PIRAEUS - Poseidonos and 1 Gounari Streets - 2006

Piraeus, Poseidonos and 1 Gounari Streets (property of the Tzaneion Hospital). Maria Petritaki (ΚΣΤ’ ΕΠΚΑ) reports the discovery of a 27.2m-long section of the Long Stoa (fig. 1), the longest of the Emporion stoas.

The back of the stoa consisted of eight rectangular rooms alternating between two different width categories: Room 1: 5 × 1.7m, Room 2: 4.95 × 3.7., Room 3: 5 × 1.75m, Room 4: 4.9 × 3.8m, Room 5: 4.9 × 2.2., Room 6: 4.9 × 3.8m, Room 7: 4.9 × 3.9m., Room 8: 4.5 × 1.9.m. The back wall of the stoa, built of Piraeus limestone, was 3.4m thick, while the front wall of the row of rooms was 0.6m thick (with 1.3m-thick foundations): the dividing walls were poorly preserved. The stylobate of the stoa colonnade during the Classical period lay 4.5m south of the front wall: 1.9-2m wide, it was excavated for a length of 9m. During the Roman period, a new 18m-long stylobate was constructed closer (3.9m) to the front wall.

Floors, found in Rooms 7, 8, 6, 1 and 2, were poorly preserved due to modern constructions, but belong to two different Roman construction phases. The pottery and terracotta loom weights found in these rooms also date to this later phase of the building. The excavated rooms are interpreted as granaries were wheat was kept for redistribution to the Athenians.

A road revealed south of the stoa could be that which ran between the stoa and the walls of the Piraeus (parts of these walls have previously been discovered at 3 Gounari Street).