Survey of the 'Abu Sha'ar-Nile Road
Author(s): Steven E. Sidebotham, Ronald E. Zitterkopf and John A. Riley
Reviewed work(s):
Source: American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 95, No. 4 (Oct., 1991), pp. 571-622
Published by:
Archaeological Institute of America
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Survey of the 'Abu Sha'ar-Nile Road
STEVEN
E. SIDEBOTHAM,
RONALD
E. ZITTERKOPF,
AND JOHN A. RILEY
Abstract
In January 1989 a survey conducted by the University of Delaware studied all, and redrew plans of most, key installations along the ancient thoroughfare between the Red Sea coast at 'Abu Sha'ar and the Nile emporium of Kainopolis (Qena). Installations in the Roman quarries at Mons Porphyrites were also examined. The survey dated activity at these sites primarily through careful analysis of surface ceramics and secondarily with reference to epi- graphic and numismatic evidence and ancient literary sources. The project also located approximately 125 cairns and towers that marked the course of this trans-desert
"highway" and investigated some for ceramic evidence.
Taken in conjunction with the results of excavations at the late third/fourth-seventh century Roman fort at 'Abu Sha'ar and with known activities at the imperial quarries at Mons Porphyrites and Mons Claudianus, it is clear that the 'Abu Sha'ar-Nile road and its installations had a va- riety of uses between the first and seventh centuries A.C. These included facilitating the movement of convoys haul- ing stone from the quarries to the Nile in the first to the third/fourth century, acting as a limes at least in the period
following the Diocletianic-Constantinian reorganization
of the Roman frontier, and perhaps later in its history aiding and protecting Christian travelers making pilgrim- ages to holy sites in the desert north of 'Abu Sha'ar, in the Sinai, and in the Holy Land itself.*
THE SURVEY
Steven E. Sidebotham and Ronald E. Zitterkopf
THE INSTALLATIONS
In January 1989 the University of Delaware con- ducted an archaeological survey of the ancient thor- oughfare between the late Roman/Byzantine fort at
'Abu Sha'ar/Deir Umm Deheis (27022' N, 33041' E)
on the Red Sea coast (ca. 20 km north of Hurghada just off the main Hurghada-Suez highway) and the
Nile
emporium of Qena (Kainopolis
26'10'N,
32o43'E) 181 km to the southwest (fig. 1). The objectives
were to determine-as precisely as possible without
excavation-dates of activity at the various installa-
tions along the road and to ascertain the relationships between the forts at 'Abu Sha'ar and Bir 'Abu Sha'ar
el-Qibli (27022' N, 33037' E), on the one hand, and
the quarries at Mons Porphyrites (Gebel 'Abu Du- khan), and the installations between 'Abu Sha'ar and
Gebel 'Abu Dukhan and Qena, on the other. This was done by collecting, analyzing, and dating diagnostic surface artifacts (mainly pottery). The survey mea- sured and made plans of the hydreumata (fortified water stations) and other sites on or near the route. These plans were prepared on the basis of compre- hensive field measurements taken with a tape mea- sure. Because of the non-parallel walls frequently found in the structures, diagonals were also measured to aid in drawing the plans. Azimuth readings from a hand-held compass verified the direction of the wall lines. Due to the generally irregular plan of the forts, descriptive measurements in this report have been rounded off for convenience to indicate the general size of the structures. The survey also examined nu- merous ancient towers and cairns that marked the
* A General University Research Grant from the Univer- sity of Delaware provided funding for this project. A gen- erous subvention from the Office of the Provost of the University of Delaware provided partial funding for publi- cation of this manuscript. We wish to thank the Egyptian Antiquities Organization for the help that it extended to us and particularly S. Tawfek and M. Balboush in Cairo, M. El- Saghir in Luxor, H. Afyoni in Qena, and our inspector Abdel Regal Abu Bakr Mohammed Abbas. Destruction in the de- sert by electrical fire of the survey vehicle hampered efforts to achieve all the project's objectives. Survey team members included Sidebotham (director), Zitterkopf (architect), Riley
(ceramicist), and Atullah Sulieman Meraie and Awad Muter
Selmi as guides.
The following abbreviations are used:
BFAFU Bulletin of the Faculty of Arts Fouad I University
BSRGE Bulletin de la Socidte royale de geographie d'Egypte
MIFAO Memoires de l'Institut frangais d'archeo- logie orientale
NARCE American Research Center in Egypt News- letter
Whitcomb and D.S. Whitcomb and J.H. Johnson eds.,
Johnson 1979 Quseir al-Qadim 1978, Preliminary Re-
port (Princeton 1979).
Whitcomb and D.S. Whitcomb and J.H. Johnson eds.,
Johnson 1982 Quseir al-Qadim 1980, Preliminary Re- port (American Research Center in Egypt Reports 7, Malibu 1982).
STEVEN E. SIDEBOTHAM, RONALD E. ZITTERKOPF, AND JOHN A. RILEY Clysma (Cleopatris) Aila St. Antony'.s St. Pauls SINAI St. Catherine's
Raithou Leuke Kome (P)
Antinoi
'Abu Sha'oor
-1- Mons Porphyrites 0
Mons Claudianus
Kainopolis RED SEA
Leukos Limen(P) Coptos N Magna 0 50 100 SI B e r e nice Kilometers
Fig. 1. The northern shores of the Red Sea in the Roman-Byzantine period route between 'Abu Sha'ar and Qena to establish more
accurately the course and character of the ancient road.
Earlier scholars believed that the installations in and around 'Abu Sha'ar were remains of the Ptolemaic-
Roman port of Myos Hormos' and that the road, dotted with hydreumata, leading thence to the Nile (seemingly referred to by Strabo 17.1.45), protected and monitored traffic between the Red Sea emporium and Qena.2 The road also provided watering points I For a summary, see S.E. Sidebotham, J.A. Riley, H.A.
Hamroush, and H. Barakat, "Fieldwork on the Red Sea Coast: The 1987 Season," JARCE 26 (1989) 131-33; cf. J.
Burton, Collectiones Aegyptiaca (1820-1839) unpublished
manuscripts in the British Museum, Add. Mss. 25,624: 102-
108 (1822) and 25,626: 50-53 (March 1831); R. Lepsius,
Letters from Egypt, Ethiopia, and the Peninsula of Sinai (Lon-
don 1853) 289; A. Bernand, Pan du Desert (Leiden 1977)
53-54; L. Casson, The Periplus Maris Erythraei. Text with
Introduction, Translation, and Commentary (Princeton 1989)
94-97, 273.
