Sabratha 2009-2010, Area a Nord del Tempio di Ercole e Casa della Piscina

Abstract

This paper gives account of two sondages which were conducted to add some concrete evidences to the hypotesis of the existence of a new Forum in the unexcavated area beyond the Decumanus of Sabratha, North to the Temple of Hercules. The chronological hiatus between the Ist and the VIth Century A.D. could confirm the hypothesis of a change in the use of the area from a block of private houses to an open public space in direct connection with the construction of the Temple of Hercules. A conspicuos alteration of the stratigraphic sequence was caused by the three burials. A cippus with a cross would have marked a christian zone of the cemetery. The chronology of the tombs (VI-VII Century A.D.) is the same of the three tombs exavated along the Temple of Hercules’ west precint wall. The new tombs confirm the hypothesis about the use of the Temple after his collapse: a christian building with a cemetery arranged among the ruins. The review of all the data coming from the sondages into some of the subterranean rooms of the “Casa della piscina” provide some relevant evidences to refine the house’s chronology, rejecting the erroneous definition of this building as a suburban villa of the I st Century A.D.