5. Umm al-Rasas. Church of the Lions

Anne Michel, Eva Gabrieli

► To cite this version:

Anne Michel, Eva Gabrieli. 5. Umm al-Rasas. Church of the Lions. Liber Annuus, 1998, 48, pp.546-549. hal-03304029

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Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
posed treading levels. The lower one was laid on a bed of rounded stones. The fill, from the rock bed was made up of earth containing Umayyad pottery sherds.

During the excavation campaign at Umm al-Rasas the areas to the north-west of the winery were freed from the upper stratum of rubble.

Studium Biblicum Franciscanum

Report by: John Abela and Carmelo Pappalardo

## 5. Umm al-Rasas, Church of the Lions

The work performed in the area west of the Church of the Lions in August 1998 was aimed to complete the study of the ecclesiastical complex and to understand its insertion in the urban context. As we had to leave an access road for the bulldozer taking away the discharge, only two areas could be explored: one trench was opened in the north-west corner by E. Gabrieli and a second one, by A. Michel, to the south, along the street closing the complex in this direction, to the west of the half-buried rooms excavated in 1992. During the same period, C. Sanmorì and M. Varvesi began to register and draw the architectural carved fragments in the area of the Church of the Lions, in the chapel of the Peacocks, Saint Paul's Church and of the St Stephen Complex.

To the south, the clearing of the surface revealed a new drawing for the street and a new sequence of three rooms aligned from east to west, to the west of the rooms A1-A5 excavated in 1992.

The street, that is about 2.00 - 2.15 m wide, goes further south than it was presumed before and describes a slight curve at its western extremity, ending in a small opening in front of the church of the Lion's complex. Just at the height of the curve, we were able to identify the beginning of a second street going further south in the direction of the *castrum*. A keystone (78 x 30 x 34 cm) carved with a cross motif was found in the section of this latter street.

The work performed in the three rooms immediately to the north of the street (05, 04 and 07) was limited to superficial clearing. The north wall and south wall of the eastern room (room 05), almost rectangular in shape (4.85 x 4.30 m), were in a very bad state while the east and west ones were better preserved. The clearing of the ca. 50 cm thick superficial yellow clay level revealed the starting point of two east-west arches, one of which was found lying at the bottom of the level. The southern part of the level partially covered the collapse of the south wall of the room. The clearing was limited to this yellow level, but we were able to identify the upper part of a small niche in the east wall, just to the north of the springer of the southern arch. The lower part of a second one, that was more damaged, was visible at the west end of the north wall. We have not been able to identify yet any entrance to the room, but the
springer of the arches points to a half-burried room similar to these that lay
immediatly to the east and the door could easily be still buried. The yellow
clay level contained only scarce pottery sherds, that are to be dated to the lat-
est period of occupation of Umm al-Rasas (so-called Abbassid ceramic).

The central room (room 04), also rectangular in shape (3.20 x 4.50 m),
had two doors. In the south-west corner of the room, the first one (72 to 85 cm
wide) – that was later blocked – opened on to the southern street, while the
second in the north-east corner (94 cm wide) gave on to an unexcavated room
with plastered wall to the north. The bottom of the room was at a higher level
than that of the former room: the threshold of the north-eastern door laid at
about the same level as the springer of the arches in room 05; the wall were
preserved to a height of 40 to 70 cm.

At the west end of this sequence of rooms, room 07 presented a more
irregular shape (3.20 x 3.20/5.10 m) and walls made of poor masonry. From
the west, it was accessed by a door coming from the small opening in front of
the ecclesiastical complex. The lower part of a small niche (1.00 m wide and
about 0.25/0.30 m deep) was preserved in the north-west corner of the room.
An abandonment level made of rubble mixed with scarse sherds, a fragment
of glass and some mosaic tesserae covered the threshold of the door and the
present level of the room, which cannot as yet be identified as its floor. A stone
lintel carved with a cross inscribed in a circle (98 x 38 x 15 cm) was found
laying on the top of this level.

Except for the southern and northern walls of the east room that were
badly damaged, all the walls presented the same poor masonry made of quite
regular medium sized stone courses on the external face, while the internal
faces are a mixture of irregularly shaped stones of differing sizes bound with
earth. An accurate observation of the joints between the walls reveals that the
rooms must have been built in two different phases. This will be cleared after
further excavations in the area.

In the northwestern part of the area in front of the Lions' Church the crests
of some walls were clearly visible, which had already allowed to define the
border of a corner room (01), flanked by a street on the western side and on
the northern one. On the west the room had a door, thus being connected di-
rectly with the street.

Only the upper portion of the deposit covering the whole area of the room
has been removed, reaching the top of the debris. The two east-west oriented
arches supporting the roof (collapsed towards the middle of the room) and
some slabs have been brought to light. The double-courtain walls are surely
preserved at a certain height, but it is not obviously possible to say how high
they are. They had been built using roughly hewn stones of different dimen-
sions, tied up with small stones and mud. Whilst the walls are made of calcar-
eous or siliceous stones, the arches and the jambs are made of fossiliferous
limestone, just like in the Lions' Church. A layer of white plaster (1 cm thick) is still preserved somewhere along the western side of the room, covering both the walls and the springers of the arches. Fragments of it have been found removing the upper part of the collapse all over the room. The plaster had been laid on a further layer of lime and ash (1.5-2 cm thick).

