Page:Palestine Exploration Fund - Quarterly Statement for 1894.djvu/134

110 in the western wall of the crypt, about 6 feet above the floor, is an opening of a passage, which leads out on to the pavement. A section of the passage measures somewhat under 2 feet square. The well is at the western end of the eastern arm. The walls are plastered, and on the floor, near the well, are signs of a mosaic pavement. The crypt is not lighted except by the passage just mentioned. The Abbot has placed an altar at the eastern end. He has also fitted a wooden door at the doorway at E, so that the crypt is now approached by ten steps.

The pavement (stone-flagging) at the top of the stairway has not been traced further than the point  but it may be assumed to occupy the place around the crypt. It is, as I have said, several feet lower than the top of the vault, hence the walls and the inferred wall  will be seen to rise from it. The wall has not been traced far enough for us to tell whether it continued southwards, or took a bend to the east.

So much for the crypt and its immediate surroundings, but the Abbot has done further work in excavating. Eighty-one feet west from the westward opening of the passage he has cleared away the rubbish long the upper part of the inside of a thick wall, exactly parallel to the wall  and hence also to the north and south axis of the crypt. As proved by comparison with other places, at least 10 feet of this wall must lie buried under the rubbish. It is 66 feet long from to  and its central point (in the middle of the doorway) falls in a continuation of the line  hence it is exactly opposite the well, at  and at  the wall turns to the east, and was traced for some 50 or 60 feet only. The wall, as seen from the inside, is built of roughly hewn stones, with small chippings let in between the joints, which, however, are well plastered over. It is difficult to determine the real thickness, as a rude modern wall has been built upon it and outside of it, making the entire present breadth over 12 feet. Accordingly, I have not seen the outside face.

At the point 35 feet from the west wall and 11 feet from the south wall, there sticks quite perpendicularly out of the rubbish a broken column of syenite granite. At the point l, 35 feet from the western wall and 11 feet from the north wall, there is a similar column (measuring 6 feet round), evidently in situ. Leaning against it there is another column, which I have not drawn; the first of these adjoining columns is slightly shaved off at the point of contact. The Abbot cleared the rubbish from about these two columns, and tells me that the place where they rest on the ground was found to be on a level with the pavement at the top of the stairway from the crypt. I was very sorry not to visit the spot with the Abbot, but he was away, returning only at night, when I saw him at the Monastery, but as his Arabic is not perfect I could not get out of him all I wished, although he was most cordial in furnishing information. However, he was clear on this point of levels, which is important in deciding the identity of the work about the crypt with the other discoveries. The rubbish near the columns was 12 or 15 feet deep, at the bottom he found ashes as from the falling of a roof.

On the basis of the facts above presented, I have ventured to restore