PRASIDAKI - 2000

Prasidaki, Temple of Athena. X. Arapogianni (then Director, Ζ' ΕΠΚΑ, now Director, ΚΗ' ΕΠΚΑ) reports on continuing excavation (Fig. 1).

The entire colonnade (6 x 13 columns) was exposed. The temple measures 35.3m long x 15.58m wide, with the krepis well preserved in the northeast and northwest corners. On the east and north sides, the building was destroyed down to the stereobate. The destruction level, which was intact along the long sides of the temple, contained, in addition to the roof, parts of the geison, epistyle, and column capitals and drums. Along the northeast side, at the level of the first step of the krepis, a clay drain removed rain-water into a terracotta sink and thence away from the temple via a closed conduit.

The column capitals date the temple to the first half of the fifth century: it continued in use into the first to second century AD, on the evidence of the pottery and lamps found in front of the cult statue base. Finds include decorated simas and tiles, and many terracotta and bronze figurines, found mainly around the outside of the temple. An orthostat set in front of the pronaos, inscribed AΘANAI, confirms the identity of the deity worshipped.