Rome, Pamphylia and Cilicia, 133–70 B.C.

1976 ◽  
Vol 66 ◽  
pp. 1-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. N. Sherwin-White

There has been much debate about the nature and purpose of the Roman intervention in Pamphylia between 102 and 70 B.C., to which a new edge has been given by the discovery of the extensive new fragments of the ‘Piracy Law’ of 101–100. Any solution needs a clear understanding of the strategic geography of the region and its political role within the kingdom of Pergamum that became the province of Asia. This fertile though narrow coastal plain, hemmed in by the western prolongation of the Taurus mountains, between the high massif of Cilicia Aspera in the east and the lower block of Lycia in the west, with the Pisidian chains to the north, is the coastal face of the isolated and difficult country of Pisidia. The deltas of the Pisidian rivers, notably Cestros and Eurymedon, enrich the narrow plain of Pamphylia. Practicable access to the interior for large forces dependant on wheeled transport for supplies is provided by three difficult routes leading through the Pisidian mountains from the coastal harbours: the first goes north-west from Attaleia past Termessus into and through the mountainous Milyas region that lies behind Lycia to Cibyra, and thence to Laodicea on the upper Maeander (Lycus) in Carian Asia. The second and easiest goes northwards from Attaleia to Sagalassus in the heart of Pisidia, and thence to Apamea on the Phrygian plateau—with a difficult branch north-east to Pisidian Antioch and Philomelium—and the third goes north and north-east from Side through the highest section of the Pisidian mountains, passing between the great Lake Caralis and the northern end of the High Taurus into the elevated plateau of Lycaonia: thence, from the communication centre of Iconium, there is easy access to Cappadocia by the central highway that links Apamea, Iconium and Mazaca. Pamphylia thus forms the southern gateway to Pergamene and Roman Asia, and to the Cappadocian kingdom behind the main chains of the Taurus. Hence it was of strategic interest to the Hellenistic kingdoms, which in the past had sought to control it and to found cities in it, and most notably after the Treaty of Apamea, to the kings of Pergamum.

1922 ◽  
Vol 59 (3) ◽  
pp. 134-139 ◽  
Author(s):  
Norman L. Silvester

The area under consideration is a portion of the mountain massif bounded on the east by the Conway River, on the north by the narrow coastal plain between Conway and Bangor, and on the west and south by the popular tourist route through Nant.-Francon pass by Llyn Ogwen and down the Afon Llugwy to Bettws y coed. The investigation includes the horseshoe-shaped ring of mountains, of which the highest is Y Foel Frâs (3,091 feet), surrounding the upper course of the Aber River (Cwm yr Afon Goch). To the north-west this igneous complex is bounded by the precipitatious crags over which the above stream descends by leaps and bounds, forming the well-known Aber Falls. Upon Sheet 78, south-east of the old Geological Survey map the area is coloured as “Massive intrusive felspathic rocks”, surrounding two oval patches indicated as “Greenstones”, whilst a further elongated patch of the latter forms the south-west boundary. The north-east boundary is limited by the Aber-Llanbedr fault. Besides the hog-backed summit of Y Foel Frâs, the area includes the similarly outlined summits of Y Drosgl West (2,483 feet), Yr Arryg (2,875 feet), Llwydmor Bâch (2,256 feet), and the more rugged summits of Bera Mawr (2,587 feet), Bera Bâch and Llwydmor (2,749 feet).


1964 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-8

Early in 1963 much of the land occupied by the Roman building at Fishbourne was purchased by Mr. I. D. Margary, M.A., F.S.A., and was given to the Sussex Archaeological Trust. The Fishbourne Committee of the trust was set up to administer the future of the site. The third season's excavation, carried out at the desire of this committee, was again organized by the Chichester Civic Society.1 About fifty volunteers a day were employed from 24th July to 3rd September. Excavation concentrated upon three main areas; the orchard south of the east wing excavated in 1962, the west end of the north wing, and the west wing. In addition, trial trenches were dug at the north-east and north-west extremities of the building and in the area to the north of the north wing. The work of supervision was carried out by Miss F. Pierce, M.A., Mr. B. Morley, Mr. A. B. Norton, B.A., and Mr. J. P. Wild, B.A. Photography was organized by Mr. D. B. Baker and Mrs. F. A. Cunliffe took charge of the pottery and finds.


