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113 the Use of Chronological ARAM, 18-19 (2006-2007) 113-126. doi:L. DI 10.2143/ARAM.18.0.2020724 SEGNI 113 THE USE OF CHRONOLOGICAL SYSTEMS IN SIXTH-EIGHTH CENTURIES PALESTINE Dr. LEAH DI SEGNI The Hebrew University of Jerusalem Once upon a time – I am talking of less than twenty years ago – no archae- ologist working in the area once occupied by the provinces of Palaestina and Arabia would have dreamt of dating a church to the Abbasid period, and he would have had psychological difficulties in dating a Christian cult building even to the Umayyad period. The Muslim conquest was felt to have put an end to all building activity, except repairs of existing structures.1 Proof enough of this approach is the unwillingness of the first editor and of several scholars af- ter him to accept an eighth century date for the topographical mosaic in the nave of the Acropolis Church in Ma’in, in spite of the date, year 614 of the province Arabia, or 719/20 AD, inscribed in a tabula ansata at the entrance of the nave.2 True, a few Greek inscriptions of the Umayyad period that provided evidence of some building activity in churches or monasteries were known in Hauran3 1 Typical of this approach is Gatier’s statement at a colloquium in 1990, that “pour le mo- ment, on ne possède aucune église omeyyade, c’est-à-dire dont le plan puisse être consideré comme omeyyade. En revanche, plusiers églises Byzantines ont reçu des aménagements à l’époque omeyyade”. This was Gatier’s conclusion, based on a survey of Greek inscriptions dated between the battle of Yarmuk in 636 and the eighth century, in the area between Homs and Sinai (P.-L. Gatier, “Les inscriptions grecques d'époque islamique (VIIe-VIIIe siècles,) en Syrie du Sud”, in R. Canivet and J.-P. Rey-Coquais (eds.), La Syrie de Byzance à l“Islam, VIIe-VIIIe siècles, Actes du Colloque international, Lyon – Maison de l'Orient Méditerranéen, Paris – Institut du Monde Arabe, 11-15 Septembre 1990, Damas, 1992, pp. 145-158). With these words Gatier refuted the innovating stand taken by Father Michele Piccirillo: see M. Piccirillo, “The Umayyad Churches of Jordan”, ADAJ 28 (1984), pp. 333-341. 2 R. De Vaux dated the pavement to the early seventh century, and connected the dated in- scription to repairs after iconoclastic damages, which he was forced to ascribe to Caliph Omar instead of Caliph Yazid II (“Une mosaïque Byzantine à Ma’in (Transjordan)”, RB 47 [1938], pp. 227-258, esp. pp. 255-258). See also A. Alt, “Die letzte Grenzverschiebung zwischen den römischer Provinzen Arabia und Palästina”, ZDPV 65 (1942), pp. 68-76. For the Umayyad date, see M. Piccirillo, “La diocese de Madaba”, Le Monde de la Bible 35 (1984), pp. 35-36; Gatier, IGLJ 2, pp. 184-187, nos. 157-158. 3 At Deir Ayyub, a lintel (of gatehouse?) in a monastery, 25 July 641: W.H. Waddington and P. Le Bas, Voyage archéologique en Grèce et en Asie Mineure: Inscriptions et explications II, Paris, 1870 [Waddington], no. 2413a; R.E. Brünnow and A. von Domaszewski, Die Provincia Arabia III, Strassburg, 1909 [PA], p. 359. For no good reason Gatier rejects the Umayyad date by adopting a Pompeian era instead of the era of Arabia normally used in this area (“Inscriptions” [above, n. 1], p. 149; cf. Y.E. Meimaris in collaboration with K. Kritikakou and P. Bougia, Chronological Systems in Roman-Byzantine Palestine and Arabia, Athens, 1992, p. 295, no. 500). At Kafr, erection of a martyrium of St. George, 30 April 652: W. Ewing, “Greek and Other Inscriptions Collected in the Hauran”, PEF 1895, p. 277, no. 153; PA III, p. 360; in the same 06-8819_Aram 18-19_06_Segni 113 06-26-2007, 17:42 114 THE USE OF CHRONOLOGICAL SYSTEMS IN 6th-8th CENTURIES PALESTINE and in Transjordan;4 but its extent appeared to have been limited.5 The scepti- cism of archaeologists about the existence of churches built under Muslim rule was based partly on very real lack of evidence, partly on misunderstanding of existing evidence. This state of things came to an end in 1986 with the discovery of St. Stephen’s Church in Umm ar-Rasas, with its splendid mosaic pavements bear- ing dates according to the era of Arabia: AD 756 in the presbytery, 785 (later corrected to 718) in the nave.6 Not long later the reality of eighth century churches was vindicated through the identification of an era previously unrec- village another inscription (PAES III A 5, no. 677) attests the building of an o÷koˇ, but there is no indication that it was a sacred building. For Gatier (ibid., p. 152), the former or both texts are the “exception qui.. semble confirmer la règle”. At Salchad (Triacome), an inscription com- memorates the addition of an atrium (aûlß) in 665/6 to a church built in 633/4: Waddington, no. 1997; PA III, pp. 359-360. 