Archaeology Magazine - March 1962 - 59

June, and plans are under way to erect
a museum, combined with excavation
headquarters, in order to preserve the
abundant finds. New York University
intends that, as in 1961, students
may acquire valuable field experience
through work at Aphrodisias. It is
even hoped that these excavationsmay
eventually become a stepping-stonetoward a much needed American Institute of Anatolian Studies in Turkey.
Kenan T. Erim
Summer Digs in Britain
Students desiring to take summer
courses in archaeology or to participate in excavations may be interested
in the wide variety of opportunities
which are offered in Great Britain.
The Council for British Archaeology
issues a "Calendar of Excavations"
which appears monthly from March to
September.In this publicationare given
full details (including cost of board
and lodging) concerning training
courses and excavations all over the
country. Opportunities are offered for
novicesas well as for experienceddiggers, and expenses are in general very
low. In some cases small subsidies are
available.
A subscriptionto the Calendar costs
$1.00. Address: Council for British
Archaeology,10 Bolton Gardens, London S.W. 5, England.
Salvage in California
At Colusa, California, sixty miles
north of Sacramento, an early Indian
burial ground was recently discovered
during excavation for an oil well being conducted by Humble Oil and
Refining Company.
Diggers noticed small clamshell
beads, a stone pipe and other artifacts
embedded in the soil, and soon unearthed four skeletons- three adults
and a child. Work stopped while the
company notified authorities and the
Central California ArcheologicalFoundation, of Sacramento. By using an
aerial photograph, the outlines of
dwellingsites and of the burial ground
could be defined. The well was then
relocated so as not to disturb the area,
which was fenced off as a safeguard.
The Indian -tribe which lived in the
area was the Wintun, which belonged
to one of the four basic Indian cultures of the West Coast. John S. Clemmer, Secretary of the Central Califor-

Skeletonfound in an early Indian cemetery near Colusa,California,by Humble
Oil and RefiningCompanywhile preparing to drill a well.
nia Archeological Foundation, points
out that the significanceof the burials
"lies primarily, in the burial techniques . . . , the funeral offerings. . .
and especiallythe opportunity to study
a collectionof artifacts in situ from an
area in which comparatively little archaeological work has been accomplished/'
The company deserves great credit
for its prompt and efficient action to
preserve these antiquities.

trieved, and in another section was
found black-burnished Phrygian pottery like that known from Gordion.
In the area of the gymnasium systematic excavation and recording of
the Marble Court proceeded hand in
hand. New fragments of the Sevean
dedicatory inscription were found, as
well as of the inscription dealing with
the Byzantine restoration of a goldroofed building in the fifth or sixth
century of our era. Just southwest of
the main gymnasiumbuilding an investigation was undertaken to determine
the position of the main east-west avenue of Sardis. Under a Byzantine
road there came to light a magnificent
Late Roman marble-pavedroad flanked
by two colonnades. The Byzantine
shops in front of the gymnasium
openedupon the north colonnade.Coins
and bronze objects indicated that the
avenue was laid out in this form
around A.D.400 and was wrecked in
the early seventh century by the invading Persians. A splendid portrait of a
bearded man, perhaps a sage or a
saint, had been tamped into the bedding of the Byzantineroad.
The excavationarea on the east bank
of the Pactolus ("Pactolus North")
was substantially enlarged. The ornamental polychrome mosaics uncovered
in I960 were found to belong to a bath
of the fifth century A.D.Other rooms
with mosaics, to the south, probably
belong to this complex. Excavation in
depth revealedmore of the Achaemenid
apsidal structures, one of them provided with a carefully constructedwell.

Sardis Excavations, 1961
Following the third excavation season at ancient Sardis, in Turkey, in the
summer of I960 (reported in Vol. 14
[1961] 3-11), the fourth campaign
took place from mid-June to early September of 1961. The Fogg Museum of
Harvard University and Cornell University again collaborated in the enterprise sponsored by the American
Schools of Oriental Research, and the
digging was under the writer's direction, with A. H. Detweiler as Associate
Director.
Major efforts centered on the acropolis, the area of the Roman gymnasium,
the "Pactolus North" sector and the
"Lydian Trench" in the vicinity of the
House of Bronzes. On the acropolis a
terraced building was partly uncovered. Some units are built over Byzantine graves, from one of which came
a remarkable bronze medallion showing Christ dragging Adam out of Hell
(Anastasis). The corner of a floor and
two walls of either the Lydian or the
Persian era came to light in the southwest corner of the excavation. Here Fragments of Archaic East Greek vase
Geometric Lydian pottery was re- from Sardis.Two sphinxesare preserved.
59

Archaeology Magazine - March 1962

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