2 J.G. Wilkinson, "Notes on a Part of the Eastern Desert
of Upper Egypt,"JRGS 2 (1832) 28-60; E.A. Floyer, "Notes on a Sketch Map of Two Routes in the Eastern Desert of
Egypt," Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society 11 (Nov.
1991] SURVEY OF THE 'ABU SHA'AR-NILE ROAD 573 and rest stops for teams hauling stone from the quar-
ries at Mons Porphyrites and, over that portion from the el-Saqqia station westward to the Nile, from the quarries at Mons Claudianus.3
The University of Delaware archaeological survey and excavations in the 'Abu Sha'ar/Bir 'Abu Sha'ar el- Qibli region in the summers of 1987 and 1990 proved that the area was not the location of Myos Hormos, but rather the site of a large late Roman/Byzantine
(late third/fourth-seventh century) fort, a smaller
fort, and related contemporary installations.4 The 1987 and 1990 excavations at 'Abu Sha'ar discovered no recognizably datable pottery earlier than the third nor later than the seventh century.5 Clearly the extant remains in the 'Abu Sha'ar area were not associated with Ptolemaic-early Roman maritime commerce in the Red Sea-Indian Ocean and cannot, therefore, be Myos Hormos. There has been some speculation as to the precise location of the famous emporium of
Myos Hormos mentioned in Diodorus Siculus
(3.39.1-2), Strabo (2.5.12; 16.4.5; 16.4.24; 17.1.45), the Nicanor ostraca archive,6 Pliny the Elder (HN
6.33.168), the Periplus Maris Erythraei (1; 19),7 and
Claudius Ptolemy (Geog. 4.5.8), but no suitable site has yet been identified.8
The cairns/towers, stations, and tracks prove that there was an ancient road from the coast at 'Abu
Sha'ar to the Nile River at Qena (fig. 2). Given the nature of the sites in the 'Abu Sha'ar/Bir 'Abu Sha'ar el-Qibli region, however, it is clear that the road lead- ing thence to the Nile was not a commercial thor- oughfare in the same manner as the routes joining Quseir al-Qadim (Leukos Limen) to the Nile at Qift (Coptos)9 or Berenice to Edfu (Apollonopolis Magna) and later to Qift (fig. 1).10 Those thoroughfares car- ried commerce between the Red Sea ports and the Nile as well as traffic from the mines and quarries in the region. The 'Abu Sha'ar-Nile road facilitated the movement of stone from the quarries at Mons Por- phyrites and Mons Claudianus, and the movement of troops and communications among the various desert forts and, from the late third/early fourth century on, between the fort at 'Abu Sha'ar and the Nile. The road and installations may also have facilitated Chris- tian pilgrims traveling between Upper Egypt and sites in the Eastern Desert, Sinai, and the Holy Land. This road, however, most likely did not carry commercial traffic stemming from the Red Sea-Indian Ocean commerce in the Ptolemaic-early Roman period. This 'Abu Sha'ar-Nile road is, most likely, not the one Strabo (17.1.45) described.
The misidentification of the site of 'Abu Sha'ar with Myos Hormos led previous scholars to a partial mis- understanding of the dates and purpose of the road
rouge et grandes routes du desert arabique," CRAI 1910, 525-42; J. Couyat, "La route de Myos Hormos et les car- rieres de porphyre rouge," BIFAO 7 (1910) 15-33; F. Bisson de la Roque, "Voyage du Djebel Shaib," BSRGE 11 (1922) 113-40; G.W. Murray, "The Roman Roads and Stations in the Eastern Desert of Egypt,"JEA 11 (1925) 138-50; C.H.O. Scaife, "A Note on Certain Inscriptions at Gebel Dokhan, and on a Small Station, Hitherto Unrecorded, on the Road from Kainopolis to Myos Hormos," BFAFU 2.1 (1934) 106- 15; C.H.O. Scaife, "Two Inscriptions at Mons Porphyrites (Gebel Dokhan). Also a Description, with Plans, of the Station between Kainopolis & Myos Hormos Together with Some Other Ruins in the Neighbourhood of Gebel Dokhan," BFAFU 3.2 (1935) 58-164; C.H.O. Scaife, "Further Notes on Myos Hormos and Tadnos Fons," BFAFU 4.1 (1936) 55-
64; L.A. Tregenza, The Red Sea Mountains of Egypt (London
1955) 89-239; D. Meredith and L.A. Tregenza, "Notes on Roman Roads and Stations in the Eastern Desert I. (a) From Qena to Bab el-Mukheiniq. (b) The Roman Station in W. Abu Zawal," BFAFU 11.1 (1949) 1-19; D. Meredith, "The Roman Remains in the Eastern Desert of Egypt," JEA 38
(1952) 94-111; cf. D. Meredith, Tabula Imperii Romani Sheet
N.G. 36 Coptos (Oxford 1958) passim: A revised version of this map sheet will be prepared by S.E. Sidebotham as part of the American Philological Association's Atlas of the Greek and Roman World, edited by J.A. Talbert; Bernand (supra n. 1) 44-49 for bibliography and 49-54 on the road; M.
Redd6 and J.-C. Golvin, "Du Nil
a
la Mer Rouge: Documentsanciens et nouveaux sur les routes du desert oriental d'E- gypte," Karthago 21 (1986-1987) 5-64; S.E. Sidebotham,
Roman Economic Policy in the Erythra Thalassa, 30 B.C.-
A.D. 217 (Leiden 1986) 58-59.
3 Supra n. 2.
4 Sidebotham et al. (supra n. 1) 127-66 and results of
the 1990 excavations, publication forthcoming (infra n. 26).
5 Sidebotham et al. (supra n. 1) 149-61 and results of
the 1990 excavations, publication forthcoming.
6 For this archive, see Sidebotham (supra n. 2) 50-51.
7 See now Casson (supra n. 1) 13-14, 94-97; supra n. 1.
8 Redd6 and Golvin (supra n. 2) 63 believe that Myos
Hormos is located at Quseir al-Qadim, but excavations car- ried out there in 1978, 1980, and 1982 revealed only a Roman and Medieval Islamic port; there was, except for the find of a single very worn bronze coin of Ptolemy III, no evidence of Ptolemaic activity; cf. S.M. Burstein, Agathar-
chides of Cnidus On the Erythraean Sea (London 1989) 135-
36 and notes. For Quseir al-Qadim see: Whitcomb and John- son 1979; Whitcomb and Johnson 1982; D.S. Whitcomb and J.H. Johnson, "1982 Season of Excavations at Quseir al- Qadim," NARCE 120 (Winter 1982) 24-30; final report forthcoming.
