MEGALOPOLIS - 2009

Megalopolis. The ΛΘ’ ΕΠΚΑ reports the discovery, while extending the modern city cemetery, of the foundations of a public building ca. 200m south of the upper diazoma of the theatre koilon. The building was destroyed by fire, probably during the attack of Kleomenes III in 223/2 BC, as happened to many other shrines and buildings in the city. The destruction level contained architectural terracottas from the superstructure (sima, antefixes, etc: fig. 1).

On Sophokleous Street, the foundations of houses from the Hellenistic city were revealed, built of undressed stone with brick superstructures now lost. Finds include rooftiles, black glaze and plainware sherds, animal bones, bronze coins, and an intact bronze spearhead from the destruction level (fig. 2).

In the northern part of the modern city, on Lyktora and Kephala Streets (Ο.Τ. 237, Charalambopoulou property), rescue excavation revealed part of a cemetery. Ten Late Roman tile graves, oriented northwest-southeast, date to the second-third centuries AD. Eight were in cover tiles and two were pits. The area was also used for burials in the Late Hellenistic period (mid-second to mid-first century BC).