LOUROS VALLEY - 2000

Louros valley. K. Zachos and N. Choinas (ΙΒ' ΕΠΚΑ) report a number of archaeological sites identified in the course of prospection before reforestation in the area between the Kleisoura gorge and the slopes north of Ag. Georgios. These include the remains of a fortification on the hill of Kokkino or Kastri near Vathy (Fig. 1). Fuller reports are made of work at two sites.

Ypsoma Paliokklisi. A cemetery was located on the southwest slopes of this hill: a stone cist tomb contained a few bones, probably of a child, and a second-century BC squat lekythos. On the top of the hill were the remains of a walled settlement.

Agios Georgios, Chalikia, Ypsoma Diministra. Part of a Roman farmstead was identified (Fig. 2), including a room (A) with a floor mosaic with geometric designs and parts of the marble interior decoration. The walls were built with field-stones and cement, with the exception of the area round the door which was in opus testaceum. Inside, the wall-plaster had a red colour. There is evidence for a second storey. Among the other rooms of the house to the south, one (B, Fig. 3) had evidence against the south wall for a low step in opus testaceum and a Π-shaped structure with a column in the middle, perhaps a form of apse. In the area of the apse and the step were strong burning, glass fragments and a mass of clay with fruit impressions. A third room (?) neighbouring B contained a destruction deposit. Southeast of this was a water channel.

Portable finds include bronze Imperial coins, fragments of tegulae mammatae confirming the presence of baths, sherds and glass vessels. The building was in use from the first/second to the fifth century AD.