Hispanojewish Archaeology: The Jews of Hispania in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages Through Their Material Remains 9004419918, 9789004419919
In Hispanojewish Archaeology, Alexander Bar-Magen Numhauser provides the first book-length archaeological exploration of
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Table of contents :
Contents
Preface
Maps, Figures, Tables, Charts and Plates
Abbreviations
Epigraphic Symbols
Maps of the Hispanojewish World
Introduction
Part 1. Introducing Jewish Hispania
Chapter 1. Jews in Iberia, Out of History
1. First Musings: Perez Bayer and the Real Academia de la Historia
2. José Amador de los Ríos and the Aborted National History of Iberian Jews
3. Jewish Archaeology in the Iberian Peninsula: Fidel Fita and His Contemporary Descendants
4. Theoretical Basis for the Archaeology of the Jews
Chapter 2. Jewish Voices from Stone: Jewish Epigraphy and Its Art from Hispania
1. Balearica
2. Baetica
3. Cartaginensis
4. Lusitania
5. Tarraconensis
6. Narbonensis (Septimania)
7. Mauritania Tingitana
8. Analysis of the Inscriptions
9. Conclusions
10. Appendix to Chapter 2
Chapter 3. Jews from Their Objects: Ergology and Sites from Late Antique Hispania
1. First-century Coins from Iudaea in Hispania
2. Decorated Oil Lamps
3. Storage Stamp
4. The Orihuela Stela
5. The Mas Rimbau Menorah
6. The Intaglio of Ammaia
7. A Review of the Objects
Chapter 4. The Elche Basin and Water Installations in Iberian Peninsula Synagogues
1. Introduction
2. Two Water Basins from Hispania
3. Water Basins in the Mediterranean Jewish Sites in Late Antiquity
4. The Water Installations in Medieval Fustat and the Iberian Peninsula
5. What Were These Basins For? Evidence from Literary Sources
6. The Water Basins in the Iberian Peninsula: A Summary
Chapter 5. The Early Middle Ages: Dawn of Classical Sepharad
1. A Supposed Hebrew Eighth-century Coin from Al-Andalus
2. Seven Jewish Inscriptions from the Early Middle Ages
3. Conclusion
Part 2. The Ilici Basilical Synagogue Building
Chapter 6. Archaeological Research in the Elche Basilical Building and Its Sources
1. Location of the Alcudia de Elche and Its “Basilica”
2. First Interventions
3. The Discovery of the Elche Basilical Building: The Ibarra-Albertini Expedition and Publications
4. Rediscovery of the Elche Basilical Building
5. Reassessment and Review (1955–2005)
6. Conclusions
Chapter 7. Stratigraphic Sequencing and Architectural Features of Area B
1. Introduction
2. Main Area B
3. Peripheral Sub-areas of B
4. Features of the Basilical Building
5. Phases of Area B
Chapter 8. Description and Stratigraphic Sequencing of Area S (“Sacristía”)
1. Introduction
2. Delimitation of Area S
3. Stratigraphic Relations of Area S
4. Chronology of Area S
Chapter 9. South of the “Basilica”: Areas T and C
1. Introduction
2. Definition of Areas T and C
3. Stratigraphic Sequencing of Areas T and C
4. Phases of Areas C and T
5. Areas C and T as Part of the Site
Chapter 10. The Northeastern “Palace” (Area P)
1. Introduction
2. Definition of Area P
3. Stratigraphic Data from Area P
4. Interpretation of Data: Phases and Use
5. Conclusion
Chapter 11. Interpreting the Ilici Synagogue
1. Introduction
2. The Pre-Domus Levels
3. Pre-synagogue Domus
4. The Synagogue of Ilici: Parallels and Liturgical Features
5. The Church
6. Abandonment Levels: The “Visigothic” Cemetery
7. Adjacent Structures
8. Reconstruction and Conclusion
Chapter 12. Epilogue
Annex A. Areas and Codes
Annex B. Codification
Annex C. Stratigraphic Unit Catalogue
Annex D. Relation between the Re-excavation Catalogue of Materials and the Catalogue of Items from the Alcudia de Elche
Annex E. Isometric Plan and Reconstruction
Archival Documents
Ancient References
Bibliography
Index of Greek Words
Index of Latin Words
Index of Hebrew Words
Onomastic Index
General Index
Plates
Citation preview
Hispanojewish Archaeology Volume 1
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The Brill Reference Library of Judaism Editors Alan J. Avery-Peck (College of the Holy Cross) William Scott Green (University of Miami)
Editorial Board Herbert Basser (Queen’s University) Bruce D. Chilton (Bard College) José Faur (Netanya College) Neil Gillman Z”l ( Jewish Theological Seminary of America) Mayer I. Gruber (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev) Ithamar Gruenwald (Tel Aviv University) Arkady Kovelman (Moscow State University) Baruch A. Levine (New York University) Allan Nadler (Drew University) Jacob Neusner Z”l (Bard College) Maren Niehoff (Hebrew University of Jerusalem) Gary G. Porton (University of Illinois) Aviezer Ravitzky (Hebrew University of Jerusalem) Dov Schwartz (Bar Ilan University) Gü nter Stemberger (University of Vienna) Michael E. Stone (Hebrew University of Jerusalem) Elliot R. Wolfson (University of California, Santa Barbara)
volume 66/1
The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/brlj
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Hispanojewish Archaeology The Jews of Hispania in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages through Their Material Remains volume 1
By
Alexander Bar-Magen Numhauser
leiden | boston
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Cover illustration: Menorah brick from Acinippo. Photograph by Rebeca García Merino. Courtesy of the Museo Sefardí de Toledo. The Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available online at http://catalog.loc.gov lc record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2021008126
Typeface for the Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic scripts: “Brill”. See and download: brill.com/brill‑typeface. issn 1571-5000 isbn 978-90-04-41991-9 (hardback, set) isbn 978-90-04-41993-3 (hardback, vol. 1) isbn 978-90-04-41994-0 (hardback, vol. 2) isbn 978-90-04-41992-6 (e-book) Copyright 2021 by Koninklijke Brill nv, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill nv incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Hes & De Graaf, Brill Nijhoff, Brill Rodopi, Brill Sense, Hotei Publishing, mentis Verlag, Verlag Ferdinand Schöningh and Wilhelm Fink Verlag. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Requests for re-use and/or translations must be addressed to Koninklijke Brill nv via brill.com or copyright.com. This book is printed on acid-free paper and produced in a sustainable manner.
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Contents volume 1 Preface ix List of Maps, Figures, Tables, Charts and Plates Abbreviations xxix Epigraphic Symbols xxxi Maps of the Hispanojewish World xxxii Introduction
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1
part 1 Introducing Jewish Hispania 1
Jews in Iberia, Out of History 11 1 First Musings: Perez Bayer and the Real Academia de la Historia 11 2 José Amador de los Ríos and the Aborted National History of Iberian Jews 15 3 Jewish Archaeology in the Iberian Peninsula: Fidel Fita and His Contemporary Descendants 28 4 Theoretical Basis for the Archaeology of the Jews 49
2
Jewish Voices from Stone: Jewish Epigraphy and Its Art from Hispania 55 1 Balearica 56 2 Baetica 62 3 Cartaginensis 76 4 Lusitania 80 5 Tarraconensis 111 6 Narbonensis (Septimania) 133 7 Mauritania Tingitana 138 8 Analysis of the Inscriptions 151 9 Conclusions 163 10 Appendix to Chapter 2 166
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Jews from Their Objects: Ergology and Sites from Late Antique Hispania 170 1 First-century Coins from Iudaea in Hispania 171 2 Decorated Oil Lamps 185 3 Storage Stamp 197 4 The Orihuela Stela 199 5 The Mas Rimbau Menorah 201 6 The Intaglio of Ammaia 203 7 A Review of the Objects 206
4
The Elche Basin and Water Installations in Iberian Peninsula Synagogues 209 1 Introduction 209 2 Two Water Basins from Hispania 209 3 Water Basins in the Mediterranean Jewish Sites in Late Antiquity 212 4 The Water Installations in Medieval Fustat and the Iberian Peninsula 221 5 What Were These Basins For? Evidence from Literary Sources 224 6 The Water Basins in the Iberian Peninsula: A Summary 234
5
The Early Middle Ages: Dawn of Classical Sepharad 236 1 A Supposed Hebrew Eighth-century Coin from Al-Andalus 236 2 Seven Jewish Inscriptions from the Early Middle Ages 255 3 Conclusion 277
part 2 The Ilici Basilical Synagogue Building 6
Archaeological Research in the Elche Basilical Building and Its Sources 285 1 Location of the Alcudia de Elche and Its “Basilica” 285 2 First Interventions 289 3 The Discovery of the Elche Basilical Building: The Ibarra-Albertini Expedition and Publications 292 4 Rediscovery of the Elche Basilical Building 300 5 Reassessment and Review (1955–2005) 319 6 Conclusions 355
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Stratigraphic Sequencing and Architectural Features of Area B 357 1 Introduction 357 2 Main Area B 357 3 Peripheral Sub-areas of B 433 4 Features of the Basilical Building 469 5 Phases of Area B 541
volume 2 8
Description and Stratigraphic Sequencing of Area S (“Sacristía”) 555 1 Introduction 555 2 Delimitation of Area S 555 3 Stratigraphic Relations of Area S 559 4 Chronology of Area S 595
9
South of the “Basilica”: Areas T and C 606 1 Introduction 606 2 Definition of Areas T and C 606 3 Stratigraphic Sequencing of Areas T and C 4 Phases of Areas C and T 691 5 Areas C and T as Part of the Site 703
10
The Northeastern “Palace” (Area P) 707 1 Introduction 707 2 Definition of Area P 707 3 Stratigraphic Data from Area P 710 4 Interpretation of Data: Phases and Use 5 Conclusion 739
615
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11
Interpreting the Ilici Synagogue 741 1 Introduction 741 2 The Pre-Domus Levels 741 3 Pre-synagogue Domus 744 4 The Synagogue of Ilici: Parallels and Liturgical Features 750 5 The Church 800 6 Abandonment Levels: The “Visigothic” Cemetery 804 7 Adjacent Structures 811 8 Reconstruction and Conclusion 818
12
Epilogue 822
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Annex A: Areas and Codes 841 Annex B: Codification 852 Annex C: Stratigraphic Unit Catalogue 860 Annex D: Relation between the Re-excavation Catalogue of Materials and the Catalogue of Items from the Alcudia de Elche 1014 Annex E: Isometric Plan and Reconstruction 1017 Archival Documents 1019 Ancient References 1022 Bibliography 1024 Index of Greek Words 1060 Index of Latin Words 1062 Index of Hebrew Words 1064 Onomastic Index 1067 General Index 1073 Plates 1087
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Preface The study upon which this book is based was first proposed as early as 2009, when the author took his first steps into an unexplored archaeological field as a postgraduate student. From a first glance, the topic of the archaeology of Judaism in the Iberian Peninsula during Late Antiquity was something that could not offer much work for a master’s student. However, as the years went by, and this study was taking shape, the complexity of the topic far exceeded my personal and professional expectations, especially regarding the amount of material and information it would provide. The following pages are the result of years following this fascinating journey into a world that, archaeologically speaking, was yet to be fully published. This book is based on my doctoral thesis, which like most works of that nature is intrinsically incomplete. The original title of the project was Archaeology of the Hispanojewish Material Culture: The Basilical Building in Ilici and its Late Antique and Early Medieval Jewish Context. However, recently it became apparent that while the Ilici building is a central pillar of this study, occupying seven of the thirteen chapters, the present book goes beyond this specific building found in a Spanish archaeological site. Rather, it is about the people who built and planned the building, who worked, housed, prayed, talked in, and used it. To understand that community, the building is contextualized in the material culture of a society that is hard to detect, but is present, nonetheless. As such, the title of the present book was changed to: Hispanojewish Archaeology. The Jews of Hispania in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages through their Material Remains, reflecting this revised focus. The doctoral theses that served as the foundation for this book was, like many theses, incomplete and included many errors and limitations. With recent publications being available after it was submitted, many aspects of the study were introduced to the original text. One of the most important available publications is Ana Ronda’s 2018, L’Alcúdia de Alejandro Ramos Folqués: contextos arqueológicos y humanos en el yacimiento de la Dama de Elche, based on her doctoral thesis which was being completed at the same time (submitted in the Universidad de Alicante, 2016). Naturally, the recent availability of this work allowed me to review many of the materials presented in the present publication. It included the addition of documents that were not identified nor available in the Alcudia de Elche Archives during my visits, which added a newly identified probe in the southern street and the tabernae of the Elche basilical complex, described in Chapter 9 of this book. Comparisons between the materials described in my original work and that of Ronda’s published book allow
