ELLINIKO - 2004

Elliniko. End of the airport road, area of the TRAM depot. K. Kaza-Papageorgiou (ΚΣτ ΕΠΚΑ) reports on excavation in 2003 and 2004.

North of Chasani hill and east of the former West Airport, inside a large building of the 1960s, lay part of an extensive cemetery with 130 tombs. On its north side was an east-west road, while part of another ancient road was found at its west edge. The cemetery was in use from the end of the eighth to the fourth century BC, while the largest number of tombs dates to the fifth century BC and particularly to the first half.

Graves included enchytrismoi in large vessels, stone sarcophagi, cist graves, pit graves, tile graves, pits with pyres, and terracotta and bronze urns. One fourth-century bronze hydria, found inside two inverted stone receptacles, preserved around its shoulder fragments of the fabric which had been wrapped around it before it was deposited. The hydria had Dionysiac relief decoration on a plate attached under the main handle. A bronze dikastic pinakion of a citizen of Euonymon was found in another grave.

48m east of the 1960s building was a Π-shaped funerary peribolos with a marble sarcophagus: around this area was found a small marble lekythos and the back part of a head from a relief stele.

In 2004, excavation of a covered area in the Tram depot revealed a marble sarcophagus from this Π-shaped peribolos. The faҫade of the peribolos was 7.9m long, and the two sides 2.65 and 3.5m. A base of three blocks was found inside it (4.1m long, 1.55m wide, 1.1m high). The faҫade and the base supported the inscribed marble funerary stelai and lekythoi found on the road in front of the monument: two naiskos-shaped stelai with a dexiosis scene on one and a naked youth and his dog on the other, and a palmette stele of the second half of the fourth century BC.

At the back of the peribolos, a circular structure (4.2m in diameter, maximum height 0.65m) was probably related to the funerary rites.

Exploration of the remaining area revealed evidence for a private residence with wells of the fourth century BC, apparently belonging to a family of the deme Euonymon.