9 See R.E. Zitterkopf and S.E. Sidebotham, "Stations and
Towers on the Quseir-Nile Road," JEA 75 (1989) 155-89; M. Redd6 and T. Bauzou, "Pistes caravanieres de Syrie,
d'Arabie et d'igypte," in T. Fahd ed., L'Arabie prdislamique
et son environnement historique et culturel. Actes du Colloque de Strasbourg, 24-27 juin 1987 (Travaux du Centre de Re- cherche sur le Proche-Orient et la Grace antiques 10, Leiden
1989) 485-90.
RED
Bir 'Abu Sho'or
El- Qibli -- S E A
Umm Sidro -I
N Abu Sho'or
Mons Porphyrites Abu Sloor I, Wadi Belih (Hurghodo) Umm Bolod W-
Qtt ' oBodia' Qattar /,
Wadi Nagat Monastery
II
7/ Deir EI-Atrash
I/
SBob EI-Mukhenig ,)5 Mons Claudianus
II /
El- Saqqia /
I' /
16 El
-
HeitaS'-- Abu Sho' or - Nile Route
'I /
Other Routes
11 / Major Quarry
*/Qreiya
II UOry Praesidium / Hydreuma
II I' Kainopolis (Qena) 0 10 20 30 40 50 Scale in Kilometers Tentyris (Dendero
? Coptos (Qift) REZ 1989
Fig. 2. Principal route from 'Abu Sha'ar to Kainopolis (Qena)
joining 'Abu Sha'ar and Mons Porphyrites to the Nile. Earlier scholars did not date the installations on the road through detailed ceramic analysis"1 nor did they record evidence of extensive rebuilding/reuse of sev- eral of the major hydreumata on the road or explore the implications of such remodeling for the history and function of these sites. Most plans of these in-
stallations drawn by earlier travelers are, to a greater or lesser extent, only of a general nature and often inaccurate, thereby requiring the University of Dela- ware survey to make new plans.
The survey team investigated the following sites from the Red Sea coast at 'Abu Sha'ar to Qena on the Nile: 1) the Roman quarry installations in the Mons
" Burton (supra n. 1) Add. Mss. 25,625: 50 recto (16 May
1823) notes a large quantity of blue frit pottery at Mons Porphyrites, which he says "seems to have been in general use at all the stations on the road to Kend." De la Roque (supra n. 2) 138-40 describes pottery he found, but he made
no drawings and did not date these ceramics; Tregenza 1955 (supra n. 2) 178 describes pottery from the settlement at Wadi Nagat as fourth century; Meredith 1952 (supra n. 2) 109 describes pottery at el-Heita as second-third century.
1991] SURVEY OF THE 'ABU SHA'AR-NILE ROAD 575
S:i
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07i-i;iii;:~:ii;.: rDUF
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:-:::;;::-:-::,::-
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Fig. 3. Mons Porphyrites (Gebel 'Abu Dukhan). Ramp leading up to Lycabettos from the Wadi Ma'amal.
Porphyrites/Gebel 'Abu Dukhan region, 2) the Roman fort at the edge of Wadi Belih, 3) the Roman fort, fortified rock outcrop, and animal-tethering lines at Badia', 4) the Roman fort at Umm Balad, 5) the animal-tethering lines (?) and Roman fort at Qattar, 6) the settlement in Wadi Nagat/Wadi Qattar, 7) the animal-tethering lines and Roman fort at Deir el- Atrash, 8) a small mining settlement about 2 km northwest of Deir el-Atrash, 9) the animal-tethering lines and Roman station at Bab el-Mukhenig, 10) the animal-tethering lines, hydraulic installations, and Roman fort at el-Saqqia, 11) the animal-tethering lines (?) and two Roman forts at el-Heita, and 12) the animal-tethering lines (?) and Roman fort at el-'Aras.
MONS PORPHYRITES
The first sites investigated were in the quarry areas
of Mons Porphyrites (Gebel 'Abu Dukhan 27013' N,
33o16' E). These included the so-called Northwest Village and its outbuildings, the well and nearby cas- tellum and trash dump in the Wadi Ma'amal, and the quarry site, small village, and nearby cemetery in the area known as Lycabettos (fig. 3). The survey did not investigate the station at Umm Sidra, on the route from the quarries and castellum to the main road, because previous visits to Umm Sidra revealed a scar- city of surface pottery. Ancient sources refer to Mons Porphyrites and the purple and black porphyritic andesite stone quarried there.12 A German survey of 1964 drew plans of the major structures at Mons Porphyrites;13 numerous earlier visitors to the region also wrote about or drew plans of some or all of these installations.'4 The survey did not produce plans of any structures in the Mons Porphyrites area, but given our limited time, concentrated instead upon collect- ing, analyzing, and dating pottery from the region,
12 Pliny, HN 36.11.57; 36.19.88; Suet. Ner. 50; S.H.A.
Antoninus Pius 11; S.H.A., Elagabalus 24; S.H.A., Severus Alexander 25; S.H.A., Probus 2; Claud. In Ruf. 2.135; Isid.
Etym. 16.5.5; Bernand (supra n. 1) 54-65, 66-68, 70-77; cf.
CIL 15.7191 = ILS 8729 and CIG 2.3148; cf. R. Gnoli,
Marmora romana (Rome 1971) 100-102, 112-14.
13 T. Kraus et al., "Mons Claudianus-Mons Porphyrites.
Bericht fiber die zweite Forschungsreise 1964," MDIK 22 (1967) 157-201 for Mons Porphyrites.
