Khirbet Tinshemet
The Site and its Research
The site was discovered
in 1986 after a section of a mosaic pavement
was exposed and damaged. Y. Porat surveyed
the site and declared it a protected antiquities
site. In 1995 a salvage excavation was conducted
on behalf of the Antiquities Authority at
the site (map reference 1462-1563), located
c. 300 m southwest of Horvat Tinshemet (Sheikh ‘Ali
Malikina; Khirbet esh-Shamiya). Horvat Tinshemet
was previously surveyed by V. Guérin
but was never excavated; based on Clermont-Ganneau
we propose identifying Horvat Tinshemet with
Betomelgezis, which appears on the Madaba
Map.
The excavation uncovered
a basilical church dedicated to Saint Bacchus
consisting of an atrium in the west, a staircase
leading to the narthex and a square church
that includes a nave, two aisles and an apse.
Along the northern side of the atrium is
an open compound with an oil press, water
cistern and anteroom leading to the atrium.
Some 20 m northeast of the church is a rock-cut
pool surrounded by three arcosolia.
The Excavation Results
The church faces east (along
an azimuth of 85°) and is 27 m long by
11.7 m wide (excluding the oil press). It
was built of large, very smooth ashlars of
soft limestone. Although the workmanship
was of good quality, in some places the foundation
was not secured in the bedrock. The roof
of the church was born atop wooden gables
and was covered with ceramic tiles.
The Atrium
The atrium is 9 x 10 m.
The main entrance into it was in the middle
of the western wall and there was another
entrance by way of the oil press in the eastern
corner of the northern wall. The floor was
paved with a crude white mosaic pavement
(9-12 tesserae per sq dm) with a round medallion
(diam. 1.26 m) in its center in which there
is a cross made of red tesserae. Inside the
medallion, on either side of the upper part
of the cross, appears the Greek inscription
?G??S (holy) and on either side of the lower
part is another word that cannot be deciphered.
On the eastern side were
four steps, arranged in an inverted ‘U’ that
led to the church’s narthex. The steps
probably had a railing on the north and south.
At the foot of the steps was a dedicatory
inscription to Bacchus.
The Narthex
Its inner dimensions are
2.8 x 10.3 m. The entrance from the atrium
to the narthex was by way of a single opening
in the middle of the western wall. The narthex
is paved with a colorful mosaic made of small
tesserae (56 tesserae per sq dm) of which
only the eastern part of the frame has survived.
The Church
The inner dimensions of
the church were 10.35 x 10.35 m, not including
the apse which protruded to the east. The
church was divided into a nave 4.76 m wide,
a 0.60 m wide space on either side of the
columns and two aisles that were each 2.2
m wide. In the eastern part of the nave was
a bema that was separated from the hall and
the aisles by a marble chancel screen of
which only the foundation course was preserved.
A large amount of mosaic debris was found
in the base of the bema indicating that the
tesserae were cut on site. A marble altar
0.60 x 0.64 m was found at the front of the
apse. In the middle of the altar is a round
depression with a small hole in its center.
In the four corners of the depression are
iron nails that were probably meant to support
a small ciborium that was intended to enhance
the sanctity of the relics that were placed
in the reliquary below the center of the
altar. (A fragment of the marble reliquary
lid was discovered).
The Mosaics
The church is paved with
a delicate mosaic (110-120 tesserae per sq
dm) decorated with geometric and floral motifs
in black, white, red (brick color), orange
and ocher (mustard).
The northern aisle, which
is preserved in its entirety, is paved with
a pattern of squares, rhombuses, and hexagons
enclosed within a double frame. On the western
side of the aisle is a tabula ansata in which
a large decorated cross is depicted. In the
entrance to the aisle is a depression for
draining water used when cleaning the mosaic.
Only the eastern section
of the floor in the southern aisle was preserved
and it is decorated with interlacing circular
medallions, arranged in two rows containing
different geometric motifs and large crosses.
A rhombus with concave sides and a square
in the center was placed between every group
of four medallions. This mosaic is also enclosed
within a double frame.
The intercolumniations are
decorated with a scale design that extends
from the columns out toward the space between
them; they converge midway between every
two sets of columns. Three columns were built
on each side.
The mosaic in the nave
was preserved mainly on its northern side
and was decorated with two colorful carpets
consisting of a pattern of a circle within
a square. The two carpets are bordered by
a frame of alternating squares and rectangles
in which there are round and rhombic medallions
embellished with a wealth of motifs and colors.
