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76 [handwritten: 76]
4 to 4.90 m. in length, 0.96 m. in height and 0.54 m. in thickness. The top of the blocks show a groove 0.16 m. in width cut on the inner side which is continued on the block of the facade of the building on which wall 7 abuts (wall 14). Here the groove is 0.44 m. in width. No doubt this groove was meant to receive a horizontal beam, the side of which was flush with the inner face of the wall and which served as a reinforcement. [handwritten: [illegible]] This feature, which occurs in other parts of the building, repeats a technique observed in various ancient sites of the Mediterranean world, both in the Aegean and in the Middle East. In this connection the parallels observed at Ras-Shamra (Ugarit) (1) and at Atchanah (Alalakh) (2) are of special interest.
At the junction with the northern part of this wall (9) there is a small gap between the two ends, which
(1) cf. Ol. Schaeffer, Ugaritica, 92 ff., pl.XIX.
(2) cf. Antiquaries Journal, XIX, 9-10, and Sidney Smith, Timber and brick in masonry construction in Pal. Expl. Quart. 1941, 5 ff.
65 figures hard to readstruck struck outadded written in above” jug ditto, and what it repeatsword reading not certain