Hostname: page-component-7b7567c8c-fvjsw Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-11-15T04:42:41.679Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Euesperides (Benghazi): preliminary report on the spring 2004 season

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2015

Andrew Wilson,
Paul Bennett,
Ahmed Buzaian,
Vanessa Fell,
Ben Found,
Kristian Göransson,
Abby Guinness,
Jamal Hardy,
Kerry Harris and
Richard Helm
...Show all authors
Andrew Wilson
Affiliation:
Institute of Archaeology, Oxford, UK
Paul Bennett
Affiliation:
Canterbury Archaeological Trust, Canterbury, UK.
Ahmed Buzaian
Affiliation:
University of Garyunis, Benghazi and, Omar Mukhtar University, al-Beida, Libya
Vanessa Fell
Affiliation:
English Heritage, Portsmouth, UK
Ben Found
Affiliation:
Canterbury Archaeological Trust, Canterbury, UK.
Kristian Göransson
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology and Ancient History, University of Lund, Sweden
Abby Guinness
Affiliation:
Canterbury Archaeological Trust, Canterbury, UK.
Jamal Hardy
Affiliation:
Canterbury Archaeological Trust, Canterbury, UK.
Kerry Harris
Affiliation:
St Peter's College, Oxford, UK
Richard Helm
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
Estíbaliz Tébar Megías
Affiliation:
Departamento de Historia de la Antigüedad y la Cultura Escrita, Universitat de València, Spain
Geoffrey Morley
Affiliation:
Canterbury Archaeological Trust, Canterbury, UK.
Adrian Murphy
Affiliation:
Canterbury Archaeological Trust, Canterbury, UK.
Keith Swift
Affiliation:
St Peter's College, Oxford, UK
Jessica Twyman
Affiliation:
Canterbury Archaeological Trust, Canterbury, UK.
William Wootton
Affiliation:
The Queen's College, Oxford, UK
Eleni Zimi
Affiliation:
Department of History and Archaeology, University of Crete, Rethymno, Greece
Get accessRights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article reports on the sixth season of the ongoing project at Euesperides (Benghazi). Excavation in Area P established the date of construction of the penultimate phase (and therefore of the plain pebble mosaic with inscription published last year) as 300-282 BC, following the abandonment and demolition of the antepenultimate phase beneath it. An area used for the preparation and cutting of the materials employed in the final-phase mosaics has been identified. In Area Q the dismantling of the street sequence was completed, and the W building fronting the street found to date from the fifth century BC. In Area R the crushed deposits of Murex shell were removed and working surfaces associated with purple dye production defined. Geological investigations to the west of the city revealed a possible location for the ancient harbour, and showed that the waterlogged deposits of the former sebkha are a good source for further palaeoenvironmental research.

Study of the finds also continued. Further work on reconstructing the design of the final phase mosaic in Area P suggests a central motif probably of two dolphins set within a wave-crest surround. The initial results of the analysis of the mosaic samples taken from the final-phase Building A are presented. The study of the wall plaster fragments was begun, enabling some preliminary observations on the decoration. New forms of local black glaze pots have been recovered this year along with fineware imports from Attica, Corinth, East Greece, south Italy and the Punic world throwing light on the interrelations between Euesperides and the Mediterranean world from the fifth to third centuries BC. Full quantification of the coarse pottery assemblages continued this season, doubling the dataset of fully recorded pottery, whilst detailed analysis of vessel forms and their variations identified production techniques and chronological developments of vessel shapes within the local and imported wares. The study of the amphorae identified more Punic amphorae and an unusual basket-handled amphora which may be of Cypriot origin. Initial assessments of environmental and faunal remains were conducted.

Information

Type
Archaeological Reports
Information
Libyan Studies , Volume 35 , 2004, pp. 149 - 190
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Libyan Studies 2004

