H09 Al Heet — North church

Summary information

• Location

  GPS coordinates: 32.76154, 35.91425

  Coordinates are approximate.

• Description

  The building studied is in poor condition, only a few courses of the north wall are preserved on one height of approximately 1.50 m. On the other hand, the releases made during the last three campaigns allowed us to update the plan of the last phase of the building. Several parts and especially the eastern apse are quarried on the rock which served as a quarry for all the dressed stones and blocks used for the construction of the north, west and south walls of the building. Traces of ancient tools can be seen there.

  Rectangular in plan, it is divided into two juxtaposed spaces. The rectangular part of the apse, raised by approximately 30 cm, marks the space of the sanctuary, accessible by two axial steps. Its initial shape adapted to the configuration of the rock, then, subsequently, the space was restricted by the installation of the synthronon on three sides, made up of blocks of stone placed one on top of the other.

  It was later covered with a thin coating which spread over the walls. This coating was used to fix a small reliquary against the wall, to cover the external walls and to line all the niches. There are traces of mural paintings on the walls as well as on fragments found among the debris. A first group of these included white lines on a blue-gray background and a second red surfaces and patterns as well as green plant patterns.

  The church is flanked by a series of annexes on the north, west and south sides. The installation of these annexes corresponds to the various phases of construction of the building, evidenced by the superposition of different ground levels.

  The walls present various aspects depending on their location. Thus, we can observe that the filling walls, which extend and complete the rock bases of the apse and which were intended to

  to receive the ceiling, soot not very solid. They are covered with thick layers of coating, laid with care, protecting against water which must have infiltrated abundantly through the natural rock which overhangs them.

  The entire wall on the south side which accommodated the pillars where the arches of the vault rested shows several construction variants. The eastern section, placed on a rocky base, appears more massive and is partly made of cut blocks. As for the western part, it has undergone various modifications. Finally, thick, irregular walls were added to the west, made of rubble and disparate blocks, covered inside several layers of coating.

  Two series of steps on the south side, allowing access to the church, framed a tomb built in the middle of the wall at the time of the latest restoration work on the site. It adapts to the rock, the external part was covered with three slabs fixed with mortar, forming a parapet. The interior was covered with a coating mixed with red ceramic powder which ensured the waterproofing of the walls made of small rubble stones embedded in the same mortar. This gives the device the character of a reliquary tomb topped with an arcosolium. On either side of the slabs, on the natural rock of the wall, there are traces which correspond to the supports of an arch.

  The annexes correspond to the various construction phases attested by the superposition of different ground levels. The identification of these places as a monastic ensemble is first of all indicated to us by its location, away from the urban area, perched on the edge of the valley. The establishment of these annexes is done in parallel with the importance that the sanctuary acquires. This identification will be confirmed by the inscriptions and also by the study of its remains.

  Some rooms of the monastery are gathered around a courtyard to the south of the church accessible by a door whose threshold is still in place at the south-east corner. Its level is higher than the ground of the courtyard which was accessed by several series of small steps.

  Two small rooms with coated floors occupied the highest part, to the east of the courtyard. The one adjoining the church opened via a small passage to the west. Two other rooms, more spacious, occupied the side north of the courtyard overlooking the sarcophagus-reliquary. A passage which went around the western room led to the south-west door. These two rooms perhaps had a religious function, but they did not seem to have no direct access to the church. The western room revealed numerous fragments of glass from lamps lying on the remains of the floor mosaic decorated with a net of tesserae black and some patterns of scales in white cubes. The eastern room also had an almost entirely destroyed mosaic. The modern construction of a dry stone wall serving as an enclosure prevents the establishment of the dimensions of the court.

  To the west, the church was flanked by two rooms. The one to the south is decorated with a mosaic with a unique pattern or alternating seedlings of flowers and scales turned in the same direction or towards the east. Its floor is 15 cm lower than that of the church with which it communicates through a small door. The north room, whose earthen floor.

  The beaten track located at a level much lower than that of the church initially corresponded to the exterior ground, allowing access to the latter thanks to a staircase of four steps. At a later time, the northwest corner of the church sloped towards the west. A supporting wall was built to the south of the north wall and two buttresses were erected against the wall west of the two rooms. The exterior floor was raised to prevent the western facade from collapsing.