14 Burton (supra n. 1) Add. Mss. 25,625: 34-51 for a
description, plans and drawings of Mons Porphyrites during
his visit on 10-19 May 1823; Wilkinson (supra n. 2) 42-49;
J. Hekekyan Bey, "Notes on the Eastern Desert of Egypt, from Gebel Afrit, by the Ancient Porphyry Quarries of Gebel Dukhan, Near to the Old Station of Gebel Gir; with a Brief
Account of the Ruins at Gebel Dukhan,"Journal of the Asiatic
Society of Bengal 17.ii (1848) 584-87; Lepsius (supra n. 1)
286-88; C. Dubois, Etude sur l'administration et exploitation des carrieres marbres, porphyre, granit, etc. dans le monde romain (Paris 1908) 61-68; K. Fitzler, Steinbriiche und Berg- werke im ptolemiiischen und r6mischen Agypten (Leipzig 1910) 94-99; V. Stuart, "Gebel Dokhan," Cairo Scientific Bulletin 4 (1910) 64-66; A.E.P. Weigall, Travels in the Upper Egyptian
which had never before been undertaken. The pot- tery collected from the Northwest Village, its out- buildings, and Lycabettos (see infra, cat. nos. 1-23) dates to the first-second century, that from the cas- tellum trash dump to the first-second and third- fourth centuries. Overall, the ceramic evidence sup- ports earlier scholarly conclusions that the quarries functioned between the first and fourth centuries A.C.15
A Greek inscription, found in the cemetery area below and on a separate spur from the Lycabettos quarries, is on a tombstone of a Christian named John
from Hermopolis,16 who died and was buried in the
quarry area. Another Greek inscription, beneath the "John" inscription and carved upside down, indicates a probable secondary use of the stone. On the reverse
is an apparent Christian symbol. Scaife,17 Meredith,'8
and Bernand'9 noted and described this tombstone, which members of the project collected and deposited in the Cairo Museum. The stone, of purple porphyry and broken in two parts, measures 60 cm long x 21 cm wide x 5.5 cm thick.20 The text reads:
Obverse Reverse
I(WA AHOK C9Y
NHCA HETO HOEHIIKI IHCN OYNIA IAOC OCTOY EPMOHI OAITOY
Pottery associated with the Lycabettos site dates to the first-second century (cat. nos. 11-17), but it is uncertain if the inscription can be dated to this period. Meredith and Scaife were unsure whether this tomb- stone belonged to an individual who died working the quarries as convict labor or was inscribed for a later Anchorite who lived in the region after the quarries were no longer exploited. There is archaeological evidence of a fourth-century Christian church in the Mons Porphyrites area and there were such settle- ments elsewhere in the Eastern Desert.21 Literary ev- idence suggests that there may have been an Anchorite settlement at Mons Porphyrites, but inter- pretation of these texts remains enigmatic.22
Literary and archaeological evidence indicates that free labor and military personnel also worked at the quarries.23 Given that the tombstone is of a Christian, associated with "Roman" pottery from the nearby village, one might conclude that John's presence here was penal in nature. Convict laborers including Chris- tians were regularly condemned to mines and quar- ries in the first to early fourth century throughout the empire.24 It is unlikely, however, that a convict would have received a tombstone; John may well have lived in the area later in the fourth century as free corv6e labor working in the quarries or as an Anchorite hermit.
WADI BELIH
The fort at Wadi Belih (27014' N, 33023' E) is the last major installation one encounters coming from
maine d'Egypte d'Auguste & Dioclitien (MIFAO 41, Cairo
1918) 439-41; C.H.O. Scaife, "Note on a Visit to the Impe- rial Porphyry Quarries at Gebel Dokhan," BFAFU 1.1 (1933) 144-45; L.A. Tregenza, "Notes on Inscriptions and Graffiti at Mons Claudianus and Mons Porphyrites and on the 'Flav- ius' Stone in Wadi Qattar, Collected during a Visit to the S.E. Desert in the Summer of 1949," BFAFU 11.2 (1949) 141-46 for Mons Porphyrites; D. Meredith and L.A. Tre- genza, "Mons Porphyrites: The North-West Village and
Quarries," BFAFU 12.1 (1950) 131-47; D. Meredith, Con-
tributions to the Roman Archaeology of the Eastern Desert of
Egypt (Diss. Univ. of London 1954): most of this opus deals
with Mons Porphyrites and associated installations; Meredith
1952 (supra n. 2) 108 for numismatic evidence from the castellum in the Wadi Ma'amal; G.W. Murray, Dare Me to the Desert (New York 1968) 115-29; Bernand (supra n. 1) 51-53, 54-65, 66-68, 70-77; RE 22.1 (1953) 313-14 s.v. Porphyrites (H. Kees); for the geology of the Mons Por- phyrites region, see T. Barron and W.F. Hume, Topography
and Geology of the Eastern Desert of Egypt-Central Portion
(Cairo 1902) 27-28; Gnoli (supra n. 12) 112-14; Redd6 and Golvin (supra n. 2) 33 reproduce an earlier plan of the castellum at Mons Porphyrites; see now M.J. Klein, Unter-
suchungen zu den kaiserlichen Steinbriichen an Mons Porphyr- ites und Mons Claudianus in der distlichen Wiiste Agyptens
(Bonn 1988); on porphyry see LA IV (1982) 1071-73, s.v. Porphyr (R.S. Bianchi).
15 For numismatic evidence see Tregenza (supra n. 2) 123.
16 It is unclear which Hermopolis: Hermopolis Parva (Da-
manhur, in the Delta) or Hermopolis Magna (Ashmunein, in Upper Egypt). Hermopolis and the Hermopolite Nome were heavily Christian as papyri suggest: see E. Wipszycka,
Les ressources et les activites iconomiques des iglises en Egypte du IVe au VIIIe sikcle (Papyrologica Bruxellensia 10, Brussels
1972) 43-47.
17 Scaife 1934 (supra n. 2) 109-10.
18 Meredith 1954 (supra n. 14) 426-32; Meredith 1952 (supra n. 2) 108.
19 Bernand (supra n. 1) 73-74 dates it "Peut-etre du IVe
p. C."
20 Bernand (supra n. 1) 73 gives slightly different dimen-
sions.
21 Meredith 1952 (supra n. 2) 108.
22
Cf. Tregenza (supra n. 2) 177-79; See Bernand (supra n. 1) 70-73, inscription no. 28 for the Didymos church, which he believes is contemporary with the "John" of Her- mopolis inscription.
23 Palladius, Historia Lausiaca 34; 36; cf. R.T. Meyer,
trans., Palladius: The Lausiac History (Westminster, Md.
1965) 195 n. 294; J. Moschus, Pratum Spirituale 124 (in J.-
P. Migne, Patrologiae Cursus Completus, Paris 1865) 2985-
88.
