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Euesperides 2005: Preliminary Report on the Spring 2005 season

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2015

Andrew Wilson,
Paul Bennett,
Ahmed Buzaian,
Ben Found,
Kristian Göransson,
Abby Guinness,
James Hardy,
James Holman,
Alette Kattenberg and
Geoffrey Morley
...Show all authors
Andrew Wilson
Affiliation:
Institute of Archaeology, University of Oxford, UK
Paul Bennett
Affiliation:
Canterbury Archaeological Trust, Canterbury, UK
Ahmed Buzaian
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, University of Garyunis, Benghazi, and Omar al-Mukhtar University, al-Beida, Libya
Ben Found
Affiliation:
Canterbury Archaeological Trust, Canterbury, UK
Kristian Göransson
Affiliation:
Institutionen för arkeologi och antikens historia, Lunds Universitet, Sweden
Abby Guinness
Affiliation:
Canterbury Archaeological Trust, Canterbury, UK
James Hardy
Affiliation:
Canterbury Archaeological Trust, Canterbury, UK
James Holman
Affiliation:
Canterbury Archaeological Trust, Canterbury, UK
Alette Kattenberg
Affiliation:
Institute of Geo- and Bioarchaeology, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, and Amsterdam Archaeological Centre, Universiteit van Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Geoffrey Morley
Affiliation:
MOLES Archaeology, Crabble, Kent, UK
Musbah al-Mugasbi
Affiliation:
Department of Botany, University of Garyunis, Benghazi, Libya
Keith Swift
Affiliation:
St Peter's College, Oxford, UK
Alys Vaughan-Williams
Affiliation:
Geography Department, Royal Holloway, University of London, UK
William Wootton
Affiliation:
The Queen's College, Oxford, UK
Eleni Zimi
Affiliation:
Department of History and Archaeology, University of Crete, Rethymno, Greece
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Abstract

This paper is a preliminary report on the Spring 2005 season of the excavations at Euesperides (Benghazi). Work continued in Areas P and Q, and on the processing of finds from the 2005 and previous seasons. In Area P a series of domestic deposits dated to the last quarter of the fourth or first quarter of the third century BC was excavated, including a hearth, a probable domestic altar and associated votive deposits, and a series of post-holes perhaps connected with furniture and a loom. Two small external yard areas seem to have been used for purple dye production. In Area Q late occupation to the west of the street is dated to the late fourth century BC; to the east of the street, the latest stratigraphy appears to have been truncated and the occupation levels so far excavated here date from 470 down to 300 BC.

Selected finewares from the excavations are presented, ranging in date from the sixth to the third centuries BC. Work on the coarse pottery and amphora assemblages has begun to distinguish products of different production centres within Cyrenaica. Besides demonstrating the quantities of imported coarsewares from Corinth, the Aegean and the Punic world, we can now recognise four classes of Cyrenaican amphorae, including exports present at Punic Sabratha. The study of the wall plaster, environmental remains and other finds are also briefly discussed.

Euesperides is a site both of archaeological importance and of considerable scientific interest for its rare wetland vegetation, but both of these aspects remain vulnerable to ongoing damage as a result of urban development, uncontrolled rubbish dumping and a lack of effective protection of the site.

Information

Type
Archaeological Reports
Information
Libyan Studies , Volume 36 , 2005, pp. 135 - 182
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Libyan Studies 2005

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