scholarly journals Two Notes on Pylos and Sphacteria

1907 ◽  
Vol 27 ◽  
pp. 274-283
Author(s):  
W. C. Compton ◽  
H. Awdry
Keyword(s):  
The West ◽  
Low Level ◽  
North East ◽  
The North ◽  
Open Sea ◽  
The Hill ◽  
North End

Thucydides (iv. 36) describes the last phase of the long contest which led to the surrender of the 292 surviving Spartans on Sphacteria.They had gradually retired to the summit of the hill at the north end of the island,—an altitude of something under 500 feet, and were making their last stand in the neighbourhood of the παλαιὸν ἔπυμα mentioned by Thucydides, which had once defended this summit, and of which small fragments are yet to be seen. These fragments are still there, for since prehistoric times this practically waterless island has probably never had inhabitants except a few nomad goatherds.The ground,—working round west, north, east, south,—is as follows, and, the photographs reproduced will help to make it clear (Fig. 1, and Plan) To the S.W. is the long slope up which the Spartans had been slowly retiring from their camp on the low level in the centre of the island. To the west the hill falls, not very steeply, to a saddle; and from this and all sides except (as they thought) the east, the Spartans were exposed to attack; then comes a shoulder before the ground slopes away westward to the open sea.

Excavations in Caria

1887 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 64-82 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. R. Paton
Keyword(s):  
Great Part ◽  
The West ◽  
The Road ◽  
North East ◽  
The North ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Hill ◽  
To Receive ◽  
The Way

Mr. Newton in his History of Discoveries, p. 583, gives the following account of an excursion to the peninsula which lies to the west of Budrum (Halikarnassus) where he was then excavating:—We next proceeded to examine the hill with the level top. This hill is called Assarlik.Ascending from this gateway we passed several other lines of ancient walls, and on gaining the summit of the hill found a platform artificially levelled. There are not many traces of walls here. The sides of the hill are so steep on the north and east that they do not require walls. The platform terminates on the north-east in a rock rising vertically for many hundred feet from the valley below. The top of the rock is cut into beds to receive a tower. The view from this platform is magnificent.[After brief mention of several tombs passed in the way down, Mr. Newton proceeds:]The acropolis which anciently crowned the rock at Assarlik must have overlooked a great part of the peninsula and commanded the road from Halicarnassus to Myndus and Termera. From the number of tombs here, and their archaic character, it may be inferred that this was a fortress of some importance in very early times.

A Grammar of the Lau Language, North East Coast of Big Mala, Solomon Islands

1929 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 323-343
Author(s):  
W. G. Ivens
Keyword(s):  
East Coast ◽  
Solomon Islands ◽  
North East ◽  
The North ◽  
The People ◽  
The Hill ◽  
North End

The Lau language is spoken by the inhabitants of the “ artificial islands ” in the lagoon off the north-east coast of Big Mala, Solomon Islands, and by the people who live on the natural island Ngwalulu (Manoba, of the Admiralty charts) which closes the northern entrance to the lagoon. The southern end of the lagoon is known as Ataa Cove, and the language of the islanders in that part of the lagoon has a closer affinity to the languages of the hill peoples of the mainland than has Lau proper. In Port Adam, Little Mala, there are two villages whose people also talk Lau. they being immigrants from Ataa Cove. The hill languages of the north end of Big Mala use certain sounds which do not appear in Lau. These sounds are ngg, i.e. ng in English “ finger ”, nd instead of pure d, mb instead of pure b. Also the Lau h appears as s or th.

Nemesis: A Mycenaean settlement near the Menidi Tholos Tomb

1959 ◽  
Vol 53 ◽  
pp. 292-294
Author(s):  
R. Hope Simpson
Keyword(s):  
Ground Level ◽  
The West ◽  
North West ◽  
North East ◽  
The North ◽  
South West ◽  
Original Size ◽  
The Hill ◽  
East West ◽  
Ancient Remains

The site to be described lies on a low hill a little to the north of the small village or suburb of Nemesis, about 150 metres to the west of the main road from Patisia to Koukouvaounes, and 1 kilometre to east-south-east of the Mycenaean tholos tomb at Λυκὸτρυπα, which was excavated by the German Institute in 1879, and is usually called the Menidi Tomb. The site at Nemesis is visible from the tholos tomb, and is separated from it by a gentle valley through which run, in a southerly direction, two streams with steep banks. The eastern stream is the river Kephissos, whose name goes back at least as far as the classical period.The hill of Nemesis stands about 15 to 20 metres above the level of the surrounding land, and measures about 160 m. north-west to south-east × 120 m. north-east to south-west. The hill is an isolated outcrop of conglomerate rock, thinly covered with stony brown earth. It has been eroded over an area about 250 m. north-south × 50 m. east-west, so that its original size was considerably larger than at present, in all about 30,000 square metres. Mycenaean sherds were found over the whole of this area, though mainly in the eroded part, among the lumps of fallen earth and rock. Remains of rubble walling together with several Mycenaean sherds were found here, and also in the steep cliffs formed by the erosion on the west and south sides (this part of the hill has been undermined by recent excavation of the beds of grey clay, which here lie at between 2 and 3 metres below the original ground level). The ancient remains are particularly noticeable in the south-west angle of the cliffs (roughly in the centre of the part of the hill shown on Plate 71a), where there is a greater depth of earth above the rock than is visible elsewhere on the hill.

