You imagine a wide road (latitudinal 10 and more meters), layered with thick, heavy marble slabs, bordered by marble curbs and colonnades, and on this road move chariots and pedestrians and animals and soldiers and emperors and…
And on a street corner – of the not so crowded despite the "maximus" of his character – to be engraved, almost artificial, a huge frenzy; Yes, the famous game that is still played today. And... I was thrilled to see Roman soldiers and centurions playing in the middle of the street;
The oversized trill of decumanus maximus (ancestor of today's Egnatia street) was located at the height of today's Agia Sophia street, just a few meters below the pavement of the polypath – and from the subway opening works – Egnatia street and has a diameter of about two meters.
Archaeologists working as part of the excavations to open the subway tunnel have not arrived at the exact dating of the impressive find, as the street on which it was located was allegedly "carved" after the 3rd AD. century and was preserved for at least three centuries later (until the 6th AD).
It is a monumental road of Roman character (decumanus is the Latin term that referred to large streets of Roman cities that were oriented from east to west and were usually decorated at the beginning and end with piazzas). The revelation of the excavations concerns a section of the length of the road 82,5 and width 10 meters.
The "birth" of the street dates back to the 3rd BC. century – when the city was founded by King Kassander. The traces of the ancient Macedonian road are about two meters below the cobbled and obviously wider and more luxurious Roman road that was "built" on top of it around the 3rd AD. century.
For more than four centuries the road, which is re-engraved with the Hippodamian system of town planning, turns into a main thoroughfare of the city.
THE the greatest decumanus of Thessaloniki is paved with thick marble slabs 15 centimeters and is bordered by wide marble curbs 4,7 meters. In its southern part (το βόρειο δεν ανασκάφηκε καθώς «εφάπτεται των ορίων του σκάμματος του σταθμού) σώζονται τα ερείπια κτιρίων ενώ ανάμεσα στον δρόμο και στα κτίρια παρεμβαλλόταν, as is the case today in cities, dense network of built clay and lead pipes, which served the needs of water supply and drainage. Είναι χαρακτηριστικό μάλιστα ότι οι άψογα μονωμένοι αγωγοί ύδρευσης περνούσαν μέσα από αυτούς της αποχέτευσης χωρίς ποτέ να σημειωθούν διαρροές. Ο δρόμος αλλάζει μορφή (πλάτος, μήκος, χρήση) ανά τους αιώνες. Η Ρωμαϊκή οδός, μετά τους σεισμούς του 620 A.D. και την καταστροφή πολλών μνημείων της πόλης, «στενεύει», στη διάρκεια της Τουρκοκρατίας γίνεται και πάλι μονοπάτι, in the 19th century it is paved with Italian cobblestones and on it are laid the lines of the tram which also passes under the arch of Galerius, as seen in photographs of Thessaloniki from the beginning of the previous year (20uh) century.
Η ανασκαφή έγινε στο πλαίσιο των αρχαιολογικών εργασιών που γίνονται και από την 9η Εφορεία Βυζαντινών Αρχαιοτήτων παράλληλα με τις εργασίες για τη διάνοιξη του μετρό της Θεσσαλονίκης. During the same excavation (jurisdiction of the 9th Ephorate of Byzantine Antiquities) who started it 2007 and continues, a number of mobile finds were uncovered (jewelry, Christian symbols and church utensils, tools etc. of Byzantine Thessaloniki) and hundreds of gold and copper coins.
Source : tanea.gr
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