Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7fkt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T14:33:13.461Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Alacami in Kadirli: Transformations of a Sacred Monument

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

Richard Bayliss
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Situated on the outskirts of the modern town of Kadirli is the best preserved late Roman church in eastern Cilicia. Its characteristics of design and construction are of pivotal significance for addressing the development of early Christian architecture in the region, as it represents the archetype of a definable group of churches in the upper Cilician plain, which link the building traditions of Syria with those of Anatolia and the southern shores. As it stands today, this structure known as the Alacami displays over a millennium and a half of local history, the liturgy of three different faiths and even more transitional building phases. In 1949 a full measured survey of the building was conducted by Michael and Mary Gough who in the same year were working at nearby Anazarbus. The results were never published and remained lost until 1994 when work commenced on cataloguing the Gough archive. The following study presents the full details of the Gough's survey for the first time and provides a detailed discussion of the monument in context, charting its development from the Roman period to the present day.

Type
Research Article
Information
Anatolian Studies , Volume 47 , December 1997 , pp. 57 - 87
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute at Ankara 1997

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bell, G. L., 1906. “Notes on a journey through Lycaonia and Cilicia I”, RArch 4th series 7, 1–29 (p. 9–11)Google Scholar
Bent, J. Th., 1890. “Recent discoveries in eastern Cilicia”, JHS XI, 231–5.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boase, T. S. R., 1978 The Cilician Kingdom of Armenia. New York.Google Scholar
Bossert, H. Th., Alkım, U.B., 1947. Karatepe, Kadirli ve Dolayları. Ikinci Ön-rapor. İstanbul Üniversitesi Edebiyat Fakültesi (Eski Önasya Kültürlerini Araştırma Enstitüsü Yayınları 3).Google Scholar
Butler, H. C., 1929. The Early Churches in Syria. Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Çambel, H., 1983. “Karatepe-Aslantaş, Aslantaş. Barajı Gölü Alanı ve 1982 Dönemi Çalışmaları”, KST, V p. 159.Google Scholar
Dagron, G., Feissel, D., 1987. Inscriptions de Cilicie. Paris (Travaux et mémoires du centre de reserche d'histoire et civilisation de Byzance, Monographies 4).Google Scholar
Davis, D. E., 1879. Life in Asiatic Turkey. A Journal of Travel in Cilicia Pedias and Trachaea, Isauria, and parts of Lycaonia and Cappadocia. London.Google Scholar
Edwards, R. W., 1982. “Two new Byzantine churches in Cilicia”, AnSt XXXII, 23–33.Google Scholar
Edwards, R. W., 1982. “Ecclesiastical architecture in the fortifications of Armenian Cilicia”, Dumbarton Oaks Papers 36, 155–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Edwards, R. W., 1983. “Ecclesiastical architecture in the fortifications of Armenian Cilicia: Second Report”, Dumbarton Oaks Papers 37, 123–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Edwards, R. W., 1987. The Fortifications of Armenian Cilicia, Washington D.C.Google Scholar
Feld, O., 1965. “Beobachtungen an spätantiken und frühchristlichen Bauten in Kilikien. Bericht über eine reise”, Römische Quartalschrift für christliche Altertumskunde und Kirchengeschichte 60, 131–43.Google Scholar
Gough, M. R. E., 1952. “Anazarbus”, AnSt, 2 85–150.Google Scholar
Gough, M. R. E., 1954. “A temple and church at Ayaş”, AnSt IV, 49–64.Google Scholar
Gough, M. R. E., 1955. “Early churches in Cilicia”, Byzantinoslavica 16, 201–11.Google Scholar
Gough, M. R. E., 1956. “Augusta Ciliciae”, AnSt IV, 165–77.Google Scholar
Gough, M. R. E., 1972. “The emperor Zeno and some Cilician churches”, AnSt 22, 199–212.Google Scholar
Gough, M. R. E., 1974. “The Peaceful Kingdom, an Early Christian Mosaic Pavement in Cilicia Campestris”, Mansel'e Armağan–Melanges Mansel (Türk Tarih Kurumu Yayınları, Dizi VII), 411–19. Ankara.Google Scholar
Gough, M. R. E., 1976. “Flaviopolis” in Stillwell, R. (ed.), The Princeton Encyclopaedia of Classical Sites, 330.Google Scholar
Harper, R. P., Bayburtuoğlu, I., 1968. “Preliminary report of excavations at Şar, Comana, Cappadociae, in 1967”, AnSt IIXX, 149–158.Google Scholar
Heberdy, R., Wilhelm, A., 1896. Reisen in Kilikien. Ausgeführt 1891 und 1892 im Auftrage der kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften. Wien (Denkschriften der Kaiserlich Akademie der Wissenschaften, Phil.-Hist. Kl. 44).Google Scholar
Hellenkemper, H., Hild, F., 1986. Neue Forschungen in Kilikien. Tabula Imperii Byzantini 4. Wien (Denkschriften der Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, phil-hist. Kl. 186).Google Scholar
Hellenkemper, H., 1994. “Early church architecture in southern Asia Minor”, in Painter, K. (ed.), Churches Built in Ancient Times, 213–38. London.Google Scholar
Herzfeld, E., Guyer, S., 1930. Meryemlik und Korykos. Monumenta Asiae Minoris Antiqua II. Manchester University Press.Google Scholar
Hicks, E. L., 1890. “Inscriptions from eastern Cilicia”, JHS XI, 236–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hild, F., Hellenkemper, H., Hellenkemper-Salies, G., 1984. “Kommagene—Kilikien—Isaurien”, Reallexikon zur byzantinischen Kunst 4, 182–356.Google Scholar
Hild, F., Hellenkemper, H., 1990. Kilikien und Isaurien. Tabula Imperii Byzantini 5. Wien (Denkschriften der Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Phil-Hist. Kl. 215).Google Scholar
Hill, G. F., 1900. A Catalogue of Greek Coins in Lycaonia, Isauria, and Cilicia. London.Google Scholar
Hill, S. J., 1977. “Sarı Kilise”, Yayla 1, 16–20.Google Scholar
Hill, S. J., 1984. The Early Christian Churches of Cilicia. PhD thesis, University of Newcastle upon Tyne.Google Scholar
Hill, S. J., 1996. The Early Byzantine Churches of Cilicia and Isauria. Birmingham Byzantine and Ottoman Monographs, Vol.1. Aldershot.Google Scholar
Jones, A. H. M., 1937. The Cities of the Eastern Roman Empire. Oxford.Google Scholar
Kazhdan, A. P. (ed.), 1991. The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Kennedy, H., 1979. “Arab settlement on the Byzantine frontier in the eighth and ninth centuries”, Yayla, Second Report of the Northern Society for Anatolian Archaeology, 22–4.Google Scholar
Mango, C., 1966. “Isaurian builders”, Polychronion (Festschrift F. Dölger zum 75 Geburtstag), 358–65.Google Scholar
Mietke, G., 1995. “Survey der Römischfrühbyzantinischen Siedlung bei Akören in Kilikien 1994”, AST XIII, 35–48.Google Scholar
Oğan, A., 1934. “Bronzestatue aus Adana”, AA 49, 411 ff.Google Scholar
Vayısoğlu, S., 1996 “Ala Cami” in Can, I., Kadirli Lisesi 1996—Müzeler Haftası Özel Bületeni. Kadirli.Google Scholar
Yurtsever, C. Z., 1981. Kadirli Tarihi. Istanbul (Çukurova Tarihi Araştırmaları Serisi: 1).Google Scholar