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DUMBARTON OAKS RESEARCH LIBRARY AND COLLECTION, CC BY-SA 4.0

HOUSE INTO CHURCH. Among the remarkably well-preserved buildings at Qarqbiza is this fourth-century church. It probably started as a private home but was converted into a domus ecclesiae (“house of the church”) to serve the town’s first Christians as a place of worship prior to Christianity’s legalization in 313 CE. Architectural adjustments included removing internal walls to create a long assembly hall with a single nave, side aisles, and an elevated platform (bema) in the house’s eastern end. The semicircular bema (shown here) preserves a decorated throne where the presiding cleric would sit.