RECONSTRUCTION OF THE PILLARS IN THE FIRST HALL

During the 2001 season the southern row of pillars in the First Pillared Hall was reconstructed in plywood. During the first part of the 2002 season, the northern row was reconstructed in the same way.

Little more than the base of each of the pillars of the First Hall is preserved. We began the reconstruction by covering the remains of each pillar with a thick sheet of plastic, over which a cube of hiba (obtained by mixing a special kind of local limy and sandy soil with lime) and stone chippings was built. The plastic sheet is intended to protect and preserve the remains of the pillars and it will enable us to easily remove the hiba cube, whenever necessary. The hiba cube was built to provide a flat surface on which to erect a framework of wooden beams. Every cube was raised to the same level to correct the slight distortion of the first hall pavement.

The framework of beams gives greater stability to the ceiling which covers the entire area of the first hall without support. The southern and the northern frameworks now divide the first hall into three parts, reinforcing the whole structure and preventing the detachment of large pieces of limestone from the ceiling.

The plywood pillars were built around the framework of beams according to the dimensions and position of the original limestone pillars (Fig. 1).

The plywood pillars were mainly intended to provide a surface on which to place drawings of the decorated wall-fragments identified during the epigraphic activities. The plywood surface allows copies of the fragments to be placed on it and will eventually allow them to be correctly placed at each stage of the reconstruction phase. Once the identification of the decorated fragments is complete, the pillars will be re-built in masonry. At that point, the panels will be used as schemes for the re-location of every block (Fig. 2).

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