CHANIA - 2009

Chania. 161 Apokoronou Street (Malephaki property). S. Markoulaki (ΚΕ’ ΕΠΚΑ) reports further work in 1996 on a unique funerary monument of broadly Roman date which was first located in 1958 by N. Platon and subsequently used as a storeroom for the house built over it. The monument, which covers 110m² and is ca.3.5m high, has a north entrance, now destroyed. Inside were two parallel barrel-vaulted corridors with a loculus on each side, and further in, and probably lower, two high vaulted halls of different plan. Traces of a cross-vault and stone-cut pillars survive. Arcosolia – narrow, shallow, but quite high – were cut into the sides of the halls. Plaster survives on the roof, and it likely that the whole structure was originally plastered. The tomb type, which probably evolved from the Hellenistic loculus form, may date to Late Antiquity, partly filling the Late Roman gap in funerary evidence at Chania. Its size and complexity suggest that it belonged to a distinguished family.

On the neighbouring Fortsaki plot (at the junction of Apokonarou and Paparigopoulou Streets), four late second- to early third-century AD rock-cut tombs and two tile-graves were found intact in 1992. N. Platon had previously found a votive inscription nearby: Διί] και τοις αλλοις θεοίς] πάσι Σώσος Νεοκύδους θεο]πολήσας.