EXCAVATIONS

The Palace Complex

      Excavations at the Palace Complex were conducted by David Stronach, assisted by Isabelle Ruben. The monumental gateway leading into the complex was identified, the columned Audience Hall was further explored and a special building with ashlar masonry and sandstone paving was investigated.

      One corner of the monumental gateway, built of large granite ashlars with squared timbers between each course and capped by a single row of huge sandstone blocks, was located. Fragments of a sandstone column base suggest an entrance of considerable grandeur. This gate was constructed during major modifications at the eastern end of the complex that were in some way associated with the addition of Structure B, which was partially built over the original stone paved entrance (Figs 8 , 9, 10,11). A pair of large bronze ibex (Fig. 16) was found lying directly on the pavement, making it highly probable that they originally embellished the gateway.

      This monumental gate provided access to an Audience Hall on the opposite side of an open court. This very large building comprises a columned hall and anteroom. The hall, which measures approximately 20m along each side, had two rows of tall wooden columns resting on carved sandstone bases c. 1.00m in diameter with a slightly concave profile. There appear to have been five column bases in each row, but these, together with the ashlar door stones and thresholds, were robbed at some later date so that only fragments now remain. The roof would have been pitched and covered with thatch or shingles the burning of which had baked the floor hard.

      Just to the north of the Audience Hall, apparently in a separate section of the Palace Complex, part of a two-roomed building, The Ashlar Building (Fig. 12), with wide central doorways was excavated.

      The main characteristics of this building are a single course of granite pseudo-ashlars on both the inner and outer faces of each wall (Fig. 12b, c and d), which supported a timber frame filled with stone rubble, covered by a presumably flat roof composed of wooden beams, reeds and clay. Mud plaster covered the upper walling, but not the granite blocks. The outer room (Room 1) was provided with a surround of sandstone paving. Chalk blocks (Fig. 12b and c) were trimmed to fill spaces between ashlars and also to position tightly fitting ashlar and threshold stones.

      The faces of the granite ashlars had drafted or bevelled edges on three sides, the lower edge being left slightly proud. Two blocks on the inside of the outer room have long lines of marks or signs chiselled into them (Fig. 12d and e). Similar incisions, but with fewer marks, can be seen on stones in the inner room (Fig. 12f). These types of markings are often referred to as masons marks, although in this instance both the length and the position of the markings is unusual. Some of the ashlars, including those on either side of the doors, were found to have been robbed out.

      The intensity of the heat from the fire had badly cracked the stonework, leaving no option other than to backfill the building, having first covered the walls and surfaces with geo-textile which discourages burrowing animals and the growth of deep-rooted plants.