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Document Details :

Title: 'Phantom Eleans' in Southern Epirus
Author(s): DOMÍNGUEZ, Adolfo J.
Journal: Ancient West & East
Volume: 14    Date: 2015   
Pages: 111-143
DOI: 10.2143/AWE.14.0.3108190

Abstract :
The existence of a series of Elean colonies in the region of Cassopaea, in southern Epirus, has been regularly accepted by scholars on the basis of a single piece of written evidence. Despite such limited information, a number of interpretations have been made in an attempt to date the foundation of these colonies, and even to describe their political and institutional development. In this article, I examine the available archaeological evidence for those sites usually identified with these alleged colonies in order to show that there is no proof of colonial occupation or of any urban entities before the middle of the 4th century. Likewise, I attempt to explain how the idea of Elean colonisation may have sprung up, and why only a single reference points to it.

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