Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean (18.2006(2008))

PALMYRA

SYRIA

itself survived among the camp barracks
for a century, but the actual outline of the
precinct changed to accommodate military
installations. The main dig in the past had
been concentrated on determining as much
as possible of the original layout; now it
was hoped that spot work could help fill in
some of the blanks, especially with regard
to the limits of the temenos.
The course of the west and north walls
of the sanctuary were identified already in
1975 {Fig- 1}. Surviving foundations
permitted two parallel and contiguous
enclosures to be traced, one of the 2nd
century AD and one contemporary with the
building of the Camp. The latter wall
contained many reused stones, some of
them robbed from the tombs and some
belonging to the sanctuary. Among them
were fragments of honorific statues once
displayed in the porticoes of the sanctuary.
Most of them were recently reassembled in
the Palmyra Museum by the team's restorer
B. Markowski (Trochimowicz, Markowski
2005: 466-468, also cf. Figs 9-10, below).
In 2005, the foundations of the south-
western corner of the temenos were
identified, along with a short stretch of the
two enclosure walls on the southern side.
Not much is left of the earlier enclosure,
but the line of the later one is traced clear
enough. Incorporated into the wall
structure was yet another early honorific
statue and fragments of some other
sculptures. Several terracotta lamps have
confirmed the dating of the later
foundation to the Tetrarchy period.
On the eastern side, the one facing the
temple and containing the entrance, the
limits of the temenos are not as well
established. It was utterly destroyed by the
laying of the Via Principalis, a street
running longitudinally in line with the
army barracks entrance and like the camp
as a whole, at an angle to the sanctuary.

The builders of the camp, however, had
every intention of respecting the temple of
Allat-Athena, Minerva being traditionally
one of the main devotions of the Roman
army. In order to integrate the sanctuary in
its new surroundings, the gate of the 2nd
century temenos was removed from its
original (as yet unidentified) location and
reset in line with the Via Principalis,
where it remains standing since Late
Antiquity, bearing a much weathered
Aramaic inscription mentioning Allat and
her temple. Six early columns were aligned
in front of the gate, likewise replaced from
wherever they could have stood in the 1st
century AD. The collapsed remains of
these columns were reassembled in 1975 in
their secondary location.
Earlier remains still in place include
a foundation running at an angle between
these columns and the gate, and a huge
honorific column erected in AD 64 (and
re-erected in 1975 together with the
sundial on the socle remaining in place) for
a certain Shalamallat son of Yarhibola by
Allat and the members of his tribe in
recognition of his building activities in
the sanctuary. The orientation of the two
structures, corresponding to that of the
cella of Allat and the three remaining walls
of the temenos, had been taken as evidence
of their contemporaneity with the rest
of the precinct in the 1st century AD
and later. However, a recent computer
simulation by Daria Tarara proved that the
wall standing on the old foundation would
have cast a shade on the sundial for most of
the day. This finding spurred the ex-
cavators to check the foundations,
establishing in effect that the column of
Shalamallat now stands on the dismantled
northeastern corner of the temenos wall
and cuts through the walking surface
associated with it. It follows that the
foundation of the east wall of the sanctuary

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