Bamboula, Area A Circuit Wall (extracted from McFadden's notebooks)

AREA A CIRCUIT WALL

-3-

The foundations of two massive towers are shown in fig. 11b. The NE tower is founded on bed-rock, and comprises masonry of the L.C. period on its NE and NW faces. This tower, in both the L.C. and Archaic periods, was bonded with the part of the wall which runs north from it. Here as elsewhere, the Archaic rebuilding consisted of a terrace wall retaining a mass of loose stones. On the eastern face of the tower, the Archaic rebuilding lies as much as 0.50 back of the face of the earlier wall, indicating that this wall was no longer visible in the Archaic period.

A second large foundation to the SW of this, does not go to bed-rock but lies on a stratum of earth which contains Archaic sherds. In spite of somewhat shoddy construction, this too appears to be the base of a tower. Its great size probably compensated for its flimsy foundation and assured it a degree of stability. Only the NW and part of the NE face of this tower have been excavated. The NE face continues the line of the Archaic wall SE of the towers. These two towers may conceivably have flanked a gateway in the circuit wall. If so it was remarkably wide, as our fairly extensive excavations have failed to reveal either the opening in the wall of the towers on its northern side. By and large, this explanation seems improbable. A doorway running through the NE tower where this joins the SW tower would seen more probable, but the monumental evidence does not warrant this supposition.

(Before final publication it will be necessary to dig through the NE tower in order to trace the course of the L.C. wall where this is not visible under the later fortress.)

The best available evidence for the history of the fortress comes from the section of the wall shown in fig. 11.c, where, in the section marked a, we removed the Archaid and later masonry, wnd excavated to bed-rock inside the line of the wall.