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Abstract/Details

La basilique de Ras el Bassit: Une église paléochrétienne sur la côte de Syrie du Nord

Beaudry, Nicolas.   Universite de Montreal (Canada) ProQuest Dissertations Publishing,  2004. NR00172.

Abstract (summary)

This dissertation reports on the results of the clearing and partial excavation of an early Christian church at Ras el Bassit, on the North Syrian coast.

The church is built on a synagogue attested by two inscriptions and by the menorah of an early sixth-century floor mosaic; it is part of a complex comprising rooms and spaces gathered behind an enclosure wall. A narthex opening on the nave through a colonnade forms with the side-aisles a turning collateral that was covered by a U-shaped gallery. The tripartite chevet is rectangular in plan; the rooms flanking the apse are symmetrical, opening both on the side-aisle through an arch and on the apse through a door. The sanctuary was first limited to the apse (2nd half of the 6th century?), and extended to the first bay (early 7th century); it had two successive champlevé décors. The South annex room was probably a martyrion, and a tomb to the South limit of the sanctuary attests of a martyrial focus on this side. The North annex room yielded a virtually complete table; its base-plate covered an unrobbed reliquary and shared with it a functional oil circulation system. The existence of a martyrial focus to the South is related to the Antiochean practice, but the synthronon in the apse, the narthex and the gallery are Apamean features that are rare or unknown in Antiochene. Foundation relics deposited under or within altars are unknown in North Syria, but the corpus is largely dominated by the village churches of the Limestone Hills; it thins out from the second half of the sixth century onwards, at a time when the practice of foundation relics spreads in other Levantine provinces.

The church was destroyed by an earthquake after 617. After a long period of abandon, a small chapel was built in the ruins of its apse and abandoned towards the mid-thirteenth century.

Indexing (details)


Subject
Archaeology;
Religious congregations;
Religious history
Classification
0324: Archaeology
0320: Religious history
Identifier / keyword
Social sciences; Basilique; Byzantine; Church; French text; Ras el Bassit; Syria
Title
La basilique de Ras el Bassit: Une église paléochrétienne sur la côte de Syrie du Nord
Alternate title
The Basilica of Ras El Bassit: An Early Christian Church on the Coast of Northern Syria
Author
Beaudry, Nicolas
Number of pages
525
Publication year
2004
Degree date
2004
School code
0992
Source
DAI-A 66/02, Dissertation Abstracts International
Place of publication
Ann Arbor
Country of publication
United States
ISBN
978-0-494-00172-1
Advisor
Perreault, Jacques Y.; Sodini, Jean-Pierre
University/institution
Universite de Montreal (Canada)
University location
Canada -- Quebec, CA
Degree
Ph.D.
Source type
Dissertation or Thesis
Language
French
Document type
Dissertation/Thesis
Dissertation/thesis number
NR00172
ProQuest document ID
305053330
Copyright
Database copyright ProQuest LLC; ProQuest does not claim copyright in the individual underlying works.
Document URL
https://www.proquest.com/dissertations/docview/305053330/fulltextPDF/136545AC2C72383B428/6