Urbanism and Economy at Euesperides (Benghazi): preliminary report on the 1999 season

1999 ◽  
Vol 30 ◽  
pp. 147-168 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Wilson ◽  
Paul Bennett ◽  
Ahmed Buzaian ◽  
Susanne Ebbinghaus ◽  
Kenneth Hamilton ◽  
...  

AbstractThis paper reports on the first season of a new project at Euesperides (Benghazi) aimed at studying the urban development and economy of the city. Two area excavations were started, the first on the site of early Hellenistic pebble and tessellated mosaics discovered in 1998, and the second in what appears to be an area of houses and workshops built against the city wall on the east side of the mound of Sidi Abeid. Geophysical survey and surface prospection was also undertaken; it appears that the lower-lying extension to the city was much larger than previously thought, and several modifications are necessary to previously published plans of the site. Much of the lower city is covered with large spreads of deliberately crushed shells of Murex trunculus, indicating the production of purple dye on a significant scale. Other evidence of urban production was also recovered, notably metal-working, while study of the ceramic assemblage shows widespread trading connections, with significant imports of coarsewares besides the expected fineware and amphora imports.

2002 ◽  
Vol 33 ◽  
pp. 85-123 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Wilson ◽  
Paul Bennett ◽  
Ahmed Buzaian ◽  
Ted Buttrey ◽  
Kristian Göransson ◽  
...  

AbstractThe fourth season of the current project at Euesperides (Benghazi) took place in Spring 2002. Excavations continued in Areas P, Q and R, accompanied by limited augering work to determine the limits of surviving archaeology to the south of the Sidi Abeid mound. Excavations in Area P revealed part of a courtyard house from the penultimate phase of the site, with a probableandronandgunaikon. Its destruction is dated to after 261 BC. In Area Q work concentrated on the dismantling of street deposits and associated flanking houses from the later phases of the city's life; a soakaway drainage feature under the street was also investigated. The sequence of city wall circuits and their post-abandonment robbing was clarified. In Area R excavations established the structure of the mound of deposits deriving from the production of purple dye fromMurex trunculusshellfish, and its relationship to the robbed-out walls of the courtyard building within which this activity occurred. The processing of ceramic finds underlines the active trading contacts enjoyed by Euesperides, with most of the fine pottery and a fifth of the coarse pottery being imported from overseas, and transport amphorae ranging in origin from the Straits of Gibraltar to the northern Aegean. The coin finds confirm that the city was abandoned after the death of Magas (258/250 BC); and it appears that the Herakles types, common at the site, were minted there under Thibron (323–322/322 BC).


Author(s):  
Jeannette Forsén ◽  
Tatiana Smekalova ◽  
Esko Tikkala

Between 2001 and 2012 a geophysical survey project was carried out on and around Asea Paleokastro in Arcadia, Greece. The results of this work complement the archaeological surface survey carried out in the same area in 1995 and the cleaning session of the acropolis walls in 2000. We have now a fair idea of how the lower city was laid out and how the city wall encompassed the city blocks. Detailed information concerning a residential block was supplied in part by the excavation published by Erik J. Holmberg in 1944, and this supports our results. We have an orthogonal town plan consisting of rectangular city blocks of c. 38 x 56 m. The city wall has several towers and a postern gate, as well as at least one more complex city gate. The agora is more elusive, but we think that it could be placed in an area mostly devoid of anomalies downhill from a built-up area revealed by the magnetometer survey and bordered by the main passageway to the acropolis entrance.


2003 ◽  
Vol 98 ◽  
pp. 387-435 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Blackman ◽  
Maria Costanza Lentini

Remains discovered in excavations at Naxos in 1981–3, underlying structures belonging to the settlement which has been recognized as the mansio mentioned in the Antonine Itinerary, have now been firmly identified as the dockyard of the Greek city, the first Greek colony in Sicily and a Chalcidian foundation; an ally of Athens in the fifth century, it was therefore destroyed by Dionysios I of Syracuse in 403 BC. One rock-cut shipshed has been excavated for its surviving length (the lower end is lost under modern buildings); there is pottery evidence for the construction of its north wall in the mid-fifth century BC.As with the installation of the democracy after the return of the Chalcidian exiles from Leontinoi, the work may have been inspired and encouraged by Athens. Installations of an earlier phase are also starting to appear. A selection of pottery evidence and of the remains of roof components (tiles and antefixes) is published.The side walls of at least four shipsheds have been found just inside the city wall, and these respect the orientation of the fifth-century urban plan. The clear width of the shipshed excavated (5.45 m) confirms the evidence of other recent excavations: the previously held view that trireme shipsheds had a clear width of 5.75–6 m will have to be revised. The back 5–6 m of the shipshed do not seem to have been part of the slipway proper; possible explanations are suggested.


