ARTA - Anc. Ambracia - 2002

Arta (anc. Ambracia), ring road (Pavlopoulou-Drougou property). P. Gouni (ΙΒ' ΕΠΚΑ) reports the discovery of a 16.5m-long stretch of the city fortification, a continuation of those previously found on the Gartzonika and Vana-Ravanou properties (see respectively ADelt 47 [1997] Chr 265; ADelt 42 [1989] Chr 263). (Fig. 1: 270) The wall was 3m wide with two worked faces and a rubble core: it ran north-south with a jog around mid-course. The high water table prevented investigation of the foundations and thus precise dating, but at least four building phases can be discerned in the exposed masonry. There was originally an entrance way in the southwest leg of the circuit, framed by two walls, probably for a road (although the water table precluded investigation of this). This was then filled in using spolia from earlier buildings in the area, perhaps relatively soon after the initial construction, at which point the jog in the wall was also introduced. The construction of the northeast arm of the fortification is different again (both faces being less carefully made), and it is possible either that the wall was extended here beyond the excavation plot or that a gate was introduced here. In a still later phase the wall was extended to the north. A destruction level containing tile was found across the entire area of the excavation, probably from a tiled roof over the mud-brick superstructure of the wall. One tile bears a stamp in the form of a baetyl, and another the letters:

 

--] Α

ΔΡΟΜ

ΧΟΥ

 

The use of the wall is dated to the Classical and Hellenistic periods by the plain ceramics (amphorae, pithoi, chytres and basins) and black-glaze (skyphoi, kylikes and kantharoi) collected. Two bronze pins, an iron spearhead, and 13 very worn bronze coins were also found.