 |
Til BarsibSyria |
|
Til BarsibSyria |
page added December 21, 2007
|
| About 620m northeast of the palace entrance, a portion of the enceinte wall is visible and was cleared by the French excavation team. Near the center of this wall section the excavators found a gateway, whose main doorway was originally flanked by basalt lions. The western-most lion survives mostly intact and was found fallen onto its uncarved side; only fragments of the eastern lion remain. The lions seem to have originally stood on limestone bases. | |
Western lion (photograph by Guy Bunnens; click image for larger view). |
Approach to the Til Barsib Lion Gate; reconstructed by Learning Sites based on the French excavations and sketches and suggestions by Guy Bunnens (click image for larger view). |
| The gateway probably had three successive central doorways, similar to the entryways at Arslan Tash and Zinjirli, according to the excavators. A stone pavement was found outside the gateway, both in front and in back of the entry passage and inside.
Inside the first space (as one approaches the gate from outside the walls), what appears to be a sentry room opens to the southeast. |
Plan of the Lion Gate area; plan E in Thureau-Dangin, F. and Maurice Dunand. Til-Barsib. |
|
The rest of the fortification wall had a foundation of stones and superstructure of mudbrick (each about 37cm square and 11cm thick) set in clay mortar. At 90cm above the foundation was a bed of small pebbles, which seems to occur at 90cm intervals. There is no indication of the full height of the wall or how it might have been capped or decorated at the top. |
|
|
| Reference
Information
page created: December 14, 2007 page updated: December 21, 2007 you are here: Learning Sites Home page ==> Learning Sites Index page ==> Til Barsib, Syria, Homepage ==> Til Barsib Lion Gate this page's URL is: http://www.learningsites.com/Barsib/Barsib_html-pgs/Til-Barsib_LionGate.html page author: Learning Sites, Inc. © 2007 Learning Sites, Inc. |
