Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean (12.2000(2001))

CHHIM

LEBANON

entered from two sides (Fig. 2). The eastern
entrance - facing temenos A — preserves
evidence of two thresholds corresponding
to two phases in the mounting of the door,
presumably Roman and Byzantine.
A bronze pivot bed was found in one of
these thresholds. The western entrance led
out onto the street that intersected at right
angles the chief street in this part of the
settlement.
The well-stratified deposits consist of
three main levels, starting with the
topmost one:
• Lime floor from the Byzantine period,
surviving in the western part of the
triangular space. A bench of stone blocks
salvaged from Temple C stood on this
floor, lining a wall of substructure E.V. The
floor had been laid on a thin layer of fill.

• Lime-floor strip about 1.00 m wide,
running along the north wall of the Roman
temple, bordered on the north with
a structure of mortar-bonded stones. On
pottery grounds, this level should be
related to the operation of the temple in
the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD. This floor
lies on a layer of fill some 0.30 m thick.
• Lime floor preserved in excellent
condition all over this triangular area,
contemporary with the plaster on the
western and northern walls. Ceramic
evidence from the layer lying directly on
the floor surface consists of lst-century AD
wares exclusively. In the middle of the
triangular space, part of a flat rectangular
structure was discovered. It was set into
the floor deep enough to form a kind of
small pool, as indicated by the presence


Fig. 2. The triangular space E.VI with evidence of successive occupational phases
(Photo K. Kotlewski)

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