The northern wall and the southern wall (both linked to the western one) continue eastwards, marking the limits of another room (02), which is only 1.15 m wide. This narrow room is divided from 01 by a wall abutting against the northern wall and the southern one and its eastern limit is marked by a wall abutting against the last two as well.

The southern wall stretched further east beyond the corner of 02, and almost certainly so did the northern one, although it is now broken. This means that there was a further room eastwards and that all these rooms were contemporary, being built firstly their outer walls.

Although it has not been possible to provide a direct link with the Lions' Church because of the presence of an unexcavated area, it is reasonable to assume that the rooms in question marked the northern limit of the courtyard of the church, but further investigations are required to say if these rooms were or not contemporary to the church.

No clear evidence of any entrance in room 02 has been found up to now, thus being impossible to say if this very narrow room was a vestibule connecting the church's complex with the street to the north or it had another function. Anyway any possible door could not be on the western side and nor on the southern one, since here the walls are preserved enough to leave it out.

On the southern side of the room 01, where an interruption of the wall is, there probably was a door, but it would have had no jambs, as it would seem to be shown by the bottom part of the wall. South of such "interruption" a fragmentary lintel carved with a cross inscribed in a circle and a broken stone belonging to a threshold have been found, which could be connected to this possible access leading to another room (03), which stood south of 01.

To the north 03 was bordered by a wall abutting against the southwestern corner of 01 and stretching southwards almost certainly up to southern rooms of the area in front of the church (see above). The southern limit of the room is provided by a widely collapsed wall abutting against the northern one, whilst the eastern limit is still missing (strictly speaking 03 could even not be a room, but an open area referable to the courtyard of the church).

On the northern side there is a door wider than that of 01 (135 cm instead of 80 cm): it could be the main entrance to the church's complex, at least on this side. The threshold of the door has not been yet got, although here the collapse has been almost completely dug. Anyway, the level reached up to now is about 1 m lower than that of the thresholds of the southern rooms. This means that the northern rooms lay at a lower level than the southern ones and that the street flanking the church's complex on the north sloped, which is also
consistent with the different level at what the Peacocks' Chapel lie. It is also
worthy to note that there seems to be a big difference between the level of the
northern rooms and that of the threshold of the Lions' Church.

Only a very few (so-called) Abbassid sherds have been found removing
the upper part of the collapse in rooms 01 and 02. In 02 at the very top of the
collapse some Mameluck sherds have been collected as well. The artefacts
were more abundant in 03: "Abbasi'd" sherds, fragments of tiles, rare glass
fragments, rare tesserae and a basalt upper millstone.

Studium Biblicum Franciscanum
Report by: Anne Michel and Eva Gabrieli

## 6. Umm al-Rasas – Mayfa‘ah. Der St.-Stephans-Komplex 1997-1998
(Taf. 54)

In Vorbereitung des zweiten Bandes zu den Ausgrabungen von Umm al-Rasas haben wir vor, die Ausgrabungen des St.-Stephans-Komplexes im südöstlichen Sektor zu vollenden und die Stratigraphie des Sektors mit Probegrabungen (siehe Plan, Räume R, O, P) zu kontrollieren (Fig. 1).

### St.-Stephans- Komplex

Straße R. Der Straßenbereich südlich entlang des St.-Stephans-Komplexes wurde von der SW-Ecke von Raum N bis auf halbe Länge von Raum P und bis auf ein mit den Türschwellen der Eingangsbereiche korrespondierenden Laufhorizont freigelegt.

Zur Erfassung der Stratigraphie sind drei Sondagen mit den Profilen AB, CD, EC und HI angelegt worden. Die Funde wurden nach Schichten getrennt und dienten der Datierung der vorgefundenen Schichten.

Daraus ergab sich für den Schichtenaufbau folgendes Bild:

Im oberen Schichtenbereich lagerten mit einer Mächtigkeit von ca. 80 cm Auffüllungs- bzw. Versturzschichten mit Sand, Lehm, Kies und Bauschutt. Darunter lagen insgesamt drei Laufhorizonte, die sich als befestigte bzw. komprimierte Lehmschichten darstellten. Die beiden oberen, bei 80 und 110 cm unter der bestehenden Geländeoberkante, waren mit Unterfütterungsschichten aus Lehm, Sand Kies und Kalk versehen.

Der tiefste, älteste Laufhorizont war auf 160 m unter GOK situiert. Er war sehr stark verdichtet und nicht mit einer Unterfütterung versehen.

Die Keramik in dieser untersten Schichtensequenz datiert in das späte 4. beginnende 5. Jahrhundert, und oberhalb des oberen jüngsten Straßenniveaus lagerte Keramik aus dem 7. Jahrhundert.