Byzantine Law Court and Roof Garden

Mon, 03 May 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Dates

77 CE - 638 CE

Garden Description

Architectural analysis and epigraphic finds excavated by Josef Patrich and the Combined Caesarea Excavations suggest that the buildings in the area immediately south of the harbor (Area CC) formed a governmental compound of Roman - Byzantine Caesarea, comprising a Revenue Office (skrinion), a Law Court and adjacent to them an archive or library for judicial and financial records and books. Earlier archaeologists (JECM) had identified this complex as an honorific U-shaped building; however, it is clearly the inverse. Constructed about 200 CE, the Law Court was a vast hall (13 x 18 m.), built on top of four vaults facing west(Fig.1). In the first phase (fig 3), the hall faced west to the sea and was surrounded on three sides (N, E and S) by a reflection pool. To its east a square fountain was constructed.

During the second phase (fig 4), the pool was converted to a roof garden, filled in with the rich, red sandy soil, locally known as hamra (also noted in the upper courtyard at the promontory palace.) The soil was set on a surface of bipedal ceramic tiles (ca. 60 x 50 cm), which in turn were supported on suspensurae of flat sandstone blocks (each 20 x 20 cm and 15 cm thick) supporting the corners of four bipedal tiles. This arrangement formed a separating space between the roof of the vaults and the garden soil, preventing moisture from damaging the ceiling of the vaults (Fig. 2). This arrangement has no known parallels in Israel, but was used over vaults for the gardens of Tiberius on the Palatine in Rome, a form of nemora pensile, or hanging gardens.

During this phase the building looked out over an extended garden on the east side. Here the garden soil (hamra) extended beyond the eastern wall of the former reflection pool to include the square fountain. The garden was irrigated by a water tank (ca. 3 x 3 m.) erected on ground level between the hall and the fountain, the dimensions of which were reduced at this phase. The eastern wall of the reflection pool was partially dismantled to accommodate this tank.

During the third phase, in the 6th century, the entire garden, including the fountain, was covered by a mosaic floor.

Plans

Fig. 1: Plan of the garden area (Anna Iamim, Combined Caesarea Excavations)

Images

Fig. 2: Reconstructed section of vaults and planting area showing roof garden construction (E. Clemence after J. Patrich)

Fig. 3: Reconstructed of Phases 1 with a surrounding reflection pool (I. Rabinowitz after J. Patrich)

Fig. 4: Reconstructed of Phases 2 with a surrounding garden (I. Rabinowitz after J. Patrich)

Bibliography

K.G. Holum, "Inscriptions from the imperial revenue office of Byzantine Caesarea Palaestinae" Journal of Roman Archaeology Supplement 14, 1995: 333-345. (worldcat)

Keywords

Promontory Palace of Herod the Great

Wed, 21 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Dates

37 BCE - 135 CE

Garden Description

A seaside palace west of the theater at Caesarea Maritima has been identified by E. Netzer as the maritime palace Herod the Great built to supervise construction of the great harbor, and, later, to provide reception space for guests at spectacles and official functions. (Fig. 1) The view north from this promontory became increasingly impressive as the harbor was completed and thrived. The palace served as the official praetorium of his heirs and subsequent Roman officials.

Lower Promontory

Excavations in the 1970s by Netzer and Lee I. Levine in the lower area of the palace revealed a series of luxurious reception rooms and heated chambers centering on a large (35 x 18 m.) rock-cut swimming pool enclosed by a colonnade. Cuttings in the bedrock between the columns suggested to Netzer that planters had been built between the columns, offering a pluteus around the pool, as well as a planting area protected from the salt spray. (Fig. 2)

Upper Palace

Excavations by K. Gleason and B. Burrell for the University of Pennsylvania Museum (1990-1996), in collaboration with E. Netzer and Hebrew University; and by Y. Porath of the Israel Antiquities Authority (1993-1996), have revealed an upper, more public half of the palace connected to the stadium (also referred to as an amphitheater by Porath following Josephus) and the theater. The upper palace comprised a series of baths and reception rooms facing out onto a quadriportico (42 x 65 m.) Although the courtyard was paved in plastered crushed sandstone in later Roman phases, fragmentary areas of layers of rich red sand (hamra), popular today with gardeners, were used to level many areas of the courtyard and may indicate the presence of vegetation or a gardened area in the first Herodian period and possibly a gardened courtyard in the first phase of the upper palace's peristyle courtyard, but soil pits and other planting features were not preserved in any detectable pattern. (Fig. 3) Pollen extracted from plaster on the kurkar columns of the surrounding colonnade included taxa likely to have been growing within the courtyard: Cypress (Cupressus--either juniperus or sempervirens), hazelnut (Corylus, a non-native), and the herbaceous taxa, Brassicacaea, Salvia, and Cistus (Fig. 4). A fourth century CE well briefly supplied water for the courtyard. Curse tablets (defixiones) at the bottom of this well indicate the popular practice of wishing ill, rather than wishing well.

Foundations of garden architecture, water channels and garden soils of the late Byzantine period have also been found, best preserved in the eastern half of the site.

Plans

Fig. 1: Plan of the Promontory Palace (J.H. Williams and A. Iamim): a) first phase (ca. 22-15 BCE) ; b) second phase (ca. 15-4 BCE)

Images

Fig. 2:Photograph of cuttings around pool for planters (K. Gleason.

Fig. 3:Photograph of Hamra soil in courtyard (K. Gleason).

Fig. 4 Reconstruction drawing of the Promontory upper garden (Y. Korman)

Bibliography

D. Langgut, K. Gleason, and B. Burrell, "Pollen Analysis as Evidence for Herod's Royal Garden at the Promontory Palace, Caesarea" Israel Journal of Plant Sciences 62 (2015): 111-121. http://www.tandfonline.com/action/showCitFormats?doi=10.1080/07929978.2014.975560;
K. Gleason et al. "The promontory palace at Caesarea Maritima : preliminary evidence for Herod's Praetorium" Journal of Roman Archaeology, 11 (1998) 23-52. (worldcat)
B. Burrell, K. Gleason, and E. Netzer, "Uncovering Herod's Seaside Palace" Biblical Archaeology Review 19.3(1993): 50-57; link
K. Gleason, "Ruler and Spectacle: Herod's Palace at Caesarea" Caesarea Maritima: a Retrospective after Two Millennia. Eds., A. Raban and K. Holum, Leiden: J. Brill, 1996, pp. 208-27; (worldcat)
L.I. Levine, and E. Netzer, Excavations at Caesarea Maritima, Qedem 21, 1986, pp. 158-160; Excavations at Caesarea Maritima (worldcat)
E. Netzer, "Herod the Great's Palace" In Caesarea Maritima: a Retrospective after Two Millennia. Eds. A. Raban and K. Holum, Leiden: J. Brill, 1996, pp. 193-207. (worldcat)

Caesarea Maritima on Gardens of the Roman Empire

Byzantine Law Court and Roof Garden

Dates

Garden Description

Plans

Images

Bibliography

Keywords

Promontory Palace of Herod the Great

Dates

Garden Description

Plans

Images

Bibliography

Keywords