Heraklion - 5 Erotokritou Street - 2008

Heraklion - 5 Erotokritou Street (property of G. Xenikaki). Ioannis Volanakis (13^th Ephorate of Byzantine Antiquities) reports that after the demolition of a modern building at the property of G. Xenikaki (Fig. 6 – Fig. 7), trial trenching took place there in 2008.

The structures that were excavated were identified as parts of a bath, mainly made of crude stones and lime mortar. Room 1 was identified as the changing room based on evidence by other Middle Byzantine baths. Room 2 seems to have been the tepidarium due to its location within the complex and the presence of open pipes. It was connected to the changing room through a door. The remains of a destroyed floor as well as a marble architectural part, potentially a balustrade were unearthed as well. Underneath the floor of the room, the hypocaust was also found, while the pottery on top of the floor was dated to the Late Byzantine period. A well-preserved square cistern was in contact with Room 2. A clay drain was connected to its N side. Its SE side was destroyed by modern foundations. Room 3 was interpreted as the caldarium sudatorium (the warm room). Underneath its floor small clay square pillars, allowing the circulation of the warm air were discovered. Additionally, a vaulted cistern covered in red hydraulic mortar, and in one of its walls a narrow passage led up to the boilers that heated the water for the purposes of the bath. The recovered pottery from this area was of incised plates, undecorated jugs, as well as pithoi fragments. A room identified as the praefurnium was excavated E of the cistern, while a well carved in the rock was detected at its NE corner. Green and yellow glazed pottery as well as that of the marble ware type was identified. Part of the discovered pottery was dated to the Late Byzantine period (12^th-14^th c. AD).

It is possible that there was a later secondary phase existed during which the space was used, based on the discovery of walls made of crude stones and grey lime mortar, and of a staircase. Along the remains a burial was also discovered in a stone-built grave, whose shape follows that of the body of the deceased individual.

It should be noted that this bath is located between two other baths that have been found in the area and are dated around the same period (12^th-13^th c. AD).

[Entry created by C. Koureta]