DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.44946#0064
5- ‘AMMAN (PHILADELPHIA).
‘Amman, the site of the Syrian Philadelphia, and of the still more ancient Rabbath
Ammon \ is well known through books and articles published by many travellers during
the past century. Plans of the ancient city have been made, and the greater number
of its buildings has been described with more or less correctness of detail, in one
publication or another; yet no attempt has hitherto been made to publish a complete
corpus of the antiquities still in existence here. It was not the original plan of our
expedition to undertake an exhaustive study of these ruins; indeed such an undertaking
would be quite impossible without extensive excavations which this expedition was not
prepared to carry out. It was only upon our arrival, and after a general survey of
the site, when it became apparent that the ruins had suffered great depredations since
the last publications of them were made, and were likely to perish entirely under the
hands of the recent Circassian settlers, that we determined to measure, as thoroughly
as possible, all the ancient remains visible above ground, and to publish them together.
Our hope, in doing this, was that by restudying the monuments already published, and
by publishing with them a few unpublished remains, we might present a record of the
antiquities of the city as they are today, while their rapid dilapidation is in progress,
trusting that these records may be of use, after much that is now above ground has
disappeared, in case the site should ever be excavated.
Description of the Ruins.
The ruins of ancient Philadelphia have two distinct divisions, those of the Akropolis,
which were destroyed during the middle ages, and those of the lower city which appear
to have been in a marvelous state of preservation until comparatively recent times.
Not any of the remains now visible are earlier than the Roman period, unless, perhaps,
parts of the akropolis walls may be assigned to an earlier epoch; the Christian period
is scarcely represented, and there are few buildings of mediaeval Mohammedan work-
manship, though one of those which remain is of more than ordinary interest. It is
the great period of Roman influence in Syria, then, that provides material for study
here, the period so splendidly represented at Djerash (Gerasa) and at Ba‘albek; and
as one examines more closely these ruins of Philadelphia, he is more and more convinced
that, at the height of their glory, there was little difference in architectural splendour,
between Philadelphia and Gerasa, though the one preserves so much, and the other
so little of its ancient beauty. At Djerash the small mediaeval town, still inhabited,
was established at a distance from the monumental part of the ancient city, across a
1 Dezit. Ill, ii. 2 Samuel^ X, XI, XII, et. al.
‘Amman, the site of the Syrian Philadelphia, and of the still more ancient Rabbath
Ammon \ is well known through books and articles published by many travellers during
the past century. Plans of the ancient city have been made, and the greater number
of its buildings has been described with more or less correctness of detail, in one
publication or another; yet no attempt has hitherto been made to publish a complete
corpus of the antiquities still in existence here. It was not the original plan of our
expedition to undertake an exhaustive study of these ruins; indeed such an undertaking
would be quite impossible without extensive excavations which this expedition was not
prepared to carry out. It was only upon our arrival, and after a general survey of
the site, when it became apparent that the ruins had suffered great depredations since
the last publications of them were made, and were likely to perish entirely under the
hands of the recent Circassian settlers, that we determined to measure, as thoroughly
as possible, all the ancient remains visible above ground, and to publish them together.
Our hope, in doing this, was that by restudying the monuments already published, and
by publishing with them a few unpublished remains, we might present a record of the
antiquities of the city as they are today, while their rapid dilapidation is in progress,
trusting that these records may be of use, after much that is now above ground has
disappeared, in case the site should ever be excavated.
Description of the Ruins.
The ruins of ancient Philadelphia have two distinct divisions, those of the Akropolis,
which were destroyed during the middle ages, and those of the lower city which appear
to have been in a marvelous state of preservation until comparatively recent times.
Not any of the remains now visible are earlier than the Roman period, unless, perhaps,
parts of the akropolis walls may be assigned to an earlier epoch; the Christian period
is scarcely represented, and there are few buildings of mediaeval Mohammedan work-
manship, though one of those which remain is of more than ordinary interest. It is
the great period of Roman influence in Syria, then, that provides material for study
here, the period so splendidly represented at Djerash (Gerasa) and at Ba‘albek; and
as one examines more closely these ruins of Philadelphia, he is more and more convinced
that, at the height of their glory, there was little difference in architectural splendour,
between Philadelphia and Gerasa, though the one preserves so much, and the other
so little of its ancient beauty. At Djerash the small mediaeval town, still inhabited,
was established at a distance from the monumental part of the ancient city, across a
1 Dezit. Ill, ii. 2 Samuel^ X, XI, XII, et. al.