MAKRIGIANNI - 2000

Makrigianni. Work continued in 2000 on the excavations on the site of the New Acropolis Museum (Fig. 1).
In Sector 1 (Fig. 2), house Α (second- to sixth-century AD), comprising a series of rooms around a colonnaded courtyard paved (Fig. 3) in white marble and with a monolithic marble puteal on its west side, is accessed via a narrow corridor (1) from road I. In the north wing was a suite of rooms (2−7); the central room (2), with a small hall to the south (3), was probably an andron. On the eastern side were five rooms (8−12) and on the south a further three (13−15). The small room in the southeast (12), with a tiled floor and drains, probably housed a washroom. The house continued in this configuration until the end of the third century AD, was later repaired with minor modifications and continued in use until the construction of house B in the sixth century AD. Beneath the later room 9, deposits of chipped stone indicated a marble workshop of the second to first century BC, and, further below, walls of the late fifth century BC. The deepest levels of the room revealed Geometric and Middle Helladic pottery, and an unaccompanied child grave.
In the northern part of Sector 2, road IV (3m wide, oriented east-west and intersected at its west end by road II), remained in use from the third century BC until the fourth century AD. In the eastern part of the sector, clarification of the limits of house Γ showed that the second series of rooms to the east belonged to a separate house (Στ) of the same period. House Στ is poorly preserved due to the later Byzantine structure E. It is on a higher level than house Γ, and built around a colonnaded courtyard (5m x 5.8m) with a clay tiled floor. In its southeast corner was a well which remained in use until the Middle Byzantine period. Access to the house was from the south, via a corridor (2), and led out to road I. In the north of the house, a series of small rooms (5−7) clustered around a large central triclinium (4). Exploratory excavation beneath the floors revealed that the basic layout of the property was established by the Roman, if not the Hellenistic, period.
Sector 3 is defined to the south by road IV. Investigation continued of the Roman west bath complex (Fig. 4) . comprising a frigidarium (1), caldarium (2) and tepidarium (3). The floor of the hypocaust was paved with small stones, clay tiles and marble chips. Area 4 appears to be an open yard with a well. Following a period of abandonment the bath complex was repaired and reconfigured in the fourth to fifth century AD. At this point it probably became a house, with superimposed clay floors and frescoed walls with red bands and imitation marble revetment. A large room to the east (6), paved with marble mosaic, appears to have been destroyed at the end of the fifth century AD, as confirmed by the thick deposits within which founded the walls of the next building phase. In the sixth to seventh century the west part of the house, up to road II, was covered by soil and the area remained largely undeveloped. A section of a circular or apsidal hall was revealed in contact with the north retaining wall of building Ε, to the north of which were a small ante-room and a larger room with a floor of marble tiles. In test trenches underneath the floors of these areas, the oldest construction phase (a polygonal wall of large cut limestone blocks) most probably dates to the fifth century BC.
In Sector 4 work focused on the Roman room with paved floor found at the southwestern end of the excavation area (and continuing beyond it). This basement (or semi-basement) is divided into two parts with a height difference of 0.4m. The lower, eastern part has a floor of stone and marble tiles, clay bricks in secondary use and small pebbles. Two shallow circular pits are surrounded by broad grooves in the tiled surfaces, presumably made by millstones during the processing of cereals. In the eastern part of the room is a similar but smaller circular pit with grooves around it. To the south in the same room were the remains of a rectangular brick construction and a small paved area, of uncertain function. In the higher level to the north, the foundations of rooms group around a large open courtyard with a well. The destruction layer covering this entire basement space was filled with broken bricks from walls, roof tiles and other materials, and is dated by ceramics and coins to the third century AD. Near the north wall of the basement was a water-proofed cistern (VI) in use from the Late Classical/Early Hellenistic period. To its northwest was an open courtyard with a floor of fine pebbles and a well cut into the natural rock. Both well and courtyard went out of use in the Late Hellenistic/Early Roman period. Beneath the floor was another, smaller floor of the same form and construction. To the south of cistern VI was a disturbed pit grave with amphorae showing signs of burning and other offerings dated to the end of the Protogeometric period.
Many structures in Sector 5 continue underneath the Weiler Building to the north and towards the Acropolis Metro station to the east (Fig. 5). The northwestern edge of the area was occupied by the small Central Bath, (Fig. 6) composed of six rooms including a frigidarium (1), tepidarium (2), unctorium (3) and caldarium (4). The bath operated from the end of the fifth century AD and was later rebuilt. It reached its final form by the seventh century, while in the area of building Z to the east, an intermediate, sixth-century, phase was detected. In its final form the complex was extended to the south with the addition of two rooms (5 and 6). The older frigidarium retained the same form, with three small individual pools being built into the east wall. The old unctorium joined with the frigidarium: a further bath lay to the north of it. The tepidarium and caldarium of the first period must both have been used in this phase as tepidaria. Of the two new rooms, the northernmost (5) was a sudatorium, while room 6 to the south was a caldarium. Around the same time or a little earlier (during the sixth century AD) the level of building Z was raised significantly. Many of the previous rooms were consolidated, while others were divided. To the east, areas investigated included continuations of rooms found during the Metro excavations, meeting the ancient road towards the Sanctuary of Dionysos.
Two new areas investigated in 2000, to the southeast of sector 1 and the northwest of sector 4, were previously occupied by construction sites or workrooms for the Metro and the A' ΕΠΚΑ. In the first area, south of road I, few ancient architectural remains were preserved, probably due to the extensive clearance and deep modern construction in the area from the time of its use by the Makrigianni Police Academy onwards. Among the surviving antiquities were: the west continuation for ca. 17.5m of a drain for road I (this being the only evidence of a road in this area); fragments of fifth-century BC pipelines, a long section of which was found to the north in the Metro excavations; two underground cisterns with Late Hellenistic pottery; nine wells of various dates from the second half of the sixth century BC to the Byzantine era; and parts of a Middle Byzantine structure with two building phases to the south of the area. The area was evidently residential in nature.
At the northeastern edge of sector 5, lay the southern section of the Eastern Baths (found during the Metro excavations). Built during the fourth and fifth centuries AD, this included an apodyterion (1), frigidarium (2), tepidarium (3) and caldarium (4). The destruction layer is dated to the seventh century AD (Fig. 7).
The second new excavation, to the northwest of sector 4, borders an area where a large trial trench was dug in 1980 by the Γ' ΕΠΚΑ. A house to the east of those excavations showed three building phases from the Classical to the Early Christian period. The north wall of the earliest phase was constructed of large cut limestone blocks in the polygonal style of the Classical to Hellenistic period; a cistern (III) associated with the house contained first-century BC to first-century AD pottery.