GORTYN - 2007

Profitis Ilias settlement. N. Allegro (SAIA/Palermo) reports on the 2007 season of excavation, involving sector B (W part, N of E−W road). Here a new Geo−Ar building (IV; 10 x 8m investigated) was uncovered adjacent to and to the E of building V, W of an alleyway and fronting the E−W road to the S; its N limit is outside the excavated area (Fig. 1).
One certain external entrance is known at the W, from the N−S alleyway. Inside, 4 rooms are known to date. The lack of communication between the W and E sides led the excavators to suggest there are in fact 2 simpler strip-houses. The shortage of tumbled stone inside the room interiors perhaps indicates a greater use of brick for the upper elevations. There are few finds and little furniture on the floors, which makes the function of the rooms unclear.
The E unit may have an opening onto the S road from room 13/14: its S and E walls have shelves made from stone slabs − potentially rests for pithoi to judge from the abundant sherds in the abandonment layers. Room 17 to the N has a structure in the NW corner composed of a bench of 3 limestone blocks and an arc of slabs. Inside this was part of a millstone; this could identify the structure as a grain mill.
The W unit rooms (15 and 16) are linked by a door 2m w. Room 15 to the S has a roughly central flat slab set in the earth floor: perhaps a support for a wooden post. In the NW corner is a quadrangular bench, built with rough stones. Room 16 has a few potential pot-stand bases of stone at floor level. Part of a later road-bed was seen over its NW corner, after the abandonment of the house in the 7th Ct BC.
Alley (B18) between this and building V on the E is 1.8m w. It runs off to the N from the E−W road, its surface a mix of earth and stone flakes; it might have had steps. Building V is little explored: it is entered from the W, from the alley B18, whose threshold has a pivot-hole for the door.
The settlement layout is well enough understood to discern that it had a pattern in its final phase (L8th-E7th Ct BC): an E−W main artery with alleyways off it defining the house-plots in between. This presupposes planning and political organization of a quite advanced nature.

Building S in the Byz quarter. G.M. Fabrini (SAIA/Macerata) reports on the excavation season of 2007. The position and nature of this structure, with its façade of large blocks on the W street, indicates that it originally served a public function (Fig. 2). Constructed in the LRom period, it was then used into EByz times when more domestic structures grew up around it. Its latest stages, until the destruction of Gortyn by the earthquake of 670 AD, still require elucidation.
Access was by a monumental entrance hall (with a door frame of limestone blocks and doorstep of reused marble) both long and narrow: on either side a small room exists, with 2 larger ones further from the road. Another room of similar dimensions lies at the NW. Research was focused on the large central space, room 53 (8.22m E−W x 5.75m N−S): its walls, set on the bedrock, were of a chalky material worked into blocks of varying size, in turn split and arranged in roughly horizontal courses, regulated at times by inserting smaller pieces of stone and brick. A well-made pavement of rectangular limestone slabs, fully preserved, was laid on the prepared bedrock. Two doorways, one each in the N and S walls, are accented by 2 double-layered niches.
The scanty material associated with this phase of construction dates it to the last decades of the 4th Ct AD − in keeping with the building techniques used. Room 53, and presumably all of building S, was reconstructed after a destruction, which is marked by the presence of huge blocks of sandstone and other recycled materials. The destruction was caused by the terrible earthquake of 670 AD, as indicated by the stratigraphy: a layer of ash and broken and charred beams contained many roof tiles and hundreds of iron nails, all from the collapse of the roof. In the same layer many differently shaped slabs of marble of varying sources and quality were recovered: these have been restored as a decorative upper flooring of geometric panels and polychrome strips. Small hexagonal bricks are associated, as well as a roundel of green serpentine.
Following the destruction, collapsed levels relate to other walls composed from reused material: fragmented sculptures and architectural fragments such as a small Cor-Italian sandstone column of the 2nd−1st Ct BC. Further collapses have been ascribed to the L7th−E8th Ct AD and beyond, culminating in abandonment.
Other work was undertaken N of the monument. When building S was begun, this was an open space. Later structures and walkways were added, culminating in the erection of rooms 47 and 47a. This stage produced material dating to the L8th Ct AD and later.

The thermal baths to the S of the so-called praetorium. G. Bejor (SAIA/Milan) reports on the excavation concentrated in the area between the frigidarium and the praefurnia of the baths. This sector was initially occupied by the hot rooms, but underwent an early collapse of the floors and subsequent caving in of the ground: in turn this permitted only simple construction.
The most significant area for understanding the anc. monument is the W range behind the frigidarium. A strip of original floor is preserved in the northernmost room. A door connected this room, which ought to be the caldarium according to its position, to room N, not yet excavated: the area was occupied by village houses in the 7th Ct AD. A 2nd room at the centre is much better preserved: its construction is linked to the reconstruction of the frigidarium, already established as belonging to the 5th or E6th Ct AD. It was separated from the frigidarium by a newly-built wall that incorporated 2 earlier pillars. In the wall were a door and doorstep, inlaid in opus sectile. Inside were 2 basins of differing sizes, accessed by steps. Both were covered in the customary polychrome marble lining, many fragments of which remain. The N basin has a well-preserved floor with a black and white chequered mosaic, each motif made up of hundreds of marble tesserae.
Work was undertaken on the access-way to the SW bath complex. The existence of a large column base in situ here was previously noted; it appeared to have been covered by the outer wall of the baths which thereby conserved it. The top of the column base is visible, as well as a paved road relating to the square in front of it. These are the first traces of monumental construction in this area: they probably belong to the period of the nymphaeum which was subsequently transformed into the cistern for the bath complex. The square seems to cover an area of almost 80m², delineating the S limit of the bath structure in the direction of the large baths accessed by the Megali Porta.

