LEUKAS - Anc. city - 2000

Leukas, area between Kalligonio and Karyotes (A. Vrettou property). G. Pliakou (then ΙΒ' ΕΠΚΑ) reports the discovery of two poorly-preserved houses of ancient Leukas in continued rescue excavation, which extend beneath the road (Fig. 1: site 1; Figs 2-3).

A stone-built water channel, preserved for some 10m, was further revealed (the greater part having been found in 1999). The eastern part probably originally extended to the east edge of the insula, but was destroyed in a later building phase of the houses. The house walls are poorly preserved and belong to different building phases: both are bordered to the east by a strong polygonal retaining wall supporting the terrace, preserved to ca. 1.5m high. To the east of this is the line of one of the main east-west roads of the town.

The western part of the north house (house A) was fully exposed; many internal walls appear to have been removed in a later building phase or during more recent cultivation. The disturbed fill inside the house contains fifth-century and Late Hellenistic pottery. The south house, B, was better preserved: both the east and west external walls were traced, and parts of the north wall noted. The interior walls belong to different construction phases. In the eastern part of the house are two adjoining rooms with at least two building phases and two destruction deposits (the older of which contains architectural spolia). To the older phase also belong traces of a pebble floor in red mortar. In the western part of the house, which was probably a Hellenistic extension, there are three areas, the largest of which was an open court with a rain-water drain channel running across it. A further channel is traced outside, along the west wall of the house; this ran along the narrow lane dividing the houses. Finds date the main building phase and the main destruction deposit to the Hellenistic period, while use of the area dates back at least to the fifth century BC.