DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.45598#0024
il-Anderin (Androna)
61
The angle-towers may have contained tombs of special distinction. The great tomb
adjoining the church was probably the tomb of some high dignitaries in church or state,
or may even have been the repository of saintly bones which would lend particular
sanctity to this campo santo. There are no remains of residential buildings near the
church. It could therefore not have been a monastic institution. An inscribed lintel1
was found among the ruins of the northeast angle-tower of the enclosing wall. The
inscription gives the date 528 A.D. This is probably to be considered as coeval with
the building of the church. The other inscribed lintels ~ give no dates. The character
of the ornament employed upon this church may be seen in Ill. 53 which shows the
lintel and jambs of one of the portals. The grape-vine and interlaces in low relief,
separated by narrow bands, or flat imitations of the Classic bead-and-reel, a symbolic
disc in the centre; these are the patterns most common in all the ecclesiastical orna-
ment of Androna. Within the church several marble columns with richly carved By-
zantine capitals were found ; they probably belonged to the ciborium, or to an ikonastasis.
The two photographs (Ills. 52 and 53) show, as well as any illustrations I have, the
methods of wall building in all the stone structures of this entire region of basalt, and
show a striking similarity to the ruins at Zebed. 3 The debris shown in Ill. 52 is the
sort of thing that one finds in every ruin in this locality. In this hopeless mass one
may see the truncated pyramids of the ordinary walling, the long bonding stones with
concave sides, and the highly finished large blocks that composed the jambs and lin-
tels. In the two standing angles at the west end (right and left in Ill. 52), and in the
Section-AB-
Restored-
Ill. 58.
preserved section of wall shown in Ill. 53 these details may be seen in place. The
bases of the truncated pyramids form the regular coursing, the bonding stones project
slightly as square bosses, long quadrated blocks are used at the angles, the window
arches are composed of narrow wedges laid two deep in the thickness of the wall.
The method was a good one when good mortar could be had, but a very poor one
otherwise.
Church No. 7. Southeast of the barracks is the ruin of another church that was
1 Div. Ill, insc. 910.
2 Div. Ill, inscs. 911, 912.
3 cf. A.A.E.S., Part II, p. 304.
61
The angle-towers may have contained tombs of special distinction. The great tomb
adjoining the church was probably the tomb of some high dignitaries in church or state,
or may even have been the repository of saintly bones which would lend particular
sanctity to this campo santo. There are no remains of residential buildings near the
church. It could therefore not have been a monastic institution. An inscribed lintel1
was found among the ruins of the northeast angle-tower of the enclosing wall. The
inscription gives the date 528 A.D. This is probably to be considered as coeval with
the building of the church. The other inscribed lintels ~ give no dates. The character
of the ornament employed upon this church may be seen in Ill. 53 which shows the
lintel and jambs of one of the portals. The grape-vine and interlaces in low relief,
separated by narrow bands, or flat imitations of the Classic bead-and-reel, a symbolic
disc in the centre; these are the patterns most common in all the ecclesiastical orna-
ment of Androna. Within the church several marble columns with richly carved By-
zantine capitals were found ; they probably belonged to the ciborium, or to an ikonastasis.
The two photographs (Ills. 52 and 53) show, as well as any illustrations I have, the
methods of wall building in all the stone structures of this entire region of basalt, and
show a striking similarity to the ruins at Zebed. 3 The debris shown in Ill. 52 is the
sort of thing that one finds in every ruin in this locality. In this hopeless mass one
may see the truncated pyramids of the ordinary walling, the long bonding stones with
concave sides, and the highly finished large blocks that composed the jambs and lin-
tels. In the two standing angles at the west end (right and left in Ill. 52), and in the
Section-AB-
Restored-
Ill. 58.
preserved section of wall shown in Ill. 53 these details may be seen in place. The
bases of the truncated pyramids form the regular coursing, the bonding stones project
slightly as square bosses, long quadrated blocks are used at the angles, the window
arches are composed of narrow wedges laid two deep in the thickness of the wall.
The method was a good one when good mortar could be had, but a very poor one
otherwise.
Church No. 7. Southeast of the barracks is the ruin of another church that was
1 Div. Ill, insc. 910.
2 Div. Ill, inscs. 911, 912.
3 cf. A.A.E.S., Part II, p. 304.