Kallithea (6 Perikleous street) - 2023

Eirini Skiaderesi (Ephorate of Antiquities of Piraeus and Islands) reports on an rescue excavation in Kallithea.

An archaeological excavation in 6 Perikleous Str. uncovered an ancient road, with direction N.-S, along the entire length of the lot (14.30 m) (fig. 1). A preliminary observation of the excavation’s finds (Fig. 2) shows that the archaeological context dates back to the late archaic era and was in use until the early Hellenistic period (6 th Century BCE – 4 th Century BCE). The excavated area, in its first documented phase, was crossed by a river. At the end of the 6th Century BCE an embankment wall, width 60 cm, was built E to the river. In a second phase, the river course was deviated and its bed was filled with small-size and medium-size stones to lay down the foundation layer of a road. At the same time, another wall (width 60 cm) was built 4 meters W to the first one and running parallel to it, thus providing the W limit of the road. In between the two walls, it has been observed the alternation of three different layers of shingle and three layers of loose gravel and sand, which is likely to document three different construction phases of the road’s layer of use, following its repeated destruction by the river’s overflowing and inundating its ancient bed. The aforementioned alternation of archaeological layers shows that the road was destroyed and rebuilt at least three times. The chronology of the different road’s layers, which date back to the Classical and Hellenistic periods, the road’s bidirectional size as well as its direction, suggest the discovery of a Classical road, possibly connecting a rural deme of the Attic region to the city of Athens and to its harbor in Piraeus.