Sparta - Ag. Eirini - 2014

Sparta - Ag. Eirini, Regional Motorway between Sparta and Mystras. Leonidas Souhleris (E’ EPKA) reports on the excavation held in the Ag. Eirini area of the motorway between Sparta and Mystras. The excavation was held due to the construction of a municipal park, and it revealed part of an early Roman cemetery and architectural remains dating between the Hellenistic and the Roman times (fig. 1).

The burials were located in the NE part of the park, close to the motorway (fig. 2). They were five in total, oriented SE-NW, with the addition of an exhumation. Two of them were two-story tile-roof burials, two were simple tile-roof burials, and one was a cist grave, covered with schist stone slabs and signified by a large stone in the E (as a burial signal). None of the burials contained grave-goods, and the deceased individuals were placed in outstretched positions, with their head towards the E. The exhumation contained two lamps (fig. 3), in the Roman times, between the first and the second century AD. The pottery collected in the area was dated between the late Hellenistic and the Roman times.
The burial assimilation was found outside of the Hellenistic walls of Sparta and in close distance of the Roman cemetery (private property Katsari). The architectural remains located nearby were possibly related to workshop areas and could be dated in the late Hellenistic times.

The aforementioned architectural remains were located in the SW part of the plot, along with a burial and a well, which also served as a disposal pit. They could all be dated in the Classical times (fig. 4). The pottery located in this area included storage and regular vessel sherds (unpainted and black-painted amphorae, lekanis, skyphoi, trefoil-mouth oenochoe etc.), parts of a pan-shaped vessel, parts of mills, parts of a vessel’s body with raised decoration depicting a man with Daedalus’ style hair (fig. 5), an obsidian blade etc. Additionally, a disposal pit was located on the SW, containing a burial amphora (fig. 6).

[Entry created by E. Kourti]