Part 2: The Stratigraphy : The Eastern Height, EH I-VIII and X C : EH VI

The sanctuary wall, 184, is partially visible on its northeast and northwest sides. On the northeast side the wall, 184, was 60cm. wide and ran along the line of the earlier road, its inner edge flush with the edge of the road. Its outer edge is marked by a steep cut, 60cm. deep. This cuts down to leveled bedrock outside, which may suggest that the earlier road was moved to the exterior of the sanctuary. In fact, a Roman house wall lies 6.5 meters from the exterior of the sanctuary, close to the standard width for roads at Cosa (for this house see below, NE extension). The wall was apparently built in dry stone, but only one course is partially visible under the northeast section of the trench. The northwest sanctuary wall, was certainly of dry stone, and was built along the line of the rear wall of the temple, which it abuts. It is clearest at the north corner of the temple, while its collapse is visible two meters to the northeast (186).

No trace was found of the other two walls, which were certainly not within the limits of the trench. We can presume that the sanctuary was entered from street R. Rectangular cuts in bedrock, and a single upright stone mortared into place, suggest that an altar was found in front of the temple, 190. Like that of temple D, it would have occupied the apex of an equilateral triangle whose base was formed by the facade. However, this structure was almost entirely robbed, and we can say little more about it.

Somewhat later than the construction of the temple, but probably during its life, a square building was constructed on its southwest side. The construction trench, 225, of this building's northeast wall, 226, cuts 227, a surface associated with the temple. Its rear wall, 195, runs parallel to the northwest sanctuary wall, while its front wall apparently followed the line of the facade of the temple, opening onto street R. Almost nothing is left of this building except what appears to be collapsed walling in pis» de terre, which covers most of its interior, 194. This was not excavated for want of time, and it is extremely difficult to interpret. The presence of a house within the sanctuary is paralleled by the 'House of the Augustales' excavated by Russell Scott⁶, but there is nothing particularly domestic about the structure on the Eastern Height.

Over the fills of the construction trenches of the temple and the square building to the southwest, compacted beige earth (182) seems to mark the use of the sanctuary. Directly on top of this were found the destruction layers, characterized by a dense accumulation of cream-colored wall plaster. These were thickest to the rear of the temple (212, 251, 163, 247, 248), but they were also present along the northeast side, where a thick layer of fallen plaster accumulated against the wall (182). Unless we assume that the polygonal masonry of the podium was obscured by plaster, it seems likely that this plaster covered the walls of the cella, which would explain its absence at the front of the building. No fallen masonry or column drums were found around the temple, and we must assume that all except the lowest course of blocks was reused for the construction of the castle.

Dating

Neither the sanctuary nor the temple podium are well dated by archaeological material. Within the podium fills, the ceramic materials were largely unidentifiable, with the single exception of a Greco-Italic amphora dated rather loosely to the second century B.C. The terracottas deriving from the temple give us a better indication of the date of its construction, which we may put in the first half of the second century B.C. (part IV, pp. 217ff). The stubs of earlier walls may indicate that the area had initially been reserved for housing, with the temple being constructed somewhat after 19 B.C., but these are too uncertain to place much weight on. We have no evidence for the construction of the building to the west of the temple although it is probably Republican as well. The scarcity of Italian sigillata in the whole of the Eastern Height (only three residual sherds were found) and the exiguous quantities of African Red Slip wares (two fragments of Hayes form 3 were found in medieval layers) suggests that the hilltop was not reoccupied after the abandonment of the town of Cosa around 70 B.C.

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6. Pers. comm., unpublished excavations.