Greek-Chinese dig finds columned courtyard building at ancient Arsinoe in Greece

In brief 3 key points

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• The team excavated more of a square building with a columned courtyard.
• It is the first season of a five-year project to map Arsinoe.
• The finds are still being conserved and have not yet been dated.

Greek and Chinese archaeologists have excavated more of a square building with a courtyard ringed by columns at ancient Arsinoe, in western Greece. The work took place at Angelokastro in Aitoloakarnania. The team also recovered bronze coins, pottery, roof tiles and animal bones.

The first excavation season ended in July 2026. It opens a five-year programme, planned to run from 2026 to 2030, that aims to map the ancient settlement of Arsinoe.

The Greek Ministry of Culture runs the project. Its partners are the Chinese School of Classical Studies in Athens and the Ephorate of Antiquities of Aitoloakarnania and Lefkada. Dr Olympia Vikatou, Secretary General of the Ministry of Culture, directs the work. Dr Li Xinwei, Director of the Chinese School, leads the Chinese team.

A building first dug decades ago

The crew worked at a spot called Kakavaria. Builders and diggers had already found traces of Arsinoe's architecture there in earlier years. This season the team widened the old trench and recorded the surviving walls and floors. They also looked for clues to how the town was laid out.

One building drew the most attention. The archaeologist Lazaros Kolonas had excavated parts of it decades ago, and the new work filled in the picture. It was a square, carefully built structure with a courtyard surrounded by columns.

The walls show signs of repair and rebuilding. This points to several periods of use. The building's plan looks much like buildings found at other sites in the region, including Kalydon.

The report does not say what the building was used for. It also gives no date for it.

Coins, roof tiles and a name

The trench produced finds in good numbers. Workers recovered roof tiles and antefixes, the decorated clay tiles that once lined the edge of a roof. They also found pottery, bronze coins and animal bones.

A photograph credited to the ministry shows an inscription from the site bearing the name Antifaneos. No further details about it have been published.

Conservators are now cleaning and stabilising the objects. Specialists will then study them to work out what each one is and when it was made. Until that work is done, the dates of the building's phases remain open.

The town's name points to the Hellenistic period, when several towns were named after Ptolemaic queens called Arsinoe. The report does not discuss the town's foundation.

The project is also a step in Greek and Chinese cooperation on archaeology and the care of cultural heritage. Both sides expect the partnership to build a fuller record of the ancient town over the coming years.

Future seasons will continue the excavation and turn to the town's defensive walls and towers. The team plans to add geophysical survey, remote sensing, surface survey and geoarchaeological work. These methods should show how Arsinoe was planned and how it changed over time.

Sources (1)

News reportsfrom Hellenic Ministry of Culture, Chinese School of Classical Studies in Athens and Ephorate of Antiquities of Aitoloakarnania and Lefkada

• Greek-Chinese dig at lost Arsinoe reveals a monumental columned courtyard building (Archaeology Magazine)

Edited by Guiseppe Weijermars

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hellenistic greeceancient townsarchitecturecoinswestern greece

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