The Byz quarter of the Pythion. E. Zanini (SAIA/Siena) reports on the 5th excavation season.
There were 3 goals in 2007: to the NE to clear the street that acted as the axial thoroughfare in all periods; to expand excavation to the N to include a large structure of EByz date; and to the W to unify a number of areas investigated earlier.
The axial street, running NE−SW, had assumed this role perhaps as early as the start of the 5th Ct AD; by the time of its abandonment in the 1st half of the 8th Ct AD it led through a landscape of ruins and decay. The EByz building had a central role in its district: of large size, it was well appointed with pavements and painted wall-plaster. Built in the L6th/E7th Ct, it underwent several complicated phases, with a series of internal spatial reorganizations. It was accessed from the street through a large entrance with a threshold of a slab probably reused from the Pythion. This led into a paved court with rooms off it. A large and well-planned drainage system, emptying into the sewers under the street, implies a large volume of water − initially perhaps for civic use (for baths?) and later used for artisanal purposes.
Finally, to the W and in front of the Pythion complex, a trial trench dug by Halbherr (in the E 1900s) was reopened. Mostly occupied by a Byz rubbish pit, filled in 2 phases (5th and 7th Cts AD), there was below a likely Rom structure showing a quality of construction consistent with that evident in known Rom phases in the temple. A structure 4.2m² encloses a circular room: the whole is entered from the W. Inside, though much robbed and rebuilt, a few original traces remained: clay lamps of the 2nd/3rd Ct, amphorae and jug sherds suggest a possible cult connection (Fig. 3). A similar conclusion is indicated by its direct alignment with the doorway of the Pythion.

The water supply of Gortyn. E. Giorgi (SAIA/Siena) reports on the 3rd season of investigation of the city’s water supply in the Graeco-Rom and Byz periods.
Gortyn’s main aqueduct is sourced ca. 15km away, from the springs at Zaros on the slopes of Mt Ida. The water feeds first into a capture tank, a rectangular chamber (37 x 5m) with walls of thick opus caementicum and a concrete vault. Thence it is transported in a rectangular-sectioned conduit (1m h. and 0.5m w.), at times set into rock cuttings and at others supported by a 2m h. wall. Once in the valley of the Mitropolianos (N of Gortyn), the line ran along the river bank and into the city.
At least 4 phases have been identified. While a Hel predecessor has been conjectured, this currently lacks archaeological support. The first unequivocal presence of an aqueduct dates to the E Imperial period (2nd Ct AD). Two aqueducts directed the flow to the acropolis and the N side of Gortyn. In the city centre water towers fed a system of underground clay pipes. Near the praetorium, these pipes connect the monumental nymphaeum with the Rom baths; more are known beneath the Byz quarter by the Pythion. The system continued to the end of the 4th Ct, but then suffered detectable damage: the praetorium system went out of use around the turn of the 5th Ct AD.
The EByz phase (L6th−E7th) is best understood (Fig. 4). Outside the city the Rom system of delivery was maintained. Inside, innovations were made − some pipes were replaced by above-ground cistern fountains (51 known so far), mostly arranged in clusters by landmarks such as the acropolis, the praetorium and the Megali Porta baths. They are of different sizes, ranging in capacity from 48 to 62m³. Fed directly from the aqueduct, they were built of stone blocks and bricks (typical of the work of the time). They were rectangular in shape with a barrel vault, coated with hydraulic mortar and reinforced inside at the corners with ribs to counter the outwards thrust of the water. On the exterior, enlivened with geometric patterns in the brickwork, niches were created (1−3 in number), carrying draw taps. In addition, 3−4 larger cisterns, in volume in the hundreds of m³ range, were located at important places, such as the acropolis, the baths and the church of St Titus and that at Mitropolis. They were probably to hold emergency stores and could not be drawn on directly.

The Hel temple. E. Lippolis (SAIA/Rome) reports on renewed excavation (begun in 2005) of the temple in the block N of the praetorium gymnasium.
As well as new elements of the façade (Ionic half columns) and an inner fronton, an internal arch 7m w. in ashlar is of particular interest: its lintel is decorated in sequence by an architrave, an Ionic denticulated frieze and a final cornice. Study suggests this arch, with its 2 side ante of 1m w., was set in the wall that divides the vestibule from the cella. This allows the entire cult hall to be visible from the entrance − a unique arrangement in the Mediterranean (though with some faint echoes of Syrian usage). It would also help explain another very rare aspect − the closed-in façade, with Ionic half columns, to the vestibule. Against the N wall of the vestibule once stood a rectangular arrangement of stone blocks, likely a monumental structure for offerings, although now robbed out.
Following the abandonment of the structure as a place of worship, excavation has revealed 2 L antique phases. Initially it became a public building, with a portico, and remained as such to the start of the 7th Ct; later, and into the 8th Ct, it was used as a manufacturing centre. Three cisterns against the N side yielded some valuable statuary: apart from small fragments, noteworthy are a head of a youth, the lower part of a man in a toga (a composite piece) and a large torso of a woman, a peplophoros. This last seems to be a 2nd Ct AD reworking of a Demeter Capitolina type.