---

Modern Description: An Early Byzantine basilica [A] has been excavated in the lower town of Aigosthena, underlying a Middle Byzantine church dedicated to the Virgin. It has five aisles, a phenomenon which is rare for mainland Greece, and unique among the known basilicas of Attica. The dimensions of the basilica are 20x25 m. The basilica was connected with a baptistery to its south. Both buildings were paved with mosaics, which were dated by the excavator to the late 5th or early 6th c. A pitcher found in the baptistery probably dates towards the end of the Early Byzantine period, according to the description of the excavator; this would suggest use of the building until this period. A cemetery developed to the west of the basilica, but was not excavated. Graves were opened also in the narthex and even in the main aisle, a custom which occurs from the 7th c. onwards. This indicates at least some degree of continuous activity in the area of the Early Byzantine basilica during the Middle Byzantine period. The small cross-shaped triconch church of Panagia, which was built on the ruins of the east part of the main aisle, was, or later became, the katholikon of a monastery. This is attested by the building remains which were excavated overlying the basilica’s stylobates and foundations. Bronze coins of Constantine IX (1025-1028) and Manuel I Comnenus (1143-1180) attest to use of the church, and possibly the monastery, in the 11th and 12th c. (Tzavella 2012)
Trismegistos Geo: 15629

Info: E. Tzavella 2012

Elissavet Tzavella, URBAN AND RURAL LANDSCAPE IN EARLY AND MIDDLE BYZANTINE ATTICA (4TH – 12TH C. AD), PhD dissertation, Univ. of Birmingham 2012, https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/16292781.pdf

---