2000 ◽  
Vol 31 ◽  
pp. 121-143 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Bennett ◽  
Andrew I. Wilson ◽  
Ahmed Buzaian ◽  
Kenneth Hamilton ◽  
David Thorpe ◽  
...  

AbstractThis paper reports on the second season of the new fieldwork at Euesperides (Benghazi). Excavations continued in Areas P (a large building with early Hellenistic mosaics) and Q (an area of streets and buildings built against the line of the Archaic period city wall), and were commenced at a site in the Lower City (Area R), where evidence for purple dye production from the Murex trunculus shellfish was found. In addition, a programme of machine-cut evaluation trenching was carried out in an area to the south of the Sidi Abeid mound to determine the limits of the archaeological area; this showed that occupation deposits continued for some distance to the south-east of the zone formerly considered to have encompassed the city. Geophysical prospection was completed in the Lower City, giving a fuller understanding of the city plan and of manufacturing activities. Preliminary quantification of the fine pottery suggests heavy reliance on imported wares (some 90%) to meet demand for tablewares, and carries important implications for the volume of ancient shipping and trade reaching Euesperides.


Author(s):  
Omar S. Asfour ◽  
Samar Abu Ghali

City centers worldwide are perceived as essential parts of the city, where city memories are preserved and its identity is expressed. They are planned to satisfy the functional requirements and pleasurable qualities of the city. Under the accelerating urbanization of the modern city, several challenges face these centers including demographic, economic, and environmental challenges. This requires a continuous and incremental urban development process based on clear strategy and action plans. Thus, this study focuses on urban development strategies of city centers, with a focus on Rafah city located in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian Territories. The geographic location of this city near the Palestinian-Egyptian borders makes it a promising commercial city at local and regional levels. Thus, the current situation of Rafah city center has been analyzed, and several development strategies have been proposed. This has been done through a field survey based on observation and a questionnaire directed to city center users. It has been found that there is a great potential of Rafah city center to be developed as a commercial center. In this regard, several strategies and required actions have been proposed in the fields of transportation, environmental quality, shopping activities, investment opportunities, and visual perception.


Author(s):  
Maria-Foteini Papakonstantinou ◽  
Arto Penttinen ◽  
Gregory N. Tsokas ◽  
Panagiotis I. Tsourlos ◽  
Alexandros Stampolidis ◽  
...  

In this article we provide a preliminary report of the work carried out between 2010 and 2012 as part of the Makrakomi Archaeological Landscapes Project (MALP). The programme of research is carried out in co-operation between the Swedish Institute at Athens and the 14th Ephorate of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities at Lamia. The interdisciplinary project started in the summer of 2010, when a pilot survey was conducted in and around the hill of Profitis Elias, in the modern municipality of Makrakomi, where extensive traces of ancient fortifications are still visible. Systematic investigations have been conducted since 2011 as part of a five-year plan of research involving surface survey, geophysical survey and small-scale archaeological excavation as well as geomorphological investigation. The primary aim of MALP is to examine the archaeology and geomorphology of the western Spercheios Valley, within the modern municipality of Makrakomi in order to achieve a better understanding of antiquity in the region, which has previously received scant scholarly attention. Through the archaeological surface survey and architectural survey in 2011 and 2012 we have been able to record traces of what can be termed as a nucleated and structured settlement in an area known locally as Asteria, which is formed by the projecting ridges to the east of Profitis Elias. The surface scatters recorded in this area suggest that the town was primarily occupied from the late 4th century BC and throughout the Hellenistic period. The geophysical survey conducted between 2011 and 2012 similarly recorded data which point to the presence of multiple structures according to a regular grid system. The excavation carried out in the central part of Asteria also uncovered remains of a single domestic structure (Building A) which seems to have been in use during the Late Classical and Hellenistic periods. The combined data acquired through the programme of research is thus highly encouraging, and has effectively demonstrated the importance of systematic archaeological research in this understudied area of Central Greece.


2013 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 163-175
Author(s):  
Urszula Żukowska ◽  
Grażyna Kalewska

In today's world, when it is so important to use every piece of land for a particular purpose, both economically and ecologically, identifying optimal land use is a key issue. For this reason, an analysis of the optimal land use in a section of the city of Olsztyn, using the L-system Urban Development computer program, was chosen as the aim of this paper. The program uses the theories of L-systems and the cartographic method to obtain results in the form of sequences of productions or maps. For this reason, the first chapters outline both theories, i.e. the cartographic method to identify optimal land use and Lindenmayer grammars (called L-systems). An analysis based on a fragment of the map of Olsztyn was then carried out. Two functions were selected for the analysis: agricultural and forest-industrial. The results are presented as maps and sequences in individual steps.


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