ATHENS - Kerameikos - 2003

General Information

Record ID

2183

Activity Date

2003

Chronologies

Antiquity - Archaïc - Classical - Hellenistic - Roman

Key-words

Well - Residence - Sculpture - Hydraulic installation - Commercial area - Cemetery - Production/extraction site - Road system/waterway

Type of Operation

Excavation - Rescue excavation

Institution

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

Localisation

Toponym
Kerameikos Excavations, Céramique

Αρχαιολογικό Κτηματολόγιο

Archaeological sites :
Πόλη των Αθηνών
Κεραμεικός, Αθήνα

Linked Record

2003

Report

Junction of Agion Asomaton, Psaromiligkou, and K. Samuel Streets. A. Kokkoliou (Γ’ ΕΠΚΑ) reports on excavation in 1999-2003, ahead of the building of a school 300m north of the archaeological site of the Kerameikos. This revealed two sections of ancient roads, a Late Archaic-Late Hellenistic cemetery, and workshop remains of the fourth century BC (Figs 1,2).

To the west of the plot, towards Agion Asomaton Street, road 1 (20.5m long, 2.7-3.4m wide) led north-south. It is dated stratigraphically from the Early Classical to the Roman period. To the first building complex belong rooms A, B, and Γ, and to the second rooms Δ, Ε, Ζ, Η, Θ, Ι, and Κ. In this phase the external superstructure was of mud brick. In the second phase (fourth-century), the two embankments of the road were built. The pottery found within the rooms indicates that the building was an artists’ quarter with shops or storage areas combined with residences. East of wall 9 was a ritual pyre with a series of miniature pots.

At the southeast part of the excavation, a 21.6m long stretch of a main arterial route from the Eriai Gate to Hippios Kolonos led northwest-southeast. A cemetery to the east of the road contained a peribolos of limestone blocks and a burial platform to its north (2.8x1.3m) of red limestone blocks to a height of five courses. To the east of these were 33 tombs, mostly pyres but also one marble cist grave, three pit graves, two covered, one with built sides, and a mound, dating from the early fifth century to the middle of the second century BC. The oldest phase of the cemetery is linked with a burial mound (2.22m high, 5.4m wide, with 9 courses of mud brick surrounding the tomb) which continues east below K. Samuel Street. This was violated around 450BC by two pyres (T30, T33) in the northwest part of the mound. T29 was built of mudbrick and contained lethykoi of the Beldam type. To the east of the road were 14 Hellenistic graves (300-150BC).

In the southeast of the excavation area was the north external wall of a Classical structure, much of which had previously been discovered below Psaromiligkou Street. The masonry is the irregular polygonal characteristic of the fourth century BC.

Southwest of road 2, were two Late Roman walls. A marble head of Caracalla was built into one. An industrial area lay between the two roads, with many pits cut into the bedrock. One rock-cut well contained Panathenaic amphora sherds of the end of the fourth century BC. The foundations of a second-century AD grave platform were revealed in the north of the trench.

Author

Robert PITT

Bibliographic reference(s)

AD 56-59 (2001-2004) Chr., 243-245.