Session III
Temple E Southeast
2-27 June 2014

This is the final summary of the third and final session of excavations for the 2014 season in the north area of Unit 2 in the Frankish quarter, Temple E Southeast. Guy Sanders (director) and Jody Cundy (field director) supervised. Ross Brendle and Justin Holcomb (area supervisors) recorded. The workmen were Panos Kakouros (pickman), Tasos Tsogas (apprentice pickman, shovelman, sieve), and Marios Vathis (barrowman, sieve).

Excavation was focused on the baulk north of rooms F and G of Unit 2 from June 2nd to 12th. The first week of work was recorded by Ross Brendle, who was then joined by Justin Holcomb for the second week of excavations. The scarp formed by the 1931-1932 excavations for the construction of the museum forms the northern boundary of the excavation area at N1079.10. The southern boundary is formed by the scarp left by the 1994 excavations of Rooms F and G at N1075.22 (see NB869). The eastern boundary is Wall 135, exposed in the first session of the 2014 excavations at E111.82 (revealed by deposit contexts 118, 131, 132). The western boundary is the scarp formed by the removal of backfill from previous excavations (deposit context 198) at E104.22. The goal of this excavation session was to bring down the unexcavated baulk to better unify the Frankish Quarter with the area to the north, the museum courtyard in front of Temple E. This work is being done alongside consolidation of the Frankish area in preparation for opening the area to visitors. Additionally, we hoped to clarify the relationship between the walls exposed in previous sessions (110, 135) to the walls to the south and determine whether they represent distinct chronological phases.

Work moved to the South Hall, south of the church in Unit 2 during June 13th to 17th, recorded by Ross Brendle. The excavation area is limited by the north, west, and south walls of the South Hall and an arbitrary line 3.6m to the east of the west wall. We sectioned the room because of the limited amount of time left in the excavation season, and the western half of the room included what appeared to be a pit exposed but not excavated in an earlier excavation season. This area had been previously excavated in 1991 (NB828 pp. 157-170). The goal of excavations in this area was to determine the date and use of this building as well as to explore the pit.

Work then returned to Room F from June 18th to 20th, at the southeast corner by the doorway to Room 3, recorded by Ross Brendle. The excavation area was limited by wall 135 to the east, the east-west wall separating Room F from Room 3 to the south (N1071.32), a pit dug in the previous excavations to the west, and an arbitrary line to the north (N1073.06). This area was excavated in the 1994 season down to the floor level at which we began (NB869 B92, pp. 128-129). We hoped to find a foundation trench for the east-west wall, which would give a construction date for the complex to the south that may be associated with the church to the east.


NORTH BAULK, ROOM 5/F
Byzantine
In this session, pottery from the earliest stratigraphic levels reached in this area dates to the 12th century. In that period, this space was part of the same room as that on to the east of Wall 135, known as Room 5. The earliest significant activity in this area during this time is the construction of an outdoor floor surface (context 568) composed of unglazed ceramic tiles. The tiles are mostly broken and clustered at the northern edge of our section. They do not continue south to the wall, but it seems likely that they originally did. This surface was laid against the east-west wall separating Room 5 from Room 3. It is likely the same surface as one uncovered to the east of wall 135 in the 1993 season (NB859 B74, pp. 112-114). This floor seems to have extended to most if not all of Room 5 in this phase. Pottery excavated this season from the fill laid against the south wall shows the floor must date to the third quarter of the 12th century at the earliest.

Further investigation in the area is necessary to determine the date of the east-west wall. It does not bond with wall 135, which is later, and its foundations extend at least a meter deeper than excavated this season, as visible in the scarp of the pit to the west. The wall extends to the east to the narthex wall of the church and formed the southern extent of Room 5. The marble threshold block in the doorway between Rooms 5 and 3 appears to be a reused block. A deposit of marble chips in the fill below floor 568 on the north side of the threshold, dating to the mid to third quarter of the 12th century, may be left from the reworking of this block for its final use.

