Forum IV

(Nicholas Churchill, 1993)

Objectives

The object of this trench was to have a further sample of the area of the forum plaza. This sample was chosen for its proximity to the Basilica, where Byzantine activity was evident. We felt that if Byzantine housing did exist in the forum itself this was the most obvious place for it.

Dimensions

The trench measured 4 x 6m., and was placed to the southwest of one of Brown's test trenches, adjoining the long cut made in 1972 to reveal the northeast edge of the forum. It was thus precisely 4m. from the southwest wall of the forum Basilica. Also included in this trench were the walls of the Byzantine building excavated in 1952 on the Basilica, which were cleaned and studied.

Stratigraphy

Over bedrock a layer of earth mixed with red subsoil was observed in section (5). This probably represents the makeup for the original surface. Over it, 4 contained large fragments of tile in clayey earth, which seems to represent the Roman abandonment of the forum, overlying the original surface. This was in turn covered by 3, which contained large amounts of stone and tile, in places so dense that they appeared to derive from a collapsed wall, but without the sort of order that a collapse tends to show.

Dating

An imitation African lamp dates this deposit to the 6th c. The concentration of building material almost certainly derives from the cleaning out of the rubble of the Basilica in order to construct the houses and the church. The surface was well compacted, and covered with a much cleaner layer, around 25cm. deep, containing a few fragments of tile with little pottery (2), including red-painted sherds and an eastern-Mediterranean amphora.. This lay directly under topsoil, 1.