Do we have any idea how the may have looked , say at Delium or Syracuse , a bank and ditch or a dry stone wall?
At Delium:
"Meanwhile Hippocrates made a levy in mass of the citizens, resident aliens, and foreigners in Athens, and arrived at his destination after the Boeotians had already come back from Siphae, and encamping his army began to fortify Delium, the sanctuary of Apollo, in the following manner. A trench was dug all round the temple and the sanctuary, and the earth thrown up from the excavation was made to do duty as a wall, in which stakes were also planted, the vines round the sanctuary being cut down and thrown in, together with stones and bricks pulled down from the houses near; every means, in short, being used to run up the rampart. Wooden towers were also erected where they were wanted, and where there was no sanctuary structure standing, as on the side where the gallery once existing had fallen in. The work was begun on the third day after leaving home, and continued during the fourth, and till dinner-time on the fifth..."
(Thucydides 4.90)
The Thebans used their famous flame-thrower against "the part of the wall principally composed of vines and timber" (Thucydides 4.100)
At Syracuse:
"The next day the Athenians began building the wall to the north of the Circle, at the same time collecting stone and timber, which they kept laying down towards Trogilus along the shortest line for their works from the great harbour to the sea" (Thuc. 6.99). The Syracusan counter-wall also included both stone and wooden stakes, and a ditch.
thanks for that