Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean (15.2003(2004))

HAWARTE

SYRIA

HAWARTE
EXCAVATION AND RESTORATION WORK
IN 2003
Grzegorz Majcherek

The joint Syro-Polish mission working in Hawarte on behalf of the Directorate General of
Antiquities and Museums continued an excavation and restoration program initiated in
1998. This season's work lasted from 20 September to 16 October 2003.]>As before, the
DGAM provided the mission with lodging in its dighouse at Apamea, as well as supplied
building materials necessary for a provisional shelter erected over the cave.
Four seasons of work have resulted in the clearing of most of the caveThe mithraeum,
as we now know, consisted of a main sanctuary-hall furnished with benches and cult niche
(room A), adjoined on the west by a large antechamber (room B) and entrance vestibule
(room C) opening onto it from the south (Fig. 1). As evidenced by the pottery finds the latter
was also used for preparing sacred meals. In all previously explored rooms, walls were as
a rule decorated with mural paintings representing various themes and motifs from Mithraic
mythologyIt is these well-preserved paintings that make the mithraeum in Flawarte
unique, not only in Syria but in the Roman world in general.
In keeping with the long-term program aimed at preserving paintings in situ and opening
the site to the public, a team of restorers concurrently carried on extensive conservation work.

1) Mission Director Prof. Michai Gawlikowski, who was unable to attend for the entire season, entrusted the author of
this report with responsibility for the fieldwork. The team included: Mr. Wojciech Terlikowski, architect, and Mr. Marek
Puszkarski, documentalist. Mrs. Ewa Parandowska assisted by Ms Izabela Uchman-Laskowska and Mr. Cristobal Calaforra-
Rzepka carried out the conservation work. The Syrian side was efficiently represented by Mr. Nadim al-Khoury, Director of
Afamia Museum, who shared with us the arduous duties of daily work and who spared no time and effort to assist us in
every way. Messrs. Nazzar Aliqi, archaeologist, Mohammed Malbawy and Ahmed Albush, architects, also joined the
expedition for a few days, assisting in preparing the design of a permanent shelter over the mithraeum.
2) The mithraeum was discovered accidentally in 1997 under a church of the Archbishop Photios excavated in the 1970s
by a French expedition, cf. M.T. and P. Canivet, Huarte. Sanctuaire chretien d'Apamene (IVe-Ve s.) (Paris 1987).
3) Cf. reports by M. Gawlikowski, PAM X, Reports 1998 (1999), esp. 201-204; PAM XI, Reports 1999 (2000), esp. 268-
271; PAM XU, Reports 2000 (2001), 309-314; id., “Un nouveau mithraeum recemment decouvert a Huarte pres d’Apamee",
CRAI 2000 (2001), 119-127.

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