ATHENS - Monastiraki - 2001

General Information

Record ID

2125

Activity Date

2001

Chronology

Bronze Age - Late Bronze Age

Antiquity - Classical - Hellenistic - Roman

Byzantine period - Early Byzantine - Middle Byzantine - Late Byzantine

Post-Independence

Key-words

Pipe/drain - Cistern - Well - Residence - Tomb - Hearth/Kiln/Oven - Inscription - Hydraulic installation - Domestic space - Production/extraction site

Type of Operation

Excavation - Rescue excavation

Institution

Γ' Εφορεία Προϊστορικών και Κλασικών Αρχαιοτήτων (Γ' ΕΠΚΑ)

Localisation

Toponym
Athens Centre (Plaka, Monastiraki), Athènes Centre

Linked Record

2001

Report

Athens, 2-4 Areos Street. V. Orphanou (Γ’ ΕΠΚΑ) reports on excavations for the Monastiraki metro station, begun in 1997. Discoveries are presented by period.

A. Late Classical-Hellenistic: the oldest building phase, in the southwest sector, featured a structure with foundations of margaic limestone in secondary use at a depth of 5.78-5.97m, and above a layer of packed red earth.

B. Late Hellenistic-Early Roman (second century BC - second century AD):

A building of urban character in the northeast sector is defined by walls partially on Classical-Hellenistic foundations. It consists of a peristyle atrium with a mosaic floor of white marble chips, and rooms around the perimeter, one of which had a mosaic floor and wall paintings. In the Early Christian period this floor served as the bottom of a cistern. The structure was repeatedly damaged by subsequent building in the Late Roman, Early Christian, and modern periods (Fig. 1).

In the southeast corner of the excavation was a room of a house with walls coated in lime mortar. Bedrock in the east of the excavation, where there are remains of the Late Hellenistic-Early Roman periods, slopes strongly from a depth of 4.30m in the south to 6.2-6.3m in the north.

C. Late Roman – Early Christian period (third - fifth centuries AD):

A Late Roman complex of six rooms in the central and northern part of the excavation remained in use until Early Christian times.

An Early Christian complex of four rooms and storage silos was revealed along the length of the south and southwest boundary of the excavation area. Three of the rooms had floors of square terracotta tiles set in a layer of mortar or earth at a depth of 3.3m (Fig. 2). The exact nature of the complex is unclear, but the discovery at a depth of 4.2m of the interior of a potter’s kiln as well as a pit coated with clay and showing signs of burning indicates the existence of a workshop in the complex. The kiln fill dates the abandonment of the workshop to the sixth century AD. Built into the wall of the complex, in secondary use, was the base of a Classical sculpture with the inscription:

Ἱέρεαν Δήμητρος κα[ὶ] Κόρης

Χαιρίππην Φιλόφρονος Κηφισιέως

οἱ ἀδελφοὶ ἀνέθεσαν

Ἀριστόδημος, Φιλόφρων

Φιλόφρονος Κηφισιεῖς

Πραξιτέλης ἐποίησε

D. Byzantine Period:

Building remains of the Early to Late Byzantine periods were found throughout the western part of the excavation. Walls of one or more complexes were mostly oriented west-east and north-south at a depth of 2.04-4.13m. Floors of beaten earth and terracotta were found in various rooms. Several silos and pithoi suggest storage areas, one of which contained stacked cakes of raw clay, indicative perhaps of a pottery workshop, thus supporting the view that industrial activity in this area continued throughout the Late Byzantine period. A significant number of (mostly Roman) channels and wells served to supply and drain water, as well as meeting the needs of the workshops throughout Antiquity. During removal of these building remains, six Late Mycenaean tombs were discovered, two of which yielded grave goods of the LH IIIB period.

Author

Robert PITT

Bibliographic reference(s)

AD 56-59 (2001-2004) Chr., 201-202.