DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.32867#0048
CHAPTER II
ARCHITECTURE OF NORTHERN CENTRAL
SYRIA
I
THE SOURCES — THE NAME
HE ancient monuments of Northern Central Syria to which definite or approxi-
A mate dates may be assigned cover a period of six hundred years, beginning
with the first century after Christ; but the whole region abounds with monuments to
which no dates can be assigned: some of these are, doubtless, more ancient than
those which may be dated, others are coeval with them.
During these six centuries architecture and sculpture passed through a continuous
process of evolution. The evolution of architecture may readily be traced from the
beginning of the period to the end by means of the ample remains of buildings. It
is not so with the sculpture, the remains of which are much rarer; and those which
have been spared are in a sadly mutilated condition.
The development of architecture during this period is not to be traced from small
beginnings, through various stages of growth, to a culmination as a distinct style,
but begins at an advanced stage, with elements borrowed from another style. After
the second century, however, the architectural style of Northern Syria, assimilating
these borrowed elements, works out an independent development, which at the
beginning of the seventh century had reached a period of full bloom. How much
further the style might have been expanded, or what its fruits might eventually have
been, no one can say; for its development was arrested, at that point, by external
causes which are matters of history.
The various influences that cooperated to produce the developed style of the sixth
century in Northern Syria cannot all be traced to their original sources, with our
present knowledge of the later ancient art of the nearer East. One source, that
which was made the basis of the development, is easily traced; that is the Greco-
Roman source, which is evident in what we shall call in these chapters the classic
ARCHITECTURE OF NORTHERN CENTRAL
SYRIA
I
THE SOURCES — THE NAME
HE ancient monuments of Northern Central Syria to which definite or approxi-
A mate dates may be assigned cover a period of six hundred years, beginning
with the first century after Christ; but the whole region abounds with monuments to
which no dates can be assigned: some of these are, doubtless, more ancient than
those which may be dated, others are coeval with them.
During these six centuries architecture and sculpture passed through a continuous
process of evolution. The evolution of architecture may readily be traced from the
beginning of the period to the end by means of the ample remains of buildings. It
is not so with the sculpture, the remains of which are much rarer; and those which
have been spared are in a sadly mutilated condition.
The development of architecture during this period is not to be traced from small
beginnings, through various stages of growth, to a culmination as a distinct style,
but begins at an advanced stage, with elements borrowed from another style. After
the second century, however, the architectural style of Northern Syria, assimilating
these borrowed elements, works out an independent development, which at the
beginning of the seventh century had reached a period of full bloom. How much
further the style might have been expanded, or what its fruits might eventually have
been, no one can say; for its development was arrested, at that point, by external
causes which are matters of history.
The various influences that cooperated to produce the developed style of the sixth
century in Northern Syria cannot all be traced to their original sources, with our
present knowledge of the later ancient art of the nearer East. One source, that
which was made the basis of the development, is easily traced; that is the Greco-
Roman source, which is evident in what we shall call in these chapters the classic