Author(s):  
Penelope M. Allison

The surviving plaster on the walls of this entranceway consisted of a high pink socle, delineated in red, with a white zone above. Ling observed that this overlay an earlier First-Style decoration on the east wall and that it had been patched in antiquity. Breaches are found in both the east and west walls. Outside the entrance, to either side, is a masonry bench (east bench: l.: 2.1 m, d.: 380 mm; west bench: l.: 2.4 m, d.: 460 mm), both much damaged. Finds within the entranceway consisted of bronze and iron studs, undoubtedly from the house door. Remains of plastered decoration survive on the south wall. Elia recorded a yellow dado, surmounted by a red band, with white plaster above. There is a breach in the north-west corner through to Unit no. 9, above a blocked doorway. At the centre of this front hall is a tufa impluvium (2.4 m × 2.1 m). In the north-west corner, 1 m above the pavement, were found: a small bronze ring; a bronze stud, similar to those in the entranceway and probably also from the front door; a fragment of a stone mortar or hand-mill; some glass beads; a small shell; and two bronze quadrantes, one of Nero dated ad 64. The fragmentary or loseable nature of these items suggests that they were disturbed from the ground level. Other small loseable items were found in the north-east corner: a small glass bottle, probably a toilet item; and possibly five more coins. One metre from the west side of the impluvium were found: another part of a hand-mill; two large stone weights; at least fifty-three lead weights, probably from a loom; and two other spherical stones, possibly also weights. The large number of lead weights is comparable with the quantity found under the stairway in room i of the Casa del Principe di Napoli. Another comparable group of forty loom weights was found together in a pit at Zugmantel. As Jongman noted, this amount would be equivalent to that required for one or perhaps two warp-weighted looms. It is therefore commensurate with the existence of such a loom, or looms, in this area, or of replacement loom weights, for domestic use.


1893 ◽  
Vol 10 (9) ◽  
pp. 396-401
Author(s):  
Henry Hicks

In a recent article on the Pre-Cambrian Rocks of the British Isles in the Journal of Geology, vol. i., No. 1, Sir Archibald Geikie makes the following statement: “There cannot, I think, be now any doubt that small tracts of gneiss, quite comparable in lithological character to portions of the Lewisian rocks of the North-West of Scotland, rise to the surface in a few places in England and Wales. In the heart of Anglesey, for example, a tract of such rocks presents some striking external or scenic resemblance to the characteristic types of ground where the oldest gneiss forms the surface in Scotland and the West of Ireland.” To those who have followed the controversy which has been going on for nearly thirty years between the chiefs of the British Geological Survey and some geologists who have been working amongst the rocks in Wales, the importance of the above admission will be readily apparent; but as it is possible that some may be unable to realize what such an admission means in showing geological progress in unravelling the history of the older rocks in Wales during the past thirty years, a brief summary of the results obtained may possibly be considered useful.


Zootaxa ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 1203 (1) ◽  
pp. 39
Author(s):  
ALISON M. MCCARTHY ◽  
SARAH GERKEN ◽  
DAVID MCGRATH ◽  
GRACE P. MCCORMACK

The validity of Pseudocuma gilsoni B|cescu 1950 has been questioned in the past. The recent discovery of material in Irish waters, and in the North Sea, confirms the presence of the species in the North East Atlantic and provides the opportunity to present a full redescription. A new genus, Monopseudocuma, is erected to accommodate the species. A neotype is designated from the West coast of Ireland.


1957 ◽  
Vol 25 ◽  
pp. 67-203 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. W. Frederiksen ◽  
J. B. Ward Perkins

The modern Via Cassia, now as in antiquity the great arterial road up through the heart of south-eastern Etruria, after crossing the Fosso dell'Olgiata less than a kilometre to the west of the north-western gate of Veii, climbs steadily for about 7 km. to cross the Monti Sabatini, the line of extinct volcanic craters that runs eastwards from Lake Bracciano, forming a natural northern boundary to the Roman Campagna. After cutting through the southern crest of the crater of Baccano, with its magnificent views southwards and eastwards over Rome towards Tivoli, Palestrina and the Alban Hills, the road drops into the crater, skirts round the east side of the former lake, and climbs again to the far rim, before dropping once more into the head of the Treia basin, on its way to Monterosi and Sutri.From this vantage-point a whole new landscape is spread out before one (pl. XLVII). To the west and north-west, the tangle of volcanic hills that forms the northern limit of the Monti Sabatini, rising at its highest point to the conical peak of Monte Rocca Romana (612 m.); beyond and to the right of those, past Monterosi and filling the whole of the north-western horizon, some 10–15 km. distant, the spreading bulk of Monte Cimino (1053 m.), with its characteristically volcanic, twin-peaked profile; to the north and north-east, the gently rolling woods and fields of the Faliscan plain, deceptively smooth, stretching away to the distant Tiber.


