Anc. POTEIDAIA Kassandreia - 2006

Poteidaia (Kassandreia). D. Koussoulakou (Archaeological Institute of Macedonia and Thrace) and V. Misailidou- Despotidou (ΙΖ' ΕΠΚΑ) report on a further season of excavation of 3 plots in the E sector and one in the SW of the mod. settlement.

In the E, 2 Hel complexes were investigated, on either side of a N−S road. Both are bounded to the N by an E−W wall and belong to an urban plan organized in insulae. The W consisted of a central courtyard containing a well and water channel, with rooms to the E and W. On the W side, 2 rooms were connected via a stone threshold in secondary use: the N room had a patterned pebble floor set in waterproof mortar. A similar pair of rooms on the E side, together with a passage way, is less well preserved: the main street entrance was on this side. Much E and MHel pottery was found in the courtyard, plus lamps and figurines. The E complex is larger (extending further S and beyond the excavation area): a large rectangular room in the NW is bordered by 3 adjoining rooms to the S. A pebble pavement preserved in the NW corner is later than the original construction (with a tpq of the 1st half of the 3rd Ct BC). Finds from the complex include figurines, Thasian and other amphora handles, and pottery including bg and W Slope. The absence of earlier fills or of pottery predating the L4th Ct suggests that both complexes were built very soon after the foundation of Kassandreia. A 2nd, LRom, building phase (5th Ct AD) was also traced and 3 buildings identified, all of which were destroyed by fire in the M5th Ct. Scattered pits containing 12th Ct AD pottery date the latest use of the area.

In the SW sector, close to the shore, a very limited excavation took place confined by mod. foundations. Traces of 6 building phases were found, dating to the Ar, Cl, Hel and Rom periods. The area was settled almost as far back as the foundation of the colony of Poteidaia. Phase 1, containing pits and 2 graves without goods, dates to the Byz period. Phase 2 produced evidence of a building (of which 2 rooms, one perhaps a cistern, were investigated) built during the 1st half of the 1st Ct AD. Phase 3, with 4 rooms of a complex, is Hel in date (producing W Slope pottery). Phase 4 had a fragmentary Cl building and fills. Phase 5 is represented by a pithos from an older, LAr, building phase (with Attic and Cor pottery). No further building remains were found. Phase 6 is an ash layer containing Ar Cor pottery and debris from a bronze-working establishment.