455-466

The problem of interpreting salvage excavations : the finds from the building plot at the junction of Egnatia and Bakatselou (formerly Menelaou) Sts. in Thessaloniki

• Μαρκή, Ευτέρπη

The interpretation of salvage excavations earned out in the historic centres of large ancient cities like Thessaloniki poses a variety of difficulties which are caused by many different factors, the most important of which are the following: 1. The fragmentary nature of the finds due to the limited extent of the building plots that are excavated, which in Imperial and Early Christian times were much larger. 2. The use of earlier phases as foundations for later ones and the incorporation of complete sections of them in later constructions. 3. The destruction of buildings and disturbance of the stratigraphy by later interventions. 4. The execution of an excavation in sections due to the cramped nature of the site, usually from the rear end of the building plot towards the façade in order to facilitate the smooth gathering and removal of soil from the excavation, a need which prevents the excavation from being carried out on a uniform level.In the case of the building plot that was excavated between June 2005 and January 2006 at 57 Egnatia St., by the junction with Bakatselou St., to the east of the former “Chortiatis Arcade”, where until recently the tripe shop “O Lefteris” operated, all of the above factors applied, making it difficult to interpret and therefore understand the excavation.In the course of the excavation 15 building and repair phases were traced, the most important of which was a section of a public building from the Early Christian period. Of this, a room measuring 10.60x9.70 m. with two entrances was excavated, on whose fragmentary marble-slab floor a fallen section of wall mosaic was found, whose decoration recalls the mosaic decoration in the Rotunda. Beneath this were traced the remains of an older room with a 5th-century mosaic floor and, beneath this, a section of a building dating from the time of the Tetrarchy, the entrance to which lay 1.30 m. lower than the entrance to the building in the Early Christian phase. Of this building, a room measuring 10.70x5.30 m. was traced, to the north of which lay a courtyard. Beneath the floor of this room an underground storage area was located, in the style of a vaulted tomb with a brick vault. It had a N-S orientation, internal dimensions of 4.0x2.40 m., and an entrance on the north side, which was reached from the courtyard to the north. This room, along with the building to which it belonged, was extended northwards in a later phase, taking in the courtyard. It was then that the staircase leading down to the underground storage area was covered with marble slabs and the trodden earth floor of the courtyard was raised and replaced by marble slabs and polychrome inlay work executed in the opus sedile technique, as can be seen in the section of an omphalion which is preserved in situ and a similar motif in the south room, which was paved with rectangular pieces of grey marble. The morphology of this underground area recalled two similar underground structures that had previously been excavated in Thessaloniki: one uncovered in a plot adjacent to No. 10-12 Mitropolitou Gennadiou St. which had internal dimensions of 2.00x1.25 m. and dated from the same era (4th cent.), though it lacked its vaulted top section; and another, later one dating from the Ottoman period, which was excavated in a building plot at 19-21 Aristotelous St. The above structure probably served as a storage area for the sacred books and relics of the synagogue that was very probably located above it, the Talmud Torah Agadol Synagogue, which was burnt down in the great fire of 1917.The integration of the underground structure that was found in the building plot at 57 Egnatia St. into a grand room with a luxurious floor for formal functions suggests its use and importance, although no definite conclusions can yet be drawn. Nevertheless, important knowledge has been gained about the presence in buildings from the time of the Tetrarchy in central Thessaloniki of underground structures built in the style of vaulted tombs to store relics or archives or even hoard objects.

• History and Archaeology

• Ανασκαφές (Αρχαιολογία)

Θεσσαλονίκη

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