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for the reader and researcher to follow these objects in their original location at the Alcudia de Elche University Foundation (FLA), or the different museums and publications in which they are located and mentioned. But above all, it is the online availability of these documents that allows the reader to have access to the original materials and their transcriptions, completing this book’s Annex C. Other publications were also made available, or their insights were added to the considerations presented in other media that were not added to the original text of the thesis. The subject of the archaeology of Judaism, especially when it comes to the Iberian Peninsula, is in constant flux and continual development. New discoveries can change our perception, and quickly make current interpretations obsolete. However, the description of findings in the following chapters should be a guide both to students of antiquity and the more experienced scholar, to explore further into a field of Hispanian antiquity that has been traditionally ignored. With hope, new studies will be added to this book that will complete and above all surpass the analysis presented in the chapters below. Firstly, I want to mention that it is impossible to name all the dear friends and colleagues that helped me in this journey through the years. But first and foremost, I must give my warm thanks to my director and friend who first inspired me to take the first steps into this unexplored field, Dr. Angel Fuentes Domínguez from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. With his guidance, aid, and vision, I started the towering task of writing this fascinating chapter of Jewish Hispanian Jewry. It is to him I owe not only this path that he gifted to me, but also the passion for an archaeology that has a social, as well as an educational role in today’s society, and that requires the application of an eclectic and varied vision. I must give my special thanks to Dr. Boaz Zissu from the University of BarIlan in Israel for supporting me in this project as a co-tutor and aiding me patiently in the (at times) complicated research landscape in Israel. I owe him my gratitude for inspiring in me the adventure of connecting two sides of the Mediterranean Sea through this archaeological research and my stay in Israel. Without his guidance this project would not have had the scope it eventually had. I would like to give my warm gratitude to Dr. Fernando Valdés Fernández who from the beginning of this project gave me his friendship and support for its completion. He aided and inspired me to explore the terra incognita of this field without the fears a young student such as myself would normally have had when delving into this otherwise overwhelming study. I also extend my gratitude to the Rothschild Foundation Europe (Hanadiv) that granted me the Doctoral Fellowship for the last three years of this research
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and allowed me to dedicate my utmost effort to bring this project to fruition. This includes their aid through their Small Fellowship for Research Purposes that allowed me to complete crucial research travels that allowed for the development of the project that includes this book. Likewise, I would like to express my appreciation to the Institute for Research in the Humanities, at the University of Wisconsin—Madison, for their support in granting me the prestigious Kingdon fellowship at the latest stage in the book’s review. My stay in this institution granted me the important interdisciplinary exchange of ideas and access to the vast materials that allowed for the completion of this publication. One of the key factors for the necessary academic development, especially the maturation of an interdisciplinary approach required for a work of “Jewish archaeology” such as this, was my stay at the Paideia, The European Institute for Jewish Studies in Sweden, and their accommodating staff. With them I stayed during the academic year of 2012–2013 as part of their One Year Program as a “Dona Gracia” Fellow, at the beginning of my doctoral studies. The program gave me the crucial training and the necessary tools to tackle the complexities of Jewish studies that were generally unavailable in previous academic endeavors in Spain. This work would have been impossible had it not been for these aids. I likewise express gratitude to the Department of Prehistory and Archaeology of the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, its professors and its staff for their aid and consideration in organizing the presentation of the original study. It is in that department where I started this journey which I would have found difficult to develop elsewhere. I also give my appreciation to the Universdad Autónoma de Madrid’s services for their support and aid through the development of this project. This includes Dr. Alberto Canto García from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid who aided me in the review of Early medieval coins. Likewise, to the University of Bar-Ilan in Israel, specifically the Martin (Szusz) Department of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology and its faculty for accommodating my periodical stays in Israel, which made this project a possibility. To that end I also give my gratitude to Prof. Aren Maeir who received me in the excavation of Tel es-Safi and allowed me to learn and experience firsthand the excavation of this fascinating site. To my friends and colleagues from Deutsches Archaeologisches Institut in Madrid, who opened their doors and gave a home to this author and where the most inspirational ideas came to mind, I give thanks. Of course, I give my warmest gratitude to Dr. Michael Kunst in charge of their archives who selflessly dedicated his time and care whenever I required access to the large amount of documents held there. Naturally I must mention Oscar García who found the Helmut Schlunk bundle from the Schlunk Archives from which many of the materials studied here originated. Alexander Bar-Magen Numhauser - 978-90-04-41992-6 Downloaded from Brill.com 03/03/2024 09:27:00PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison
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I give thanks to the Fundación Universitaria de Investigación Arqueológica l’Alcudia in Elche, specifically to the archaeologists Dr. Mercedes Tendero and Dr. Ana Ronda Femenia who received me with open arms in my travels to Elche and gave me crucial access to the materials which were a starting point for this project, including the fascinating diaries of Alejandro Ramos Folqués. I extend my appreciation for Arieh Rochman and Silvia Carpioco who gladly received me in my visits to the Israel Antiquities Authority archives at the Rockefeller Museum. Of course, a sincere appreciation is given to Brill Publishing House for the opportunity to print this work to the wider public, as well as their permission to use the images available in their published works. These acknowledgements cannot be complete without my friends who with much patience participated in this project despite the difficulties implied. First and foremost my warmest thanks to the architect Carlos García Sanz who produced the architectural plans and isometric reconstruction of the Ilici building presented in this book’s plates, without which it would not have been complete. This project’s completion is indebted to his hard work in the elaboration of these figures. To Paz Cabello who was a solid support with insightful suggestions and who provided friendship through the development of this project. To Eyal Baruch from Bar-Ilan University whose conversations inspired interesting perspectives for this project. To Bautista Ceprián and to his wife Isabel for their warm hospitality and thoughtful conversations in Linares, showing me the new findings in the site of Castulo. Furthermore, to the members of the committee on the original work upon which this book is based, who gave me valuable suggestions for its ultimate publication: Isidro Bango Torviso, Juan Blánquez Pérez, Isabel Rodá de Llanza, and Daniel Varga. But a special appreciation is given to the late Santiago Palomero, director of the Museo Sefardí de Toledo, who left us all too soon. His aid in providing generous access to materials and documents was crucial for completing this publication. His memory shall forever be close to those working in our field. My gratitude to Arun Andrew Sohdi, David M. Reher, Victor Crentsil, and Nicholas Meyer for their help and work reviewing and copyediting a project written in an English that is not the mother tongue of the author. To my friends Alba Moyano Alcántara, César Barros, V. Manuel Redondo, Rodrigo Cortés, Juan Luís Gomá, Bea Tejerina, Rodrigo Laham Cohen and many others who in their own way helped in the completion of this project, be it through support, proof reading, suggestions, or helping in getting seemingly-inaccessible bibliographic entries. Of course, to Mijal García Fernández for her friendship, collaboration, and valuable suggestions and ideas through countless long discussions about the study of Jewish inscriptions and Jewish material culture from this period before Sepharad. Alexander Bar-Magen Numhauser - 978-90-04-41992-6 Downloaded from Brill.com 03/03/2024 09:27:00PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison
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However, the most important gratitude is owed to the people without whom this project would never have existed. To my family who always valued my work and who always supported me in the paths I took. To my brother Yonathan and sister Tamara, who were always there to help me in crisis and give me advice in this project and in life, without whom I would not be the person writing these pages. To Emil, who taught me of the small details in life to which we must pay attention. But most of all to my parents, Yossef, who lovingly taught me the importance of sacrifice and hard work for what one believes and finds important, and Paulina, who through her wisdom taught me to question all things and never be satisfied with what you know, but with what is yet to be explored. To all of them I give thanks for valuing this work and the sacrifices it entailed. Without them these pages would have never been written. Thank you. Alexander Bar-Magen Numhauser
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Maps, Figures, Tables, Charts and Plates Maps 1 2