The eastern carpet is the
larger of the two and its center is located
in the exact center of the church. The carpet
(diam. 3.5 m) is decorated with interlacing
circles of different sizes. In the northwestern
corner of the carpet’s border is an
amphora from which tendrils issue to either
side. In the northeastern corner is a geometric
design. These two patterns probably repeat
themselves in the two opposite corners that
have not survived.
The western carpet (diam.
2.25 m) is also decorated with a circle within
a square design and it is bordered by two
bands of round and rhombic medallions. In
the middle of the carpet is a Greek inscription:
the inscription begins with a cross and means: “This
place is sacred to the Lord Jesus”.
Surrounding the inscription is a colorful
and crowded rhomboid design that can be viewed
as concentric circles or as rays shining
outward from the inscription.
The apse (diam. 3.9 m) was
paved with a colorful mosaic consisting of
a central triangle emitting rays eastward.
The western part of the mosaic is decorated
with intertwined square medallions containing
interlacing circles.
Oil Press
The oil press (11.5 x 10.6
m) is built next to the northern side of
the atrium and is an integral part of the
church complex. It is oriented along an east
west axis and consists of four rooms and
a water cistern. The entrance, in the northern
wall of the oil press, led to an elongated
room, paved with stone slabs. This room has
two doorways: one to the east leading to
the anteroom of the atrium, and the other
west – to the main room of the complex – to
the pressing room of the olive press. A rock
cut bell-shaped water cistern, which is located
where the three rooms met, was treated with
two layers of hydraulic plaster; its capstone
was hewn from a single block of stone. Water
could be drawn from both the anteroom and
the pressing room. Part of the crushing basin
(yam) was discovered in the pressing room
(3.4 x 7.5m) whose floor was made of crushed
chalk.
The pressing installation
was located in the western room (3.3 x 9.0
m). The oil press was operated by means of
a beam (length c. 7.5 m) and two wooden screws
positioned one behind the other which two
heavy stone weights were attached to (each
weighing c. 4 tons). The collecting vat was
hewn in the bedrock next to the surface where
the bales of olive pulp were placed.
Pressing installations
with two screw weights activated by a single
beam are widespread in this geographic region
from the sixth to the eighth century CE.
The Finds
The finds at the site included
fragments of pottery and glass vessels from
the Byzantine and
Early Islamic periods. The fragments of window
panes indicate that the church was illuminated
by means of a clerestory. The finds also
included a number of metal objects among
them an iron needle, bronze oil ladle and
coins dating from the fourth to the eighth
centuries CE. In addition limestone and basalt
basins, numerous chancel screen fragments,
a marble altar, the fragment of a reliquary
lid, different kinds of shells and a bone
button were recovered.
The
Medallion of Tyche the Goddess
An extraordinarily unique
find is the round medallion (diam. 0.67m,
5.5 cm thick) made of marble that was hewn
in western Asia Minor (from one of the quarries
at Apion, Aphrodisias or Ephesus), parts
of it were discovered scattered in the church
and in the oil press. The image of the goddess
Tyche (Fortuna) is carved in the medallion;
she is wearing a turreted crown with three
towers and a gate in the middle and five
different strands of necklaces (two strands
on the neck over the dress and three on the
chest); her hair is gathered at the back
and she is wearing long earrings. The Tyche
is grasping a cornucopia in her left hand
and in her right hand, adorned with three
bracelets, she holds a scepter with a rounded
head. The medallion is bordered by a frame
with two inscriptions that begin and end
with a cross. The upper inscription, which
was only partially preserved, mentions a
governor (?) named Stephanos, son of Theodorus.
The name is probably that of the governor
during whose tenure the medallion was donated
to the church. The lower inscription is complete
and reads “In the month of Xanticos
(April) of the year 645”. The date
is probably based on the Pompeian calendar
and corresponds to the year 582-3CE, that
is, the reign of the Emperor Tiberius II
or Mauricius.
This Byzantine Tyche is
unique and there are no marble parallels
to it in Byzantine art. The closest parallels
to it are found in the mosaics at Beth Shean
(BAR XVI, No. 4, 1990 p. 30), in Hypolitus
House and in the Burnt House at Madaba (M.
Piccirillo, The Mosaics of Jordan, 1993,
pp. 23-26, 52-60) and in the ivory diptychon
portraying the Tyches of Rome and Constantinople.
The city goddesses also appear in a few other
Byzantine artistic compositions (K. Weitzmann,
Age of Spirituality, 1979, pp. 142-143, 173-178).
Sources: Israeli Foreign Ministry |