Agia Paraskevi
of Arachamitai
2006 - 2007
2008
2010
2011
2012
2013
Courtyard
Building
South Wing of the Courtyard Building and the Ditch
2014
2015

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AGIA PARASKEVI OF ARACHAMITAI
Report
of work conducted in 2013
South Wing of the Courtyard
Building and the Ditch
In 2013 the excavation of the south wing of the courtyard, or RB I as we called
it last year, continued. Work was conducted on Rooms 2, 5, 6, 9 and 11, of which
Rooms 2, 5 and 9 were reopened in order to excavate deeper in some places. The
most interesting finds were made in Rooms 2 and 6, although it should be
emphasised that the other rooms produced some interesting early finds. Among
these were e.g. the first fragments of some Late Archaic Argive terracotta figurines, including
that of a horse with pellet eyes, several stemmed drinking cups
dating to the sixth until fifth centuries BC, as well as the oldest coins so far
found in the excavations, i.e., a silver triobol from Mantinea, dating to
460-450 BC.
Room 2 was re-opened in order to excavate deeper in some points as well as to
remove the profile that had been left unexcavated and thus had hindered the
conservation of the floor. During this operation we found a square water basin
that is 105 cm deep and can be accessed by a staircase consisting of three
steps. Water has been led into the basin through a round water pipe, the mouth
of which still remained in situ. The fill of the basin contained only a handful
of mostly black-glazed pottery sherds. On the bottom of the basin a complete
drinking mug, dating to the fourth or third century BC was found.
This square water basin belongs to an early building
phase, dating to the late fourth century BC. During this early phase Room 2,
Room 5 and the corridor all belonged to one and the same rectangular room with
the basin in its centre. The basin was filled up at some stage, probably during
the early second century in connection with the building of the round room 1 for
bathing. However, the square basin shows that there were bathing facilities
already during the first building phase and even at roughly the same spot as the
later round bath room was located. There is thus a functional continuity of the
bating activity that probably had a ritual connection.
Room 6 in reality was subdivided into two different rooms, Room 6A and Room 6B.
Room 6B is a corridor, from where one could reach Room 6A in the west and Room 7
in the east. Room 6A had during the last phase of use a fireplace in the centre
of the room and a floor made of stamped soil. The floor was covered by a
cultural layer containing several well preserved pots (e.g. a kantharos, an
unguentarium, a bowl and a juglet), but also large amounts of cooking ware and
11 coins. The floor level itself contained another 9 coins as well as a small
juglet filled with a total of 34 silver coins, of which the majority were
hemidrachms minted by poleis belonging to the Achaean League during the
second and first half of the first century BC. Below the uppermost floor level
followed a second cultural layer and a second, older floor level, the excavation
of which due to time restrictions had to be postponed to the following year.

The same large water channel uncovered in the courtyard ran through Room 11 and
Room 6A before exiting to the south of the building into a shallow ditch. The
water channel had been cut down into an earlier cultural layer dating to the
sixth and fifth centuries BC, thus predating the courtyard building. Below the
roof tile layer in Room 6B, which partly had been disturbed by later activity,
followed a cultural layer and a floor consisting of stamped soil. Furthermost to
the south next to the spot where the water channel exited the building a large
dump of pottery and very dark soil was found. The dump also included some
figurines, a lamp and four coins, of which the latest is minted by Lakedaimonia
between 48 and 35 BC.
Contemporary with the courtyard building there was a shallow ditch just to the
south of the building running from the east to the west. The ditch itself had
been studied by us in 2007-2008 and 2011-2012, but not until last year did we
reach the bottom of it, which is located ca. 1.8 m below the modern surface. The
ditch, which at the time of the construction of the courtyard building was ca. 1
m deep and had a width of 0.5 (at the bottom) to 1.5 m (in the upper part), had
at later stages been filled with debris thrown out of the building. The ditch
was in 2013 restudied at two more spots, thereby e.g. producing a second profile
of the ditch all the way down to its bottom. Thereby we also uncovered the exit
of the water channel to the ditch. The terracotta floor of the channel continues
for ca. 1 m to the south of the building, after which follows four flat stones
leading into the bottom of the ditch.
The parts of the ditch that we excavated in 2013 contained
as also during previous years lots of broken pottery and figurines, mostly
dating to the second and first centuries BC. There are fragments of all kinds of
vases, among which cooking pots and Megarian bowls are especially numerous.
Worthwhile mentioning is also a fragment of a mould for a Hellenistic figurine
as well as a triangular stacking wedge that has been used in a pottery kiln.
These are the first indications of local production somewhere in the close
vicinity of the sanctuary. Interesting is also the fragment of a figurine, that probably depicts Artemis about to take an arrow with her right hand from
the quiver on her back.
Courtyard Building
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