Wall Charring Earthquake (?) Open site page in a new tab

Clark (1987) reports architectural and depositional evidence that may reflect earthquake damage at the site, noting that stones in the adjacent barrack walls (H.2:001 and 002) were charred at a destruction level that he interprets as either a localized fire or a more extensive conflagration, “perhaps the result of the 363 earthquake,” also pointing to associated ash layers in H.1:012, 014, and 015. The ceramics sealed within this ash were predominantly Late Roman IV to Early Byzantine, although a single sherd may belong to the Umayyad period, raising questions about the precise dating of the event.

In the vicus building (H.5), coins were recovered from the soil immediately overlying floor H.5:009, with the latest specimen dating to 337–340 CE (Coin 52-H.5:014), and Clark observed that there were no indications that occupation of this room “extended beyond the mid-fourth century.” Although no unequivocal archaeoseismic features were documented within the vicus itself, Clark (1987:488) nonetheless suggested that the abandonment of this space may be related to the southern Cyril Quake of 363 CE.

By Jefferson Williams