DOI Artikel:
Gawlikowski, Michał: Palmyra
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.42008#0042
cut limestone blocks have been used to fill gaps in the walls, and the North
pilasterofthearch, entirely missing, has been rebuilt.
Meanwhile, the work was started in the new sector.lt includes three long
blocks, each 25m wide and stretching for some 135m from the Great Colonnade to
NE. The middle block opens by eight columns of the Great Colonnade, one of which
bears the oldest dated and most recent inscriptions of the whole street, from
158 and 326 A.D. respectively.n The texts concern probably the building and
certainly the restoration of the portico of eight columns.
The importance of the monument behind them was easy to guess, even without
considering its walls, still standing 5m high above the bases in the Colonnade,
inside a small tell at the far end of the intermediary courtyard about 26m
deep. The surface remains indicated a rectangular enclosure measuring about 27m
through30m, and an inner building about 15m wide and 23m deep, provided with
apse looking East. It was quite clear from the start that the monument was used
in the By-antine period as a church, but it was also obvious that it had been
erected in the Antonine period, apparently as a civil basilica used for some
political or commercial activities. In 1988 we have sounded the facade of the
building, as well as the outline of the apse, found to be polygonal in plan and
provided with three openings. Weweremostlyengaged, however, in digging up a
house at the far end of the block East of the basilica.
This house is 25.5m wide East to West and 27m North to South. Standing at
a distance of 108m from the Great Colonnade, it is surrounded on three sides by
public lanes, while its southern wall touched a column belonging to the
neighboring courtyard of another house. The mansion covers nearly 700 square
meters, of which 400 had been excavated during 1988 season.
The excavated part of the house includes two wings, northern and western,
eachhavinginfrontaporticoofthreecolumns, 4m. deep.(Fig. 1) The entrance
wasapparentlyorientatedEast, and rooms on this side, as in the Southern wing,
I'J.Cantineau, InventairedesinscriptionsdePalmyrevol.nl,
26-27.
38
pilasterofthearch, entirely missing, has been rebuilt.
Meanwhile, the work was started in the new sector.lt includes three long
blocks, each 25m wide and stretching for some 135m from the Great Colonnade to
NE. The middle block opens by eight columns of the Great Colonnade, one of which
bears the oldest dated and most recent inscriptions of the whole street, from
158 and 326 A.D. respectively.n The texts concern probably the building and
certainly the restoration of the portico of eight columns.
The importance of the monument behind them was easy to guess, even without
considering its walls, still standing 5m high above the bases in the Colonnade,
inside a small tell at the far end of the intermediary courtyard about 26m
deep. The surface remains indicated a rectangular enclosure measuring about 27m
through30m, and an inner building about 15m wide and 23m deep, provided with
apse looking East. It was quite clear from the start that the monument was used
in the By-antine period as a church, but it was also obvious that it had been
erected in the Antonine period, apparently as a civil basilica used for some
political or commercial activities. In 1988 we have sounded the facade of the
building, as well as the outline of the apse, found to be polygonal in plan and
provided with three openings. Weweremostlyengaged, however, in digging up a
house at the far end of the block East of the basilica.
This house is 25.5m wide East to West and 27m North to South. Standing at
a distance of 108m from the Great Colonnade, it is surrounded on three sides by
public lanes, while its southern wall touched a column belonging to the
neighboring courtyard of another house. The mansion covers nearly 700 square
meters, of which 400 had been excavated during 1988 season.
The excavated part of the house includes two wings, northern and western,
eachhavinginfrontaporticoofthreecolumns, 4m. deep.(Fig. 1) The entrance
wasapparentlyorientatedEast, and rooms on this side, as in the Southern wing,
I'J.Cantineau, InventairedesinscriptionsdePalmyrevol.nl,
26-27.
38