O8

(Nicholas Churchill, 1991)

The trench contained a standing wall, 2, visible before the excavation. This proved to be the northeast wall of a Republican building, along a possible street frontage, 'street 7'. It rose at least a meter above the level of the street, and on its inside face was flanked by a drain, 7. This was well-built, plaster-lined and 40 cm. deep, in all very similar to that found in trench N7. Its construction trench (13, fill 14) was cut into a compact red layer, 8, probably deriving from the subsoil of the hill, but piled up against the terrace wall at the time the building was constructed. The drain was then covered with tiles, and the room floored with beaten earth, 10, 6cm. thick. It contained thirteen sherds of 2nd Ò 1st c. black glaze, and no later pottery, so the whole is presumably a Republican structure.

A new phase is signaled by the silting up of the drain (6) and the accumulation of a midden deposit covering the floor (4). This contained a small group of coins, dating from the Republican Period through the reign of Titus (catalogue nn. 17, 18, 23, 26, 37, 49), as well as sherds of 1st c. A.D. African cooking wares (Hayes forms 23 and 197). It is not clear how long the building was occupied, for 4 could be a midden accumulated during the life of the building, and the filling of the drain does not, of course, imply the abandonment of the building - although the fact that all the material within it was Republican suggests that it had already gone out of use by the time of the Augustan settlement. There is no compaction on top of the first century midden, although this may have eroded away. Outside the wall, along the line of street 8, the lowest excavated layer, 9, contained a certain amount of destruction debris, as well as a sherd of ARS 'C' fabric (A.D. 230+), and coins of Commodus and Septimius Severus (catalogue nos 75, 77). This seems to suggest that the building collapsed some time in the third century, although the deposit may not relate to the building itself, but to some nearby structure.