DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.810#0388
SOUTHERN ENTRANCE SYSTEM OF PALACE 759
From the comparatively small dimensions of the South Porch (see Plan,
Fig. 490, a), it may be inferred that at no time in the Palace history had it
played a leading role. This conclusion is, indeed, explained by the discovery
that the main communication between the Great South Road and the
Palace had been effected through the Stepped Portico above described,1 by
means of which travellers approaching from that side had been able to make
their way under cover to what had evidently been an important entrance at
the South-West Angle of the Palace. From the old South-West Porch
a direct line of approach to the Central Court had formerly run along the
West Section of the South Corridor to a point—in connexion also with the Later
South Porch—where a irap between the blocks of ashlar masonry points to cross-
P r J l road from
the existence of an original ramp, running up due North to the Court (see bridge-
Diagrammatic Plan, P. of AT., i, Fig. 152, opp. p. 203). s. Porch.
After the great Earthquake, when the Western Section of the South
Corridor was definitely abandoned, and the Stepped Portico from the bridge-
head lay in ruins, conditions radically changed. To a certain extent, no
doubt, the West Porch and adjoining entrance Corridor in their restored
shape 2 may have taken over the line of communication with the Great
South Road. But the Southern entrance itself in its later shape not
only continued its functions, but seems to have added to them by means
of a cross-line of communication with the bridge-head. The entrance to
the Porch was on its Western side, and here the causeway by which it
had been originally approached, which could not have been of any great
dimensions, was found to have been superseded, at a higher level, by
a paved way of massive ' kalderim ' construction. This, where best pre-
served, was about four metres broad, and pointed almost due West. As,
however, the contemporary South House would have blocked its further
course in that direction, it follows that it must have reached the bridge-head
to '.he South-West by a somewhat zigzagging course down the incline. Its
pavement was compacted of re used base-slabs, taken no doubt from the
ruins of the original South front of the Palace, and their clay setting was laid
above debris due to the effects of the great earthquake shock. Underneath
this artificial clay layer were found, in fact, remains of vessels such as
' Medallion ' pithoi and jars of types similar to those of the Temple Reposi-
tories, together with cups of the same epoch, and quantities of fragmentary
1 See above, § 38. Porch by a cross-wall, probably a prolongation
2 The ruined Western Section of the South of the Western wall of the Porch. This, how-
Corridor must now have been shut off from ever, had disappeared.
the new entrance passage from the South
From the comparatively small dimensions of the South Porch (see Plan,
Fig. 490, a), it may be inferred that at no time in the Palace history had it
played a leading role. This conclusion is, indeed, explained by the discovery
that the main communication between the Great South Road and the
Palace had been effected through the Stepped Portico above described,1 by
means of which travellers approaching from that side had been able to make
their way under cover to what had evidently been an important entrance at
the South-West Angle of the Palace. From the old South-West Porch
a direct line of approach to the Central Court had formerly run along the
West Section of the South Corridor to a point—in connexion also with the Later
South Porch—where a irap between the blocks of ashlar masonry points to cross-
P r J l road from
the existence of an original ramp, running up due North to the Court (see bridge-
Diagrammatic Plan, P. of AT., i, Fig. 152, opp. p. 203). s. Porch.
After the great Earthquake, when the Western Section of the South
Corridor was definitely abandoned, and the Stepped Portico from the bridge-
head lay in ruins, conditions radically changed. To a certain extent, no
doubt, the West Porch and adjoining entrance Corridor in their restored
shape 2 may have taken over the line of communication with the Great
South Road. But the Southern entrance itself in its later shape not
only continued its functions, but seems to have added to them by means
of a cross-line of communication with the bridge-head. The entrance to
the Porch was on its Western side, and here the causeway by which it
had been originally approached, which could not have been of any great
dimensions, was found to have been superseded, at a higher level, by
a paved way of massive ' kalderim ' construction. This, where best pre-
served, was about four metres broad, and pointed almost due West. As,
however, the contemporary South House would have blocked its further
course in that direction, it follows that it must have reached the bridge-head
to '.he South-West by a somewhat zigzagging course down the incline. Its
pavement was compacted of re used base-slabs, taken no doubt from the
ruins of the original South front of the Palace, and their clay setting was laid
above debris due to the effects of the great earthquake shock. Underneath
this artificial clay layer were found, in fact, remains of vessels such as
' Medallion ' pithoi and jars of types similar to those of the Temple Reposi-
tories, together with cups of the same epoch, and quantities of fragmentary
1 See above, § 38. Porch by a cross-wall, probably a prolongation
2 The ruined Western Section of the South of the Western wall of the Porch. This, how-
Corridor must now have been shut off from ever, had disappeared.
the new entrance passage from the South