Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean (5.1993(1994))

26, at that time largely opened on the street, and included some
more rooms belonging originally to the neighbouring house.
SOUNDINGS AROUND THE BASILICA
This important building, excavated in 1989 and later, has
already become a tourist attraction, being the only major monu-
ment cleared between the Tetrapyle and the Funerary Temple. A
church in its latest stage, it was abandoned about 600 A.D., before
its walls finally collapsed some two centuries later, apparently as
a result of an earthquake.
We have proceeded this year with a series of test trenches
aimed at establishing the chronology of the earlier stages. In
particular, the dating of the apse had to be verified, my first
conclusion about it being a 4^ century addition appearing unsafe.
As a matter of fact, the foundations of the apse do sit on a
4^ century fill; an enlarged trench has shown, however, that this
fill accumulated gradually even higher, up to a hard floor cut
through by the foundations. It must be admitted, then, that the apse
was added about the middle of the 6^ century. At the same time,
various of the building’s dependencies were restored, following a
period of devastation.
More trenches in front of the church, under the pavement
of the narthex, revealed, however, that there was after all an
important building phase early in the 4^ century. A colonnade was
set along the southern wall of the basilica, implying that the new
access to the aisle was already opened in the middle of the wall.
A closed courtyard in front was added, with a gate opening from
the Great Colonnade, strikingly similar to the atrium of some
Constantinian churches. It seems that these activities can be dated

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