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Two New Byzantine Churches in Cilicia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

Robert W. Edwardś
Robert W. Edwardś
Affiliation:
U. C. Berkeley
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Extract

The Byzantine churches of Cilicia have attracted considerable attention during the last 80 years. Often scholars have focused on the urban centres of Cilicia Pedias, the coastal settlements of Cilicia Trachea, and the monasteries near the important roads. However, the Taurus mountains, those lofty barriers which surround the fertile plain, have been ignored by most modern investigators. In the late antique world Greek communities found protection and sustenance in the isolated Highlands. While not as wealthy or numerous as their more urbane cousins to the south, these Cilician Greeks also have left behind monuments of their worship.

In the summer of 1979 I was fortunate to locate and survey in the Highlands two Byzantine churches which hitherto had not been published. The study of these buildings was part of a more general field survey of classical and medieval sites. Since no excavations were undertaken all descriptions and surveys are based on surface remains. The purpose of this paper is to describe the location, masonry and plan of each church and to offer rudimentary conclusions based on a comparison with the known Cilician churches.

Type
Research Article
Information
Anatolian Studies , Volume 32 , December 1982 , pp. 23 - 32
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute at Ankara 1982

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References

1 During the 1979 season I was assisted in this survey by Messrs. Peter Kasavan and Eric D. Palson, two very talented graduate students from the College of Environmental Design at U. C. Berkeley. I am most grateful to Metin Pehlivaner, Director of the Archaeological Museum in Adana, for his advice and help during the course of my work in Cilicia. I should also extend special thanks to Professors J. K. Anderson and Stephen G. Miller of the Department of Classics at U.C. Berkeley for their criticism of the first draft of this manuscript. To their colleagues in the Department of History, Professors Peter Brown, John Smith and Raphael Sealey, I am indebted for their generous support of all aspects of my work. The encouragement and advice from Professor Guitty Azarpay of the Department of Near Eastern Studies are deeply appreciated.

2 Mazılık appears on the Deutsche Heereskarte, Blatt-Nr. H-10, 1:200,000 (1941). The approximate coordinates of Mazılık on this map are: 37°30′ latitude (N) and 35°25′ longitude (E).

3 Entrances at the south are not uncommon in Cilicia and they are prominent in the churches at Korykos, Kanlıdivane, and Daǧ Pazarı. See: Bell, G., “Notes on a Journey through Cilicia and Lycaonia,” RArch VII (1906), 396 ff.Google Scholar; Herzfeld, E. and Guyer, S., MAMA II, Meriamlik und Korykos, 1930, 110 ff.Google Scholar; and Forsyth, G. H., “Architectural Notes on a Trip through Cilicia,” DOP XI (1957), 233–6Google Scholar. The southern entrances of Mazılık Kilise were necessitated in part by the topography north of the nave. In north Syria there was a strong tradition of placing two entrances in the south wall of the nave. See Krautheimer, R., Early Christian and Byzantine Architecture, 1979, 151Google Scholar.

4 This type of capital is common in the churches of Bin Bir Kilise. See Ramsay, W. M. and Bell, G. L., The Thousand and One Churches, 1909, Figs. 10 and 26Google Scholar.

5 Two notable examples of stone towers are in the East Church at Alahan and in the basilica at Daǧ Pazarı. See: Gough, M., “Alahan Monastery,” AS XVII (1967), 37 ff.Google Scholar; Forsyth, , DOP XI, 234–6Google Scholar; and Headlam, A. C., Ecclesiastical Sites in Isauria (Cilicia Trachea), 1892, 20–1Google Scholar, Pls. 1–2, Figs. 9–10. In both structures a stone tower rises over the centre of the nave; the tower was probably covered by a roof of wood. Strzygowski's claim (Kleinasien, ein Neuland der Kunstgeschichte, 1903, 110–1Google Scholar) that a dome of stone rested on the tower of the East Church at Alahan has been rejected convincingly by Forsyth (DOP XI, 230–2Google Scholar) who favors a pyramidal roof of wood. According to Gough, (“Early Churches in Cilicia,” Byzantinoslavica XVI (1955), 207–8Google Scholar) there is the possibility that a domical roof of wood crowned the tower. In only one Cilician church, the cruciform building at Ak Kale, do we have sufficient archaeological evidence for a cupola of stone. It is not certain whether the “Tomb Church extra muros” at Korykos or the “Cupola Church” at Meriamlik had central domes of stone. See: Forsyth, , DOP XI, 224 ff.Google Scholar; Bell, , RArch VII, 398–402, Figs. 4–9Google Scholar; and Gough, , “The Emperor Zeno and Some Cilician Churches”, AS XXII (1972), 202 ffGoogle Scholar.

