ARTA - Anc. Ambracia - 2001

Arta (anc. Ambracia), Fleming Street (Balafa property). Th. Kontogianni (ΙΒ’ ΕΠΚΑ) reports the discovery of parts of two intersecting roads and a roadside house, built on bedrock. The paved road surfaces were laid on a bed of stone chips, pebbles and tile: a paved path ran alongside each road (that on the west side of the northern road being raised slightly above the road surface). The western retaining wall of the northern road and the northern retaining wall of the intersecting wall were also exterior, street walls of the house. Inside the house, bedrock lay almost at the surface. At the southernmost edge of the plot, the corner of a second house was located at the junction of the two roads. The little pottery collected (mainly plainware and black-glaze) dates from the fourth to the early second century, and includes a group of fourth-century miniature vessels from a foundation deposit inside the house. Third- to second-century bronze coins of Ambracia were also found, plus a few metal items. Rubbish pits containing plain and glazed pottery date to the Late Byzantine and post-Byzantine periods.