Africa ◽  
1938 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 265-293 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eileen Jensen Krige

Opening ParagraphThe Sotho of the North-Eastern Transvaal Lowveld occupy an area with fairly well-marked geographical boundaries. To the east, the Game Reserve, low-lying, unhealthy, very sparsely populated even in the old days, remains an effective barrier to contact with and further migrations from the Shangana-Tonga of Portuguese East Africa. South are the Olifants River and the towering Drakensberg range curving north-west then northwards to merge into the well-marked escarpment on the west dividing Lowveld from Highveld. On the north the Klein Letaba river roughly demarcates our area from the Venda and the Shangana-Tonga of the Knobnose Location. The Sotho-speaking Venda of Tswale and Moila, who fall well within this area, resemble in culture their Sotho-ized neighbours more than their own Venda kin to the north; but the Shangana- Tonga, who occupy most of the lower-lying eastern and north-eastern portion of the area and comprise at least one-third of its total population, are unassimilated strangers of different stock coming from the north-east and east. They have been entering since about 1840, usually in small bands, at first seeking the protection of and subjecting themselves to the Sotho owners of the land. On the arrival of the white man, some of their headmen were granted independent locations which have served as nuclei for the building up of more united tribal groups. (See accompanying map.)


1979 ◽  
Vol 45 ◽  
pp. 1-33 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. J. Wainwright ◽  
A. Fleming ◽  
K. Smith

Viewed from the south Devon littoral with its series of good harbours the dark bulk of Dartmoor is clearly visible across the flat coastal plain. It is the largest of the five granite masses that provide a spine to the south-west English peninsula (Dartmoor, Bodmin Moor, Hensbarrow, Carnmenellis and Penwith) that were formed by the consolidation of molten material. The 500 square kilometres of the Moor form an undulating upland up to 600 m OD on the north-east side, where the greatest elevations occur. In the southern parts of the Moor the rolling tableland is 300 m to 420 m high—modern cultivation tends to cease at the 300 m contour, that is broken by numerous upland valleys and the eroded remains of tors. Today this expanse of moorland is bleak and treeless except in river valleys at the rim of the granite escarpment, although patches of contorted oak woodland survive at Piles' Wood on the River Erme, Wistman's Wood on the West Dart and Black Tor Beare on the West Okement. Pollen analyses have shown, however, that up to a height of about 360 m Dartmoor was probably covered by a deciduous forest dominated by oak that was gradually eroded by climatic trends and human activity (e.g. Simmons, 1969). It is from this central mass that the rivers of south Devon diverge. The wide upland valleys of the Tavy, Plym, Yealm, Erme, Avon and Dart plunge through characteristic deep wooded gorges near the southern granite escarpment into the South Hams and around this border modern settlement—numerous villages and a few towns are situated.


1968 ◽  
Vol 33 ◽  
pp. 207-306 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Avery ◽  
J. E. G. Sutton ◽  
J. W. Banks ◽  
M. S. Tite ◽  
J. G. Evans ◽  
...  

Rainsborough is 1 mile South of Charlton village, in the parish of Newbottle, S. Northants, 20 miles North of Oxford, (SP 526348). The camp lies atc. 480′ OD, and the area enclosed isc. 6·25 acres.It lies on the edge of a plateau: the approaches to it are flat on the north-east, east, south and south-west, but a gentle slope to the north, north-west and west gives it a wide view across the Cherwell valley, towards Madmarston and Tadmarton (see map, fig. 1 and also pl. XXV). The defences are bivallate: the inner bank stands to 10 feet above the interior, and there is a drop of about 15 feet from the crest into the inner ditch; the second bank is very much lowered by ploughing, but still reaches a height of about 4 feet on the south side, where a hedge line has protected it; the outer ditch is nowhere visible on the surface, except on the west, when it carries a higher growth of weeds. The defences are covered with turf: the inner bank has also trees, bushes and the stumps of large beeches felledc. 1950. The bank is riddled with tree roots, and the sandy character of the core has attracted rabbits: recent attempts to dig and smoke out the warrens have slightly damaged the profile of the bank. A small dry stone wall is visible part way up the outer slope of the inner bank in several places.


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