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Euesperides 2006: Preliminary Report on the Spring 2006 season
- Andrew Wilson, Paul Bennett, Ahmed Buzaian, Luca Cherstich, Ben Found, Kristian Göransson, James Holman, Ross Lane, Geoffrey Morley, Ben Russell, Keith Swift, Alys Vaughan-Williams, Eleni Zimi
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- Journal:
- Libyan Studies / Volume 37 / 2006
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 03 March 2015, pp. 117-157
- Print publication:
- 2006
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- Article
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This paper is a preliminary report on the eighth and final fieldwork (Spring 2006) season of the excavations at Euesperides (Benghazi). Work continued in Areas P and Q on the Sidi Abeid mound, in Area R in the lower city and on the processing of finds from the 2006 and previous seasons.
In Area P excavations continued below the primary floors of the antepenultimate phase in Room 5a where a series of inter-cutting pits beneath the primary floor provided a section through the stratigraphy to natural. The results of the work showed that occupation in the sixth to fourth centuries BC was less intensive and accumulated at a slower rate than in the Hellenistic period. Three phases of early activity were represented, with the earliest levels dated to the period c. 580–560 BC. A comparable picture emerged in Area R, but in Area Q a second-phase set of buildings laid out in or after the late sixth century BC, with houses flanking the street, persisted until late in the life of the city. Excavations in Area Q Extension revealed a large circular building with an internal floor of terracotta sherds set in cement, tentatively interpreted as part of a set of public baths. A late reuse of the building was indicated by a number of plaster-lined tanks formed over the terracotta floor. The presence of the building was taken to indicate that the building and an associated street, aligned over an in-filled quarry, may have been inter-mural, suggesting that the late city was of greater size than hitherto thought.
Selected finewares, coarsewares and amphorae from the excavations are presented, together with preliminary observations, resulting from the environmental sampling of occupation deposits.
Euesperides 2005: Preliminary Report on the Spring 2005 season
- Andrew Wilson, Paul Bennett, Ahmed Buzaian, Ben Found, Kristian Göransson, Abby Guinness, James Hardy, James Holman, Alette Kattenberg, Geoffrey Morley, Musbah al-Mugasbi, Keith Swift, Alys Vaughan-Williams, William Wootton, Eleni Zimi
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- Journal:
- Libyan Studies / Volume 36 / 2005
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 03 March 2015, pp. 135-182
- Print publication:
- 2005
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- Article
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This paper is a preliminary report on the Spring 2005 season of the excavations at Euesperides (Benghazi). Work continued in Areas P and Q, and on the processing of finds from the 2005 and previous seasons. In Area P a series of domestic deposits dated to the last quarter of the fourth or first quarter of the third century BC was excavated, including a hearth, a probable domestic altar and associated votive deposits, and a series of post-holes perhaps connected with furniture and a loom. Two small external yard areas seem to have been used for purple dye production. In Area Q late occupation to the west of the street is dated to the late fourth century BC; to the east of the street, the latest stratigraphy appears to have been truncated and the occupation levels so far excavated here date from 470 down to 300 BC.
Selected finewares from the excavations are presented, ranging in date from the sixth to the third centuries BC. Work on the coarse pottery and amphora assemblages has begun to distinguish products of different production centres within Cyrenaica. Besides demonstrating the quantities of imported coarsewares from Corinth, the Aegean and the Punic world, we can now recognise four classes of Cyrenaican amphorae, including exports present at Punic Sabratha. The study of the wall plaster, environmental remains and other finds are also briefly discussed.
Euesperides is a site both of archaeological importance and of considerable scientific interest for its rare wetland vegetation, but both of these aspects remain vulnerable to ongoing damage as a result of urban development, uncontrolled rubbish dumping and a lack of effective protection of the site.