40 Collections

Comparative Graeco-Roman and Late Antique architecture of Western Anatolia

Collection of images taken of several important Graeco-Roman and Late Antique sites in Western Anatolia. Included so as to be comparative data when looking at the collections from the eastern reaches of the Romano-Byzantine Empire.

Creator: Joshua Bryant, Emma Loosley
Date of Visit: December 1994, 1st July to 31st August 2012
Contributor: Joshua Bryant
Emma Loosley
Rights: Metadata and all media released under Creative Commons unless otherwise indicated
Type: Architecture

Damascus

Damascus is believed to ben the oldest continually inhabited city in the world and, as such, boasts remains from a wide span of historical periods. The material entered on this site relates to the Roman and Late Antique era and includes artefacts from the National Museum of Damascus

Creator: Emma Loosley
Contributor: Emma Loosley
Rights: Metadata and all media released under Creative Commons unless otherwise indicated
Type: Museum Exhibit
Architecture

Deir Mar Musa al-Habashi

Deir Mar Musa al-Habashi, or the monastery of St. Moses the Ethiopian or St. Moses the Abyssinian, is located approximately 18km east of Nabk in central Syria. The monastery is first mentioned in a manuscript in the British Library in 558/9 and appears to have had a scriptorium at this early date. It was a Lavra with the monks living in caves in the mountains and gathering in the central monastery to worship together. The chapel has the only complete fresco cycle still extant in the Levant and it appears that this was repainted at least three times between 1058 and 1208/09.

The monastery was abandoned in the C19th, but refounded by Fr. Paolo Dall'Oglio, an Italian Jesuit, in 1982 and is now a dual house for male and female monastics. The spelling 'Deir' is used for monastery rather than the more usual English transliteration of 'Dayr' as this is how the modern Community spell the word.

Creator: Emma Loosley
Contributor: Emma Loosley
Rights: Metadata and all media released under Creative Commons unless otherwise indicated

Dura Europos

Dura Europos is located on the west bank of the River Euphrates and was at the border of the Roman and Persian Empires in the ancient world. In 256 the city was abandoned by the Romans and, because they had built up earth ramparts along the walls, a number of buildings in that sector of the city had remained almost perfectly preserved.
In the early C20th the ruins were rediscovered and spectacularly revealed a synagogue with figural frescoes that entirely changed our understanding of Jewish Art. In addition fragments of fresco in another, more modest building revealed it to be the earliest securely dated place of Christian worship yet discovered and our only known example still extant of an early Christian house-church.

Creator: Emma Loosley
Contributor: Emma Loosley
Rights: Metadata and all media released under Creative Commons unless otherwise indicated
Type: Archaeology

Early Christian Archaeology in Georgia

Despite the attention paid by historians and art historians to the standing early Christian architecture still extant in Georgia, early Christian archaeology remains a relatively under-explored area in the country, with few people working on the field. This means that in many ways very little is known about the evolution of Christianity in Georgia as all the current ideas rest on art historical and textual analysis. Several recent excavations are casting new light on this period and suggest that current assumptions about the spread of early Christianity in Georgia may be flawed.

Creator: Emma Loosley
Contributor: Emma Loosley
Rights: Metadata and all media released under Creative Commons unless otherwise indicated
Type: Archaeology

Edessa/Urfa/Şanliurfa

Photographs taken on fieldwork in the city of Şanliurfa, Turkey in November 2012. The city was formerly known as Urfa and held the older name of Edessa. As the birthplace of the Syriac language, it was an early centre of Christianity. After the Council of Chalcedon in 451, Edessa became the centre of non-Chalcedonian Christianity and the purpose of the fieldwork was to investigate any evidence of Christianity still extant in Şanliurfa.

Contributor: Emma Loosley
Peter Leeming
Rights: Metadata and all media released under Creative Commons unless otherwise indicated

Erzurum

Erzurum is one of the largest provinces in Turkey and the capital city, Erzurum, has been valued and utilised for strategic purposes for many centuries and has been heavily contested. It still has major military installations in and around the city.
This collection only contains images of the citadel at Erzurum taken in May 2015.

Creator: Joshua Bryant
Date of Visit: 14th May 2015
Contributor: Joshua Bryant
Rights: Metadata and all media released under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA International licence unless otherwise indicated

Galilee

The Sea of Galilee, located in northern Israel, is dotted with sites that are traditionally associated with the early life and ministry of Jesus Christ. These holy places were venerated throughout Late Antiquity and many were enshrined with richly decorated chapels and churches. This collection of photographs was taken during fieldwork in Israel over July - August 2013. The aim of this resource is to document, in photographs, the early churches and pilgrimage sites from the area of Galilee.

Creator: Lucy O'Connor
Date of Visit: 1st July to 8th August 2013
Contributor: Lucy O'Connor
Rights: Metadata and all media released under Creative Commons unless otherwise indicated
Type: Architecture

Halabiyeh/Zenobia

The hill on which Halabiyeh's citadel rests is presumably the main reason for Halabiyeh's construction. The hill dominates the western bank of the Euphrates at the point where the river valley is significantly narrowed by the plateaus either side of the river. The towns' massive walls run down from the citadel to the riverbank effectively blocking passage along the western bank at this point.

Creator: Joshua Bryant
Date of Visit: August 2010
Contributor: Joshua Bryant and Emma Loosley
Rights: Metadata and all media released under Creative Commons unless otherwise indicated
Type: Architecture

Homs and its hinterland

Homs is the modern name for the ancient Syrian city of Emesa. In the late second century CE a local woman named Julia Domna married Septimus Severus, the future Roman Emperor, and so in the third century several Severan Emperors were born and raised in the city. They were followers of the local cult to the god Elagabal and the most scandalous Emperor of this line was popularly known as Elagabalus.
To the east of the city, south of the road to Palmyra (Tadmor) are a cluster of Christian villages and towns that terminate with Qaryatayn as the most south-easterly settlement in the group to have a Christian presence. The percentages involved in the mix of religions varies from Qaryatayn (about 20% Christian) up until villages like Sadad (almost 100% Christian).

Creator: Emma Loosley
Contributor: Emma Loosley
Rights: Metadata and all media released under Creative Commons unless otherwise indicated
Type: Architecture