Excavations at Portchester Castle, Hants, 1961–3. First Interim Report

1963 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 218-227 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barry Cunliffe
Keyword(s):  
Ground Level ◽  
City Council ◽  
Interim Report ◽  
The South ◽  
The West ◽  
Public Building ◽  
West Wall

Portchester Castle remained untouched by archaeologists until the Office of Works took charge of the site in 1926. From that date until 1938 tidying up operations were carried out, entailing the excavation of moats and the general lowering of the ground level within the Inner Bailey. In 1956 Mr. R. Robertson-Mackay, on behalf of the Ministry of Works, supervised the digging of a trial trench, to the south of the present road, across the line of the second Roman ditch outside the west wall of the fort. In June and July 1961, the writer excavated an area, 100 ft. by 30 ft., against the inside of the west wall, to the south of the Landgate, the work being organized by the Ministry of Works as a rescue excavation prior to the proposed construction of a changing-room and lavatory. The site was later considered to be unsuitable for such a structure, but it was decided to conduct further excavations, the first phase of which (Easter 1962—Easter 1963) was designed to examine the Roman defences. The work was carried out with the co-operation of the Ministry of Public Building and Works and was financed by grants from the Libraries and Museums Committee of the Portsmouth City Council, the Hampshire Field Club, and the Joint Archaeological Committee.

Unit I 10,12

2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Penelope M. Allison
Keyword(s):  
The South ◽  
The West ◽  
West Wall ◽  
South Wall ◽  
C 50 ◽  
Spindle Whorl

The walls of this unit have coarse plaster and the pavement was of cocciopesto. There appears to have been a wooden stairway along the west wall, two stone blocks (each of h.: c.50 mm, and dimensions: c.450 mm × 350 mm) 2.2 m from the south wall and set at right angles to the wall forming the base. Elia reported that no finds were made here. However, the excavators recorded: part of an inscribed amphora, probably a spindle and a spindle whorl, and a small ceramic pot, on the pavement; a bronze lock bolt at 2.5 m above the pavement; and an iron door key and two nails in the lapilli. According to Elia, this was a workshop. An entrance in the east wall had been closed when a latrine was added to room 31 in the Casa del Menandro. An inscription, painted in black, was observed near the blocked doorway to the latter room. Elia believed that this unit had originally been part of the Casa del Menandro but had been separated from it and was disused at the time of the eruption. The finds, while rather small and loseable, might point to its use as a location for spinning during its final occupancy phase.

House I 10,1

2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Penelope M. Allison
Keyword(s):  
The South ◽  
The West ◽  
Glass Vessel ◽  
Unknown Type ◽  
West Wall ◽  
North East ◽  
The North ◽  
Volcanic Deposit

In November 1926 the excavators recorded moving lapilli from in front of this house and from the entrance but no finds were reported in these areas. On 8 July 1932 they recorded removing disturbed volcanic deposit from the middle levels in the northeast area of this insula. A breach (min. h.: 2 m), now patched, in the south end of the west wall of room 2 and 1.05 m above the floor, presumably penetrated into this space and documents disturbance after ad 79. Elia observed that the room had been covered and had been divided for all or part of its length by a ‘tramezzo ligneo’ which Ling interprets as a wooden partition to screen the stairway. In the north-east corner, are three masonry steps from a stairway which Ling argued ascended along the east wall. Ling argues that the installation of this stairway would have put out of commission the recess and lararium painting (dimensions: 0.55 m × 0.4 m) behind it. The remains of a late Third Style decoration are found on the walls. The loose finds from near the north entrance of this space and from near the entrance to room 3 were predominantly door-fittings, with the possible exception of a small marble base. A small key reported in the latter location may originally have been from storage furniture but was unlikely to have been in use as no other remains of such furnishings were recorded. The only other find in this area was a glass vessel of unknown type. Elia called this room an ‘atrium’. The finds are not particularly diagnostic but, even if this area was disturbed, they hint that it had been relatively unencumbered with furnishings, probably serving predominantly as a reception and access area for the rest of the house. The breach in the south end of the west wall of this room implies that it may have been disturbed after ad 79. The walls had a simple painted decoration but this room had no evident fixtures. According to Elia it was an ‘oecus’. The limited ceramic finds (a jug, a terra sigillata dish, and a lamp) are associated with lighting and probably with the serving or storage of foodstuffs.

