More than 620 markings carved into the stones of a monumental gateway in ancient Libya have revealed how builders organised labour, transported materials and potentially even recorded payments more than 2,000 years ago.
Archaeologist Anna Kordas of the University of Warsaw analysed 626 stonemasons’ marks preserved on limestone blocks from the Tauchira Gate at Ptolemais, one of the major cities of ancient Cyrenaica. Her research identified 27 distinct types of markings and suggests that the seemingly simple symbols formed part of a sophisticated system for managing a large Hellenistic construction project.
The findings provide an unusually detailed glimpse into the practical organisation of an ancient building site, from quarrying and transportation to the final placement of individual blocks.
A monumental gateway
Ptolemais stood on the northern coast of what is now Libya and became an important administrative and commercial centre of Cyrenaica under the Ptolemaic dynasty following the conquests of Alexander the Great.
Its monumental architecture reflected the city’s status and wealth, and the Tauchira Gate formed one of the most imposing elements of its fortifications.
The gateway was built, or extensively reconstructed, during the second century BC, possibly during the reign of Ptolemy VIII Physcon, who ruled Cyrenaica between about 145 and 116 BC.
Hundreds of carefully worked limestone blocks from the structure survive. Many carry Greek letters, combinations of letters and more elaborate monograms whose precise purpose had long remained uncertain.
Kordas conducted the first comprehensive analysis of the marks, studying their forms, positions on individual stones and distribution throughout the structure.
Her research, published in the European Journal of Archaeology, indicates that they were far more than the signatures of individual craftsmen.
At least seven building teams
One marking system used Greek letters including alpha, beta, gamma, delta, epsilon, zeta and eta. Their repeated appearance suggests that at least seven separate teams may have been involved in constructing the gateway.
A second system consisted of monograms made from two or more Greek letters. These could have identified particular workshops or possibly wealthy benefactors who financed or supplied labour for parts of the project.
Kordas compared marks on blocks serving similar structural functions and examined whether particular symbols appeared repeatedly in specific areas. She also considered comparable stonemasons’ marks discovered elsewhere in the Mediterranean, including Greece and Egypt.
“These markings should not be treated solely as signatures of specific craftsmen. The material indicates a much more complex system,” Kordas told the Polish Press Agency (PAP).
The markings, she said, could have helped workers sort limestone blocks, monitor different stages of processing, organise transportation from the quarry and ensure that stones were installed in the correct positions.
“Small engravings are elements of a well-functioning logistics system, without which it would be much more difficult to erect a monumental building,” she added.
Marks made at different stages
The position and appearance of the symbols indicate that they were not all created at the same point in the construction process.
Some are large, roughly carved alphabetical marks found on unfinished stone surfaces. Several appear upside down in the completed structure, strongly suggesting that they were engraved before the blocks reached their final positions.
These markings probably identified construction teams during quarrying, initial stoneworking and transportation.
Intriguingly, this category survives only on the city-facing side of the gateway. Kordas argues that this supports previous suggestions that a wooden staircase originally stood against this part of the structure, concealing the rougher surfaces from view.
A second group of markings appears exclusively on the exterior walls of the gate towers. These symbols are much more carefully executed and were positioned centrally and vertically on the finished stones.
Their placement suggests that they were carved after the blocks had been installed and their surfaces completed.
That is particularly significant because stonemasons’ marks on many Greek and Hellenistic buildings were removed during final finishing. At Ptolemais, some were apparently intended to remain visible.
Construction records — and possibly payment records
The markings may also reveal how the enormous project was financed.
Kordas proposes that the sequence of Greek letters from alpha to eta could represent teams whose work was initially paid for from municipal funds. Assigning successive letters to different workshops would have provided a straightforward means of tracking their contributions.
Higher in the structure, above the level of the plinth, a different marking system appears. According to the study, this change could indicate a corresponding shift in financing.
Workshop owners or other wealthy residents may have provided their workers’ labour as a contribution to the city, effectively acting as local benefactors.
Evidence for comparable arrangements survives elsewhere in the Hellenistic world. A second-century BC inscription from ancient Teangela in Caria, in present-day south-western Türkiye, records a similar form of donated labour.
If the interpretation is correct, the Tauchira Gate’s stones preserve evidence not only of how ancient craftsmen worked, but also of the economic relationships behind monumental public construction.
An ancient logistics system
Building the gateway required considerably more than simply cutting stones and stacking them into place.
Each block passed through a sequence of operations. Quarry workers first had to determine where it would be extracted from the bedrock. The stone was then roughly shaped, transported to the building site and finally cut and fitted alongside neighbouring blocks.
Different markings could therefore have been added at different stages — some at the quarry and others during assembly.
“Constructing the monumental gate was a massive logistical undertaking. Each stage required the coordination of many specialists,” Kordas said.
“In such circumstances, even small markings could serve a crucial function. They allowed for quick identification of a block’s purpose, indicated its location in the structure, or informed the workgroup to which it belonged.”
The principle has a striking modern parallel. Large construction projects today routinely use numbers, letters and codes to identify prefabricated components and ensure that thousands of individual elements reach the correct location and are installed in the proper sequence.
At Ptolemais, the 626 surviving marks suggest ancient builders were confronting the same fundamental problem more than two millennia ago — and had developed an organised system to solve it.
Header Image Credit : Miron Bogacki
Source: Science in Poland/PAP; research published in the European Journal of Archaeology.
