Page:Palestine Exploration Fund - Quarterly Statement for 1894.djvu/217

Rh stone buildings occur. On the surface we found a few specimens of Roman pottery, but very few in comparison with sites that are undoubtedly Roman.

I visited the other Tells excavated by Warren, with the exception of one, but made little out of them. However, Tell Abu Ghannam (which is not a true mound but only a rough heap of ruins), shows how much a brief inspection of the surface of the ground may tell of what is beneath. First we have a general swelling several feet above the plain, which indicates débris. Next, we observe a ridge running around near the edges of the swelling, forming a perfect quadrangle 78 paces square. Along many parts of the ridge may be traced one course of a stone wall 2 or 3 feet thick. In the north-west corner is a higher heap of débris, occupying a space about 50 paces by 35. In the south-west corner there is a much smaller heap with a similar one in the centre. The rest of the quadrangle is flat. The inference is clear. We have here a small establishment (perhaps a Khan) consisting of an open court, with a building at its north-east angle, a gate or tower at the south-west, and perhaps a covered well in the centre. Twenty minutes on the spot were sufficient to determine these general features, while from the path a few yards away, nothing was observable but a low swelling. Two or three days of excavation would doubtless throw light on its date. From the name it may be a small convent rather than a Khan. The ruins at Tell-el-Mutlub are similar.

Two miles almost directly north of the ruined tower of Er Riha is the heap of ruins marked on the map Khurbet el Mefjir. I was first told that its name was Khurbet el Nuwei'meh, evidently so-called from the Wady immediately to the south of it. Later I heard the name Khurbet el Mefjir applied to it. Warren called it Khurbet es Sumrah (or the Dark Ruin). This name is attached in the map to two ruins respectively about two and three miles to the north-east of Khurbet el Mefjir; also to one to the south. Curiously enough, one man whom I questioned about the place called it Khurbet es Sumrah. Hence I was given not only the two names recovered respectively by Warren and by Conder, but a new name as well. This shows the difficulty attaching to an attempt to recover the name of a ruin in an unsettled country.

At this place Warren did some excavating, and found an apse pointing south, which Conder suggests may have been the transept of a great church, a chamber with frescoes and other remains which have since disappeared. When I was at Jericho with Canon Tristram in February I saw a good-sized building belonging to the Sultan's palace in course of construction at Riha, and was told that all the stone had been brought from Khurbet el Mefjir. I have told before how the Canon and myself visited the place for a couple of hours and how we suggested it might represent Herod's long-lost palace. In March I re-visited the place, and will now give the results of my second inspection.

The ruins occupy a space 450 paces long, from north to south, and about 200 paces wide. Until they were recently searched for stone they