Polish Archaeological Research in Ptolemais (Libya) in 2007-2009 : Preliminary Report

Abstract

From the start in 2001 the excavations of the University of Warsaw’s Institute of Archaeology in Ptolemais (Libya) were determined by the discovery of the official part of the house of Leukaktios (also called the villa with a view) in the first few seasons. The house was drawn round a four-column peristyle with impressive architectural, painted and mosaic decoration (Fig. 1). 1 The chambers around the peristyle were cleared and the intervening baulks removed (Fig. 2). At the same time, work in an area to the north of this part of the building2 revealed a set of chambers on a lower level of occupation, belonging to another habitational structure later incorporated into a large apsidal hall (Fig. 7). Excavations in this part clearly demarcated the limits of the house of Leukaktios, which is situated on a higher level compared with the architecture lying to the north of it. Archaeological explorations began in 2006 on the south side of the house of Leukaktios. They uncovered a small complex featuring a kind of paved atrium with an impluvium (Fig. 4). 3 It occupied a higher occupational level, although there is evidence in the form of blocking (Fig. 5) in the south wall of the triclinium (r 1) and transformations in the late phases of use of this part of the insula, indicating simultaneous use of thetwo levels in different periods. Even so, when the house of Leukaktios was in use, the house with the impluvium, collecting rainwater into a cistern, operated independently with an entrance (r 44) from the western street (Fig. 6). The south walls of rooms r 48, r 52 and r 56 were proved quickly to mark the limits of this house and the levelling as well, but the exploration of successive rooms continued. Moreover, the excavation method changed starting in 2006, replacing thesquare grid technique of exploration with room by room excavation and recording that is commonly practiced in the archaeology of ancient towns (Fig. 3)