Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean (12.2000(2001))

CHHIM

LEBANON

TRIAL PIT
BY THE NORTH PRONAOS WALL
The foundations of Temple C, revealed in
a trial pit excavated outside the northern
pronaos wall, reached a depth of over
2.50 m below the surviving top of the

wall. The blocks that were already below
the ground surface were less well dressed
and were laid directly upon bedrock. The
construction of Temple C disturbed this
entire area, hence there is no evidence
predating the 2nd century AD.

VILLAGE E

Much of the excavation effort this season
was directed at exploring the substructures
situated in a sector extending north of
Temple C. The rows of small rooms that
were uncovered line two of the village
streets, one following an east-west line
(connecting temenos A with oil press E.l)
and the other intersecting it at right angles
and running toward the northwestern
corner of the Temple. The chief objective
was to test for earlier settlement in the
village and to identify the key elements of
a typical Chhim house.
SUBSTRUCTURE E.V
This rectangular room (3.50 by 3.50 m) is
situated between Temple C and the alley
opening onto temenos A. Its entrance
facing the temenos and temple facade was
monumental by the standards of other
doorways in the village. At some point the
double-wing door was removed and the
opening blocked. Another doorway was
pierced instead through a wall abutting
the street. The interior was filled
completely with stone blocks coming from
the ruined walls. In the southwestern and
northeastern corners of this space large
fragments of a lime floor on a bedding of
small stones was preserved. The floor level,
which was 20 cm thick on average,
corresponds to that of the original
threshold. Traces of red-painted plaster on
the southern wall constitute the sole
evidence of interior decoration. Long

flagging stones supported on two pillars,
found below this floor, constituted the
vaulting of an underground room. Despite
exploring the entire space inside this
substructure, it was impossible to identify
the actual occupational surface of this unit.
Instead, a double wall (about 80 cm thick)
was cleared alongside the southern wall of
building E.V. It was presumably a sup-
porting wall for steps that had led down to
the underground room.
The pottery originating from the
interior is mixed Roman and Byzantine.
Merely the trial pit in the corner of the
underground room yielded a few dozen
Hellenistic sherds of the 3rd-2nd centuries
BC, all from below the level of the
foundations.
The exploration of structure E.VI (see
below) has provided sound evidence for
dating the construction of E.V to at least
the 1st century AD. Its function, in view of
the monumental entrance opening onto
Temple C, remains enigmatic.
SUBSTRUCTURE E.VI
The triangular space between the north
wall of Temple C, southern wall of
substructure E.V and the extension of the
latter's western wall (Fig. 1) brought the
most important determinations of the
season concerning site chronology.
Once the stone blocks covering this
space had been cleared (already in the 1999
season), it turned out that the area could be

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