The "street sondages team" directed by Femke Martens and assisted by Bart De Graeve (both KULeuven) spent its first week at the site clearing two large areas for the geophysical research that will be carried out by the Slovenian team from the University of Ljubljana. This involved the removal of hundreds of prickly kermes oaks and euphorbias. Firstly, the very steep and terraced slope to the south of the Doric temple and to the west of the Odeion was cleared from this kind of vegetation. During the intensive archaeological survey of the 2000 campaign, this slope had been identified as part of the monumental center, containing an impressive staircase leading toward the Doric Temple from the south, as well as some residential constructions and alleys and streets. Hopefully, our geophysical survey of the same area will add more information concerning the spatial organization and functional use of this area. The new evidence will be combined with the mapped surface architecture and will be compared to the results of the excavations in the Odeion that are planned for August.

Secondly, another extensive area was cleaned to the west of the monumental center of the town, along the main west east axis that gave access to the town center from the west. This area had already been covered during the intensive archaeological survey of 2001, when its surface architecture was also mapped. The area proved to be a residential quarter with large peristyle houses made of limestone ashlars, with some monumental constructions in between that were especially concentrated along the street itself and in the eastern part of the surveyed area. One of these monumental structures was an early Byzantine church (Basilica F, see Architectural survey of the churches), which was mapped during the 2001 survey, but was studied in more detail this week by P. Talloen. This building will also be surveyed with geomagnetism to gain more information about its plan. The entire area cleared along the main west-east street will be covered both with geomagnetic as well as with georadar surveying techniques. The aim of our research is, on the one hand, to trace the course and width of this street and to identify the character of the adjoining structures and, on the other hand, to check whether or not the street was still fully paved during the final phase of its use in Late Antiquity. The same test, using georadar techniques to trace paved surfaces as well as underlying water channels, will also be carried out elsewhere at the site, where streets have already been identified during previous survey seasons and by test excavations.