DOI issue:
Lebanon
DOI article:Waliszewski, Tomasz; Kowalski, Sławomir P.; Witecka, Anna: Shhim and Jiyeh: excavations 1997
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.41242#0145
primarily from the Euphratensis province.3 The semi-circular bemas
from Syria are better known.
The discovery of a bema in Lebanon puts the history of the
liturgy in this area in a new light. Extremely interesting from this
point of view are all the other changes in the presbytery identified
in the course of the research. In brief, a bema had stood in the
middle of the church in the first stage of its existence; between it
and a slightly elevated apse, there was the altar with the cancellum
around it or a ciborium above it. In the next phase of liturgical
changes, the cancelli were removed from around the altar and the
nave. The next serious rebuilding necessitated covering with earth
the space left by the altar and the laying of a new mosaic picturing
lionesses, birds and fish in a geometric framework. Hence, the
presbytery was made to be more in line with what was then the
standard in Phoenicia.
The presbytery also revealed some exceedingly interesting
structures belonging to a stage preceding the basilica. In its western
part, transversally to the church axis, a plastered structure with
a kind of bench-projection was built into the bema. The structure
was linked with a mortar floor, which had been destroyed in the
southwestern comer by a robbers’ pit. Perhaps the stmcture belongs
to a period corresponding to the level already revealed under the
Roman temple.
Important conservation work was carried out inside the
northern wall of the basilica which was threatening to collapse. The
wall was dismantled to the ground and reconstructed, the displaced
elements being restored to their original position. This will provide
more sound protection for the basilica and will permit the as yet
3
P. Donceel-Voute, Les pavements des eglises de Syrie et du Liban, Louvain-la-Neuve,
1988, pp. 521-522.
143
from Syria are better known.
The discovery of a bema in Lebanon puts the history of the
liturgy in this area in a new light. Extremely interesting from this
point of view are all the other changes in the presbytery identified
in the course of the research. In brief, a bema had stood in the
middle of the church in the first stage of its existence; between it
and a slightly elevated apse, there was the altar with the cancellum
around it or a ciborium above it. In the next phase of liturgical
changes, the cancelli were removed from around the altar and the
nave. The next serious rebuilding necessitated covering with earth
the space left by the altar and the laying of a new mosaic picturing
lionesses, birds and fish in a geometric framework. Hence, the
presbytery was made to be more in line with what was then the
standard in Phoenicia.
The presbytery also revealed some exceedingly interesting
structures belonging to a stage preceding the basilica. In its western
part, transversally to the church axis, a plastered structure with
a kind of bench-projection was built into the bema. The structure
was linked with a mortar floor, which had been destroyed in the
southwestern comer by a robbers’ pit. Perhaps the stmcture belongs
to a period corresponding to the level already revealed under the
Roman temple.
Important conservation work was carried out inside the
northern wall of the basilica which was threatening to collapse. The
wall was dismantled to the ground and reconstructed, the displaced
elements being restored to their original position. This will provide
more sound protection for the basilica and will permit the as yet
3
P. Donceel-Voute, Les pavements des eglises de Syrie et du Liban, Louvain-la-Neuve,
1988, pp. 521-522.
143