89-110

Didymoteicho : new finds, problems, excavations

Αρχαιολογικά χρονικά

• Τσούρης, Κ. Ε.

The finds from the excavation and cleaning up operations in the Kastro of Didymoteicho are briefly presented here. The finds date from the Neolithic period to the end of antiquity. A very few stone artifacts probably belong to the Neolithic period. A considerable number of typical sherds can be dated to the Iron Age. Walling beneath the foundations of the Early Christian phase of the fortifications appears to be of doubtful date and purpose; it may be of pre-Roman construction. A few sherds of terra sigillata type and a good number of ribbed sherds from the Late Roman and Early Christian periods indicate a limited occupation of the hill during the time that Plotinopolis was flourishing and until the end of Antiquity. Some coins from the 1st to the 5th c. AD give the same picture.A millstone from a handmill, a damaged male head and a fragment of an inscriptionmay be dated to the Roman period. There is also a short discussion of the spolia (stone drainpipe collars, a base, courses with axe-shaped sockets and other things) built into the fortifications of the hill. Their positions and numbers, the periods when they were incorporated into the wall and their nature suggest that from Hellenistic times until the end of Antiquity the Kastro hill was never in regular use; any occupation would have been limited and incidental. The fortification of the Kastro in the Early Christian period did not create the preconditions for a flourishing new settlement. The end of Plotinopolis coincided with a cessation of all activity in the Kastro during the dark ages. Some towers and a very few sherds represent this last period before the growth of the Byzantine settlement.

• History and Archaeology

• Ανασκαφές (Αρχαιολογία)
• Επιγραφές

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