II.—Note on the Serpentine of Duporth, in St. Austell Bay, Cornwall

1877 ◽  
Vol 1 (7) ◽  
pp. 222-225
Author(s):  
J. H. Collins
Keyword(s):  
Geological Survey ◽  
The West ◽  
Philosophical Magazine ◽  
North East ◽  
The North ◽  
Fibrous Mineral ◽  
The Hill ◽  
The Town ◽  
Hexagonal Crystals ◽  
Southeasterly Direction

The Geological Survey Map of CornwalI shews, to the south of the town of St. Austell, several patches of “greenstone,” extending from near the ancient earthwork called Trethullan Castle, on the west, to the sea at St. Austell Bay in the east ; a distance of over four miles.The western end of the most extensive of these patches swells ont on the top of the hill to the north-east of St. Mewan Church, so as to cover several hundred acres (including some of the best land in the parish). This was described by Mr. J. Arthur Phillips some years since in the Philosophical Magazine. Mr. Phillips speaks of the rock as being distinctly crystalline, consisting of felspar (sometimes triclinic) ; semi-transparent yellowish-brown crystals, probably hornblende ; a green fibrous mineral also believed to be a variety of hornblende ; many black grains of oxide of iron and a few hexagonal crystals, probably apatite ; and he says the rock exhibits unmistakeable evidence of extensive alteration. Speaking of its extension eastward, he says “it extends in diminished proportions in a southeasterly direction to the sea at Duporth.”

scholarly journals XXIII.—On the Position of the Portus Lemanis of the Romans

Archaeologia ◽  
1867 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 361-374
Author(s):  
Thomas Lewin
Keyword(s):  
The South ◽  
The West ◽  
Historic Period ◽  
South Side ◽  
North East ◽  
The North ◽  
The Common ◽  
East And West ◽  
The Hill ◽  
The Village

The Portus Lemanis must clearly have been one of the great thoroughfares between Britain and the Continent, and it is not a little singular that the position of a port once so famous should never have been satisfactorily settled. The common impression is that it lay at the foot of Lymne Hill. For the benefit of those who are not familiar with this neighbourhood, I should mention, in limine, that the village of Lymne or Lympne stands about 2½ miles to the west of Hythe, on the highest part of the cliff which girds in the eastern portion of Romney Marsh. On the declivity of the hill, about half-way down, is seen the old Roman castrum, called Stuttfall, occupying 10 or 12 acres. There are walls on the north, east, and west, and the east and west walls run down to the marsh itself; but, what is remarkable, the south side towards the marsh had never any wall,” and hence the erroneous notion so generally prevalent that at the foot of the castrum was once the Portus Lemanis, and that in the course of ages the sea retired from Lymne, when the port shifted to West Hythe, and that the sea again retired, when the port was transferred to Hythe. I shall endeavour to show that these changes, if they ever occurred, must have preceded the historic period, and that in the time of the Romans, as for many centuries afterwards, the only port was Hythe. In fact Portus and Hythe are the same thing, Portus in Latin being Hyð in Saxon.

Neolithic and Early Bronze Age Settlement at Broom Hill, Michelmersh, Hants

1934 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 246-253
Author(s):  
S. T. Percival ◽  
Stuart Piggott
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
The West ◽  
Southern Boundary ◽  
North East ◽  
The North ◽  
Ancient Times ◽  
The Hill ◽  
Steep Slopes

Between the rivers Test and Itchen in Hampshire, to the west of Winchester, and to the north-east of Romsey, there is a tract of high ground, forming the watershed between these two rivers, rising at Farley Mount, close to the Roman road from Venta to Sorbiodunum, to a height of 500 ft. above the sea. A part of this tract, particularly the area above the 300-ft. contour, in the ecclesiastical parishes of Farley Chamberlayne and Braishfield, is specially rich in surface flint implements of Neolithic or Early Bronze Age. The Broom Hill site is at the southern boundary of this area, on the borders of these two parishes and in the civil parish of Michelmersh. The position is latitude 51° 2′ north, and longitude 1°27′ west. It happens to be marked on O. S. 6-in. xlix, NW., by a triangle, showing that the place was used as a trigonometrical station, and is, therefore, readily visible for some miles around. The height of the point above sea-level is 330 ft.Here at intervals, during the years 1932 and 1933, the writer discovered some neolithic pottery which will be described by Mr. Stuart Piggott. The site is approximately 150 yards wide from east to west, and some 250 yards long from north to south. It is a ridge of chalk, capped by a sandy clay, above which again is a rough pebbly gravel in which the pottery was found, about twenty to thirty inches below the turf. The fact that there is clay under the gravel causes the land below the hill to be exceedingly marshy, and this state of things was probably even more pronounced in ancient times. The site is a narrow neck ending in a broader portion, entirely surrounded, except at the southern end, by steep slopes or marsh. The form of the site cannot be judged from the shape of the 300-ft. contour on the map, for there is an under-feature which causes the site to assume the form of a peninsula jutting northwards. But at the narrow southern end there is no sign of any defensive bank, which might, perhaps, have been expected; but the site shows signs of having been under plough, though not in living memory.

