Ανασκαφή στα Λουλούδια Κίτρους
Part of : Το Αρχαιολογικό Έργο στη Μακεδονία και στη Θράκη ; Vol.7, No.1, 1993, pages 223-234
Issue:
Pages:
223-234
Parallel Title:
Excavatio at Louloudia, Kitros
Author:
Abstract:
Louloudies near Kitros, between Alykes and Korinos, is believed to be the site of an as yet unidentified city of ancient Pieria, which was inhabited from the Late Bronze Age to the 7th c. AD and was a halting-place on the road from Dion to Pydna. The construction of the new Thessaloniki-Katerini railway line, which passes through the archaeological site, provided the incentive for an extensive rescue dig, in the course of which the following finds were made.1. A cemetery on the site of older buildings, in which 190 tile-graves were excavated and dated to the 3rd to 6th cc. AD.2. A fortified complex with a surrounding wall and towers, within which were excavated a three-aisled basilica, a secular building to the N of it, tombs, workshops, and wells. The basilica, built on the site of an earlier church, measures 35.50 x 19 m. and has three buttresses for the apse, a cruciform brick-built enkainion, an ambo with two sets of steps, a floor of marble slabs in the nave and large irregular marble tesserae in the aisles, elevated stylobates, Theodosian capitals, and impost blocks decorated with crosses and soft acanthus leaves; all of which dates its construction to the first quarter of the 6th c. It was destroyed by an earthquake soon after the middle of the 6th c., subsequent repairs were confined to the nave, and in the 7th c., when the inhabitants abandoned the settlement, the building materials were systematically removed. The secular building, which was probably a bishop's residence, stood to the N of the basilica and was organised around a spacious chamber, the triclinium, measuring 18.50x9.30 m. A passageway led from the triclinium to a five arched opening giving onto the road. The triclinium is floored with marble slabs and the apse with mosaic, thelatter being divided into two parts and decorated with a fish-scale pattern and a section depicting two deer flanking a cantharus. Around the triclinium arerooms, whose mosaic floors are decorated with geometrical motifs. On the right and left of these are adjacent structures and storerooms. The building was erected in the last quarter of the 5th c., destroyed by an earthquake a hundred years later, repaired with shoddy materials, destroyed by fire at some point in its third phase, and finally converted into workshops. I believe the complex was built after 479 in connection with the transfer here of the bishopric of Pydna, when the latter was one of the five cities in which the Goths were allowed to settle in exchange for their departure from Thessaloniki
Subject:
Subject (LC):
Keywords:
Πιερία, συνέδρια
Notes:
Περιέχει σχέδια και εικόνες
