DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.45594#0053
24
II. B. i. The cAla.
these are almost buried, and show their height only in the interior; it also shows how
much I have restored. The interior columns found in the South Church are the only
columns I have seen in a nave in all this region of the cAla. Few ornamental details
were found here, except several lintels that have been broken in pieces, and a carved
door of basalt. The broken lintels were almost all inscribed, and these inscriptions 1
together with others, 4 in Greek and 1 in Syriac, furnish the following dates: 373/4,
529, 530, 556/7 and 564. These dates indicate that the churches belong to the
sixth century, though there was undoudtedly a building here in the fourth. It is not
impossible that one of the churches is earlier than the others, and was the nucleus of
the group; it may even have belonged to the fourth century.
The relief sculpture shown with the plan (Ill. 22) seems to have been an ancient
piece of carving, afterwards converted into a door; for the relief is not complete as
we have it; some of the figures have been carefully cut away, and the design, as it
is, is on end when the door is upright. The subject of the relief is a curious one,
made up of three serpents and a small animal with a high ruff about its neck. It
is impossible to imagine what the central figure may have been, so carefully has it been
cut away, and the object at the extreme left of the composition is equally unintelligible
for the same reason. The work is almost certainly pre-Christian; so far as its style
is concerned, it is probably late Roman ; but its purpose and its original position may
only be conjectured. This bit of sculpture is well known by the natives for miles
around; but it is perhaps only a coincidence that the last two syllables in the name
of the place (liaiyeJi) compose the Arabic word for serpent.
17. TELL IR-RUHAIYEH.
This hill, northwest of the ruins described above, is the site of a very ancient
fortified town. The slope is steep, almost inaccessible, except by the ancient road which
winds up from the valley below, in which there is the bed of a stream. The summit,
in shape an uneven ellipse, is completely surrounded by a wall of large bowlders, very
similar to the crude walls at ir-Rubbeh and at Tell id-Deheb, which have been described
and illustrated on pages 6 and 17. The upper part of the wall, i.e., the portion
above the retaining walls which are slanting, is constructed of smaller stones, and is
very thick, reaching in places, a thickness of three meters. It is preserved throughout
the greater part of its circuit to a height of about two meters. Within the walls are
extensive remains of ruined buildings, which appear to have been rather crudely built.
The rooms were small, sometimes long and narrow. There are hardly any blocks of
dressed stone, no signs of arches or columns, no mouldings or other forms of orna-
ment, and no inscriptions of any kind. The site is one of the most commanding of
the neighborhood, overlooking a long valley which may have been very fertile in an-
cient times. The fortified town is probably one of the most ancient ruins of the region,
and is to be classed with the ruins mentioned above, and with similar remains in
Southern Syria. That this place was, and still is, an important strategic position, is
shown by the fact that the Turkish Government has established a desert garrison, for
the control of the Bedawin, in the valley, about three miles to the northwest.
1 Div. Ill, inscs. 896—898.
II. B. i. The cAla.
these are almost buried, and show their height only in the interior; it also shows how
much I have restored. The interior columns found in the South Church are the only
columns I have seen in a nave in all this region of the cAla. Few ornamental details
were found here, except several lintels that have been broken in pieces, and a carved
door of basalt. The broken lintels were almost all inscribed, and these inscriptions 1
together with others, 4 in Greek and 1 in Syriac, furnish the following dates: 373/4,
529, 530, 556/7 and 564. These dates indicate that the churches belong to the
sixth century, though there was undoudtedly a building here in the fourth. It is not
impossible that one of the churches is earlier than the others, and was the nucleus of
the group; it may even have belonged to the fourth century.
The relief sculpture shown with the plan (Ill. 22) seems to have been an ancient
piece of carving, afterwards converted into a door; for the relief is not complete as
we have it; some of the figures have been carefully cut away, and the design, as it
is, is on end when the door is upright. The subject of the relief is a curious one,
made up of three serpents and a small animal with a high ruff about its neck. It
is impossible to imagine what the central figure may have been, so carefully has it been
cut away, and the object at the extreme left of the composition is equally unintelligible
for the same reason. The work is almost certainly pre-Christian; so far as its style
is concerned, it is probably late Roman ; but its purpose and its original position may
only be conjectured. This bit of sculpture is well known by the natives for miles
around; but it is perhaps only a coincidence that the last two syllables in the name
of the place (liaiyeJi) compose the Arabic word for serpent.
17. TELL IR-RUHAIYEH.
This hill, northwest of the ruins described above, is the site of a very ancient
fortified town. The slope is steep, almost inaccessible, except by the ancient road which
winds up from the valley below, in which there is the bed of a stream. The summit,
in shape an uneven ellipse, is completely surrounded by a wall of large bowlders, very
similar to the crude walls at ir-Rubbeh and at Tell id-Deheb, which have been described
and illustrated on pages 6 and 17. The upper part of the wall, i.e., the portion
above the retaining walls which are slanting, is constructed of smaller stones, and is
very thick, reaching in places, a thickness of three meters. It is preserved throughout
the greater part of its circuit to a height of about two meters. Within the walls are
extensive remains of ruined buildings, which appear to have been rather crudely built.
The rooms were small, sometimes long and narrow. There are hardly any blocks of
dressed stone, no signs of arches or columns, no mouldings or other forms of orna-
ment, and no inscriptions of any kind. The site is one of the most commanding of
the neighborhood, overlooking a long valley which may have been very fertile in an-
cient times. The fortified town is probably one of the most ancient ruins of the region,
and is to be classed with the ruins mentioned above, and with similar remains in
Southern Syria. That this place was, and still is, an important strategic position, is
shown by the fact that the Turkish Government has established a desert garrison, for
the control of the Bedawin, in the valley, about three miles to the northwest.
1 Div. Ill, inscs. 896—898.