Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean (9.1997(1998))

SHHIM
The research this year brought more information on the
chronology of the Byzantine basilica and Roman temple, and
permitted part of a habitation district located underneath the ruins
to be cleared.2
THE CHURCH OF PRESBYTER THOMAS (BASILICA B)
Current work was concentrated in the church presbytery. The
investigations in the previous season had already confirmed that the
mosaic in the presbytery belonged to a later phase of the building.
The original mosaic in the side aisles and the nave, dated by
inscriptions to the late 5th century, clearly continued under the
blocks that delimited the presbytery on the south.
The pit excavated last year in the central part of the
presbytery had yielded fragments of oil lamps of the same type,
dated to the late 7th - early 8th century. A stratigraphical study now
determined the extent of the pit, as well as its chronology and
character. Further pieces of oil lamps of the turn of the 7th century
indicated that the pit had been a robbers’ trench, made in early Arab
times in order to get at the rich equipment of the already disused
church.
Conservators removed and protected the mosaic in the
presbytery. It turned out that compared to the eastern part of the
floor, which contained representations of lionesses, birds and fish,
the western part was in a much worse condition. Also the cubes of
which the mosaic was made were different, as were the layers
of bedding. In the western end, the mosaic was laid on a thin layer
of mortar set on a compact layer of small pebbles, while the eastern
end, together with the lionesses and the decoration of the apse,

2 For the 1996 campaign, see PAMVIU, 1996 (1997), pp. 147-156.

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