MAKYNEIA - 2002

Makyneia (Trogada-Katsouda property). F. Saranti (then Στ’ ΕΠΚΑ) reports the discovery by the shore of a bath complex which probably formed part of a Roman villa. Excavation focused on the centre of the plot, although remains continued towards the sea and onto neighbouring plots.

The building was preserved only to floor level: its precise form cannot be determined without full excavation, and the loss of the superstructure makes it impossible to restore patterns of communication between rooms. At least eight rooms were revealed, with those belonging to the bath lying on the north side.
Room 1 contained an individual orthogonal bath-tub heated from the hypocaust (the round pillars of which are preserved) and fed from the south side. Room 2 contained two such tubs similarly heated. The walls of both rooms were heated via tegulae mammatae preserved in situ. A corridor linked rooms 2 and 8 to the east: beneath its floor was a lead sheet. Room 2 also opened into room 3 (the praefurnium), although this opening could be blocked by bricks. Debris from the furnace was scattered in this area. The furnace had two mouths which had been extended to improve its efficiency. The function of room 4 is unclear, although its location suggests a tepidarium. The round room 5 had thick plaster on the walls, suggesting that it was used for bathing: the entrance was on the south side. It was later refashioned with the construction of a small orthogonal potter’s kiln, with an eschara resting on an X-shaped support and a stomion opening to the south. After the kiln fell into disuse, a tomb was cut into the north part of the eschara. The large room 6 preserved the pebble and plaster under-lay of a fine plaster floor: the original use cannot be restored (the room was remodelled in the Early Christian period). At least three built structures (benches or steps) were set against the east wall.

Four cisterns were found in the west of the excavated part of the bath. One had a low step around it, a terracotta paved floor, and part of the torso of a small marble male statue which was probably originally set in a niche in a wall. A large wall in opus mixtum which bounded the greater part of the building on the east side was a Late Roman or Early Christian addition: pithoi were built into it in certain places. Parallel to it was a wall of unworked stone, with similar cross-walls defining rooms or spaces of uncertain function.

The pottery and few coins discovered date the initial construction to the first or second century AD, and the complex remained in use until its destruction in Early Christian times. The discovery of Late Classical and Hellenistic pottery in the foundations of the complex indicates earlier activity although no structural remains were found. This is the first evidence of this period in the coastal area of Makyneia (the acropolis of the ancient city lies to the north).