Gortys. Archaeological excavations of new mausoleums in the Praetorium area

The articles presents the results of recent archaeological excavations carried out by the ‘Sapienza’ University of Rome in Gortys, Crete, Greece. The area investigated is located north of the northern plateia, that crosses the city of Gortys from west to east, connecting the city center to the agora, and along which main public edifices are placed, and east of the Nymphaeum complex. Here, a group of considerable and relevant monuments, to be dated back to the Roman imperial age, was unearthed under the Byzantine layers. Among the others, a massive monumental building with funerary role, possibly a mausoleum provided with a wide hypogeal sepulchral chamber, unusually located inside the inhabited area, was discovered.