Map of Hispania (117ce onwards) xxxiii Roman Empire of Diocletian and Constantine
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Figures 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 2.9 2.10 2.11 2.12 2.13 2.14 2.15 2.16 2.17 2.18 2.19 2.20 2.21 2.22 2.23
Lead pieces from Ses Fontanelles 60 Adra inscription. Reproduction as done in 1783 by P. Bayer 63 Obverse of gold sheet inscription of the ‘angel’s incantation’ 66 Reverse of gold sheet inscription of the ‘angel’s incantation’ 67 Menorah brick from Acinippo 72 Bracari brick of Acinippo (Ronda) 75 Picture and drawing of ceramic fragment with Hebrew grafitto from Castulo 77 Detail picture of ceramic fragment with Hebrew inscription grafitto from Castulo 78 Inscription of Annianus Peregrinus Onorificus, “exarc(h)on” of the two synagogues 86 Representations of menoroth flanking a central open ark from Monteverde (a, b, c) and Vigna Randanini (d) 90 Image of the Mértola Funerary Inscription 101 Published image of the Famulus Dei inscription from Mérida 104 Picture of the inscription of the two Rebbis from Mérida 107 Picture of the back side of two Rebbis inscription, as exposed today in the MAN 108 Water basin from Tarragona 112 Epigraphic features and incised decorations of the Tarragona basin 113 Detail of Hebrew inscription in Tarragona basin 115 Detail of Latin and Greek inscription from the Tarragona basin 116 Picture of trilingüal Tortosa inscription 119 Transcription of the Tortosa inscription according to Cantera Burgos and Millás Vallicrosa (1956) 119 Picture of didascali inscription 125 Picture of the Pallaresos inscription 129 Samuel inscription from Mas Rimbau 132
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maps, figures, tables, charts and plates 2.24 2.25 2.26 2.27 2.28 2.29 2.30 2.31 2.32 2.33 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 3.9 3.10 3.11 3.12 3.13 3.14 3.15 3.16 3.17 3.18 3.19 3.20 3.21 3.22 4.1 4.2 4.3
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Picture of the inscription of Paragorus’ three children 135 Image of epigraphic area of the Pater tes Synagoges inscription 140 Figure representing the epigraphic area on the cupular tombstone found in Volubilis 141 Image of Hebrew inscription of Matrona from Volubilis (by Ph. Berger, 1892) 143 Picture of the Matrona inscription 145 Picture of Yosef ben Rabbi Nahman inscription 146 Picture of Judah from Volubilis inscription 149 Picture of Iustinus of Neapolis inscription from Mérida 167 Profile picture of Iustinus of Neapolis inscription from Mérida 167 Depiction of the Trilingual inscription from Tortosa 169 The 10 coins found in Emporion by 1976 174 Pictures of coins from Myrtilis, numbers 1–4 177 Pictures of coins from Myrtilis, numbers 5–8 178 Pictures of coins from Myrtilis, numbers 9–11 178 Picture of obverse of coins 1 (left) and 2 (right) from Iluro (Mataró, Barcelona) 180 Picture of reverse of coins 1 (left) and 2 (right) from Iluro (Mataró, Barcelona) 180 Drawing of the Elche half-shekel 182 Picture of obverse of the Algeciras half-shekel 183 Picture of reverse of the Algeciras half-shekel 183 Satellite picture of “Building T” (Castulo) 186 Picture of section where the Castulo oil lamps were found 187 Picture of oil lamp (Castulo) 188 Picture of oil lamp 2 (Castulo) 188 Picture of oil lamp 3 (Castulo) 188 Fragment of oil lamp with decorated menorah (Mérida) 191 Ceramic oil lamp from Volubilis 192 Bronze oil lamp with menorah handle 192 Oil lamp with menorah decoration from Águilas, Murcia 193 Lamp from the Nuevo Mercado de Abastos excavation in Toledo 196 Storage stamp from Puerto de Mazarrón (Murcia) 198 Picture of stela from Orihuela 200 Nicolo intaglio with menorah, lulav, etrog, and shofar (Ammaia) 205 Picture of the Ostia entrance cistern and later well 214 Position of the water installations in the late synagogue (4th century) plan (Ostia) 214 Picture of northern before the southeastern entrance. (Beth She’arim) 217 Alexander Bar-Magen Numhauser - 978-90-04-41992-6 Downloaded from Brill.com 03/03/2024 09:27:00PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison
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maps, figures, tables, charts and plates
4.4
Picture of northern before the southeastern entrance. (Beth She’arim) 218 Southern façade of the Ibn Ezra synagogue (Fustat) 223 Plan for the synagogue of Lorca, as published in González Ballesteros and Gallardo Carrillo (2009) 225 The Lorca synagogue’s main hall 226 Entrance to the Lorca synagogue (southwestern narthex, Lorca) 227 Detail of tube in the southwestern jamb (Lorca) 227 Paper print of coin by A. Vives y Escudero (1890s), Instituto Valencia de Don Juan 238 Paper print of coin by A. Prieto y Vives (1920s), Instituto Valencia de Don Juan 238 Paper print of coin by A. Prieto y Vives (1930?), Instituto Valencia de Don Juan 238 Madrid coin reverse 241 Madrid coin obverse 241 Berlin coin reverse 242 Berlin coin obverse 242 Inscription of Yehuda bar-Abon from the cemetery of Zumbacón 256 Picture of funerary landmark of Meir from the San Miguel Church 259 Obverse of the Lucena Rabbi Amicus inscription 261 Reverse of the Rabbi Amicus inscription of Lucena 262 Picture of the Ronda Sur Lucena tomb 239, where the inscription was found (R. Lactosus) 265 Picture of Rabbi Lactosus inscription from Lucena’s Ronda Sur cemetery 267 Published picture of the Calatayud inscription in Fita (1888): “Lápidas hebras de Calatayud” 269 Picture of the Toledo medieval brick inscription 275 Map of distance from the city of Elche to the Alcudia de Elche 287 Map of the Alcudia de Elche with relation to notorious features 288 Map of the Alcudia de Elche site 291 Sketch of parts of the Ilici basilical building mosaic 305 Picture of fragments from findings of the Alcudia de Elche from the 1940’s onwards 306 Picture of column base supposedly used for an “altar” in the eastern apse 311 Section of page 2 from the letter sent by Lafuente Vidal to Alejandro Ramos Folqués on October 22nd, 1948 313 Comparative plans of the Ilici basilical building published in Palol (1967) 321
4.5 4.6 4.7 4.8 4.9 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 5.7 5.8 5.9 5.10 5.11 5.12 5.13 5.14 5.15 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 6.6 6.7 6.8
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maps, figures, tables, charts and plates 6.9 6.10 6.11 6.12 6.13 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 7.6 7.7 7.8 7.9 7.10 7.11 7.12 7.13 7.14 7.15 7.16 7.17 7.18 7.19 7.20 7.21
xvii
Picture of the site as it was found before the 1990 excavation 330 Picture of the site after the removal of grass 330 Picture of northern trench in 1990 excavation 331 Stratigraphy of the “Iberian temple” below the Ilici basilical building, according to Rafael Ramos Fernández (1995) 332 Plan of the uncovered “Iberian temple” underneath the Ilici basilical building, according to Rafael Ramos Fernández (1995) 333 Elche building plan from E. Albertini (1906) 359 Elche building plan from P. Ibarra (1905) 360 Elche basilica plan following the 1905 intervention according to P. Ibarra 364 Plan for the structures visible in Area B by 1971. Made by Th. Hauschild 365 Plan of the basilical structure (Area B) and eastern “Sacristía” (Area S) as is today, following restoration in the 1990’s 365 Picture of findings in the Alcudia de Elche excavations from 1905. Taken by Pere Ibarra 366 Picture of more findings in the Alcudia de Elche excavations from 1905. Taken by Pere Ibarra 366 1905 Picture of the “western portal” area, looking north 366 1905 picture of the southern panel of the mosaic 367 1905 picture of the southern inscription and figurative scene 367 Picture of southern inscription and maritime panel, as it was found in 1905 (after the removal of the wall B/014. Looking south) 367 Picture of north “base stone” ashlar B/009. Taken in 1971 370 Picture of north “base stone” ashlar B/008. Taken in 1971 370 Picture of central inscription panel as it was found (and cleaned) in 1905 (looking east) 373 Picture of mosaic panels after following their removal from the site 373 Detail from northeastern quadrant of the mosaic, of defaced menoroth associated with defacement unit B/-190 374 Picture of features near western wall B/024, looking north (underneath the mosaic, looking north) 379 Picture of features around western wall B/024, looking north (underneath the mosaic, looking north) 380 Picture of northwestern corner of the mosaic pavement area, including stucco and northern wall B/023. Looking northwest, 1971 380 Detail of western basin (B/022) and surrounding white marble slabs (B/012) at the western edge of the mosaic area, 1971 381 Picture of basin B/022 as found in the 1990 excavation (in situ) 382
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xviii 7.22
7.23 7.24 7.25 7.26 7.27 7.28 7.29 7.30 7.31 7.32–33 7.34 7.35 7.36 7.37 7.38 7.39 7.40
7.41
7.42 7.43 7.44
maps, figures, tables, charts and plates “Loose Notes” by Alejandro Ramos Folqués, aprox. 1954. Includes description of western features of the mosaic área, B/OM area, and southern walls 383 Picture taken by Schlunk of the May–June 1948 excavations, including apse area and mosaic. Looking west 386 Picture of the stratigraphic levels as seen from the east of the mosaic (apse area). Taken by H. Schlunk in 1948 387 Stratigraphic sketch for levels under the mosaic floor. Excavation diaries by Alejandro Ramos Folqués 387 Sketch of “Level M” under the mosaic floor from excavation diaries by Alejandro Ramos Folqués 388 Sketch of “Level N” under the mosaic floor from the excavation diaries by Alejandro Ramos Folqués 389 Picture of excavation in 1949, from west looking east (to apse area) 395 Picture of excavation in 1949, from the southwest looking northeast 395 Detail of Picture from 1990 excavation, number 38.1 (Fig. 7.82), including remains of north-south wall B/125 under structure B/138 396 Picture of excavation in 1949, from the southwest looking northeast. Canal B/115 to the east (right) of the two ashlar stones in situ 396 Pictures of structures southwest of the mosaic, underneath it, 1971. Including fill B/184, gravel structure B/185, and ashlar stone B/315 397 Picture of southwestern gravel floor B/185, after its partial excavation, 1971 (looking south) 398 Gravel floor B/185 after its excavation, from west to east, 1971 398 Gravel floor B/185 after its excavation, from east to west, 1971 398 Gravel floor B/185 after excavation, looking west from east, 1971 399 Picture of excavated apse with Pere Ibarra (1905) 407 Picture of excavated apse (1905). Looking northwest from southeast 407 Picture taken by Schlunk of the May–June 1948 excavations. Remains of apse and wall B/026, as well as B/316 and gravel floor B/NE/077. Looking east-southeast 408 Picture taken by Schlunk of the May–June 1948 excavations. Northeastern corner of Area B and, in the background, southwest of Area P. Looking north-northeast 408 Picture of eastern structure B/EM/301 and lower B/EM/300, looking north (1971) 412 Picture of eastern tangential wall B/010, Area S floor attached to tangential wall S/127 and perpendicular wall S/326 412 Picture of B/010 and adjacent structures (S/326, B/006) after restoration as exposed today 413
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maps, figures, tables, charts and plates 7.45 7.46 7.47 7.48 7.49 7.50 7.51 7.52 7.53 7.54 7.55 7.56 7.57 7.58 7.59 7.60 7.61 7.62 7.63 7.64 7.65 7.66
xix
