Tinshemet, Ḥorvat (Church of St. Bacchus)
INTRODUCTION
A basilical church dedicated to St. Bacchus was discovered by Y. Porath in 1986 c. 300 m southwest of
EXCAVATION RESULTS
The church, 27 by 11.7 m, faces east. It is built of large, well-dressed ashlars of soft limestone. The structure consists of an atrium to its west, from which a flight of steps leads to the narthex, and a square hall with a nave, two aisles, and an apse. It was roofed with wooden beams and covered with ceramic roof tiles. Adjoining the church, north of the atrium, is a square compound with an olive-oil press, cistern, and entrance room leading to the church’s atrium. About 20 m northeast of the church is a rock-cut reservoir surrounded by three arcosolia tombs.
THE ATRIUM. The atrium, 10 by 9 m, was entered through a main entrance in the center of the western wall; another entrance, from the olive-oil press, is situated in the eastern corner of the northern wall. The floor was paved with a crude white mosaic (9–12 tesserae per sq dm). In the center of the mosaic pavement was a round medallion, 1.26 m in diameter, with a cross made of red tesserae. Inside the medallion, flanking the top of the cross, appears a Greek inscription reading “holy.” Another Greek word flanking the bottom of the cross is illegible. On the eastern side of the atrium, four stairs lead up to a landing in front of the entrance to the narthex. The stairs apparently had a railing on their northern and southern sides. At the bottom of the stairs was a Greek inscription reading “of St. Bacchus,” evidence that the church was dedicated to this saint.
THE NARTHEX. The narthex, 10.3 by 2.8 m, was entered from the atrium via a single doorway in the center of its western wall. It was paved with a colorful mosaic floor of small tesserae (56 tesserae per sq dm), of which only the decorated frame on its eastern side has been preserved. Three entrances led from the narthex to the main hall.
THE MAIN HALL. The church hall measured 10.35 by 10.35 m, excluding the apse, which projects to the east. The hall was divided into a nave, 4.76 m wide, and two aisles, each 2.2 m wide. The rows of columns were 0.60 m wide on each side. On the east side of the nave was a bema, which was separated from the nave and the aisles by a marble chancel screen; only the foundation of the bema has survived. The large quantity of mosaic chips found at the base of the bema indicates that the tesserae were prepared on site. A marble altar table, 0.64 by 0.60 m, stood on the chord of the apse. In its center was a small hollow with a hole in the middle. In the four corners of the hollow were four iron nails, which probably supported a small ciborium, attesting to the sanctity of the relic held in the reliquary under the center of the altar. (A fragment of the marble lid of a reliquary was found at the site.) The hall is paved with a fine mosaic (110–120 tesserae per sq dm) decorated with geometric and plant motifs in black, white, brick-red, orange, and ocher.
The northern aisle is paved in a completely preserved carpet bearing a pattern of squares, rhombuses, and hexagons surrounded by a double frame. On its western side is a tabula ansata with a large decorated cross in its center. At the entrance to the aisle was a depression to collect water used for washing the floor.
The tessellated pavement of the southern aisle is preserved only on its eastern side. It is decorated with a guilloche of round medallions arranged in two rows and inhabited by various geometric patterns and large crosses. Between every four medallions is a rhombus with inward-curving sides and a square at its center. This mosaic is also surrounded by a double frame.
Three columns stood on either side of the nave. The intercolumnary gaps were decorated with a scale design extending inwards from the columns and converging in the middle of each gap. The nave pavement has been preserved mainly on its northern side. It contains two colorful mosaic panels, both consisting of a circle within a square, and both bordered by a wide frame of alternating squares and rectangles containing round and rhombus-shaped medallions, exceptionally rich in color and design. The eastern panel is larger, its center marking the exact center of the church. Its circle is 3.5 m in diameter. In the northwestern corner of the frame of the mosaic is an amphora, from which vines emerge; in the northeastern corner, a geometric design. These two designs were probably repeated in the two opposite corners that have not survived. The circle within the western panel is 2.25 m in diameter. In its center is a Greek inscription reading, “This place belongs to the Lord and his only son.” Filling the circle around the inscription is an intricate, colorful rhombus pattern emanating outwards from the center.
