scholarly journals Labraunda 2009. A preliminary report on the Swedish excavations

Author(s):  
Lars Karlsson ◽  
Jesper Blid ◽  
Olivier Henry

The 2009 campaign in Labraunda accomplished three goals: the termination of the excavations in the Byzantine fort on the Acropolis and in the Late Roman Tetraconch and the complete excavation of the impressive marble chamber tomb along the Sacred Way. In the Acropolis Fortress, evidence was found to support the military character of the Byzantine establishment: the rooms along the fortification wall were paved and had a rectangular shape, suggesting defensive rooms. In these rooms sling stones were found. Structures dating from the Hekatomnid period were further investigated this year, and a well cut into the gneiss bedrock was excavated. In the Tetraconch, the north apse was excavated down to bedrock and a coin from Constantius II (348–357/8) suggests an ante quem dating for this unique and sophisticated structure. The geophysical investigations indicated that a church is located on the terrace below the Tetraconch and a first sondage was conducted here. The large marble chamber tomb was completely excavated and emptied of its content. Small pieces of pottery indicate a date in the middle of the fourth century BC. The extensive geophysical survey was carried out at five different areas around the Sanctuary, in order to achieve a better picture of the entire Sanctuary, as the early excavations had involved only its central part. Evidence for several previously unknown structures came to light: possibly a temple on the East Stoa terrace and further bath buildings at the East Bath, as well as several unexcavated tombs.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giles Clarke

Outside the north gate of Venta Belgarum, Roman Winchester, a great cemetery stretched for 500 yards along the road to Cirencester. Excavations at Lankhills from 1967 to 1972 uncovered 451 graves, many elaborately furnished, at the northern limits of this cemetery, and dating from the fourth century A.D. This book, the second in a two-part study of Venta Belgarum, which forms the third volume of Winchester Studies, describes the excavations of these burials and analyses in detail both the graves and their contents. There are detailed studies and important re-assessments of many categories of object, but it is the information about late Roman burial, religion, and society which is of special interest.


Author(s):  
Evgenii A. Mekhamadiev ◽  

The paper addresses the military-administrative activities of Constantius Gallus, a nephew of Emperor Constantius II (337–361), who administered the Late Roman Empire’s eastern provinces from 351 to 354 on behalf of Constantius II, holding the title of caesar. Constantius Gallus’ military policies in the east has been studied against the background of Greek and Latin sources along with the Talmudic texts written in Hebrew (in translations into modern Western European languages). This paper is aimed at the analysis of the main directions of Constantius Gallus’ military policy and his reform of the command structure of the troops stationed in the Roman provinces in the Near East in the period in question. This study allowed the author to clarify Constantius Gallus’ contribution to the general development of the Late Roman military organization in the eastern provinces of the Empire. The author has researched Constantius Gallus’ military polices by three topics: the struggle against the Persians in Syria and Mesopotamia; the military campaign against the rebellious Jews in Palestine; and the struggle against the Arab invaders into Arabia Petraea in 353. The research of these issues allows the author to conclude that, in his works, Constantius Gallus followed the separation of powers principle: he did not command the troops, neither he personally conducted military operations or interfered into the course of combat operations. He followed a simpler task of creating the mechanisms providing coordinated relations between commanders of expeditionary and frontier troops, coordinating joint actions of the commanders, and keeping conditions for effective collaboration of different kinds of troops.


1975 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
pp. 62-69 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. S. Painter

SummaryIn 1971 the British Museum bought a fourth-century silver spoon with Christian symbols. An undated document acquired with the spoon showed that it was the survivor of a hoard from Biddulph, Staffordshire. In 1973 notes made in January 1886, about the discovery of the spoon, were found in a notebook compiled by A. W. Franks. The newly acquired spoon proves to have been one of a hoard of four spoons found at Whitemore Farm, Biddulph. The find-place of the spoon suggests a possible direct link between Chester and Buxton, while its dating adds to the sparse testimony for late-Roman life in the north-west of the province. The style of the lettering may indicate that the spoon was made in the East Mediterranean, and the Christian symbolism adds to the stock of evidence about the cult in the western Roman Empire.


2013 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 314-335 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Petts

This study explores the impact of recent discoveries on our understanding of the transition from the Roman to early medieval periods in northern England. Using the Tees Valley as a case study, it shows how modern interpretations of this process have focused primarily on the afterlife of the military sites in the region. However, the increased identification of significant Roman civilian settlements forces us to reconsider the dominant narratives and rethink the underlying processes that influenced the move from Roman-controlled frontier society in the fourth century to a fifth century society comprising both culturally Anglo-Saxon social groups and sub-Roman successor polities. A wider consideration is also given to how the changing patterns in the use of space and in refuse disposal strategies can be used to shed light on wider patterns of changing social identity in the later fourth century AD.


