Babisqa
Coordinates: 36 ° 11 ′ 57.5 ″ N , 36 ° 41 ′ 34.5 ″ E
Babisqa , also Babiska; was an early Byzantine settlement and trading center in the Dead Cities area in northwest Syria . The last Byzantine church in northern Syria was consecrated in Babisqa in 610.
location
The ruins of Babisqa are located in the Idlib governorate on the northern slope of the Jebel Barischa, in the central part of the northern Syrian limestone massif, a little south of the road that goes below in the plain of Dana from Aleppo to the west via the Turkish border crossing at Bab al Hawa to Antakya leads. In the mostly Kurdish , less fertile and karst rocky hills there are several other early Byzantine ruins. The closest are Ba'uda (about two kilometers north) and Kseigbe. About three kilometers to the west, separated from Babisqa by a side valley, are the neighboring ancient settlements of Dar Qita and Baqirha ; from there the road leads six kilometers south to the ruined settlement of Barischa at the height of this hill, which extends in a north-south direction. The numerous oil presses preserved in Barischa clearly show that olive groves, in addition to the cultivation of grain, represented the economic basis of the ancient settlements.
Many places already existed in Roman times . This includes a few kilometers southeast of Sarmada (Sermada), where a grave monument made of two columns has been preserved from the first half of the 2nd century AD. At Tall Karameh, south of Dana, a section of the cobbled Roman long-distance trade route between Aleppo and Antioch can be seen.
history
The Roman temple in Babisqa is only passed down through spoilage that was built into the Markianoskirche built in its place. On one of these stones is the year 143 AD, which can be considered the completion date for the temple. It is not known which deity was worshiped in the temple.
The first conversions to Christianity took place at the end of the 4th century. One of the first families to adopt the new faith had a house inscription with the name of the architect Eusebis and the date April 389. Presumably a little later, the residents of the house had Christ monograms added to the side of the text to publicly announce their conversion, which should have happened shortly after the inauguration of the Baptistery in 390 . Babisqa and Dar Qita were the first places in Jebel Barisha where religion gained ground before 400. At the beginning of the 5th century, the majority of the population was Christian. Despite Christian missionary efforts, there were followers of the Roman religion in the area until the mid-6th century .
Babisqa is one of seven places south of the Roman road that became important as economic centers at the beginning of the 5th century. The buildings that have been preserved as ruins date from the 4th to 7th centuries.
Townscape
On a populated area of 7.75 hectares in the ancient village, there were country houses (residences) belonging to the upper class who owned land, two churches and other public buildings, the massive walls of which are made of limestone blocks, some of which are still two-story high. Newcomers in the 20th century created a modern village with several hundred inhabitants with new houses on the edge and between the ruins.
Markianoskirche
The static and design tasks in the construction of the three nave basilicas required the use of specialized architects, who were mentioned in the inauguration inscriptions from the end of the 4th century. The first famous architect was Markianos Kyris, to whom four church buildings located close together in Jebel Barischa can be traced back. The second church under his leadership was the Eastern Church (Markianoskirche) of Babisqa, a columned basilica that was added to the existing baptistery.
The round apse , surrounded by side rooms, could be seen from the outside and not, as usual, hidden behind a straight east wall. The two high walls of the central nave were each supported by six columns, the round arches ended on the walls on pilasters . According to the general notion that the eastern altar area plays a more important within the church room, different columns were elaborately designed capitals on the spatial distance from Arch disposed on the east wall. This arch spanned the apse on moving Corinthian capitals. The next pair of columns had somewhat simpler Corinthian capitals with smooth leaves, while the following columns had composite capitals with acanthus in the lower area.
The year 390 on the eastern courtyard gate refers to the baptistery and already names a Markianos Kyris as architect (“Markianos Kyris technites”) and Eusebis as a deacon (“Eusebis diakonos”). The latter name was also recorded on the house inscription mentioned in 389 and on a private house owned by Dar Qita as an architect. It can be the same name, the same person, or a father and son. The church bears a first date of completion in 401 on the eastern of the two entrance portals on the southern long side. Obviously, afterwards, the date 403/4 was found on one of the lintels and on the west gable (under the northernmost of the three windows) an upside-down walled medallion with the year 407/8 and another time the Inscription “Markianos technites”. "Marinos technites" can also be read on two of the inscriptions. It is unclear whether these two architects initially worked here together in an equal position. The fact that individual construction phases were recorded in several inscriptions only happened here at Brad's Julianoskirche .
At least the west side seems to have been restored after further dating according to an inscription on a free-standing portal 480. The stone blocks here were less evenly layered than usual; the inscription stone was probably walled in upside down during this action.
