DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49516#0048
24
HARVARD AFRICAN STUDIES
neither room A nor any of the passages had been roofed with mud-brick either over wood
or arched. If there had been mud-brick, either arched or over wood, the debris in the room
and the passages would have been, according to experience, of quite a different character
and much deeper. The conflagration can be explained, I believe, only by the burning of
the wooden doors by means of faggots during an assault.
This structure is clearly of the nature of a fort, and the top, which must have served as
the abode of the garrison at any rate during attacks, probably bore various rooms sepa-
rated by mud-brick walls and roofed with wood. The edges of the top were, of course,
protected by a parapet. Owing to its height the place was secure against attack except
through the stairway or by siege, and could have been held by a very small garrison. In
extreme necessity, it could not even temporarily have sheltered more than 600 men. For
permanent occupation, it was hardly large enough to hold 100 men, while the lack of a
HARVARD AFRICAN STUDIES
neither room A nor any of the passages had been roofed with mud-brick either over wood
or arched. If there had been mud-brick, either arched or over wood, the debris in the room
and the passages would have been, according to experience, of quite a different character
and much deeper. The conflagration can be explained, I believe, only by the burning of
the wooden doors by means of faggots during an assault.
This structure is clearly of the nature of a fort, and the top, which must have served as
the abode of the garrison at any rate during attacks, probably bore various rooms sepa-
rated by mud-brick walls and roofed with wood. The edges of the top were, of course,
protected by a parapet. Owing to its height the place was secure against attack except
through the stairway or by siege, and could have been held by a very small garrison. In
extreme necessity, it could not even temporarily have sheltered more than 600 men. For
permanent occupation, it was hardly large enough to hold 100 men, while the lack of a