2.28 Khirbat al-Karak (Beit Yerah) – Basilica

Summary information

• Location

  GPS coordinates: 32.71896, 35.57152

  Coordinates are only approximate.

• Description

  The church is approached from the south, where an entrance opens into a loggia facing on a large atrium with subsidiary units on its periphery; the rest of the com­plex lies to the east (Pl. 13). An open narthex, with two subsidiary rooms on the north, has three doorways which lead into the domus. The latter is basilical, with a nave and two aisles terminating at their eastern ends in external apses. From the northern aisle a doorway opens into the anteroom of a diaconicon, also with an external apse. From the southern aisle a doorway opens into the room, which provides circulation to two other rooms on the south and to the exterior. This rather extensive plan is the result of additive growth; in later years the process was reversed, and circulation was considerably constricted by intentional blocking of many of the door openings.

  The walls of the church are built either on the stone walls of an earlier building or on foun­dations which are an integral part of the church construction. All four of the apses are built with projecting foundations. The walls of the church are built of rather large unshaped face stones and rubble fill laid with lime mortar. The width varies from 60 to 65 cm. except for the apsidal walls, which are about 90 cm. wide in the domus and 1.20 m. wide in the diaconicon.

  Most of the doorways are 0.87-1.00 m. wide, although the doorway from the narthex to the nave is considerably wider. The main doorways are framed in cut stone with sill and splayed jambs rabbeted to provide stops for door leaves.

  Various types of floor construction were used. The simplest is a tamped-earth floor, which is easily discernible only when covered with ash or occupational debris. Most of the subsidiary rooms are paved with flat unshaped stones laid on a dirt bed. The floors of the atrium, the narthex, the domus, and the diaconicon and its anteroom were originally covered with mosaics, but only small patches are preserved.

  The atrium is a rectangle (10.50 X 21.00 m.) with its long axis slightly askew from that of the rest of the building. The mosaic pavement is of large white tesserae measuring about 2.5 cm. on average. In the middle of the atrium is an underground cistern, elliptical in plan with axes that measure 3.94 and 4.45 m. It is 4.91 m. deep. The longer axis is divided into five bays by semicircular arches that die into the wall.

  The narthex appears to have been added after the domus was built. Its south wall, although seemingly a continuation of that of the domus, has a slightly different orientation and abuts the southwest corner of the domus, which has the character of a well laid exterior corner. Three entrances in the east wall connect the narthex with the domus; a large central doorway opens into the nave, and smaller doorways open into the aisles (see below). The mosaic floor of the narthex is preserved only at the southern end and in the northwest corner.

  The domus is basilican in plan, with a central nave and single side aisles ending at the east in three horseshoe-shaped apses. The room is approximately 11.50 m. and 12.50 m. long and is divided lengthwise into six bays. The aisles are about half as wide as the nave. The present walls are the result of at least one major rebuilding. The west and south walls are bonded together and appear to be part of the original structure. The north wall, not bonded into the west one, is a rebuild not quite in line with an earlier wall, which is superimposed on a still earlier wall. A single doorway in the present north wall has jambs of unshaped stones and a door socket within the opening.

  The wall of the northern apse is a continuation of the north wall of the room and apparently dates from the time the latter wall was rebuilt. The central apse, however, was constructed before that time. The southern apse was also added later, and both side apses abut the exterior face of the central apse.

  Remains of seven of the ten columns that divided the nave from the aisles are still in situ and rest on roughly oval foundations of stones laid in lime mortar. The column drums, all apparently reused, are made of basalt and vary in diameter from 41.5 to 55 cm. and in height from 0.50 to 1.10 m.

  Only patches of the mosaic floor are preserved.

  In the central apse a bench paralleled the curve of the apse wall. It is preserved to its full width of 1.03 m. only at the north, and its southern end is destroyed. At present the top of the bench is 17 cm. above the chancel floor, but a small fragment of marble facing found in situ about 60 cm. from the apse wall suggests that originally the bench was two tiers high.

  The chancel, raised about 20 cm. above the floor of the room, is a little narrower than the central apse and extends a bay and a half into the nave. Although nothing of the altar is preserved, its probable position is indicated by remains of a reliquary or basin found on the center line of the apse and at its chord. Sometime after the side apses were added to the church, the floor at the eastern ends of the aisles was raised about 20 cm. to the level of the chancel, which was thus enlarged to include the side apses and the easternmost bays of the aisles.

  Two tombs were found in the domus, one near the western end of the northern aisle and the other in the western part of the nave. The former contained fragments of several skeletons and a few objects (seep. 63), but the latter was empty.

  From the northern aisle there is an opening the anteroom or vestibule for the diaconicon. The diaconicon is a rectangular room (5.20 X 6.80 m.) with a stilted semicircular apse (4.75 m. in diameter) at its east end.

