Page 151 - A Walk to Caesarea / Joseph Patrich

A Walk to Caesarea: A Historical-Archaeological Perspective 137

The width of the upper part of the southern mole was c. 40 m, the upper part
of the western mole – c. 60 m. The artificial island of loaded wooden barges was
set upon a bedding of rough pebbles and unhewn stones. Between the islands
were bridging sections made up of two parallel walls 15–20 m distant from each
other, which were laid over a similar bedding. The inner wall – following the line
of the quay – was built of courses of ashlars with rather uniform measurements:
0.5 x 0.6 x 2.2 m, laid as headers. The outer line was composed of a series of cast
piers, measuring c. 10 x 10 m, set c. 20 m apart, and between them smaller cast
piers, 4 x 4 m in dimension. The masonry sections between the cast piers of the
southern mole were made of ashlar stones 3–5 m long, which were laid as headers
on the noted bedding of small unhewn stones and rough river pebbles, 60–80 cm
thick. The space between the inner and outer wall was filled with spill of unhewn
stones and pebbles. Assumedly, there were also crosswise walls that bonded the
two lines to each other, and divided the foundations of the mole into long fill
compartments. Over the outer edges of this mole, the wall of towers mentioned
by Josephus was built; apparently there was a match between the location of the
towers and their height and the dimensions of the underlying cast piers, 10 x 10
m in dimensions. Along the wall, facing inward, vaults were built that served
everything and everyone coming to the harbor – sailors and wares (Fig. 152).

Beneath sea level, at a distance of c. 30–40 m beyond the southern mole, facing
the stronger waves, was built a parallel wall or bulwark, composed of detached
sections, whose top did not protrude from the water’s surface. The built sections of
this wall, too, were built applying the system of cast pillars (3 x 3 m in dimensions),
set 3–4 m apart, with masonry segments in between. Of the latter, the inner side of
the foundation course of ashlars was laid as headers, with no indication of bonding
material. The stones are of uniform size: 1.8 m long x 0.7 m wide and 0.6 m thick.
They were laid on a bedding of small unhewn stones and pebbles in three parallel
rows, forming a wall more than 5 m thick. Well-preserved in the south (area E)

Fig. 152
Proposed reconstruction
of the vaults that served
as lodging for sailors and
merchandise warehouses