DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.17531#0014
114 D. G. HOGARTH, H. L. LORIMER, AND C. C. EDGAR
Fig. 1). In 1903 I took that line15 as the left flank limit of an advance
from south to north. It was useless, however, to begin this advance from
any points nearer the south wall of the Temenos than those lying on the
parallel dividing the vertical series of squares F and E ; for the area in the
interval had been scooped out by sebakhin during the past four years below
the original surface of the basal mud. Nor indeed were any but isolated
patches of deposit left in the E and D squares.
The men on the extreme right flank of my line found themselves at
once upon a broad wall, running north and south, the east face of which
could not be clearly determined. A breadth of at least 25 feet was
established, but this is by no means the whole dimension. This was
unquestionably the eastern wall of the Temenos or Temple; for beyond it
(as proved by repeated trials) dedicated sherds were not found, and the
deposit seemed to contain only remains of houses. This wall, being based
on the mud, belongs to the first construction. Its bricks are 14 inches long,
and from 7 to oi inches broad. To the same period belong all the very
scanty remains of walls found up to the parallel dividing E and D. Every
later structure has been16 cleared away by sebakhin, and heaps of their
refuse lie on the mud, from which some terracotta moulds and several bits
of dedicated pottery, including the 'Herodotus' base (Inscr. No. G), were
recovered. In a small patch of undisturbed deposit, just west of 66, were
found the fragments of the Horsemen Vase (PI. V. 1) at a height of 10
inches above the basal mud.
The fragmentary range of chambers, next encountered on the north,
was embedded in deeper patches of deposit, and the spaces 57, 59, 61, 64.
65, are all, in their existing disposition, to be ascribed to the same period
as the earlier part of the Aphrodite Shrine, which was uncovered to west of
them in 1899, i.e. the earlier part of the fifth century. For a uniform
interval of deposit occurs under the lowest courses of their walls, averaging
two feet in thickness and containing great quantity of sherds of early local
and imported black-figured wares. Not till well above their foundation
levels did red-figured ware occur, and then in fair abundance; e.g. the addi-
tional fragments of the ' %Tr)&Lyopov' kylix (p. 120) were found in the
south doorway of 64 just above the bedded blocks there shown on the plan,
which probably underlay a lost threshold stone.
This lowest stratum of deposit and the structural change which took
place immediately after the latest period that it represents were seen best
in chamber 63, which in its actual form, like all the range in which it occurs
(10, 56, 58, 60, 63, 62), belongs to the Ptolemaic reconstruction. Here,
after clearing the actual chamber, whose walls were preserved to a height of
13 In the lack of surviving benchmarks of
1899, the filled-in well, marked 35 on the
plan, served for a guide to my former bearings.
So much had the area all about it been worked
over again by sebakhin, that the mouth of this
well, which bad been left in a depression, was
now elevated in a small mound.
16 Except one fragment of concrete paving
2 It. above the mud level, which belongs to the
first reconstruction.
Fig. 1). In 1903 I took that line15 as the left flank limit of an advance
from south to north. It was useless, however, to begin this advance from
any points nearer the south wall of the Temenos than those lying on the
parallel dividing the vertical series of squares F and E ; for the area in the
interval had been scooped out by sebakhin during the past four years below
the original surface of the basal mud. Nor indeed were any but isolated
patches of deposit left in the E and D squares.
The men on the extreme right flank of my line found themselves at
once upon a broad wall, running north and south, the east face of which
could not be clearly determined. A breadth of at least 25 feet was
established, but this is by no means the whole dimension. This was
unquestionably the eastern wall of the Temenos or Temple; for beyond it
(as proved by repeated trials) dedicated sherds were not found, and the
deposit seemed to contain only remains of houses. This wall, being based
on the mud, belongs to the first construction. Its bricks are 14 inches long,
and from 7 to oi inches broad. To the same period belong all the very
scanty remains of walls found up to the parallel dividing E and D. Every
later structure has been16 cleared away by sebakhin, and heaps of their
refuse lie on the mud, from which some terracotta moulds and several bits
of dedicated pottery, including the 'Herodotus' base (Inscr. No. G), were
recovered. In a small patch of undisturbed deposit, just west of 66, were
found the fragments of the Horsemen Vase (PI. V. 1) at a height of 10
inches above the basal mud.
The fragmentary range of chambers, next encountered on the north,
was embedded in deeper patches of deposit, and the spaces 57, 59, 61, 64.
65, are all, in their existing disposition, to be ascribed to the same period
as the earlier part of the Aphrodite Shrine, which was uncovered to west of
them in 1899, i.e. the earlier part of the fifth century. For a uniform
interval of deposit occurs under the lowest courses of their walls, averaging
two feet in thickness and containing great quantity of sherds of early local
and imported black-figured wares. Not till well above their foundation
levels did red-figured ware occur, and then in fair abundance; e.g. the addi-
tional fragments of the ' %Tr)&Lyopov' kylix (p. 120) were found in the
south doorway of 64 just above the bedded blocks there shown on the plan,
which probably underlay a lost threshold stone.
This lowest stratum of deposit and the structural change which took
place immediately after the latest period that it represents were seen best
in chamber 63, which in its actual form, like all the range in which it occurs
(10, 56, 58, 60, 63, 62), belongs to the Ptolemaic reconstruction. Here,
after clearing the actual chamber, whose walls were preserved to a height of
13 In the lack of surviving benchmarks of
1899, the filled-in well, marked 35 on the
plan, served for a guide to my former bearings.
So much had the area all about it been worked
over again by sebakhin, that the mouth of this
well, which bad been left in a depression, was
now elevated in a small mound.
16 Except one fragment of concrete paving
2 It. above the mud level, which belongs to the
first reconstruction.