ANC. EPIDAUROS - West Cemetery - 2000

Ancient Epidauros village, Ippokratous Street. Ch. Piteros (Director, Δ' ΕΠΚΑ) reports the discovery in the course of pipe-trenching of further tombs in the area of the west cemetery of ancient Epidauros.

Three Roman cist tombs (first-century BC to first-century AD), oriented east-west and in direct contact with each other, were found 122m before the northern end of Ippokratous Street. Tomb 1, of limestone blocks and cover-tiles, contained a single adult skeleton (probably female), four unguentaria, a fragmentary lagynos, part of a shell and a lamp. Iron nails and fragments of wood probably belong to the bier. Tomb 2 was disturbed; it contained an adult burial and a glass vessel. Tomb 3 contained an adult burial, a lagynos, six unguentaria, a pottery vessel and an iron arrowhead.

A further 194m south of the road, on the north side of the Mycenaean cemetery of Epidauros, the pipe-trench cut the dromos of a Mycenaean chamber tomb previously found (along with a group of six others) by V. Stais (ADelt [1888], 155−58; see also ADelt 29 [1974] Mel, 70−87) and partially destroyed in the construction of the road (Fig. 1). A few LHIIIB kylix sherds were collected from the dromos. Previous cleaning of the chamber in 1989 had produced sherds, two vessels, faience beads and a few human bones.

Some 5.4−11.9m before the junction of Ippokratous and Asklepiou Streets, on the south side of the road, was part of a Late Roman to Early Byzantine workshop destroyed by fire. Finds include an oval basin lined with lime plaster for workshop use, a large kados, terracotta floor tiles, a light floor of lime plaster and Laconian-style roof tiles.

At the junction of Ippokratous and Asklepiou Streets, on the north side, sherds of LHIIIB−C hole-mouthed jars and kylikes were collected beside the property of A. Eleftherakou, where two Mycenaean tholos tombs were previously found.

I. Metaxa Street. Ch. Piteros reports on discoveries from the northern part of the street, between the junctions with Perikleous and Asklepiou Streets.
A row of tombs was found ca. 1−1.5m apart. Cist tomb 4, pit-cist tomb 6 and pit graves 9 and 11−16 contained single adult skeletons but no grave goods. Graves 5, 17 and 19 were disturbed. In pit grave 10, a small Hellenistic silver coin served as the danake. The majority of tombs without goods are likely Middle and Late Hellenistic. A few Protogeometric and Geometric sherds were also found further north and immediately east of I. Metaxa Street.

The following tombs contained offerings and/or multiple burials.
Cist tomb 7 contained three adult skeletons plus an unguentarium, Hellenistic sherds, amphorae and small iron nails probably from shoes.

Cinerary urns 8a and 8β were each set upright in a round pit. 8a (Fig. 2), an Attic Submycenaean to Protogeometric shoulder-handled amphora with a bronze phiale in the mouth and a schist cover slab, contained a bronze ring. 8β, a LHIIICL amphora or hydria, contained a bronze fibula. Ash scattered between the two vessels and above 8β likely came from the pyre area.
Tomb 18 (oriented northwest-southeast), cut directly into bedrock, is disturbed. Outside was a Hellenistic silver coin of Sikyon and a small domestic vessel. Inside were two adult skeletons, a small black-glazed prochous, a fourth-century BC bronze mirror with a relief Eros on the cover (Fig. 3) and a bronze needle.
Cist tomb 20 contained two adult skeletons, a Roman lamp, the small disc of a bronze mirror, a bronze needle and iron nails from the bier.

Pit grave 21, contained one adult (apparently female) skeleton, five Hellenistic unguentaria, a small round pyxis holding white lead and a terracotta boar figurine.

Cist tomb 22 contained one adult (probably female) skeleton, a fragmentary glass vessel, a glass unguentarium, two second century AD lamps and an iron needle.
Further evidence was identified for the production of purple dye which supplements that previously recorded in this area. Just north of the junction with Perikleous Street were fragments of tile, domestic pottery, Middle and Late Hellenistic amphorae, and large quantities of murex shell. Murex shell was was also found north of tomb 17. In the same place, a wall ran northwest-southeast on the same orientation as the tombs. North of the street were sherds mostly of Hellenistic to Roman pointed amphorae.