The Hellenistic at HalaiSettlement on the acropolis in the later Hellenistic period, in comparison to the Classical Period, was clearly very extensive and much of the architecture now extant at the site probably belongs to that time. Goldman had already sugggested that great changes occurred during the course of the fourth century B.C., including the renovation of the fortification wall and its extension toward the southeast (her System II), the initial construction of the North Gate Buildings and a predecessor to the Northeast Gate Building and "the whole network of regularly laid out buildings" she encountered in trial tranches throughout the acropolis. She dated the renewal of the fortifications to "the middle of the fourth century B.C., and not later than the end of the third quarter" on the style of the masonry and the strength of a sherd of Gnathia ware and a fragment of a terracotta figurine. Although our expedition has as yet produced no new evidence as to the date of these changes, they seem truly "Hellenistic" in the sense that they are probably subsequent to and somehow connected with the Macedonian conquest of southern Greece.
As earlier, our investigations of Hellenistic levels in 1992 took place mainly in Areas C and H (Figs. 3, 6; Pl. C, c). Evidence has now emerged for a cross-street which bisected the main axial NW-SE road and which passes near the southeast sides of both Areas. The cross-street was about 2.5 m. wide and was bordered by stone curbs. In Late Roman times the stretch of cross-street in Area H was blocked by a building of which parts of two walls have been excavated, meeting at a right angle. Trench C1 produced an extensive deposit of pottery and other household artifacts almost all of which probably predate the destruction of the Hellenistic town by Sulla in 85 B.C. In trench H8, on the other side of the main NW-SE road, a newly excavated room (Room 16) is filled with Hellenistic material dating to the time of its use and subsequent destruction; the walls of the room were encountered almost immediately beneath the modern surface and no significant traces of occupation in Roman times are evident. It is now clear that the cross street and many of the buildings in Areas C and H were used primarily in the Hellenistic period and that significant reoccupation of the site after its destruction by Sulla was long in coming. No layers of Early and Middle Roman date have yet been distinguished and stray finds from those phases are very scanty. The Late Roman building just mentioned that blocks the cross-street in Area H is the only substantial structure in Areas C and H, apart from tombs, that may so far be securely dated later than the time of Sulla.
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Last modified 2.5.98 |
Left: A balloon shot of the foundations of the gate complex on the Northeast corner of the acropolis.
The round structure on the lower right is likely the base of a tower of Hellenistic date (i.e. part of Goldman's
System II). 
Hellenistic Oil Lamps
