DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.45605#0007
262
Division II Section B Part 6
terminating to the north in the valley through which runs the highway from Alexan-
dretta to Aleppo, falling gradually to the east into the comparatively level country to
the west of Aleppo, and having no well defined boundary on the south where it joins
the Djebel Halakah and the unexplored lower tract south of the old Dfma-Aleppo road.
In general conformation this limestone plateau allies itself with the Djebel Halakah,
the Djebel Barisha and the Djebel il-Acla, although it is far less rugged than either
of the two last mentioned. It has two or three conical elevations which rise above the
general levels of the rolling surface round about them, at the north it is intersected by
at least two deep wadis which lie east and west, and fall toward the Nahr cAfrin and
the great marshes of il-cAmk; but, generally speaking, the country is a gently rolling
one, and shows signs of having been extensively cultivated in antiquity. In spite of
its comparative flatness of surface, the soil which covered the limestone in ancient times
for the most part has disappeared, (Ills. 279, 280) or has been washed down into valleys
which have no outlets. For this reason the region is all but a desert, and is almost
deserted. There are no villages on the plateau, although several of the ruined towns
are occupied by one or more families of Kurds, and, at certain seasons, small and
scattered encampments of Turkmans may be encountered in or near the ancient sites.
The ruins are extensive and well preserved, and represent the remains of a
high state of civilization. They cover the entire period of architectural activity of five
centuries, from the first to the seventh, which embraces the historical period of Northern
Syria so far as inscriptions are concerned. There is an abundance of definitely dated
monuments and a large number of buildings which are easily dateable by comparison
with those which have dated inscriptions carved upon them. The buildings of the
second century, though not definitely dated, are unmistakable, and there are buildings
with dated inscriptions representing every century after the second until the beginning
of the seventh, many of them contributing much to our knowledge of the chronology
of Syrian architecture.
Remains of Pagan religious architecture, that is of temples, were found at only
two sites, at Kefr Nabu where details of a temple of comparatively large scale were
built into the walls of a church, and at Rabat Kalota where parts of the actual walls
of two small temples were incorporated in a church building — the only example of
this usage that we have encountered in Northern Syria. But the presence of these
remains, taken together with others of the same kind at more than twenty sites well
scattered over the length and breadth of Northern Syria, is ample proof of the well
settled and completely civilized condition of this entire region in the first and second
centuries of our era. The temple architecture of the Classical period under the Romans
is not to be mistaken, wearing as it does the positive stamp of the Greek orders; but
architecture of other types, like that of residences, civic buildings, and tombs, in which
the orders do not necessarily appear, is assigned with greater difficulty to this period
before the fourth century when it became common to engrave dated inscriptions upon
all classes of buildings. But I have no doubt that many of the non-religious edifices
which do not take their place easily among the dated buildings of the three centuries
which followed, are to be assigned to the first, second and third centuries, and some
of them are no doubt even earlier. A public bath and a fine monumental tomb, both
undated, at Brad, would certainly fall into the category of buildings erected not laterl
than the third century. A numerous group of structures, chiefly residences in al
Division II Section B Part 6
terminating to the north in the valley through which runs the highway from Alexan-
dretta to Aleppo, falling gradually to the east into the comparatively level country to
the west of Aleppo, and having no well defined boundary on the south where it joins
the Djebel Halakah and the unexplored lower tract south of the old Dfma-Aleppo road.
In general conformation this limestone plateau allies itself with the Djebel Halakah,
the Djebel Barisha and the Djebel il-Acla, although it is far less rugged than either
of the two last mentioned. It has two or three conical elevations which rise above the
general levels of the rolling surface round about them, at the north it is intersected by
at least two deep wadis which lie east and west, and fall toward the Nahr cAfrin and
the great marshes of il-cAmk; but, generally speaking, the country is a gently rolling
one, and shows signs of having been extensively cultivated in antiquity. In spite of
its comparative flatness of surface, the soil which covered the limestone in ancient times
for the most part has disappeared, (Ills. 279, 280) or has been washed down into valleys
which have no outlets. For this reason the region is all but a desert, and is almost
deserted. There are no villages on the plateau, although several of the ruined towns
are occupied by one or more families of Kurds, and, at certain seasons, small and
scattered encampments of Turkmans may be encountered in or near the ancient sites.
The ruins are extensive and well preserved, and represent the remains of a
high state of civilization. They cover the entire period of architectural activity of five
centuries, from the first to the seventh, which embraces the historical period of Northern
Syria so far as inscriptions are concerned. There is an abundance of definitely dated
monuments and a large number of buildings which are easily dateable by comparison
with those which have dated inscriptions carved upon them. The buildings of the
second century, though not definitely dated, are unmistakable, and there are buildings
with dated inscriptions representing every century after the second until the beginning
of the seventh, many of them contributing much to our knowledge of the chronology
of Syrian architecture.
Remains of Pagan religious architecture, that is of temples, were found at only
two sites, at Kefr Nabu where details of a temple of comparatively large scale were
built into the walls of a church, and at Rabat Kalota where parts of the actual walls
of two small temples were incorporated in a church building — the only example of
this usage that we have encountered in Northern Syria. But the presence of these
remains, taken together with others of the same kind at more than twenty sites well
scattered over the length and breadth of Northern Syria, is ample proof of the well
settled and completely civilized condition of this entire region in the first and second
centuries of our era. The temple architecture of the Classical period under the Romans
is not to be mistaken, wearing as it does the positive stamp of the Greek orders; but
architecture of other types, like that of residences, civic buildings, and tombs, in which
the orders do not necessarily appear, is assigned with greater difficulty to this period
before the fourth century when it became common to engrave dated inscriptions upon
all classes of buildings. But I have no doubt that many of the non-religious edifices
which do not take their place easily among the dated buildings of the three centuries
which followed, are to be assigned to the first, second and third centuries, and some
of them are no doubt even earlier. A public bath and a fine monumental tomb, both
undated, at Brad, would certainly fall into the category of buildings erected not laterl
than the third century. A numerous group of structures, chiefly residences in al