DOI issue:
Comptes rendus
DOI article:Meyza, Henryk: Tell el Haji in Syrien, erster vorläufiger Bericht, Grabungskampagne 1971, von C. Krause, K. Schuler, R. A. Stucky, [...], Bern 1974
DOI Page / Citation link: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.26418#0173
of the tell and its layout permits to identify it with Eragiza known from Tabula
Pentegueriana.
Abundant and exact plans and sections allow the reader with the help of descrip-
tion to interpret himself the sequences. No major doubts arise about the suggested
reconstructions, though section 3 of the western gate of the castrum needs some
final touch. The drawing seems to show the foundation trench of the later phase
of wall B dug into the rubble of the earlier wall B. If so, then the later wall B could
not serve as a retaining wall for the outer side of the fosse. The calcite floor at the
base of the second phase of B has to be earlier than the destruction of B phase 1
as it goes under the lowest course of B phase 2, under the rubble outside the found-
ation trench as well as it corresponds to the marked wear of the castrum side of wall
B in phase 1.
It is a great loss, that the deeper levels could not have been uncovered on some
greater scale, the more since the name of the 2nd Mill, site is probably known. It
is quite possible that Eragiza can be identified with Araziq(i), mentioned in several
cuneiform and a single Egyptian texts, the earliest one, from_Alalakh, dating from
the 17th cent. B.C.
Small areas of Hellenistic levels uncovered allow no real characteristics of the town.
The only conclusion on its role as a trading station on the route from Antioch
on the Orontes to Mesopotamia proper could have been reached thanks to monetary
finds. Not much better off is the Roman Eragiza. Having no building of administra-
tive or religious type at least, we are unable to picture this period.
Therefore, one may have doubts, if the scrupulous excavation of the defensive
walls was the proper way of digging such a site. The exact plans and sections, a well
organised system of documentation enabled the Swiss team to arrive at valuable
conclusions, but it seems that such a system would be more apropriate for a site,
which could have been excavated in over five years, period planned at first.
Leaving the problems of excavation methods aside, the authors should be con-
gratulated for very precise and thorough study of their materials. The only minor
editorial remark is, that the site photographs are not easily readable.
Henryk Meyza
Pentegueriana.
Abundant and exact plans and sections allow the reader with the help of descrip-
tion to interpret himself the sequences. No major doubts arise about the suggested
reconstructions, though section 3 of the western gate of the castrum needs some
final touch. The drawing seems to show the foundation trench of the later phase
of wall B dug into the rubble of the earlier wall B. If so, then the later wall B could
not serve as a retaining wall for the outer side of the fosse. The calcite floor at the
base of the second phase of B has to be earlier than the destruction of B phase 1
as it goes under the lowest course of B phase 2, under the rubble outside the found-
ation trench as well as it corresponds to the marked wear of the castrum side of wall
B in phase 1.
It is a great loss, that the deeper levels could not have been uncovered on some
greater scale, the more since the name of the 2nd Mill, site is probably known. It
is quite possible that Eragiza can be identified with Araziq(i), mentioned in several
cuneiform and a single Egyptian texts, the earliest one, from_Alalakh, dating from
the 17th cent. B.C.
Small areas of Hellenistic levels uncovered allow no real characteristics of the town.
The only conclusion on its role as a trading station on the route from Antioch
on the Orontes to Mesopotamia proper could have been reached thanks to monetary
finds. Not much better off is the Roman Eragiza. Having no building of administra-
tive or religious type at least, we are unable to picture this period.
Therefore, one may have doubts, if the scrupulous excavation of the defensive
walls was the proper way of digging such a site. The exact plans and sections, a well
organised system of documentation enabled the Swiss team to arrive at valuable
conclusions, but it seems that such a system would be more apropriate for a site,
which could have been excavated in over five years, period planned at first.
Leaving the problems of excavation methods aside, the authors should be con-
gratulated for very precise and thorough study of their materials. The only minor
editorial remark is, that the site photographs are not easily readable.
Henryk Meyza