PIRAEUS - 2004

22 Aktis Koumoundourou Street (Moutsatsou property). M. Petritaki (ΚΣτ ΕΠΚΑ) reports the excavation of parts of four shipsheds at the harbour of Mounichia; the complete width of three was preserved while the fourth was almost destroyed to the west of the property. The structure consists of a continuous wall oriented east-west, parallel with the sea, and four parallel series of cubic bases (or their substructures) for the colonnades which supported pitched wooden roofs. Between these colonnades was a sloping krepidoma build of stone slabs, which should extend a few metres into the sea to launch ships’ keels into the water.

Within the boundaries of the plot, the shipsheds are 21.8m long at most; the column bases are around 5.3m apart. From a section of a column found nearby, the intercolumnar space is estimated at ca 5.45m. Since the average width of a trireme was around 5.56m these shipsheds are a little narrow, raising questions about the type of ships housed.

The shipsheds were built in the fourth century BC and remained in use until the Roman period, probably being destroyed by Sulla.