9. November 2021, 18:15 Uhr
Dr. Nikos Tsivikis (Athen)
Excavation of a Third and Fourth Century Christian domus at Messene (Peloponnese): Residence or domus ecclesiae?
Der Vortrag findet online über Zoom statt., The lecture takes place online via Zoom.
Recent excavation in Messene in the SW Peloponnese, an important city that thrives from Hellenistic until the Early Byzantine times, has focused to Late Roman architectural remains. The city of Messene in the late fourth century was struck hard by the great earthquake sequence of the years around AD 365, and a distinct archaeological destruction layer connected with these historical events has been preserved across the built space. Among the explored so far buildings that their collapse can be connected with the 365 earthquake is an urban house, a roman domus, situated in a central position just next to the theater. The domus covered the most part of an entire insula in the city grid of Messene and its earlier phases can be dated in the Roman Imperial period or even earlier. In mid-third century many of its central rooms were remodeled and new lavish mosaic floors were installed in order to serve some special liturgy, while a second expansion of the same central hall with new mosaics happened in the early fourth century. The special arrangement of this main hall, its architectural modifications relate to two donor inscriptions set in the pavement that make possible the identification of this late phase arrangement as a hall for use by the Christian community of Messene until its final destruction around AD 365.
Weitere Informationen: https://www.byzanz-mainz.de/aktuelles/b/article/excavation-of-a-third-and-fourth-century-christian-domus-at-messene-peloponnese-residence-or-domu/