Picture of preserved apse structure in contact with tangential north-south wall B/010 (1971) 414 Detail of contact between apse and tangential wall, including stucco covering B/017 (1971) 414 Picture of apse features (B/006) and eastern tangential wall (B/010) as recovered and preserved in the 1990 Excavation 414 Picture of remains of the apse structure by 1990. Looking southeast 415 Picture of central-eastern panel of the mosaic floor, following its uncovering in April 1948 415 Picture of apse remains in 1990 excavation attached to eastern wall B/010 418 Picture of southern structures as preserved in 1990 420 Plan and legend of the Ilici basilica according to Lafuente Vidal 424 Picture of southern panel of the mosaic floor, following its uncovering in April 1948 426 Picture from 1948 excavation, prior to the removal of the mosaic. Southern wall and structure B/138. Looking east 428 Detail picture of southeastern corner of the mosaic, wall and stucco B/018 during the 1948 excavation. Looking east 428 Picture of central southern walls and “structure B/138” as they were found before the 1990 excavation 428 Southern part of Area B or Basilical building, as found in 1990 429 Picture of southwestern corner of mosaic area during the 1990 excavation 429 Picture of southern walls west of B/138 (in the center) excavated in 1990 430 Reconstruction plan for Area B according to A. Ramos Folqués (1975) 440 Sketch of areas south and west of the mosaic floor in its center (1952) in the Alejandro Ramos Folqués excavation diaries 441 Sketch of southwest of the basilical structure and installation with “bordillo” B/OB/316 442 Sketch of southwest of the basilical structure including southern walls of Area B; Area B/OM, and B/OB 444 Sketch of southwest of the basilical structure including southern walls of Area B; Area B/OM, and B/OB 445 Sketch of southwest of the basilical structure including southern walls of Area B; Area B/OM, and B/OB 446 Panoramic view of Area B as uncovered in 1971. At the bottom: remains of wall B/OM/033 and area B/OM. Looking east 447
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xx 7.67 7.68 7.69 7.70 7.71 7.72 7.73 7.74 7.75 7.76 7.77 7.78 7.79 7.80 7.81 7.82 7.83 7.84 7.85 7.86 7.87 7.88 7.89
maps, figures, tables, charts and plates Panoramic picture of western excavated area from 1990 448 General picture of Area B/OM. Looking south-southwest 448 Picture of “western apse” B/OB/039 and wall B/OM/027 as were found in the 1990 excavation 449 “Western Apse” B/OB/039 and “canal” B/OB/195, looking south 449 Picture of Iberian structure at advanced stages of the 1990 excavation with western walls of B/OM in the background 450 Detail of Fig. 7.71 (Excavation of 1990), north of wall B/OM/033 450 Picture of Iberian structure at advanced stages of the 1990 excavation north of B/OM/033 451 Picture of walls B/OM/194 and stone B/OM/035 north of wall B/OM/033 451 Ashlar stone of western wall B/OM/027, and marked in Fig. 7.59 after restoration 452 Picture of “lower line” B/OM/034 attached to B/OM/027 after restoration, north of wall B/OM/033. Looking west 452 Profile of norther branch of B/OM/034 north of wall B/OM/033, attached to B/OM/027 453 Picture of “lower line” B/OM/034 and wall B/OM/027 after restoration 453 Remains of “lower line” B/OM/034 south of the “restored entrance” of wall B/OM/027, following restoration 454 Picture of B/OM/034 north of B/OM/033 after restoration with measurement 454 Picture of Iberian structure underneath the basilical edifice and excavated area in 1990 (advanced stages) 455 Panoramic view of excavated area (western section of mosaic area) in 1990 455 Picture of wall B/OM/033 (southern face). Early stages of the 1990 excavation 456 Picture of wall B/OM/033 (southern face). Advances states of the 1990 excavation 456 Detail of wall B/OM/033; reused pre-Roman capital 457 Picture of western edge of the mosaic floor. Including loose stones associated with B/026 and feature B/012 (basin) 459 Picture of attached western structures and walls to B/OM/027. Early stages of the 1990 excavation 463 Picture of western apse area as preserved following restoration 463 Picture of “canal” to the west of “western apse” as preserved following restoration 464
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maps, figures, tables, charts and plates 7.90 7.91 7.92 7.93 7.94 7.95 7.96 7.97 7.98 7.99 7.100 7.101 7.102 7.103 7.104 7.105 7.106 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 8.6
xxi
Detail picture of attic base B/040 on top of B/041 470 Picture of northern areas B/D and B/F, including southwestern corner of Area P and in the forefront remains of wall B/317 471 Stratigraphic sketch from the excavation diaries by Alejandro Ramos Folqués of area B/F 472 Color plate image of the Ilici mosaic floor (B/011). By C. Zornoza (1965) 474 Plan of the Ilici building’s mosaic floor based on C. Zornoza 475 Drawing of the central mosaic floor inscription (inscription 1), according to Ibarra (1906) 477 Drawing of the central mosaic inscription (inscription 1), according to Albertini (1907) 478 Drawing of the northern mosaic floor inscription (inscription 2), according to Ibarra (1906) 482 Drawing of the northern mosaic inscription (inscription 2), according to Albertini (1907) 482 Picture of the initial section of Northern Inscription 486 Drawing of the southern mosaic floor inscription (inscription 3), according to Ibarra (1906) 489 Drawing of the northern mosaic inscription (inscription 2), according to Albertini (1907) 489 Panel for the Euploia southern inscription. Ibarra (1906) 494 Reproduction of the decorated figure according to H. Schlunk (1982) 494 Picture of the second westernmost square at the southern branch of the central nave meander frame 499 Documented “Saint Abdon” lamp according to H. Schlunk in 1948 544 Picture of the “Saint Abdon” lamp made by A. Ramos Folqués 544 Panoramic picture of Area S, from the southeast corner looking northwest in 1948 557 Panoramic picture of Area S, from the northeast corner looking southwest in 1948 558 Picture of northern ashlar stone of wall B/010 and (to the right) lime and gravel floor B/056 (1971) 560 Picture of northern ashlar stone of wall B/010 and (to the right) lime and gravel floor B/056 (1971) 561 Plan sketch in Ramos Folqués’ excavation diaries. Entry in ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: August 29th, 1949, n. 10, f. 1r 565 Stratigraphic levels sketch in Ramos Folqués’ excavation diaries. Entry in ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: August 29th, 1949, n. 10, f. 2r 565
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xxii 8.7 8.8 8.9 8.10 8.11 8.12 8.13 8.14 8.15 8.16 8.17 8.18 8.19 8.20 9.1 9.2 9.3
9.4 9.5 9.6 9.7 9.8
maps, figures, tables, charts and plates Picture of northeastern corner of Area S (S/B/D’) following its excavation by 1949. Includes S/052, S/203 and wall S/053 on the right 566 Picture of Area S’s central wall S/053, in 1949 campaign 567 General picture of northern area (S/B). Picture looking northeast 567 Detail of northeastern corner (Area S/B/D’). Looking northeast 568 Picture of northern half of Area S (1990) 569 Picture of outer (northern) face of wall S/052, during the 1990 campaign 570 Picture of outer (northeastern) corner of walls S/052 and S/203 during the 1990 campaign 570 Northeastern corner and northern wall S/052 of Area S during the 1948 excavations. Includes roof tiles for levels S/B/D’/238 577 Picture of northeastern corner of Area S, with roof tiles from S/B/D’/238 supported on small ashlar wall S/052 577 Detail picture of northeastern corner during the 1948 excavations of in the Alcudia d’Elx Area S, including roof tiles and holed stone 578 Picture of northern area of S (S/B), including remains of S/326, S/053 and northeastern corners with their walls and stucco levels 583 Sketch from Alejandro Ramos Folqués’ excavation diaries of Area S/B’ 585 Stratigraphic sketch from Alejandro Ramos Folqués’ excavation diaries of Area S/B” 588 Plan sketch from Ramos Folqués’ excavation diaries entry in ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 30th, 1948, n. 7, f. annex 6r 593 Sketch of stratigraphy and plan of “Rooms” T/H1, T/A2, T/B3, on then basilical building’s southeastern corner 608 Sketch of stratigraphy and plan of “Rooms” T/H1, T/A2, T/B3, on then basilical building’s southeastern corner 609 Second sketch of “Rooms” T/H1, T/A2, T/B3, on then basilical building’s southeastern corner from Alejandro Ramos Folqués’ excavation diaries 610 Sketch of compartments found to the southwest of “basilica building”, including “rooms” T/I and T/H by Alejandro Ramos Folqués 610 “Loose notes” sketch by Alejandro Ramos Folqués. Rooms T/I and T/H, and “Statue Street” Area C 611 Sketch of “Area T” as excavated in its eastern and central area May, 1950, as described in Alejandro Ramos Folqués’ excavation diaries 611 Plan sketch of excavations in sub-area T/OB by Alejandro Ramos Folqués 613 Sketch of walls from T/H1, T/A2 and T/B3 as revealed in the first stages of excavation, from Alejandro Ramos Folqués’ excavation diaries 619 Alexander Bar-Magen Numhauser - 978-90-04-41992-6 Downloaded from Brill.com 03/03/2024 09:27:00PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison
maps, figures, tables, charts and plates 9.9 9.10 9.11 9.12 9.13 9.14 9.15 9.16 9.17 9.18 9.19 9.20 9.21 9.22 9.23 9.24 9.25
9.26 9.27 9.28 9.29 9.30 9.31
xxiii
Picture from the 1948 Excavation, “Burial 1” 621 Picture from the 1948 Excavation, “Burial 1”. Detail, looking north 621 Picture from the 1948 Excavation of “Burial 1” 622 Stratigraphic sketch as found in Areas C and T from Ramos Folqués’ excavation diaries 624 Picture from the 1948 excavation, “between street and mosaic” (or Area T) 627 Picture of “wall north of ‘street’ next to the sepulture” (T/H1, T/A2, T/B3) 628 Picture of the “street” structures (T/H1, T/A2, T/B3) looking southwest from the basilical area, with alternative perspective to Fig. 9.14 629 Picture of detail for Fig. 9.14 (sub-areas T/H1 and T/A2). Looking southwest 630 U-shaped structure T/H1/264. View from the southwest, 1948 excavation 633 U-shaped structure T/H1/264. View from the northwest, 1948 excavation 633 Sketch of areas T and C as excavated by September 20th, 1949 in Ramos Folqués’ excavation diaries 642 Sketch of wall C/354 with its measurements, from Ramos Folqués’ excavation diaries 644 Sketch drawing of mold BAE/1950/C/P/355/cer/5 (item LA-3554) 655 Drawing and images of bi-valve mold LA-3554 656 Sketch from the “houses” found at the western edge of street of Area C in Ramos Folqués’ excavation diaries 661 Sketch of areas T and C as excavated by September 24th, 1949 670 ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 20th, 1951, page from notebook number 14, f. 2r. At the top right corner: stratigraphic sketch of probe T/H/S. To the top left, plan sketch of the western excavated sector of Area T as of that date 676 Stratigraphic sketch from ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: loose note, n. 14, f. annex 1r 677 Plan sketch of Area C (probe C/P?) and probe T/H/S 678 Stratigraphic sketch of probe C/P (?) and probe T/H/S 678 Stratigraphic sketch for probe T/W in Ramos Folqués’ excavation diaries 682 Detail of stratigraphic sketch from April 15th, 1954 in Ramos Folqués’ excavation diaries, where probe T/W was conducted 682 Detail of plan sketch from April 15th, 1954 in Ramos Folqués’ excavation diaries, where probe T/W was conducted 682
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xxiv 9.32 10.1 10.2–3 10.4 10.5 10.6 10.7 11.1 11.2
11.3 11.4 11.5 11.6 11.7 11.8 11.9 11.10 11.11 11.12 11.13 11.14 11.15 11.16 11.17 11.18 11.19
