Ανασκαφικές εργασίες και μελέτη αναστήλωσης στη βυζαντινή οχύρωση της Καστοριάς στην πλατεία Κουμπελίδικης
Part of : Το Αρχαιολογικό Έργο στη Μακεδονία και στη Θράκη ; Vol.8, No.1, 1994, pages 1-16
Issue:
Pages:
1-16
Parallel Title:
Excavations and restoration plan for the byzantine fortifications of Kastoria in Koubelidiki square
Author:
Abstract:
Consolidation work on part of the Byzantine fortifications of Kastoria, SWof the Panagia Koubelidiki, began in summer 1994. It was conducted by the11th Ephoreia of Byzantine Antiquities and went on for five months. The first stage of the excavations, involving the SW tower and parts of the E curtain, was completed during this time. This paper presents the restoration plan we were required to implement; the changes that arose as it was being implemented; the course of the excavations; and the initial findings from the data produced by the archaeological investigation. Before the work began, the ground plan of the SW tower showed an irregular quadrilateral and the tower was approximately 7 m high. It is built of rubble masonry using local limestone bound with lime mortar. The masonry is reinforced with horizontal timber ties and the face is very carefully finished, its appearance chiefly characterised by the use of irregularly positioned bricks, which is a building style frequently seen in a number of Byzantine fortresses in Western Macedonia from the 10th to the 13th c. The SW tower was in a rui nous state, and only scant traces of the core of the curtain survived aboveground. Its masonry had suffered extensive damage, most notably the detachment and destruction of the facing. The mortar was eroded and the timber ties rotten and extensively damaged. While the plan was being drawn up, in situ and laboratory investigations were carried out to assess the state of the tower and to propose solutions for its consolidation. When the plan was being implemented, there was considerable debate about the original form, the height, the number of floors, the means of access, the roofing, and whether or not the tower had battlements; the position and form of the rampart; and the precise orientation of the curtain. The excavations began at the same time as the consolidation work and had three objectives: to locate the face of the masonry of the curtain walls; to trace the outline of the SW tower; and to determine the original level of the floor of the tower. During the excavations, the precise location and width of the surviving section of the curtain to the E were determined and it was found that the tower was open to the interior of the city, creating the impression of an irregular bastion widening towards the outside. A rough stone floor was uncovered inside the tower, and a trial trench parallel to the W side located the original floor of compacted earth. The data produced by the excavations make it possible to draw some conclusions, while at the same time posing questions about the dating of the fortifications in Koubelidiki Square. The coins found during the excavation do not point to any firm conclusions about dating, both because the holes in some of them suggest that they were used as amulets and because the excavations are not yet finished. However, the rest of the coins do offer criteria for dating, the oldest (1185-95) being an aspron trachy of Isaac II Komnenos Angelos. One significant find is a new type of stamenos, probably of Andronikos III Palaeologos. A number of scholars have tried to draw a chronological correlation between the remains of the Byzantine wall with its two bastion-towers and the Church of the Panagia Koubelidiki. We believe that the walls cannot be dated in relation to the Koubelidiki or vice versa, on the one hand because excavations to date have revealed at least two fortification phases, each in a different direction; and on the other because we shall not know until the work is completed whether the first, the older, phase was part of the Byzantine citadel or simply part of the walls at this point. We can say with some certainty that the second fortification phase with the two surviving bastions around the Panagia Koubelidiki is the more recent and may be dated to the beginning of the 11th c.
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Subject (LC):
Keywords:
Καστοριά, συνέδρια
Notes:
Περιέχει σχέδια και εικόνες
