A13 Umm al-Jimal — Double Church

Summary information

• Location

  GPS coordinates: 32.32588, 36.36985

  Coordinates are approximate.

• Description

  Butler distinguished two adjoining churches communicating with each other, of which the southern one would have been built after the North Church.

  Double church: North church

  The northern church was a basilica with three naves (19.50 x 10.70 m) which ended in a projecting apse. It was accessed by two open doors on the west side; to the north, a door led to the exterior, while to the south two gates led to the southern church. The naves and side aisles, of unequal width, were subdivided by two rows of two columns supporting arcades of great span, which fell on pillars at the ends of the nave. The apse (opening 5.66 m, depth 3.35 m) was raised by three steps above the floor of the nave. Butler restored a framed covering over the nave, devoid of a skylight, and a covering of slabs above the aisles. A coated synthronon was placed in the apse.

  Anne Michel, Les Eglises d’Epoque Byzantine et Umayyade de La Jordanie V-VIII Siecle (Turnhout: Brepols, 2001), 171–73.

  The church had a series of three well-constructed plaster floors, the last of which was well preserved and painted red. The chancel screen wall stretched straight across nave and side-aisles and contained a reused possibly Safaitic (poorly legible) inscription. The famous Arabic inscription (Littmann 1913b: 1-3, inscr. 1) was rediscovered still in situ under some collapse debris in the northwest comer of the church.

  Bert De Vries, “The Umm El-Jimal Project, 1981-1992,” Annual of the Department of Antiquities 37 (1993): 448.

  Double church: South church

  The church was built against the northern basilica, with which it communicated by two doors, but the entrance main was to the west. It was a small nefunical building (17.70 x 7.70 m) ending in a protruding apse (opening 6.00 m, depth 4.00 m) whose floor was raised by two steps. The nave of the church was punctuated by two transverse arcades which supported a covering of stone beams. A stone stoup was laid out on the facade, to the south of the door.

  Anne Michel, Les Eglises d’Epoque Byzantine et Umayyade de La Jordanie V-VIII Siecle (Turnhout: Brepols, 2001), 171–73.

  An interesting feature here is a stoup, or basin for holy water, called colymbion in the early Greek church, which protrudes, in bracket-from, from the wall of the church just at the right of the main entrance.

  Howard Crosby Butler and Enno Littmann, Syria: Publications of the Princeton University Archaeological Expeditions to Syria in 1904-1905 and 1909, vol. 2:A (Leyden: E.J. Brill, 1919), 180.

• Phasing

  The construction of the northern basilica would have preceded that of the south church. The first had several superimposed plaster floors, which were staggered from the 5th to the 7th century. The typology of the forms of the ceramics found in the church indicated that the building was abandoned around the middle of the 7th century.

  Anne Michel, Les Eglises d’Epoque Byzantine et Umayyade de La Jordanie V-VIII Siecle (Turnhout: Brepols, 2001), 171–73.

  The north church in the double church complex had no pottery later than Late Byzantine (post-Justinian to Islamic conquest). This style of pottery was found in all the fill and bedding layers for the floors, as well as in the mortar backing for the plaster that covered the synthronon. Only two stray Umayyad sherds were found on the surface and upper tumble and wind-blown silt layers, and none were found on the surface of the adjoining south church. No coins were found. The pottery finds indicate that the church was built, used, and abandoned within the Late Byzantine period. The presence of two superimposed floors in the nave points to a longer rather than shorter use within that period. The church was simply furnished; there never were any mosaics or marble, just plaster and cement floors and a crude chancel screen of rubble and soil faced with plaster. Thus, there was little in the church that anyone would have wanted to rob out. Nothing was found to suggest a violent end to the church. It seems to have been abandoned and then destroyed in an earthquake, as aligned blocks from one of the arches above a few centimeters of wind-blown soil attest. The church was abandoned around the mid-seventh century.

  Robert Schick, The Christian Communities of Palestine from Byzantine to Islamic Rule: A Historical and Archaeological Study, Studies in Late Antiquity and Early Islam (Princeton, N.J: Darwin Press, 1995), 469–70.

• Bibliogaphy

  Butler, Howard Crosby, and Enno Littmann. Syria: Publications of the Princeton University Archaeological Expeditions to Syria in 1904-1905 and 1909. Vol. 2:A. Leyden: E.J. Brill, 1919.

  De Vries, Bert. “The Umm El-Jimal Project, 1981-1992.” Annual of the Department of Antiquities 37 (1993): 433–60.

  Michel, Anne. Les Eglises d’Epoque Byzantine et Umayyade de La Jordanie V-VIII Siecle. Turnhout: Brepols, 2001.

  Piccirillo, Michele. Chiese e mosaici della Giordania settentrionale. Studium Biblicum Franciscanum. Collectio minor ; no. 30. Jerusalem: Franciscan Print. Press, 1981.

  Schick, Robert. The Christian Communities of Palestine from Byzantine to Islamic Rule: A Historical and Archaeological Study. Studies in Late Antiquity and Early Islam. Princeton, N.J: Darwin Press, 1995.