Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean (16.2004(2005))

CHHIM

LEBANON

structures (undoubtedly E.V, E.XII and
E.XIII). The difference between the two le-
vels was navigated by a set of steps, leading
to a doorway in the wall which was a con-
tinuation of the north wall of the units.
This wall and doorway could have still been
in use during the building of the naos in
the middle of the 2nd century AD, but
when the pronaos was erected (probably in
the course of the 3rd century AD), this part
of the sanctuary was reorganized. The
operation entailed building a continuation
of the south cella wall and eliminating the
space between it and the older wall of units
A-D with a short section of transversal
wall. The rooms A-D must have been
abandoned at this time (as confirmed for
unit B), and the old wall taken advantage
of as the back wall of the south temenos
portico.
TESTING IN AREA A.IX
Testing in the portico and on the "via
sacra" connecting the temple with tower
D had the general purpose of determining
the presence of earlier architecture, if any,
in the area. Two trial pits were dug in the
north portico, one by the back wall and
another slightly further to the east, where
a wall partitioned off a Byzantine floor in
the portico from the temenos area.3
In the former, bedrock, which was
reached already at 0.60 m below ground
surface, proved to have been leveled to
receive the portico. A thin layer of clayey
soil with an insignificant amount of sherds
lay directly on top of the bedrock, this
followed by the radius and nucleus of the
Roman-period floor. The Roman floor in
the second of the trial pits was very poorly
preserved and bedrock appeared practically

on the same level with the radius. Thus,
the door permitting passage from the
Byzantine level to the still used Roman
floor should be dated to Byzantine times.
The third trial pit, excavated in the "via
sacra", between the end of the north
portico and the wall of the south portico,
revealed a wall perpendicular to the portico
wall and disappearing under the temenos
floor. The related layer of clayey earth, very
much like the one in the first trial pit,
could be dated by associated pottery to the
Bronze Age. The context also yielded an
arrowhead. The stratigraphy is not unlike
what was recorded in the first of the trial
pits: clayey earth and a Roman floor super-
imposed on it, the sole difference being
that bedrock here was found at a depth of
1.20 m. Quite clearly, the "via sacra" with
its porticoes was erected on no-man's
ground, lying abandoned undoubtedly
from the Bronze Age.
'TOWER' D - AREA D.I TO D.IV
In the course of the present campaign, the
eastern part of the 'tower' interior was
cleared. Bedrock had been observed
coming up to the surface in several places
here even before the beginning of ex-
cavations. A wall was uncovered (1.20-
1.30 m wide, c. 6.00 m long), cut into
bedrock and running parallel to the east
wall of the 'tower', c. 0.50 m away from it.
Restoration works in the 1970s had
disturbed the context, making any dating
of the feature more than difficult. A test
pit dug west of the wall did not yield
datable pottery.
The trial pit by the southwestern corner
of the 'tower' was continued from last year,
bringing no new data.4

3 For a plan of the temenos and portico, see T. Waliszewski's previous report in PAM XV, Reports 2003 (2004), Fig. 1 on
p. 304.
4 Cf. PAM XV, op. cit., 306.

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