Northeast Insulae Project
at Hippos of the Decapolis (Sussita)
  • Home
  • Reports
    • Plans
    • 2002 Season
    • 2003 Season
    • 2004 Season
    • 2005 Season
    • 2006 Season
    • 2007 Season
    • 2008 Season
    • 2009 Season
    • 2010 Season
    • 2011 Season
    • 2012 Season
    • 2013 Season
    • 2014 Season
    • 2015 Season
    • 2016 Season
    • 2019 Season
    • Final Report on the Northeast Insulae Project
  • Publications
  • Galleries
    • Field Photos
    • Finds
    • Teams
  • Repositories
    • Digital Commons
    • Academia.edu
  • ArchLit
  • Blog
Archaeology of Liturgy

ARchaeology of Liturgy/ Research Phase

Project update — Archaeology of Liturgy

Mark Schuler (administrator) December 28, 2022

The first step in my research was to develop a group of Late Antique Churches from the areas directly around Hippos with which to test and refine Mulhollands framework for doing what he labelled as the “archaeology of liturgy,” that is, using archaeology to inform our understanding of liturgical practice and by inference beliefs of the community gathering in a church.

I have selected ninety-one potential sites for further examination: thirty seven from Palaestina Secunda, fifty from Arabia from Madaba to the north, and fourteen from the Syrian Hauran. As I gather data on each of these sites, I expect to reduce the catalog to about fifty sites for which there is sufficient evidence to test Mulholland’s analytical framework, thus doubling the total data set.

To document my work, I have built a Google map and set up the framework for a series of web pages details the sites and (subsequently) the analysis. As these pages are public, you may follow my work over the course of the project. The address of the project site is https://northeastinsulaeproject.org/archlit/.

Research Phase

Mapping the Project

Dr. Mark Schuler December 23, 2022

As stated in an earlier post, my project at the Albright intends to test the analytical framework of Bernard Mulholland as presented in his 2014 work, 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 Context.

I will double the number of churches examined from 47 to 100 and concentrate in areas surrounding Hippos Palaestines.

This map plots the sites being examined in the research. Red diamonds are churches examined by Mulholland. Blue squares are additions to the dataset from Palaestina Secunda, the administrative unit of which Hippos was a part. The purple squares are those from Arabia, the province to the east containing most of the other Decapolis cities.

I will gradually add sites and data to this map as the project proceeds.

Mulholland, The Early Byzantine Christian Church

Research Phase

Project at the Albright

Dr. Mark Schuler December 13, 2022

Here is more detail on my research at the Albright Institute in Jerusalem…

Work plan of the Project

The project plan expands on the article I wrote for Michmanim (27:18-28), titled “The Northeast Insula and Late Antique Christianity at Hippos Palaistinēs.”  A weakness of the original work was its reliance on an analytical framework from Bernard Mulholland, The Early Byzantine Church (Oxford, 2014).  Mulholland’s analysis was rightly criticized for being based on a rather small dataset of churches (Fiema, Z. Review of Mulholland, The Early Byzantine Church, Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 376 [2016]: 246–249). I will use time at the Albright to test his model on a larger set of Late Antique churches. I will apply the results of this study to construct a more nuanced discussion of changes in church architecture at Hippos and the implications of those changes for reconstructing a history of Christianity at the site.

Christianity in the Greek east was a diverse project in the fourth to the sixth centuries as indicated by Trinitarian and Christological controversies. It was also a time of much church building especially with imperial support (e.g., Constantine, Justinian). Five of seven identified church structures have been partially or completely excavated at Hippos. They display a diversity of architectural forms most of which underwent modification in the sixth century. As preparations are under way to write a major work on the archaeological, liturgical, and regional information from the Late Antique period at Hippos, I wish to test more thoroughly my proposal (based on Mulholland’s framework) that the “churches show modifications in the 6th century toward more Roman forms and practices” and that these changes suggest that “Hippos Palaistinēs shifted more fully into the sphere of Chalcedonian Christianity in the 6th century” (p. 27).  If I can more thoroughly demonstrate correlation among architectural forms, architectural modifications, and theological expressions, I will be able to reconstruct the history of Christianity at Hippos (and at similar sites in the region with multiple churches) in a more nuanced way.

On the other hand, should an examination of Mulholland’s construct break down when a larger dataset of churches is considered (Fiema’s critique), then I will be in a better position to identify what church architecture can and cannot say about a reconstruction of Christian history at a site and, in the words of Fiema, “whether to search for similarities or to emphasize differences, variations, and exceptions” (p. 249).]

