Page 126 - A Walk to Caesarea / Joseph Patrich

112 Archaeological Review above, p. 19) it was surrounded on the north, the east, and the south by a reflecting
pool. The façade of the hall, which was not preserved, therefore faced west. To the
Fig. 125 east of the reflection pool was a square graded fountain house with an apse on the
A niche in the wall of the east and grades on the south, west, and north. Its basin was paved with a white
archives/library in which mosaic and the grades were marble covered. The water supply came from the north,
a wooden cupboard was through a lead pipe, a segment of which has been uncovered.
probably placed, housing
documents or bound books In phase 2 (Fig. 35 above, p. 33) the reflecting pool was converted into an
(codices) ornamental garden: Rows of flat stones were set on the floor of the pool and upon
them a layer of tiles. Brown soil (h.amra), for planting, was poured over the tiles.
This layout insured the existence of an insulated void space between the moist
garden soil and the vaults beneath it. This insulation technique is known in Roman
gardens as “hanging gardens”. In this phase the fountain on the east was reduced
due to the installation of a square irrigation water tank, and in its eastern side a
niche replaced the apse. In this phase, too, the façade of the hall faced west.

A small latrine existed in phases 1 and 2 in vault 54, in the area south of the
fountain house. Access to it from the west was through alley 3 and vault 19, and
from the east through a staircase that led down to vault 54. This latrine probably
served the staff of clerks who worked in the courthouse and the nearby rooms, while
the general public could use the public latrine that was close to the intersection of
the cardo and the decumanus.

In phase 3 all the area to the east of the main hall was covered with a mosaic
floor featuring geometric lozenges. This floor also covered the fountain house,
which was dismantled. Only in this phase was the façade of the hall reoriented
to the east, and now extending in front of it was a mosaic-paved courtyard. In the
west, in place of the old façade, an apse was apparently added to the hall.

A fifth-century Greek inscription of a legal nature,
fragments of which were collected from the nearby area
(Fig. 36 above, p. 34), identifies this hall, in all its phases,
as a court for civil matters. A second, smaller apsidal
hall, set on a lower level, was found north of there. The
apse damaged the mosaic-paved, rectangular hall, to the
south and north of which were elongated corridors (on a
west-east axis), also mosaic paved. In the southern wall
of the southern corridor were five rectangular niches.
The easternmost has been preserved in its entirety
(Fig. 125). Niches such as these were usually intended to
house wooden cupboards (armaria). From the proximity
of this structure to the law court, we may presume that
this rectangular hall and the niches in its wall served
as an archive (tabularium) or library for matters of law
or finance. A tabularium in Caesarea is mentioned in a
Greek papyrus discovered in Egypt. Perhaps the apsidal
hall built over the rectangular hall was also used for
the same purpose, namely, as an archive or library. South