The early christian church outside Thessaloniki’s East city wall

No abstract The author presents the results and conclusions of the excavation of a church which was discovered in 1980 outside Thessaloniki’s east city wall on the site of the pre-Christian and Christian burial ground. The church has not been excavated in its entirety, because its west section lies underneath the grounds of the International Fair, but it is very probably in the style of a Hellenistic basilica. The semicircular passage around the interior of the bema apse presents aspects which have not been observed in the usual circular con­ structions of the early Christian basilicas. This leads to the supposition that it may be connected with special cult ceremonies (possibly of martyrs’ cults). The structures which have been discovered in the usual position of a basili­ ca’s synthronus cannot be identified with any certainty as a synthronus, and similarly the tomb discovered on the same axis as the church is impossible to be identified. A second, higher floor found at the west end of the excavation area seems either to be due to repair work or to belong to a second construction layer. On the basis of the data acquired so far and in particular the treasure trove of coins found beside the enkainion of the church may be dated to somewhere between the last quarter of the fourth century and the middle of the fifth century. Owing to the lack of sufficient archaeological evidence, the author considers it premature to identify the church as that of St Anysia, known to us from various sources