4 Ar-Rabba (Areopolis): “Under our most holy metropolitan Stephen êgéneto ™ oîkodomß“ etc., in 687 (F. Zayadine, “Deux inscriptions grecques de Rabbat Moab (Areopolis)”, ADAJ 16 [1971], p. 75): while the context is certainly ecclesiastical, the wording of the inscription (êgéneto ™ oîkodomß) may apply to additions or repairs of an existing building rather than to the erection of a new edifice. At Quweisme near Amman, the “Lower Church” was “completely renovated from the foundation” in AD 717/8: S.J. Saller, “An Eighth-Century Christian Inscrip- tion at al-Quweisme, near Amman, Trans-Jordan”, JPOS 21 (1948), pp. 138-147 (more bibliog- raphy in IGLJ II, no. 53). The date of the martyrium of ar-Resif (Muhezzek) is uncertain: 785 AD by the era of the Martyrs or 607/8 by the era of Bostra? In view of the recent discoveries of eighth-century churches, modern scholars tend to accept the eighth-century date, first suggested by A. Alt, “Epigraphische Bemerkungen zur Geschichte des Christentums in der Palaestina Tertia”, JPOS 8 (1928), p. 201, n. 3. See discussion in Meimaris, Chron. Systems, pp. 317-318, no. 5; Sartre, IGLJ 4, pp. 149-151, no. 115. Brünnow (PA III, p. 303), Ch. Clermont-Gan- neau (Recueil d'Archéologie Orientale 6 [1905], pp. 327-329), and among the moderns L.S.B. MacCoull and K.A. Worp (in M. Capasso, G. Messeri Savorelli and R. Pintaudi, Miscella- nea papyrologica in occasione del bicentenario dell’edizione della Charta Borgiana [Papy- rologica Florentina no. 19], Firenze, 1990, p. 380, n. 7) prefer to reckon the year by the era of Arabia, in spite of the ascending order of the digits. Gatier rejects the evidence as uncertain (“In- scriptions” [above, n. 1], p. 151). 5 Some of the inscriptions (e.g. those of Rabba and Quweisme) may be related to damages caused by earthquakes. Destructive seisms are recorded by the sources in 659, 672 and ca. 710: D.H.K. Amiran, E. Arieh and T. Turcotte, “Earthquakes in Israel and Adjacent Areas: Macroseismic Observations since 100 B.C.E.”, IEJ 44 (1994), p. 266. 6 M. Piccirillo, “Le iscrizioni di Umm ar-Rasas-Kastron Mefaa in Giordania I (1986-1987)”, LA 37 (1987), pp. 180-186. Later Piccirillo (M. Piccirillo and E. Alliata, Umm al-Rasas Mayfa’ah I. Gli scavi del complesso di Santo Stefano, Jerusalem, 1994, pp. 245-246) tentatively adopted the correction of the date of the mosaic at the foot of the bema from AD 785 (∂touˇ ©parxíaˇ ˆArabíaˇ XP) to 718 (XIG), suggested by R. Schick, “The Patriarchate of Jerusalem during the Early Abbasid Period, A.D. 759-813”, Proceedings of the Fifth International Confer- ence on the History of Bilad es-Sham, Amman, 1991, pp. 75-78. Gatier (“Inscriptions” [above, n. 1], p. 148) dismissed the eighth century date in the presbytery as no more than a late stage in the redecoration of the building (“pose de la mosaîque geometrique du sanctuaire”), though the excavations have shown that an earlier church below St. Stephen was abandoned when the church of Bishop Sergius was built south of it, in the second half of the sixth century, and the complex of St. Stephen was erected ex novo: see Piccirillo, Umm al-Rasas, pp. 71-108 and esp. pp. 106-107. As to the date of the pavement of the nave, Gatier (ibid., pp. 149-150) prefers to condemn the whole figure as incorrect and to ascribe this pavement to the same bishop Sergius (ca. 575-597) who built the adjoining church, a claim unacceptable on palaeographical as well as on archaeological grounds. 06-8819_Aram 18-19_06_Segni 114 06-26-2007, 17:42 L. DI SEGNI 115 ognised in the Greek inscriptions of the region, namely, the era of creation. In fact, two eras of this type were revealed on either side of the Jordan: in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem, a chapel was discovered, dated 6254, that is AD 762 by the Alexandrian era of creation,7 and in Madaba, the long-misunder- stood date of the Church of the Virgin was restored to its true reading, Febru- ary of the fifth indiction, year 6274, that is, February 767, according to the Byzantine era of creation.8 The discovery of another church in the vicinity of Madaba, the chapel of Mary Theotokos on Mount Nebo, dated 6270, indiction 15, that is, between 25 March and 31 August 762, confirmed the use of the same era of creation in Transjordan.9 More evidence of the use of creation eras has recently come to light. At Khirbet es-Shubeika, in northwestern Galilee, excavations have uncovered a church with several building phases: the foundation, seemingly going back to the seventh century, a second stage dated by a Greek inscription to the year of creation 6293, and further phases of occupation, first as a sacred building and later as a dwelling.
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