PROMITHEA Veroia - 2006

Promithea Veroias. E. Psarra and S. Lioulias (ΙΖ' ΕΠΚΑ) report on rescue excavation on the Savvas plot at 4 Aivaliou street (fig. 1). Four rooms from a Rom bath complex likely form part of a private establishment located outside the city boundaries, although the structure is too poorly preserved to be sure of its status. The walls include architectural spolia in secondary use. Along the E side of the plot lie the praefurnium and the hypocaust of the caldarium. To the W are 2 rooms with mosaic pavements depicting geometric patterns, room I (the northernmost) in mixed materials (pebbles, terracotta and other stones) and room II (the southernmost) in terracotta set in waterproof mortar. Room I is likely the apodyterium and room II likely a swimming pool. Ceramic evidence indicates use during the 2nd and 3rd Cts AD, with some architectural adaptation in the course of that period. Notable among finds is a lamp imitating a product of the 3rd Ct Attic workshop of ΕΛΠΙΔΗΦΟΡΟΥ. The complex was destroyed and abandoned in the M3rd Ct. Room II was reused as a store, containing pottery of the 1st half of the 5th Ct AD. A Cl child pit grave of the 3rd quarter of the 5th Ct BC was found between the N wall of the praefurnium and a water channel at the N edge of the plot. This contained a rf squat lekythos, a stone alabastron, a bg aryballoid lekythos with a sigma patterned band, a Rheneia cup, nails from the child’s bier and, at the feet, 2 bronze strigils and a terracotta figurine. At shoulder height were a glass alabastron, a lekythos of the workshop of the Megaira Painter and a glass trefoil-mouthed oinochoe. A silver coin of Alexander I served as Charon’s obol. In general, the bath complex is considered in the context of the hitherto limited (but growing) body of evidence for Hel and Rom activity NW of Veroia, outside the city boundaries. In addition to published evidence, a new Hel tomb at 43 Ambelokipon street (on the slopes of the hill of Profitis Ilias) is the most distant from the known Hel cemeteries yet discovered (ADelt B 59 [2004], forthcoming). At 7 Arygyropoulos street, part of a strong N−S wall of Hel date is reported (ADelt B 60 [2005], forthcoming).