Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean (17.2005(2007))

JIYEH

LEBANON

BYZANTINE BASILICA Q

Continued excavations in Basilica Q were
aimed at clearing as much as possible of the
modern rubbish dump overlying the
building in an effort to map surviving outer
walls and internal divisions. Test pits in
2004 had traced two sections of walls in the
western part of the structure, indicating the
width of the narthex, but nothing certain
could be said about the dimensions of the
building.
Initially, little more than the east wall
with apse could be seen, preserved in places
to a height of 5 m [Fig. I}. The nave was
covered with an uneven layer of sand and
soil. Stone blocks, presumably from

collapsed walls, rose in a mound mixed with
earth over the northern aisle. Sand had piled
up in the southern aisle, mostly along the
southern wall and part of the eastern one.
The top of the east wall along with a frag-
ment of the vault over the apse also lay
under sand. The few surviving sections of
the outer walls of the northern and southern
aisles were also less than legible.
The east wall of the basilica upon clear-
ing proved to be no more than c. 0.50 m
thick. It must have adjoined a thicker wall,
the top of which survives as a smooth
surface inclined eastward, suggestive of the
spring of a vault. It could have been a big


Fig. 1. Basilica Q in the course of excavation in 2005. View from the north. On the left, east wall
of the church and beyond it. zone of the Fate Antique settlement (Photo T. Gora)

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