  The mosaic in the hall is laid (10 rows in 12.5 cm.) with diamonds in a white surround, a black-banded meander border in red and gray-pink, and a field with an all-over geometric flower pattern in the same colors on a white background. In front of the apse, a panel (0.50 X 3.85 m.) contains an inscription in black tesserae. In the center of the room is a circular basin (80 cm. in diameter and ca. 30 cm. deep) formed by small stones topped by two courses of baked bricks (22 X 22 X 2 cm.), with part of a third course preserved at the west at about floor level. The bottom and the well are covered with lime plaster; there are no signs of a drain.

  The font in the apse is a semicircle (93 cm. in diameter) with an added rectangle (45 X 48 cm.) centered on its straight west side and is slightly askew from the axis of the apse. It is built of baked bricks (22.5 X 22.5 X 2.5 cm.), a few roof tiles, and one block of basalt, all laid in pinkish mortar. The front of the square and a 30-cm. return on each side are faced with marble slabs. The rest of the square is finished in lime plaster. The bottom of the font is 22 cm. below the level of the upper apse floor, and there is no evidence to show how high the font rose above the floor. The floor and the walls of the font are plastered in pinkish mortar. The floor is canted around the curve and slopes down about a centimeter to a drain at its west end, where there is a red terra-cotta pipe (inside diameter, 3 cm.; outside diameter, 3.8 cm.) to draw off water.

  Pinhas Delougaz and Richard C Haines, A Byzantine Church at Khirbat Al-Karak, University of Chicago, Oriental Institute Publications 85 (Chicago, Ill.: Chicago University Press, 1960), 11-19.

• Phasing

  Three main phases can be distinguished, the second of which is marked by the most drastic alterations, but supplementary building activities continued for some time after the major structural developments had been completed. Only in connection with the third phase are we in position to associate relative and absolute chronology.

  The original church was built over earlier building remains. Many of the church walls were founded directly on earlier walls. The plan of this early Christian edifice was a basilica, almost square in its outward dimensions, with the nave divided into six bays and ending in a single external horseshoe-shaped apse. A bench conformed to the inside curve of the apse. Although only part of one riser is preserved, there is evidence to suggest that it had two tiers. The remains of a reliquary(?) on the chord of the apse almost preclude the possibility of a step at that place. The chancel was contained within the columns separating the nave and the aisles and extended one and one-half bays into the nave. The eastern ends of the aisles were blank, and there were no side rooms flanking the apse. The three doorways in the west wall possibly led to a portico since the existing narthex is of late construction. Single doorways in each of the side walls provided circulation to rooms on the north and south. The apse, because of its thicker wall, was probably covered by a half-dome of stone.

  The second phase in the history of the building is marked by drastic changes. The north wall of the domus was torn down, and a new wall was built not quite in line with the original one.

  As a part of this rebuilding, the new wall was continued at its eastern end on an arc southward and made to abut the outer face of the original apse, forming an apse at the end of the northern aisle. At the same time an apse was contrived at the east end of the southern aisle by a wall running from the east end of the south wall of the domus to the outer face of the original apse. Thus, the plan of the building was radically altered. It became a triapsidal basilica, with all three apses projecting separately from the body of the domus.

  Important changes were likewise undertaken at this time at the west end of the building. An atrium with a centrally located cistern and surrounding rooms were added. During this construction, the church was supplied with a narthex.

  The third phase in the development of the church is marked by the addition at its northeast corner of a diaconicon. The diaconicon was built at the east end of the range of rooms on the north side of the church in such a manner that its south wall abutted the northern apse of the domus. The addition is dated A.D. 528/ 29 by the inscription in the mosaic floor at the east end of the chamber.

  At the west end of the church other important changes occurred. The narthex was enclosed, so that henceforth access to it was by means of a single doorway.

  Then came the blocking of doorways throughout the church. The blocking of the doorway from the narthex to the northern aisle and the construction of the crude stone wall in line with the southern row of columns probably occurred later still.

  Pinhas Delougaz and Richard C Haines, A Byzantine Church at Khirbat Al-Karak, University of Chicago, Oriental Institute Publications 85 (Chicago, Ill.: Chicago University Press, 1960), 20-22.

• Bibliogaphy

  Delougaz, Pinhas, and Richard C Haines. A Byzantine Church at Khirbat Al-Karak. University of Chicago, Oriental Institute Publications 85. Chicago, Ill.: Chicago University Press, 1960.

  Ovadiah, Asher. Corpus of the Byzantine Churches in the Holy Land. Theophaneia; Beiträge Zur Religions- Und Kirchengeschichte Des Altertums 22. Bonn: P. Hanstein, 1970.