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Early Urbanism in Cyrenaica: New Evidence from Euesperides (Benghazi)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2015

A. Buzaian  and
J. A. Lloyd
A. Buzaian
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, Garyunis University, Benghazi
J. A. Lloyd
Affiliation:
Institute of Archaeology, Oxford University
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Abstract

Excavations by the Department of Antiquities, Benghazi, Garyunis University, Benghazi and the Society for Libyan Studies took place at the site of Euesperides for a total of seven weeks in 1995 and 1996. Work was concentrated on the northern margins of the city, where much new evidence for its topography and development came to light. The discoveries include successive fortification walls (the earlier of which may belong to c. 600 BC), part of a necropolis, and a large extramural kiln complex of the fourth/third centuries. Evidence bearing on the infrastructure, economy, diet and cultural life of this early Cyrenaican city, which was abandoned by the mid third century BC, was also recovered.

Type
Archaeological Reports
Information
Libyan Studies , Volume 27 , 1996 , pp. 129 - 152
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Libyan Studies 1996

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References

Notes

1. Goodchild, R. G., Benghazi. The Story of a City (Benghazi 1954, 2nd edition 1962)Google Scholar.

2. Vickers, M., Gill, D. and Economou, M., Euesperides: the rescue of an excavation. Libyan Studies 25 (1994): 125–136CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Buttrey, T. V., Coins and coinage at Euesperides. Libyan Studies 25 (1994): 137–145CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Hayes, P. P. and Mattingly, D. J., Preliminary report on fieldwork at Euesperides (Benghazi) in October 1994. Libyan Studies 26 (1995): 83–96CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

3. Boardman, J., The Greeks Overseas (London, 1980), 157Google Scholar, notes pottery of the early 6th century.

4. Most fully illustrated in M. Vickers et al. (above, note 2), fig. 2.

5. Dent, J. S., Lloyd, J. A. and Riley, J. A., Some Hellenistic and early Roman tombs from Benghazi. Libya Antigua XIII–XIV (1976–1977): 131–212Google Scholar. Goodchild (above, note 1): 5.

6. Ghislanzoni, E., Rilievo policromo di Bengasi. Africa Italiana 1 (1927): 101–115Google Scholar.

7. Herodotus iv. 198–199 (good soil at Euesperides; harvests at Cyrene); iv. 172 (Nasamonian herds and flocks on the coast southwest of Euesperides). Ptolemy VIII Euergetes II in Müller, C., Fragmentae Historicum Graecorum Vol. III (Paris, 1849), 186.2 (artichokes, fish)Google Scholar. Barker, G., Economic life at Berenice, in Lloyd, J. A. (ed.), Excavations at Sidi Khrebish, Benghazi (Berenice), Vol. II (Tripoli, 1979): 1–49 discusses the ancient and modern subsistence economiesGoogle Scholar.

8. Kenrick, P. M., Excavations at Sidi Khrebish, Benghazi (Berenice), Vol. III.1Google ScholarFine Pottery (Tripoli, 1985)Google Scholar; Burn, L. M., Hellenistic terracotta figures of Cyrenaica. Libyan Studies 25 (1994): 147–158CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

9. Hayes and Mattingly (above, note 2); Lloyd, J. A., Buzaian, A. and Coulton, J. J., Excavations at Euesperides (Benghazi) 1995, Libyan Studies 26 (1995): 97–100CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

10. These are noted by R. G. Goodchild (above, note 1), p. 3. The discoveries made at the time contributed to the first scholarly identification of the site by Goodchild, published as Euesperides — a devastated city site. Antiquity 26 (1952): 209Google Scholar.

11. We are much indebted to T. V. Buttrey for the identification (from casts) of the coins mentioned in this report.

12. Described by Phillips, K. M. with illustrations in Goodchild, R. G., Pedley, J. G. and White, D.. Apollonia, the Port of Cyrene. Excavations by the University of Michigan 1965–1967 (Tripoli, 1976): 123–124 and Tav. XXIIc-dGoogle Scholar.

13. Jones, G. D. B., Beginnings and endings in Cyrenaican cities, in Barker, G., Lloyd, J. and Reynolds, J. (eds.), Cyrenaica in Antiquity (BAR International Series 236, Oxford 1985): 32Google Scholar.

14. The elucidation of the very complex archaeology of H and N owes much to the skills of Paul Bennett, who supervised the 1996 excavations in these areas.

15. Preliminary analysis by C. Doherty at the Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art at Oxford suggests that the pigment is red ochre and that the greyish-white substance is montmorillonite, a fine white clay used today as an astringent and a colour fastener. Its properties closely match those described in the geological literature for clays from Linosa (an island off Sicily) and the island of Melos, and accord with Pliny's, description (Natural History XXXV, 37)Google Scholar of Meiinum, a white pigment from Melos and Samos which was used widely in painting and also had medical and cosmetic applications. The charcoal has been identified by R. Gale as olive wood, probably from a single piece of stem/trunk or branch and carbonised at a very high temperature. Permission to bring back samples of these and other materials for scientific analysis was kindly granted by Dr Mohammed Dweyb and Mr Ibrahim Tuwahni.

16. R. G. Goodchild (above, note 1), p. 4, describes the streets exposed in this area during the 1950s as ‘cobbles set in grey mud’ (cf. Vickers et al., [above, note 2]: 127). While this description fits reasonably well with the grey-blue layers which developed between the very hard mud surfaces, we prefer to see the former as accumulated debris and the latter (which contained little occupation material) as intentional metallings. However, these appear to have been quickly obscured by refuse, which lent the street surface a different colour and character. We found no evidence for deliberate cobbling, although small stones were fairly frequent.

17. Flints were also found in the 1950s excavations. Vickers et al. (above, note 2): 131.

18. Fourth century BC Athens offers an example of a proteichisma with ditch. See Travlos, J., Poleodomike Exelixis ton Athenon (Athens, 1960): 77 and fig. 38Google Scholar; more generally Lawrence, A. W., Greek Aims in Fortification (Oxford 1979): 276–279Google Scholar.

19. Hayes and Mattingly (above, note 2): 92–94.

20. On Cyrene in the 5th century see Hornblower, S., The Greek World 479–323 BC (London 1983): 59–60Google Scholar.