DOI article:
Gawlikowski, Michał: Palmyra 1991
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.26426#0078
Outside of the main area, we have investigated a huge
building discovered by chance in the Valley of Tombs. Its outline
on the ground was noticed from the top of the funerary tower of
Atenatan just opposite. A regular rectangle 63 m by 48 m,
including a large courtyard and rooms in single file on all four
sides, was tested in a series of trenches carried out by J. Bylinski
with the purpose of reconstructing the exact plan and establishing
an approximate date for the monument. The walls are of mudbrick
on broken stone foundations, plastered inside. No floors were
found. There are altogether 31 rooms, including three double room
units in the comers and one larger room of a possibly public
character.
It is clear that what we have here is a typical plan of a Roman
army camp intended for an ala of cavalry. The general impression
of a short duration of this camp is confumed by the fmds, scarce
as they are: some 3 rd century pottery (mainly cooking pots, but also
some sigillata fragments of the end of the century), as well as two
coins, one of Salonina (wife of Gallienus, 260-268), the other of
Claudius Gothicus (268 - 270). The coins flx the date precisely
enough, but it is not possible with the present evidence to decide
whether the unit stationed there was part of Zenobia’s army or
rather a detachment of the occupying forces of Aurelianus. Further
investigation would be of interest to clarify this essential point.
76
building discovered by chance in the Valley of Tombs. Its outline
on the ground was noticed from the top of the funerary tower of
Atenatan just opposite. A regular rectangle 63 m by 48 m,
including a large courtyard and rooms in single file on all four
sides, was tested in a series of trenches carried out by J. Bylinski
with the purpose of reconstructing the exact plan and establishing
an approximate date for the monument. The walls are of mudbrick
on broken stone foundations, plastered inside. No floors were
found. There are altogether 31 rooms, including three double room
units in the comers and one larger room of a possibly public
character.
It is clear that what we have here is a typical plan of a Roman
army camp intended for an ala of cavalry. The general impression
of a short duration of this camp is confumed by the fmds, scarce
as they are: some 3 rd century pottery (mainly cooking pots, but also
some sigillata fragments of the end of the century), as well as two
coins, one of Salonina (wife of Gallienus, 260-268), the other of
Claudius Gothicus (268 - 270). The coins flx the date precisely
enough, but it is not possible with the present evidence to decide
whether the unit stationed there was part of Zenobia’s army or
rather a detachment of the occupying forces of Aurelianus. Further
investigation would be of interest to clarify this essential point.
76