PIRAEUS - AKTE MIAOULI - 2006

Piraeus, 10 Akte Miaouli Street (OLP property). Maria Petritaki (ΚΣΤ’ ΕΠΚΑ) reports the discovery of harbour installations orientated north-south and facing east (fig. 1). Eleven rooms were identified covering a length of 117m. Some are identified as warehouses with several phases of use, repair and extension. These installations are dated to the Late Roman/Early Christian period (fourth- to fifth-century AD), and are founded on bedrock.

Building A appears to be the earliest, since Classical and Hellenistic pottery was recovered from its foundation trench. The building had three rectangular rooms (the middle one 9m across and those on either side 5.53m) with walls of limestone blocks of various sizes, evidently in secondary use. Building A was extended northwards, where two pithos stores with tiled floors and pithoi preserved in situ were identified. The adjacent rooms 6-9 appear to be of the same date. Room 10 was excavated at a small distance away, and room 11 was found in the southeast corner of the property. Due to local sea-level change the complex was partly submerged.

The complex is in the area of the Classical Emporion and much of its building material appears to have come from the Emporion installations. It attests to the continuing use of this area in Late Roman and Early Christian times despite the shrinkage of the Piraeus settlement and the decline in the port’s economy.