DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.32867#0328
296
DJEBEL IL-HASS AND DJEBEL SHBET
tury; but the method of construction is totally different, and this produced not only a
separate school, but a different style of architecture from that which was flourishing
only fifty miles to the westward at the same time.
Construction. There is probably no stone that has ever been used for building
purposes which is more difficult to quarry, to cut and dress than black basalt; yet here
it was the only material at hand, and the only one employed. Architects scarcely
attempted to build walls of dry quadrated stonework; we found less than half a
dozen buildings constructed in that manner in the whole region. The stone breaks
naturally into wedge shapes, like the silex of which the Romans often made their
opus reticulatmn, and these builders invented a kind of stonework which was not
unlike the old Roman method in principle, though there is no superficial resemblance.
Stones of wedge shape were used, much larger than those employed in reticulated
work, the rectangular surface averaging .25 m. square, though it was often larger
and oblong in shape; these were laid in horizontal courses. The walls were double-
faced, the wedges being set in mortar and the interstices being filled with broken
stone. Dressed stone was employed for bonding at the angles, for doorways and
windows, and sometimes in foundation courses. Almost all of the openings were
archecl. The arches were not usually built of dressed voussoirs, but of rough wedges
set in mortar, with only the outer faces cut to smooth trapezoids. The arches, like the
walls, were double-faced. Many of the doorways had lintels of cut stone below a
relieving-arch ; some of these lintels were of large size, that of the north gate of the
city of Khanasir measuring 4.10 m. in length and .93 m by .70 m. square on the end,
showing the possibilities of this obdurate
material when there were funds and labor
to be expended upon it. Colonnades
were, of course, built of cut stone, and the
shafts and capitals of the large columns
of churches ancl of the smaller columns
of private houses are found in abundance,
although piers built up like sections of
wall were substituted for columns in
many of the larger buildings. Owing to
the difficulty of obtaining long blocks of
this stone for lintels, the builders frequently resorted to the expedient of joining two
pieces together by means of a dovetailed joint. Numerous specimens of this kind were
found. In the walls of the less important buildings — the majority of buildings, in fact
— clay was substituted for mortar, Construction of this kind was bound to disinte-
grate rapidly, and, for this reason, thc sites of the great cities of Khanasir and Zebed,
which covered many acres in extent, are to-day marked by mounds formed by fallen
One half of two-piece lintel showing dovetail joint at Khanasir-
DJEBEL IL-HASS AND DJEBEL SHBET
tury; but the method of construction is totally different, and this produced not only a
separate school, but a different style of architecture from that which was flourishing
only fifty miles to the westward at the same time.
Construction. There is probably no stone that has ever been used for building
purposes which is more difficult to quarry, to cut and dress than black basalt; yet here
it was the only material at hand, and the only one employed. Architects scarcely
attempted to build walls of dry quadrated stonework; we found less than half a
dozen buildings constructed in that manner in the whole region. The stone breaks
naturally into wedge shapes, like the silex of which the Romans often made their
opus reticulatmn, and these builders invented a kind of stonework which was not
unlike the old Roman method in principle, though there is no superficial resemblance.
Stones of wedge shape were used, much larger than those employed in reticulated
work, the rectangular surface averaging .25 m. square, though it was often larger
and oblong in shape; these were laid in horizontal courses. The walls were double-
faced, the wedges being set in mortar and the interstices being filled with broken
stone. Dressed stone was employed for bonding at the angles, for doorways and
windows, and sometimes in foundation courses. Almost all of the openings were
archecl. The arches were not usually built of dressed voussoirs, but of rough wedges
set in mortar, with only the outer faces cut to smooth trapezoids. The arches, like the
walls, were double-faced. Many of the doorways had lintels of cut stone below a
relieving-arch ; some of these lintels were of large size, that of the north gate of the
city of Khanasir measuring 4.10 m. in length and .93 m by .70 m. square on the end,
showing the possibilities of this obdurate
material when there were funds and labor
to be expended upon it. Colonnades
were, of course, built of cut stone, and the
shafts and capitals of the large columns
of churches ancl of the smaller columns
of private houses are found in abundance,
although piers built up like sections of
wall were substituted for columns in
many of the larger buildings. Owing to
the difficulty of obtaining long blocks of
this stone for lintels, the builders frequently resorted to the expedient of joining two
pieces together by means of a dovetailed joint. Numerous specimens of this kind were
found. In the walls of the less important buildings — the majority of buildings, in fact
— clay was substituted for mortar, Construction of this kind was bound to disinte-
grate rapidly, and, for this reason, thc sites of the great cities of Khanasir and Zebed,
which covered many acres in extent, are to-day marked by mounds formed by fallen
One half of two-piece lintel showing dovetail joint at Khanasir-