STERNARI, Zervochori - 2005

Sternari, Zervochori. G. Riginos (Η’ ΕΠΚΑ) reports on further excavation of a Roman complex first revealed during the opening of a rural road in 1992. The large rectangular complex (50 x 40m) had a central, probably open air, 10 x 7m courtyard (area I, Fig. 1), with walls of medium-large worked hard limestone blocks, many of which were re-used. Around the court were the two long rooms II (30 x 3.5m) and III (23.5 x 10m), which had floors of beaten earth and pebbles, as well as a number of smaller rooms with similar or paved floors. The southern wall of the building could not be located. Inside the building were two tile graves and two cists without grave goods. The small tile grave I contained a few bones of an infant. The badly damaged tile grave 4 contained partial remains of an inhumation in supine position. Cist grave 2, of limestone slabs, contained an inhumation placed diagonally, with the head in the northwest corner. Stone cist 3 held the bones of a small animal placed in the centre of the tomb. A few pieces of worked stone and small stone projectiles were found, plus part of a millstone, a lead clamp, small bronze and iron objects (sheet, nails, an iron arrowhead and a bronze hook), a terracotta strainer, conical terracotta loomweights, plain domestic pottery and fineware (including sherds of three small glazed vessels), and 39 bronze coins (38 Roman and one Late Hellenistic).