DOI Artikel:
Gawlikowski, Michał: The first season of excavations in Hatra Iraq
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.26389#0122
can be estimated at 10m, judging from the remains of steps leading to the top and
allowing fora protective parapet along the walk. We have assured ourselves of this and
some other points through several soundings on the inside of the wall. It is known from
published inscriptions that both the North and the East gates were built by Lord Nasru,
who is also certainly responsible for the whole rampart. This enterprise took place
about 140 A.D., i.e. shortly after the same Lord Nasru had completed the temenos wall
by 138 A.D., and before 152 A.D., when the wall was already in use (see. inscriptions H
272 and H 336). Later additions to the rampart, consisting mainly of massive stone
towers intended for housing catapults, seem to have been executed after the
unsuccessful siege of Septimius Severus in 108/199 A.D.. The wall was subsequently
repaired and reinforced until it finally confronted the Sassanian troops of Ardashir in
240 A.I)..
The question immediately arises where, then, is the wall which had resisted the
Emperor Trajan in 117 A.D.. Hatra was at the time "neither big nor rich" as Cassius Dio
says, hardly a fitting description of the magnificent city of barely twenty years later.
With this question in mind, we explored the walled area and noticed a clear
straight line dividing the low ground to the south from the maze of small tells marking
the densely built quarters around the Great Temple. This line runs about 230m from the
south wall and about 320m from the temenos, meeting on the east a wadi which runs in
front of the Great Temple. All tombs on the soufhern side are to be found beyond this
line which represents, as we supposed, a trace of the defences of the first century
Hatra.
We opened several trenches along the line of the supposed early wall and found
it immediately (Fig. 1). It was built in a straight line 7 or more bricks deep, i.e. about
3m, on rubble foundations. Our trenches made it possible to follow the wall along about
200m of its length. The preserved height varies from one to six bricks above the socle. •
The wall was dismantled in antiquity and houses were built on top of it. Later on it was
subject to heavy erosion which has caused it to disappear entirely.
120
allowing fora protective parapet along the walk. We have assured ourselves of this and
some other points through several soundings on the inside of the wall. It is known from
published inscriptions that both the North and the East gates were built by Lord Nasru,
who is also certainly responsible for the whole rampart. This enterprise took place
about 140 A.D., i.e. shortly after the same Lord Nasru had completed the temenos wall
by 138 A.D., and before 152 A.D., when the wall was already in use (see. inscriptions H
272 and H 336). Later additions to the rampart, consisting mainly of massive stone
towers intended for housing catapults, seem to have been executed after the
unsuccessful siege of Septimius Severus in 108/199 A.D.. The wall was subsequently
repaired and reinforced until it finally confronted the Sassanian troops of Ardashir in
240 A.I)..
The question immediately arises where, then, is the wall which had resisted the
Emperor Trajan in 117 A.D.. Hatra was at the time "neither big nor rich" as Cassius Dio
says, hardly a fitting description of the magnificent city of barely twenty years later.
With this question in mind, we explored the walled area and noticed a clear
straight line dividing the low ground to the south from the maze of small tells marking
the densely built quarters around the Great Temple. This line runs about 230m from the
south wall and about 320m from the temenos, meeting on the east a wadi which runs in
front of the Great Temple. All tombs on the soufhern side are to be found beyond this
line which represents, as we supposed, a trace of the defences of the first century
Hatra.
We opened several trenches along the line of the supposed early wall and found
it immediately (Fig. 1). It was built in a straight line 7 or more bricks deep, i.e. about
3m, on rubble foundations. Our trenches made it possible to follow the wall along about
200m of its length. The preserved height varies from one to six bricks above the socle. •
The wall was dismantled in antiquity and houses were built on top of it. Later on it was
subject to heavy erosion which has caused it to disappear entirely.
120