Gortys, "Terme a sud del Pretorio" : observations on the main phases of the building ten years on from the beginning of the excavations

The paper deals with a new thermal building in Roman Gortyna (Creta), which was totally unknown before 2003 and then it has been excavated by the University of Milan since 2003 till now. The building is known as “Terme Milano” to distinguish it from other thermal buildings already discovered in Gortyna, and due to the fact that it has been successfully brought to light by the University of Milan, thanks also to SAIA (Italian School of Archaeology at Athens) and MAE (Ministero degli Affari Esteri) funding, and in association with the Greek Ephoria at Gortyna. The bath was built around 300 A.D., covering the northern side of a large square (m. 80 x 80), probably surrounded by colonnades, south of the so-called “Pretorio”. The diggings have unearthed a bath with vivid mosaic decorations, beautifull polychrome marble floors and fragments of marble statues, probably representing young naked athletes, the gods Hygieia and Asklepios etc. (see also G. Bejor’s abstract about the new Hyghieia head from Gortyna, presented to the Congress too). Our aim is to show how the large bath building developed through the ages until the end of the city monumental history during the VIIth century A.D., when some byzantine private houses were built on the ruins of the thermal complex, used as caves for building materials and for a little limekiln. We would also discuss how the building was inserted in the ancient city plan, how it functioned as there were other thermae in Roman Gortyna, and finally how its model distinguished from the ones of the other bath buildings in Gortyna.