Year: 1972
Type: article
Abstract: The second campaign of the new excavations at Stobi in Macedonia by the University of Texas at Austin and the National Museum of Titov Veles contributed significantly to the study of the history of the ancient city.'Moreover, excavation of the Baptistery of the Episcopal Basilica (infra, Sections 8-9) indicates a somewhat unexpected grandeur at Stobi in the early Christian period; it also raises questions about liturgy in the churches of Macedonia.The project is sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution and, again, most of the funds were provided through its Foreign Currency Program.2Excavation in I97I1 began 24 May and ended in most areas on 31 July.Work in the east parodos of the Theater, however, continued until 6 August and the Baptistery was not completely cleared until 13 August.2. THE SITE Mapping of the ancient city and its environs has progressed enough to publish a portion of it (ill.I).The plan presented here includes most of the buildings discovered in previous excavations as well as those in the new areas, but in both cases only in the west and central parts of the city.4The basis of the survey is a 2 m. grid generated from a datum point in the Central Fountain (ill.1:17; a brass pin set in concrete is indicated by a crossed circle).The grid was developed by A. G. Grulich in 197o and he established a True North line, as well as a perpendicular at the datum point.The grid areas are 2 m. squares enclosed by lines parallel to those forming the original cross.Each grid area is designated by an abbreviation, N, E, w, s, indicating the direction from the datum point, which is accompanied by the number of the grid area counting sequentially from the datum point.The grid areas surrounding the datum point, then, are NI/Wi, Ni/Ei, SI/EI, SI/WI.To cite one more example, the entrance to the lower Via Axia (ill.i:I9) E of the Central Fountain lies in grid area NI/E2.The designations thus give an immediate and precise area location both in distance and direction from the Central Fountain. 1 A preliminary report on the 1970 season appeared in AJA 75 (971I) 395-41I, cited hereafter as W-MZ 1970. 2 We are grateful to the Smithsonian Institution for its continued support of the project and to the Ford Foundation for once again providing funds for the American student members of the staff.Numerous items of equipment were made available for the excavations by the University of Texas at Austin, the National Museums at Titov Veles and Prilep, and the Archaeological Museum at Skopje; our sincere thanks go to all these institutions and their administrative officials.The directors of the museums are Mr. Todor Gruev, Dr. Bo'ko Babi6 and Dr. Blaga Aleksova, respectively.
Source: American Journal of Archaeology
DOI: 10.2307/502874
Authors: James Wiseman, Djordje Mano-Zissi
Language: English
Subfield: Archeology
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
Funder: Smithsonian Institution
OpenAlex ID: W2918012176