Liakos Dimitrios, The seaside fort of the athonite monastery of St Paul and its dating; The archaeological evidence and a removed inscription.
Summary
Α seaside fort is located near to the modern shipyard of the monastery of St Paul. It is consisted by the tower (8,90 x 9,90 m.) and the enclosure, the so-called barbakas (9,80x11,20 m.) with the twostorey residence. The tower is divided in six levels and its entrance was located at the west side in the lever of the second floor. In the building complex, that has so far been dated from the 13th until to the 16th c., two phases are distinguished: the first one concerns the construction of the tower and the part of the enclosure; almost right afterwards followed the extension of the enclosure. The excavation brought in light some unknown architectural elements, but also contributed to its certain dating. In the tower one more unknown level (the lowest), covered by saucer dome, was revealed; an arched entrance in the north side, which was closed in uncertain time, leading through stone-built staircase to the second level, where an entrance in the east side was existed, yet was also closed in uncertain time. In the enclosure the dividing wall between the narrow stone-paved courtyard and the residence, with the stone staircase leading to its upper floor and the arched entrance of the ground floor, was unearthed. In the north wall of the enclosure (in the early phase), bellow the machicolation, the initial entrance was revealed. It was closed by the enclosure’s extension and then a new entrance opened in the west part of it. Also, at the north part of the courtyard, next to the entrance of the early enclosure, a well was brought in light. In the south and west wall of the enclosure, parts of a stone-built conduit of the rainwater’s runoff were unearthed. Datable finds were mainly confined to potsherds. Those from the foundation layer (glazed sgraffito ware) are dated to the 16th c., while those from the upper layers in the interior of the complex are attributed to the 17th-19th c. (Slip-Painted Ware, Çanakkale). Out of the enclosure an unexpected finding was revealed: a part of a marble inscribed sarcophagus dated to the mid-4th c. A.D., already published by Gabriel Millet, Juil Pargoire, Louis Petit (1904) and more detailing commented by Millet (1905). It had been moved by the monks to the monastery from its dependency on Lemnos, not later than the year 1479. According to Gerasimos Smyrnakis it was reused as a window lintel on the north wall of the tower. It stood in this position until 1911, when parts of the north wall of the tower were collapsed. Concerning the dating of the fort, the 16th c. sherds from the foundation’s layer prove that it was built in this period. Also, the recently disclosed representation of St George in the blind arch above the tower’s entrance in the west side is dated to the first half of the 16th c. In the above-mentioned data can be added the information of a removed Cyrillic dedicatory inscription kept in the monastery, which, as I propose, comes from the fort. The inscription mentions that a tower was built by the Wallachian ruler Neagoe Basarab (1512-1521) and it was extended by someone ruler Peter, who could be identified either with the Moldavian ruler Petru Rareş (1527-1538, 1541-1546) or the Wallachian ruler Petru de l’Arges (1535-1545). The given information by the inscription is in accordance with the archaeological data, as well as the two distinguished constructional phases. Therefore, it seems that the construction of the sea side fort took place in two close periods during the first half of the 16th c.: the tower and the early part of the enclosure was built by the Wallachian Neagoe Basarab and a few years later the enclosure was extended by the Moldavian Petru Rareş or the Wallachian Petru de l’Arges.