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Alfaro Giner, C. and Tébar Megías, E. in press. La producción de púrpura en la Ibiza romana: los hallazgos de Pou des Lieó/Canal d'En Martí (Ibiza). In Alfaro Giner, C., Costa Ribas, B., Wild, J.-P. (eds.), Textiles y Tintes en el Mediterráneo Romano. Actas del I Symposium sobre Textiles y Tintes del Mediterráneo en época romana (Eivissa, 8-9 noviembre 2002).Google Scholar
Bond, R. C. and Swales, J. M. 1965. Surface finds of coins from the city of Euesperides. Libya Antiqua 2: 91–101.Google Scholar
Buhl, M.-L. 1983. Sukas VII. The Near Eastern pottery and objects of other materials from the upper strata. Publications of the Carlsberg expedition to Phoenicia (Historisk-filosofiske skrifter/Det Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskab), Copenhagen.Google Scholar
Cardon, D. 2003. Te monde des teintures naturelles. Paris.Google Scholar
Corinth VII, Part 5 = Risser, M. K. 2001. Corinth, vol. 7, Part 5. Corinthian Conventionalizing Pottery. Princeton, N. J.Google Scholar
Cyrene VII = Kocybala, A. 1999. The Extramural Sanctuary of Demeter and Persephone at Cyrena, Libya, Final Reports vol 7: The Corinthian Pottery (University Museum Pennsylvania Monograph 95), Philadelphia.Google Scholar
Dominquez, A. J. and Sánchez, C. 2001. Greek Pottery from the Iberian Peninsula. Archaic and Classical periods. Leiden.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Doumet, J. 1980. Étude sur la cduleur pourpre ancienne et tentative de reproduction du procedé de teinture de la ville de Tyr décrit par Pline l'Ancienne. Beyrouth.Google Scholar
Dunbabin, K. M. D. 1994. Early pavement types and the invention of tessellation. Fifth International Colloquium on Ancient Mosaics, Bath, England, September 5-12 1987 (JRA Supplement 9), vol. 1: 26–40.Google Scholar
Fraser, P. M. 1951. An inscription from Euesperides. Bulletin de la Société royale d'archéologie d'Alexandrie 39: 132–43.Google Scholar
Gjerstad, E. 1946. Decorated metal bowls from Cyprus. Opuscula Archaeologica 4: 1–18.Google Scholar
Gjerstad, E. 1960. Pottery types, Cypro-Geometric to Cypro-Classical. Opuscula Atheniensia 3: 105–22.Google Scholar
Green, J. R. 1976. Gnathia Pottery in the Akademisches Kunstmuseum Bonn. Mainz.Google Scholar
Goodchild, R. 1952. Euesperides-a devastated city site. Antiquity 26: 208–12.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gunneweg, J. and Perlman, I. 1991. The origin of “loop-handled jars” from Tell Keisan. Revue Biblique 98.4, 591–99.Google Scholar
Humbert, J.-B. 1991. Essai de classification des amphores dites “à anses de panier”. Revue Biblique 98.4, 574–90.Google Scholar
Jones, G. D. B. 1983. Excavations at Tocra and Euhesperides, Cyrenaica, 1968-1969. Libyan Studies 14: 109–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kenrick, P. M. 1985. Excavations at Sidi Khrebish, Benghazi (Berenice) vol. 3.1 The fine pottery (Supplements to Libya Antiqua 5). Tripoli.Google Scholar
Mayo, M. E., and Hamma, K. 1982. The art of South Italy. Vases from Magna Graecia (Catalogue of an exhibition). Richmond.Google Scholar
Médard, F. 2000. L'artisanat textile au Néolithique. L'exemple de Delley-Portalban II (Suisse) 3272-2462 avant J.-C. Montagnac.Google Scholar
Ramón, J. 1995. Las ánforas fenico-púnicas del Mediterraneo central y occidental. Barcelona.Google Scholar
Salzmann, D. 1982. Untersuchungen zu den anitken Kieselmosaiken von den Anfängen bis zum Beginn der Tesseratechnik. Berlin.Google Scholar
Wilson, A. I., Bennett, P., Buzaian, A. M., Fell, V., Göransson, K., Green, C., Hall, C., Helm, R., Kattenberg, A., Swift, K. and Zimi, E. 2001. Euesperides (Benghazi): Preliminary report on the Spring 2001 season. Libyan Studies 32: 155–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilson, A., Bennett, P., Buzaian, A. M., Buttrey, T., Göransson, K., Hall, C., Kattenberg, A., Scott, R., Swift, K. and Zimi, E. 2002. Euesperides (Benghazi): preliminary report on the spring 2003 season. Libyan Studies 33: 85–123.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilson, A., Bennett, P., Buzaian, A. M., Buttrey, T., Fell, V., Found, B., Göransson, K., Guinness, A., Hardy, J., Harris, J., Helm, R., Kattenberg, A., Morley, G., Swift, K., Wootton, W. and Zimi, E. 2003. Euesperides (Benghazi): preliminary report on the spring 2003 season. Libyan Studies 34: 191–228.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilson, L. 1930. Loom weights. In Robinson, D. M. (ed.), Excavations at Olynthus. Part II: Architecture and Sculpture: houses and other buildings. Baltimore and London: 118–28.Google Scholar