24 F. Millar, "Condemnation to Hard Labour in the Ro-
1991] SURVEY OF THE 'ABU SHA'AR-NILE ROAD 577
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I O 5 10 E A REZ SCALE IN METERS 1989Fig. 4. Plan of fort in the Wadi Belih. A) buttress with batter, B) later (?) construction of poorer quality, C) low retaining walls (?), D) area washed away by wadi torrent, and E) buttress (?).
the Nile before reaching the forts in the Bir 'Abu Sha'ar el-Qibli/'Abu Sha'ar area on the Red Sea coast (fig. 4). The Wadi Belih fort is also one of the most enigmatic structures in the region. Plans and descrip- tions by earlier travelers25 do not reflect its true con- figuration and, thus, it was redrawn by the Delaware survey. The size, design, apparent lack of either an extant intra- or extramural well or cistern, and early date determined by pottery analysis (first-second cen- tury A.C.; see cat. no. 24) suggest that the installation had fallen out of use long before construction of the forts at Bir 'Abu Sha'ar el-Qibli and 'Abu Sha'ar. The
asymmetrical polygonally planned fort has a long nar- row passageway leading south from the fort wall to the single gate. The main body of the fort, minus the gate and passageway, measures ca. 28 m north-south
x ca. 25 m east-west. The passageway itself is ca. 10 m long with an interior width of ca. 2 m. Fort walls are approximately 1 m thick and there are 14 internal rooms (plus one or two that are clearly later additions of unknown date, fig. 4.B), the function of which could not be precisely determined from surface sur- veying due to the presence of much wind-blown sand. The 14 rooms probably served as quarters and storage facilities for the garrison, which could not have num-
bered more than 100 men-probably considerably
fewer-and were undoubtedly mounted troops, given the climate and terrain of the area.
Adjacent to the east and northeast perimeter wall are exposed segments of a low wall (fig. 4.C). This outer wall is on the opposite side of water flow in the wadi and seems to have been merely a retaining wall or other small enclosure built up against the exterior face of the fort at some unknown date; it does not appear to represent a patently different chronological phase of the fortification wall of the fort itself.
No evidence of exterior animal-tethering lines is found at this fort, but adjacent wadis/seyels show severe scouring from floods over the years, further borne out by the missing southeast corner (fig. 4.D) and part of the western wall of the fort, washed away by periodic flash floods. Possibly, any animal-tethering lines or wells and cisterns that existed outside the fort lay in these wadi areas and have been destroyed leav- ing no surface trace. The fort may have monitored and assisted traffic coming from the quarries at Mons Porphyrites via Wadi Umm Sidra in which case accom- modations for men and animals would be expected. The fort, however, is somewhat east of the road link- ing Umm Sidra to the Nile. Alternatively the instal- lation at Wadi Belih may have been a station on the second-century Via Hadriana, which linked Antinoe on the Nile over to the Red Sea and south along or near the coast to Berenice, but this interpretation is also tentative.26 An architectural feature visible above
52 (1984) 124-47, 140 for Egypt specifically; Meredith and Tregenza (supra n. 14) 142; Aelius Aristeides, Orat. Aegypt.
67 (cf. C.A. Behr, P. Aelius Aristides: The Complete Works 2.
Orations XVII-LIII [Leiden 1981] 209 and 407, ns. 95-96);
possiblyJoseph. BJ 6.418; possibly Euseb. De Martyr. Palaest.
8.1 (may be a corrupt passage); cf. Klein (supra n. 14) 42; for convict labor in Egyptian mines in the Ptolemaic period, see Burstein (supra n. 8) 58-68 (=Bk 5.23-29). Evidence from ostraca excavated by the IFAO team at Mons Claudi- anus suggests that the bulk of the work force there was free labor (personal communication).
25 Cf. Scaife 1935 (supra n. 2) 101-102 and plan X; Mer-
edith 1952 (supra n. 2) 97 for sketch plan of the fort in Wadi Belih; Tregenza (supra n. 2) 141-42 for a description of the fort; Burton (supra n. 1) Add. Mss. 25,626: 53 verso drew a map of the Wadi Belih.
26 R.E. Zitterkopf conducted a survey of this region in
July 1990, publication of which will appear in S.E. Side-
botham ed., 'Abu Sha'ar, 1990 Preliminary Report (forthcom-
ing). On the Via Hadriana see Meredith 1958 (supra n. 2) 7; Sidebotham (supra n. 2) 61-62; S.E. Sidebotham, "Ports
of the Red Sea and the Arabia-India Trade," in Fahd (supra
2m:_-~i-i
i-i ?iiii-iii~ii?ii:ii:ii:ii~i~;-iiii~
:-~~Li~~~~~~i~i:
:---:-:--~~?;:~-:-~~:RM:i
:1:::;-:::;:1:
::
::iw
sr
?: ;_:i _ ;--:::--_::.?:: -:..- :: -::: -
~-::
-j~i::'
:
:::::ISof"_4 kI A#----:''iiiii': _.. : V
414.: :?: :i i:i i~:iiiiii~
will?_-:l;:_-_ : ::?--i-:; i::::: :::--:
Fig. 5. View of installations at Badia', looking north
ground, suggesting extended use of the site, is a well- made stone buttress with a batter added to the eastern side of the entrance gate (fig. 4.A); a heap of stones randomly piled against the western side of the en- trance may also be the remains of a buttress (fig. 4.E).
BADIA'
The installations at Badia' (27013' N, 33021' E) also
serviced the men and animals hauling stone from the quarries at Mons Porphyrites27 and probably also sup- ported logistics and communications between the fort at 'Abu Sha'ar and the Nile (figs. 5-6). The water source was extramural,28 located about 500 m to the north, and still existed as a modern well in January 1989. The discovery of kiln-fired bricks and piles of burned and unburned seashells-mainly murex and strombus bulla-to make lime to line such hydraulic structures and extensive external animal lines attests to the fort's function as a water supply and rest stop. The project, due to lack of time, did not draw a plan of this site, but plans were made by Wilkinson
during one of his visits to the region in the 1820s- 1830s (fig. 6) and by Scaife in the 1930s.29 The survey collected substantial surface pottery. Analysis of the pottery, which included imported Tripolitanian am- phoras and African Red Slip ware, indicates activity at the hydreuma in the first-third and third-sixth cen- turies (see cat. nos. 25-43), which coincides, in the first four centuries, with ceramic dates from sites in the quarry areas of Mons Porphyrites. Numismatic evidence discovered by earlier visitors supports this dating.30 Clearly, however, the site continued in use after the Mons Porphyrites quarries ceased operation. Continued activity at Badia' must, then, have been mainly as support for communications and logistics between the Nile and the installations at 'Abu Sha'ar and, no doubt, as part of the limes system in place in the region after the early fourth century, if not earlier. An unusual feature of Badia' is the presence of two separate walled enclosures. The easternmost one is clearly a traditional fort: a rectangular structure ca. 37 x 45-47 m built of stacked stones with a total of
27 Cf. Kraus et al. (supra n. 13) 201-203; Scaife 1935
(supra n. 2) 78-81 and plan VI (Wilkinson's plan of 1823);
Meredith 1952 (supra n. 2) 97 for sketch plan of the hy- dreuma at Badia'; Redd6 and Golvin (supra n. 2) 31-32
reproduce plans of the hydreuma drawn by earlier scholars.
