Dehes

Dehes​

Syria

Dehes , Dēhes, Dahes, Dayhis; was an extensive ancient settlement in the Dead Cities area of northwest Syria . The remains of two basilicas , numerous residential buildings and olive presses have been preserved from early Byzantine times . The results of the extensive excavations of Dēhes led to a controversy over the economic forms and the settlement period of the Dead Cities as a whole.

location

The ruins are located in the Idlib governorate at an altitude of 606 meters in the northern hilly area of ​​the Jebel Barischa, which is part of the central area of ​​the northern Syrian limestone massif. Shortly before the Turkish border crossing at Bab al-Hawa, a road branches off to the south into the mountains from the expressway on the Dana (Sarmada) plain , coming from Aleppo heading west to Antakya . It leads first to Ba'uda and from here six kilometers west, past Dar Qita and Baqirha to Barischa . A kilometer earlier, a road branches off to the right, which after about one kilometer reaches Dēhes. From the road from Ba'uda to the west towards Harim , Dēhes is two kilometers southeast of the junction in Bashmishli. Babisqa and other ancient ruins are nearby.

The ruins are spread over a large area on the plateau and are located on the northern edge of an extensive olive tree plantation . The surroundings of the place are quite fertile, as several sinkholes have formed on the otherwise karstified plateau , which are filled with deep red limestone soils ( terra rossa ).

Research history

Melchior Comte de Vogüé wrote the first scientific description of Dēhes after his visit in 1861. During an expedition on behalf of Princeton University , Howard Crosby Butler examined the place in 1899/1900 and published a summary description of the churches and residential buildings. In 1963 and 1966/67 the Russian architect George Tchalenko undertook the first detailed investigations that covered all buildings. He could no longer undertake a final publication of the results.

Christine Strube worked on the architectural ornamentation from 1975. For the Archaeological Institute in Damascus , Georges Tate and Jean-Pierre Sodini began extensive excavations throughout the settlement in 1976. Their aim was to explore the social, economic and ecological conditions in the Dead Cities by way of example. They published their results from 1980. Using the thoroughly researched example of Dēhes and in comparison with 45 other early Byzantine ruins, Georges Tate formulated a typology of the settlements according to which, contrary to the previous view, there are generally hardly any villas (residences), but almost exclusively only simple houses that had been established by a predominantly domesticated society of agricultural workers. If Tchalenko assumed an economic form of the Dead Cities, which was largely based on the production and export of olive oil, Tate put this into perspective by referring to the large proportion, cattle farming and the cultivation of grain and grapes among the Must have had an income.

While Tchalenko assumed a heyday of the settlements from the 2nd to the 6th century, Tate found the heyday to be limited to the middle of the 4th to the middle of the 6th century with the focus around 500. Although Dēhes was inhabited until the 9th or 10th century, the economic decline would have started as early as the middle of the 6th century. Jodi Magness retrospectively takes the results of the excavations by Sodini and Tate in Dēhes as the starting point for her own conclusion that all the houses uncovered in Dēhes were only built at the end of the 6th and 7th centuries.

history

In the 2nd century BC BC, a settlement already existed in the Seleucid period, which was expanded in Roman times. Agriculture has been practiced on an area of ​​around 2000 hectares since the 1st century AD. About 500 inhabitants are estimated for the 6th century. Most of the buildings date from the 4th to 7th centuries.

Even after the Islamic expansion at the beginning of the 7th century, the settlement continued and was only finally abandoned in the 10th century. From the end of the same century, the mountainous country of the Jebel Barischa lay in the border area between the Byzantine Antioch and the various Muslim rulers of Aleppo , which can be seen in traces of military occupation.

Townscape

The remains of 22 or 40 oil presses show the particular economic importance of olive growing. In addition, feeding troughs in the ground floor rooms of the residential buildings indicate that livestock is kept. The houses were built close together, with no wide streets and only footpaths between them. The lack of a public space like an agora in Greco-Roman cities and a meeting building (Andron), both of which Tchalenko had previously recognized in the site, led Tate to the assessment of an egalitarian social structure.

In the north-east and west of the settlement, the ruins of two basilicas from the 5th and 6th centuries have been preserved. With the many houses, some underground tombs ( hypogea ) and a cistern covered with a barrel vault have survived. The Deir Dēhes monastery was located 700 meters south of the village .

Eastern Church

The three- aisled column arcade basilica had five bays in each high wall of the central nave and a trapezoidal altar apse with side rooms in front of the east wall, which is straight on the outside. The southern adjoining room served as a martyrion ( reliquary ). A brick podium in the middle of the church (bema) served as a place to stay for the clergy during the service. Two entrances in the southern longitudinal wall and two entrances in the western gable wall led into the rectangular building. At a later time, a baptistery was added to the southeast corner . This very well-preserved baptistery with a square stone basin on the east side was planned by the architect Yohannan based on an inscription.

The north and south walls stand upright except for a few upper stone layers, of the east facade only the lower area remained. Inside, the side walls of the sanctuary were preserved up to the middle height, as was the west wall of the northern adjoining room. The entrance to the Martyrion was formed by a round arch, of which the pillars are still in place. The entire building has been thoroughly rebuilt several times. This is shown by different wall techniques and several construction seams on the outer walls.

Some columns capitals of the nave show Corinthian style with smooth or detail elaborate acanthus leaves . The preserved capital of the southeastern pillars is also Corinthian with finely worked acanthus. From the north wall of the central nave, two Ionic capitals have been preserved in their entirety and a third as a fragment.

