329-341

The rescue dig conducted by the 16th Ephorate in Diikitiriou square

• Τασιά, Αναστασία

In the historic centre of Thessaloniki, just to the W of the Roman forumand a stone's throw from the area which, in the Imperial period at least, is believed to have been the area of the sanctuaries (where a cult centre dating from 500 BC has been discovered), the antiquities in Diikitiriou Square have been in the news of late, owing to the recent decision by the Central Archaeological Council to call off the construction of a four-storey underground carparkon the precise spot where they were discovered. Between July and December 1993, the excavations were conducted piecemeal alongside the preparations for the car-park, and some parts of the site are at present ground level. Despite the fragmentary nature of the site, however, the excavational data allow some initial conclusions to be drawn, the first steps on the way to its reconstruction. In the S half of Ayiou Dimitriou Street, near the junction with Papayeoryiou Street, a small part of a baths complex dating from the Roman period was investigated. On the site of the square, on the axis of Ionos Dragoumi Street, a road was discovered, 4.5 m wide and with a dense drainage and water-supply network that showed evidence of repairs and successive phases from the Roman to the modern period. To the E of the road, underneath a public building that is being investigated by the 9th Ephorate, are traces of the perimeter of a building of the Roman period. Its dimensions suggest that it too was a public building, and there is evidence of an earlier phase. On the E side, a small part of the destruction layer of another building is being very spasmodically explored: the head of a 1st c. BC marble statue of Aphrodite has been found. To the S, towards Olymbou Street, investigations have located a semi-subterranean barrel-vaulted structure of the Roman period, which was repaired at some later period. The investigations in the square are still going on

• History and Archaeology

• Ανασκαφές (Αρχαιολογία)

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