  Three other spaces are aligned against the north wall of the building. It was accessed from the west or from the nave. The first is placed in a rock wall at the northeast corner. It was part of the cave which served as the starting point for the construction of the church. It formed the apse of the very first place of worship: at least that is what the presence of three crosses engraved there. The largest is the middle one framed by an alpha and an omega, flanked to its right by a small rectangle surmounted by an appendage itself rectangular. The meaning of this motif is not clear: perhaps it is the schematic representation of the church? It can also be the symbol of Golgotha. The second space, the middle one, with regular equipment, houses four storage basins of different sizes. The third space to the west, apparently the refectory, is located below in the extension of the first two. Its floor is covered with a coating containing basalt grosgrains.

  A bench, made up of a seat of large squared stone blocks, occupies the northeast corner. The northwest corner of the room is occupied by a tannour which was created by digging a lime floor above it. Outside, to the north of these annexes, is a second oven dating from the same period, built at the foot of the rock. Countless shards of crockery and various ceramic objects were piled up. Rudimentary arrangements in this same rock and some graffiti confirm that this place served as a place of welcome for pilgrims.

  Widad Khoury, “L’Église Nord de Hit (Syrie du Sud),” Syria 89 (2012): 262-267

  Several marble objects were found, almost all of them were recovered in situ, in the apse, and are linked to the rites observed in the place.

  Thus, as has already been mentioned, four fragments of altar feet in the form of columns on square bases, one of which was embedded in the mosaic, and four fragments of altar table were brought to light during the clearances. The white marble bases are 15 cm wide and approximately 16.5 cm high. The columns are 11 cm in diameter at the ends and cover practically the entire of the surface of the bases; we can have no indication of their original height. They were cut from a beautiful, smooth white marble; however their invoice lacks precision as to the dimensions and finish.

  The altar table was cut from the same marble as that of the columns. The restitution of the four fragments bearing inscriptions in Greek, currently being studied, indicates that it was rectangular, but it is not possible to establish its exact dimensions. It is of finer execution than the feet. It is 2.5 cm thick and has on its upper side a strip 7.5 cm wide, bordered by an incised fillet 6 mm deep, followed by a second strip 9.5 cm wide which curves to connect.

  A square plaque with a side of 35 cm and a thickness of 6 cm, cut from white marble, was discovered at the southwest corner of the apse. It has, in its center, a funnel-shaped cavity 3.5 cm in diameter, surrounded by careful moldings. The internal face has a circular groove 30 cm in diameter, slightly projecting. It would therefore be a box or reliquary cover.

  A triangular marble piece from a sectile opus wall decoration was discovered out of context. However, no other clue allows us to locate such a decoration.

  Testimonies report the existence, inside the school courtyard, of a large tank (aljern) which, subsequently, served as the base for an electric pole. It could have come from there and been used as a baptismal font, for example, given its circular shape.

  Widad Khoury, “L’Église Nord de Hit (Syrie du Sud),” Syria 89 (2012): 271-272.

  The current state of the floor shows three distinct carpets, in the apse, the nave and the southwest annex. Their installation seems to follow a chronological order which corresponds to the phases of development observed in the different parts of the building.

  Apse. The connecting strips are wide and decorated. On a background of white tesserae of approximately one centimeter, several filling patterns stand out, the most obvious of which is that of a flower has four red pompoms. In the western connection, we can distinguish two of them, a diamond of 40 x 20 cm occupies the southern angle blackened by the fire. In the northern connection there is a Greek inscription of three words mentioning Saint Elijah.

  The pavement was pierced at the location of the four feet of the tel. During the first clearances, four fragments of marble altar table and four of altar feet, in the form of columns on square bases, also in marble, were found in the center of the panel. One of these bases remained embedded in the mosaic and three holes in the ground were to accommodate the others. Their arrangement suggests the presence of a rectangular altar table.

  – Nave. Overall, we can distinguish two parts from the carpets in the nave: the main carpet and the peripheral panels. The main carpet, rectangular, slightly offset to the left in relation to the nave, measures 11 x 6 m. It is surrounded by a wide border containing a chain in which two motifs are combined, circles and double-stranded Solomon’s knots. These motifs are interlaced, with each other and with the bands which cement the border.

