Agios Georgios (Pegeia), Cape Drepanon: the Department's excavation of the basilicas

On the high ground at Cape Drepanon, west of the atrium of a large church, the Department of Antiquities found a baptistery with a sunken circular font entered by steps from the east and a mosaic floor of elaborate interlaced designs¹. The excavation of this Early Christian settlement at Agios Georgios, Pegeia, was led by A. H. S. Megaw, Director of the Department of Antiquities, who was in charge of the work from 1949 to 1955^2,3. A. I. Dikigoropoulos is named with him in the reports for 1952 to 1955^3,4. Four campaigns were reported, the last called the fourth and final³.

In 1952 the chancel mosaic pavement and the scant remains of the nave pavement of Basilica I were cleared, one column was re-erected, and fragments of the marble ambon were found⁴. Excavation resumed in 1953. The atrium pavement of Basilica I was uncovered with four rather damaged animal panels showing a lion, a bull, a bear and a boar, which were left in place in the floor⁵. A much smaller basilica annexed south-west of the atrium was located and partly excavated; Megaw's report names it Basilica IA, and it was of the transept type despite its size. Glass tesserae from three apses and pieces of coloured marble from an encrusted panel in the north transept came from it, and the panel included more than one figure⁵. Megaw contrasted that panel with the roughly contemporary examples in Istanbul (St. Sophia), Ravenna and Parenzo, which are geometric or floral⁵. Basilica III proved small and simple in plan, with impost capitals, and Megaw dated it to the sixth century⁵.

The campaign of 1954 uncovered the baptistery and a long series of annexes north of the church and atrium, and completed Basilica III, which was entered through a small three-arched portico at its west end¹. The baptistery was enclosed by aisles with galleries above¹. Megaw noted that its mosaics conform with examples from Antioch, which their excavators date to the second half of the fifth century, and he thought the whole group appeared to belong to a single scheme, though the transept basilica might replace earlier constructions¹. Some Hellenistic and Roman rock-cut tombs, already described by Hogarth, were cleared and enclosed that year, and J. S. Last surveyed much of the cemetery¹.

In 1955 the north annexes of Basilica I were completed and Basilica II was excavated. It was of modest size, with five columns a side (one preserved) dividing nave and aisles, galleries above the aisles, several capitals of a rudimentary Ionic-impost form, and fragments of mosaic from the semi-dome of the main apse; Megaw dated it probably to the late sixth century³. A small public bath, possibly connected with Basilica I, was partly excavated. Its furnace and two hypocausts survive from the original structure, which Megaw thought may go back to the fifth century, and simple geometric mosaic floors were added to two rooms in late sixth-century repairs³.

A tomb at the south end of the narthex of Basilica II, according to Megaw's report, seems originally, in the early seventh century, to have been occupied by a benefactress and her children. It held part of a gold necklace, earrings, a cross pendant, a child's finger-ring and copper coins, the latest of them Heraclean. The tomb was later reused as a common repository for skulls and bones, possibly removed from nearby graves for protection during the Arab raids³. Bakirtzis suggests that it belonged to the founder (ktetor) of the church he calls Basilica B⁶.

Bakirtzis (2020) counts 24 rock-cut tombs of two types, late Hellenistic and Roman⁶. Raptis and Bakirtzis describe the site as an extensive unwalled settlement that probably became a port of call for the grain fleet in the Early Christian period, between Alexandria and Constantinople, citing its geographical position and architectural remains⁷. Keane writes that Basilica C, which appears to be the building Megaw's 1954 report calls Basilica III, looks like a classic example of church authority over agricultural workshops, with an olive press in its annexes, and cites Megaw's sixth-century date⁸. A 2008 account describes the excavated area as a fenced archaeological site, fragmented by fences and paths from the gradual excavation since the early 1950s, with two marble columns restored in the 1950s now conserved⁷.