HERAKLEION - 2008

Herakleion, Erotokritou Street. Z. Aletras (13th ΕΒΑ) reports the discovery of a well preserved Middle Byzantine bath 5m below street level, comprising three rooms with two cisterns and the furnace to the west. One room was completely exposed. This had a hypocaust, apertures in the walls, and a floor of thick marble slabs set on sand, lime and gravel. A second room had a dome, hypocaust and marble floor: disturbed deposits on the floor contained 12th- to 13th-century pottery. To the east was a long room with walls covered in waterproof plaster, bases for the heating system and, under the south wall, a furnace fed through an apsidal opening.