28 Meredith 1952 (supra n. 2) 105 also notes the extra-
mural water source at Badia'.
29 Scaife 1935 (supra n. 2) 79-80, plan VI.
30 Meredith 1954 (supra n. 14) 544-45 and Meredith 1952 (supra n. 2) 109 note three coins of Constantine I and one of Theodosius I found here; cf. Tregenza (supra n. 2) 144 for a description of the fort and the numismatic evidence.
1991] SURVEY OF THE 'ABU SHA'AR-NILE ROAD 579
III
"'s 'o
441Lt
i
4
ICL-
5~1?p
~a5
`?~
Fig. 6. Plan of the installations at Badia', J.G. Wilkinson, pl. 103 (Gardner Wilkinson Papers from Calke Abby), Bodleian Library,
Oxford. (Courtesy the National Trust)
nine round or semicircular towers along the enceinte, including two towers flanking the single southern- facing gate.31 The interior has a number of rooms. Part, at least, of the interior northwestern face of the main fort wall, has a parapet. In the interior of the fort is a large, broken grinding stone. Just outside the gate and to the south are the animal-tethering lines.
The other fortified structure to the west is an un- usual ovoid shape built of stacked stones with massive walls ca. 4 m high. This fort wall encircles a large rock outcrop rising substantially higher than the surround- ing enceinte.32 There is a single entrance on the south-, east flanked by dilapidated round or semicircular towers or wing walls. Parts of the interior walls on the eastern side facing the other fort have remains of a catwalk. There is no apparent reason for the existence of this installation although it has been suggested that it was for signaling purposes or that the rock provided
shade or was a sacred site.33 The presence of a shallow horizontal shaft on one side of the outcrop may in- dicate mining exploitation at some phase. Its unusual shape, the highly perplexing large rock outcrop that takes up the entire interior, and the absence of any- thing but the most rudimentary interior rooms or edifices have no, parallel in the Eastern Desert. Surface surveying did not reveal whether or not the two for- tified sites at Badia' were contemporary.
Large, well-preserved animal-tethering lines ca. 65 m north-south x ca. 46 m east-west lay south of the main fortified enclosure. They were segregated from the present water source north of the fort. Although the drinking-water source for draft animals may have been available closer to the fort in antiquity, there is an apparent segregation of exterior water facilities from animal-tethering lines here as well as at Deir el- Atrash, Bab el-Mukhenig, el-Saqqia, el-Heita, and
~' Kraus et al. (supra n. 13) 201-203 for discussion: 199,
Abb. 24 are mistaken in the number of defensive towers: they omit the center tower on the north rear wall.
32 Scaife 1935 (supra n. 2) 79-80, plan VI and pl. VI. Cf.
Wilkinson's plan (fig. 6).
:_-m-::;-:i~;--I-:_-i--i__~__~- :i~i-iiiili-iii~iii~~iilii: I:::ii-l~ii ib~,:_-il8:l~ii-:-- :-- ...-:~--.-- - - - - - - -
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:::::
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Or,
Z.:ii~~ii~i~i-
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Fig. 7. View of fort at Umm Balad, looking south
possibly at Qattar and el-'Aras (see infra). The animals would have been brought in rotation to drink and then returned to the tethering lines where they would have been fed and rested. The objective was, undoubt- edly, to provide orderly control over the thirsty ani- mals, to supply water to as many draft animals as possible using a minimum of water troughs and, given the restricted water supply available, to ration intake to stretch limited quantities. The segregation also pre- vented the animals from fouling the water supply by moving them quickly away once they had consumed their quota.
The project's Ma'aza Bedouin guide indicated an- cient graves southwest of the ovoid fort. The presence of scattered bones of indeterminate species, seen by the authors during visits in July 1987, January 1989, and July 1990, and numerous robber holes in this area lend support to the hypothesis that an ancient burial site existed here.
UMM BALAD
The fort and nearby buildings at Umm Balad (27010' N, 33017' E) were directly tied to satellite quarrying operations associated with Mons Porphyr- ites (figs. 7-8). The fort itself was off a branch road from the main road connecting Mons Porphyrites to Badia' and onward to the Nile.34 The fort is typical of others on the 'Abu Sha'ar-Mons Porphyrites-Qena route in many respects. It is a rectangular structure built of stacked stones with a single entrance on the south flanked by semicircular towers. Similar towers dot the exterior walls and the four corners of the fort (cf. fig. 8 for a plan without towers). The interior has numerous rooms and at the back (north interior) is a nicely constructed large rectangular cistern lined with waterproof mortar. Around the top perimeter of the cistern is a recess to allow some type of covering that would have reduced water evaporation losses. The
xx
I I I I
Scale
Fig. 8. Plan of fort at Umm Balad. (After C.H.O. Scaife, BFAFU 3.2 [1935] plan VIII)
34 The plan of this site was not drawn by the survey due
to time lost by destruction of the survey vehicle. Cf. sketch plan in Meredith 1952 (supra n. 2) 97; Scaife 1935 (supra n.
2) plan VIII, reproduced by Redd% and Golvin (supra n. 2)
1991] SURVEY OF THE 'ABU SHA'AR-NILE ROAD 581
;. . . . . . . . . . . .
Fig. 9. View of road leading southeast from Umm Balad water source was outside the fort.35 Several of the rooms have blocked doorways suggesting multiple- phase use of at least sections of the fort.
