Page 121 - TINA Dergi Sayi 10

TINA

Maritime Archaeology Periodical

Fig. 3: Belirlenen açma sınırları.
Fig. 3: Trench limits.

2018 eXCAVAtIOnS heavy building stones from the overlying structure.
In 2018, the underwater excavations were confined Abundant number of human bones were found in a
with the narthex due to a limited campaign of 2 months. well preserved grave (KM 11) that was excavated.
The excavations started in areas 9 and 10 in our strate- The grave lies in the east-west direction, with the
gic plan (Fig. 1). The sounding #9 is aimed at locating head pointing to the west based on the placement of
the main entrance that lacks on the measured drawing of the bones. A preliminary analysis of the bones indica-
the structure, while the sounding #10 aims to locate the tes that the grave should belong to a male.
communicating door from the narthex into the basilica. We failed to find any course of stones that would
SOunDInG 9 point out the presence of the main entrance and the
Since the entirety of the northern and part of the wes- northern narthex wall, which should have been lying
tern narthex walls were not observed during the survey between the basilica and the atrium during the exca-
in 2015, they could not be shown in the building plan . vations at sounding #9. In the absence of any thres-
1
Therefore, in 2018 excavation season, one of the prio- hold or door jamb, 17 nails and carbon fragments that
rity areas was the Sounding #9 which measured 8 x 4 m. we found during the excavation suggest that there
The excavation and cleaning activities in this area should have been a wooden door at this spot.
revealed that the pan tile (stroteres in Greek) framed The excavations at sounding #9 yielded 56 bronze
graves continued here as well. However, the graves at coins, 6 potsherds, 5 bronze objects, 4 lead fragments,
this location have fallen to pieces due to collapse of the an bronze awl and another bronze object, and a bone.
1 ŞAHİN 2015, 43 Fig. 12
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