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COURTESY EPHRAIM STERN AND YITZAK MAGEN

PHOENICIAN CONSTRUCTION. The Phoenicians had a recognizable building style, which was imitated by people throughout the southern Levant. A typical element is the proto-Aeolic capital. This proto-Aeolic capital, comes from Mt. Gerizim in ancient Israel—later the Assyrian province of Samaria. It was probably brought from nearby She-chem, where it adorned the “Beit Yahaveh,” which was destroyed by the Assyrians. Then it became part of the Samaritan temple from the Persian period, which demonstrates that some Phoenician building techniques survived the Assyrian conquest even outside of the Phoenician heartland.