IV. The Etruscan City

1961 ◽  
Vol 29 ◽  
pp. 25-52
Author(s):  
J. B. Ward-Perkins

About the internal topography of the Etruscan city we know sadly little. That it was very largely determined by the natural configuration of the ground there is little room for doubt. It is true that on the Piazza d'Armi Stefani found what may have been an open square with a straight street leading out of one corner of it and a second street running for a short distance at right angles to it. But the regularity of plan extends only a very short distance back from the main façade, and it bears all the marks of being a later rationalisation of an existing irregular plan; nor is there any suggestion of a regular layout elsewhere in the city. The main lines of the street-plan are clear enough, and these indicate a radial layout, with the city-centre occupying roughly the same site as the centre of the Roman town. This was, and still is, the natural focus of the plateau. Here the crest divides into two distinct ridges, the southern one running the full length of the promontory, right down to the Piazza d'Armi, the northern one bearing off to the left and then swinging right again towards the modern Casale Cabrioli, ending on the cliffs overlooking the Fosso della Valchetta, opposite the Vacchereccia tumulus. The layout of the south-eastern part of the town was very largely determined by the course of the roads which followed these two ridges and of a third road which probably ran down the bottom of the valley between them. Two other roads, those from the Formello and the Millstream Gates, converge directly on the centre, and that from the Capena Gate joined the northern ridge-road about 500 m. to the east. The Caere road probably joined the axial road some distance to the west of the centre.

1963 ◽  
Vol 29 ◽  
pp. 99-132 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. J. Wainwright

The distribution of Mesolithic sites in Wales is controlled to a great extent by the terrain, for physiographically, Wales is a highland block defined on three sides by the sea and for the greater part of the fourth side by a sharp break of slope. Geologically the Principality is composed almost entirely of Palaeozoic rocks, of which the 600-foot contour encloses more than three quarters of the total area. There are extensive regions above 1,500 feet and 2,000 feet and in the north the peaks of Snowdonia and Cader Idris rise to 3,560 feet and 2,929 feet respectively. Indeed North Wales consists of an inhospitable highland massif, skirted by a lowland plateau and cut deeply by river valleys, providing only limited areas for settlement. The hills and mountains of Snowdonia with their extension at lower altitudes into the Lleyn Peninsula, and the ranges of Moelwyn, Manod Mawr, Arenig Fach and Cader Idris, are discouraging obstacles to penetration, save for a short distance along the river valleys. To the east of these peaks are extensive tracts of upland plateau dissected by rivers, bounded on the west by the vale of the river Conway and cleft by the Vale of Clwyd. To the east of this valley lies the Clwydian Range and further again to the east these uplands descend with milder contours to the Cheshire and Shropshire plains.To the south the district merges into the uplands of Central Wales, which are continuous until they are replaced by the lowland belt of South Wales.


1998 ◽  
Vol 29 ◽  
pp. 35-83 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Smith ◽  
James Crow

AbstractThe fortifications of the Hellenistic and Roman city of Tocra are over 2 km long (including the sea-wall) and comprise a curtain wall up to 2 m wide flanked by 31 rectangular towers. Three main structural phases were noted in the survey carried out in 1966 by David Smith: (1) Hellenistic walls of isodomic ashlar, (2) later Hellenistic work of isodomic ashlar with bevelled edges, associated with the indented trace along the south rampart, and (3) an extensive rebuild of plain ashlar blocks including the towers and reconstruction to the East and West Gates, dateable, on the basis of Procopius, to the reign of Justinian. The general significance of the fortifications at Tocra is considered in the second part: these include the Hellenistic indented trace along the south side, later reinforced by towers in the sixth century AD. Also of wider importance was the use of an outer wall or proteichisma, and the pentagonal, pointed towers at the two main gates. Both these elements were unusual in Byzantine North Africa and they are discussed as part of the more general repertory of Byzantine fortifications. The unusual tower adjacent to the West Church is considered in the context of literary accounts. The article concludes by considering how the architecture and magnitude of the fortifications can allow a reassessment of the wider role of the city in the sixth and seventh century defences of Cyrenaica.


