Hellenistic Thessaloniki

1972 ◽  
Vol 92 ◽  
pp. 156-170 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Vickers
Keyword(s):  
Open Space ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
Hellenistic Period ◽  
The West ◽  
City Wall ◽  
The North ◽  
Degree Of Certainty ◽  
East And West ◽  
City Plan ◽  
The City

SummaryIt would seem that the plan of Thessaloniki (fig. 4) was laid out at the time of the city's foundation by Cassander in c. 316 b.c. and that it has close parallels in the plans of other early Hellenistic cities. There was possibly an agora in the upper city from the beginning, but the principal, commercial agora of the Hellenistic city was probably closer to the sea. A large open space to the west was possibly a ‘sacred area’ in Hellenistic times, but the only religious centre whose site is known with any degree of certainty is the Serapeum. A gymnasium is known to have existed to the north of the city from the late Hellenistic period at least, and a nearby stadium probably goes back to Hellenistic times as well.The Hellenistic fortifications probably followed the lines of those of the mid-fifth century a.d. In common with many other Hellenistic cities there is an acropolis incorporated in the city wall, but the fortifications of Thessaloniki are slightly anomalous in that the lower stretches of the east and west walls run parallel with some of the streets of the city plan.Thus, even though the reconstruction of Hellenistic Thessaloniki may be an elusive and often a speculative business, the statement of an anonymous writer to the effect that ‘il ne reste à Thessaloniki aucun vestige de la ville hellénistique’ is certainly exaggerated.

Excavations at Carthage 1974: First Interim Report

1975 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-40 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henry Hurst
Keyword(s):  
Second Temple ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
Sixth Century ◽  
Interim Report ◽  
The South ◽  
City Wall ◽  
North Shore ◽  
The North ◽  
The City ◽  
Harbour Area

SummaryIn the first season of excavation by a British team participating in the UNESCO Save Carthage Project, two sites in the harbour area and one inland were examined. On the site on the island in the circular harbour, the remains probably of the νεώρια described by Appian succeeded earlier Punic occupation periods and were in turn followed by two successive Roman temples and a building, probably a pharos, associated with the second temple. After this, there appears to have been domestic or commercial occupation in the fifth and sixth centuries A.D. On the north shore of the circular harbour, remains of the late Roman quayside and associated streets and buildings were found. On the inland site, situated to the south of the Roman street grid, there were the remains of third–fifth-century and fifth–sixth-century buildings fronting a street and backed by a substantial wall identified as the city wall constructed in the reign of Theodosius II.

Oinoanda: The Agora

1986 ◽  
Vol 36 ◽  
pp. 61-90 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. J. Coulton
Keyword(s):  
Open Space ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Christian Church ◽  
The West ◽  
City Area ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
The North ◽  
British Institute ◽  
The City ◽  
Main Streets

This study of the agora at Oinoanda is based on fieldwork done in 1975, 1977, 1981 and 1983 in the course of the survey of Oinoanda conducted by the British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara under the direction of A. S. Hall, and with the cooperation and assistance of the Directorate of Antiquities at Ankara. The topographical survey of the site, which underlies Figures 1 and 2, was undertaken by students of the Northeast London Polytechnic. Since our survey permit allowed no excavation, what follows is based on the visible remains, and some important points remain uncertain. Nevertheless, the extent of the remains and the absence of later interference with the site allow for a substantial reconstruction of the buildings concerned and their chronology.The agora of Oinoanda occupies an open space c. 87 m. by 27 m. in a depression between three low hills near the middle of the city area. To the north a spur runs out from the Acropolis hill, to the east is a small hill on the summit of which are rock cuttings for a small temple, and to the southwest is a hill which now carries a late antique fort. Between these three hills run the main streets of the city; to the south a road which skirts the hollow containing the Early Christian church Mm 3 to link up with the southern colonnaded street; to the west a much shorter road to the West Gate; and to the northeast another colonnaded street which leads between the two bath-buildings Mk 1 and Ml 1 in the direction of the Esplanade.

