Papers of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens (5.1886-1890)

DISCOVERIES AT PLATAIA.

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talc. These large stones covered terracotta drain-tiles, which are
laid in trenches cut through very solid soil. The tiles are made of
well-baked red clay, are 0.20 m. deep and 0.15 wide (interior meas-
urements), and about 0.03 thick. They were joined together end to
end, not overlapping, by a grey cement very neatly applied. The
tiles have apparently a very gentle slope down toward the city,
which is a confirmation of the supposition that they served as an
aqueduct. Mr. Hunt and I explored the neighborhood for the possi-
ble source ; and there is some probability that he discovered this, out-
side and to the south of the city-wall, at some considerable distance
from the point at which we found the tiles. The aqueduct runs
under the city-wall and under the church, a block of the aqueduct
being cut away obliquely. It is probable that the wall was the ear-
liest, the aqueduct the next in date, and the large church the latest.

Several inscriptions had already been found; but at this church we
discovered, in a grave below the east wall, two large inscriptions used
as covering stones. One turned out to be another slab of the Dio-
cletian Edict, giving, in Greek, the prices of textiles. This contains
a large portion of the 17th Chapter in Waddington's edition of the
known texts, with some interesting variations, as well as a column and
a half of material hitherto unjrablished and unknown, constituting
the beginning of the chapter. It appears to me not unlikely that the
Preamble found last year and this text, though they were found
within the city about a mile apart, are portions of the same document.
The marble slabs are of the same material, and must originally have
been of the same dimensions ; and it appears probable that the Pre-
amble remained in the original Latin, while the text, which was of
practical importance to the people at large, was here posted in the
Greek translation. The other Greek inscription records a dedication
to some goddess on the part of women, with a list of interesting female
names. From the frequent mention of a torch (Sat<;), it seems not
unlikely that the goddess was either Demeter or Artemis Eukleia,
both which goddesses had temples at Plataia.

We continued to dig at various sites outside the city-walls, hoping
to find some clue for discovering either the Temple of Demeter (and
in this we followed Mr. Hunt's suggestion) or the Temple of Hera.
We did not succeed in fixing these sites; though several objects of
interest were discovered. Thus, for instance, on Mr. Hunt's site, a
fragment of an inscription undoubtedly referring to some hippie con-