1899 ◽  
Vol 6 (11) ◽  
pp. 501-505
Author(s):  
W. Boyd Dawkins

The discovery of a coalfield in 1890 at Dover, in a boring at the foot of Shakespeare Cliff, has been already brought before the British Association by the author at Cardiff in 1892, and is so well known that it is unnecessary to enter into details other than the following. The Carboniferous shales and sandstones contain twelve seams of coal, amounting to a total thickness of 23 feet 5 inches. These occur at a depth of 1,100 feet 6 inches below Ordnance datum, and have been penetrated to a depth of 1,064 feet 6 inches, or 2,177 feet 6 inches from the surface. They are identical, as I have shown elsewhere, with the rich and valuable coalfields of Somersetshire on the west, and of France and Belgium on the east


1953 ◽  
Vol 33 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 22-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Graham Webster ◽  
R. H. Dolley ◽  
G. C. Dunning

On 29th November 1950 workmen employed by the Merseyside and North Wales Electricity Board were relaying a cable on the west side of Castle Esplanade, Chester. In cleaning up the western side of the trench with a spade, 18 in. below the present pavement level and 29 ft. to the south of St. Martin's Court, one of the men cut through a small earthenware vessel and a shower of coins and silver bullion poured into the bottom of the trench. It is distressing to record that although the Grosvenor Museum is only 100 yards from the site, the discovery was not reported. No significance was attached to the find; one of the men stated later that they thought they were milk checks. Three of the men put handfuls of coins into their pockets; others were distributed to children near, and the rest shovelled back into the trench. The engineer-in-charge took several to his office for thepurpose of identification, but later forgot about them. One of the men sent some of the coins to Hunter Street Girls' School, by his niece, for identification, and the mistress immediately sent them to the Curator of the Grosvenor Museum.This happened on 10th December, and the Curator at once appreciating the significance of the discovery, set to work to recover as much as possible of the hoard, and reported the matter to the City Coroner. As a result he recovered a hundred coins, twelve ingots of silver, and a fragment of the vessel.


Inner Asia ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 361-373
Author(s):  
Elke Studer

AbstractThe article outlines the Mongolian influences on the biggest horse race festival in Nagchu prefecture in the Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR).Since old times these horse races have been closely linked to the worship of the local mountain deity by the patrilineal nomadic clans of the South-Eastern Changthang, the North Tibetan plain. In the seventeenth century the West Mongol chieftain Güüshi Khan shaped the history of Tibet. To support his political claims, he enlarged the horse race festival's size and scale, and had his troops compete in the different horse race and archery competitions in Nagchu. Since then, the winners of the big race are celebrated side by side with the political achievements and claims of the central government in power.


2006 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 245-268
Author(s):  
David Butler

The London of Challoner consisted only of some seven square miles, one square mile of which was, of course, the City of London. It can all be put onto some eight pages of the present A–Z map of London, which at the time of writing consists of 141 pages. John Rocques's map of London, on a scale of 200 feet to the inch, which he began in 1738 and finished in 1747, in its London Topographical Society format of 1982, perfectly illustrates the London of both Challoner and Defoe. The western extremities were at Marylebone, Knightsbridge and Chelsea, the eastern at Stepney, Limehouse and Deptford, the northern at Tottenham Court and Bethnal Green, while the southern limits were at Kennington and Walworth Common. The population of London was assessed by Wrigley in 1990 as c. 575,000 in 1700, as c. 675,000 in 1750 and as c. 959,000 in 1801. The 1767 papist returns indicated that most London Catholics lived in the parishes of St James and St Giles, within Westminster. Schwarz has pointed out the considerable social segregation in London, middle-class areas being in the west and central parts, with the poorer areas in the south and east. The St Giles area around Seven Dials going east to Bow Street and Drury Lane is reputed to have contained a third of the capital's beggars and to have been a notoriously criminal quarter. The Catholic numbers in Westminster were 7,724, the City numbers 1,492, with the Middlesex out-parishes having more than 2,000. The 1767 total for London, including the parishes to the south and east, comes to 12,320, clearly too low, as is the accumulated total for the London District of around 15,800. This gives about 3,500 for the London District outside the capital while Challoner's own figures give us a Catholic population of 5,261. If the errors in enumeration were the same in both areas (a large assumption), this enables us to guess that the 1767 figures could be corrected to about 18,500 London Catholics and about 24,000 for the whole District.


