DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.32867#0358
326 PAGAN ARCHITECTURE IN THE DJEBEL HAURAN
As has been remarked above, this monument is purely Greek in form and style; not
Greek of the best epoch, but altogether in keeping with the later style of Greek
architecture in the East and in Asia Minor. 1 Its plan was a square of over nine
meters. The superstructure, raised upon a basement of two steps, was a solid mass,
the walls of which were accurately laid in highly finished ashler with occasional
oblique joints, and decorated with a Doric order of six engaged columns on each side.
The columns of this order, though their shafts are not channeled, are essentially Greek.
They have no bases; the shaft sets directly upon the stylobate. The echinus of the
capital, though very flat, is of better design than some of those in Greece which
belong to the time of Philip of Macedon ; its curve is sufficiently delicate, and it is
provided with a narrow fillet below. The abacus is also rather flat, but its projection
is stronger than we should find in Roman monuments of the same order. The col-
umns of the flanks are half-columns; those at the angles show three quarters of the
perimeter of the shaft. For the entablature I must refer to Plate i of “ La Syrie Cen-
trale,” where M. cle Vogiie depicts a well-proportioned architrave, a frieze which
Vitruvius would call ditriglyphal, and a projecting cornice without mutules, but having
a corona and cymatium of good profile. It will be noticed that below the frieze,
although the regulae are present, the guttae are omitted. This omission, and the
absence of mutules from the cornice and of channelings from the shaft, are the only
strongly marked provincial characteristics of the monument, though this may have
been the result of the use of basalt. The slight inward slant of the columns shows
the architect’s familiarity with good classic models.
M. de Voglie suggests that the roof of the tomb was a stepped pyramid ; portions
of two steps, in fact, were in situ when he visited the monument, and with this evi-
dence, and considering the use of the word nephesh (“ pyramidal tomb”) in the Naba-
tman inscription, that would seem the
most natural crowning feature of this
building. We have here, then, a monu-
ment set up by a Nabataean in the first
half of the first century b.c., designed
according to Greek fashion and mani-
festing no other Oriental features than
its inscription and probably the pyramid.
Kanawat. fragment. Interesting
in connection with the above monu-
ment is a fragment found and photo-
graphed by Dr. Prentice near the west
temple. It is a section of a triglyphal
1 See Reinach, Voyage Archeologique en Grece et en Asie Mineure, Le Bas, Pl. archit. II, 7.
Fragment found at Kanawat.
As has been remarked above, this monument is purely Greek in form and style; not
Greek of the best epoch, but altogether in keeping with the later style of Greek
architecture in the East and in Asia Minor. 1 Its plan was a square of over nine
meters. The superstructure, raised upon a basement of two steps, was a solid mass,
the walls of which were accurately laid in highly finished ashler with occasional
oblique joints, and decorated with a Doric order of six engaged columns on each side.
The columns of this order, though their shafts are not channeled, are essentially Greek.
They have no bases; the shaft sets directly upon the stylobate. The echinus of the
capital, though very flat, is of better design than some of those in Greece which
belong to the time of Philip of Macedon ; its curve is sufficiently delicate, and it is
provided with a narrow fillet below. The abacus is also rather flat, but its projection
is stronger than we should find in Roman monuments of the same order. The col-
umns of the flanks are half-columns; those at the angles show three quarters of the
perimeter of the shaft. For the entablature I must refer to Plate i of “ La Syrie Cen-
trale,” where M. cle Vogiie depicts a well-proportioned architrave, a frieze which
Vitruvius would call ditriglyphal, and a projecting cornice without mutules, but having
a corona and cymatium of good profile. It will be noticed that below the frieze,
although the regulae are present, the guttae are omitted. This omission, and the
absence of mutules from the cornice and of channelings from the shaft, are the only
strongly marked provincial characteristics of the monument, though this may have
been the result of the use of basalt. The slight inward slant of the columns shows
the architect’s familiarity with good classic models.
M. de Voglie suggests that the roof of the tomb was a stepped pyramid ; portions
of two steps, in fact, were in situ when he visited the monument, and with this evi-
dence, and considering the use of the word nephesh (“ pyramidal tomb”) in the Naba-
tman inscription, that would seem the
most natural crowning feature of this
building. We have here, then, a monu-
ment set up by a Nabataean in the first
half of the first century b.c., designed
according to Greek fashion and mani-
festing no other Oriental features than
its inscription and probably the pyramid.
Kanawat. fragment. Interesting
in connection with the above monu-
ment is a fragment found and photo-
graphed by Dr. Prentice near the west
temple. It is a section of a triglyphal
1 See Reinach, Voyage Archeologique en Grece et en Asie Mineure, Le Bas, Pl. archit. II, 7.
Fragment found at Kanawat.