463-476

Ancient Edessa : the extra-urban use of space

• Χρυσοστόμου, Αναστασία

Recent excavation research conducted in ancient Edessa from 1967 onward as late as 1987, has been devoted chiefly to the city’s interior. The lower city, the systematic excavation, originally headed by Professor F. Petsas, later by Ephor A. Vavritsas, and finally by the 17th Ephorate of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities concluded in the discovery and collection of information about the wall, and in the study of a 1.2-hectare section just inside the southern gate. Similarly, the wall was the main goal of the rescue excavation at the acropolis by Ephor M. Siganidou, Ephor E. Kakavogianni, et al in concert with excavations in the cemetery region.In the period that followed, when the results of these excavations were presented at the Archaeological Work in Macedonia and Thrace (ΑΕΜΘ) conference, the research gave way to rescue excavations for both segments (with some exceptions), and spread to the region outside the city, not to the surrounding country, but to the area functionally defined by the Edessaios river (which the roads to access the city traversed) and the area touching its walls (PI. 1). The goal of this presentation is to briefly exhibit the existing evidence as to the use of extra-urban space in the various historical periods, alongside evidence concerning the space inside the walls during the same periods. From the conclusions of research to date, it is clear that the limited use of extra-urban space during the periods before and after Edessas transition to a complex walled city with an acropolis and lower city, i.e. before the Hellenistic and after the early Christian years. During this period, chiefly urban cemeteries developed around the city, but there were also places of worship, as well as limited jarmhouses.A burial assemblage from site A in plan 1 is dated to prehistoric times. There are, of course, finds from the same period recovered from the areas of the later acropolis, the lower city, and even in the northeastern area outside of the latter (Pi. 1,2).From the Iron Age and through the late classical period, the number of finds at the settlement site increases (Fig. 1), and towards the end of the age the use of the northern cemetery of the lower city begins, found together with the remains of farm facilities (Fig. 2).In the Hellenistic period, the city was transformed into a complex fortified city framed by its urban cemeteries. On the acropolis, the main cemetery was to the west (Fig. 3). In the lower city were the northern and southern cemeteries (Fig. 4, 5), as well as that which extended along the eastern portion of the city wall. Segments of carriage roads found in 2005 in the northern cemetery must have been early stages of the Via Egnatia. In the same region, on the hill of Aghios Loukas (Pi. IB), there may have been the temple of Zeus Hypsistus, while a late Hellenistic hoard, discovered to the east (PL 1Γ), must have been attached to a farmhouse.During Roman times, the use of the western cemetery on the acropolis continued, but use was now also made of a cemetery to the north near the waterfalls, which should be connected to a neighboring bath (Pi. IK, Λ-l, Fig. 6). In the lower city, the layout of the cemeteries was not differentiated. In the north, a bath complex has also been found (PI. 1, Λ-2), whilethis wider region is also the source of the bronze hand dedicated to Sabazios and the honorary inscription of Claudia Ocellina, priestess ofpatrios Dionysus. There are also traces of an installation (Pi. 1, Δ), and it is speculated that a red agglomerate (breccia) marble quarry may also have been in use. In the southern cemetery, no graves have been found dating to the Roman period, but in the Koufia Petra region (Pi. 1, E) the fill from a Roman well is evidence of a farmhouse. Finally, the marble monuments (including the famous epitaph of a pig) indicate the importance of the eastern cemetery along the walls.In the early Christian era, the use of the southern cemetery began on the acropolis, and it continued well into Byzantine years. It was the same with the western and northern cemeteries. In the lower city, use of the southern cemetery continued. From the two farmsteads (PL 1, E and, Z), the existence of the former at the Koufia Petra site is confirmed by the well-known burials with the early Christian fibulae.Two cemetery churches are known from the eastern cemetery area (Pi. 1, ΣΤ, H). A third one probably stood to the north, on the hill of Aghios Loukas (Pi. 1, B), while a large number of graves have also been explored in the fields (Pi. 7). Furthermore, the remnants of a structure were discovered in the area of the northern cemetery (Pi. 1, Θ), a limestone kiln (Pi. 1, I), and directly to the east, a small arched building with a wine-press and vat (PL 8,9) for which an early Christian coin represents a terminus post quem.

• History and Archaeology

• Ανασκαφές (Αρχαιολογία)

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