There are no animal-tethering lines extant, but a large trash dump, recently badly robbed, sits just outside the gate. Illicit excavations had scattered about large quantities of organic and ceramic artifacts. Included in the finds are an ostracon in Greek that is the end of a letter. The translation is: ". . . in five days, greetings." Cloth and a leather shoe sole were also recovered. Analysis of the pottery, which in- cluded imported Tripolitanian amphoras and Cyp- riot-made Eastern Sigillata A/I ware, reveals that Umm Balad had a long period of occupation. The collected pottery dating from the first-second and, possibly, into the third-fourth centuries A.C. (see cat. nos. 44--80)36 indicates that Umm Balad ceased to be important after that time. Quarrying continued into the third and fourth centuries at Mons Porphyrites and evidence from other hydreumata on the road be-
tween the quarries and Qena suggests that this was either an active period of quarry use or that there
were other functions-unassociated with the quar-
ries-that these road installations performed at that time. We cannot, at present, determine which of these possibilities is the most likely, but given Umm Balad's location off the main road joining Mons Porphyrites, Badia', and the Nile, it is unlikely that it played a role in communications between the fort at 'Abu Sha'ar and the Nile. It seems that Umm Balad was closed as a result of cessation of activities in the nearby quarries and served no purpose other than that directly asso- ciated with quarrying activities there.
Surface surveying did not reveal the specific func- tions of several edifices near the fort at Umm Balad. Some of these were built up against the face of a nearby rock outcrop; others were freestanding.
Two Roman roads led from Umm Balad: one to the northeast and the other to the southeast (fig. 9). The roads were unpaved, but the Romans made sig- nificant efforts to clear stones leaving a relatively smooth, even surface. The roads vary in width from ca. 14 m for the northeast road to ca. 8 m for the southeast road. On the southeast road near its junc- tion with the northeast road the survey recovered a large worked granite stone weight (fig. 10) shaped
. . .. . .. ...
Fig. 10. Granite spheroid weight from Umm Balad
35 Cf. Meredith 1952 (supra n. 2) 105.
36
like a spheroid with a flattened top and bottom bear- ing on its top the incuse letters "NE." The stone has the following maximum dimensions: height = 19 cm; diameter = 25 cm; circumference = 91 cm. The overall dimensions of the letters "NE" are 4.8 cm in height and 8.4 cm in width. The letters "NE" are Greek for the number 55, which may have indicated the weight of the stone. Slightly chipped on the top, the stone today weighs 28.9 kg. Taking into consid- eration the chipped portions, the original weight of the stone was slightly over 29 kg; each unit of the 55 would, therefore, have equaled slightly over 0.527 kg."3 The weight was too small to have been used to weigh stone coming from the quarries; there is no parallel for such weighing of quarry stone in any case. It is possible that the stone represented a standardized weight for fungible items such as sacks of grain shipped to Umm Balad, which would have been weighed upon receipt by the garrison. This, too, how- ever, would have been unusual for most grain in antiquity was measured by volume rather than by weight.
QATTAR
The Delaware survey drew a new plan of the poorly
preserved station at Qattar (2707' N, 33013' E) (fig.
11) and noted differences from a plan drawn by J.G. Wilkinson in the early 19th century.38 In January 1989 the fort was in a much poorer state of preservation than in Wilkinson's day due to modern construction in the interior that took place between Murray's visit39
and Scaife's sometime in the 1920s or early 1930s.40
Scaife noted that sand obscured much of the fort interior and that he could see little shown on Wilk- inson's plan.4 The rectangular fort, ca. 34 m north- south x 44 m east-west, originally had one extant entrance on the west flanked by semicircular towers. The towers at the northwest and northeast corners are also round/semicircular, not rectilinear as indi- cated on Wilkinson's plan. There were probably tow- ers at the southeast and southwest corners, too, but these had been washed away before Wilkinson's visit. Modern well-building activity in the center of the hydreuma has contributed to its deteriorated condi-
I---'.- L- I=I -.JL-0
=
SLI
I
O:
ANIMAL
LINES
i
i,
rjI
]JL..
E SCALE IN METERSFig. 11. Plan of installations at Qattar. A) parapet, B) blocked doorway, C) modern well, D) modern basin, E) area leveled in recent times for well construction, F) modern solid core construction, G) large stone rubble pile, and H) windbreak (?) of poorer and later construction.
37 Cf. F.G. Skinner, Weights and Measures: Their Ancient Origins and Their Development in Great Britain up to A.D.
1855 (London 1967) 65 for parallels in stone of a similar shape, pl. IX for a weight of 10 libra (ca. 3.2 kg). No comparanda of similar weight to the specimen from Umm Balad could be found.
38
J.G. Wilkinson (Gardner Wilkinson Papers from Calke
Abby, Bodleian Library, Oxford ms. XLV D. 19), Scaife 1935 (supra n. 2) plan V (see text 77-78); Redd' and Golvin
(supra n. 2) 29 reproduce Wilkinson's plan.
39 Murray (supra n. 2) 147.
40 Scaife 1935 (supra n. 2) 77.
1991]
SURVEY
OF THE 'ABU SHA'AR-NILE
ROAD
583
tion. The concrete wellhead (fig. 11.C) had a modern
Arabic inscription carved into it while the concrete
was still wet. Transliterated it reads "Maslaha
al- Hu-
dud, Bir al-'Amir Farouk"
and, therefore, dates to the
time of Prince Farouk (prince 1920-1937, king 1937-
1952).42
Next to the wellhead was a modern concrete
basin (fig. 11.D). Whereas clear evidence exists that
the southwest corner of the fort was destroyed by
water flow, the cause of the southeast corner's destruc-
tion is more difficult to determine. It may have suf-
fered water erosion, and was then used as an access
way for traffic arriving in modern times to construct
and use the well (fig. 11.E). The presence south of
the fort up the Wadi Qattar of what the local Ma'aza
Bedouin term an "English" road leading to a modern
mining settlement fosters speculation that the con-
struction of the modern concrete wellhead and basin
were associated with this nearby mining activity con-
ducted earlier in this century, presumably in the 1920s
or 1930s.43 Undoubtedly, one source of water for the
modern miners would have been the well at Qattar
station. One other modern feature, a solid 2.2
m2tower 1.6 m high and of unknown function (fig. 1 1.F),
composed of cobbles cemented together and located
just outside the western gate, might also be associated
with this modern construction or use of the well.
There are a number of interior rooms, most badly
damaged. There are remains, unnoted by Wilkinson
and Scaife, of a catwalk and parapet (fig. 11.A) on the
west, north, and east interior fort walls. A blocked
doorway (fig. 11 .B) pierces a rather thick interior
southern cross-wall, suggesting multiple phase use of
the site.