The triumphal arch at the end of the chancel is supported by columns . The design of this motif unit refers to the models Qalb Loze (around 470) and the Phokas church in Basufan (dated 492). Compared to the church of Bettir (dated 471), the forms of the capital are partially simplified and are understood as a further development. Therefore, a construction period at the end of the 5th or the beginning of the 6th century comes into question.

The east door of the south facade is surrounded by a circumferential, elaborately profiled frame. The door lintel is highlighted in the middle by a cross medallion . The figure of a stylite is carved into a stone cuboid next to the door , presumably representing a similar figure on the west facade by Qalb Loze Symeon the Elder .

Western church

The three-aisled column basilica with four bays in each high wall of the nave also ended with a straight outer wall in the east. Behind it lay a rectangular apse and two side rooms with the Martyrion in the south. There was an entrance door in the south, west and north walls. A portico was added to the west gable , which was supported by four columns. The east facade is still well preserved. It is structured by four arched windows below and two rectangular windows in the upper part. The wall extends to the individual stone blocks of the roof cornice . The northern outer wall has also largely been preserved, as well as the northern side apse room with entrance door, three rows of stones on the western wall and most of the southern outer wall. The high walls of the central nave have collapsed, four column capitals from the rubble show the Corinthian style with smooth acanthus. On the pillars of the Martyrion Arch there were capitals with delicate acanthus leaves and sepals with long sprout axes (caules). The capitals on the triumphal arch and four of the six portico capitals that were found were also made in the delicate Corinthian style.

The frame profiles of the outer doors, which differ in detail, consist of a sequence of smooth strips, braided bands with a row of pearls, a hollow groove and a bulge profile on the outside. A medallion with eight rays is depicted on the lintel of the south door, which is framed by a wreath of diamonds , laurel leaves and round discs. Overall, the elaborate ornamentation corresponds to the economic heyday of the 6th century. Christine Strube dates the western church to around 530.

Deir Dēhes

"Deir" was the Syriac-speaking name in the Middle East for monasteries before the Arab conquest. A free-standing tower, the remains of a church and a pandocheion (pilgrims' hostel) are all that remains of the former monastery complex . The monastery was examined by Jean-Luc Biscop and presented in a monograph in 1997. It distinguishes between a first construction period at the end of the 4th or the beginning of the 5th century and two later renovation phases, with the entire complex being completely restructured in the 6th century.

The church was a pillared arcade basilica with a rectangular chancel and side rooms with a straight east wall. It had an entrance door in the west and two doors each in the north and south facade. The central nave walls were each supported by four columns. Only simple profiles surrounded the doors in the south and west, the round arch at the apse was smooth and had no ornaments. The front of the Martyrion Arch ( archivolt ) was composed relatively simply of an upper bar, a curved kymation and two stripes (fascia). The column capitals preserved in full are assigned to the Tuscan , Corinthian, Corinthian and Ionic order.

literature

• Hala Attoura: Report on the archaeoseismological investigations in Der Dahes (Syria) 2003. In: Bagdader Mitteilungen 34, 2005, pp. 87-102
• 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, plates 335–360 (black and white photographs)
• Bernard and Swantje Bavant: Dehes: Les Monnaies. In: Syria , 57, 1980, pp. 267-287
• Jean-Luc Biscop: Deir Déhès, monastère d'Antiochène, étude architecturale. Institut francais d'archéologie du Proche-Orient, Beirut 1997, ISBN 2705305653
• Ross Burns: Monuments of Syria. A Historical Guide. IB Tauris Publishers, London / New York, 1992, p. 108f
• Frank Rainer Scheck, Johannes Odenthal: Syria. High cultures between the Mediterranean and the Arabian desert. DuMont, Cologne 1998, pp. 304f
• Jean-Pierre Sodini et al. a .: Déhès (Syrie du nord), campagnes I-III (1976–1978): Recherches sur l'habitat rural. In: Syria , 57, 1980, pp. 1-304; Paul Geuthner, Paris 1981, ISBN 2705301119
• 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 (Damascene Research 5) Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 1993
• Christine Strube: Building decoration in the northern Syrian limestone massif. Vol. II. Forms of capitals, doors and cornices from the 6th and early 7th centuries AD (Damascene Research 12) Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 2002
• Georges Tate: Les Campagnes de la Syrie du Nord du IIe au VIIe Siècle. Paul Geuthner, Paris 1992
• Georges Tchalenko: Villages antiques de la Syrie du Nord. Le massif du Bélus a l'époque romaine. 3 vol., Paul Geuthner, Paris 1953–1958

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Ross Burns, p. 108
2. ^ Jodi Magness: The Archeology of the Early Islamic Settlement in Palestine. Eisenbrauns, Winona Lake 2003; Jodi Magness: The Decline of Syria-Palestine in the Mid-Sixth Century: A Reconsideration of the Archaeological Evidence from Dehes. Byzantine Studies Conference Archives. Abstracts of Papers
3. ↑ Frank Rainer Scheck, Johannes Odenthal, 1998, p. 304
4. ↑ Georges Tate: ( Page no longer available , search in web archives: Le village de Déhès. ) France Diplomatie
5. ^ Warwick Ball: Rome in the East. The Transformation of an Empire. Routledge, London / New York 2000, p. 230, ISBN 0-415-11376-8
6. ↑ Christine Strube, 1993, pp. 121-126
7. ↑ Christine Strube, 2002, pp. 135-140
8. ↑ Christine Strube, 2002, p. 178