scholarly journals The West Wall of the Portico of Obelisks in Hatshepsut's Temple in 2018 and 2019: conservation and studies

2019 ◽  
pp. 343-357
Author(s):  
Ewa Józefowicz
Keyword(s):  
Research Program ◽  
The South ◽  
The West ◽  
Research Project ◽  
Conservation Treatment ◽  
West Wall ◽  
Current State ◽  
The Temple ◽  
Wall Decoration

The longest, west wall of the South Lower Portico (Portico of Obelisks) of the Temple of Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahari has been reassessed in terms of its current state, compared to the original documentation by Edouard Naville, as an opening step to the author’s research project organized within the frame of the larger University of Warsaw Temple of Hatshepsut research program. A considerable number of blocks from the wall, including unpublished fragments, was tracked down in storage in the various temple blockyards and storerooms. About two-thirds of the wall decoration underwent conservation treatment in the spring of 2018 and 2019 seasons. The paper discusses the author’s progress in this research.

Hatshepsut’s Punt Reliefs: Their Structure and Function

2019 ◽  
Vol 55 ◽  
pp. 189-203
Author(s):  
Filip Taterka
Keyword(s):  
Structure And Function ◽  
The South ◽  
The West ◽  
West Wall ◽  
The North ◽  
South Wall ◽  
New Interpretation ◽  
North Wall ◽  
And Function ◽  
Female Counterpart

The article examines the layout of Hatshepsut’s Punt reliefs, proposing a new interpretation of their internal structure and ideological function within the decorative programme of the Deir el-Bahari temple. The author argues that the reliefs form a cycle of subsequent scenes, starting at the southernmost end of the west wall, continuing through the south wall up to the northern part of the west wall. As for the scenes represented on the northernmost end of the west wall and on the north wall, it is argued that they should be viewed as forming a single ideological entity, which at the same time corresponds to the long historical inscription placed on the easternmost end of the south wall. That way the reliefs reflect both aspects of Egyptian eternity: the linear (in the cycle of subsequent episodes) and the circular one (in the ideological link between the southern- and northernmost extremities of the Punt Portico). As for the function of the reliefs, it is argued that they were supposed to magically repeat Hatshepsut’s Punt expedition and thus provide her divine father Amun-Ra with all exotic products necessary in his cult. The author also tries to demonstrate, how Hatshepsut was gradually identified with the goddess Hathor in her aspect of the Lady of Punt and the female counterpart of Amun-Ra throughout the Punt reliefs.

Halmyris, a settlement and fort near the mouth of the Danube: interim report

2002 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
pp. 230-245 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mihail Zahariade ◽  
Myrna K. Phelps
Keyword(s):  
Local Environment ◽  
Danube Delta ◽  
Interim Report ◽  
The South ◽  
The West ◽  
The North ◽  
First Millennium ◽  
The Village

