ARTA - Anc. Ambracia - 2000

Arta, Kosma Aitolou Street (Zerva property). Th. Kontogianni (ΙΒ' ΕΠΚΑ) reports the completion of excavation in the centre of the ancient city (cf. ADelt 54 [1999] Chr, 470) which revealed parts of three houses separated by water channels (Fig. 1). These houses, with minor extensions and modifications, date from Archaic to Hellenistic times (seventh/sixth to second century BC).

House A in the northwestern part of the plot included three rooms, one of which had a pebble pavement. Of house B to the south only a corner was preserved. Of house Γ, in the east of the plot, only two rooms can be traced, badly damaged by later building. The final construction phase dates to the fourth century BC, and the dense destruction deposit which covers mainly houses A and B and the water channels dates the destruction to the end of the third or the early second century BC. An earlier, early fifth-century, phase is recognized in sections of wall in house Γ and in a destruction deposit of the end of the fifth century in this area. Archaic construction is seen in the lowest levels of the walls of house B (first half of the sixth century BC) and in the foundation level of the walls of house Γ (seventh to sixth century BC). An extensive layer of (mostly local) Late Geometric pottery was found across the plot, with no associated architecture. There were also a few bronze coins of Ambracia and small metal objects.

Kosma Aitolou and Philellinon Streets (Rombou property). Th. Kontogianni reports the discovery on a plot slightly to the east of the Zerva property of a road and a roadside house to the east (Figs 2-3).

The cobbled road, one of the dense network of cross-streets in the city grid, running northwest-southeast, was 3.5−4m wide and was traced for a length of 17.8m. A pavement ran along the west side. The east retaining wall was also the front wall of the roadside house within which two main areas are noted − a courtyard with a pebble and paved floor and a water channel, and a tripart andron with a shallow step round the walls of the two southern parts and fine pebble pavements (white in the northern part, and grey and white in the others, with traces of red colour mainly in the east). The Classical phase of the house is seen in the lower parts of the exterior walls and in the courtyard where there is evidence for differences in the arrangement of the interior space. A group of miniature vases was found in a building dedication deposit in the courtyard.

Finds include Classical and Hellenistic pottery, with notable Archaic from the burial, many bronze coins of Ambracia, mostly third- to second-century BC, and small metal objects.