Princeton Expeditions to Syria (1899, 1904-1905, 1909)

January 4, 1905

'Anz 7:00 A.M. Temp. 29 1/2 °F. Baro. S. 25.88. Clear calm. Light variable air all day. Thin ice in morning

January 3, 1905 B & L. went from ^ summit ^ 'Abd Mâr to ir-Râfḳah 35 min. ir-Râfḳah to Ṭeḥûleh skirting N. side of 'Abd Mâr 1h 30m. Ṭeḥûleh to Meshḳûḳ 32 min Meshḳûḳ to Anz 45 min

Jan. 4th Left 'Anz 8:52 going N.E. Kfêr 9:28 R. Village 1 mile S.S.W. of il-Meshḳûḳ Left Kfêr 10:35 going N.N.E. Dêr il-Meshḳûḳ 150 yds E. of il-Meshḳûḳ R. Village 10:53, Left 11:47 going E arrived Ṣammeh 12:33 R. Village. Left 3:17 going W.S.W. il-Ḳmêreh 4:35 R. Village Left 4:35 going W. 'Anz 5:27

over plowed fields Roads & Ways G.S.L. G.M.

We left a servant at il-Meshḳûḳ to make two squeezes of inscriptions. He reports that natives from Ṣalkhad tore off one of the squeezes and gathered around with stones threatening him with personal violence & that he had to leave. He reports that they said that because we had joined in the "battle" of last night, as they could tell by the crack of our "Winchester" taking sides with the people from 'Anz that they were coming again tonight and were going to kill one of us.

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Dêr il-Meshḳûḳ

[Plan of convent at Dêr il-Meshḳûḳ with insets of architectural details.]

Date 124 A.D.

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V Dêr il-Meshḳûḳ is a ruin less than 5 minutes walk to the E. of the village. The ruin in its present condition shows an agglomeration of walls of various kinds, from the highly finished masonry to crudely quadrated work.

Its plain that the buildings have been a convent, and that the church has been rebuilt in the middle ages for domestic puroses. A careful study of the ruin however shows that we have here the foundations and some details of a temple which opened to the E. In Xtian times the naos was converted into a nave, the pionars was walled up for sanctuary and side chambers.

In this work the upper parts of the temple wall were taken down, and its highly finished blocks were mixed with roughly quadrated blocks in the walls of the church and surrounding buildings and even in the walls of the neighbouring town.

Parts of the highly finished walls are in place, the walls of the church are of good class, though

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not so good as the temple walls. The other wallsthose of the conventual buildings are rather crude work in roughly quadrated stonework and are very ruinous. In the west wall there is a good Nabataean inscription recording the setting up of a column? in the 7th year of the Emperor Hadrian. This is the latest of known dated Nabataean inscriptions. The temple was not in Nabataean style; but in the classic style of Hadrian's reign as may be seen from the bases of the [two] antae which are in situ, and from a few fragments of mouldings etc.

I believe that this is the temple of the 'Anz insc. wh. records the restoration of Paganism under Julian. This insc. is known to have been imported, and is said to have come from Kfêr, about 20 min from Dêr il-Meshḳûḳ There are no remains of a temple in any of the surrounding towns. It is possible that this stone was carried to Kfêr when the church was built after the restoration of Xtian worship, or the natives may have forgotten. Statue .77 high from N. of temple.

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Mishḳuḳ Dêr il-Meshḳûḳ

[Plan and architectural details from convent at Dêr il-Meshḳûḳ]