PIRAEUS - 6 Fokionos Street - 2006

Piraeus, 6 Fokionos Street (property of the Academy of Athens). Kornelia Axioti (ΚΣΤ’ ΕΠΚΑ) reports the discovery of a 9m-long section of a 4.4m-deep ditch belonging to the fortification of the Piraeus (fig. 1). The ditch lies 18m north of (and parallel to) a section of the wall excavated on the Augeris plot (47 Gounari Street) in 1992. It has a maximum width of 5m in the west of the plot and a minimum of 2.5m in the east, contained terracotta pipes, and extends up to 8m east of Fokionos Street. The excavated section probably lies near one of the Piraeus gates. The state of preservation of the ditch varied, with the bottom part in best condition. It contained building material, pottery (black-glazed and plain), coins, lead sling bullets and several other small artifacts. A north-south cutting in the bedrock, 0.5-0.55m wide, 0.7m deep, rectangular in section and containing terracotta pipes, lay 6.5m east of Fokionos Street. It ran from the ditch in the north to the northern face of the ancient fortification wall at the south.

So far only three sections of the ditch have been located in the Piraeus, one by the Eetioneia gate, and the other two on Gounari Street.