Butler, Howard Crosby: Publications of an American Archaeological Expedition to Syria in 1899 - 1900 (Band 2): Architecture and other arts (New York, 1903)

THE MOST ANCIENT MONUMENTS

43

Front wall of house in polygonal style, at Bankusa.

or southern wall of a house of medium size. The stones of which the wall is made
present a rough surface, but they are fitted together with the utmost care. They
are not of unusual di-
mensions, the walls !
being of two stones in
thickness and double-
faced. The wall in
question preserves
three openings, a door-
way and two windows,
with inclined, mono-
lithic jambs and broad,
heavy lintels. These
are the only stones in
the buildingwhich bear
the marks of the chisel
on the surface. These
marks indicate that a pointed tool was employed. They are smoothly dressed to
quadrate form and cut to sharp right angles at the inside edges ; the outer edges are
comparatively rough. I he windows, as may be seen in the photograph, are not of

equal dimensions and
are not upon the same
level; the smaller of
the two, not having
monolithic jambs and
having no stop for a
shutter, appears to
have been broken
through at a period
later than the original
building of the house.

Inside the house, at
the right of the door
as you enter, is a large
circular basin, two me-
ters in diameter, cut from a single stone, and to the left, in the house wall, a huge
monolith with ,a rectangular niche cut deep and smoothly in it. This niche is provided
with a groove on either side, as if a shelf had at one time been made to slide into them.

In front of the house is a large cistern cut rather crudely in the living rock, and at
a short distance to the rear is a spacious rock-hewn chamber, not a tomb, excavated

Interior of the same house, at Bankusa.