The mosaic of the apse, which is 3.9 m in diameter, is a colorful pavement consisting of a central triangle with rays emanating to the east. The western part of the apse is decorated with a guilloche of square medallions containing circles.
THE OLIVE-OIL PRESS. The olive-oil press, built along the northern wall of the atrium, was an integral part of the church building. The press, 11.5 (east–west) by 10.6 m, consisted of four rooms and a cistern. The entrance to the complex, in the northern wall, led to a long room paved with stone blocks. This room had two doorways, one opening on the east into an anteroom to the atrium and the other into the main room of the complex, the crushing room. At the convergence of the three rooms was a bell-shaped cistern, which was coated with two layers of hydraulic plaster. The lid of the cistern was hewn from a single block. Water could be drawn from the cistern from both the anteroom and the crushing room. Part of the crushing basin was found in the crushing room (7.5 by 3.4 m). The floor of the room was of crushed limestone.
The press stood in the long room, 9 by 3.3 m, on the western side of the complex. It was operated by a press beam (c. 7.5 m long) and two wooden screws. A heavy stone weight (c. 4 tons each) was attached to each of the wooden screws. The collecting vat was hewn in the bedrock, next to the surface on which the olive pulp was placed. This type of press—two screw weights operated by a wooden beam—was widespread in the region from the sixth to the eighth century CE.
THE FINDS. The finds include pottery sherds and fragments of glass vessels from the Byzantine and Early Islamic periods. Fragments of glass windows indicate that light entered the church building from a clerestory. Also found were a number of metal objects including an iron needle and a bronze oil ladle, coins dating from the fourth to the eighth centuries, limestone and basalt basins, many fragments of the chancel screen and the marble altar table, a fragment of a reliquary lid, shells of various types, and a bone button.
A unique find is a round medallion of marble from western Asia Minor (Aipion, Aphrodisias, or Ephesus). The medallion is 67 cm in diameter and 5.5 cm thick. Fragments of it were found in both the church and the olive-oil press. On the medallion is carved the figure of the goddess Tyche (Fortuna) in a turreted crown with a gate in the center. She wears five different necklaces—three around her neck and two on her chest—and long earrings. Her hair is gathered in the back. In her left hand she holds a cornucopia; in her right, which is adorned with three bracelets, a scepter with a round top. A frame containing two inscriptions surrounds the medallion, each inscription beginning and ending with a cross. The upper inscription is fragmentary. It mentions Procopius son of Theodoros, perhaps the governor in office when the medallion was donated to the church. The lower inscription, preserved in its entirety, reads: “in the month of Xanticos [April], Year 645.” The year probably refers to the Pompeian calendar, providing a date for the medallion of April 582 or 583 CE, during the reign of Tiberius II or Mauricius. This Byzantine Tyche is unique among Byzantine marbles. Its closest parallels are in the mosaic representations of Tyche at Beth-Shean, the Hippolytus Hall at Medeba, and the Burnt Palace at Medeba; an ivory diptych, probably made in Constantinople, depicting Tyche of Rome and Tyche of Constantinople; and several other Byzantine works of art in which city goddesses are portrayed.
UZI DAHARI
INTRODUCTION
A basilical church dedicated to St. Bacchus was discovered by Y. Porath in 1986 c. 300 m southwest of
EXCAVATION RESULTS
The church, 27 by 11.7 m, faces east. It is built of large, well-dressed ashlars of soft limestone. The structure consists of an atrium to its west, from which a flight of steps leads to the narthex, and a square hall with a nave, two aisles, and an apse. It was roofed with wooden beams and covered with ceramic roof tiles. Adjoining the church, north of the atrium, is a square compound with an olive-oil press, cistern, and entrance room leading to the church’s atrium. About 20 m northeast of the church is a rock-cut reservoir surrounded by three arcosolia tombs.