Page:Palestine Exploration Fund - Quarterly Statement for 1894.djvu/213

Rh them with the stones of our new tower and find a considerable difference. As a rule the drafts upon them were produced by a fine comb-pick, used diagonally in the style associated with Crusading work. I measured several, finding the length to be 2 feet. Some seem to have the "pock-marking," but their general appearance is different to ours, the centres being in most cases flat, and there is no example of a huge irregular boss.

The heap of rubbish above our tower I hope may yield us other results. We may find where the 36 steps, explored by Warren, lead to, and whether they terminate at a gate. The owners of the land say that in digging in the rubbish they found things of interest. One of these was a vase of a cluster of pillars of Crusading work, the fellow to which we found fallen to the bottom of our tower. Of course we hope for earlier objects. We are also following the scarp from its junction with the tower from I to I', One stone may be seen in situ, the drafts worked with the comb-picking. I have this moment visited a curious angular cutting in the scarp, plastered, but not a cistern, which may develop into anything, as it seems to have a platform in front of it. We must find the depth of the face of the scarp at corner H'. From this corner we will be able to secure a good photograph when the cuttings are complete.

Beyond the point I', the scarp follows the steep contour 2489 in a north-easterly direction and disappears beyond the new house referred to above. Beyond this point this contour is no longer a lofty cliff. The distance between it and contour 2479 is 100 feet. Unless the ground has greatly changed, the wall would not have occupied an advantageous position. Why should the gently-sloping ground to the south as far as contour 2469 or 2449, even, have been shut out of the city? From point I, why does the scarp take a north-easterly direction, when, according to Josephus, we expect it to take an easterly direction to its bending above Siloam? Was there an inner wall, and was there also an outer wall? Or was the ground between contours 2489 and 2509 occupied by a great inner fortress, with its ditch as followed by us 1 These questions have greatly interested me. General Forestier Walker and his staff, who visited me, agreed that from a military point of view a wall would be expected on the lower and steeper contours. Accordingly I sank a pit at J to a depth of some 20 feet, and we are now tunnelling inwards to see whether there are signs of an outer wall along the contour 2469, which passes through the branching to right and left of the road from Bab Neby Daûd, where Sir Charles Wilson suggests we may expect a gate.

The pottery we have recovered from this pit and tunnel I recognise as late Jewish, similar to what we found at Tell el-Hesy, belonging to the fifth and sixth centuries, B.C. Thus far we have reached no wall, but we expect to find something. We also sunk shafts at F and G. At F we found the wall of a house; at G a fine doorway, and we are now exploring the walls of the house to which it belongs. They were probably within the city wall of their time, as of course were the remains explored [at