Patras - Monodendri, Vrachnaiika - 2011

Vrachneika, Monodendri settlement, (private property of A. Anifanti), Regional Route of Patras-Pyrgos-Sotiriadou, Patras. Artemis Maniaki (ΣΤ’ ΕΠΚΑ), reports on the continuation of the excavation in a Roman cemetery, which had started the previous year. This year, the research revealed 13 tile-roof graves, five box-shaped graves, and four jar-burials. They were spatially organized in three groups (SW, SE, NW) (fig. 1,2). They were considered to be a part of a larger organized cemetery, due to parts of tile-roof graves found in the general area, which the Ephorate was unable to excavate.

The tile-roof graves bore the same characteristics as the ones revealed in the excavation season of 2010, while the box-shaped graves’ walls were brickwork. They were oriented NE-SW. One of them (box-shaped grave no. 18) belonged to the arched roof type (fig. 3), and it was sealed with plaster on both sides.

The jar-burials found were placed either next to box-shaped graves or in special trenches. Their insides contained remnants of pyre, or regular jar-burials. They were the low end of narrow-end vessels, one cylinder-shaped lead urn (fig. 4), and the base of a large glass vessel.

A short presentation of the important burials was as follows:
Burial no. 15: Tile-roof grave, contained two bulb-shaped perfume vessels, dated in the first century BC, as well as one made of blown glass (late first century BC, early first century AD).
Burial no.19: Box-shaped grave, contained pyre remnants, as well as five coins, three of which are Domitian farthing. The remaining two were dated in the Tiberian and Claudian eras respectively.
Burial no.22: Box-shaped grave, disturbed. It contained four grave-goods: a clay lamp, decorated with double flower and signed by the lamp-maker Posphoros (early second-early third century AD), part of a the shoulder of a lamp, one clay bowl and one sesterce dated in the era of Alexander Severus.
Burial no. 23: Tile-roof, contained a bronze Domitian coin, placed in the deceased individual’s mouth.
Burial no.26: Tile-roof, contained two skulls and a farthing dated in the era of Marcus Aurelius.
Burial no.28: Box-shaped grave, contained the most grave-goods: roman pottery, lamps, a cup, a bronze ring, a bronze pin etc.
Burial no. 30: Tile-roof, containing a skull in the E end. One of the covering tiles bore an engraving of a cross inside a circle.

Most of the burials contained one or two grave-goods, and their study indicated that the cemetery was in use between the first and the third century AD.

[Entry created by E. Kourti]