Bibliotheca Archaeologica Collana di archeologia a cura di Giuliano Volpe 45 ANCIENT QUARRIES AND BUILDING SITES IN ASIA MINOR Research on Hierapolis in Phrygia and other cities in south-western Anatolia: archaeology, archaeometry, conservation edited by Tommaso Ismaelli and Giuseppe Scardozzi E S T R A T T O Bari 2016 ISBN 978-88-7228-819-1 ISSN 1724-8523 DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.4475/819 L’autore ha il diritto di stampare o diffondere copie di questo PDF esclusivamente per uso scientifico o didattico. Edipuglia si riserva di mettere in vendita il PDF, oltre alla versione cartacea. L’autore ha diritto di pubblicare in internet il PDF originale allo scadere di 24 mesi. The author has the right to print or distribute copies of this PDF exclusively for scientific or educational purposes. Edipuglia reserves the right to sell the PDF, in addition to the paper version. The author has the right to publish the original PDF on the internet at the end of 24 months. fraGMents of Painted Plaster froM tHe CHUrCH of st PHiliP in HieraPolis: a PreliMinary arCHaeoloGiCal and arCHaeoMetriC stUdy Emma Cantisani, Silvia Vettori, Susanna Bracci, Maria Piera Caggia, Elisabetta Neri, Ana Sofia Pedro Leal aBstraCt - this paper presents the results of the analyses and study of the fragments of painted plaster discovered during the re- cent archaeological investigations inside the Church of st Philip in Hierapolis. the archaeological and archaeometric approach has made it possible to better document the various building phases of the church and to offer, despite the extremely fragmentary na- ture of the analysed material, a reconstruction of some decorative motifs. lastly, chemical analyses highlighted some differences between the proto- and middle Byzantine plasters and documented the composition of the pigments. KeyWords: st Philip Church, Hierapolis, painted plaster. Introduction only in few contexts in asia Minor the Byzantine painting is studied with an ar- chaeological approach, investigating the craft techniques together with the decorative motifs. the best-known examples, which stand out as methodological references, are the case of st Polyeuktos 1 in Constantinople, where some fragments of early Byzan- tine geometric paintings were found, and that of the lower church at amorium 2, with remains of middle Byzantine figurative painting. Moreover, despite a long tradition of studies on Byzantine painting techniques, developed within some important restora- tion works on 11th-14th cent. wall paintings 3, the early and middle Byzantine artefacts studied with this approach are extremely rare, and even more exceptional are the stud- ies integrating archaeometrical analyses 4. in this framework, the site of st Philip Church, mostly obliterated during the 14th cent. after the seljuk occupation, yielded many fragments of painted plaster. togeth- er with a few non-figurative pieces preserved in situ in the western corner of room a, north of the narthex, these fragments constitute a rare document of the early and mid- dle Byzantine painting (fig. 1). these painted plasters, with architectonical decoration, marble inlays, as well as mosaics 5, decorated the sanctuary in the key settings of the liturgy. Given the substantial amount of fragments, some of which are still being studied, this paper describes the plaster from the central apse of the basilica and from room a, with the aim of providing a preliminary description of the observed motifs and the em- ployed techniques. the archaeological and archaeometric approaches are integrated to document the phases of the church’s decoration, the know-how and the pigments used. for this reason, firstly the context in which the fragments have been unearthed is introduced; then the identification of the patterns and their original location in the build- ing is described; finally, the results of the characterization of the mortars and pigments are presented. 1 Harrison, Gill 1986. M.P.C., e.C., e.n. 2 Witte-orr 2003. 3 UnderWood 1967. The archaeological context of discovery: the St Philip Church 4 Weyl Carr, niColaides 2012, in particular the contribution by the church with three naves was built on the hill that looks on to the city of Hier- Winfield 2012, 102-112, and KaK- oUlli, sCHillinG, MazUreK 2012, apolis from the east, around a roman-era tomb attributed to the apostle Philip. re- 313-360. cent archaeological investigations have made it possible to identify the complex struc- 5 neri, CaGGia 2016. on the re- tures of the early-Byzantine sanctuary that was spread over three separate terraces on cently discovered paintings from the heights. on the middle terrace in particular stood a monumental fountain for ablu- laodikeia and tripolis, see dUMan, Baysal 2015; ŞiMŞeK 2015b, 62- tions (aghiasma) and the church with three naves. the church’s first layout is dated to th 63; dUMan, Baysal 2016. the second half of the 6 cent. ad. in the same period a route was set up that led from 523 ANCIENT QUARRIES AND BUILDING SITES IN ASIA MINOR - ISBN 978-88-7228-819-1 - © 2016 · Edipuglia s.r.l. - www.edipuglia.it Emma Cantisani, Silvia Vettori, Susanna Bracci, Maria Piera Caggia, Elisabetta Neri, Ana Sofia Pedro Leal 1. - Plan of the church indicating the finding contexts of the plaster fragments. The asterisk in room A indicates the still in situ plaster remains. the narthex of the church and enabled worshippers, by means of two staircases, to reach a platform with a ciborium positioned above the tomb of the apostle. in the middle Byzantine period (beginning of the 9th cent.), important modifications were made to the building, with the refurbishment of the pavement in opus sectile and new archi- tectural furnishings in the central nave. in the narthex the spaces of the north sector were also modified, with the delimitation of an area and the installation of new steps to reach the area above the tomb. in subsequent centuries, from the 11th cent. onwards, the building, perhaps damaged by an earthquake and now roofless, was partly aban- doned. the central nave was occupied by burials, while the liturgical functions con- tinued in the chapel of the north nave. With the arrival of the seljuk in the 13th and 14th cent., the structures of the church that were still conserved, including the tomb of st Philip, were converted into dwellings until their definitive collapse, caused perhaps by another seismic event around the middle of the 14th cent. The plasters of the central apse the first group of fragments examined here were discovered in the course of the 2011 campaign during the excavations in the area of the central apse (Us 170; fig. 1). With the exception of a few elements, these are difficult to read. other fragments of plaster, much more numerous, were recovered in the northern part of the apse (Us 202), inside the structure, but especially outside it. despite their fragmentary state, it is pos- sible to formulate hypotheses regarding the decoration and the presence of figures. of particular interest are the fragments discovered in the level of collapsed material above 524 ANCIENT QUARRIES AND BUILDING SITES IN ASIA MINOR - ISBN 978-88-7228-819-1 - © 2016 · Edipuglia s.r.l. - www.edipuglia.it Fragments of painted plaster from the Church of St Philip in Hierapolis the steps of the north entrance to the corridor that ran below the synthronon (Us 539). this is a small group of fragments on which there is a single pictorial layer with the remains of gold leaf that might indicate the presence of a halo (fig. 7). discovered in the same area of the central apse were fragments of marble slabs with inscriptions painted in red in which a list of bishops of Hierapolis was recognised. the fragments recovered belonged to a number of slabs, perhaps four, which, judging by the place of the discovery, were positioned on the curved wall of the apse above the steps of the synthronon. it follows that the plasters decorated with figurative scenes might have been positioned on the same wall, above the marble slabs, and on the curved ceiling of the apse. all the plasters gathered in the course of the excavation were in levels of collapsed material that covered the layers associated with the seljuq-era occupation (13th-14th cent.), well documented in various areas inside the church. it is clear then that the cen- tral apse, or at least the northern part of it, was still standing in the 13th century. the presence of a single pictorial layer on all the fragments recovered, thus with no trace of reworking, suggests that the paint could be dated to the church’s original phase of construction in the second half of the 6th cent. this hypothesis is supported by obser- vations of technical nature, such as the adoption of clear backgrounds in the figura- tive scenes, in addition to the differences seen with respect to both the pigments and the mortars of the middle Byzantine plasters discovered in other areas of the church. The plasters of room A the second group of pictorial fragments examined was discovered in room a (fig. 1). the small space, 3.5 x 4 m, is situated after the first flight of marble steps that led from the narthex to the platform above the tomb of st Philip. the wall that delimits the room on the western side (Us 567) was built over a pavement in opus sectile dat- able to the proto-Byzantine phase of the church. in this area, the transformations that the church underwent in the middle Byzantine era are clearly visible. these involved a new division of the space into two rooms a and B, and the organisation of new routes and staircases.