FOUNDATIONS OF ROMAN STRUCTURES AND SPOLIA IN EARLY BYZANTINE CHURCHES AND MEDIEVAL MOSQUES AT TEL SHILO (SAMARIA)
Authors: Тарханова С.В. 
Published: January 2022

Представляемое здесь исследование посвящено элементам архитектурного декора (базы, колонны, капители, перемычки, детали алтарных преград, декоративные рельефы, др.), которые были найдены в памятниках теля Шило в первичном (in situ), вторичном, третичном использовании или вне архитектурного контекста. Малая часть из них кратко опубликована, но большая их часть никогда не публиковалась и не анализировалась. Основная часть исследования включает в себя каталогизирование объектов, их обмеры, стилистический анализ и атрибуцию с предположительными датировками (данные работы уже частично проведены автором, материал неоднократно изучался натурно). Но прежде необходимо уточнить топографические особенности римского города, остатки ранних строений, дорог, из которых могли происходить детали, расположение ранневизантийских церквей с ориентацией на уже существующий контекст, чему и посвящена данная статья. Таким образом, здесь характеризуется эллинистический, римский контекст города, с последовательно вписанным в него ранневизантийским и раннеисламским, что до сих пор делалось лишь кратко и неполно.

The present research is devoted to reporting on the recovery of architectural fragments in the Roman and Byzantine periods (bases, pedestals, shafts, capitals, lintels, chancel screen elements, decorative reliefs, etc.). They were found at the monuments of Tel Shilo in situ, in secondary, in tertiary use or out of the architectural context. Only a small part of them was published as part of the general reports on the excavations at Tel Shilo, which were conducted by Swedish and American expeditions and in the framework of regular works of the Civil Administration of Judea and Samaria (Dr. Aage Shmidt, Hans Kjær, Sven Holm-Nilsen, Marie-Louise Buhl, Flemming Gorm Andersen, Hananya Hizmi, Reut Livyatan ben Arie, Yodan Fleitman, et al.). Most of them (especially the fragments at the Basilica church, which I consider mainly Roman spolia) weren’t published or ever analyzed, except in some very general works and in general photographs. Besides, several architectural fragments were found during the last years of the excavations. The main section of the research includes a catalog of the objects, their measurements, stylistic analysis, attribution with preliminary dating. This work was accomplished in part and is still ongoing. The objects were examined at the site, photographed against the scale, and measured. But before proceeding to this main part of the research, it is necessary to outline and to present the main Roman and Early Byzantine architectural context at Tel Shilo. It is impossible to discover the original derivation, function, actual date and style of the details without characterization of the monuments, for which they may have been originally executed. Thus, the present article is devoted mainly to the architectural context of the town, which is divided into three main periods with sub-phases: Late Hellenistic and Roman decumani with several smaller in their scale cardines, their rebuilding during the Late Roman period (enlarging of the western colonnade of decumanus in front of cardo), tower on the outer edges of the settlement; Early Byzantine Northern churches, baptistery and Basilica church, which were, by my theory, inserted into the earlier system of roads with the use of their foundations, stylobate and members (though plenty of Roman spolia were reused, liturgical furniture was especially imported for the churches); and finally - Early Islamic mosques (Jami’ al Yetin, Jami’ Arbain, Jami’ es-Sittin), that were built on the place of the churches and inside the Roman tower with the use of all their elements (it seems that no special decorative elements were executed for mosques). It was done only in a brief and fragmentary manner before, without general systematization. The preliminary attempt to coordinate the known architectural details to their original architectural context is also presented here.