Universitätsbibliothek HeidelbergUniversitätsbibliothek Heidelberg
Overview
Facsimile
0.5
1 cm
facsimile
Scroll
OCR fulltext
EXPLORATION OF THE SITE OF THE TEMPLE. 47

only five feet below the present surface of the ground.
These coins were chiefly of the fourteenth century, and
were of Naples, Rhodes, the Seljuk Emeers, Venice,
Genoa, and the Papal States. Perhaps the most in-
teresting of these coins are those struck at Ayasalouk,
bearing as they do the word ' Theologos,' which was the
mediaeval name for Ayasalouk, and going far to prove
that St. John's Church was erected at that place.

Some of the foundation-piers of a church, or some
other important building, were found within the walls of
the cella of the temple on the north side. Towards the
east end of the site we discovered the foundations and
base of a large monument only eight feet below the
present surface. A large Roman sarcophagus and one
or two graves were also laid bare near this spot, showing
that some centuries after the destruction of the temple,
and when the site was silted up to the height of fourteen
feet, a Roman cemetery occupied the site.

The season 1870-71 closed on May 10. An area of
about 110 feet by 130 feet had been explored to as
great a depth as the water standing in the excavations
would allow. The heavy rains had been very unfavour-
able to the excavations. Early in the year 1871 the water
stood so high that it was impossible to dig to a greater
depth than fifteen feet below the surface, whereas most
°f the marble debris of the temple was found at an
average depth of twenty-two feet. The latter months
°f the season were therefore employed in digging as
deep as possible over a large area, ready for full explor-
ation to the level of the pavement in the autumn, by
which time the water would subside.

With the discovery of the base of a column in situ,
 
Annotationen