Ptolemais 1978

Abstract

One of the last areas in Cyrenaica in which Richard Goodchild was active during his long and fruitful official association with the Department of Antiquities was Tolmeita, the ancient Ptolemais. The Italian excavations here had been interrupted in 1942, and it was not until 1954 that the Oriental Institute of Chicago, under the direction of Carl Kraeling, undertook a short, exploratory season's work, followed u p b y three full seasons of excavation in 1956— 58. Kraeling's publication of this work (Kraeling, 1962) will long remain the basis for any further research at Tolmeita. It was in this context that Goodchild and the Department completed the excavation of the small, theatre-like building which has been variously identified as an odeion, for intimate theatrical spectacles, and as a bouleuterion, or meeting place of the city council, and an account of this work was included in Kraeling's volume. This was followed in 1 9 5 6 5 7 by an extension eastwards of the Italian excavation of the "Street of the Monuments", the broad avenue which constituted the principal east-west traffic artery of the classical city, as well as by the clearance of a substantial stretch of the "East Avenue", the easternmost of the two broad, parallel avenues which constituted the twin north-south axis of the Hellenistic street lay-out. In all nearly 500 m. of the East Avenue were uncovered, running northwards from the Palazzo delle Colonne towards the sea. At the intersection of the East Avenue with the Street of the Monuments the excavators found the shattered remains of a tetrastyle monument of a type familiar in late antiquity in the cities of the eastern provinces, such as Ephesus, Gerasa and Bostra.