The shipsheds of Sicilian Naxos, researches 1998–2001: a preliminary report

Abstract

Remains discovered in excavations at Naxos in 1981–3, underlying structures belonging to the settlement which has been recognized as the mansio mentioned in the Antonine Itinerary, have now been firmly identified as the dockyard of the Greek city, the first Greek colony in Sicily and a Chalcidian foundation; an ally of Athens in the fifth century, it was therefore destroyed by Dionysios I of Syracuse in 403 BC. One rock-cut shipshed has been excavated for its surviving length (the lower end is lost under modern buildings); there is pottery evidence for the construction of its north wall in the mid-fifth century BC.As with the installation of the democracy after the return of the Chalcidian exiles from Leontinoi, the work may have been inspired and encouraged by Athens. Installations of an earlier phase are also starting to appear. A selection of pottery evidence and of the remains of roof components (tiles and antefixes) is published.The side walls of at least four shipsheds have been found just inside the city wall, and these respect the orientation of the fifth-century urban plan. The clear width of the shipshed excavated (5.45 m) confirms the evidence of other recent excavations: the previously held view that trireme shipsheds had a clear width of 5.75–6 m will have to be revised. The back 5–6 m of the shipshed do not seem to have been part of the slipway proper; possible explanations are suggested.