Le ricerche italiane

In Kos, after the first research of the German mission of R. Herzog, to whom we owe the discovery of the sanctuary of Asclepios and the first explorations of the western districts of the city, the Italian research, started immediately after the military occupation, took on a systematic character only after the arrival of the archaeologist Luciano Laurenzi, SAIA alumnus and fellow of the Historic-Archaeological Institute FERT of Rhodes. He had been recently appointed Inspector of the new branch office of Kos of the Royal Superintendence of Dodecanese, and remained in the island until the summer of 1934, when was called to Rhodes to direct the head office. Afterward, the research was carried out by Luigi Morricone, who remained in Kos until 1941, when in turn was appointed regent of the Superintendence in Rhodes. In the south-west the medieval town, where Laurenzi began the first excavations, there was a little settlement, known as Porta Nuova district (Yeni Kapu), formed not before the middle of the 19th c., along one of the routes from the chora and its port to the hinterland. The neighbourhood appears in fact in the city map drawn by the Italian Military Geographical Institute (IGM) in 1926 (Fig. II.1.2), before the earthquake of 1933, which imposed in 1934 the creation of a Master Plan that radically changed the character of the area. It does not appear yet, however, in a map of 1838 drawn up by the English Admiralty (Fig. II.1.1). A few years before 1926, the agricultural area south of this district had been crossed from east to west by a new avenue, Viale di Circonvallazione (currently odos Grigoriou V), an important road (Fig. II.1.3) built in order to connect the capital with the other centers of the island. As clarified by later excavations, the modern road replicated almost exactly the route of the ancient plateia / decumanus. Research by Laurenzi in this area led to the discovery, south of the new avenue and near the crossroads of Porta Nuova, of an odeion and several mosaic floors; the findings led the archaeologist to understand the extent of the ancient city, much larger than the medieval and modern one. In the context of these explorations, in 1930 Laurenzi discovered in the garden of the Mahmud Bey property some thermal rooms, corresponding to the large south calidarium of the Western Baths. Due to the presence of modern buildings and private properties, the excavation was not, however, extended and the exploration was abandoned and resumed only years later by L. Morricone, when, with the earthquake of 23 April 1933, it was possible to demolish some damaged buildings in order to broaden the search. In 1936, the area north of the Laurenzi’s excavation was deeply explored, beyond a Turkish fountain and the embankment on which this arose, discovering the northern basilica which insisted on the cold rooms of the Baths (Figs.II.1.5, II.1.7). The excavation was then extended to the east, where a paved road in excellent condition came to light, the so-called cardo (Fig.II.1.10-11). To the east of the road, a monumental latrine-nymphaeum was also discovered. In 1937 Morricone continued even the digging of Laurenzi south of the Turkish fountain, extending it further to discover a second bath building, of smaller size, which in the early Christian period hosted a baptistery and an episcopal residential quarter.