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Silvia Pedone
Koç University, Stavros Niarchos Foundation Center
for Late Antique and Byzantine Studies (GABAM), Istanbul, Turkey;
spedone@ku.edu.tr
New Evidences Regarding the Byzantine Sculptures
from the Basilica of St Philip at Hierapolis
The purpose of this paper is to present the preliminary results of a research carried out on the
Byzantine sculpture of the Church of St Philip at Hierapolis, which was discovered in 2012 by Prof.
Francesco D’Andria and the Missione Archeologica Italiana of the Università del Salento (Lecce).
The analysis and the study of several sculptures with architectural and liturgical functions, were
made possible thanks to the FIRB Project
Marmora Phrygia
(Futuro in ricerca 2012) and a one
year research grant, the latter coordinated by Manuela De Giorgi and completed in March 2016.
The relevance of the sculptures of St Philip is due to the noteworthy quantity and the quality of the
pieces, as well as to the archaeological context in which the material was found. This allows us to
connect the sculptures with the different chronological phases of the monument, and thus to fix an
important reference point for the dating of the sculptural production in Hierapolis as well as in the
Phrygian Region. Furthermore, such a result helps to reconsider and better understand the role of
the local workshops and the influences from other areas.
The present paper will focus on specific aspects of the different sculptural techniques applied in
the Church of St Philip, in particular on the use of color and its role within the sacred space, in order
to reconstruct somehow a “visual hierarchy” of sculpture decoration in the complexity of the building.
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Liudmila Khrushkova
Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russian Federation;
KhrushkovaL@list.ru
Tauric Chersonesus:
Marble Capitals and the Problem of the Dating of the Early Byzantine Churches
During the long-term excavations in Tauric Chersonesus (from the 6
th
century in the Byzantine
sources the town was named Cherson) few hundred details of the architectural decoration and
liturgical furnishing were found which were brought from Proconessian workshops. The capitals
are not rear amongst them. There are more than hundred items in the National Park of Tauric
Chersonesus (Sevastopol, Crimea); more than score of capitals are in keeping of the museums in
Moscow, St-Petersburg and Ukraine. For the most part they were found out of archaeological
context, so the majority of archaeologists are very skeptical about the possibility to use this material
for making more precise chronology of the Chersonesus churches. The dating of the certain urban
and cemetery churches has been the subject of very hot discussions. Some researchers put forth
the idea of the “architectural boom” which took place at the end of the 6
th
- the beginning of the 7
th
centuries; but this supposition is based only on several archaeological and numismatic findings, the
stratigraphical location of which, unfortunately, is often disputable and doesn’t correspond to the
results of the analysis of the architecture and marble and mosaic decorations of the churches.
My research of the typology and chronology of the Chersonesus capitals leads me to the
following conclusions. The chronological pattern of the different types of capitals indicates three
periods of the great building activity in the town: the reign of Theodosius II and two decades about
it, the reign of Zenon and the reign of Justinian I. The first period is characterized by capitals with
fine-toothed acanthus. In that time the construction of large buildings in the town was limited, but
there are at least two churches of this period
intra muros
: bishop’s church and the earliest basilica in
the complex of the so called “basilica of the 1935”. The series of Corinthian capitals, including “lyre-
shaped” and “V-shaped” ones belongs to the epoch of Zenon. The activity of Zenon in Chersonesus
is evidenced by the inscription reporting the building of the great tower. And then, the third and
more significant period of construction work in the town falls within the reign of Justinian I. This
period of large-scale, quick and pragmatic building activity is featured by Ionic impost capitals and
simple impost capitals. Amongst the Ionic impost capitals from the Chersonesus more earlier items
are also presented, in particular, the capitals from the complex of the bishop’s basilica, but the great
deal of them belongs to the epoch of Justinian. The Ionic impost capitals amount to 40% of the
Chersonesus collection.
Chersonesus capitals of proconessian marble instigate the production of local stone capitals,
which are founded in the inner regions of Crimea.
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