The Early Byzantine Christian Church : An Archaeological Re-assessment of Forty-Seven Early Byzantine Basilical Church Excavations Primarily in Israel and Jordan, and their Historical and Liturgical C Paperback / softback

by Bernard Mulholland

Part of the Byzantine and Neohellenic Studies series

Paperback / softback

Out of stock

Description

The observation that domestic artefacts are often recovered during church excavations led to an archaeological re-assessment of forty-seven Early Byzantine basilical church excavations and their historical, gender and liturgical context.

The excavations were restricted to the three most common basilical church plans to allow for like-for-like analysis between sites that share the same plan: monoapsidal, inscribed and triapsidal.

These sites were later found to have two distinct sanctuary configurations, namely a Î -shaped sanctuary in front of the apse, or else a sanctuary that extended across both side aisles that often formed a characteristic T-shaped layout.

Further analysis indicated that Î -shaped sanctuaries are found in two church plans: firstly a protruding monoapsidal plan that characteristically has a major entrance located to either side of the apse, which is also referred to as a â€˜Constantinopolitanâ€™ church plan; and secondly in the inscribed plan, which is also referred to as a â€˜Syrianâ€™ church plan.

The T-shaped layout is characteristic of the triapsidal plan, but can also occur in a monoapsidal plan, and this is referred to as a â€˜Romanâ€™ church plan.

Detailed analysis of inscriptions and patterns of artefactual deposition also revealed the probable location of the diakonikon where the rite of prothesis took place.