EGNATIA ODOS, Neochori Junction - 2002

Egnatia Odos: Neochori junction. G. Riginos (Η’ ΕΠΚΑ) reports the following discoveries.

Branch 3: sections S:18-20: a destruction layer (covering 16 x 6.5m) with tile, pithos and pottery sherds, and burning. A potter’s kiln lay in the east part of the excavated area with a round, clay-lined chamber (ca. 2m diameter) preserved to the height of the combustion chamber (0.5m). The chamber was divided into three areas by two clay-coated walls, and had a clay floor: the stomion opened to the east. Large quantities of sherds lay inside the stomion and the chamber, as well as numerous masses of iron Sherds of plain domestic pottery as well as black-glaze were recovered from the wider area.

Branch 3: sections S3-1, 3-2: a small part of a destruction level was revealed, with tile, pithos and vessel sherds. On the eastern slopes of the excavation area was the lower part of a pithoid vessel containing carbonized seeds of six types of plant: monococcal and diplococcal wheat, broad beans, bitter vetch, rye, and darnel (Lolium temelentum). Finds from the area include sherds of pithoid vessels, plain and black-glaze pottery, an iron nail and a bronze object.

Branch 4: sections S:4-3, 4-2: 11 (imperial) Roman tombs were found. Nine were cist graves (simple pits with gravel floors), two of which contained children, with bronze coins, pottery and glass vessels. One cremation is indicated by slight traces of burn bone on a thick burnt layer: a pot containing a lamp and sherds of a glass unguentarium was associated with the burial. A stone-built cist (with walls of stones of varying size, bricks and tile) contained an in situ inhumation plus the remains of eight further burials, seven of which were displaced inhumations. Grave goods comprised: five bronze coins, two bronze fibulae (one of which was a bow fibulae with engraved and linear decoration), three bronze hoop earrings, an iron dagger, and three pots (including a cup which contained a cremation). The removal of all these remains revealed further (mostly leg) bones gathered together at a greater depth in the centre of the tomb and along its north wall, plus two crania in the western part of the tomb. Accompanying the bones were an iron dagger, a bow-shaped object which incorporates a long iron item and three bronze coins plus one silver. The obverse of the silver coin depicts a female (probably Aphrodite) and the reverse Pegasus: one of the bronze coins is a solidus of Constantine I (320 AD). The excavation as a whole produced 23 pots (plus sherds chiefly of plainware), six glass vessels, 16 coins (15 bronze and one silver), 11 bronze and nine iron objects and a terracotta female figurine.