Redazione Archaeogate, 29-04-2008
During the first archaeological campaign (February-March), IMTO focused on archaeology and restoration. Further work has been carried out in order to organise the site for the official opening to visitors.
Area A (the residential quarter), area B (the storage area) and the city gate have been investigated. Furthermore, a number of days were spent in Inqitat Mirbat where the gate complex has been partially excavated.
In the residential quarter the latest layer of accumulation was excavated and the foundation of the buildings constructed during the last occupational phase reached. Work commenced on cleaning part of the AFSM excavation of the 1950s.
In area B the bedrock level was reached in the so-called street A74. At least four occupational phases have been recognized in the area.
The need to restore wall M3 belonging to tower A6 led us to start with investigating the city gate complex for which four constructional phases clearly emerged, hence the architectural lay-out of the city entrance over the ages has been redrafted.
It was deemed appropriate to preserve the original and more ancient arrangement of the complex, cleansing the ramp which in the oldest phase led to the entrance of the city and demolishing the later part of M3 that linked the tower to the eastern bastion.
At the same time as the site enhancement works, the structure protecting the well was dismantled and replaced with a lower-impact grid placed below the surface. During this operation we cleaned the interior of the Monumental Building 1, discovering different phases of occupation attested by different floors.
Some days were spent on the eastern promontory of the bay of Khor Rori, Hamr al-Sharqiya (Inqitat Mirbat) where the small gate complex of a square tower on the western side facing an F-shaped wall) defining two doors separated by a sort of little atrium, has been partially dug out.
More pictures and further informations on the website arabiantica.humnet.unipi.it
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