Report on the 1955 seasonH. de Contenson

Continued from scan 20

… façade, a door of more than 3 m. wide opens, preceded by two orthostates perpendicular to the wall. A cup-hollow at the foot of the South orthostate may have served as a pivot socket.

The stratigraphy of the vestibule is very different depending on whether one is in the South or the North. In the southern half, one distinguishes the following layers: 1. Surface layer, with mixed material, including glassware Byzantine, pottery of the Iron I period; its thickness increases from 25 to 75 cmm from South to North. 2. Bed of sterile limestone, descending to a depth of 1 m. except at the southern end, where there is a pocket of brown earth, with Late Bronze III pottery, between 0.75 and 1.00, - and along the East wall, where the limestone is replaced by a sterile blackish silt, which seems to have been deposited by stagnant water. 3. White floor, turning in places into a bed of red clay sterile, at the level of the threshold of the cella. 1.00 to 1.05. 4. Ash with Late Bronze III sherds and a rectangular bone plaquette. 1.05 to 1.10. 5. Very hard white floor, on which the excavation was stopped in this sector. 1.10 to 1.20.

In the northern half, the succession of strata is as follows: 1. Surface earth, with mixed material. 0 to 0.15; 2. White floor (Floor I): initial Iron Age. 0.15 to 0.20. 3. Brown earth, with a polished green stone hatchet (Pt. 65). 0.20 to 0.50. 4. Ash, with Late Bronze final pottery and several objects: bovid horn (Pt. 9), carved ivory fragment representing a wing and a tail of a sphinx (Pt. 11), large pithos crushed in place. 0.50 to 0.70. 5. Compact greenish earth, continuing the silt noted in the southern half and containing a bronze ring and a bronze earring. 0.70 to 1.00. 6. Series of successive floors (Floor II), corresponding to the upper floor noted in the South: a/ very hard white layer; b/ layer very hard yellow. 1.00 to 1.05.