VI.—Recent Discoveries in the Bodleian Library

Archaeologia ◽  
1967 ◽  
Vol 101 ◽  
pp. 151-168 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. N. L. Myres
Keyword(s):  
Bodleian Library ◽  
The West ◽  
City Wall ◽  
External Appearance ◽  
The Past ◽  
The North ◽  
Divinity School ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The University ◽  
The City

The group of medieval and seventeenth-century buildings which forms the subject of this paper lies in the centre of academic Oxford, between the site of the city wall on the north, Exeter College and its garden on the west and south, and the old Schools Quadrangle on the east. It constitutes indeed the heart of the medieval university. In writing to Humphrey, duke of Gloucester, on 14th July 1444 the authorities described the site as eminently suitable for a library because it was somewhat remote from secular noises. In spite of a marked increase in secular noises over the past 500 years in traffic-ridden Oxford, this description remains substantially true today. The buildings, erected then and later, remain in external appearance almost exactly as they are depicted in David Loggan's Oxonia Illustrate. of 1675 (pl. xxvii). They comprise the Divinity School, for which the university was already collecting money and laying the foundations in 1423 ; Duke Humphrey's Library, built over it in the forty-five years following the letter to Duke Humphrey of 1444; Arts End and the Proscholium added at right angles to the east by Sir Thomas Bodley in 1610–12; and Selden End with the Convocation House below, attached similarly to the west in 1637–40. The three upper rooms, Duke Humphrey, Selden End, Arts End, form the core of the ancient buildings of the Bodleian Library: they have been continuously in use for library purposes for between 320 and 360 years.

scholarly journals El Castillo de La Atalaya (siglo XVIII), en Cartagena (Región de Murcia, España). Análisis formal y constructivo

X ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Federica Carta ◽  
Diego Ros McDonnell ◽  
Pedro Enrique Collado Espejo
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Comprehensive Analysis ◽  
The South ◽  
The West ◽  
City Wall ◽  
Ground Plan ◽  
The North ◽  
The Military ◽  
The City

The Atalaya Castle (eighteenth century), in Cartagena (Region of Murcia, Spain). Formal and constructive analysisThe Atalaya Castle (eighteenth century) is one of the military fortifications that were part of the defense of Cartagena. The defensive system of the period was composed of an important walled enclosure, which surrounded the city, the arsenal, and a group of fortresses outside the city wall, located on the nearby hills. One of these defensive constructions is the Atalaya Castle or Fort, located to the west of the city from its position it protected the population from attacks both by land and by sea. To the north and west by land, through the Almarjal and the Pelayo mountains, the south by sea covered the possible landings in the bays of the Algameca Grande and the Algameca Chica. The building is a magnificently construction, the fort has a pentagon ground plan with five bastions at each angle. It has an interior building in U arranged on a solid bastioned platform the whole complex is surrounded by a dry moat. The fortification present certain formal elements used in other constructions that had been lifted in the city at that time, circumstance gave unity to the whole. The materials consisted of employed mainly stone and brick, the constructive elements introduce certain heterogeneity. The purpose of the communication is to present the results of the comprehensive analysis carried out in the Atalaya Castle as well as to contribute, through its dissemination to raise awareness of the need for its restoration and enhancement. Research has studied the characteristics of the formal and constructive system of the fortification currently in a state of semiabandonment, a proposal has also been conducted for a new cultural use as a guarantee of its correct recovery and conservation.

Urban Landscape Development in Twelfth-Century Acre

2008 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 257-274
Author(s):  
MICHAEL EHRLICH
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Urban Landscape ◽  
Mediterranean Coast ◽  
Third Century ◽  
Hellenistic Period ◽  
Historical Sources ◽  
The West ◽  
The Third ◽  
The North ◽  
The City

Acre is situated on the northern Mediterranean coast of Israel, about 13 km to the north of Haifa. Its history since the twentieth century bce has been well-documented. Until the third century bce it stood on a mound called Tel al-Fukhar. From the Hellenistic period the city developed on the plain to the west of this mound. Acre experienced two important phases during its long existence. The first was during the Hellenistic era, when it occupied the mound, the plain, and the rocky peninsula to the south of the western sector of the plain. The second was during the Crusader period, when it occupied an even larger area. Between these two periods, the city declined, although it was still repeatedly referred to in historical sources.

