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II.—Excavations at Sparta, 1906: § 12.—The Roman Stoa and the later Fortifications

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 October 2013

Extract

In plan the walls surrounding the Acropolis of Sparta form an irregular oblong, terminated to the east and west by two small hills which formed citadels or outlook points. Though no single complete part remains, and in many places the walls are levelled to the ground, the lines can still be traced fairly completely. (Plate VIII. 3.)

At the south eastern corner are the ruins of a Roman Stoa of the Imperial period (A). They shew a series of small compartments (Fig. 1), covered with barrel vaults, ten on either side of three larger central rooms, which are roofed with crossgroined vaults and large semicircular niches at the back. The ground on the north side is as high as the vaults and originally must have formed a terrace overlooking the street on to which the Stoa opened on its south side.

Type
Laconia
Copyright
Copyright © The Council, British School at Athens 1906

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References

page 415 note 1 The letters refer to the Enlarged Plan (Pl. VIII. 3).

page 418 note 1 The set-back at the springing is not uncommon in Roman work, and served to support the wooden centering for the arch.

page 429 note 1 The walls of Gortyna in Crete, as described by MrTaramelli, A. (American Journal of Archaeology, vi. 101)Google Scholar, are strikingly like these Spartan walls in construction and thickness, and evidently belong to the same period. He assigns them to a date posterior to the death of Alexander Severus in 235 A.D.