337-346

Excavations between Ayias Sofias St. and Yizi St.

• Καρύδας, Νάρκισσος

This paper offers a brief presentation of 4 recently excavated building plots (3, Ouranias St.; 98, Ayias Sofias St.; 8, Vlahava St.; and 5, Yizi St.) in the area bounded by Ayias Sofias, Yizi, Kassandrou, and Olymbiados Streets, followed by a general overview of the area.The area W. of Ayias Sofias St. (see Fig. 4) was a normal residential area in the Hellenistic period, with houses built on the bedrock and laid out on the same Hippodamean grid plan as the rest of the city.Subsequently, after the Romans occupied the city, the area was abandoned. The ruins of the houses, like the entire area, disappeared under an extensive and in many places deep fill, which yielded large quantities of pottery, lamps, figurines, and other finds of the 1st century BC to the 1st century AD.During the Imperial period, the N. part of the area remained undeveloped (unlike the area to the W., which was sporadically occupied), while remains of well-built houses with wall-paintings and brick-paved floors have been located towards the S. part (5, Yizi St.).Occupation remained the same in the Early Christian period, when the large E.- W. enclosure in the plot at 5, Yizi St. was rebuilt. It probably surrounded a luxurious residence which extended towards Kassandrou St. and presumably replaced the one of the Imperial period.After the disastrous earthquakes of the 7th century, the area was not occupied again until the Postbyzantine period.In the Middle Byzantine period a workshop, probably for processing iron, was built on the plot in Yizi St.; while the remains of a workshop on the plot in Vlahava St. are ascribed to the Late Byzantine period.There was considerable concern for collecting and using water in this period, with the construction of the large vaulted cistern in the N. part of the area, the 2 water conduits in the plot at 3, Ouranias St., and the construction of the water tower and the well a little further S.Lastly, the graves (without burial offerings) uncovered in the N. building plots must have belonged to a cemetery connected with the church of an as yet unknown monastery, one of those which sprang up in this and the wider area in this period.

• History and Archaeology

• Ανασκαφές (Αρχαιολογία)

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