15, 69-89). The few graves discovered around the East Hill cemetery of Chauchitsa (Edinburg Group and the "slab grave") are slightly different. Apart from the Tomb B covered with a cairn the others are slab cists. However the material is quite similar with a certain quantity of "Macedonian bronzes".

Records

• 1917-1918: by S. Casson et. al. (British troops of the Army of the Orient)
  
• 1921: by S. Casson (British Association for theAdvancement of Science)
  
• 1922: by S. Casson (British School at Athens (Macedonian Exploration F)
  

References: Primary

• Bailey, D. M., 1969. Some grave groups from Chauchitsa in macedonia, OpAth 9: 21–40
• Bouzek, J., 1973. Graeco-Macedonian Bronzes, Prague:
• Bouzek, J., 2006. Macedonian Bronzes - 30 Years Later, Folia Archaeologica Balkanica 1:
• Casson, S., 1919-1920. Excavations in Macedonia, BSA 24: 1–33
• Casson, S., 1923-1925. Excavations in Macedonia II, BSA 26: 1–29

References: Secondary

• Hammond, N.G.L., 1972. A History of Macedonia. Volume 1. Historical geography and prehistory, Oxford: 348–351
• Havela, K., 2012. Τα Ταφικά Έθιμα ως Δείκτης Διακοινοτικών και Διαπολιτισμικών Επαφών στο Χώρο της Κεντρικής Μακεδονίας κατά την Εποχή του Σιδήρου, in N.Chr. Stampolidis, A. Kanta & A. Giannikouri (eds.), ATHANASIA. The Earthly, the Celestial and the Underworld in the Mediterranean from the Late Bronze and the Early Iron Age, International Archaeological Conference, Rhodes 2009, Heraklion: 312
• Hochstetter, A., 1984. Kastanas : Ausgrabungen in einem Siedlungshügel der Bronzeund Eisenzeit Makedoniens 1975-1979 : die Handgemachte Keramik, 19 bis 1, Prähistorische Archäologie in Südosteuropa, 3, Berlin: 307–309
• Ignatiadou, D., 2012. Ανασκαφή Τσαουσίτσας, in P. Adam-Veleni & A. Koukouvou (eds.), Archaeology behind battle lines in Thessaloniki of the turbulent years 1912-1922, Exhibition Catalogue, 24.11.12-31.12.2013, Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki: 113–117
• Kilian, K., 1975. Trachzubehör der Eisenzeit zwischen Ägäis und Adria, PZ 50: 74–78
• Savvopoulou, Th., 2004. Η περιοχή του Αξιού στην Πρώιμη Εποχή του Σιδήρου, in N.Chr. Stampolidis & A. Yiannikouri (eds.), Το Αιγαίο στην Πρώιμη Εποχή του Σιδήρου. Πρακτικά του Διεθνούς Συμποσίου, Ρόδος, 1-4 Νοεμβρίου 2002, Athens: 311–312
• Wage, A.J.B., 1921. Archaeology in Greece, 1919-1921, JHS 41: 339
• Τiverios, Μ., 2008. Greek Colonisation of the Northern Aegean, in G.R. Tsetshladze (ed.), Greek Colonisation 2: An Account of Greek Colonies and Other Settlements Overseas, Mnemosyne Bibliotheca Classica Batava: 7–8

Written Sources

• None