137-148

Excavation of a roman cemetery at "Strovolos” near Kerdy lia, Serres prefecture

• Μάλαμα, Πηνελόπη
• Νταράκης, Κωνσταντίνος

The rescue excavation of the Roman cemetery at Strovolos continued this year from March to October 2001. Some 12 km W of Nea Kerdylia and 14 km NE of Amphipolis, the cemetery was located and excavated in connection with the construction of the Egnatia motorway between Aspro- valta and the River Strymonas. The cemetery occupies a natural rise, which is interrupted abruptly to the E by a ravine 16 m deep. On the actual site of the motorway, 191 graves occupying 2,275 mr were located and excavated. They were rock-cut pit-graves and shallow pit-graves surrounded mostly by rubblestones, with a few isolated examples of tile-graves, cist-graves, and what was probably a child burial in a larnax.There is evidence of both inhumation and cremation in the cemetery, though the former is far more common. There do not seem to be any rules governing the orientation of the bodies, though most of them are laid W-E. The grave goods are mostly clay vessels for everyday use, such as oino- choes, cups, skyphoi, plates, small basins, and a few cooking pots. Most of them have orange-red or deep red tin glaze. Apart from the clay vessels, a large quantity of glassware was also found. One distinct, large category of finds from the cemetery consists of clay lamps, most of which have linear and vegetal relief decoration or figurai subjects on the disk. The use of clay figurines appears to be limited, confined usually to child burials. The presence of jewellery is also limited, and found in women’s and child burials. The largest and most characteristic category of finds is the discovery in graves of a large number of bronze coins, the total number of coins found in the cemetery exceeding 1,500. An investigation of the coins to date has found that these bronze issues belong to the notable bronze Macedonian coinage of the cities of Pella, Thessalonike, Philippi, and above all Amphipolis, from the time of Augustus (31 BC - AD 14) to the time of Gordian III (238-244), though there are also later issues up to the time of Constantius II (337-361), which means that the cemetery was used until the mid-4th century.The Roman cemetery at Strovolos and the as yet unknown settlement with which it was connected seem to have belonged to the cultural sphere of influence of nearby Amphipolis.

• History and Archaeology

• Ανασκαφές (Αρχαιολογία)

νεκροταφεία , ρωμαϊκή περίοδος, Σέρρες

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