1911 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 553-565
Author(s):  
George Frederick Andrews

Since the Middle Ages Spain has been continuously established within the boundaries of Morocco, and at the present time Spain is the only foreign power possessing a foothold on Moroccan soil. The three island presidios, Penon de Velez de Gomera, the Alhucemas, and the Zaffarines, lying off the coast, and the two cities, Melilla and Ceuta, clinging with desperation to the mainland, comprise the Spanish possessions.Ceuta is by far the most important of these possessions. The fortress is built on a headland extending into the sea toward the east. On the west only, can it be approached by land. As at Melilla, a strip of neutral territory separates the walls of the city from what may be called by courtesy, Makhzen territory, although actually Ceuta, like Melilla, is shut in on the land side by the independent tribes of the mountains. Ceuta has a population of about 14,000, its commerce is unimportant as yet, but there are possibilities of very considerable increase. From Tangier, thirty miles to the west, and from Tetuan, about twenty-five miles to the south, the roads are difficult and dangerous, and there is little communication. Ceuta is kept in touch with Spain by a boat service which makes the trip to Algeciras and return each day.


1967 ◽  
Vol 62 ◽  
pp. 353-371
Author(s):  
J. J. Coulton

About 10 metres south-west of the sixth-century temple of Hera Akraia at Perachora, and nearly due west of the little harbour lies the small courtyard previously known as the ‘Agora’. Since its purpose is not known, it will here be non-committally referred to as the West Court. It was first excavated in 1932, and more fully, under the supervision of J. K. Brock, in 1933, but it was not entirely cleared until 1939, and it was at that time that the Roman house which stood in the middle of the court was demolished. The West Court is discussed briefly (under the name of ‘Agora’) in Perachora 1 and in the preliminary reports of the Perachora excavations. Short supplementary excavations were carried out in 1964 and 1966 to examine certain points of the structure.In shape the West Court is an irregular pentagon, about 24 metres from north to south and the same from east to west (Fig. 1; Plate 91 a, b). It is enclosed on the west, north, and on part, at least, of the east side by a wall of orthostates on an ashlar foundation. For a short distance on either side of the south corner, the court is bounded by a vertically dressed rock face which is extended to the north-east and west by walls of polygonal masonry. At the south-west corner the west orthostate wall butts against the polygonal wall, which continues for about 0·80 m. beyond it and then returns north for about 8 metres behind it.


1941 ◽  
Vol 73 (3) ◽  
pp. 208-222 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. H. Johnston

The Periplus Marts Erythræ describes the seaports below Barygaza in the following way according to Schoff's translation: “The market-towns of this region are, in order, after Barygaza: Suppara, and the city of Calliena, which in the time of the elder Saraganus became a lawful market-town; but since it came into the possession of Sandares [an unjustified conjecture for the text's Sandanes] the port is much obstructed, and Greek ships landing there may chance to be taken to Barygaza under guard. Beyond Calliena there are other market-towns of this region; Semylla.…” Suppara is now Sopara on the coast above Bassein, Semylla is Cemūla of two inscriptions, now Chaul, and Calliena is Kalyāṇa. This last, situated at the foot of the two regular ascents of the Western Ghats leading towards Nasik and Poona respectively and with good access to the sea, was the natural outlet for the commerce of the Andhra dominions on the west coast, and the notice, just quoted, shows how its trade was stifled, as the Kṣaharātas extended their rule southwards from Broach. It is unnecessary here to consider who are the kings alluded to in this passage or in the earlier one mentioning Nambanus (a conjecture for the text's Mambarus), but clearly we are dealing with the rivalry of the Western Satraps and the Andhra kings. That the former were successful in their policy towards Kalyāṇa is shown by Ptolemy's omission of the town. The order he gives (taking Renou's text) is Souppara mouth of the River Goaris, Dounga, mouth of the River Bêndas, Semyla.


1966 ◽  
Vol 34 ◽  
pp. 56-67
Author(s):  
J. M. Reynolds

The following group of inscriptions includes some unpublished texts found recently during the South Etruria survey and a few published ones in which additional or improved readings can be offered as a result of re-examination. Most of them are tombstones of essentially local significance, but nos. 1 and 4 from Tomba di Nerone, 5 from Casale Spizzichino and 20 from Filissano are of greater importance and interest.I. Sites on or near the Via Cassia.1. Travertine tombstone, damaged at the upper right corner (0·52 × 0·98 × 0·12), with schematic gable and acroteria above and a lightly and crudely incised wreath in the gable; inscribed on the exposed face, whose surface is damaged. Built into the wall of the drive leading to Via Cassia 901, which lies on the west side of the road a short distance beyond Tomba di Nerone. Recent building development revealed drainage cuniculi and other elements of a Roman building, and along the ancient road frontage there were several graves and remains of at least one mausoleum. It is very likely that some or all of the texts (nos. 1–4) were found locally.


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