Hadd Hajar, a clausura in the Tripolitanian Gebel Garian south of Asabaa

1980 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
pp. 45-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olwen Brogan
Keyword(s):  
Sea Level ◽  
East Side ◽  
The South ◽  
The West ◽  
North East ◽  
The North ◽  
South West ◽  
Narrow Valley ◽  
Pass Through ◽  
The Hill

In the Gebel Garian, about 20 kilometres south of Asabaa, the map-makers of 1964 indicated an ancient wall (Fig. 1) called Hadd Hajar (i.e. wall of stone) running south-west for six kilometres from Ras al Tays al Abyad (858 m; the Hill of the White Goat) on which stood a watch tower, to Ras al Said (764 m). The country crossed by Hadd Hajar is about 690-730 m above sea-level with a gently-undulating surface constituting a fairly open and level valley. The hills are covered with esparto-grass. On the west the Wadi Wamis winds among closely-set hills while, in the north-east, the wall is carried for a further three quarters of a kilometre across a narrow valley from Ras al Tays al Abyad to another hill Ras al Saqifah. An old track comes southwards down this valley flanked on the east side by a barrier of hills over 800 m high. Where the track crosses the wall there is a Roman building (Gasr al Saqifah) with traces of an archway for people and flocks to pass through. Two kilometres to the south is an old cistern (Majin Saqifah) presumably Roman. Beyond, the track continues about 25 kilometres to a large well, Bir al Shaqaykah (Sceghega), after which it is another 28 kilometres south-eastwards to Mizdah on the Wadi Sofeggin.

A “Handled Beaker” from Bodney, Norfolk

1932 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 107-110
Author(s):  
Major S. E. Glendenning
Keyword(s):  
The West ◽  
Considerable Part ◽  
North East ◽  
The North ◽  
Pass Through ◽  
River Valleys ◽  
North End

Bodney Warren, in the neighbourhood of which the skull and beaker illustrated were found in the summer of 1930, though on a direct line between Thetford and Swaffham, is one of the most remote places in Norfolk. The parish is thinly populated, and the warren and neighbouring “brecks” occupy a considerable part of a tongue of hard land, about 2½ miles long and one mile wide, overlooking on the west, north and north-east the marshy valleys of the River Wissey and a tributary. The “Smugglers Road,” a track-road more or less parallel to the Peddars Way, runs straight towards Swaffham through the middle of the area, but tails off into a cattle track as it approaches two fords at the north end of the parish. The present main roads pass through more populous villages on the far side of the river valleys.

Excavations at Fishbourne, 1963. Third Interim Report

1964 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-8
Keyword(s):  
Interim Report ◽  
The West ◽  
Civic Society ◽  
North West ◽  
The Third ◽  
North East ◽  
The North ◽  
The Future ◽  
Set Up

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.

An Iron Age A site on the Chilterns

1951 ◽  
Vol 31 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 132-148 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. M. Richardson ◽  
Alison Young
Keyword(s):  
Water Supply ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
The West ◽  
North West ◽  
The North ◽  
Roman Villa ◽  
Adjoining Area ◽  
Cursory Examination ◽  
A Site ◽  
The Hill

In 1946 a visit to the barrow, which lies on the edge of the western scarp of Chinnor Common, and a cursory examination of the adjoining area, cultivated during the war, resulted in finds of pottery and other objects indicating Iron Age occupation. The site lies on the saddleback of a Chiltern headland, at a height of about 800 ft. O.D. Two hollow ways traverse the western scarp, giving access to the area from the Upper Icknield Way, which contours the foot of the hill, then drops to cross the valley, passing some 600 yards to the north of the Iron Age site of Lodge Hill, Bledlow, and rising again continues northwards under Pulpit Hill camp and the Ellesborough Iron Age pits below Coombe Hill. The outlook across the Oxford plain to the west is extensive, embracing the hill-fort of Sinodun, clearly visible some fourteen miles distant on the farther bank of the Thames. The hollow way at the north-west end of the site leads down to a group of ‘rises’ hard by the remains of a Roman villa, and these springs are, at the present day, the nearest water-supply to the site.

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