International congress of byzantine studies belgrade, 22 27 august 2016

Catherine Vanderheyde
University of Strasbourg, Strasbourg, France / Free University of Brussels, Brussels, Belgium; 
[e-mail]
Early Byzantine Sculpture’s Workshops in Apamea (Syria): 
Between Constantinopolitan Influence and Local Creativity
This paper deals with the first presentation of a piece of research begun in 2009 on the Early 
Byzantine sculpture discovered during the excavations of Apamea in Syria. Given the political 
turmoil in Syria for several years, it seemed particularly important to draw the attention of the 
scientific community to this Byzantine heritage that may by now have been destroyed or stolen.
In the past, the city of Apamea covered 250 hectares and had a very regular plan with streets 
intersecting at right angles describing regular blocks or 
insulae
. The cardo and his porticoes, about 
2 km long and 20 meters wide, clearly constituted the main road of the city. Paved with slabs of 
limestone, it gave access to major buildings (agora, baths, monumental fountain, large latrine), 
while the decumanus led to the theatre and the Eastern Cathedral.
The penetration of Christianity in Apamea is attested by several hagiographical sources 
relating the martyrdom of St. Maurice, St. Antoninus and St. Marcel who was the bishop of the city. 
According to the excavations conducted by the Belgian team, most of the churches (the Rotunda, 
the Atrium church, the Eastern Cathedral and the church VIII.17) were situated in the southeast 
part of the town. Large unearthed villas also attest to the wealth of their inhabitants.
In the best state of preservation are the capitals which come from religious buildings and private 
residences. Several marble Corinthian capitals were found during excavations of the house called “aux 
colonnes bilobées”. The information recorded in the excavations notebooks does not help to clarify the 
chronology of these carved pieces but many of these capitals are very similar to the capitals found in 
Constantinopolitan which can be dated from the 5
th
to the 6
th
century. The close observation of these 
capitals shows that were made of a gray veined marble and that some of them bear quarry
 
marks. These 
observations suggest that these architectural sculptures may have been imported from the quarries of 
Proconnesus near Constantinople. However, it is the local limestone, sometimes painted red, which was 
used for the capitals found in the house of the “chapiteaux à consoles”, in the Atrium church and in the 
Eastern Cathedral. Some capitals are similar to others that were preserved in northern Syria during the 
Early byzantine period. Nonetheless they are characterized by many different motifs and virtuosity in 
the art of carving. Some sculptures are of outstanding quality, such as a pink limestone capital discovered 
in the Eastern cathedral on which an inscription mentioning bishop Paul was carved. Another big 
limestone capital with two rows of deep carved acanthus leaves was carefully painted in red.
The variety of materials, designs and technical processes implemented on the sculptures 
demonstrates the creativity of local sculptor’s workshops working for the architectural decoration 
in Apamea during the Early Byzantine period. Such variety is not only found in Apamea and in 
northern Syria where several sculptors’ workshops have already been identified. The architectural 
sculpture of several other Early Byzantine cities in the Balkans, such as Caričin Grad, Stobi and 

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Sandanski, show a similar variety of materials, shapes, decorations and carving techniques. If 
“varietas ex nuovo” has already been observed in the architectural decoration of some religious 
buildings of Macedonia, like Hagios Dimitrios in Thessaloniki, it seems that this aesthetic trend 
could also exist across all buildings of a same city.