Butler, Howard Crosby; Princeton University [Editor]: Syria: publications of the Princeton University Archaeological Expeditions to Syria in 1904 - 5 and 1909 (Div. 2, Sect. B ; 3) (1909)

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II. B. 3-

I have employed the term girder-arch for the


Ill. 149. Serdjilla; Girder-Arch in House No. VIII.
the solid rock of the hillside (Ill. 150). The

reason that these arches fulfill the office
of girders. Some of them spring from
piers that protrude well from the wall;
in other cases the soffit of the arch is
flush with the wall, at its springing, and
an impost moulding takes the place of
a pier, as may be seen in house VIII
(Ill. 149). This arrangement is to give
greater space within the rooms.
Funerary Architecture: The tombs
of Serdjilla are not particularly important;
the most interesting of them was pu-
blished by M. de Vogue,1 while a photo-
graph of it appears in the publications
of the American Expedition,3 and I men-
tion it here only in passing. It has the
form of a little aedicula erected over a
rock-hewn grave with two arcosolia. The
little building is still complete, preserving
even the thin slabs of its stone roof.
The necropolis with its free standing
sarcophagi has already been mentioned,
and I have only to mention the ruined
pyramidal tomb that is situated beyond
the last houses in the southwestern quarter
of the town. The tomb consists of a
small square chamber partly cut out of
front wall is built of stone: but the arco-


1 s.c. Pl. 85.

2 A.A.E.S. II., p. 250.