407-420

New excavations at Pella

• Λιλιμπάκη - Ακαμάτη, Μαρία

In the framework of the development and presentation of the archaeological site at Pella, excavations were carried out in 2 areas of the ancient city. The first is in the residential centre, W of the Museum, in an insula with houses of 500- 1,120 m2, distinctly smaller than those in the main archaeological site with the mosaic floors, but nonetheless with interesting architectural features, such as colourful mural decoration, floors meticulously paved with stone and opus sectile, and sanitary facilities.Even more interesting is the investigation of 3 new insulae in the ancient city, SE of the museum, where the master plan for upgrading Pella and the surrounding area locates storerooms and an information and refreshment area. The architectural form of the buildings and the nature of the finds (pottery kilns and metal-working furnaces, a variety of tools, moulds for relief vessels, figurines, and bronze artefacts, abundant water, storage spaces, etc.) suggest that the buildings housed workshops at least during the city’s final phase in the 2nd half of the 2nd century BC. The 2nd century BC seems to have been a time of intensive productive activity in Pella, and, far from hindering this, the Roman conquest in fact encouraged it. The workshops in the agora were engaged in intensive production, but new workshops were also being set up in the residential and public insulae, often on top of old ones, making the most of existing facilities. In some parts of the city, the workshops were incorporated into the buildings from the start; while in others they seem to have replaced the original functions of the various spaces to a greater or lesser extent. Pottery, koropla- stics, and metalwork were now being mass-produced for local use and for export, with a gradual falling-off in quality, giving the final phase of the life of the city, just before it was destroyed by an earthquake at the beginning of the 1st century BC, a strongly productive aspect.

• History and Archaeology

• Ανασκαφές (Αρχαιολογία)

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