The Extramural Sanctuary of Demeter and Persephone at Cyrene, Libya, Final Reports, Volume VIII. Donald O. White

Building (S17) through the aforementioned Ionic colonnade. Its north, rear wall (W31) was kept blank and was therefore intended to remain, so far as can be presently determined, inaccessible to the Middle Sanctuary where the ground level outside Sacred House S6 is ca. 2.5 m. lower than S10’s mosaic floor. Despite the fact that S10 appears from the site plan to occupy the same hillside elevation as the Middle Sanctuary, it is in fact insulated from the lower level by a dogleg in the peribolos walls (T8 and W29) previously observed in connection with the sanctuary’s Classical and Hellenistic periods. Instead, it shares a more or less common ground level with the rest of the Upper Sanctuary features in its immediate vicinity.

       South Wall (W29) and the Colonnade

      The Portico Chamber’s south wall (W29a) uses for its foundation a pre-existent wall (W29) associated with the Hellenistic F2 fountain house¹⁰⁶; the earlier wall consists of three courses of limestone stretchers, ca. 0.75 m. wide, over which then rise two low courses of stretchers (0.30 and 0.20 m. high respectively) constituting W29a proper. Wall W29a is not precisely coaxial with Wall W29 but instead deviates 4° to its north-northwest. The top course, which serves as the colonnade’s stylobate, consists of four blocks, each measuring ca. 2.00 to 2.15 m. long. The westernmost block, framing the surviving south edge of the chamber’s mosaic, is covered with a late squatter’s period wall (W29b) that in time came to block the space between the first and second of the Ionic columns in S10’s southwest corner with a series of small, square headers and reused architectural frusta.¹⁰⁷

      While no trace of the actual columns survive in situ, the outline of the missing three central bases are marked by faint impressions on the stylobate surface in the case of the western two columns and by a low circular pad that carried the eastern column. Each was erected over the joints between the individual stretchers at an interaxial distance of 2.00 m. Their base diameters work out to approximately 0.60 m. On the evidence of base fragments found in association with S10, the two corner columns can be restored as engaged half-columns attached to pilasters (Fig 8).¹⁰⁸

       Architectural Frusta Associated with S10 Portico Chamber

      A total of twenty miscellaneous stone architectural fragments were found either inside or directly south of S10. This makes trenches C14/D14, 1 and 2, along with trenches C15/D15, 1B, and C14, the sanctuary’s most prolific sources of broken architectural members.

      The pieces found to the south might have been associated with the Southwest Building (S17), the nearby F2 Fountain House, or with the open-air access route (S22), as well as S10. Admittedly, architectural fragments found inside the S10 walls also could have been introduced from other buildings by the earthquake but nevertheless seem to stand a better chance of originally having been part of the structure in which they were found. In any case, at least six of these appear potentially relevant to S10 and may be used for a tentative restoration of its colonnaded facade (Fig. 8).

Figure 9. Arch. Cat. C:5

      Arch. Cat. C:5 (field no. 79, Fig. 9). Half-column and engaged pilaster base

      Limestone

      D15, 1, 1, east of mosaic. W. 0.72 m. T. 0.55 m. Mph. 0.27 m. Half-column’s base diam. 0.57 m.

      No trace of fluting preserved. Base consists of three elements: a plain circular disk 0.08 m. high; a second disk with rounded shoulder 0.05 m. high; a straight beveled return, 0.02 m. high.

      Arch. Cat. F:7 (field no. 13). Column base

      Limestone

      C14, 1, 1 surface fill over open-air corridor S22 Diam. of circular plinth 0.60 m (matching outline of columns on S10’s stylobate). Total h. 0.16 m. H. of two-stepped molding 0.10 m. Bottom surface not preserved. Est. total h. of base ca. 014 m. Diam. of column shaft: Section of mortise preserved on bottom measures 0.065 by 0.065 m. with a min. dpth of 0.11 m.

Figure 10. Arch. Cat. E:2.

      A narrow groove separating plinth from scotia here is reduced virtually to a straight line. Column shaft badly eroded, but can be estimated. to be ca. 0.45 m.

      Two molded column bases were recovered from inside the walls of S10, but both (F:25, F:26) rose on square plinths and must have come from other structures since the stylobate outlines call for circular bases.

      Arch. Cat. B:28 (field no. 80). Column shaft or drum frag., broken off at lower end

      Limestone

      C15/D15, 1, 2, southeast quadrant of S10

      Mpl. 0.79 m. Upper diam. 0.41; lower diam. 0.44 m. Rectangular mortise let into upper surface, 0.06 by 0.034 by 0.01 m.

      Surface prepared for plaster dressing by broad, shallow grooves that meet in wide, flat fillets covering roughly two-thirds of the shaft’s circumference; a similar surface preparation for stucco is observable on shaft fragments from other parts of the sanctuary where patches of stucco still cling to the surface.

      Arch. Cat. B:10 (field 85). Column shaft or drum frag.

      Limestone

      C15/D15, 1, 2 (close to B:28)

      Mpl. 1.06 m. Mpd. 0.46 m.

      Represents the split-off half of a column shaft; its (earthquake-shattered?) surface chiseled flat to serve secondary purpose. Small hole bored into curved surface (to fix railing?). Abraded traces of shallow channel-like depressions indicate that original surface was prepared for plaster flutes.

      Three additional lengths of similarly prepared column drums or shafts (B:29, B:30, B:31) were recovered from C15/D15, 1, 1, either inside S10 or directly to its south; two had diameters of ca. 0.48 m., and the third tapered from 0.46 to 0.44 m. One fragment possessed a bored (rail) hole in its surface; a second had two small tapered holes bored opposite one another.

      Arch. Cat. E:2 (field no. 158a and b, Fig. 10). Ionic capital frag.

      Limestone

      D15, 1, 2 (S10’s southeast corner)

      Mpl. 0.285. Mph. 0.163 m. Mpth. 0.22.7 m.

      Missing back and righthand side. A local hybrid, in which the normal girdle of eggs and darts decorating the echinus is reduced to a single large egg set between a pair of darts and flanked by double series of half-palmettes springing from clusters of leaves, here run horizontally across the face of the echinus. The arrangement produces a broad, flat impression, further exaggerated by the fact that the volutes, here raised (i.e., convex) fillet-like bands, barely drop below the plane of the egg and dart register, contrary to conventional practice. A tapering element is inserted below the echinus, allowing the estimated upper diameter of the column shaft attached to the capital to be 0.48 m. Ionic capitals associated with local tombs occasionally possess a tapered necking element between the echinus and the top of their column shaft. See Stucchi 1975:l70–71, figs. 150, 153, 154. By restoring something like this here, the E:2 capital can be made to fit the upper diameter of shaft B:28 while at the same time regaining a more normal height-tolength ratio.

      Arch. Cat. E:3 (no assigned field no.). Badly mutilated frag. of the righthand side of Ionic capital

      Limestone

      C14 surface debris over the open-air corridor (S22). Mph. 0.155 m. Mpl. 0.32 m. Mpth. 0.262 m.

      This frag. could belong to E:2 or a companion capital