ARTA - Anc. Ambracia - 2001

Arta (anc. Ambracia), Krystalli Street (Charitou property). A. Angeli (ΙΒ’ ΕΠΚΑ) reports on continued excavation in the east cemetery of ancient Ambracia. A 12m-long and 6m-wide section of the funerary street was uncovered, with a paved path along the east side; the road was partially paved and partially made of stones and gravel in beaten earth. Walls bounded it to east and west; that on the west was broken for the entrance to the cemetery. Within the cemetery, slight walls belong to crude, later constructions rather than to funerary periboloi. By contrast with the west cemetery, where Π-shaped periboloi were found along the funerary street, tombs in the east cemetery were more loosely arranged in pairs or groups.

Forty-five tombs were found, ranging in date from Archaic to Hellenistic but focused in the Classical period. This figure includes 19 cist tombs (many with more than one burial) built of limestone slabs, 12 simple pits, two with stone-built walls, two child burials in tile graves, one inurned cremation, two limestone sarcophagi (one placed inside a built tomb), and five cremation urns set in stone containers. Grave goods included pots (amphorae, lekythoi, skyphoi, kantharoi, lamps, pyxides, kylikes, plates, lachrymateria, lagynoi, and bowls), terracotta figurines, iron strigils, bronze mirrors, bone astragaloi, a bronze hydria used a cremation urn, and a bronze phiale.