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Excavation at Arethoussa in 2002

• Karivieri, Arja

The Finnish Institute in Athens continued its excavation at Arethoussa in Thessaloniki prefecture in August 2002 (Fig. 1).The excavation concentrated on uncovering the exterior walls of the church and the floor of the N. aisle. Under the destruction layer at the SW end of the N. aisle, we discovered the base of a hearth, and N. of the base 7 storage jars in situ, one of them intact. We also found many bones and coins in the same area. In 2001, we excavated 2 walls running from SW to NE and covered with waterproof plaster in the middle of the N. aisle. Because of this, we thought they must belong to a water cistern, dating to the church’s 2nd construction phase. However, after the latest excavation, we realised that these 2 walls belong to a building which contained 2 low cisterns, from which a clay pipe passed through the E. wall and into a large jar. These 2 cisterns, then, were used for treading grapes, the must from which flowed into the jar. This is attested by the grape pips and the amphora fragments found in the adjacent space, where there were a total of 7 jars, 3 embedded in the floor and 4 lying on the floor. Given the presence of the jars, the amphoras, and the hearth beside the apse, we conclude that there was probably a storeroom here, a workshop, and a wine-press.North-east of the E. point of the narthex, we uncovered part of the baptistery, consisting of a round structure and a cruciform font. A marble colonnette was found in the baptistery,We continued to record and conserve the mosaics this year. Any changes they had suffered over the winter were recorded and cleaned. Lastly, we affixed the tesserae and recorded the different phases of mosaics 3, 4, and 6 in the nave. In the E. comer of the E. room of the narthex, we excavated the entire mosaic floor (No. 10), which had been partially exposed in 2001 (FI08-110, G108-112, HI 10). Its edges are decorated with geometrical motifs, while in the centre is a vase done in opus tessellatum. The central motif is surrounded by small clay and stone tiles, with the gaps in between filled with small tesserae. This mosaic was photographed, but will be studied more closely in the summer of 2003.

• History and Archaeology

• Ανασκαφές (Αρχαιολογία)

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