Page:Palestine Exploration Fund - Quarterly Statement for 1894.djvu/293

Rh plan indicates only the direction of our gallery and not the line of scarps, which was most arbitrary, as is natural in a quarry. Here one could plainly see where stones had been cut out. Indeed, the evidence that this was a quarry was so great that I felt a genuine relief when the true clue was picked up again at N, where the line was found regular again. We must remember that for a thousand years (and perhaps, indeed, since the destruction by Titus) the wall has not extended as far south as this point, and yet during all this time Jerusalem has been, with hardly any break, an inhabited city. We may assume that hardly a year has passed when stone for building has not been required. First, the overthrown stones would have been carried away into the city; then the stones still in situ would have been removed; there still remained exposed this solid rock base, which, especially at the bastion, would have furnished a grand quarry. This, in turn, was cut into all along its top and even to its edge, which explains the lowness of the scarp at several points as we find it to-day, along the line R—S. We may be thankful that even 2 feet remained, as the quarrying might have been carried on to the base, thus destroying our clue.

This scarp, then, appears to me to be part of the outer fortification of ancient Jerusalem. In writing these quarterly reports I prefer to follow the "historic method," and to present the arguments as they presented themselves to me during the course of the work. Some of the conclusions will doubtless be modified in my final memoir. Indeed, in this very report I shall have certain new facts to present, which may suggest slight modifications of the theory.

If this outer line of scarp, which we have been describing at such length, be adopted as the true outer line of fortification, it is left for us to account for the scarp of Maudslay, together with our tower and the continuation of the scarp and fosse north-east towards Neby Daûd. I take this scarp to belong to an inner fortress occupying the space between the contours 2499 and 2519, which seems to me to be well suited for an inner fort. This fort has its own fosse, towers, &c., as the present so-called Tower of David, though inside the wall, has its own towers and fosse. We cannot tell at what point our outer scarp joins this inner work, for we have not traced it beyond the school garden, but it is probably beyond the place where Maudslay's scarp begins at the Greek Catholic Cemetery.

In my report in the July Quarterly I described the masonry of the tower belonging to this inner work. This was found to rest upon a solid platform of rock, which we have since bared to its base, quite clearing out, as well, the ditch at this corner. The clearance was about 20 feet square, and averaged almost 20 feet in dearth. The amount of débris removed, accordingly, was great, and as the fosse was filled with large stones fallen from the tower, the work was difficult. We began by a shaft along the platform at its corner, but stones so choked up our progress that we could not reach the base. Another shaft had also been sunk above the cistern (where the rock was reached). We then connected these two shafts by