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Euesperides (Benghazi): Preliminary report on the Spring 2002 season

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2015

Andrew Wilson ,
Paul Bennett ,
Ahmed Buzaian ,
Ted Buttrey ,
Kristian Göransson ,
Cassian Hall ,
Alette Kattenberg ,
Rebecca Scott ,
Keith Swift  and
Eleni Zimi
Andrew Wilson
Affiliation:
Institute of Archaeology, Oxford, England
Paul Bennett
Affiliation:
Canterbury Archaeological Trust, Canterbury, England
Ahmed Buzaian
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, Garyunis University, Benghazi, Libya
Ted Buttrey
Affiliation:
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, England
Kristian Göransson
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology and Ancient History, University of Lund, Sweden
Alette Kattenberg
Affiliation:
Department of Geoarchaeology, Vrije Universiteit and Amsterdam Archaeologisch Centrum, Universiteit van Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Rebecca Scott
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, University of Durham, England
Keith Swift
Affiliation:
St Peter's College, Oxford, England
Eleni Zimi
Affiliation:
The Open University, Athens, Greece
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Abstract

The fourth season of the current project at Euesperides (Benghazi) took place in Spring 2002. Excavations continued in Areas P, Q and R, accompanied by limited augering work to determine the limits of surviving archaeology to the south of the Sidi Abeid mound. Excavations in Area P revealed part of a courtyard house from the penultimate phase of the site, with a probable andron and gunaikon. Its destruction is dated to after 261 BC. In Area Q work concentrated on the dismantling of street deposits and associated flanking houses from the later phases of the city's life; a soakaway drainage feature under the street was also investigated. The sequence of city wall circuits and their post-abandonment robbing was clarified. In Area R excavations established the structure of the mound of deposits deriving from the production of purple dye from Murex trunculus shellfish, and its relationship to the robbed-out walls of the courtyard building within which this activity occurred. The processing of ceramic finds underlines the active trading contacts enjoyed by Euesperides, with most of the fine pottery and a fifth of the coarse pottery being imported from overseas, and transport amphorae ranging in origin from the Straits of Gibraltar to the northern Aegean. The coin finds confirm that the city was abandoned after the death of Magas (258/250 BC); and it appears that the Herakles types, common at the site, were minted there under Thibron (323–322/322 BC).

Type
Archaeological Reports
Information
Libyan Studies , Volume 33 , 2002 , pp. 85 - 123
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Libyan Studies 2002

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