Area C: the Palaestra

Area C — the Palaestra — included a square colonnaded building with eight Doric columns per side. Each side measured 17.5 m in length; the roofed colonnade was 4 m in depth. Excavation planned for 2011 may have identified adjacent rooms serving as class-rooms and a bath-house.

The evidence of Attic pottery fragments at bedrock level and other finds point to a third-centry construction. The building was systematically dismantled at the time the settlement was abandoned in around 70 BCE. It was later used as housing by seasonal squatters.

Graeme Clarke excavated the Palaestra in 2000, 2006, 2008.

Major report:

• Graeme Clarke, 'Area C. The palaestra', in Jebel Khalid on the Euphrates Volume Five: Report on excavations 2000-2010. Mediterranean Archaeology Supplement 10 (Sydney, 2016) 37-47.

Other publications
Area C ground plan 2008 (Barry Rowney)
Field books

The Australian Mission to Jebel Khalid is a joint project of the Australian National University and the University of Melbourne.