MAROUSI - 2006

Marousi, Agios Thomas, Orsas Petroutsou Street (O.T. 847 and O.T. 866, property of N. Stroumpou). Irene Vrettou (Β’ ΕΠΚΑ) reports the discovery of a Byzantine/Late Byzantine storeroom. Fifteen pithoi had thin walls covered with sherds on the outside (some glazed) and mortar on the inside: two preserved their schist slab lids. Pithoi found at the southern side of the plot (Fig. 1) were similarly constructed, but their mouths were surrounded by a stone structure and a mortar packing. The pithoi were cut into an earlier stone and tile floor (with a surface coating) and a rubble wall.

A mortar-lined cistern with walls of stones and mortar (widened towards the bottom) was evidently used for liquid storage as a terracotta pipe led to its rim. Fourteen further pits of various sizes were also excavated.

Finds from the plot include coarse and combed sherds, loom weights, tile, large quantities of glazed sherds, a plainware vessel with combed decoration around its neck, metal objects and a bronze patch. Both the sherds and the pithoi bear signs of burning.

Three walls (of rubble, tile and mortar), not all from the same structure,were excavated in the western part of the plot, along with five small storage pits and two semicircular structures of unknown function. Finds from this part of the plot include plain and glazed sherds, an animal figurine, an unguentarium, fragments of stone vessels, and a small, undecorated, globular vessel found upside down and containing ash and eggshells.