This project engages in post-fieldwork analysis. As it attempts to extend and test the applicability and utility of the work of Mulholland for analysis of the excavated remains in Hippos Palaistinēs and its territory, it will follow the methodology detailed in chapter two of his work (pp. 13-35). Mulholland identifies his approach as an “archaeology of liturgy” which reasons that “repeated institutional behaviours involving ritualized activities . . . might also lead to artifacts being deposited in a manner that will show up in the archaeological record in repeated dispositional patterns” (p. 18). Thus, after grouping early basilical churches into one of the three most common church plans, the study focusses on “artifacts deposited in sealed destruction layers when the basilica still functioned as a church or as it was abandoned” (p. 19). The approach pays particular attention to “repeated patterns of artifactual deposition across … sites with similar plans” p. 21). The assumption is that common patterns indicate common liturgical or paraliturgical praxis.

This project will extend the methodology by also looking for patterns that emerge in the modification of a church structure.  Important are the dating of such changes and how the changes modify the original form of the church from one of the basic plans toward another.

The core of this proposed project is library work. As a fellow with the Albright Institute, I have access not only to the holdings of its library, but also those of the École biblique et archéologique francaise de Jérusalem, the Israel Antiquities Authority Library and Archives at the Rockefeller Museum, the Jerusalem Institute of Languages and Humanities, the National Library of Israel, and the Hebrew University Libraries and Archives.

Prior to arrival in Israel, I will prepare a list of excavated church sites. The goal is to identify fifty church sites of which twenty-five are from Palaestina Secunda. These are in addition to the forty-seven sites used by Mulholland. A bibliography will be prepared listing publication information for each site. Use of online catalogues will identify locations for the excavation reports in the libraries listed above. Also, a Google map will be prepared to visualize site distribution.

While in Israel, I will access available reports, collecting site plans, phasing, and data to expand the charts in chapters 2 and 3 of Mulholland’s work. Analytical observations will be made in anticipation of a final analysis. Some visitation of sites may also occur to clarify ambiguous statement in reports.

After the time in Israel, I will apply the results of this study to construct a more nuanced discussion of changes in church architecture at Hippos and the implications of those changes for reconstructing a history of Christianity at the site (see abstract).

In his postscript, Mulholland writes, “There is a need to extend this line of enquiry to as many Early Byzantine churches as possible to determine the range of the three church plans identified and how they evolved through time” (p. 185). This project will be a contribution to that endeavor.

Bibliography 

Fiema, Zbigniew. “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 Context.” Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 376 (November 2016): 246–249.

Mulholland, Bernard. 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 Context. Byzantine and neohellenic studies Vol. 9. Oxford ; New York: Peter Lang, 2014.

Schuler, Mark. “The Northeast Insula and Late Antique Christianity at Hippos Palaistines.” Michmanim 27 (2017): 18–28.

Schuler, Mark. Northeast Insulae Project: Context and Analysis (2021). The Final Report. Volume 1. https://digitalcommons.csp.edu/nip-final/1. DOI: 10.54416/GQSX9775.

Albright INstitute in Jerusalem

Research Phase

Fellowship Announcement

Dr. Mark Schuler October 3, 2022

I am pleased to announce that I have been appointed as an associate fellow at the W. F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research in Jerusalem for 2022-2023.

My project is titled the Archaeology and History of Christianity at Hippos. Specifically, I will be testing and refining a method proposed by Bernard Mulholland for assessing the architectural design of and changes to Late Antique church structures and then applying that model to the excavated structures at Hippos. This work expands on the article I wrote for Michmanim (27:18-28).

In addition, I will use time in Israel to meet with colleagues from the Hippos Excavation to plan a book-length project on archaeological, liturgical and regional information from the Late Antique period at Hippos and its implications for the history of Christianity at the site.  

Specific details are still being arranged.

Fellowship Announcement

Research Phase

Materia Medica at ARAM

Dr. Mark Schuler August 29, 2022

Materia Medica at ARAM

At the end of July, I participated in the ARAM Society for Syro-Mesopotamian Studies fifty First International Conference on The Decapolis: History & Archaeology at the Oriental Institute at the University of Oxford. My paper, co-authored with Patrick Scott Geyer (University of San Diego), was “The materia medica of monastic health care at Hippos Palaistinēs.” Publication is anticipated by next summer.

A corollary benefit was to see so many colleagues from Hippos who also presented.

Materia Medica at ARAM
1 2 3 4›»

Partners

Open Heritage

Back to Top

© Northeast Insulae Project 2023


Cookie Policy
Privacy Policy

Manage Cookie Consent
We use cookies to optimize our website and our service.
FunctionalAlways active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage optionsManage servicesManage vendorsRead more about these purposes
Preferences
{title}{title}{title}