DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.45584#0089
Umm-iz-Zetun.
361
120. UMM-ΙΖ-ΖΕΤύΝ.
On the edge of the Ledja, at the southern end of its eastern boundary, is this
little village in which a large proportion of the inhabitants live in ancient houses.
The most important of the antiquities of the place is a small building - a Kalybe -
built in the reign of the Emperor Probus, in the last quarter of the third century after
Christ, a period sufficiently barren of monuments in any part of the world. The edifice
is of the simplest form of a kind of building peculiar to the Hauran. The facade
consists of a broad arch flanked by two arched niches of rectangular plan, and is almost
twice as wide as the square building behind it which was roofed by a dome. The
Ill. 321. Umm iz-Zetun, Front of House in Northeastern Part of the Town.
building was clearly published by M. de Vogue 1 who derived the term Kalybe, which
he applied to a class of buildings found only in this region, from the two inscriptions3
upon its front wall. The building is now used as a medafeh, or public sitting place,
and a modern roof replaces the ancient dome. It is still possible, however, to see
remains of the dome on two sides, in one place to the height of a metre. This is
sufficient to show that the vertical curve of the dome was not a semicircle; for the line
is carried up almost straight. It is probable therefore that the dome was either much
stilted, or had the form of an ellipse with its major axis vertical, like the Christian
dome at Zorah which is dated in the year 515 a. d. The dome itself is constructed
1 5. C. Pl. 6, text, p. 43. 2 III, A, 5, inscrs. 765™ and 7651:i.
Publications of the Princeton University Archaeological Expeditions to Syria, Div. II, Sec. A, Pt. 5. 47
361
120. UMM-ΙΖ-ΖΕΤύΝ.
On the edge of the Ledja, at the southern end of its eastern boundary, is this
little village in which a large proportion of the inhabitants live in ancient houses.
The most important of the antiquities of the place is a small building - a Kalybe -
built in the reign of the Emperor Probus, in the last quarter of the third century after
Christ, a period sufficiently barren of monuments in any part of the world. The edifice
is of the simplest form of a kind of building peculiar to the Hauran. The facade
consists of a broad arch flanked by two arched niches of rectangular plan, and is almost
twice as wide as the square building behind it which was roofed by a dome. The
Ill. 321. Umm iz-Zetun, Front of House in Northeastern Part of the Town.
building was clearly published by M. de Vogue 1 who derived the term Kalybe, which
he applied to a class of buildings found only in this region, from the two inscriptions3
upon its front wall. The building is now used as a medafeh, or public sitting place,
and a modern roof replaces the ancient dome. It is still possible, however, to see
remains of the dome on two sides, in one place to the height of a metre. This is
sufficient to show that the vertical curve of the dome was not a semicircle; for the line
is carried up almost straight. It is probable therefore that the dome was either much
stilted, or had the form of an ellipse with its major axis vertical, like the Christian
dome at Zorah which is dated in the year 515 a. d. The dome itself is constructed
1 5. C. Pl. 6, text, p. 43. 2 III, A, 5, inscrs. 765™ and 7651:i.
Publications of the Princeton University Archaeological Expeditions to Syria, Div. II, Sec. A, Pt. 5. 47