DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.45603#0026
Babiska
167
to this, on the south, is a narrow passage with a doorway (M) placed at the end of
it. The lintel of this doorway bears an inscription of the year 390 A.D. The other
side of the passage is occupied by a tower which fills the southeast angle of the atrium.
A similar tower, set on a different angle, stands in the southwest corner of the atrium,
and the two are connected by a wall, and a row of piers, which formed a portico along
the entire south side of the court. This portico was not set parallel to the line of
the south wall of the church; but runs obliquely towards it. The west side of the
court is closed by a wall of two stories (Ill. 177) which joined the southwest tower
with the southwest angle of the church, making an obtuse angle with it. In this west
wall is a fine arch of entrance, and within it is a row of piers which carried an upper
story of rooms over the arch. The windows of these rooms may be seen in the draw-
ing of the west elevation of the buildings, where only the upper parts of the west
wall of the church, and the tower of the diaconicum, are restorations.
The oldest bit of ornament in this group of buildings does not belong, strange
to say, to the church itself; it is the lintel of the doorway (M) in the passage between
the baptistery and the southeast tower of the atrium. The lintel now lies in the pas-
sage ; the jambs that carried it are standing, and show that the doorway faced the
east. The doorway was framed in a set of good mouldings (Ill. 177 M), first a fascia
with an inscription upon the lintel part, then a bead-and-reel, outside of that a fascia
ornamented with a flat twisted fillet, then another bead-and-reel, and outside of this
a deep cyma recta and a broad inscribed fascia. Above the frame mouldings is a
broad door cap consisting of a heavy cyma recta carved with acanthus leaves and
honey suckles, capped by a broad ovolo inscribed with the year and the month. The
ornamental details of the church itself are interesting as examples of early fifth-century
work that can be definitely dated. The capitals of the interior arcades were appa-
rently uniform, being inverted truncated cones carved with vertical flutings beneath
square abaci like capital (D) at Ksedjbeh (Ill. 170). Below the echinus was a narrow
bead-and-reel, and the top of the shaft was ornamented with a diminutive arcuation
like minute crenellations. The south wall was precisely similar to the south wall of
the East Church at Ksedjbeh; both portals were moulded and hooded, the more
easterly (N in Ill. 177) bearing the date 401, and having its mouldings carved with
patterns exactly similar to those of the corresponding portal at Ksedjbeh, which is
dated 414. The west wall which is perfectly plain in the lower story, preserves a
jamb and part of an arch of one window in the next story above. This fragment is
so placed that one must conjecture that there were three windows on this level, and
it shows a set of window mouldings with a fine bead-and-reel. It is hardly probable
that this window decoration is coeval with the original church whose portal bears the
date 401, and I think it more probable that the whole west end was rebuilt later in
the fifth century. The arch moulding and the moulded caps of the piers of the entrance
arch on the west side of the atrium (See West Elevation, Ill. 177) are well proportioned
and carefully executed. Their profiles are similar to that of the mouldings of the
portal of the church at Bafudeh, dated 392 A.D., and this arch may date from the
end of the fourth or the beginning of the fifth century. Immediately within the arch
stands a doorway (P) which is quite complete, yet it does not seem to be in the po-
sition for which it was originally intended. It is placed just within the arch, hardly
50 cm. from it, and the ends of its lintel, with the mouldings and the inscription upon
167
to this, on the south, is a narrow passage with a doorway (M) placed at the end of
it. The lintel of this doorway bears an inscription of the year 390 A.D. The other
side of the passage is occupied by a tower which fills the southeast angle of the atrium.
A similar tower, set on a different angle, stands in the southwest corner of the atrium,
and the two are connected by a wall, and a row of piers, which formed a portico along
the entire south side of the court. This portico was not set parallel to the line of
the south wall of the church; but runs obliquely towards it. The west side of the
court is closed by a wall of two stories (Ill. 177) which joined the southwest tower
with the southwest angle of the church, making an obtuse angle with it. In this west
wall is a fine arch of entrance, and within it is a row of piers which carried an upper
story of rooms over the arch. The windows of these rooms may be seen in the draw-
ing of the west elevation of the buildings, where only the upper parts of the west
wall of the church, and the tower of the diaconicum, are restorations.
The oldest bit of ornament in this group of buildings does not belong, strange
to say, to the church itself; it is the lintel of the doorway (M) in the passage between
the baptistery and the southeast tower of the atrium. The lintel now lies in the pas-
sage ; the jambs that carried it are standing, and show that the doorway faced the
east. The doorway was framed in a set of good mouldings (Ill. 177 M), first a fascia
with an inscription upon the lintel part, then a bead-and-reel, outside of that a fascia
ornamented with a flat twisted fillet, then another bead-and-reel, and outside of this
a deep cyma recta and a broad inscribed fascia. Above the frame mouldings is a
broad door cap consisting of a heavy cyma recta carved with acanthus leaves and
honey suckles, capped by a broad ovolo inscribed with the year and the month. The
ornamental details of the church itself are interesting as examples of early fifth-century
work that can be definitely dated. The capitals of the interior arcades were appa-
rently uniform, being inverted truncated cones carved with vertical flutings beneath
square abaci like capital (D) at Ksedjbeh (Ill. 170). Below the echinus was a narrow
bead-and-reel, and the top of the shaft was ornamented with a diminutive arcuation
like minute crenellations. The south wall was precisely similar to the south wall of
the East Church at Ksedjbeh; both portals were moulded and hooded, the more
easterly (N in Ill. 177) bearing the date 401, and having its mouldings carved with
patterns exactly similar to those of the corresponding portal at Ksedjbeh, which is
dated 414. The west wall which is perfectly plain in the lower story, preserves a
jamb and part of an arch of one window in the next story above. This fragment is
so placed that one must conjecture that there were three windows on this level, and
it shows a set of window mouldings with a fine bead-and-reel. It is hardly probable
that this window decoration is coeval with the original church whose portal bears the
date 401, and I think it more probable that the whole west end was rebuilt later in
the fifth century. The arch moulding and the moulded caps of the piers of the entrance
arch on the west side of the atrium (See West Elevation, Ill. 177) are well proportioned
and carefully executed. Their profiles are similar to that of the mouldings of the
portal of the church at Bafudeh, dated 392 A.D., and this arch may date from the
end of the fourth or the beginning of the fifth century. Immediately within the arch
stands a doorway (P) which is quite complete, yet it does not seem to be in the po-
sition for which it was originally intended. It is placed just within the arch, hardly
50 cm. from it, and the ends of its lintel, with the mouldings and the inscription upon