maps, figures, tables, charts and plates Picture of object BAE/1954/T/W/334/pet/1 as presented in A. Ramos Folqués (1961) 684 Plan sketch for the north section of “Area P” 709 Pictures of the excavation in Palacio area, looking east-southeast 711 General picture of excavation to the east and north of Area B 712 Portal stone P/346 to Area P. Taken by H. Schlunk in 1948 713 Stratigraphic sketch for the north section of “Area P” 000 ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental, entry for July 13th, 1949, n. 9, f. 11r 726 Virtual reconstruction of the Iberian Temple near quadrant 10A 742 Partial restoration (reconstruction) of the Iberian Temple near quadrant 10A, including the placement of a reconstruction of a proto-Aeolic capital 743 Plan for the 5-F domus in the Alcudia d’Elx site 748 Lift plan of the southern wall for “Room 18” of the 5-F domus in the Alcudia d’Elx 749 Plan of the first synagogue of Dura Europos (late 2nd century ce) 752 Plan of the second synagogue of Dura Europos (mid-3rd century ce, “Unit H”) 753 First plan of the Priene Synagogue 756 Plans of the subsequent structures in the Priene Synagogue block 757 Plan (reconstruction) of the earliest building of the Ostia synagogue, from the 1st century, according to A. Runesson 758 Plan of the Ostia synagogue after its first renovation, according to A. Runesson 759 Plan of the Ostia synagogue after its second renovation, according to A. Runesson 760 Plan of the Ostia synagogue after the addition of its aedicula, according to A. Runesson 761 Plan of the church of Illeta del Rei, Menorca according to P. Palol 767 Plan of the church of Es Fornás de Torelló, Menorca, according to P. Palol 768 Plan of the mosaic nave for the church of Illeta de Rei, according to H. Llorente 769 The Bova Marina synagogue plan (First Phase). From Costamagna, L. (1991) 771 The Bova Marina synagogue plan (Second Phase). From Costamagna, L. (1991) 772 Isometric plan for Building C (6th century) of the Maʾoz Hayim Synagogue 774 Lintel from Kochav HaYarden 777
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maps, figures, tables, charts and plates 11.20 11.21
11.22 11.23 11.24 11.25 11.26 11.27–28 11.29 11.30 11.31
11.32 11.33
11.34 11.35–36 11.37 11.38 11.39–42 11.43 11.44–45 11.46–47 11.48 A.1
xxv
Picture of decorated lintel from the Chorazin synagogue 777 Panel WB2 depicting Aaron within the Tabernacle during holy sacrifices from the Dura Europos synagogue painted murals (mid-3rd century ce) 779 Picture of the synagogue of Dura Europos’ niche. Construction from the late 2nd century, and paintings from the mid-3rd century 780 Jewish symbols panel from Hammath Tiberias B 781 Jewish symbols panel from Beth Sheʾan B 781 Aedicula panel from Sepphoris (above) and Susiya (below) 782 Jewish symbols panel from Bet Alpha 783 Jewish symbols panel from Caparnaum 783 Picture of section of the mosaic from the Khirbet Samaria synagogue 784 Gold glass from the Roman catacomb of Vigna Randanini, 2nd century ce 784 Representation of the Torah Ark in Diaspora wall carvings from the Monteverde and Villa Torlonia catacombs in Rome (2nd to 4th centuries ce) 786 Image of hetoimasia from the Orthodox (Neonian) Baptistery in Ravenna (mid-5th century) 788 Representation of the ecclesiastical council of Antioch, on the 12th century north wall mosaic from the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem 789 Wall mosaic from the south ciborium of the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia, Ravenna, Italy (5th century) 789 The aedicula from Ostia as found in its original excavation and its reconstruction respectively 790 Plan for the Sardis synagogue within the gymnasium and bath complex (Phase 3) 791 Mosaic panel scene from Cehegín (pp. 116–118, number 6) 792 Window screens (formerly “chancel screens”) as published in A. Ramos Folqués (1972) 803 Fragments of window screen (formerly “chancel screen”) as published in A. Ramos Folqués (1972) 804 Two individual burials found by Ramos Folqués in 1950 810 Proximate burials in the “Visigothic cemetery” 810 Original plan of the Hammam Lif Synagogue, according to E. Renan (1884) 814 Sketch by Alejandro Ramos Folqués of excavated area by May 1948. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental entry for May 1948, n. 7, f. 1v 845
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xxvi A.2 A.3 A.4
maps, figures, tables, charts and plates Sketch by Alejandro Ramos Folqués of excavated area by May 1948. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental entry for May 1948, n. 7, f. 3r 846 Sketch by H. Schlunk of “May–June” excavations in the Elche basilical structure and surroundings (1948) 847 Sketch by A. Ramos Folqués of excavated areas of the basilical area in 1948 848
Tables 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 3.1 3.2 3.3 5.1 7.1
7.2 7.3 9.1
Correlation of lines with syllables in the Annianus Peregrinus carmen 97 Percentages of inscriptions according to language used 152 Percentage of inscription languages separating multi-lingual epigraphy 152 Percentages according to language within each province 153 Onomastic distribution according to origin language amongst provinces 157 Distribution of name origin according to sex, including parent names 159 List of deceased names and their ages 161 List of characteristics of coins found by 1976 in Emporion 173 List of characteristics of coins found in 1968 in Myrtilis Iulia 175 Coins found in Iluro (Mataró, Barcelona) 179 Summary of the physical attributes of the two known coins from the series 240 Measurements for metrological study and reconstruction of the Ilici basilica, including conversions into Roman foot (29.6 centimeters) according to Roberto Lorenzo and Javier Morcillo (2014) 518 Measurement units, ratios and position of central axis according to subsequent phases 540 Stratigraphic phases for the building in Area 10b of the Alcudia d’Elx site (basilical building) 554 Compared chronological phases for Area C and Area T 705
Charts 9.1 9.2
Stratigraphic scheme for rooms T/H1, T/A2 and T/B3 with legend 636 Stratigraphic scheme for rooms main Area C and sub-areas C/W and C/N. Below: legend for scheme 653 Alexander Bar-Magen Numhauser - 978-90-04-41992-6 Downloaded from Brill.com 03/03/2024 09:27:00PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison
maps, figures, tables, charts and plates 9.3 A.1
xxvii
Stratigraphic scheme for main Area T, sub-area T/W and T/HR, as well as a connection with T/H1 with legend 674 Example of relations between stratigraphic units, around a “locus X/401” 856
Plates I II III IV V VI VII VIII IX X XI XII XIII.1 XIII.2 XIV.1
XIV.2 XV.1 XV.2 XVI.1 XVI.2
XVII.1 XVII.2
Plan for the Alcudia de Elche Synagogue, Phase IIIE 1089 Plan for the Alcudia de Elche Synagogue, Phase IIIB 1090 Plan for the Alcudia de Elche Synagogue, Phase IIE 1091 Plan for the Alcudia de Elche Synagogue, Phase IIC 1092 Plan for the Alcudia de Elche Synagogue, Phase IIB 1093 Plan for the Alcudia de Elche Synagogue, Phase IB 1094 Plan for the Alcudia de Elche Synagogue, Phase IA 1095 Isometric Plan Reconstruction of the Ilici synagogue/church, phase IIb 1096 Stratigraphic map scheme of Area P 1097 Stratigraphic map scheme of Area B 1098 Stratigraphic map scheme of Areas C and T 1099 Stratigraphic map scheme of Areas S 1100 Picture of the 1990 excavation intervention by Rafael Ramos Fernández, looking at structure B/138 and walls B/020 and B/021 1101 Image of the current basilical structure’s western edge, following its restoration. Looking south. August 2011 1101 Western edge of the basilical structure (August 2011). Including wall B/027, to the south of the restored central stepped entrance to the complex. Looking northwest. Within a circle: remains of the original wall under the restoration following the 1990 excavation 1102 Picture from the 1990 Excavation, looking to the south-southwest 1102 Picture of B/033 from the 1990 excavation, looking northwest 1103 Picture of B/033 from the 1990 excavation, looking north 1103 Picture western structures below the basilical building from the 1990 excavation 1104 Picture from the 1971 DAI-Madrid intervention, looking south-southeast, next to structures at the western edge of where the mosaic floor was placed 1104 General picture of the 1990 excavation, after the removal of weeds. Looking west 1105 Picture of attached structure to the southern wall B/020, that is B/138, seen from above 1105 Alexander Bar-Magen Numhauser - 978-90-04-41992-6 Downloaded from Brill.com 03/03/2024 09:27:00PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison
xxviii
maps, figures, tables, charts and plates
XVIII.1
Picture of detail of profile of structure B/138 after restoration. Looking east 1106 Picture of the attached structures’ face to the south of the mosaic. Looking south 1106 Picture detail of the attached structures’ face to the south of the mosaic. Looking south 1107 Picture of the structure B/138’s profile after restoration. Looking west 1107 Picture of remains to the east of B/138 next to southern walls B/020 and B/028. Looking east 1108 Photo from the 1990 excavation campaign. Looking from the northeast to the southwest 1108 Photograph of “wall” B/OB/306 looking south 1109 Photograph of B/OB/306. Detail of width 1109 Photograph of B/OB/306 looking north 1110 Picture of western edge of the mosaic, looking north 1111
XVIII.2 XIX.1 XIX.2 XX.1 XX.2 XXI.1 XXI.2 XXII.1 XXIII.1
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Abbreviations For full reference, see Bibliography. AEspA ARF AJAALI AJAAD AMRF BAR CIL CIJ
CIRB CNRS CSIC HAE HEp IAM IEph IHE IG
IGUR JIWE
Archivo Español de Arqueología. Alejandro Ramos Folqués (see Archival Documents). Hachlili (1988): Ancient Jewish Art and Archaeology in the Land of Israel. Ancient Jewish Art and Archaeology in the Diaspora (For full reference, see Bibliography). Ana María Ronda Femenia (see Archival Documents). British Archaeological Reports. Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum. Vol. II—Inscriptiones Hispaniae Latinae. Frey (1936): Corpus Inscriptionum Judaicarum. 2 vols. CIJ-I Volume 1; Europe. CIJ-i2: Reedition of Volume 1 from 1975. CIJ-II Volume 2—Asia and Africa. Vasilij Vasilʹevič Struve, Corpus Inscriptionum Regni Bosporani (Moscow: Nauka, 1965). Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique. Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas. Instituto “Rodrigo Caro” de Arqueología y Prehistoria. Hispania antiqua epigraphica. Hispania Epigraphica by various authors (VV.AA.). Vadja (1966): “Inscriptions hébraïques”. Études d’antiquités africaines, Inscriptions antiques du Maroc. Wankel, Hermann, et al. Die Inschriften von Ephesos. Inschriften Griechischer Städte Aus Kleinasien 16. Bonn: Habelt, 1979. Cantera Burgos and Millás Vallicrosa, Inscripciones hebraicas en España. Inscriptiones Graecae. IG II2 Kirchner, Johannes, ed. Vol. II–III, Inscriptiones Atticae Euclidis anno posteriors, 2nd edition. IG V,1 Kolbe, Walther, Friedrich Hiller von Gaertringen, eds. Vol. V,1Inscriptiones Laconiae et Messeniae. IG XII,8 Friedrich, Carl. Vol. XII,8, Inscriptiones insularum maris Thracici. IG XIV Kaibel, Georg, and Albert Lebegue, eds. Vol. XIV-Inscriptiones Siciliae et Italiae, additis Galliae, Hispaniae, Britanniae, Germaniae inscriptionibus. Moretti, Luigi. Inscriptiones graecae urbis Romae, 1968. Noy (1993): Jewish inscriptions of Western Europe. JIWE-1 Vol. 1: Italy, excluding Rome, Spain and Gaul. JIWE-2 Vol. 2: The City of Rome. Alexander Bar-Magen Numhauser - 978-90-04-41992-6 Downloaded from Brill.com 03/03/2024 09:27:00PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison
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abbreviations
PIR RIT SEG
Pere Ibarra Ruiz (see Archival Documents). Alföldi (1975) Die römischen Inschriften von Tarraco. Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum. Leiden, Netherlands, Brill. – Henry W. Pleket and Ronald S. Stroud, eds. Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum, Vol. 32 (1982). – Henry W. Pleket, Ronald S. Stroud and Johan H.M. Strubbe, eds. Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum, Vol. 44 (1994). – Henri W. Pleket, Ronald S. Stroud, Angelos Chaniotis, and Johan H.M. Strubbe, eds., Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum, Vol. 45 (1995). – Angelos Chaniotis, Ronald S. Stroud and Johan H.M. Strubbe, eds., Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum, Vol. 53 (2003).
