PALMYRA

SYRIA

(more than 40 cm) between the mosaic
pavement and the floor in the nearest room
Al4 stands in favor of this suggestion.
Nonetheless, the much more likely theory
is that all of the architecture in the insula
constitutes a single house with two
courtyards, erected between the back wall
of the shops lining the Great Colonnade
and the public building that was turned
into Basilica I in the 6th century. The
current state of research permits only
a hypothetical reconstruction of the house
layout, excluding the rooms hidden under
the later portico of the basilica and a large
part of the architecture in the central part
of the insula. It seems likely, however, that
the house as a whole consisted of an official
part with courtyard (I) adjoining the back
wall of the shops in the portico of the
Great Colonnade, opening onto the hall
with the Bellerophon Mosaic and
accessible through a vestibule from
'Diogenes' Street or through one of the
shops from the portico of the Great
Colonnade, and the private quarters in the
northern and eastern parts, comprising
living rooms arranged around the second
courtyard (II). No evidence of columns
standing in the courtyards in this phase
have been recorded, but parallels provided
by private houses from Palmyra and other
urban centers suggest otherwise, as do
numerous reused column shafts found in
the walls of later structures in this insula.
The living quarters probably had an upper
floor.
PHASE III
The rebuilding and transformation of some
parts identified as phase III must have been
necessitated by widespread destruction of
considerable parts of the insula [Fig. 4], It
seems that this event should be dated after
AD 273, more generally to the turn of the
3rd century and beginning of the 4th. At

this point, part of the original mosaic floor
in A7 was destroyed and the missing parts
replaced in the same technique but much
more poorly executed. The hall itself was
extended to the east and north, the
northern part consisting of an added
gallery separated by a colonnade. Many of
the rooms in the northeastern part appear
to have been destroyed as well and the
surviving upper parts of their walls reveal
bondwork of worse quality; mud brick
found in quantities in the fill could be
proof that the upper parts of the walls were
made of this material. A temporary
fireplace was installed at this time in loc.
A 18, its level being close to 40 cm above
the original floor level. A tannur occupied
the corner in A19. The spatial organization
of this part of the insula appears to have
been changed to some extent, as indicated
by blocked doorways and additional walls
dividing the rooms into smaller units.
Many premises support the idea that the
entire quarter set off by the walls of loci
A16-A19 was leveled in a later phase and
that the later ceramic material coming
from the upper layers of the fill in loc. A19
should be connected with the building
activities around the east wall of the insula.
PHASE IV
The phase dated to the second half of the
4th century corresponds to a complete
reorganization of the area [Fig. 3]. Ap-
parently belonging to this phase are parts
of the surviving shop walls, especially the
north wall of these shops with the
exception of the parts separating loci A5
and A6 from A7, which originated in
phase III. In hall A7, the Bellerophon
mosaic was covered with a floor of dark
gray mortar and columns were set up on
the longer axis of the room. The columns
of the gallery on the north side were
removed and the bases thrown down into

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