Life on a Hellenistic Construction Site: Stonemasons’ Marks on the Tauchira Gate at Ptolemais in Cyrenaica

The Tauchira Gate, the best-preserved part of the fortifications of Ptolemais in Cyrenaica (present-day Libya), has been studied by many researchers but the stonemasons’ marks have been largely overlooked. The documentation and analysis of 626 marks reveal valuable information about the chaîne opératoire employed in the gate’s construction. The author suggests that the marks reflect the way the stonecutters organized their work, which began with the extraction of the stone and continued at the construction site. The presence of marks in the letter-label system and monograms suggests that two different schemes of organizing and financing the work were used side by side, probably involving public tenders and private donations or contributions. The analysis established that the building had been completed relatively quickly, and the palaeographic features of the marks suggest that the Tauchira Gate is likely to have been erected during the reign of Ptolemy VIII.