DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.45603#0022
164
II. B. 4.
sented herewith (see Plan of Babiska) does not show the entire extent of the ruined
town; i't serves only to give the relative positions of the churches and the public
buildings, and a few of the better preserved rows of shops. The large areas in wich
the word “Ruins” is written, are filled with confused masses of fallen building mate-
rials, with here and there a fragment of wall or a door frame (Ill. 175) standing above
the debris, but all too much destroyed to make the tracing of the lines of the walls
an easy task. These waste spaces were occupied, in large part, by residences and
bazaars. The town was compactly built, though this would not appear from the map.
So far as the evidence of the inscriptions sheds light upon the history of the town,
this may be said to be one of the oldest sites in the region. Architectural fragments
of one building, that was probably a temple, give us a definite date in the first half
of the second century after Christ. The
third century, almost barren of dated in-
scriptions in Northern Syria, left no record,
so far as we could find, upon the monu-
ments of Babiska; but the fourth century
was an important one in building activi-
ty here, and in the inscribing of dates.
Standing lintels of private houses, other-
wise completely destroyed, and fallen lintels
of other buildings, give us, not only the
dates of these structures, but also tell us
the names of architects and of dignitaries
of the early Church. An important series
of inscriptions of the fifth century gives
dates to the larger of the two churches
and its group of ecclesiastical buildings,
and, by a comparison of constructional and ornamental details, to the baths and the
buildings adjoining them. The sixth century is represented by Syriac inscriptions that
record the erection of shops, and the seventh century, by the latest of dated Greek
inscriptions discovered thus far in Northern Syria, giving the year 609-10; so that
Babiska’s written documents show the town to have been, not only one of the oldest,
but the very last of the towns to maintain the struggle for existence against the in-
roads of the conquering Persians under Chosroes II.
Fragments. Date: 143 A.D. The two fragments which bear the oldest inscriptions1
found at Babiska were found in the East Church, among the ruins of the arch
of the prothesis, the chamber, in this case, on the north side of the apse. They
were similar blocks with mouldings on three sides, and had been employed as caps
for the piers that carried the arch of the prothesis. The two blocks (Ill. 176) were
most probably of the same dimensions, though one of them is broken away at one
end; both have a cymatium at the top, which extends along the sides and across one
end of each. The inscriptions contain only names and the date; they are incised
upon the curve of the cyma recta and upon the flat surface directly below it. In at-
tempting to place these details in relation to some conceivable building of their period,
1 Div. Ill, insc. 1092.
II. B. 4.
sented herewith (see Plan of Babiska) does not show the entire extent of the ruined
town; i't serves only to give the relative positions of the churches and the public
buildings, and a few of the better preserved rows of shops. The large areas in wich
the word “Ruins” is written, are filled with confused masses of fallen building mate-
rials, with here and there a fragment of wall or a door frame (Ill. 175) standing above
the debris, but all too much destroyed to make the tracing of the lines of the walls
an easy task. These waste spaces were occupied, in large part, by residences and
bazaars. The town was compactly built, though this would not appear from the map.
So far as the evidence of the inscriptions sheds light upon the history of the town,
this may be said to be one of the oldest sites in the region. Architectural fragments
of one building, that was probably a temple, give us a definite date in the first half
of the second century after Christ. The
third century, almost barren of dated in-
scriptions in Northern Syria, left no record,
so far as we could find, upon the monu-
ments of Babiska; but the fourth century
was an important one in building activi-
ty here, and in the inscribing of dates.
Standing lintels of private houses, other-
wise completely destroyed, and fallen lintels
of other buildings, give us, not only the
dates of these structures, but also tell us
the names of architects and of dignitaries
of the early Church. An important series
of inscriptions of the fifth century gives
dates to the larger of the two churches
and its group of ecclesiastical buildings,
and, by a comparison of constructional and ornamental details, to the baths and the
buildings adjoining them. The sixth century is represented by Syriac inscriptions that
record the erection of shops, and the seventh century, by the latest of dated Greek
inscriptions discovered thus far in Northern Syria, giving the year 609-10; so that
Babiska’s written documents show the town to have been, not only one of the oldest,
but the very last of the towns to maintain the struggle for existence against the in-
roads of the conquering Persians under Chosroes II.
Fragments. Date: 143 A.D. The two fragments which bear the oldest inscriptions1
found at Babiska were found in the East Church, among the ruins of the arch
of the prothesis, the chamber, in this case, on the north side of the apse. They
were similar blocks with mouldings on three sides, and had been employed as caps
for the piers that carried the arch of the prothesis. The two blocks (Ill. 176) were
most probably of the same dimensions, though one of them is broken away at one
end; both have a cymatium at the top, which extends along the sides and across one
end of each. The inscriptions contain only names and the date; they are incised
upon the curve of the cyma recta and upon the flat surface directly below it. In at-
tempting to place these details in relation to some conceivable building of their period,
1 Div. Ill, insc. 1092.