Agora Deposit: A 14:1
Title:   Early Roman Well
Category:   Well
Description:   Extract from notebook ΠΘ XIX, pp. 3644-3646. Well at 105/ΝΗ (report on sorting of pottery, July 19, 1951 - H.S. Robinson).
"Not a useful well" HSR.
Well dug to 1.50m., vi/9/36; dug from 1.50m. to bottom (22.80m.), iv/9/37 - iv/23/37. Cut in bed-rock (no tiles reported); diameter at mouth: 1.04m.; depth 22.80m.
The fill from bottom (22.80m.) to 22.25m. (container 9?) produced 2 type XXII lamps (L 2992-3) which R. Howland dated late 3rd to early 2nd cent. B.C. The latest coin was of Delos, after 166 B.C. (iv/23/37 #14). No sherds from this level were stored (p. 2735) but some were probably put in with basket 9, the final container from the well fill; cont. 9 could not be located when the pottery was sorted in 1951. (Container 8 - ca. 22.25m. - is predominantly hellenistic.)
From 22.25m. to 21.30m. (containers 7-5) all pottery seems to be of the 1st cent. After Christ: practically no fine ware except P 21656 (ΠΘ 3373) and frags. of a grey-ware platter; type XVIII and XX lamps (L 2988-89); numerous amphorae, including frags. of two with high pointed handles (cf. P 11878) and of another with heavy rim such as those that occasionally have Latin stamps; BHWJ's. The coins are all Athenian New Style 229-30 B.C., or earlier. Numerous frags. of iron, some of which had been used in conjunction with wood (iron-bound bucket?) occurred in cont. 7-5, extending over into cont. 4 (now in Box no. 361-B).
The above fills, apparently of the 2nd cent. B.C. and the 1st cent. A.D. respectively, represent "period of use' of the well. For perhaps two centuries thereafter the well must have been out of regular use; cont. 4 (ca. 21.30m.) probably dates from this period and contains predominantly pre-herulian wares: wheel-ridged mugs and pitchers, type XXVII lamp frag. Frags. of one jug with gouged branches (?) on the exterior. Containers 3-1 (ca. 21.00-20.20m.) represent a new period of use and appear to contain 4th cent. pottery: the late amphora P 10030 and another similar stored in tin no. 364; micaceous water jars shaped as P 14899 (one almost complete stored in tin no. 363); jugs as P 12824; gouged ware; XXVIII lamps (L 2985-7); jug in shape of boy's head (P 10004); very little fine ware; no coins.
From 20.20m. to 1.50m. the fill contained very few sherds (some hellenistic) with frags. of tile, brick, plaster and mosaic flooring. One coin (iv/9/37 #1) of Constantine II (323-361 A.D.) suggests a late 4th cent. date for this destruction fill. The top 1.50m. of fill contained mixed sherds with some Byzantine.
Contents:   Coins:
9 June 1936 #2-#4
9 April 1937 #1-#2
10 April 1937 #1-#2
12 April 1937 #1
22 April 1937 #1-#5
23 April 1937 #1-#16
Coins from the dump:
18 May 1937 #1-#15
4 June 1937 #1, #3-#4
10 June 1937 #3-#5
Notes:   Subdivisions: (PAF/data mgmt)
.1= Fill I = 22.80 (bottom)-22.25m.
.2= Fill II = 22.25-21.30m.
.3= Fills III, IV, V = 21.30-1.50m.
.4= Fill VI = 1.50m to top, including Dump
Bibliography:   Agora V, p. 124.
    Agora X, p. 136.
    Agora XXIX, p. 433.
    Agora XXXIV, p. 178.
Chronology:   Early Roman; use fillings of 2nd. c. B.C. and 1st. and 4th. c. A.D.; dumped filling of late 4th. c. (HSR)
Fill I: 2nd. c. B.C.
Fill II-V: to second half of 4th. c. A.D.
Fill VI: mixed to Byzantine.
Date:   9 June 1936
9-23 April 1937
Section:   ΠΘ
Grid:   ΠΘ:105/ΝΗ
Elevation:   -22.8m.
Masl:   -22.8m.
References:   Publications (4)
Publication Pages (9)
Image: 2008.03.0325
Objects (17)
Coin: N 51688
Deposits (4)