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‘Atiqot 92 (2018)
ISBN 2948-040X
A Chronological Revision of the Date of the Pottery Finds from the Eastern Circus at Caesarea Maritima
(pp. 105–136)
Peter Gendelman
Keywords: Classical period, ceramics, typology, chronology
The pottery recovered from the IAA excavations in the Eastern Circus originated from stratigraphic contexts related to four major stages: Stratum IV—pre-circus remains; Stratum III—the construction phase of the circus subdivided into three phases (a–c); Stratum II—post-circus activities; and Stratum I—modern topsoil. The pottery associated with the pre-circus remains was dated to between the end of the first century BCE and the second half of the first century CE, and included imported and locally produced vessels. The pottery from the foundation trench of the
spina
and from sandy fills below the earliest
arena
(Phase IIIc) dates the erection of the Eastern Circus to the second century CE, possibly under Emperor Hadrian (117–138 CE). The Phase IIIb pottery dates the renovation phase of the edifice to the late fourth century CE as the initiation date for this phase. The Phase IIIa pottery dates the final stage of the circus to the fifth–sixth centuries CE. The pottery from Stratum II provides an eighth–ninth-century CE date for the agricultural reuse of the area of the Eastern Circus
arena
. Modern activities at the site (Stratum I) included vessels of the Byzantine, Early Islamic and Crusader periods, and a tile fragment from the late nineteenth–early twentieth centuries.