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Context Description:
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Room 2, the court, was remarkably undisturbed. Rubbish from the fallen walls and roof of the building covered the floor to a depth of up to 0.70 m.; above it lay alternate strata of wind-blown sand and water-laid mud, evidently the result of a period of desertion, which rose to a maximum height of 1.65 m. uniform and unbroken, and only then came the broken brick and mixed rubbish, pot-sherds etc. which constituted the ordinary debris spread over the whole quarter. Everything that had been in the building at the moment of its destruction had been preserved in situ. The NE wall stood from ten to seventeen courses high - where it was most ruined the water-laid strata ran over the top of it, showing that there was no rebuilding; the SW wall stood to seven courses, the NW also to seven; the floor was brick-paved, but in the west corner the pavement stopped short at 0.54 m. from the NW wall, and at 1.00 m. from the SW wall, and from the face of that wall three or four bricks projected by as much as 0.15 m., showing that there had been here some kind of pedestal whose front was presumably flush with that of the bases flanking the doorway, though the latter were not bonded into the wall, as whatever stood here in the corner must have been. In the NW wall were two doors, one leading to the passage, Room 5, the other, distinguished by reveals to its jambs, opening on the sanctuary. Against either jamb was a base or pedestal built of mud brick over burnt brick foundations, 0.54 m. sq. X 0.65 m. and 0.75 m. high respectively; in the top of the SW pedestal was a rectangular hollow 0.40 m. X 0.20 m. X 0.20 m. deep, lined with bitumen; the top of the other was flat. In front of the door stood a brick altar 0.75 m. X 0.50 m. X 0.75 m. high with traces of bitumen on its top. In the east corner there was a rectangle of burnt bricks about 1.00 m. X 1.10 m. raised 0.15 above the level of the pavement; if there had been mud brick above this it had disappeared, but that there had been such was not unlikely, and the top of the existing brickwork was rough and unlike a true surface. Against the NE wall, at 1.20 m. from the east corner of the court, there was a gap in the pavement 1.40 m. long and 0.65 m. wide; this may have been due simply to the disappearance of some of the paving-bricks, but was possibly the site of some construction in mud or mud brick, possibly a base.2
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