464 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1941 



bricks in this supporting ramp was set about 2 centimeters back of 

 the preceding row, so that by the time the top of the inward slope 

 of the glagis reached the top of the smelter wall, only the width of 

 the smelter wall remained. The outer, very steep slope of this glagis 

 was then covered with a thick facing of strong mud mortar, which 

 effectively hid all the irregularities of the tiny steps of its successively 

 graduated rows of bricks, and presented a surface so smooth as not 

 to afford a toehold to anyone desirous of ascending it. Although 

 the glagis around the smelter can in no wise be distinguished from 

 a fortification glagis, it was intended not so much to keep out an 

 enemy as to bolster up the walls of the smelter. 



The strength of this smelter glagis was, furthermore, enhanced 

 by the fact that while its outer face sloped inward as it went upward, 

 the rows of bricks in it sloped downward somewhat toward the face 

 of each of the walls against which the glagis was built. In addition, 

 the builders of this glagis (and others like it in a later period at Tell 

 el-Kheleifeh), employed a principle of tying the bricks to each 

 other that was commonly used, for instance, in the Renaissance 

 Period in Europe, particularly for fortress construction. The bricks 

 were laid in complex, crisscross patterns. It is the strongest form 

 of brick bonding known to man, and must already have been old 

 when used by the brickmasons of Ezion-geber. By ascertaining the 

 degree of the angle of the slope of the glagis around the smelter, both 

 the height of the glagis and the original height of the walls against 

 which it was built could be obtained. Allowing for the upward 

 extension of the walls of the smelter above the top of the glagis, it 

 is possible to say that the smelter walls were about 4 meters high. 

 There was no roof over the smelter. Naturally, when the strength- 

 ening glagis was built against the smelter walls, the flue system 

 could no longer function in the same manner as previously. The 

 inside walls were completely plastered over, closing the flue holes 

 from this side also. Just how the necessary draft was furnished 

 for the furnaces is not clear to us. One thing is certain, namely, 

 refining and, to a degree, smelting operations were continued in the 

 smelter-refinery. The heat was so intense that the plaster covering 

 the walls and the previous flue holes was literally fused against the 

 walls. Perhaps flue holes were built in the walls above the level of 

 the top of the glagis; or perhaps the crude bellows system worked 

 by hand was reverted to. Apparently the smelter-refinery was used 

 in one form or another till the end of the occupation of Ezion- 

 geber : Elath. 



In all probability, the refinery and foundries and factories at 

 Ezion-geber were manned for the most part with slave labor, even 



