Part 2: The Stratigraphy : The Arx and the area to the west (IV G) : Arx II

The destruction by fire of the granary (there is no mention in the notebooks of a similar destruction layer in Building II) was followed by the construction of a fortification, which completed the Republican circuit of the Arx on its north side. The fact that this wall turned to avoid the north wall of Building II implies that the latter was still standing.

The wall was constructed of large, roughly squared facing blocks, neatly coursed without mortar, with a rubble and earth infill. A small square tower projects from it just west of Temple D, while the old Arx postern gate was blocked off, and a new one constructed 3 meters west of the tower, where the wall crossed the road. West of the postern it ran parallel to the north wall of Building II, joining the Republican circuit just west of the 'House of the Augustales'. The construction trench was intact within the area of our excavation, and the abundant material from its fill gives a terminus post quem of the sixth century A.D¹. The remains of a sill and supports for a wooden gate closing the Republican east gate of the Arx may date to the same period.

The absence in the 1951 material of any pottery dating between the late sixth and the tenth centuries suggests that we have not lost much early medieval stratigraphy on the Arx. Six sherds of Forum ware² and late tenth century coins - Buttrey 1980 nn. 366 (A.D. 962-973), 367 (A.D. 983-1002) and 368 (A.D. 1056-1106) - suggest some form of occupation in that period, but it is not clear whether this can be certainly connected to the church built to the west of the Capitolium. This is a rectangular building, built parallel to the temple podium. Tombs of two distinct periods were found both inside and outside of it. Inside, the principal tomb was a stone and plaster-lined cist, which appears to project beyond the line of the east wall, which thus may be presumed to have had an apse. The coin dating from the second half of the eleventh century was found in one of the tombs, which gives an approximate chronology for the church. There is no pottery or other material dating to the twelfth century, which may suggest that the Arx was abanÇdoned during this period.

A lime kiln cut into the temple podium seems to suggest a phase in which there was building activity elsewhere on the site, but in which the temple itself was not being occupied. This might coincide with the construction of the cistern on the Eastern Height, where a conspicuously yellow mortar is reminiscent of the yellow limestone with which the cella of the temple was built.

The final activity for which we have evidence on the Arx is the construction of a curtain wall in those places where the Byzantine wall had collapsed. It was built of roughly coursed stone, with much tile and a thick white mortar. It used the late antique fortification as a foundation, but where the relationship can be observed it is generally 50cm. wider than the earlier wall. A tower constructed in the same technique to the west of the postern gate abuts the Byzantine wall, indicating that the latter was still standing in the medieval period. Comparison with other medieval walls from the region, particularly the castles at Stachilagi and Tricosto³ suggests a date in the thirteenth and fourteenth century, a date which matches the maiolica and coarsewares found among Brown's unstratified material⁴.

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1. Fentress et al. 1991.

2. Hobart 1990

3. Fentress and Wickham 2002; Dyson 1984; see also Andrews 1978.

4. Fentress et al. 1991,.222.