The ceramics from Qattar, which include imported
Africano Grande amphoras from Tunisia, date
mainly to the third-fourth century; the amount of
first-second century pottery is small (cf. cat. nos. 81-
88). This evidence suggests that the initial fort con-
struction was in the first-second century with subse-
quent or continuing use and remodeling (e.g., blocked
doorway "B") in the third-fourth centuries.
Approximately 35 m west of the gate are stone
foundations measured by the Delaware survey. H6k-
6kyan Bey noted these remains, calling them build-
ings, stables, and outhouses.44
Neither Wilkinson nor
Scaife, however, recorded them on their plans. Most
of the stones were scattered haphazardly due to water
flow in the wadi. The overall dimensions of this stone
scatter are ca. 66 x 46 m. These structures may have
been animal-tethering lines associated with the fort.
SETTLEMENT IN WADI NAGAT/WADI QATTAR
South of the Roman station at Qattar is an extension
of the Wadi Qattar known as Wadi Nagat. At intervals
along both eastern and western sides of the wadi are
numerous pictographs and some dipinti. These draw-
ings appear to be prehistoric, pre- or early dynastic
and depict ibex, other quadrupeds, possibly a giraffe,
and humans.45
One drawing depicts a boat with both
prow and stern high out of the water with a person
riding in the center. This is typical of the so-called
prehistoric sickle-boat pictographs found elsewhere
in the Eastern Desert.46
The maximum dimensions of
the ship and passenger are 82 x 32 cm. The dipinti,
in red paint, farther along on the east side of the wadi,
depict two warriors each carrying a shield and a
B B AA A A ' I
I
Lii
0 I 2 REZ SCALE IN METERS 1989Fig. 12. Plan of building above Wadi Nagat. A) doorway with lintel, and B) vent hole.
42 Murray (supra n. 2) 147.
43 For the likely location of these mines, see M.G. Ghobrial
and M. Lotfi, The Geology of Gebel Gattar and Gebel Dokhan Areas (Geological Survey Paper 40, Cairo 1967) attached map.
44 H6k6kyan Bey (supra n. 14) 586.
45 S. Redford and D.B. Redford, "Graffiti and Petroglyphs
Old and New from the Eastern Desert,"JARCE 26 (1989) 3 n. 2 for possible dates of giraffe graffiti in the Eastern Desert of 8000-3600 B.C.
46 F. Petrie, "Egyptian Shipping Outlines and Notes,"
Egypt and the East (March, June 1933) 10-13; H.A. Winkler,
Archaeological Survey of Egypt Rock-Drawings of Southern Upper Egypt I. Sir Robert Mond Desert Expedition Season, 1936-1937: Preliminary Report (London 1938) 35-39 and
pls. XXXIII-XXXIV; Redford and Redford (supra n. 45) 35-37 (figs. 63-64) from Wadi 'Abu Qwei are similar: late Predynastic.
A
A
-II.II
III I iIi IIII ILE
K1
II II Ir FC S.. IL' \\[E:u
w
o~~~I
I•I ".j SCALE IN METERS {''"•' •REZ _ _ _•KM
19
-u 1989l \Fig. 13. Plan of installations at Deir el-Atrash. A) stone parapet, B) stone parapet filled with mudbrick, C) stairs, D) blocked arch,
E) bench, F) brick-lined well, G) retaining wall for well depression, H) cistern, I) mudbrick platform, J) massive mudbrick tower, K) scattered stones, L) animal lines, M) trash dump, and N) water channel.
sword; there are other dipinti drawn near these war- riors on the same rock face.47
Near the upper end of the wadi is a pool fed by a seasonal waterfall. High above the cataract and hid-
den from view from below is an edifice (2705' N,
33018' E) of three rooms and two exterior square columns in an excellent state of preservation. Door lintels are still in situ and two of the rooms have windows. The survey's measurements and plan show that the building was very carefully laid out. Maxi- mum exterior dimensions are 7.5 m north-south x 8.3 m east-west (fig. 12).48 There is pottery associated with the building (cf. cat. no. 89), but it is not easily datable; Riley dates the ceramics here as "probably at
least first-second century A.C." J.G. Wilkinson, G.W. Murray, L.A. Tregenza, D. Meredith, and others vis- ited this site and noted a Greek inscription recording the presence of a Christian Anchorite community in the fourth century; Murray removed the inscription
to Luxor in 1949.49 Subsequent to our visit a Ma'aza
Bedouin told us that further up the slope of the
mountain there are additional huts.50
DEIR EL-ATRASH
The next station after Qattar is Deir el-Atrash
(26057' N, 33o5' E). The plan of this site, drawn by
Burton, Wilkinson,5' and later visitors,52 was redrawn by the Delaware survey (fig. 13). The maximum di-
47 Tregenza (supra n. 2) 189 refers to these pictographs.
In an interview with Sidebotham at his home in Cornwall in July 1988, Mr. Tregenza said he no longer had the photo- graphs he had taken of these pictographs.
48 G.W. Murray, "The Christian Settlement at Qattar,"
BSRGE 24 (1951) 107-14; Meredith 1952 (supra n. 2) 108,
n. 3 notes Wilkinson's plan of the structure.
9 Wilkinson (supra n. 2) 49-50; Tregenza 1949 (supra n. 14) 146-50; Murray (supra n. 48) 113; Meredith 1952 (supra n. 2) 108 and n. 3 writes that Wilkinson made a drawing of this inscription; cf. Tregenza (supra n. 2) 176-79.
50 Tregenza (supra n. 2) 178-79 also notes these huts.
51 Burton (supra n. 1) Add. Mss. 25,625: 54 of May 1823;
Wilkinson, Papers (supra n. 38) ms. XLV D.10; Scaife 1935 (supra n. 2) plan IV with description 72-77, pl. V; Redde and Golvin (supra n. 2) 27 reproduce Wilkinson's plan.
52 Barron and Hume (supra n. 14) pl. IX reproduced by
Murray (supra n. 2) pl. XII (with brief description, 140); also reproduced by Redde and Golvin (supra n. 2) 28 and
B. Isaac, The Limits of Empire. The Roman Army in the East
(Oxford 1990) 202, fig. 11; sketch plan in Meredith 1952 (supra n. 2) 97; Tregenza (supra n. 2) 205-206 for a brief description of the site; Burton (supra n. 1) Add. Mss. 25,625: 56 verso for a small sketch of the site.
