485-498

Excavation of a byzantine church in the Strymon Delta near Amphipolis

• Στρατή, Αγγελική

In 1992-3, an excavation by the 12th Ephorate of Byzantine Antiquities not far from Amphipolis uncovered an aisle less, cross-in-square, Byzantine church. The site is just after the point where the old Thessaloniki-Kavala national highway crosses the Drama-Amphipolis road. The church is badly damaged. Built of large blocks of porous stone and marble architectural members (probably from buildings in ancient Anphipolis),it is 11.50 m long, 8 m wide, and survives to a height of 0.70-1.00 m. TheE end is a tripartite sanctuary with bema, prothesis, and diaconicon apses. The foundations of four piers survive in the centre and two pilasters to the W. TheN wall and the bema preserve their mural decoration, comprising the Annun -ciation (in two scenes), four standing saints, the Crucifixion, and SS. Constantine and Helen. In the sanctuary there is only a rather inept geometric ornament. These wall-paintings, like the fragments of paintings that were picked up from the ground, date to the 2nd half of the 12th c. The other finds —mainly herds of unpainted and glazed pottery and coins— are from the 12th-13th c.and date the church to the llth-12th c.The discovery of a middle Byzantine church, with remnants of noteworthy mural decoration, in the area of the Strymon delta adds one more, previously unknown, monument to the list of Byzantine monuments in E Macedonia

• History and Archaeology

• Ανασκαφές (Αρχαιολογία)
• Πολιτισμός, Βυζαντινός

βυζαντινές αρχαιότητες, Σέρρες, συνέδρια

Περιέχει σχέδια και εικόνες