The first building project by Markianos Kyris was the church in Ba'uda , dated 392 , which, with its double masonry, was still committed to the older artisanal style, which was also implemented by another workshop at the western church of Baqirha, which was at the same time as Babisqa , while Markianos here on the more modern simple ashlar masonry passed over. After the initial installation in the Julianoskirche by Brad (402), the Markianoskirche also received a bema , one of a total of 45 churches in the northern area of the Dead Cities, on which the clergy sat in the middle of the nave during the service.
A courtyard was built in the south, which was enclosed on two sides by an arcade and in the east by an outbuilding. The lavishly ornamented courtyard portal in the west bears the architect's signature. It was his first major work, which, according to the inscription, was probably carried out by Eusebis according to his design. The portal later designed by Markianos Kyris for the Eastern Church of Ksedjbeh (414/5) shows a more accomplished form of the same classical style. Acanthus and anthemion alternate as ornaments on the front of a Simaprofile . A smooth bar follows over the lintel, which is separated by a beaded braided band. The Markianoskirche has been destroyed except for the south facade and part of the apse.
Church of Saint Sergius
The small Sergius Church from 610 is located about 150 meters west of the Markianos Church. It is the last dated Byzantine church in northern Syria and one of the last in the country. The round arches of the central nave were each supported by three columns; with capitals in smooth-leaved Corinthian style. Only a few ornaments have survived. The doors and windows were surrounded by cornices that ended in volutes . The column capitals on the triumphal arch of the apse wall show a solidified acanthus. A rectangular apse with two adjoining rooms was added to the east. There were two entrances on the north and one on the west. Only the west facade has been partially preserved. The only other 7th century church, Sheikh Sleman's Wide Arcade Basilica, dated 602, is in much better condition. The general economic and cultural decline of the settlements that began around this time is more evident than here in the western church of Kalota , which was completed a few years earlier, probably around 600 .
More buildings
In addition to Serjilla , the Babisqa thermal baths from the 5th to 6th centuries are among the largest and best-preserved bathing facilities. The two-story building complex for men with attached porticos was surrounded by peristyle courtyards . There was also a smaller bathhouse for women and a hostel. The building ruins are partially covered with field stones and serve as stables.
A little north between the two churches are the remains of a market. The lower layers of two pillars ( stoa ) , once 33 meters long, have been preserved on both sides of the paved market street. Another building is interpreted as the Andron (community house for men).
The scattered stones of a monastery can be made out about half a kilometer south of the village . Within the surrounding wall there was a small church, accommodation for monks and outbuildings. Some foundation walls have remained from another monastery 700 meters to the southeast.
literature
- Hermann Wolfgang Beyer : The Syrian church building. Studies of late antique art history. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 1925, pp. 37, 39–45, 91
- Howard Crosby Butler: Early Churches in Syria. Fourth to Seventh Centuries. Princeton University Press, Princeton 1929, p. 48 f, (Amsterdam 1969)
- Frank Rainer Scheck, Johannes Odenthal: Syria. High cultures between the Mediterranean and the Arabian desert. DuMont, Cologne 2009, p. 303, ISBN 3770113373
- Christine Strube : Building decoration in the northern Syrian limestone massif. Vol. I. Forms of capitals, doors and cornices in the churches of the 4th and 5th centuries AD. Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 1993, pp. 53–57
- Christine Strube: The "Dead Cities". Town and country in northern Syria during late antiquity. Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 1996, pp. 36, 41, 79, ISBN 3805318405
- E. Baccache: Églises de village de la Syrie du Nord. Documents photographiques des archives de'l Institut Francais d'Archeologie due Proche-Orient. Paul Geuthner, Paris 1980, pp. 54–59 (black and white photographs)
Web links
- Search: Babisqa. Architecture in the Classical Tradition ACT (two photos)
Individual evidence
- ^ Frank R. Trombley: Hellenic Religion and Christianization C. 370-529. Volume 2, Brill, Leiden 1995, pp. 270-272
- ↑ Ute Verstegen : Community experience in ritual and space: on the disposition of space in early Christian basilicas of the fourth and fifth centuries. In: Ulrike Egelhaaf-Gaiser , Alfred Schäfer (Hrsg.): Religious associations in Roman antiquity. Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2002, p. 283
- ^ Butler, p. 48
- ↑ Strube (1993), p. 53
- ↑ Beyer, pp. 37, 39-41
- ↑ Strube (1996), p. 38
- ↑ Beyer, p. 45
- ↑ Butler, p. 141, Beyer, p. 91