Κρήνη στην Αρχαία Αγορά Θεσσαλονίκης : ένα "χαμένο" κτίσμα από την εποχή του Φ. Πέτσα
Part of : Το Αρχαιολογικό Έργο στη Μακεδονία και στη Θράκη ; Vol.18, No.1, 2004, pages 225-238
Issue:
Pages:
225-238
Parallel Title:
A fountain building in the forum of Thessaloniki
Author:
Abstract:
In the Chronika of the 1967 Archaeologiko Deltio Fotis Petsas refers to a building which lie vaguely describes as being “earlier than the Roman agora”. The building was something of a mystery when the development plan for the agora was being drawn up during the second stage of work (from 1989 to the present) because its site could not be precisely located when the square was excavated in 1992-3. All that was found at that time in the area of the square that was investigated was a number of claypits, some of which date to before the agora was built and others to after it was abandoned. This ‘lost’ building disoriented researchers for several decades. Some wrongly thought that it might lie under the agora of the Roman period and one of the Hellenistic period. It was eventually found in 2003-4 when the underground exhibition space was being constructed. It immediately became clear that part of it had been excavated in the '60s, while its continuation, a watertight cistern, which also provided evidence for identifying the building, had never been uncovered. The east part of the building is a space measuring 3,85x4,25 m, the infrastructure of which was constructed exclusively out of spolia from earlier buildings. The two structures, constituting a single edifice, were a building with a fountain in the centre of the agora square. The discovery of the monument directly under the marble paving of the square shows that the fountain building predated the paving of the square, which must have been done c. the mid-2nd century BC. The fountain must have been connected with the immediately preceding Roman phase of the second quarter of the 2nd century BC, when the complex was newly organised and the ground of the square consisted of well compacted earth.It was clear rightaway that most of the architectural members came from a vault grave, probably of the Macedonian type, as attested by the curvature of one side of the members. Inside the structure was also found a triangular stone member with relief vegetal decoration, which would have been the crowning antefix on the sepulchral edifice, which is dated to c. the mid-3rd century BC. It is a burial monument that was constructed after Thessalonike was founded. The existence of such a monument in the lower part of the city confirms George Velenis’s view that Cassander’s original city was a fortified agglomeration in the higher part of the modern city, in the area of Ano Poli, the Upper Town, where, furthermore, the earliest building remains were found in the last decade of the 20th century. Apart from certain port facilities, the lower parts between the fortifications and the sea would also have contained warehouses and possibly some scattered buildings serving agricultural purposes and isolated luxurious burial edifices like this one, which, when the city expanded in later periods, in the time of Philip V or immediately after the Roman conquest in 168 BC, was destroyed and its architecural members were re-used in the construction of the agora of the Middle Roman period.
Subject:
Subject (LC):
Keywords:
Αγορά, Θεσσαλονίκη, συνέδρια
Notes:
Περιέχει εικόνες και κατόψεις
