Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean (13.2001(2002))

HAWARTE

SYRIA

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The mithraeum found recently under the
church of Archbishop Photios, excavated
by Maria Teresa and Pierre Canivet in the
1970s,2) is notable for its mural paintings,
which are unequaled not only in Syria, but
in the entire Near East as well, and
arguably in the Roman world in general. It
is important to uncover the underground
monument in its entirety, to protect it
properly and make it accessible to the
public. The overall program, as submitted
to the Directorate General of Antiquities,
proposes to excavate the complex and to
build a permanent shelter over it.
This task had been hindered until now
by the presence of a modern house built
over the ruins of the church. Before the
start of the present season, the house was
expropriated and demolished by DGAM,
and we could proceed with the excavation
as planned.
Our restorers were not only busy
consolidating and cleaning the murals, but
also working on hundreds of detached
fragments recovered from the fill during
the excavation and preserved in Plama and
Afamia. While many of them, probably
most, will never be fit for exhibition, there
is always a chance of their being used for a
graphic restitution of the parts missing
THE DOORWAY
The excavation of this part of the subter-
ranean complex was particularly difficult
because of the presence of later walls and
foundations. Even after removing the
modern structure and lifting a patch of
mosaic underneath, we were dealing with
an area of barely 2.50 m by 2.70 m, which

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from the walls of the grotto. It should be
mentioned in this connection that a few
large fragments of the painted ceiling from
the main room were treated at the
Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw by
Aleksandra Trochimowicz and have now
been returned to Syria in one piece, ready
for display.
A program of computer-aided virtual
reconstruction of the paintings has also
been implemented. Colors are being
enhanced, the background neutralized, and
different layers of painting separated on
screen to render the subjects represented
more readable. Simultaneously, snapshots
of the paintings taken immediately after
discovery are being treated in order to
recreate murals that had disintegrated even
before our mission began its work.
One of the planned objectives of the
season was finding and excavating the
original entrance to the mithraeum, to
serve if possible as a permanent access to
the underground site. We knew already
that there was another painted room to the
south of the main room, which could not be
excavated as long as the modern house
remained in place. Accordingly, it was our
first task this year to tackle this area,
hoping to discover the entrance (Fig. 1).
AND ENTRANCE
had to be excavated to a depth of about
4 m. It is surrounded on three sides by the
foundations of the church, laid in two
phases (about AD 400 and 483), while on
the fourth side there is a vertical rock face
with the opening to the part of the grotto
that had served as the entrance (Fig. 2).

2) M. T. and P. Canivet, Huarte. Sanctuaire chretien d'Apamene (IVe-VIe s.) (Paris 1987).

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