Port of Hersonissos (Limenas Hersonissou) - 2007

Stella Mandalaki (ΚΓ’ ΕΠΚΑ) reports that between 2006 and 2007, the biological cleaning of the port of Hersonissos aiming to sewage installation continued. Due to the discovery of antiquities along the road 10 trenches were opened.  The discovered architectural remains date from the Early Roman to the Early Byzantine periods. 

In Trench 1, at the south part of the excavated area, few wall remains were found, contrary to the rest of the trenches. A rectangular brick structure with a plaster layer in its interior, which could have been a small cistern of an Early Christian grave, is of interest. However, the excavation of the deposit did not produce any relevant finds.

In Trench 2 a Late Roman wall with a S-N orientation was unearthed. Reused worked boulders, architectural remains, column and statue parts were integrated to the lower parts of the wall; the upper blocks were consisted of small stones and mortar. A cobbled floor with a complete in situ amphora was also detected in relation to the wall.

In Trench 3, at the meeting point of Dimokratias Street and Filonidou Zotou Street which was excavated in 2005-2006, a staircase leading to an extended cobbled area, potentially a stoa based on the discovery of a column base on a platform, was detected (Fig. 1). Due to the location of the find in the area of the ancient agora, this might have been the entrance of an important public building. Two Hellenistic graves were found at the end of Filonidou Zotou Street, containing pyxides, bronze fibulae, golden jewellery, a bronze mirror and a silver coin.

Two more Hellenistic burials were found in Trench 4. One was looted, whereas the other contained plenty of grave goods.   

In Trench 5, among the architectural remains that define rooms and other walls, a rectangular brick structure (Fig. 2),  with water resistant plaster in the interior, which is divided in two parts by a small wall was also found. This structure which is in contact with an Early Roman wall and was later sealed with a Late Roman floor might have been a storage space.  

From Trench 6 a Middle and Late Roman storage space with four large partially buried pithoi should be mentioned (Fig. 3).

In Trench 7, the discovered rooms seem to have been carefully built. Some examples are a Late Roman wall (Fig. 4), and a Late Roman clay pipe (Fig. 5) 12.70 m. long, probably related to the bath complex in the nearby Tsagkarakis property.

An Early Roman road made of irregular stones (Fig. 6) with an S-N orientation was found in Trench 8.  It was later covered with three successive layers of discarded bricks, pottery and building material (Fig. 7), which were sealed with three plaster floors. 

Only a few architectural remains were discovered in Trenches 9 and 10 at the north part of Dimokratias Street to its meeting point with Daidalou Street.

During the sewage installation at Dimokratias Street parts of the architectural remains were removed in order to avoid damage, since other solutions were not feasible. In an excavated alley of Filonidou Zotou Street, the continuation of the cobbled road that was excavated in Giokaris property was unearthed (Fig. 8). The sewage installation in this alley was cancelled in order to protect the cobbled floor.

[Etnry created by C. Koureta]