DOI Artikel:
Brownson, Carleton L.: [Excavations and discoveries at the Argive Heraeum, 1892-1895]
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.8681#0245
EXCA VATIONS AT THE ARG1VE HERJEUM IN 1892. 233
I come next to the uppermost terrace, on which, as Pausanias
says distinctly, the old temple stood. His words are :13 "Eo-n. Se
inrep rov vabv tovtov rov irporepov vaoC OefieXid Te Kal el 8tj n aWo
vireXiTreTo t) cf>\dg. We first dug a broad trench running from the
eastern end of the terrace in a direction due west. We did not
go very far or very deep before discoveries began. On the first
day squared fragments of poros stone appeared, and on the sec-
ond, at a distance of 8 m. inside the east terrace-wall and .60 m.
below the surface, we came upon a hard layer of black earth, as-
suring us that we were on the site of the burned temple. Not
only that, but various pieces of charred wood were found, and
flat bricks showing plainly the action of fire. Digging further on
we found that this layer of black earth continued. It made, in
fact, what we came to call a " platform," with a nearly uniform
width of rather less than 4 m. and a length of 33 m., i. e., reach-
ing nearly to the western end of the terrace. This peculiar layer
was from one to two inches in thickness, and itself rested upon
a layer of dark red soil. Virgin soil on either side of the plat-
form lay only about a foot below its level. At various points
fragments of metal and pottery were found; the metal, iron or
bronze, always too much melted and corroded to be valuable, the
pottery for the most part entirely plain, though some of it showed
very archaic Mycenaean patterns. One find was of two very large
pots, one within the other. A second, near the western end of
the terrace, revealed a perfect pocket from which we gathered
three basketfuls of fragments, in the main pieces of thick, heavy,
unpainted pottery, also some fragments of a lighter ware, and bits
of iron melted by fire, plates and rods of bronze, glass beads,
smaller beads of bone, and, last of all, a very curious bronze goat.
The whole was probably a mass of debris which had fallen at the
time of the burning of the temple, or had been thrown aside as
rubbish. Beyond the west end of the jilatform and a foot below
its level was a pavement of irregular polygonal slabs, such a pave-
ment as might naturally have surrounded a temple.
We next started a cross-trench, running from the south retain-
ing-wall of the terrace back to the hill at its rear. To the north
"Patts., ii. 17,7.
I come next to the uppermost terrace, on which, as Pausanias
says distinctly, the old temple stood. His words are :13 "Eo-n. Se
inrep rov vabv tovtov rov irporepov vaoC OefieXid Te Kal el 8tj n aWo
vireXiTreTo t) cf>\dg. We first dug a broad trench running from the
eastern end of the terrace in a direction due west. We did not
go very far or very deep before discoveries began. On the first
day squared fragments of poros stone appeared, and on the sec-
ond, at a distance of 8 m. inside the east terrace-wall and .60 m.
below the surface, we came upon a hard layer of black earth, as-
suring us that we were on the site of the burned temple. Not
only that, but various pieces of charred wood were found, and
flat bricks showing plainly the action of fire. Digging further on
we found that this layer of black earth continued. It made, in
fact, what we came to call a " platform," with a nearly uniform
width of rather less than 4 m. and a length of 33 m., i. e., reach-
ing nearly to the western end of the terrace. This peculiar layer
was from one to two inches in thickness, and itself rested upon
a layer of dark red soil. Virgin soil on either side of the plat-
form lay only about a foot below its level. At various points
fragments of metal and pottery were found; the metal, iron or
bronze, always too much melted and corroded to be valuable, the
pottery for the most part entirely plain, though some of it showed
very archaic Mycenaean patterns. One find was of two very large
pots, one within the other. A second, near the western end of
the terrace, revealed a perfect pocket from which we gathered
three basketfuls of fragments, in the main pieces of thick, heavy,
unpainted pottery, also some fragments of a lighter ware, and bits
of iron melted by fire, plates and rods of bronze, glass beads,
smaller beads of bone, and, last of all, a very curious bronze goat.
The whole was probably a mass of debris which had fallen at the
time of the burning of the temple, or had been thrown aside as
rubbish. Beyond the west end of the jilatform and a foot below
its level was a pavement of irregular polygonal slabs, such a pave-
ment as might naturally have surrounded a temple.
We next started a cross-trench, running from the south retain-
ing-wall of the terrace back to the hill at its rear. To the north
"Patts., ii. 17,7.