Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean (9.1997(1998))

obtaining more information on the substantial building discovered
in the westernmost part of the trench near the top of the tell. The
trench was made longer to reach a total length of 30 m and was
enlarged at the western end to a width of 9.5 m (sq. 36/55),
uncovering a large fragment of the building in question. The eastern
outer wall of the structure, running approximately N-S, is ca 1 m
wide and reinforced on the outside with six more or less regularly
spaced buttresses. The length of the building remains unknown
(at least 11 m) as it disappears on both sides into the trench wall.
Parts of at least five rooms were explored (fig. 3). The largest of
these (locus 11) was 2.8 m wide and at least 4.2 m long. It had at
least two doorways, one leading to a room in the southeastern part
of the building and another one situated in the northern wall and
leading to the room labeled as locus 13. The latter, which is 2.4 m
wide and at least 4.2 m long, was divided into two parts by a false
arch running N-S. Built against the eastern wall of locus 13 was
a narrow mudbrick bench. On the north, locus 13 is closed off by
a huge wall (ca 1.5 m wide), wider than the outer one, bearing
remains of a thick plaster on its northern face, presumably to
indicate the presence of yet another room on this side. Practically,
all the uncovered floors are in poor condition. The same can be said
of the wall plaster and even of the walls themselves in the northern
part of the trench. Damages are due to large refuse pits filled with
ashes. In the opinion of the excavators, the structure was more of
a public than private character. The absence of any domestic
installations only serves to support this hypothesis.
The date of this building is a separate problem altogether. No
good diagnostic ceramic material has been found as yet on the
floors, forcing the chronology to be estimated on the grounds of
pottery from the destruction layers filling the rooms and from
a narrow street bordering the building on the east, both of which
support a date in the late third millennium BC.
In the course of the present campaign, the wall footing of the
alleged public building was reached and found to be superimposed

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