  The north side includes three geometric panels. The first consists of a checkerboard of large squares, surrounded by black, the filling of the squares is constituted by an alternation of squares on the tip inscribed and checkered with 16 polychrome rainbow squares. The second, occupying the middle part of this northern space, is made up of a grid of bands with tangent circles circumscribed to the boxes and small intersection squares. Twelve tangent circles are visible, all of which are decorated in their center with an inscribed square containing a different motif. The third panel, at the north-east corner of the nave, contains an orthogonal composition of intersecting irregular octagons, determining oblong hexagons and squares.

  – Annexes. South-eastern annex: the presence of mosaic tesserae in the northern annex attests to this type of soil. Some fragments of white tesserae of various sizes were found, including some still in situ; west annex: the mosaic which covered this room is destroyed over more than half of its surface. The carpet is surrounded by a border formed by a white band, surrounded by black lines and decorated with a line of non-contiguous black Ts.

  Widad Khoury, “L’Église Nord de Hit (Syrie du Sud),” Syria 89 (2012): 268-271.

• Phasing

  Several successive states of “occupation and destruction” can be observed from the differences in the structure between walls, superpositions of coatings, repairs and additions of mosaics. We have therefore carefully note the types of device, the composition and the location of the coatings. This information made it possible to understand the main chronological phases.

  The first occupation must be associated with the presence of a hermit whose cave, which subsequently became a chapel, would have served as an anchor point for successive constructions. The new nave of the church occupied the space to the south of the chapel, its apse being housed in the contours of this rock to the south.

  The building has undergone three main stages of renovation. In the first stage, the floor of the church was covered with a coating, traces of which, at the north-east corner of the nave, appeared during the clearing of the rubble from the northwest corner of the current apse.

  In a second stage, the floor of the nave received a mosaic floor. Later, those of the apse and the southwest annex followed simultaneously. In a third stage, the building suffered significant damage: the northwest corner of the building collapsed and a large part of the perimeter of the central mosaic was damaged. Restoration work is being undertaken. The western wall, redone, encroaches slightly on the mosaic, buttresses are built on the outside. New motifs are introduced in the destroyed parts of the mosaic. The floor of the apse is also consolidated by a row of blocks supporting a new chancel. A restoration of the church takes place: a synthronon is placed on the mosaic of the apse and a reliquary sarcophagus is placed on the southern side. The accesses on this side as well as the device of the west door are probably redone at the same time. The same is true for the layout of the northern part which was part of the monastery.

  Widad Khoury, “L’Église Nord de Hit (Syrie du Sud),” Syria 89 (2012): 267.

  The pavements present a decorative program little known until now in the region. These carpets, despite their incomplete state, offer a coherent context in which Hit’s pavements could be placed. With regard to the dating of the pavements. Indeed, the floors of the North Church of Hit are closer to examples from churches in different regions: mainly from Saints-Cosme-et-Damien (520-530) to Jerash, from Saints-Lot-et-Procope (557) to Mount Nebo and from Wadi Ayun Moussa (617), as well as from Saint-Christophe (575) to Qabr Hiram in Phenicia, without forgetting the apse of the church of Dame-Marie in Beth Shan which seems to have served as a reference to the apse of the North church of Hit.

  Widad Khoury, “L’Église Nord de Hit (Syrie du Sud),” Syria 89 (2012): 272-273.

• Bibliogaphy

  Al-Muhamed, Q. “Discovery of a Church at Hit in the Hauran: An Example of the Ancient Architecture of Churches.” Al-Athar 4 (2002): 38-41 (in Arabic).

  Donceel-Voûte, Pauline, and Bernadette Gillain. Les pavements des églises byzantines de Syrie et du Liban: Volume I : Décor, archéologie et liturgie. Publications d’histoire de l’art et d’archéologie de l’université catholique de Louvain 69. Institut Supérieur d’archéologie et d’histoire de l’art Collège Érasme, 1988.

  Khoury, Widad. “L’Église Nord de Hit (Syrie du Sud).” Syria 89 (2012): 259–82.