CHERSONISSOS - 2001

Chersonissos. K. Galanaki (ΚΓ’ ΕΠΚΑ) reports on discoveries made between 2001 and 2004.

Part of a Roman bath complex on the E. Tsagkaraki property had a paved central room with a rectangular pool featuring a semicircular apse, and a large two-stepped bathroom with marble-clad floor, walls and steps to the south. To the west were two baths and to the north various subsidiary areas. A caldarium lay to the east. Second-century BC pottery dates the main phases of activity. Later, the doors of the central room were blocked and benches installed around the walls, while a second-century BC statue of an athlete was used to support a pipe.

Another part of a Roman-Late Roman bath complex was discovered in excavation for the central drain. This consisted of three rooms with walls in opus testaceum, and a hypocaust. In Late Roman times the northern part was used as a workshop with the addition of a kiln and hearth. Further building remains and a mosaic floor were found elsewhere on the plot: to the south of the bath complex was a Late Classical pit grave.

A Roman street with surrounding small buildings which were probably potters’ workshops was found on the property of A. Gialouri. Two Late Roman buildings (third-century AD) containing evidence of workshop activity (including lamp moulds) were found on the Karli property. A second- to first-century BC courtyard house lay on the two G. Parlama properties, at the edge of the Roman city, and, elsewhere, a stretch of Roman road was found over which a large later Roman building was constructed.

Stretches of a Late Classical and Hellenistic cemetery were uncovered on the plot of G. Mountraki. Fifty-two graves contained 48 burials of both adults and children. All but two were individual burials with the deceased lying supine with arms and legs straight and the skull to the east. The adult burials contained grave goods and two groups of animal astragaloi are reported from the child burials. In all, 142 pots were recovered, including 37 prochoes/oinochoes, 38 lekythoi, 13 pyxides, 12 red-figure pelikes, 12 lachrymateria, nine hydriae, four phialae, three alabastra and two kantharoi. Other finds included ten iron and one bronze strigils, two lamps, coins jewellery, personal items and sea-shells.