Author(s):  
Igor Khrapunov ◽  
◽  
Anastasiya Stoyanova ◽  

The cemetery of Opushki is located at 15 km to the east of modern Simferopol, in the central area of the Crimean foothills. The site has been being excavated since 2003. So far more than 300 graves of various types have been uncovered. They belong to the Late Scythian, Middle Sarmatian, and Late Sarmatian archaeological cultures. There is one cremation complex appeared as a result of the Germanic migration to the Crimea. The complex under present publication belongs to a large group of burial vaults with a short dromos (entry corridor) of the Late Roman period; this type of crypts is found in various cemeteries of the Crimean foothills. Burial constructions of this type are associated with the mediaeval Alans’ ancestors who migrated to the Crimea from the North Caucasus. Although the earliest crypts featuring dromos appeared in the foothill area of the Crimean Peninsula in the first half of the 3rd century AD, most of burials in these constructions were made in the fourth century AD. Burial vault no. 158 has two interesting features. It contains multiple burials typical for the Late Scythian vaults of the 1st and the first half of the 2nd centuries. Such a phenomenon is encountered for the first time in the Late Roman vault. According to the analysis of the grave goods, the complex under study is one of the earliest or even the earliest short-dromos vault discovered in the Crimea. It was constructed in the second half (or at the end) of 2nd or very early 3rd century AD and was in use throughout the first half of the 3rd century. The results of research of this burial construction supply new materials for the solution of highly disputable problem of the Crimean vaults with short dromos origin and of the reconstruction of ethnic processes in the Crimea in the Late Roman period.


1915 ◽  
Vol 35 ◽  
pp. 66-75
Author(s):  
P. Gardner

In the Journal of Roman Studies for last year Professor Haverfield gives an account of certain silver vessels of the late Roman age found on the banks of the Tyne, near Corbridge, in the eighteenth century. I wish to discuss in some detail one of these vessels, which has great importance for the history of late Greek art. This is the remarkable dish or lanx found in 1735 on the north bank of the Tyne, now belonging to the Duke of Northumberland, and kept at his castle of Alnwick.Other vessels of silver were found, not with it, but near the same spot: a two-handled cup, a bowl bearing the Christ monogram, a silver basin, a small silver vase. Professor Haverfield has figured these, so far as he could. That all these vases belonged together is probable though not certain. Only one of them bears a clear indication of date, the Christian monogram, in the form which it takes on coins of the Constantine period. This particular vessel one would naturally give to the time of Constantine, that is, to the earlier part of the fourth century. It does not follow that all the vessels are of this date: but as we shall see presently, it is a date not unsuitable for the dish which we are considering.


Author(s):  
Lars Karlsson ◽  
Jesper Blid ◽  
Olivier Henry

The Swedish archaeological project at the Karian sanctuary of Zeus Labraundos celebrated, in 2008, sixty years of work. The year 2008 was very special, both because of these celebrations, but also because of the important finds that came to light during the excavation of the unusual Roman bath that was discovered in 2007. It is built in the shape of a four-leaf clover (the so-called Tetraconch), and can be dated to the first half of the fourth century AD. A large amount of finds were discovered, including superb pieces of plates in African Red Slip and Late Roman C wares, a water flask, and coloured marble pieces. In the necropolis, we excavated another 19 rock-cut tombs. The finds from these include a golden ring with a cornelian stone and 22 gold appliqués in the shape of rosettes and palmettes. The appliqués had four holes to fasten them to the drapery of the deceased. They are very similar to appliqués found in the burial chamber of the Maussolleion in Halikarnassos. Two coins from before 350 BC show that the burial belongs in the early Hekatomnid period. In the excavations at the Acropolis Fortress Byzantine structures, possibly barracks, dated by the glazed Byzantine pottery to the period between the 11th and the 13th centuries were discovered. At the bottom of the trench there was a wall belonging to fourth-century BC Hekatomnid buildings. As every year, time and work were spent on architectural conservation and measures to increase the value of the site for visitors: a roof was erected over the Roman bath, a new wooden fence built at the entrance to the site, new metal shelves were installed in the storerooms, and finally, a re-excavation of the monumental original staircase up to the Built Tomb was initiated.


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.


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