Ancient Halmyris lies in the NW corner of the Dobrudja region in SE Romania. It liesc.2.5 km east of the village of Murighiol on a rocky promontory which is slightly higher than the surrounding marshes. This is at the E end of the Dunavat peninsula (known in antiquity asExtrema Scythiae Minoris: Jord., Get.266) and it is bordered by the Danube delta on the north and east, Razelm lake on the south, and the Tulcea hills on the west (fig. 1). The site was occupied continuously from at least the mid-first millennium B.C. up to the 7th c. A.D. The local environment, flora and fauna were favourable to settlement until as a result of natural causes the Danube became almost inaccessible; from that point on, the settlement became vulnerable to human and other natural events and eventually it became deserted.The site is known today as Bataraia or Cetatea. In the early 20th c. the locals still called it the Genoese stronghold (Geneviz-Kaleh). In antiquity it lay on the bank of the southern arm of the Danube called Peuce (now known as Sfantu Gheorghe). Today the southern arm of the Danube runs 2 km north of the site and it is connected to Lake Murighiol by the Periboina canal. Until 1983 there were two lakes,c.100 andc.200 m from the site, modern relics of the ancient course of the river. To the east lie the Dunavat hills and to the south is Dealul Cetatea (“fort hill”) (fig. 2).

Excavations at Fishbourne, 1965. Fifth Interim Report

1966 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-38
Author(s):  
Barry Cunliffe
Keyword(s):  
Detailed Examination ◽  
Masonry Buildings ◽  
Interim Report ◽  
The South ◽  
The West ◽  
Main Road ◽  
Main Site ◽  
The North ◽  
East And West

The excavations of 1965 were largely concerned with the examination of the field containing the east and west wings of the palace and the Great Court which lies between them. As last year's work had almost completed the outline plan of the palace, the 1965 season was concentrated upon the detailed examination of the audience chamber and the entrance hall, the sample excavation of the garden about which practically nothing was known, and the area excavation of those parts of the timber and early masonry buildings belonging to the first-period settlement which had not previously been examined. In addition to this, trial trenches were cut through the newly acquired market-garden to the west of the main site, and further trenching was carried out in the fields to the north of the north wing and the field to the south of the modern main road. The final excavation of the north wing of the palace has been postponed until next season, after the construction of the modern cover-building has been completed.

Inscriptions from Macedonia

1963 ◽  
Vol 58 ◽  
pp. 20-29
Author(s):  
J. M. R. Cormack
Keyword(s):  
The South ◽  
First Line ◽  
The West ◽  
West Wall

1. Edessa. This inscription is still where Leake first reported it, in the courtyard of the Metropolitan Church, the Dormition of the Virgin, built into the south end of the west wall of the Γραφεῖον of the Δεσπότης. Although it has been published half a dozen times, the text has never been read correctly in its entirety, largely because its height from the ground makes the taking of a photograph or the making of a squeeze, let alone a study of the letters, very difficult. I was fortunate to be able to examine it in situ, and the accompanying photograph of a squeeze will facilitate the establishment of the text (Plate 5).It is a rough block, c. 0·46 m. in height and 0·50 m. in width, with a moulding all round, the first line being engraved on the upper moulding. The letters are irregular, measuring on an average 0·025 m. in ll. 1–6 and 0·01 m. in ll. 7–18. The letter-forms, especially important in a dated inscription, are noteworthy. Alpha, delta, and lambda have short tails on the apex; in ll. 1–6 epsilon is square, in ll. 7–18 lunar; similarly in ll. 1–6 sigma is square, in ll. 7–18 lunar. The forms of mu and omega are to be noted; see the accompanying photograph. There are no ligatures.

Casa del Fabbro (I 10,7)

2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Penelope M. Allison
Keyword(s):  
Small Ring ◽  
East Side ◽  
The South ◽  
The West ◽  
Partition Wall ◽  
West Side ◽  
North West ◽  
West Wall ◽  
The North ◽  
North Wall

