EXCAVATIONS AT COSA (1991-1997), PART 2: THE STRATIGRAPHY
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Forum VI

(William Bowden, 1993)

Objectives

The choice of a trench in the area of Atrium Building II, to the southwest of the main entrance to the forum, was based on the presence of an apparently late structure which occupies part of the road leading into the forum, and the quantities of late African Red Slip found in the building on the other side of the street during the 1953-1954 excavations.

Dimensions

The trench as laid out covered 10 x 20m., to the southwest of the late wall and fronting onto the forum. Little of this was excavated to the Roman floor level, however, except for a small area in the southern corner of the trench. Although the evidence for the Roman period in this area is rather problematic, it seems worth presenting what there was of it.

Stratigraphy

Phase I

Forum VI, the Roman walls.
Fig. 68: Forum VI, the Roman walls.
The Republican plan of the building remains less than clear (fig. 68). The dimensions of the tabernae and fauces seem consistent with those in AB I and AB V. Wall 32, parallel to the rear wall of the eastern taberna, may be interpreted as the support for a staircase at the rear of the shop. Both tabernae were paved with rustic floors of small cubic tiles. The plan of the atrium does not emerge clearly from the few walls uncovered.

To the southwest AB II seems to have been abutted by a new structure, possibly constructed in its garden. All outer walls of the subsequent building are secondary. A wall, 42, was built against the southÇwest outer wall of AB II, 54, with a parallel wall, 40, 3.5 meters to the southwest. The new covered space seems to have had some functional purpose: two small rooms were inserted at its end, with rustic pavements and quarter-round mouldings (30, 34, 38, 39, 17/12. 13/15) covered with traces of hydraulic plaster. We may suggest a bathing facility, on analogy with the structure in the garden of the House of Diana. There is no evidence for the date of this addition.

Within AB II a number of blocking walls were added: we may include 48, partially blocking the fauces, and possibly 45 and 46.

Phase 2

Forum VI, the horrea.
Fig. 69: Forum VI, the horrea.
The next phase represents a substantial reworking of the entire building, eliminating both the tabernae and any domestic use (fig. 69). The openings into the forum were all blocked by a new wall, 53. Subsequently, the internal walls were replaced with a series of long, parallel walls, 36, 43 and 47, whose consÇtrucÇtion trenches cut the floor levels of the tabernae, or cover the original pavements. No construction trenches are visible in the pis» destruction levels of the original building. This may suggest that they were trench-built, as it seems difficult to imagine the pis» accumulating after their construction. If we assume that the northeast wall of the original building, fronting the entrance to the forum, was retained, the structure thus created seems to have consisted of three long parallel halls, 3.5, 4.3 and 4.5m. wide. It is not at all clear what floor surface relates to them: possibly a beaten earth compaction lying over the level of fallen pis», or else with a wooden floor as is suggested in the case of the similar wall in the House of Diana. This would explain why the walls of AB II were left standing 50cm. above the floor levels, clearly impossible if the original floors were used in the new building. A small section of such a compacted clay and mortar floor, 34, was excavated in the eastern corner of the trench, covering the earlier plaster and tile floors of the taberna. A wooden floor over the pis» layer would also explain why a thick layer of tiles, 16, clearly derived from the collapse of a roof, covered the layer of pis» deriving from the collapse of the walls. The entrance(s) to this structure must have lain to the northwest, along street O. It may perhaps be interpreted as a granary or other storage space.

Dating

The date of these modifications is uncertain, but if we are right in assuming that the floor lay above the accumulated pis», the presence of ARS forms 8 and 9 in these layers gives it a terminus post quem of the beginning of the 2nd c. A.D. In the destruction layers, several fragments of ARS 'C' wares certainly suggest an occupation in the 3rd c., and in the absence of any material at all from the second half of the 2nd c. A.D., the best guess for the construction of the building would place it in the 3rd c. This fits well with the blocking of the entrances to the forum with a continuous wall, which, as we have seen in the case of AB V, seems to be part of a single operation masking the ruined buildings of the forum area from the plaza itself.

Phase 3

Forum VI, the later horrea.
Fig. 70: Forum VI, the later horrea.
The last activity on the site was the replacement of the two or three long halls with a new building, which still stands over 1.5m. high (fig. 70). This consisted of two long parallel walls, of mortared irregularly-coursed stone, butting the northwestern opening of the arched entrance to the forum and incorporating it as an entrance. The space thus created was divided in two roughly in the middle, resulting in two long narrow rooms. Only a small island of stratigraphy measuring 2 x 1.5m. remained within the building: the rest had been entirely excavated in 1973. There the construction trench, 51, of wall 26 was excavated. With a depth of 60cm. and a width of 1.35m., it was just twice the width of the wall, which was built against its southwest side. The trench cut the layers of accumulated clay deriving from the destruction of AB II, 52, and the presence of an unidentified sherd of ARS 'C' in its fill seems to leave no doubt of a 3rd c. date. The destruction layer of the building, 49, lay directly on top of 52, leaving no trace of a floor surface. Again, we must tentatively suggest a wooden floor for the building, which would be consistent with the fact that the earlier walls were left standing to 50cm. However, there are no traces in the standing walls for supports for such a floor, and we must assume it was carried on wooden chocks or some other perishable structure. The dimensions of the building again suggest storage, possibly a granary. It was interpreted by Brown as a barn for sheep, but its shape seems ill-adapted for the purpose.

No later activities were recorded on the site, and the only pottery later than the third century is a fragment of sgraffito from topsoil.


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