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Epigraphic Symbols [– –] or […] [X] (X) Ẹ ˹X˺ ⟨ET⟩
Lost letters or sections. Reconstruction. Letter completely lost or unreadable. Reconstruction of letter after omission. Letter partially damaged or destroyed. Grammatical error or replacement of letter by another. Merging of letters.
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Maps of the Hispanojewish World Produced by the Antiquity á-la-carte application in the Ancient World Mapping Center. The Roman Empire map is from Ancient World Map Center, map 12.3, taken from Mary Taliaferro Boatwright, ed., The Romans: From Village to Empire, 2nd ed (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012). All under Creative Commons 4.0.
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map 1
Map of Hispania (117ce onwards)
maps of the hispanojewish world
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map 2
maps of the hispanojewish world
Roman Empire of Diocletian and Constantine
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Introduction Memory is not an instrument for exploring the past but its medium. It is the medium of past experience, just as the earth is the medium in which dead cities lie buried. He who seeks to approach his own buried past must conduct himself like a man digging. – walter benjamin1
∵ It can be said that Spain is a country defined by the lost versions of itself. Through the centuries many such “Spains” appeared: the Spain of the Austrias which was cast aside by the 18th century Bourbon dynasty; the Liberal and Absolutist Spains fighting in gruesome civil wars through the 19th century; Republican Spain, forced into exile and oblivion after its defeat in the Spanish Civil War. Perhaps in this list of ghostly forgotten Spains, one still remains alive in exile, defined by their wait for their return to their idealized homeland: Sepharad, the lost Jewish Spain. The story of the Jewish presence in Spain and Portugal encompasses one and a half millennia and all the territories and provinces of these countries. However, following the expulsion of 1492, this history and the well-settled, large Jewish community that was part of the social landscape of the Iberian Peninsula came to an abrupt, traumatic end. In truth it took the Christian kingdoms six years to complete the process itself, from the Edict of Alhambra in March 1492 to the expulsion of the Jews from Navarre in 1498, following the exile and forced conversion in Portugal between 1496 and 1497. However, as stated by a recent scholar, the story of Iberian Jews and Sepharad did not end at that moment.2 For the following centuries those who remained in Spain and Portugal, be they conversos or not, as well as the Sepharadi diasporas that appeared through the 16th century Mediterranean kept the memory of Sepharad alive. Most explorers who met the Sepharadi diaspora
1 “Excavation and Memory”, Gesammelte Schriften, IV, 400–401. Circa 1932. Translation by Rodney Livingstone. http://folk.uib.no/hlils/TBLR‑B/Benjamin‑ExcavMem.pdf. 2 Jonathan Ray, After Expulsion: 1492 and the Making of Sephardic Jewry (New York: New York University Press, 2013), 8.
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at the time marveled over the inherently “Spanish” character of these exiled Jewish communities: be it in their Ladino speech, their clothing, or their customs. The surprise of the Spanish and Portuguese travelers is, in itself, an interesting subject for research. It perhaps reflects an aspect of Jewish presence that is often overlooked: Jews were, above all, inhabitants of the territories they lived in and they integrated with them. As such the material expression of their culture was part of the lands they inhabited and the society they were part of. Hence the materiality of their culture is naturally registered in an archaeological registry that would include non-Jews as well. If we take into account the history of Sepharad and the Jewish people in Spain and Portugal as a long history that encompasses a millennium and a half, with varied provinces from the humid and cloudy Atlantic coast of Galicia to the arid sunny Costa del Sol in Andalusia; from the rural plains if La Mancha to the urban centers of Seville, Córdoba, Barcelona, Toledo, and Burgos; and which includes all social classes, and accounts for Hellenic, Islamic, and Christian rulers, and their varied legislations, this Sepharad should be seen as anything but a monolithic version of Spain. Any view of this diverse Jewish civilization has been seen through the lens of the Edict of Alhambra. As a result, most of what has been studied as Sepharad is limited to the last three centuries of their open presence in the Iberian Peninsula, while previous periods were studied more sparsely. The reason for this will be explored in Chapter 1. However, it is clear that the Late Middle Ages provides the largest amount of material and documented evidence for the study of these Jewish communities, while previous periods were traditionally more difficult to study through conventional historiographic methods. To date, an archaeological study of the Jews in Spain and Portugal—including an implicit recognition of their integral part of the cultural landscape of ancient and medieval Iberian societies—has yet to receive a comprehensive publication. A conventional historiographic approach, based on discovered or previously studied documents, is not enough, as it leaves these Jewish communities as faceless specters in Iberian history. The actual experience of Jews as they lived and died in the Iberian Peninsula was traditionally ignored in favor of an imposed transcendental significance of their presence which goes beyond the materiality that defined their cultural expressions. This book has the objective of questioning this. If indeed Jews had a Hispanic material culture through their history in the Iberian Peninsula, what was its characteristic? Or to be more specific, how did Jews materially live out their condition, in which they were self-aware of being part of a non-Jewish environment? Finally, how can archaeologists study and analyze this material culture which, as indicated
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above, ought to have been present in the archaeological records of the different settlements where they lived? This book will not be able to give a conclusive or absolute answer to these questions, which require more archaeological data and future research for a field still in its infancy. Rather, the objective of this work is to provide the tools to study the Jewish presence in the origin of their Iberian story, instead of their epilogue just before their expulsion. In other words, to explore their story during Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. These periods were chosen based on the fact that the absence of written documents beyond epigraphy and the availability of studied archaeological sites with Jewish findings allowed for an ideal opportunity to apply new archaeological methods to the recovery of a Jewish part of history before the advent of what we can call the classical Sepharad. The application of these new approaches can then be proposed for other periods, thus allowing us to compare the available documented evidence of Jewish presence in Spain and Portugal with the archaeological record to have a more complete picture of their long and rich history. To study the archaeology of these Jewish communities means contextualizing them. Contexts for historical studies of Jewish communities in the Late Middle Ages are widely and clearly known, ever since the monumental classical studies of Eliyahu Ashtor’s The Jews of Moslem Spain (1961, 1966) and Yitzhak Baer’s A History of the Jews in Christian Spain (1971). However, the new approach of an archaeological study of the material remains left behind by these ancient and early medieval Jews allows modern scholars to open up and tentatively write a new chapter of the above-mentioned story of the Jews in Iberia—a chapter that was rarely explored from an archaeological perspective. For this reason, one of the most extensive sections of this work is the study of the basilica-synagogue of Elche, covered in Part 2 of this book. The building is a crucial part for such an archaeological endeavor, as it synthetizes all the theoretical, methodological, historiographical, and technical problems that past scholars typically faced when researching Iberian Jews from an archaeological approach. Likewise, it is the first obstacle for late antique archaeologists when tackling the subject of that period’s Iberian Judaism. The virulent discussion surrounding the building’s denomination as a synagogue or a church can be read as a symptom of the inherent reluctance of Spanish scholarship to include Jews as an integral part of the societies they were exploring. These scholars were apparently exploring the origin of Spain—their Spain, which had no Jews since the expulsion of 1492. Hence, the archaeological study of this synagoguebasilica is an unavoidable subject, one that is a cornerstone for the archaeological study of ancient Iberian Peninsula Judaism. Any attempt to study this subject without treating the Elche synagogue-basilica would be incomplete,
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and thus the proposed chapter in the story of Sepharad would remain inexcusably fragmented. As will be seen in the following chapters, traditional approaches to the history of Judaism in the Iberian Peninsula will have to be contextualized with the new archaeological evidence that will be presented here. Archaeological evidence reflects an Iberian Judaism that since Late Antiquity was an integral part of the societies to which they belonged. And as such, the concept of these Jewish communities as foreigners and outsiders ought to be put into question. The application of modern archaeological methods reveals a new fleshed out image of ancient Judaism that allows for a more complete view of the origin of Sepharadic civilization in the Iberian Peninsula, which goes beyond the historiographical works presented by medieval and modern scholars through the centuries. For all the sources and studies presented here, a comprehensive study of this late antique Hispanojewish world was yet a terra incognita, whose attempted mapping in this book requires a review of the conventional theories that defined the interpretation of such a history. Therefore, the main approach of this book will not be to study late antique Judaism as a separate subject, with Hispanojewish and Sepharadi communities treated as foreigners in the midst of the societies that tolerated them through the centuries. This has typically been done while at the same time the contemporary processes of Romanization and Christianization (and to a lesser extent Islamization) are properly placed as nativized phenomena that defined the general cultural framework of the 1st millennium ce. This study assumes the evident premise that Hispanojewish communities, and their Sepharadi descendants, are as local and integrated as their non-Jewish Iberian counterparts. The present work will be divided into two parts. The first part is an introduction to the archaeology of late antique and early medieval Judaism, providing a wider context to understand the material expression of Hispanojewish culture. The first chapter, “Jews in Iberia, Out of History”, presents the historiographical skepticism regarding Jews in the archaeological record, as well as the reason why until recently there was no archaeological method to study these minority communities. Chapter 2 is a study of Jewish epigraphy from Late Antiquity, which includes the Ilici synagogue building as part of a wider trend in Hispanojewish communities from the late antique Iberian Peninsula. These linguistic, ritual, and onomastic practices reveal features that can be compared to other Jewish communities through the Mediterranean basin, as part of a wider koine of classical Jewish communities across the Roman and post-Roman world. Chapter 3 includes non-epigraphic materials identified in the Iberian Peninsula, as a completion of the study elaborated in the previous chapter.
