DOI issue:
Syria
DOI article:Byliński, Janusz: Arab castle
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.26390#0157
on which some crudely made walls were later erected of reused
masonry. The fact that two levels of construction are present on
this floor makes the question of dating particularly difficult.
Building activity can be discerned in various places beside the
mosque. The floor near Tower XV (Fig. 1: no. 7) evidently
subsided leaving a sag which was subsequently filled with rubble
and fragments of plaster finish from a ruined wall. The white floor
(Fig. 1: no. 6) was torn up when Tower XIV and adjoining curtain
wall parted, leaving a longitudinal fissure. A crack parallel to the
curtain wall is observed on the floor of the neighbouring room. All
these damages were filled up with debris and covered by mudbrick
pavement. In the mosque itself there is a crack in the floor and
through the thickness of the underlying vault. The destroyed floor
in No. 6 was made of a thick mortar course, but the new one was
not even whitewashed - an indication perhaps that a roofed space
adjoining the wall in the earlier phase was left open in the later
one. In the immediate vicinity of this, a replastering of the floor
following a local destruction is associated with a fragment of
tricolour underglaze painted vessel which is to be dated to the 14^
century. The replastered floor is earlier than the second mosque
and it is the same one on which the new wall of Tower XV was
erected, covering the earlier steps. This floor can be related to a
mudbrick wall on a higher level. The tricolour pottery fragment
provides a /JoV date for the second mosque.
Two successive dirt floors between the earlier mosque and
Tower XV contained glazed pottery identifiable as 13^ century
products. The same is true for the remaining dirt floors in the
passageway (Fig. 1: no. 4) which was used with the first mosque.
This locus, as was said earlier, also bears traces of destruction
evidenced by the sagging floor near the exterior wall. Curiously
enough, the dirt floors were removed from above the sag, a low
wall was built beside it and the whole sector was filled up with
debris coming from crumbled walls and covered with a new floor
related to the new mosque. The fill covered at least one sherd
155
masonry. The fact that two levels of construction are present on
this floor makes the question of dating particularly difficult.
Building activity can be discerned in various places beside the
mosque. The floor near Tower XV (Fig. 1: no. 7) evidently
subsided leaving a sag which was subsequently filled with rubble
and fragments of plaster finish from a ruined wall. The white floor
(Fig. 1: no. 6) was torn up when Tower XIV and adjoining curtain
wall parted, leaving a longitudinal fissure. A crack parallel to the
curtain wall is observed on the floor of the neighbouring room. All
these damages were filled up with debris and covered by mudbrick
pavement. In the mosque itself there is a crack in the floor and
through the thickness of the underlying vault. The destroyed floor
in No. 6 was made of a thick mortar course, but the new one was
not even whitewashed - an indication perhaps that a roofed space
adjoining the wall in the earlier phase was left open in the later
one. In the immediate vicinity of this, a replastering of the floor
following a local destruction is associated with a fragment of
tricolour underglaze painted vessel which is to be dated to the 14^
century. The replastered floor is earlier than the second mosque
and it is the same one on which the new wall of Tower XV was
erected, covering the earlier steps. This floor can be related to a
mudbrick wall on a higher level. The tricolour pottery fragment
provides a /JoV date for the second mosque.
Two successive dirt floors between the earlier mosque and
Tower XV contained glazed pottery identifiable as 13^ century
products. The same is true for the remaining dirt floors in the
passageway (Fig. 1: no. 4) which was used with the first mosque.
This locus, as was said earlier, also bears traces of destruction
evidenced by the sagging floor near the exterior wall. Curiously
enough, the dirt floors were removed from above the sag, a low
wall was built beside it and the whole sector was filled up with
debris coming from crumbled walls and covered with a new floor
related to the new mosque. The fill covered at least one sherd
155