Diocletian's Price-Edict at Ptolemais (Cyrenaica)

1955 ◽  
Vol 45 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 106-115 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giacomo Caputo ◽  
Richard Goodchild
Keyword(s):  
Hellenistic Period ◽  
The West ◽  
Italian Government ◽  
Systematic Exploration ◽  
Roman Age ◽  
The City ◽  
Made In ◽  
Late Roman

Introduction.—The systematic exploration of Ptolemais (modern Tolmeita), in Cyrenaica, began in 1935 under the auspices of the Italian Government, and under the direction of the first-named writer. The general programme of excavation took into consideration not only the important Hellenistic period, which gave the city its name and saw its first development as an autonomous trading-centre, but also the late-Roman age when, upon Diocletian's reforms, Ptolemais became capital of the new province of Libya Pentapolis and a Metropolitan See, later occupied by Bishop Synesius.As one of several starting-points for the study of this later period, there was selected the area first noted by the Beecheys as containing ‘heaps of columns’, which later yielded the monumental inscriptions of Valentinian, Arcadius, and Honorius, published by Oliverio. Here excavation soon brought to light a decumanus, running from the major cardo on the west towards the great Byzantine fortress on the east. Architectural and other discoveries made in 1935–36 justified the provisional title ‘Monumental Street’ assigned to this ancient thoroughfare. In terms of the general town-plan, which is extremely regular, this street may be called ‘Decumanus II North’, since two rows of long rectangular insulae separate it from the Decumanus Maximus leading to the West Gate, still erect. The clearing of the Monumental Street and its frontages revealed the well-known Maenad reliefs, attributed to the sculptor Callimachus, a late-Roman triple Triumphal Arch, and fragments of monumental inscriptions similar in character to those previously published from the same area.

The Date of the Mosaics of the Rotunda at Thessaloniki

1970 ◽  
Vol 38 ◽  
pp. 183-187 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Vickers
Keyword(s):  
Eighth Century ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
Second Phase ◽  
Main Body ◽  
The South ◽  
East And West ◽  
The City ◽  
The Church

In a recent important article on the mosaics of the basilica of St. Demetrius at Thessaloniki, R. S. Cormack proposes a list of churches in the city with mosaics ‘for which a late fifth century date must be considered.’ The list comprises the Acheiropoietos basilica, the first phase of the basilica of St. Demetrius, and Hosios David. The purpose of this article is to show that the mosaics of the second phase of the Rotunda (now known as the church of St. George) should be included in Cormack's list.The first thing to note about the Rotunda mosaics is that there has been less than unanimity concerning the date of their construction. Volbach, Lazarev and Cormack, amongst others, follow Dyggve and Torp in dating the mosaics to c. 400 or slightly earlier; Diehl and Dalton dated them to the fifth century, Weigand to the sixth and Holtzinger to the seventh or eighth century, all on largely stylistic grounds. What are obviously needed are some objective dating criteria, and these are to be found, not so much in the mosaics themselves, but rather in the building fabric and the furniture of the converted Rotunda. The conversion of the Rotunda, incidentally, consisted of the blocking of an opaion in the cupola and the addition of an ambulatory, a monumental entrance to the south, an apse to the east (Plate XXIII) and various subsidiary buildings to east and west. The mosaics were placed in the cupola and in the niches which connected the main body of the Rotunda with the ambulatory.

