DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.45604#0050
248
Division II Section B Part 5
purpose. It is certainly not a tomb, for it is not large enough ; it could hardly have
provided a canopy for a throne in so small a room; but a chapel or an oratory might
be very small and yet have its altar. The altar under this ciborium would, of neces-
sity, have been very small, but it could not occupy the position it would have occupied
in an apse, and I venture to suggest that the ciborium in many of the rectangular
sanctuaries of this region were erected, like this one, against the east wall. It would
still have been possible, even in the case before us, for the altar to have stood free
from the wall, and for the priest to have stood behind it, facing the west. If I am
right in assuming that this is a ciborium, it is the only example of that feature of
church furniture that has remained in situ in all Syria, though the four colonettes of
a ciborium were found in the ruins of the apse of a church at it-Tuba.1 The in-
scription carved upon the string course of this little tower suggests a Christian origin
for the custom of placing inscriptions in a similar position on the minarets of Moham-
medan mosques. The profile of the moulding itself is typical of the late fifth century
string mouldings. The doorway with a distyle porch in front of it, shown on the plan
and in Ill. 252, is all that is left of the building to which it belonged. An inscription
dated October 423 A.D. appears in a sunken panel, in imitation of a lunette, above
the doorway.
House. The house of which a photograph is given in Ill. 253, and which is re-
presented by a ground plan in Ill. 254, is typical of one class of residences in Zerzita-
Like all the houses here, its walls were built r———————--
of small irregular pieces of stone laid in clay,
and have entirely disintegrated, while its two-
storey portico ot fine monoliths is perfectly
preserved. This structure has two nearly equal
divisions set at a slight angle, and seems to
represent two different periods of building. The 'y._
western half of the house has one large room TZ P T~) TZ T | A .
and one small one on the ground floor, its 1 ±
lower portico is composed of piers and its HOVSL
upper portico of Ionic columns; while the eastern IU 254
half has three rooms of nearly equal size on
the ground floor, and both storeys of its portico are piers. The panels of the parapet
are still in place in several bays.
Two Houses. Dates: June and September 539 A.D. There are many houses in
this town in the simple rectangular style without cornice or other mouldings. In all
of them the two-storey porticos are standing intact, two of them have inscriptions of
the same year, 539 A.D., one was completed in June, the other in September, as we
learn from two inscriptions3 which probably indicate their completion. The two in-
scriptions were carved upon the same place in both houses, i.e. the first architrave
block in the upper storey at the west end of the portico. The stone employed in
these porticos is well finished; but there is little of interest in their designs excepting
in the low relief carving in the panels of their parapets (Ills. 255, 256).
1 II. B. I, p. 20.
2 TIL inscs. 1121-1122.
Division II Section B Part 5
purpose. It is certainly not a tomb, for it is not large enough ; it could hardly have
provided a canopy for a throne in so small a room; but a chapel or an oratory might
be very small and yet have its altar. The altar under this ciborium would, of neces-
sity, have been very small, but it could not occupy the position it would have occupied
in an apse, and I venture to suggest that the ciborium in many of the rectangular
sanctuaries of this region were erected, like this one, against the east wall. It would
still have been possible, even in the case before us, for the altar to have stood free
from the wall, and for the priest to have stood behind it, facing the west. If I am
right in assuming that this is a ciborium, it is the only example of that feature of
church furniture that has remained in situ in all Syria, though the four colonettes of
a ciborium were found in the ruins of the apse of a church at it-Tuba.1 The in-
scription carved upon the string course of this little tower suggests a Christian origin
for the custom of placing inscriptions in a similar position on the minarets of Moham-
medan mosques. The profile of the moulding itself is typical of the late fifth century
string mouldings. The doorway with a distyle porch in front of it, shown on the plan
and in Ill. 252, is all that is left of the building to which it belonged. An inscription
dated October 423 A.D. appears in a sunken panel, in imitation of a lunette, above
the doorway.
House. The house of which a photograph is given in Ill. 253, and which is re-
presented by a ground plan in Ill. 254, is typical of one class of residences in Zerzita-
Like all the houses here, its walls were built r———————--
of small irregular pieces of stone laid in clay,
and have entirely disintegrated, while its two-
storey portico ot fine monoliths is perfectly
preserved. This structure has two nearly equal
divisions set at a slight angle, and seems to
represent two different periods of building. The 'y._
western half of the house has one large room TZ P T~) TZ T | A .
and one small one on the ground floor, its 1 ±
lower portico is composed of piers and its HOVSL
upper portico of Ionic columns; while the eastern IU 254
half has three rooms of nearly equal size on
the ground floor, and both storeys of its portico are piers. The panels of the parapet
are still in place in several bays.
Two Houses. Dates: June and September 539 A.D. There are many houses in
this town in the simple rectangular style without cornice or other mouldings. In all
of them the two-storey porticos are standing intact, two of them have inscriptions of
the same year, 539 A.D., one was completed in June, the other in September, as we
learn from two inscriptions3 which probably indicate their completion. The two in-
scriptions were carved upon the same place in both houses, i.e. the first architrave
block in the upper storey at the west end of the portico. The stone employed in
these porticos is well finished; but there is little of interest in their designs excepting
in the low relief carving in the panels of their parapets (Ills. 255, 256).
1 II. B. I, p. 20.
2 TIL inscs. 1121-1122.