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Chapter 4 is an exploration of a feature found in the Ilici synagogue phase, a 5th century basin at the entrance of the site. The chapter explores this feature as part of water installations associated with synagogue entrances and the practice of the washing of hands and feet as part of ritualized decorum. In conclusion, Part 1 ends with the exploration of the apparent end of this classical Hispanojewish presence with the advent of an early medieval Jewish community under Arab rule in Chapter 5. This chapter includes an analysis of an 8th century coin with apparent Hebrew characters in its central obverse legend, followed by a summarized analysis of Early Islamic Jewish inscriptions in which Hebrew becomes the sole epigraphic language of the time. Exploring changes that might have occurred through the centuries for these Jewish communities, it is noteworthy to find a continuity, rather than a break, despite the dramatic shifts in policy and rulers under Roman, Visigothic, and Arab rulers. Part 2 is dedicated to the synagogue-basilica found in the archaeological site known as the Alcudia de Elche and is the main part of book. Chapter 6 is a review of the historiography of archaeological exploration into this building, including the problematic approach scholars such as Alejandro Ramos Folqués and Helmut Schlunk, as well as modern scholars, had when it came to the denomination of this building. From the 1905 excavation, the discussion over whether the basilical building from the Alcudia de Elche is a Jewish synagogue or a Christian basilica—particularly when it comes to its mosaic phase—dominated the study of this building. Often scholars accepted partial or at times insufficient evidence to exclusively define the building as a Christian church. However, the historiographical problems that arose in the Ilici basilica are a reflection of issues that were present in other periods where archaeological explorations have been applied to study Iberian Jewish communities. Chapter 7 is the first descriptive chapter of the Elche basilical building. It is an explanation of the stratigraphic units’ physical and chronological development in Area B, or the main area of the Ilici basilical building where the mosaic floor was found. This study recovers all the data available as translated in the catalogue entries and reconstructs the history of the site until its abandonment. This includes many sub-areas such as main Area B, northern area B/F and B/D, eastern area B/EM, and western areas B/OM and B/OB. It also explores the mosaic floor, its inscriptions, aesthetics, and metrological attributes as part of the wider archaeological site. The mosaic floor is to be considered as one stratigraphic unit, and is thus included in the wider stratigraphic map of the area. Finally, a metrological approach allows for the completion of the general stratigraphic overview of the site, providing a relative chronology for the structure.
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Chapter 8 follows a similar approach as the previous chapter, this time applied to Area S named after what excavators called “Sacristía”, to the east of the apse of Area B. Outside of the central Area B, Area S has no metrological study. Chapter 9 follows the analysis and study of the areas C, the southern street, and T, the tabernae between the street and the southern walls of the Ilici basilical building itself. Chapter 10 is a similar study of the large room to the north of Area S called Area P. Concluding Part 2 of this book is Chapter 11, which is a summary of the findings and a general interpretation of the Ilici basilical building compared to secular, Hellenic/Polytheistic, Jewish, and Christian buildings in the Alcudia de Elche, the Iberian Peninsula, and beyond. In short, Chapter 11 is an interpretation of the findings as revealed through this part of the book. An Epilogue concludes this study, proposing a new approach which follows the archaeological method presented here. In the Epilogue this study is placed in the context of future exploration of an archaeological field that is still maturing in the Iberian Peninsula, and that requires a multidisciplinary approach in order to achieve a more complete picture for the story of the Jewish Sepharadi civilization. In other words, such an approach is necessary for the recovery of the history of one of the lost Spains that are waiting to be explored in the Iberian Peninsula. Further materials are naturally added to support readers in their journey into the materials provided here. Annexes A and B are guides for reading stratigraphic catalogue and areas that would be the basis of the Ilici basilical building’s archaeological study. Annex A includes an explanation of the areas which divided the site in this project. Annex B covers the catalogue’s codification process. It also includes a more specific guide to help the reader in reading the catalogue entries themselves, from the codes of the stratigraphic units or loci, the types of loci, and their enumeration process. Likewise, it has a section to help reading the stratigraphic map, attached to this book. Both aid in reading Annex C—an index of the stratigraphic units presented through Part 2, as well as the table relating catalogue entries for objects found between my original research and the Alcudia de Elche catalogue published primarily by Ana Ronda Femenia, presented in Annex D. This is the archaeology of Judaism in late antique and early medieval Hispania and Al-Andalus. It implies two important frames that are the limits of this study. The first is a geographical limitation to the territories of Hispania, which include the Iberian Peninsula and Mauritania Tingitana, roughly encompassing the north of modern Morocco. Also the region of the Narbonensis is added, which was known in as Septimania during the rule of the Visigoths between the 5th and early 8th centuries. The application of these geographical limitations
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is mostly present for chapters II and V, particularly when it comes to epigraphic evidence for the Jewish presence in Late Antiquity. From a chronological standpoint, it was decided to limit the timeframe from roughly the first archaeological remains of Judaism under Roman rule in the 1st century to roughly the collapse of the Cordoba Umayyad Caliphate in the early 11th century. In other words, this study encompasses the entire first millennium ce. This wide chronological frame includes a division into three main periods: Jews under Imperial Rome, from the 1st to the mid-4th centuries ce; Jews in Late Antiquity from the late 4th to the early 8th centuries; Jews of early Al-Andalus from the 8th to the early 11th centuries. These divisions are not particularly defined between chapters, as most groups of findings and the Ilici basilical building itself encompass many of those periods. The starting-point and nucleus of this book is the late antique period. The following study is based on the continuity of the communities that developed before the 10th century following the reforms of Hasday Ibn-Shaprut under the rule of Caliph Abd al-Rahman III. It is from the rise of Caliphal Cordoba that we can assume the rise of the classical Sepharadi “golden age” of literary, religious, philosophical, and political achievements for Hispanic Jews. Therefore, this study attempts to reconstruct the Jewish communities before the rise of what we can call the Sepharadi medieval civilization. For that purpose, two terms have been applied to differentiate the two periods. Late antique local Romanized Catholic peoples who came under Arian Visigothic rule were conventionally called Hispanorroman as opposed to Hispanovisigothic in Spanish historiography. Considering that the Jews’ arrival to Hispania is accompanied by the Romanization of these territories, the term used for the description of these Jewish communities is Hispanojewish. This introduces the Jews within the context of Roman Hispania and allows for a distinction from the medieval Sepharad, which developed after a process of Hebraization that will be described in Chapter 5. Hence the term Hispanojewish refers to the Jews of Hispania under Roman rule and the post-Roman period until the 8th century. For convenience, Jewish communities present after the Muslim invasion were classified either as Jews of Al-Andalus or as late Hispanojewish communities. The term Sepharadi is applied to Jewish communities and Jewish presence from the 11th century onwards. From the above terms, the following book insists on this fundamental aspect that defines its chapters: it is inappropriate to separate these Hispanic communities, be they Spanish or Portuguese, from the histories that defined those territories. Their physical presence and the material evidence they left behind is enough testimony to research and write down this no longer forgotten history.
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part 1 Introducing Jewish Hispania
∵
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chapter 1
Jews in Iberia, Out of History The history of Jewish archaeology in the Iberian Peninsula is a product of the gradual acceptance of the existence of a Sepharad as part of Spanish history. Unlike traditional historiography, the material culture of Spanish and Portuguese Jewry makes the existence of these communities a reality that cannot be abstracted or disconnected from the historical circumstances from which it came. Unsurprisingly, the first studies of Jewish Spain and Portugal were accompanied by the development of the concept of the “Spanish nation” in Spanish historiography. As such, the inclusion of Jewish communities in this “national history” will remain problematic up until the late 20th century, as the presence of Judaism implied accepting an inherent diversity in the historical development of these societies. As will be shown below, this is reflected by the segregation of Jewish history from the “non-Jewish” history of the Iberian Peninsula. When it comes to archaeology another issue should be taken into account, namely, the added dilemma of the rather late development of the discipline compared to the positivist historical approach that dominated the Romanticist era of the 19th century. The first “archaeological” studies did not go beyond merely collecting relics and objects from past societies, a feature that oddly enough predominated through the historiographic development of Jewish archaeology in the Iberian Peninsula.
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First Musings: Perez Bayer and the Real Academia de la Historia
The first attempts to study the archaeological remains of the Jewish communities in Spain were done by antiquarians who did not much care about the contexts in which objects were found. By the 18th century, Jewish objects, if identified, were seen as exotic relics of a by-gone era—and people. For example, this is the case of the Adra inscription of Annia Salomonula (see Chapter 2, 2.1), found by a local priest as part of his collection of Roman-era inscriptions. As is often the case of Spanish historiography, the story of a systematic study of Sepharad’s history begins with the foundation of the Real Academia de la Historia (RAH) by King Philip V in 1738. With the modernizing force of the newly established Bourbon dynasty in the Spanish crown, the institution had the objective of recovering the past by “clearing the truth of events, banishing
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the fables that were introduced due to ignorance or malice, and guiding to the knowledge of many things that antiquity obscured, or that were hidden by forgetfulness.”1 The spirit of this academy was one of attempted objectivity, as long as it did not question the legitimacy of the monarchs. It is in this period when many of the monumental Spanish historiographical works of the 18th century would be published. We find the first comprehensive essays on Latin inscriptions; the first archaeological excavations (following the discovery of Pompeii) in Italica near Seville and Numantia near Soria; re-editions and republishing of previous works such as the 17th century Historia General de las Españas by Father Mariana; and the rise of new intellectuals dedicated to the increasingly professionalized (although still aristocratic) research of Spanish history. The institutional framework during the Enlightenment era allowed for a new interest in an unexpected subject: the evidence for Hebrew inscriptions found in different areas of the Iberian Peninsula. These findings were hard to avoid, even though the Marquis of Llió had a pessimistic view on studying Hebrew sources, suggesting that despite the findings through the central and late decades of the 18th century, these were mostly limited to the last moments of Jewish presence in the Iberian Peninsula.2 The most important scholar from this period regarding Jewish history was not an academic from the RAH, but rather an outsider who kept cordial and friendly relations with intellectuals across the Spanish territory, and that allowed him an initial comprehensive view of Hebrew inscriptions. This man is the philologist, numismatist, and historian Francisco Pérez Bayer (1711–1798). A man of enlightened conviction, he became an eminent professor (Catedrático) of Hebrew in the University of Salamanca in 1738, the year when the RAH was founded. Following the coronation of reformist King Ferdinand VI (1745–1759) and the expulsion of the Jesuit Order by his brother Charles III, Pérez Bayer rose to prominence as one of the key intellectuals to promote a profound reform in the academic structure of the country, with the attempt to modernize it. Pérez Bayer cultivated a deep love for antiquities through his Italian voyage during the reign of Ferdinand VI. During the journey he met the future King Charles III of Spain (then Charles VII of Naples and Sicily) and his friend the Italian Hebraist Biagio Ugolino, who aided in the interpretation of several ancient and, above all, medieval inscriptions found in his research. One of the first treatises on Jewish material culture in Spain came from the catalogue project begun by José Velázquez, Marqués de Valdeflores (1722– 1 Royal Decree of June 17th, 1738 of the First Statute of the Real Academia de la Historia. 2 Citation found in Jordi Casanovas Miró, Epigrafía Hebrea (Madrid: Real Academia de la Historia, 2005), 15.
