The technique of excavation
was to reveal the limits of the foundation-pit of the temple as a means
of determining the plan of the building. Given that all the above-floor
masonry had been removed in antiquity, this was the only option to recover
details of the extent and design of the monument. It is a technique employed
over many years, with considerable success, in the British Museum's excavations
at Tell el-Balamun. Excavation at Tell Belim began at the north side
of the temple area, where the edge of the foundation of the building was
soon identified, lined with a few courses of mud-bricks. Tracing the edge
of the foundation from this point necessitated the excavation of numerous
trenches around the sides of the temple (picture 1, below). Most of these
were excavated only to a limited depth, just sufficient to reveal the discontinuity
in the ground which marked the cut of the foundation into the older deposits.
1. The north edge of the temple foundation
2. North-west corner of the temple foundation
Gradually, the limit
of the building was followed to the north-west back corner of the temple
and then right across the back of the building to the south-west corner.
Both of the corners were excavated to greater depth to search for any remaining
sand filling or foundation deposits, but the interior of the foundation
was found to contain redeposited material, introduced after the destruction
of the monument. This filling consisted of a mixture of dumps of fill and
rubble, moved around during the exploitation of the temple as a quarry,
together with deposits of dust and mud brought in by wind and rain. This
is the classic content of a destroyed temple foundation of the Nile Delta.
The original sand filling was probably quarried out for use in pottery
manufacture and other industrial processes. The side of the north-west
corner of the foundation-pit retained a thin coating a yellow sand all
down the cut surface of the earth, evidence that the foundation had been
constructed in the traditional manner of the Late Period, as a large rectangular
pit in the ground originally filled with clean sand as a base for the stone
platform of the temple. It was eventually determined that the pit was of
roughly rectangular shape and measured 53 x 26 metres (100 x 50 cubits).
The foundations of Late Period temple are never very regular, and this
one was no exception. Its depth varied from 0.80 metres at the front to
1.3 metres at the back. Neither of these measurements is particularly great
so it seems that the usual rule of preparing a sand-bed foundation down
to the subsoil water-level was not followed at Belim. This rectangular
foundation was just for the inner part of the temple, from the pronaos
or hypostyle hall as far as the rear of the building, but excluding the
front pylon and first court, which were found to have separate foundations.
Across the back of
the temple was a wall of black bricks, 1.4 metres thick but only two courses
in depth, which marked the limit of the building. This wall was connected
to a larger one at the south side, which in turn connected with one of
the cross-walls of the temple enclosure, running behind the temple at a
distance of some 5 metres from it. A check was made at the north end for
a similar arrangement, but all traces here were found to have been completely
eroded away.
3. View across the back of the temple
foundation, from the south
Work was later moved
to the front of the temple, at the east end. The sand foundation-bed for
the stone casing of the north wing of the entrance pylon was found to be
well-preserved. On the south side, although the edge of the foundation
of the pylon could be traced, the sand had all been replaced by redeposited
fill containing fragments of Ptolemaic and Roman pottery. This pylon at
the entrance of the monument had a total width of 36.80 metres, placing
18.40 metres on either side of the axis. The sand-filled foundation was
only 2.25 metres wide because it supported only the stone facing of the
pylon, the remainder of which had been built of mud brick. The thickness
of the pylon including the brick part was 6.20 metres. Surprisingly, the
depth of the sand in the foundation was only about 30cm, below which was
the original pre-temple ground. The temple foundation in many areas had
been cut through settlements of the Third Intermediate Period, dated by
the pottery, which shows that the temple must have been built at a later
date. The most likely date for construction is Dynasty 26, especially as
there is no indication of any Thirtieth-Dynasty work on the temple complex.
Behind the pylon there seems to have been a narrow corridor approach into
the temple, leading to the main part of the building about 25 metres further
west. The dimensions of the different parts of the temple fit well into
ancient cubit measurements: a total length of 78 metres (150 cubits), width
of 26 metres (50 cubits) and 53 metres for the length of the rear part
of the building (100 cubits).
4. The central part of the sand-filled
foundation for the pylon
5. The north end of the pylon foundation
Close to the south
side of the pylon is a brick casemate foundation-platform measuring 23
x 18.30 metres, which probably formed the elevated foundation of a subsidiary
building at the side of the main temple. The presence of this structure
was visible on the ground surface, but small areas were cleaned to allow
a plan to be made. The substructure contained eight internal compartments
which would have been filled up with earth to create a platform for the
building above. This would probably have been a peripteral chapel or 'pure
storehouse' and have been approached by a stairway or ramp, as noted in
other examples at Tanis, Elkab and Diospolis Parva. Close to the north
side of the pylon was part of a mud-brick wall, 4.50 metres thick (pl.6)..
It was found to run parallel with the temple and extend forward of the
pylon by 7.25 metres, where it met a foundation-trench running at right
angles.
6. The brick wall north of the temple
pylon
The most probable interpretation of this is that there was a porch in front of the pylon, the front wall of which consisted of stone masonry, built on the foundation-trench, linked to the temple by the mud brick wall at the side. It was not possible to determine where the wall connected with the temple building owing to the brickwork having been cut away by deep pits of Ptolemaic date, but it might have connected to the side of the pronaos. The construction of the wall was unusual in that the bricks had been mortared with mud containing a high proportion of crushed siltware pottery, giving the whole area a reddish colour. A search for a counterpart to this wall on the southern side of the pylon revealed only later pits containing Ptolemaic refuse.