The West Court at Perachora

1967 ◽  
Vol 62 ◽  
pp. 353-371
Author(s):  
J. J. Coulton
Keyword(s):  
Short Distance ◽  
Sixth Century ◽  
East Side ◽  
The South ◽  
The West ◽  
Rock Face ◽  
North East ◽  
The North ◽  
South West ◽  
East And West

About 10 metres south-west of the sixth-century temple of Hera Akraia at Perachora, and nearly due west of the little harbour lies the small courtyard previously known as the ‘Agora’. Since its purpose is not known, it will here be non-committally referred to as the West Court. It was first excavated in 1932, and more fully, under the supervision of J. K. Brock, in 1933, but it was not entirely cleared until 1939, and it was at that time that the Roman house which stood in the middle of the court was demolished. The West Court is discussed briefly (under the name of ‘Agora’) in Perachora 1 and in the preliminary reports of the Perachora excavations. Short supplementary excavations were carried out in 1964 and 1966 to examine certain points of the structure.In shape the West Court is an irregular pentagon, about 24 metres from north to south and the same from east to west (Fig. 1; Plate 91 a, b). It is enclosed on the west, north, and on part, at least, of the east side by a wall of orthostates on an ashlar foundation. For a short distance on either side of the south corner, the court is bounded by a vertically dressed rock face which is extended to the north-east and west by walls of polygonal masonry. At the south-west corner the west orthostate wall butts against the polygonal wall, which continues for about 0·80 m. beyond it and then returns north for about 8 metres behind it.

The Fifteenth-Century Garner at Leadenhall, London

1989 ◽  
Vol 69 (1) ◽  
pp. 119-153 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Samuel
Keyword(s):  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Common Market ◽  
The West ◽  
Dual Purpose ◽  
Ground Plan ◽  
Documentary Sources ◽  
The North ◽  
City Of London ◽  
The City ◽  
Full Height

Excavation and observations from 1984–6 on the Leadenhall Court site in the City of London revealed elements of the fifteenth-century market building known as ‘The Leadenhall’. The truncated foundations were located in various areas of the site; 177 medieval moulded stones were found reused in later cellar walls; and a fragment of the west wall survived to its full height of 11.17m encased between Victorian buildings. The recording and subsequent study of these features, together with a reassessment of such plans and drawings of the building as have survived, established the ground plan of the quadrangle and chapel, and made possible a complete reconstruction of the north range of this important civic building. The methodology used in the reconstructions is described with particular emphasis upon the analysis of the moulded stones. In conclusion, both the design of the structure and the documentary sources are studied to show how it may have been intended to function.The arcaded ground floor functioned as part of a common market, while the upper floors were intended to be a granary. For convenience, however, this dual-purpose building is referred to as the ‘garner’ throughout the text.

Excavations at Carthage 1976: Third Interim Report

1977 ◽  
Vol 57 (2) ◽  
pp. 232-261 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henry Hurst
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Field Work ◽  
Eighth Century ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
Historical Evidence ◽  
City Wall ◽  
The North ◽  
New Information ◽  
Defensive Activity

SummaryAt the end of the third season of work by the British team participating in the UNESCO Save Carthage project, a summary is given of present knowledge of the occupation sequence on the Ilôt de l'Amirauté from c. 400 B.C. to A.D. 700. New information or reinterpretation since 1975 covers the relationship between the Punic and Roman planning of the island and the nature of its possible Augustan, Severan, and Justinianic rebuildings. The structures which have been excavated since 1974 between two Roman streets on the north side of the circular harbour are interpreted as a series of shops or small commercial premises of Roman and Byzantine date. Here, as on the island, a large-scale redevelopment of early Byzantine date is indicated. On the Avenue Habib Bourguiba the city wall now has archaeological dating consistent with the historical evidence that it was constructed c.A.D. 425 and it appears to be associated with a major defensive ditch. Burials were made between the wall and possible ditch shortly after, and perhaps during, the wall's construction. There is also archaeological confirmation of the historical evidence for the neglect of the defences under the Vandal occupation and for their repair following Belisarius' capture of Carthage in 533. By the end of the sixth century the defences were again being neglected and in the early seventh century there was a building on the site of the presumed Belisarian ditch. There is a suggestion of further defensive activity at the time of the Arab invasion. Within the wall, the sequence has been taken back to the destruction of a Roman building in the fifth century and a summary is made of the sequence for the whole site from the early fifth to the late seventh or early eighth century A.D. Field-work has now finished on this site while a further two seasons are anticipated on the two harbour sites.

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