Secondary Walls

As the clearing of the fallen rubble around the tower proceeded, remains of four rubble walls were discovered (Walls 1-4, map 4). The packings of tile fragments respected these walls, coming up to but not underlying them, indicating that these walls were built before the roof-tile fills were laid down.

Walls 2 and 4 abut the tower face without bonding into it (figure 27). Both walls probably once formed right angles with Walls 1 and 3 respectively. The continuation of Wall 4 was indicated in the roof-tile fills lying on either side but not intruding into the area where the stones of the wall had been removed (see stippling in map 4). A dense roof-tile fill on the western side of Wall 2 did not extend as far as Wall 1, so here evidence for a corner is less dear.^[9] Bedrock nowhere showed signs of having been dressed to form a bedding for these walls or to level the uneven surfaces enclosed by them. Equally notable is the absence of any hard-packed earth or stone-chip floor surface. The only indication that care was taken to provide a level surface in the spaces bounded by these walls and the tower is the presence of the loose packings of roof-tile fragments and mud-brick debris.

Some large roof-tile fragments were found standing upright against the foot of Wall 4, on either side, as well as against the foot of the tower just south of Wall 4. These appear to have been deliberately placed to border and retain the mud-brick and roof-tile fill packed up against these rubble walls.^[10] The fact that the tile and mud-brick fills with their crude revetments were the only evidence of leveling for floors associated with Walls 1-4, and even more significant, the fact that a few isolated tile fragments were found built into Walls 3 and 4, wedged among and under the stones of these walls, indicate that the construction of the walls and the laying of the tile and mud-brick leveling fills all belong to the same construction phase. This construction was undertaken when large

quantifies of broken roof tiles and disintegrating mud brick were available on the site.^[11] Since the tower itself is the only structure from which this material could have been taken, it is evident that the walls and associated leveling fills are the remains of a construction phase begun after the tower had fallen into ruin and its roof had collapsed.