Items - Architecture and Asceticism

Tags: Syrian Civil War

190 Items

Dayr Mar Elian post-excavation 2005

These pictures were taken in 2005 after the British Archaeological excavations had ended and before a Syrian team undertook to excavate the entirety of the cloister. In the year since the excavations had ended a new mud brick chapel had been constructed over the sarcophagus of the saint and at the east end of this chapel the trench where three fragments of Byzantine reliquaries had been discovered with a broken glass vessel had been left uncovered. Groundworks on the north side of the chapel in preparation for a new northern cloister revealed the earlier stratigraphy of the enclosure/chapel wall.

Type: Archaeological Excavation
Tags: Archaeological Excavation, Archaeological Finds, Archaeology, Architecture, Chapel, Church, Dayr Mar Elian, Dayr Mar Elian Archaeological Project, Monastery, Qaryatayn, Syria, Syrian Civil War

Palmyra Museum

These images were taken on 1997 and, despite their relatively poor quality (they were badly developed in Syria) have been included as of possible interest due to the occupation of Palmyra by IS and the continuing uncertainty of the fate of many of the artefacts there. The pictures show Palmyrene sculptures and a scale model of the Temple of Bel.

Type: Sculpture
Tags: Archaeology, Museum, Palmyra, Sculpture, Syria, Syrian Civil War, Tadmor

Intervention 36, Cloister wall north of church

When the church structure was examined in detail it was discovered that the north wall was actually at least three walls built sandwiched against each other and rendered over to create a walk way along the northern wall of the cloister with a step up on to the church roof.

Type: Archaeological Excavation
Tags: Archaeological Excavation, Archaeology, Church, Dayr Mar Elian, Dayr Mar Elian Archaeological Project, Excavation, Monastery, Qaryatayn, Syria, Syrian Civil War, Wall

Interventions 38/39, the area west of the church

Intervention 38 was a narrow trench to determine the conditions of the church foundations west of the church. The students from the DGAM later split this into 38/39 and they have both been included in this entry.

Type: Archaeological Excavation
Tags: Archaeological Excavation, Archaeological Finds, Archaeology, Dayr Mar Elian, Dayr Mar Elian Archaeological Project, Excavation, Qaryatayn, Syria, Syrian Civil War

Steps up from the monastery entrance

The steps up from the entrance clearly illustrate the fact that the ground level of the monastery is much higher than that outside the walls.

Type: Archaeological Excavation
Tags: Archaeology, Dayr Mar Elian, Dayr Mar Elian Archaeological Project, Excavation, Qaryatayn, Syria, Syrian Civil War

Intervention 35, trench south of the west end of the church

This trench was overseen by Wouroud Ibrahim of the DGAM and uncovered a series of small rooms that had been used for domestic purposes in the early C20th.

Type: Archaeological Excavation
Tags: Archaeological Excavation, Archaeology, C20th, Dayr Mar Elian, Dayr Mar Elian Archaeological Project, Excavation, Qaryatayn, Syria, Syrian Civil War

Intervention 38, West wall of cloister

The west wall of the cloister was demolished by earth-mover in the 1990s when a cemetery was appended to the west of the monastery cloister. This wall was revealed in the second season of excavation.

Type: Archaeological Excavation
Tags: Archaeological Excavation, Archaeology, Dayr Mar Elian, Dayr Mar Elian Archaeological Project, Excavation, Qaryatayn, Syria, Syrian Civil War

Stripping off the cement cladding of the interior of the Mar Elian 1938 church

The cement cladding in the west of the church around the sarcophagus was stripped back to try and alleviate a damp problem. During this process the structural faults of the building were fully revealed and it became clear that the church had to be dismantled.

Type: Architecture
Tags: 1938, Church, Dayr Mar Elian, Dayr Mar Elian Archaeological Project, Mar Elian, Mar Elian esh-Sharqi, Monastery, Qaryatayn, Sarcophagus, Syria, Syrian Civil War