472 Excavations at Sdrndth. [No. 5. 



at the line indicated by the letters N. W. at the S. East corner of 

 the clearings. The modern half-wall, erected upon the remains of the 

 more ancient edifice, was evidently built into an already existing bank 

 consisting, at the point of contact, of a debris of broken bricks, &c. 

 The masonry of this wall is regular on the inner face, forming the 

 one side of the small chamber — but is left rough and irregular on 

 the surface covered by the bank — the chambers on the eastern side 

 of the square were found filled in with a strange medley of uncooked 

 food, hastily abandoned on their floors — pottery of every day life, 

 nodes of brass produced apparently by the melting down of the 

 cooking vessels in common use — above these again were the remnants 

 of the charred timbers of the roof — with iron nails still remaining 

 in them — above which again appeared broken bricks mixed with 

 earth and rubbish to the height of the extant wall, some 6 feet from 

 the original flooring — every item here bore evidence of a complete 

 conflagration and so intense seems to have been the heat that in 

 portions of the wall still standing the clay, which formed the substi- 

 tute for lime in binding the brickwork, is baked to a similar con- 

 sistency with the bricks themselves. In short, all existing indi- 

 cations lead to a necessary inference that the destruction of the 

 building, by whomsoever caused, was effected by fire applied by the 

 hand of an exterminating adversary, rather than by any ordinary 

 accidental conflagration. Had the latter been the cause of the re- 

 sults now observed, it is scarcely to be supposed that so well-peopled 

 a convent, so time-hallowed a shrine, should have been so hastily 

 and completely abandoned. In front of these chambers we see 

 traces of a verandah, and, at the N". east corner, we again ob- 

 serve the ancient walls performing the part of foundations for their 

 modern successors ; there would seem to have been an outlet from 

 the main square at this point, though as far as the excavations have 

 yet been extended in this direction, it is difficult to say where this 

 passage led to, inasmuch as on the east we encounter a mere retain- 

 ing wall, supporting a corner of the high bank — and on the north 

 we meet with a singular elbow-shaped superficial continuation of 

 the outer wall of the main building; what this strange angular 

 affair may indicate, or how far it may extend into the bank must for 

 the present be allowed to pass. 



