Encyclopedia of Archaeological Excavations in the Holy Land
Plan of the bouleuterion, or Roman municipal council hall, at Ashkelon. Dr. Meryon concluded that it had first been a temple, then a church and finally a mosque. The 20th century British excavators agreed that the building had undergone three phases of construction but, armed with information about similar Roman buildings discovered at Samaria and Gerasa, identified the remains at Ashkelon as a bouleuterion and above it, a late Roman rebuilding and a mosque.