DOI article:
Byliński, Janusz: The Arab Castle in Palmyra
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.26389#0095
eastern corner we cleared the fill from a sunken circular silo and from another half-
circular silo contiguous to it. Both containers were set within a roughly quadrangular
structure made of stone, red baked bricks, mud-bricks and some reused parts of basalt
grinding stones. The structure was partly destroyed. Under the highest floor there is
another, on which the mill was built, and which was laid on top of a fill of crushed
mortar, pebbles and rubbish (including pottery sherds) used for levelling the
irregularly sloping bedrock. The two containers just mentioned were built iowestdown,
on an irregularly surfaced foundation made of several layers of lime mortar. This
foundation is visible in the corridor adjacent to the mill the floor of which is on the
lower level.
The layer of animal dung and rubbish above the floor associated with the mill
contained pottery sherds, clay pipes, fragments of cloth and leather shoes, wooden
spoons and numerous fragments of broken grinding stones. Many sherds certainly
belong to the 13^-14^ century, but a fragment of an underglaze-painted, frit-body
vessel of the Raqqa type may date back to the early 13tk century.
Excavations were conducted also in the walled terrace of tower VII (part of the
earliest structure, now inside the castle), where an arched imprint in the wall plaster
suggested a possible place of worship. The dust and rubble removed.it became clear
that the terrace had been resurfaced after blocking the staircase which once provided
entrance from the defence wall into the upper room inside the tower. During the
excavation a. part of a bronze spoon was found on the floor, probably dating back to the
Ottoman period.
93
circular silo contiguous to it. Both containers were set within a roughly quadrangular
structure made of stone, red baked bricks, mud-bricks and some reused parts of basalt
grinding stones. The structure was partly destroyed. Under the highest floor there is
another, on which the mill was built, and which was laid on top of a fill of crushed
mortar, pebbles and rubbish (including pottery sherds) used for levelling the
irregularly sloping bedrock. The two containers just mentioned were built iowestdown,
on an irregularly surfaced foundation made of several layers of lime mortar. This
foundation is visible in the corridor adjacent to the mill the floor of which is on the
lower level.
The layer of animal dung and rubbish above the floor associated with the mill
contained pottery sherds, clay pipes, fragments of cloth and leather shoes, wooden
spoons and numerous fragments of broken grinding stones. Many sherds certainly
belong to the 13^-14^ century, but a fragment of an underglaze-painted, frit-body
vessel of the Raqqa type may date back to the early 13tk century.
Excavations were conducted also in the walled terrace of tower VII (part of the
earliest structure, now inside the castle), where an arched imprint in the wall plaster
suggested a possible place of worship. The dust and rubble removed.it became clear
that the terrace had been resurfaced after blocking the staircase which once provided
entrance from the defence wall into the upper room inside the tower. During the
excavation a. part of a bronze spoon was found on the floor, probably dating back to the
Ottoman period.
93