Frankish
The next phase of use is visible in the north baulk area. A construction phase and the raising of the floor in the mid to late 13th century are apparent in several dumping fill deposits in the western portion of the baulk. A wall belonging to a previous phase of use of the building (structure context 501 [N1077.21, S1075.40, W106.37, W105.70]) was covered over by fill, indicating a change in the division of space and a change in use in the area. Wall 501 is made of roughly hewn, randomly coursed limestone blocks (0.35 x 0.20 x 0.15 m) bonded with mud plaster. It does not seem to directly correspond with any other visible walls. Only the top of wall 501 was exposed in this season’s excavations, so more cannot be said about its date other than that it was out of use by the mid 13th century.

Sometime in the 13th century, a cement surface was laid down. Our excavations this year were not able to properly examine it, but its edge was revealed with the removal of contexts 463 and 521 and it appears to continue under the unexcavated fill below wall 110 (N1078.40, S1077.96, E111.48, W106.71). This may represent a use surface instead of simply a phase of construction, suggesting an interim phase of use of the building between the Byzantine period and the 14th century.

Floor 568 of the Byzantine period was later overlaid with fill, onto which was built wall 135 in the 14th century (see Williams, Hesperia 1995). The fill covering floor 568 was excavated in 1994 (NB869). The construction of wall 135 re-divided the space, creating Room F to its west.

Floors or construction surfaces were built (contexts 463, 469) and small stone walls or platforms were installed (structure contexts 442 [N1076.71, S1075.69, E106.70, W106.21], 455 [N1076.16, S1075.63, E105.90, W105.20]) in the 13th and 14th centuries. Structure context 442 was a rectangular stone construction, 1.10 x 0.50 x 0.18 m, without a deeper foundation. Its small size and flat top surface suggest it was a platform for something built on top of it rather than a wall. Structure context 455 was similar, 0.43 x 0.70 x 0.81 m, with a flat top surface and no foundation, but less regularly rectangular. The purpose of these stone platforms is unclear but they may indicate a change in the use of the area. These two small structures are not physically connected but have their top surfaces at similar elevations. They could have been constructed to be used together.

Floor 469 included four sherds (out of 599 total sherds) of 18th-19th century Ottoman pottery. The context was cut by an Ottoman period pit excavated in the previous session (cut context 255, deposit contexts 256 and 259). Given that none of the contexts overlying this one contained any material dating to later than the 14th century, it seemed most likely these few sherds were contamination from under-digging of the adjacent pit and the context has been placed in the 13th century in the Harris Matrix, based on stratigraphic relationships.

In the early 14th century, a plaster “bin” (approximately 1 m wide, 0.28 m deep, extending 0.55 m south from wall 110) was built on an earlier surface of leveling fill in the eastern portion of the excavation area. It is uncertain whether the bin is truly a built structure or simply consists of the remains of plaster mixed on site during construction. The bin cuts into the unexcavated fill below floor 413 and extends under and predates wall 110, which must date to at least the mid 14th century. Further exploration of the bin was not possible without removing the wall. Before wall 110 was constructed, it is unclear whether this area was roofed or not, but the cement floor mentioned earlier suggests it may have been, or was at least a delineated area of frequent use.

The south edge of the bin was cut by the digging of a large pit into the subfloor (435). Joining fragments of a cooking pot where found in this fill (428) and that inside the plaster bin (438). The pit was truncated by the 1994 excavations. It originally extended an additional 4m to the south (see NB869 B71, Lot 1994-26). If the plaster bin is to be associated with a construction phase, this pit should be as well. The 1994 lot was dated to the mid to third quarter 13th century, while the fill excavated this year was dated to the early 14th century. This pottery is saved in Lot 2014-37.

In the mid-14th century a refuse pit was dug and filled in the western part of the baulk (cut context 464, deposit contexts 458, 487, 504). The fill included many large tile fragments and the soil of the upper layers was mostly clay. Together, the dumped clay and roof tiles likely represent a dump of construction refuse. At the bottom of the pit was a concentration of ash and two nearly complete but broken Frankish matt-painted storage jars. Fragments of the vessels were deposited up to 20 cm apart vertically in the fill, indicating they were broken prior to deposition. (Amphora: E105.41, N1077.16, H84.93; Hydria/three-handled amphora: E105.08, N1077.70, H84.96).

