PIRAEUS, Ag. Ioannis Rentis - 2004

Agios Ioannis Rentis. 131-133 and 137 Peiraios Street (property of «OIKO-EM-KA-ATE», E. Tsakiri). M. Petritaki (ΚΣτ ΕΠΚΑ) reports that part of a tower (4.35m long and 2.4-2.45m wide) of the north arm of the Long Walls was uncovered in the garden of a property on Periaios Street. Six courses of the tower correspond with the initial construction, while a seventh was a later Roman alteration (fig. 2). North of the tower were the remains of the outer road of the north arm of the Long Walls which linked the city of Athens with Piraeus (fig. 3).

Remains of a large circular funerary monument, 5.8-6.05m in diameter and preserved to a height of 0.85m, were also found (fig. 1). In its centre, two prominent blocks (0.46m high) form the lowest course of the base of the sema which stood on the peak of the tomb, as is typical of such fourth-century BC monuments.

In the Tsakiri plot, north and east of the tomb monument, lay a cemetery in use from the end of the fifth century BC but predominantly in the fourth. Graves comprise a terracotta larnax, six tile graves (three of covers and three in pits with covers), a terracotta sarcophagus and two pyres. Two offering pits and a series of stone blocks probably form the remains of a destroyed peribolos. One remarkable grave pyre contained five katadesmoi, four of which were rolled sheets of lead pierced with an iron nail (fig. 5). Above, in disturbed earth, was a marble lekythos with a relief depiction of a warrior and the inscription ΚΡΑΤΩΝΟΣ ΣΦΗΤΙΟ (fig. 4).

Other finds from the cemetery included part of a marble funerary stele with pediment and rosettes, inscribed ΦΙΛΙΠΠΗ ΦΙΛΙΣΤΙΔΟΥ ΕΚΚΕΡΑΜΕΩΝ (fig. 6), three limestone bases (one for a stele and two for lekythoi), the crown of a marble naiskos-shaped stele with the inscription ΔΙΟΝΥΣΩ ΔΩΡΟΣ ΠΑΛΛΗΝΕΥΣ, a fragmentary crown of a funerary stele with traces of colour, two fragments of a marble funerary stele with the inscription ΚΟΚΚΑ, part of a funerary stele with a relief of a loutrophoros, fragments of a marble foot, and part of a limestone alabastron.