Ancient City Wall Research Articles

Archeological Exploration of the Lu City at Qufu

The city of Lu is located in the Qufu district of Shandong at the edge of the southwestern foothills of the Taiyi mountain chain, between the Si and Xiaoyi rivers. The Si River winds around the north and west of the city, and the Xiaoyi River flows to its south. On the city's western side is a broad plain. In 1961 the State Council declared the city of Lu a major national cultural site. From 1971 to 1978 the Shandong Archeological Department under the direction of the National Cultural Bureau carried out a systematic survey of the northern part of the Lu city from the east to the west, along with major excavations involving the ancient city wall and the remains of residences, workshops, and the palace. The first task was to ascertain the dating, form, and basic ground plan of the city. This is a general introduction to the results of those explorations.

The Date of the Tocra Graffiti

The large numbers of roughly-cut inscriptions on the inner face of the ancient city wall at Tocra, in the area south of the east gate, have often attracted attention. Interest in them flagged when it was realised that they consisted essentially of personal names; but recent developments in onomastic studies have given a new significance to personal names. Moreover since R. G. Goodchild dug there in the sixties it has been apparent that the inscribed stretch of the city-wall had been utilised for one side of a gymnasium courtyard and that the inscriptions on it are ephebic, so that they should throw some light on a civic instituion very much at the heart of the city's life. My purpose here, however, is simply to clarify the date at which the surviving texts were cut.The gymnasium has produced two main and one subsidiary series of texts. The first consists of graffiti on blocks found in situ on the inner face of the city wall as described above, and also on the inner face of the gymnasium wall flanking the main east/west street of the city, with additional items on blocks which patently derive from the gymnasium, but are found loose or re-used in many other parts of the site. Their appearance gives the impression that they were the work of the ephebes themselves and, since they often overcut one another, that they were produced over a period of time. They normally present personal names without patronymics, often in groups or in pairs, and with a brief indication that the associated persons were customary companions and sometimes certainly lovers.

The Evidence for the Dating of S. Lorenzo in Milan

THE CONTINUED DISAGREEMENT among art historians over the date of the founding of S. Lorenzo Maggiore is due in part to the absence of contemporary written testimony, and in part to apparent contradictions posed by the only other evidence available-archaeological and circumstantial. Dialogue is inhibited by a tendency of those treating the problem to explain these contradictions away, to minimize or even ignore them. It is the purpose of the present study, therefore, to review the evidence for the date of S. Lorenzo in some detail; to find what contradictions exist and to analyze them; and to suggest some means of resolution. S. Lorenzo and its chapels were erected just outside the ancient city wall of near the Porta Ticinensis, and fronted on the homonymous road to Pavia (Fig. I). Excavations and a minute archaeological study, conducted in the 1930s, made it possible to distinguish the early Christian nucleus of the church complex from its later additions, alterations, and repairs.1 The components of the original plan are: the tetraconch central building with its galleried ambulatory and the four towers between its exedrae; the three monumental chapels which open off the conches: S. Aquilino to the south, S. Ippolito to the east, and S. Sisto to the north; two apsed rooms, since destroyed, which flanked S. Ippolito; and a large atrium with an imposing streetside colonnade (Figs. 2, 3, 4). The early Christian fabric can still be discerned, on the ground floor level at least, in the perimeter walls of the tetraconch and in its four great corner piers; in the lower parts of two towers and the full height of a third, the northeast; in the walls of the chapels of S. Sisto and S. Ippolito; and throughout the octagon of S. Aquilino, which preserves even its early Christian cloister vault. An important aspect of the excavations just cited was the study of the foundations, which yielded a relative chronology for the various elements of the church complex. The foundations under the rising walls, piers and colonnades of the main quatrefoil are built with large cut blocks of granite and ceppo (a kind of conglomerate) and pieces of cornices and friezes in a harder stone called serizzo (gneiss). Apparently the remains of some monumental, demolished building, these ceppo and serizzo blocks appear also in the foundations of S. Ippolito, and over 6ooo of them were used in the construction of the large platform, first discovered in 1910 o, which underlies the chapel of S. Aquilino (Fig. 5).2 The foundations of S. Sisto, on the other hand, do not contain any of these large blocks and architectural fragments; they are built with smallish blocks ofceppo and also differ from the other foundations in their depth and form. Thus it is only logical to posit that S. Lorenzo and S. Ippolito, with identical foundations bonded together, were built first, while S. Aquilino, resting on foundations which comprise the same materials but are not bonded to those of the basilica, was built in the same campaign, if perhaps in a later phase.3 S. Sisto, This study originated in 1968 in a seminar with Prof. Richard Krautheimer, whose continued interest and advice have been invaluable throughout its subsequent transformations. Additional research in Italy was made possible by a Fulbright-Hays Grant and by other generous grants from the S. H. Kress Foundation, the National Gallery in Washington (a Chester Dale Fellowship), and the American Academy in Rome. To all these people and institutions, warmest thanks. The photographs for Figs. 2 and 5 were obtained through the kindness of Prof. M. Mirabella Roberti. I. See A. Calderini, G. Chierici, and C. Cecchelli, La Basilica di S. Lorenzo Maggiore in Milano (Milan [1952]). What follows here is drawn from the information on pp. 85-12o. On the narthex, which may or may not be an original component, see Mario Mirabella Roberti, Una nota sul nartece di San Lorenzo, Studi in onore di Carlo Castiglioni (Fontes Ambrosiani, xxxii, 1957), PP. 475ff. 2. For the early excavations under S. Aquilino, directed by A. Annoni, see R. Soprintendenza ai Monumenti della Lombardia, Relazione intorno alle ricerche ai ritrovamenti ed ai lavori fatti nella zona archeologica di S. Lorenzo in Milano dall'ottobre 191o al dicembre 1911 (Milan, 1913), esp. pp. ix-xi, 12-23. 3. For a detailed discussion of the date, as well as of the original function of S. Aquilino see my article, 'Capella reginae': S. Aquilino in Milan, forthcoming in Marsyas, xv.

Note on Excavations at Bishop Gobat School 1933

Abstract“As the C.M.S. had decided to enlarge Bishop Gobat's School which was built at the south-west corner of ancient Jerusalem when extensive remains of a rock cut stack with traces of a tower were found years ago; the Principal, the Rev. A. Campbell MacInnes, communicated with the P.E.F. in order that provision should be made to make an Archaeological report on the results of digging the foundation for the new buildings. Through the kind offices of the Government Department of Antiquities, the Rev. R. W. Hamilton was asked to watch the work on behalf of the Department, and the report below is the result. Nothing of very great importance was found, but it is an area which was at one time just outside the ancient City walls, and the fortified south-west tower, and the P.E.F. feel that any work done in the proximity of so important a site should be thoroughly investigated. We are much obliged to Mr. Hamilton for his report.”—(Hon. Sec. P.E.F.)

Observations on the Ancient City Walls of Rochester

(1848). Observations on the Ancient City Walls of Rochester. Journal of the British Archaeological Association: Vol. 4, No. 1, pp. 30-37.