567-578

Excavations on the route of the via Egnatia : Imathia prefecture

• Κουκουβού, Αγγελική

Archaeological investigations in the section of the route of the new via Egnatia that goes through Imathia prefecture began in March 1999 and located 2 new sites1. Near the village of Asomata remains came to light which probably belong to a Hellenistic settlement. The investigations will continue next year.2. By Paliomanna stream, between Messi and Kydonohori, the excavations brought to light part of a Roman building with phases from the 1st century BC to the 4th century AD.The nature of the architectural remains, the existence of cisterns connected with an oblong storage chamber, and the finds, among which storage and cooking vessels predominate, indicate the agricultural and light industrial nature of the building, or at least of that part of it which has been excavated.The most interesting find was the discovery of another cistern, in which the open mouths of clay vessels embedded in the walls form blind openings. This suggests that it was a fishpond, like those mentioned by Roman writers describing country life.Although the ground plan that we have is necessarily fragmentary, it seems fairly certain that the excavated building was part of a facility in the middle of an agricultural property. And the existence of a vivarium, a fishpond, constructed according to the instructions of the Roman specialists, suggests that this was probably not a small farmhouse but the pars rustica of a country villa, the pars urbana of which probably continues under the Thessaloniki-Veria national highway.Such villas were the focal point of the large farms that existed in Macedonia in the Roman period, at a time when the agricultural economy was flourishing and being called upon to meet new needs dictated by the new circumstances.

• History and Archaeology

• Ανασκαφές (Αρχαιολογία)

Ημαθία

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