DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.17531#0015
NAUKRATIS, 1903.
115
about three feet, and finding in it red-figured ware ranging from the Graeco-
Roman period back to the third century B.C., fragments of Hellenistic terra-
cottas and half a plaster antefix mask, we had (as in 1899) to hack through
some feet17 of unproductive muddy sand, into which the foundation courses
of the Ptolemaic walls were sunk two feet. Under this a stratum of squared
stones emerged, so carefully bedded down as to look like a pavement, but
showing no signs of footwear. Among these were two large fragments of
rough stone gutters : several stones concave on one side, which looked like
parts of a well-mouth ; and the small stela, shown in Fig. 8. This was
bedded down face upwards among, and flush with, the other blocks. In
treatment it is exactly parallel to the ' Warrior Relief,' found hard by in
1899 (B.S.A. v. Plate IX. and p. 65), and, like it, was possibly a painted
gravestone. Its mixed Egyptian and Greek style is interesting. Lying
immediately under this bedding of stones was an Athenian silver didrachm
of the archaic style of the early fifth century, and at precisely their level,
but at a spot where the stone stratum failed, was found a terracotta
representing the Infant Herakles. Some good red-figured fragments also
occurred, at the same level. These stones proved to overlie two feet of early
deposit like that observed to south of them—full of early local wares of
many varieties, including several white-faced scraps with traces of painted
dedications.
We were able both here and in 62 to clear the surface of the basal
mud thoroughly, before too much water filtered in : but in 60 and 58
this could not be so satisfactorily done. In 58, however, we succeeded in
uncovering a patch of pavement of thin concrete, laid within two inches of
the basal mud, and 5 feet 10 inches below the well marked floor level of the
Ptolemaic restoration. On the Ptolemaic floor18 of chamber 10 was much
fallen wall-plaster of brilliant blue.
The chamber last named, in which were found several Aphrodite dedica-
tions and (beneath the Ptolemaic floor) small terracotta heads of the type
discovered so abundantly hard by on the west, seems to have belonged to the
Aphrodite Shrine to west of it. The only intelligible dedications (besides
those to ' Gods of the Greeks' which occurred in 57 and 63), found in the
eastern chambers, were two (in 63 and 62, both in the lower stratum)
showing parts of the name Artemis (Inscr. No. 8 and another not figured).
From so small a number it would be unsafe to name this group the Artemis
Shrine, more especially as one terracotta and two heads seem rather to
indicate an ascription to Herakles, dedications to whom were found not far
off in 1899 (B.S.A. v. p. 32 and Inscr. Nos. 3, 33, 84).
This eastern part of the buildings within the Temenos is continuous
with the western, and, like it, has been entirely reconstructed in the early
Ptolemaic period by builders who first heaped a mound of sand over bedded-
down remains of earlier structures, belonging to the early fifth century.
17 This sandy stratum varies from 7 to 2 13 Made of a concrete of lime, pounded
feet in thickness at different points. brick, and pebbles. It was £ of an inch thick.
I 2
115
about three feet, and finding in it red-figured ware ranging from the Graeco-
Roman period back to the third century B.C., fragments of Hellenistic terra-
cottas and half a plaster antefix mask, we had (as in 1899) to hack through
some feet17 of unproductive muddy sand, into which the foundation courses
of the Ptolemaic walls were sunk two feet. Under this a stratum of squared
stones emerged, so carefully bedded down as to look like a pavement, but
showing no signs of footwear. Among these were two large fragments of
rough stone gutters : several stones concave on one side, which looked like
parts of a well-mouth ; and the small stela, shown in Fig. 8. This was
bedded down face upwards among, and flush with, the other blocks. In
treatment it is exactly parallel to the ' Warrior Relief,' found hard by in
1899 (B.S.A. v. Plate IX. and p. 65), and, like it, was possibly a painted
gravestone. Its mixed Egyptian and Greek style is interesting. Lying
immediately under this bedding of stones was an Athenian silver didrachm
of the archaic style of the early fifth century, and at precisely their level,
but at a spot where the stone stratum failed, was found a terracotta
representing the Infant Herakles. Some good red-figured fragments also
occurred, at the same level. These stones proved to overlie two feet of early
deposit like that observed to south of them—full of early local wares of
many varieties, including several white-faced scraps with traces of painted
dedications.
We were able both here and in 62 to clear the surface of the basal
mud thoroughly, before too much water filtered in : but in 60 and 58
this could not be so satisfactorily done. In 58, however, we succeeded in
uncovering a patch of pavement of thin concrete, laid within two inches of
the basal mud, and 5 feet 10 inches below the well marked floor level of the
Ptolemaic restoration. On the Ptolemaic floor18 of chamber 10 was much
fallen wall-plaster of brilliant blue.
The chamber last named, in which were found several Aphrodite dedica-
tions and (beneath the Ptolemaic floor) small terracotta heads of the type
discovered so abundantly hard by on the west, seems to have belonged to the
Aphrodite Shrine to west of it. The only intelligible dedications (besides
those to ' Gods of the Greeks' which occurred in 57 and 63), found in the
eastern chambers, were two (in 63 and 62, both in the lower stratum)
showing parts of the name Artemis (Inscr. No. 8 and another not figured).
From so small a number it would be unsafe to name this group the Artemis
Shrine, more especially as one terracotta and two heads seem rather to
indicate an ascription to Herakles, dedications to whom were found not far
off in 1899 (B.S.A. v. p. 32 and Inscr. Nos. 3, 33, 84).
This eastern part of the buildings within the Temenos is continuous
with the western, and, like it, has been entirely reconstructed in the early
Ptolemaic period by builders who first heaped a mound of sand over bedded-
down remains of earlier structures, belonging to the early fifth century.
17 This sandy stratum varies from 7 to 2 13 Made of a concrete of lime, pounded
feet in thickness at different points. brick, and pebbles. It was £ of an inch thick.
I 2