ARTA - Anc. Ambracia - 2004

Arta (anc. Ambracia), junction of an unnamed public road and the third parados of Arachthou (G. Koliou property). P. Gouni (ΙΒ' ΕΠΚΑ) reports that rescue excavation on a plot previously investigated in 1973 revealed the street wall of a fifth-century building and a section of road and pavement (Fig. 1: 282). The wall (preserved to three courses on a krepidoma) was unusually thick (1.1-1.5m as against the usual 0.5-0.6 elsewhere in the city) and of fine masonry, while the preserved sections of interior wall were of roughly-worked limestone slabs. The strength and quality of the construction suggest that this was not a normal domestic structure, but no evidence to identify its function was found. The pavement was surfaced with sandstone slabs (two of which were erroneously identified as a threshold in the 1973 excavation), while the road was of beaten earth with stones and tile fragments. Classical and Hellenistic black-glaze and domestic pottery was recovered, plus a few Archaic sherds and much Byzantine and post-Byzantine. Four worn bronze coins were recovered.