The Hellenistic gate of Histria. Remarks on its foundation system.

Abstract

The Hellenistic enclosure of Histria (the west side) was discovered in 1950 and the results of research were published in 1966. From that moment on, it didn’t make the object of any further research. The defective perception of the foundation system of the so-called “sewage complex” resulted in insufficient research and documentation of the monument, with implications on the interpretation of the functionality of the whole. The present contribution advances a new interpretation of the ensemble named up until now the “sewage complex”. Its “troughs” are, within the present hypothesis, the imprints of a horizontal wood beam grid which played the role of a raft foundation. An important implication of this hypothesis is that the surface defined by the imprints of the wood grid raft foundation represents in fact the trace of a gate tower, unidentified until now. Thus, the gate of the Hellenistic enclosure was flanked by two rectangular towers, of which the south one identified during the 1951-1954 excavations and the north one reconstructed here by means of fresh interpretation of archaeological evidence.