A leveling fill or construction floor (422) was put in before a final floor was laid south of wall 110 (context 413) in the mid-14th century. At this time the space is now enclosed by walls to the north (110) and east (135) and is certainly now an indoor space.


Conclusion:
This season’s excavations in this area investigated two distinct construction phases of this building.

The wall forming the southern extent of Room 5/F either does not have a foundation trench or it is at a level not reached by this season’s excavations. Based on pottery, the construction of the floor (568) laid against the wall has a terminus post quem of the mid to third quarter of the 12th century.

Wall 110 has no foundation and cannot be excavated under at this time. The floor laid against it (413) has a t.p.q. of the mid 14th century based on its stratigraphy.

We did not investigate material on top of these floor surfaces in this session, and so cannot address the use of the building in these phases. We can say that the period prior to the 14th century phase was characterized by extensive construction in the area and the deposition of a significant amount of fill.


SOUTH HALL
Byzantine Period

The earliest activity detected in the area occupied by the South Hall appears to be a pit dug in the mid to third quarter of the 12th century. This likely represents a refuse dump, as it contained a good quantity of pottery and some charcoal (deposit context 565). Only part of this lowest fill was removed, because we realized the cut we had begun excavating (cut context 566) cut an earlier pit below. This deepest material was being removed unstratigraphically and we could not be sure how far the deposit extended horizontally, so we closed the context. This also means the 12th century date is not secure, though it is suggested by the pottery.

In our excavation, we exposed the foundations of an east-west wall, approximately 1 meter south of wall 534 and running roughly parallel to it, covered over by later floors. The earlier wall extended to the west beyond the boundaries of the excavation area and below wall 526 and to the east beyond the excavation area. The “pit” found but not excavated in the earlier excavations turned out to be an area where the floor had sagged over this wall. In the 12th century, this area was obviously divided very differently than in the Frankish phase visible today. The area north of the wall, closer to the church, had a much darker fill than that south of the wall, indicating it was an interior space and this was the south wall of an earlier building.

Frankish Period

In the early 14th century, another pit was dug above the Byzantine pit, in the space that would later become the southwest corner of the South Hall (cut context 566, deposit context 561). Again this was likely a refuse dump, as it contained a good amount of ceramic sherds.

Also in the early 14th century, the ground was leveled and smoothed (deposit context 547), probably in preparation for construction of the South Hall. The north wall (structure context 534 [N1068.20, S1066.71, E130.84, W122.32]) and west wall (structure context 526 [N1066.76, S1063.10, E123.49, W122.52]) of the South Hall were built on this surface, and a floor, or perhaps a subfloor, was laid over it (deposit context 532). The walls were built of reused limestone blocks, probably from a Roman period construction in the area, and were laid directly on the leveled ground surface without foundations. None of the walls of the South Hall bond with the walls of the church to the north, wall 534 included, though it is laid very close and parallel to the south wall of the church. Still in the 14th century, another floor surface was laid down later (527), and then a final cement floor was added sometime after this.

Sometime after floor 527 was laid, the south wall of the South Hall was constructed (structure context 535 [N1064.99, S1063.44, E131.60, W123.87]) overlaying it. It may have been the case that the South Hall was a part of a much larger building extending further to the south, and wall 535 was added to divide the space. Investigation of the area south of the South Hall could tell us more about the phasing of this larger structure and when it was divided.

Conclusion:
The construction of the north and west walls of the South Hall has a terminus post quem of the late 13th – early 14th century based on pottery in the deposit overlaid by the walls. The south wall has a t.p.q. of the early 14th century. The construction of the north and west walls seems to have been contemporaneous, while the south wall may have been built slightly later.


Recommendations for Future Work
South Hall:
1. Excavate in eastern half of Hall to uncover more of exposed Byzantine wall.
2. Explore area south of south wall to determine if South Hall was previously part of a larger building divided by a partition wall.

Room F:
1. Continue excavations in search of a foundation trench or deposit associable with the construction of the wall forming the southern boundary of the room.

North Baulk:
1. Remove wall 110 and continue investigation of construction levels below, including the plaster bin and the cement floor.