PATRAS - North cemetery - 2001
Informations Générales
Numéro de la notice
1579
Année de l'opération
2001
Chronologie
Mots-clés
Nature de l'opération
Institution(s)
Localisation
Toponyme
Patra, Patras, Patrai, Patrae
Patra, Patras, Patrai, Patrae
Notices et opérations liées
Description
Patras, North cemetery, site of the new Patras Archaeological Museum on the Patras-Athens new national road. M. Petropoulos (then Director, Στ' ΕΠΚΑ, now Director ΛΘ' ΕΠΚΑ) reports on excavation in 2000−2001. (Fig. 1: site 14).
From the fifth century BC to the seventh century AD, the north cemetery of Patras extended along the via publica from Patras to Aigion. The closest section of this road previously known lies to the south on Thermopylae Street, north of the Roman bridge on Aretha Street (see ADelt 50 [1995] Chr, 213−15). Within the cemetery, the road was cobbled, while the section that crosses the bridge is paved.
No evidence for the continuation of the cemetery was found on the museum site: here the road (traced for a length of 64m, ca. 34m from the national road) was a dirt track shaped by continuous use and sloping north-south following the natural contours. Pot-holes and wheel tracks were repaired with stones, tile fragments and soil. At least three episodes of surfacing were traced. In the first, the road surface was shaped in the natural soil and contained mostly Hellenistic (third-century) sherds. The two main episodes, Roman (second century AD) and Late Roman (fourth century AD), coincide with major phases of road construction elsewhere, including the erection of the bridge. Minor resurfacing with gravel and soil was undertaken from time to time. Wheel ruts, 1.15−1.28m and sometimes 1.5m apart, were generally filled with stone, gravel and tile. In so far as the road width can be determined, it is ca. 1.3m in the Hellenistic period and ca. 3m in the Roman.
A coin of King George I (1869) in the surface implies that the road remained in use and was succeeded by, or used in parallel with, the old national road.
Auteur de la notice
Catherine MORGAN
Références bibliographiques
ADelt 55 (2000) Chr, 301
Légende graphique :
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Date de création
2011-01-07 00:00:00
Dernière modification
2023-10-06 08:55:59