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Agia Paraskevi 2012
Rectangular
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AGIA PARASKEVI OF ARACHAMITAIReport of work conducted in 2012
Rectangular Building I During the four week long field season in June and July 2012 ca. 100 m2 of RB I was excavated. We now finally managed to localise its eastern short end, thus confirming that the total size of RB I is ca. 45x11 m. We also confirmed our general picture of the division of rooms, which are arranged in two rows divided by a longitudinal wall running in east to west direction. The only exception from this is Room 3 in the western end of the building, which stretches across it from the southern until the northern long wall.
This year our excavation work was concentrated on three parts of RB I, i.e., Room 5, Room 9 and Room 10. The outlines of Room 5 were revealed already in 2011. The inner dimensions of the room are 2.6x3.3 m. Room 5 was entered from the north through a door from a ca. 1.3 m wide corridor that leads further to the west into Room 2. Large amounts of pottery (e.g. parts of large amphorae, a lagynos, jugs, plates and kantharoi) found below the collapsed roof tile layer covering the whole room and the corridor can preliminarily be dated to the late third or second century BC. There were no coins or lamps and only a handful of fragments of cooking pots.
Originally Room 5 had been 4.1x3.3 m large and also included what later was
separated from it and made to the corridor. During this first building phase the
room had two doors, one leading to the
Room 9 has the inner dimensions of ca. 5x4.5 m and was entered through a door
from the north. All of the room was covered by the collapsed roof, on top of
which a small Doric capital was found lying upside down in secondary position. A Laconian coin dating to between 48 and 35 BC was found between the roof tiles,
thus verifying the date of the destruction of RB I. Below the roof in the centre
of Room 9 there was a fireplace that consisted of stone slabs covered with a
layer
A third trench was opened up at the spot where we expected the eastern short end of RB I to be found. The east, north and south walls of Room 10 were found, but due to lack of time the western wall eluded us. The inner width of the room in south to north direction is 4.5 m. Parallel with and partly superimposed on the south wall of Room 10 runs the long west wall of the entrance to the Roman courtyard building. This wall had collapsed towards the west, partly covering the roof tile layer of RB I with fist-large stones. Some larger stones had also at a later stage been collected to this cairn, including e.g. a large cut limestone block, probably part of the foundation of a monumental building.
Under the collapsed roof of Room 10 an area of hard burned red clay was found, roughly mid-way between the northern and southern walls of the room. This has probably been a fireplace. Due to lack of time the fireplace was left unexcavated and the work was focused on the ca. 2.5x4.5 m large part of the room located to the east of the fireplace. Close to the eastern wall the foot of a Hellenistic lime-stone perirrhanterion was found, standing up-side-down on top of the floor that consisted of gravel and packed soil. The cultural layer between the collapsed roof and the floor contained e.g. a total of 14 coins, five loom-weights, five lamps and three unguentaria. The coins date, as in Room 9, from the mid-fourth century until 48-35 BC, the lamps in their turn to the third or second century BC..
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