6 Bell and others have surveyed a number of these churches. See Bell, , RArch VII, 4 ff.Google Scholar, 388, 403 ff. and RArch VIII (1906), 7 ff.Google Scholar; Herzfeld, and Guyer, , MAMA II, 94–108, 112–26Google Scholar; and Gough, , Byzantinoslavica XVI, 202–6Google Scholar.

7 At the south end of the west wall there are two joist holes between the windows. These holes are not aligned (Pl. IIb). Undoubtedly they supported part of the gallery.

8 Most of the service took place in the nave with the celebrants confined to the aisles and galleries. See Krautheimer, , Architecture, 106Google Scholar.

9 Compare the churches at Djambazli, Tapureli and Korykos. See Keil, J. and Wilhelm, A., MAMA III, Denkmäler aus dem Rauhen Kilikien, 1931, 37, 96, 119Google Scholar.

10 Bell, , RArch VIII, 17Google Scholar.

11 As my tentative conclusions indicate, this church was built at a time when the functions of the prothesis and diaconicon were quite separate in the Syrian liturgy, but not in the Byzantine rite. Due to the influence of Syrian architecture these chambers were placed at the sides of the central apse; in Syria the prothesis was frequently on the south side of the apse. At this Greek church in Mazılık I have hypothesized that the north chamber is the prothesis because the door connecting it to the north aisle is larger than the corresponding door in the south chamber (Pl. IIa) and because of a niche in its north wall which may be associated with the storage of the Eucharist. I have applied these terms to the east chambers at Akdam merely to avoid confusion. See: Krautheimer, , Architecture, 152, 312–13Google Scholar; Butler, H., Early Churches in Syria, 1929, 21, 57, 61 ff.Google Scholar, 175; Paboudjian, P., Ererouk, Documenti di Architettura Armena IX, 1977, 12–15 and notes 68–71Google Scholar; Mathews, T., The Early Churches of Constantinople: Architecture and Liturgy, 1971, 90 ff.Google Scholar; and Taft, R., The Great Entrance, 1975, 181–5, 201–3Google Scholar.

12 Gough, , “Church of the Evangelists at Alahan,” AS XII (1962), 182–3Google Scholar, “Anazarbus,” AS II (1952), 116–18Google Scholar, AS XVII, 45–6Google Scholar and AS XXII, 209 ff.Google Scholar; Herzfeld, and Guyer, , MAMA II, 31–2, 108, 126Google Scholar; and Rosenbaum, E., Huber, G., and Onurkan, S., A Survey of Coastal Cities in Western Cilicia, 1967, 67Google Scholar.

13 I accept the arguments of Forsyth (DOP XI, 226–8Google Scholar) who rejects the claims of Guyer, (MAMA II, 130 ff.Google Scholar) that the “Tomb Church extra muros” at Korykos is a martyrium (cf., Kleinbauer, W. E., “Zvart'nots and the Origins of Christian Architecture in Armenia,” The Art Bulletin LIV [1972], 256–61)Google Scholar.

14 Compare the churches in note 9. Other examples are the East Church at Alahan and the basilica at Dağ Pazarı. Also see Restle, M., Studien zur frühbyzantinischen Architektur Kappadokiens, 1979, 154 ffGoogle Scholar.

15 Examples are the Church of St. Thecla at Meriamlik and the “Querschiffbasilika extra muros” at Korykos (Herzfeld, and Guyer, , MAMA II, 9, 111Google Scholar). At Olba (Bell, , RArch VIII, 32 ff.Google Scholar) there is a duplication of the central apse to the east; the side apses pushing through the east walls at Sheher and Korykos (Bell, , RArch VII, 386 ffGoogle Scholar. and Herzfeld, and Guyer, , MAMA II, 151Google Scholar) are too far from the central apse to function as the prothesis and diaconicon. The church at Ura (Bell, , RArch VIII, 35–6Google Scholar) has only one flanking chamber (at the south) which is slightly in advance of the apse.

16 The village of Akdam appears on the Deutsche Heereskarte, Blatt-Nr. H-10, 1:200,000(1941). The approximate coordinates of Akdam on this map are: 37°32′ latitude (N) and 35°58′ longitude (E). The road linking Bucak to Akdam is not shown on this chart.

17 See note 12.

18 Encyclopaedia of Islam, 1960, “Cilicia,” by Canard, M., 36Google Scholar.

19 Ibid., 35.