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Modern Description: The archaeological site of the recently excavated Sacred Way (ancient Iera Odos) is located at Estavromenou Square in Aigaleo, near the homonymous metro station. Sacred ways usually led to sanctuaries and were followed by religious processions during official celebrations. This one was the most important Sacred Way in ancient Greece. It began at the Sacred Gate in the Kerameikos and led from Athens to Eleusis following the same course as modern Iera Odos. The street and adjacent cemetery were revealed during excavations for the extension of Line 3 of the Athens Metro.

Eighteen fragmentary graves of different types were excavated along the street: cist and tile graves, shaft graves, cremations, a jar-burial, and the bottom of three sarcophagi. The graves lay close to the surface and were largely destroyed as a result. Their grave gifts - a few plates, small arybaloid lekythoi and kantharoi of the fourth century BC - were scattered across the site. Throughout the site, archaeological strata lay very close to the surface and were continuously disturbed through time. The recovered pottery thus dates from the fifth century BC to the twentieth century AD.

Previous rescue excavations, carried out during the widening of modern Iera Odos, had revealed parts of the Sacred Street. The recent excavations at Estavromenou Square, however, uncovered the street's full width over a considerable distance. The site was subsequently listed, conserved, and rendered accessible to the public.
The excavations at Estavromenou Square, Aigaleo, revealed a section, 27.70 metres long and 5.30-5.90 metres wide, of the Sacred Street, which runs in an east-west direction, parallel to and at a short distance to the north of modern Iera Odos. Two retaining walls of different sized limestone blocks define the road's course; because they lay close to the surface, they are very partially preserved. Five successive street layers were identified. They consist either of medium sized cut stones, or of smaller stones, or of trodden dirt and gravel. The last street layer was hewn on bedrock and shows traces of carriage wheels.

Rock-hewn graves were identified on either side of the street. These, too, were destroyed because of their proximity to the surface.
[Judith Binder: Sacred Way: from the Eleusinion on the Akropolis northwest slope to Eleusis: Paus. 1.36.3. This road had different names depending on the function; three other names for the same route are listed below. Inside the City Wall the Sacred Way is wholly or partly coterminous with the Panathenaic Way q.v.; Travlos, J. 1971,159, 299, 302 (bibliography), 439, figs. 213 no. 237, 219 no. 237, 391 no. 175, 417 no. 175. No monograph on the Sacred Way has been published presenting the testimonia, the travellersʼ accounts and the excavations, although the Greek Archaeological Service has excavated the Sacred Way outside the City Wall at many different places and published highly informative reports, a representative one of which is cited here, O. Alexandri, «10. Ἱερὰ ὁδός,» Deltion 28 (1973) B1 Chr., 31 no. 10; Siewert, P. 1982, 39-41.]
Wikidata ID: Q38279588
Trismegistos Geo: 364

Info: Odysseus

(Odysseus, Greek Ministry of Culture)

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