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Excavation at Arethousa in 2001

• Karivieri, Arja

In August 2001, the Finnish Institute in Athens continued its excavation at Arethousa in Thessaloniki prefecture. We continued excavating the Early Christian church at Paliambela by deepening the trench we had dug the previous year to the NW of the church and by digging new ones in the area of the N aisle.Under the destruction fill at the N end of trench .198 to the NW of the narthex we uncovered the base of a hearth and to the W of the base two amphoras in situ. One of these represented a very well- known type of e Mediterranean amphora, Late Roman 5/6, which was manufactured in the 5th-6th centuries AD. The same trenches also yielded numerous bones and coins; but neither the base of the column uncovered last year in trench HI00 nor the conjectured colonnade nor the paving around it seem to continue in trenches J96 and J98. To the contrary, the presence of the amphoras and the hearth suggests that there was a kind of “kitchen” there. Two explanations come to mind: either the bases of the colonnade were removed when the use of the space changed, or the colonnade extends as far as the SW end of trench HI 00 in the narthex.We dug new trenches all along the N aisle and the excavation concentrated on uncovering the outer walls of the church and the entrances to the N aisle. In the middle of the N aisle, in trenches El 12, FI 10-114, and Gl 12-114, two walls were uncovered running SW-NE and covered with waterproof stucco. This means that this was a water cistern, and it dates to the second construction phase of the church. The excavation uncovered a separate entrance beside the apse, at the SE end of the church (trenches B-C120). The destruction fill yielded a marble vessel, which was probably used by the priests during the Liturgy.On the basis of stratigraphy and an analysis of the walls, the architectural members, the pottery, the coins, and the iconography of the mosaics, the church may be dated to the late 5th or early 6th century, with at least two different construction phases discernible. The thick destruction fill revealed by the excavations in the N aisle consists of grooved roof-tiles, fallen convex bricks, and remnants of a wall. Some of the bricks are decorated with a relief stamp in the form of a star or a cross.The three-year excavation period has yielded a total of 122 coins, a large quantity of pottery from different periods, fragments of metal objects, fragments of lamps and glass objects, a relief marble tombstone, a small marble bowl, some architectural members (including a capital decorated with acanthus leaves and two fragments of a closure slab), and quantities of animal bones. The destruction of the church may initially be dated to the late 6th or early 7th century. The N aisle also yielded evidence of later Byzantine habitation, such as remnants of walls and fragments of domestic utensils.This year we continued recording and conserving the mosaics and conserving the wall paintings. Remnants of a mural with a vegetal motif survive in the middle of the narthex: the best preserved part of this wall-painting, which was in the NE corner, was transferred to the Inspectorate of Byzantine Antiquities in Thessaloniki to be cleaned and conserved.The Inspectorate’s conservator affixed the tesserae on the floor of the nave, recorded the various stages of the process, and copied the opus tessellatum rosette in the centre of the mosaic onto a transparency on a scale of 1:1. She also made copies of the opus tessellatum medallions in the narthex, the medallion with a peacock surrounded by animal figures, and the device with the representation of deer.In the E comer of the E end of the narthex, at the entrance to the N aisle, part of a new floor mosaic has been uncovered, the edges of which are obviously decorated with geometrical motifs. On the last day of the excavation, we covered all the mosaics with sand to protect them. Conservation of the mosaics will continue next summer.

• History and Archaeology

• Ανασκαφές (Αρχαιολογία)

Θεσσαλονίκη

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