The doorposts and the walls of the entranceway to this house were coarsely plastered and the pavement was of lavapesta. The walls have been much restored since excavation, prohibiting the identification of any breaches that might provide evidence for disturbance. Outside the entrance, on the west side, is a low, plastered, masonry bench (1.57 m × 0.38 m × 0.42 m), which Elia identified as a seat for waiting clients. Within the entranceway, a few centimetres above the pavement, a number of finds were made. These were all of iron—a large lock, two hooks, a handle, two keys, at least one door latch and numerous studs and nails—and no doubt mainly the fittings for the house door. One of the keys was large and probably a door key. Its discovery here suggests that the occupants were still in residence, or at least had not had the time or inclination to lock up their house, before fleeing from the eruption. A small ring was also found in this entranceway, and was probably a lost finger-ring. This room is closed to the street but almost completely open along its east side onto the entranceway. The walls had a high, pink-plastered socle, to 1.6 m above the pavement, with white plaster above, and the pavement was of tiles and mortar. There are breaches in the west and south walls, possibly the result of post-eruption disturbance. A stairway ran along the north wall, rising from east to west. Underneath was a low partition wall jutting out at right angles from the west wall, to partition off a latrine in the north-west corner. This partition wall post-dates the plaster on the west wall. A line of roof tiles, set into the floor and running from this partition wall to the south jamb on the east wall, is assumed to have been for flushing the latrine. A truncated amphora, with visible organic contents, was set into the pavement in the south-east corner. Other finds from this room, but with no precise provenances, include: two relatively small bronze strap hinges, possibly from furniture; a bronze casseruola; two ceramic jugs; a hoe, probably for gardening; an axehead, probably a woodman’s; and a bronze brooch.

Heraldic and Decorated Metalwork and Other Finds from Rievaulx Abbey, Yorkshire

1965 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-63 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. C. Dunning
Keyword(s):  
Metal Strip ◽  
The South ◽  
The West ◽  
West Side ◽  
Public Building ◽  
The Third ◽  
East End ◽  
Medieval Pottery ◽  
Metal Jet ◽  
The Church

Between 1919 and 1931 a large amount of medieval pottery, objects of metal, jet, and bone, and coins and jettons were found at Rievaulx Abbey in the course of clearance by H.M. Office of Works (now the Ministry of Public Building and Works). The collection includes two examples of heraldic metalwork and a decorated strip which are sufficiently remarkable to merit detailed publication. The pendant (pl. xxi a) was found in 1922 at the east end of the Church, in the filling of the second from the south of the five chapels in a row against the east wall. The mounting and roundel (pl. xxi b–d) were found in 1924 in the filling on the west side of the Frater, south of the flight of steps leading to the pulpit. The third object, the metal strip with inscription (pl. xxi e), was found in 1925 between the Frater and the Reredorter. No significance can be attached to these findspots, since small objects were found in nearly every part of the abbey. No doubt some were lost during the period of occupation, but the majority seem to have been scattered about by despoilers at the time of the Suppression in 1539.

Cirencester, 1961. Second Interim Report

1962 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
John S. Wacher
Keyword(s):  
Military Occupation ◽  
Interim Report ◽  
The South ◽  
Urban District ◽  
The West ◽  
The Third ◽  
District Council ◽  
Bad Weather

During 1961 the Cirencester Excavation Committee was faced with three major rescue excavations. Two development sites, for convenience called Leaholme Gardens, lay south of The Avenue, which crosses the heart of the Roman town, while the third lay north of Ashcroft Road, in an area well known for discoveries of mosaic pavements. Excavations were carried out for three weeks at Easter and for nine weeks during the summer. The Committee records its grateful thanks to each of those bodies which gave in all a very large sum of money, about £2,200; to all who in a variety of capacities assisted the excavations, often, as at Easter, in very bad weather; and to the Cirencester Urban District Council and Messrs. Mycalex Ltd. for permission to dig in Leaholme Gardens and on the Ashcroft Road site respectively. At Easter an L-shaped site, east of Leaholme House, was examined, covering the west end of the basilica, first discovered by our Fellow, Mr. Wilfrid Cripps, in 1898, and the corners of Insulae V and VI divided by Ermin Street and lying to the south of the basilica. In the summer the second site in Leaholme Gardens, west of that already described, was examined and proved to include the corner of Insula II, while beneath both sites conclusive structural evidence of an early military occupation was found.

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