Sikyon - 2017

Ancient Sikyon. I. Lolos (ASA) reports on continued excavations SE and NW of the agora (Fig. 1). In the first region, to the SE (Fig. 2), there came to light commercial establishments of the end of the 4^th c. AD, as demonstrated by 55 coins found in the so-called ‘north room’, abundant ceramics, fragments of glass vessel and metal objects. Conservation restored 11 amphorae, a pithos, 3 African Red Slip plates, cookpots, amphora lids, jugs and small amphorae. The spaces on either side of the ‘north room’ were found almost destroyed in the Medieval period, from the 5^th to 7^th c. AD, because they had been used as a source for building materials. Among the finds were the incomplete dedicatory inscription ‘[---]λου Δά[ματρι;]' of Roman date and a kiln of the end of the 6^th/ beginning of the 7^th c. AD. In the southern side of the excavated area 2 further ceramic kilns were discovered, additional to the 4 found previously, constructed within existing rectangular spaces.

In another location of the area 4 rectangular rooms were uncovered, of unequal size, with destroyed walls in continuous use from early Hellenistic period until the 7^th c. AD (Fig. 4). In the first and largest room was found a well, filled to a depth of 6m with fragmentary utilitarian cooking vesselsof the period between the 1^st c. BC and the beginning of the 1^st c. AD. The quantity suggests debris from a tavern or inn. In the well was found a clay sima with coloured decoration of palmettes and lotus over a meander pattern (Fig. 3). The finds indicate that the well went out of use in the time of Augustus and belonged to a complex with spaces for banqueting and sale of food. The complex was open to the E and had been constructed in the Hellenistic period. Probably it was a stoa.

The foundations only of part of another building (7.30m x 8.05m) dating to the 1^st c. BC and constructed with cut stone blocks were revealed (Fig. 5).