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Part II. The Perseia Fountain House

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 October 2013

A. J. B. Wace ,
M. R. Holland ,
M. S. F. Hood  and
A. G. Woodhead
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Extract

In 1892 Tsountas in the course of exploration on the top of the ridge between the ‘Tomb of Clytemnestra’ and the Lion Gate found a painted circular cap of poros (o·61 m. in diameter), which from the cuttings in it clearly seems to have been connected with some form of installation for water (Plate 14, b). It bears an inscription which as restored refers to Perseus. This inscribed cap Tsountas says he found among later ruins, but he did not specify the exact position. In 1922 therefore we investigated the ruins of apparently Hellenistic date which lie directly to the south of the modern carriage road on the top of the ridge to the north of the ‘Tomb of Clytemnestra’. A long terrace wall of ashlar work in poros was found running in an east-west direction along the south side of the modern road. In front of it, against its north side, lie two cement-lined basins (Plate 14, a). When these were first found and partially examined in 1922 it was suggested that they might be part of a gymnasium of Hellenistic date. At the same time a trial trench XIa by side of the steps was dug down about 0·25 m. into the soft rock below. In 1939 further trials were made behind (to the south of) the western part of the main terrace wall. Trench VII, which was dug to rock, was part of this work. At the same time the curved wall was exposed and part of the ‘votive deposit’ was excavated. The pottery then found, which was lost in the Nauplia Museum during the war, was of the same character as that found in 1952 and described below. In 1952, as part of the programme of exploration on the top and sides of the ridge which runs westward from the Lion Gate, it was decided to clear these ruins completely and study and plan them afresh.

Type
Mycenae
Information
Annual of the British School at Athens , Volume 48 , November 1953 , pp. 19 - 29
Copyright
Copyright © The Council, British School at Athens 1953

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References

1 AE 1892, 63.

2 IG IV 493.

3 BSA XXV 420.

4 II 16, 5–7.

5 A layer of white clay plaster lies almost directly below it, and covers a large area along the south side of the Main Wall. Below this clay layer all the pottery found was prehistoric, M.H. or L.H.

6 IG IV 493.

7 Although the use of limestone is generally associated with the late repairs, it should be pointed out that all three of the upper water channels are of limestone exclusively.

8 See throughout this section the plan and sections in Plates 12 and 13.

9 Measurements approximate only, since the squeeze from which they were taken may have been liable to shrinkage (cf. Meritt, B. D., Epigraphica Attica 41Google Scholar). The squeeze has been deposited in the collection of the Museum of Classical Archaeology, Cambridge.

10 By a trick of the light, the surface of the stone gives the appearance in the photograph of a further sigma under the sigma of Ηεραίας. There is, however, no trace of any third line of the inscription visible on the stone or on the squeeze.

11 The Argive memorial of the battle of Tanagra (IG I2 931/2, SEG X 407, Meritt, , Hesperia XIV (1945), 134 ff.CrossRefGoogle Scholar, XXI (1952), 354) shows a remarkable variant ⊞

12 Cf. Mitsos, M. Th., Hesperia XV (1946), 116.Google Scholar For similar general characteristics cf. also the Argive SEG XI 305, of a comparable date.