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1772), and Candido María Trigueros of the RAH. Valdeflores and Trigueros were offered an academic project to create a “general Collection of all the ancient and contemporary original monuments of Spain’s history”, an endeavor that eventually received royal patronage under the King in 1750 upon which, amongst other things, it was charged with copying all the “ancient inscriptions, as those of unknown characters like Latin, Gothic, Arabic, and Hebrew from which a collection is to be formed”.3 The mention of Hebrew is noteworthy, as it reflects the notion that the history of the country would not be complete without the inclusion of the Jewish presence in its midst. Even so, as the project began its trajectory in 1752, which included a stop in Toledo before proceeding to Extremadura, it was halted in 1754 as funds for it were cut. Amongst the participants in this project was Pérez Bayer, who was versed in Hebraic studies, and who aided in the copy and interpretation of the few Hebrew inscriptions included in Valdeflores’ Corpus. Pérez Bayer was the first to propose that Jews were able to be studied archaeologically—at least in the sense that scholars perceived archaeology at the time. Despite his ability to document and interpret these inscriptions, thus revealing the material reality of Sepharad amid Spanish material culture, there was no comprehensive publication of his findings as part of Jewish history. His most noteworthy publications include De numis Hebareo-Samaritanis, from which we can restore the review of Phoenician as well as later Hebrew coins (see Chapter 3 for the 1st century Jewish Rebellion coin) recovered from the area of Elche, his Instituciones de la lengua hebrea, and his Origen de las voces españolas derivadas de las voces hebreas. Remarkably it is precisely the publication regarding the material evidence of Jewish presence in the Iberian Peninsula and beyond that was published in Latin, as opposed to the Hebrew philology books that were published in Spanish.4 Pérez Bayer died in 1798. However, he was not the only researcher from that period who had an interest in Jewish material remains. Following Valdeflores’ imprisonment after the failed mutiny of Esquilache in 1766 against Charles III, he gave his disciple, the Count of Lumiares, the task to complete his work Inscripciones y antigüedades del reino de Valencia, published in 1805. His companion, Cándido Melchor María Trigueros (1736–1798) was another scholar who, through his two publications, Rudimentos o Instituciones gramáticas de la lengua hebrea and his Oraciones para estimular el estudio de la lengua hebrea, advocated that “every literate Christian man should dedicate himself to the 3 Casanovas Miró, 17–18. 4 Francisco Pérez Bayer, Numorum hebraeo-samaritanorum vindiciae (Valencia: Valentiae Edetanorum; Ex officina Monfortiana, 1790).
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study of the Hebrew language without anyone having a reasonable excuse had he fled from such dedication”.5 He said this despite his own limits in his knowledge of the Hebrew language.6 Two examples are his study of the Hebrew inscriptions from Carmona, and his interpretations, considered fraudulent and deficient, of the Hebrew inscriptions from the Tránsito Synagogue in Toledo. At the end of the 18th century, Spain entered a period of deep political turmoil and crisis. However, the period of Spanish enlightenment included a recognition (albeit limited) that Jewish history was part of the wider history of the people in the Iberian Peninsula. Upon review of the works published during this period, there are two limiting characteristics that can be seen to define them: First is the exclusivity of epigraphic evidence for the study of Jewish presence, absent an archaeological method. Eighteenth century scholars valued these pieces as documents, not as archaeological objects within their proper context. Second, these studies are based on general catalogues and collections, and therefore do not provide an analysis of their historical significance or even their inclusion in a wider social context. Simply put: they were mentioned as interesting curiosities for collections, and little else. However, the notion that the history of Jews, albeit through the inclusion of Hebrew texts studied in a philological manner alone, is part of the wider history of Spain and Portugal, is a feature that defined the historiography of this field through the convulsive 19th century. By then, liberal and romanticist scholars started to question the Enlightenment approach to history and would propose the usage of available documentary and at times physical evidence for the elaboration of a national narrative. Indeed, only from the mid-19th century do we find the first attempts to write a history of the Jews in Spain and Portugal (although not as Sepharad).
5 Citation is found in Casanovas Miró, Epigrafía hebrea, 18. 6 In another quote, whose original source is mentioned but complicated to access and also quoted by Casanovas, Trigueros indicates how it is possible to learn the language in “a matter of months”. Evidently, this was not enough for Trigueros himself who has shown considerable mistakes in his works. For more on Trigueros’ enthusiastic support for the study of Hebrew, Francisco Aguilar Piñal and Cándido María Trigueros, El académico Cándido María Trigueros, 1736–1798, Publications of the Gabinete de Antigüedades de la Real Academia de la Historia 7. Madrid: Real Academia de la Historia, Gabinete de Antigüedades, 2001, 75–76.
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José Amador de los Ríos and the Aborted National History of Iberian Jews
The first attempts to write a history of the Jews in the Iberian Peninsula occurred under the reign of Isabel II of Spain (who reigned between 1833–1868), in a highly turbulent period for the country’s history. The reign of her predecessor, King Ferdinand VII, imposed a repressive environment that did not allow for the exploration of alternative histories of any liberal slant. A first comprehensive study of the Jews in the Iberian Peninsula was made by the literary historian and liberal scholar Adolfo de Castro, who in 1847 wrote Historia de los judíos en España.7 Castro, who was inspired by the liberal wave of the 1830s and 40s, which included the expropriation of Church properties in Spanish territory, had a sympathetic outlook on the Jews and their fate in the Iberian Peninsula. When it came to antiquity, he seldom searched for sources beyond those already cited in later works from the 16th and 17th centuries. His book should be read as an essay condemning the fate of persecution and expulsion committed, above all, by Church authorities and the religious intolerance of the Catholic Monarchs in 1492.8 Castro’s condemnation of Catholic persecution of the Jews coheres with his view of the Jews as part of the Spanish nation which includes much of its successes. The narrative of the Jews as a part of a persecuted Spain due to the Church’s intolerance fits well into the prevalent liberal factions that believed in a secular nation independent from the traditionalist Church. Even so, in his work Castro portrays the Jews from conventional historiographical sources, but not archaeological. In fact, there is no reference to the few (but relevant) archaeological objects recovered by the 18th century scholars like Pérez Bayer. Despite Castro’s book being the first attempt for a complete history of Iberian Jews, a more influential work would come from José Amador de los Ríos’ Estudios históricos, politicos y sociales de los judíos en España, published in 1848. This collection of essays (the first published on February 16th, 1845)9 was important both for Amador de los Ríos’ career and for its originality. Conceived 7 Adolfo de Castro y Rossi, Historia de los judíos en España, desde los tiempos de su establecimiento hasta principios del presente siglo, obra escrita e ilustrada con varios documentos rarísimos (Cádiz: Imprenta, librería y litografía de la Revista Médica, 1847). 8 This is seen in de Castro y Rossi, 9–23. The first presented theory is the arrival of Jews following the Babylonian exile from the 6th century bce. Naturally he does not propose this as more than speculation. Castro rejects that position in a lengthy analysis of the sources. Instead he concludes that Jews probably arrived in Roman periods. 9 José Amador de los Ríos, Estudios históricos, políticos y literarios sobre los judíos de España (Madrid: D.M. Diaz y Compañía, 1848), “Al lector”.
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after the publication of ten articles entitled De los judíos en España between November 1845 and February 1846, Estudios stands as one of the first analytical historical studies of the Jews of Spain.10 The originality of such a publication led to its later translation into French in 1859. In 1848 he became a member of the Real Academia de la Historia (RAH)11 and, by 1850, he became a professor in the Central University of Madrid.12 Despite this, the study was filled with rhetorical hyperbole, in which he characterized the Jewish people as a “proscribed race”, dependent on the fate that the “heavens bestowed” upon them through the tolerance or persecution of the non-Jewish peoples.13 One of his stated objectives when publishing these essays was that they would serve as a warning concerning the clear lack of study of Spanish Jewish literature and history. This shortage of studies led to the appearance of centuries-old stereotypes, contempt, and persecution. Another stated reason was to rectify the lack of knowledge of the Hebrew language, which few in Spain could read.14 But the most important warning, according to Amador de los Ríos, concerned the lack of a “national originality”. According to the author, even though a nation could excel in the accumulation of knowledge, science, theology, and art, the lack of such originality would limit people like the Jews to merely imitate aspects of culture which were not theirs. This was expressed under the following terms:
10 11 12
13
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Michal Friedman, “Jewish History as ‘Historia Patria’: José Amador de Los Ríos and the History of the Jews of Spain,” Jewish Social Studies 18, no. 1 (2011): 94. José Amador de los Ríos, Historia social, política y religiosa de los judíos de España y Portugal, vol. 1, (Madrid: Imprenta de T. Fontanet, 1875), viii–ix. Ángel Isac Martínez de Carvajal, Eclecticismo y pensamiento arquitectónico en España: discursos, revistas, congresos, 1846–1919 (Granada: Diputación Provincial de Granada, 1987), 142. José Amador de los Ríos, “De los judíos en España, X artículo y último,” Revista Literaria de El Español (February 16th, 1846), 5; Amador de los Ríos, Estudios históricos, políticos y literarios sobre los judíos de España, ix–x. It is important to understand that this rhetoric would not stem from a particularly anti-Jewish stance, as it sounds too much as part of the Augustinian role of the Jewish people for the “victory” of Christianity, but rather comes off as hyperbolic rhetoric to express the destitution of their “nation” and their utter dependence on the “Castilian” majority that ruled over them. For a complete summary and analysis of the 1848 publication by José Amador de los Ríos, see Roberto López Vela, “Judíos, fanatismo y decadencia. Amador de los Ríos y la interpretación de la Historia Nacional en 1848,” Manuscrits 17 (1999): 69–95. Amador de los Ríos, Estudios históricos, políticos y literarios sobre los judíos de España, xi– xiii.
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During their residence under the oriental Arabs, around the ulemas of Cordoba, the academies’ Rabbis had been impregnated, to put it in such terms, with their literature and sciences; without other Mishnaic and Talmudic studies, devoid of the spirit of nationality and independence that constitutes the vitality of the nations, without the stimulus of true glory, they cultivated the science that the Muslims possessed, thus giving them a tribute of admiration of their literature, the most complete and brilliant amongst literatures of the time. […] This was the same luck they had when the Christian empire was established. Lacking then a nationality, and having, as we will explain elsewhere, the most brilliant title the Jews counted on in order to have the benevolence of the Castillian people, it could not be original, nor could they resist the influx of influence coming from the dominating people.15 However, it is precisely in this imitation where we find the genius of the Jews as a people. Since the policy of (conventional and limited) tolerance adopted by the Caliphs of Cordoba, and particularly that of King Alfonso X of Castile, the Jews prospered and developed the national culture of the peoples they were living with to new heights. Thus, Amador de los Ríos gives his nationalist vindication a curious turn: rather than refusing the Jews as an outsider element, it is precisely the Jews that gave the nation its greatest splendor, only possible through the wise government of the great caliphs and kings of the Middle Ages. This theme would be present in his later works, specifically in his Historia social, política y religiosa de los judíos en España y Portugal.16 In that sense, Amador de los Ríos theorized that following the expulsion of the Jews, and the inevitable adoption of models coming from the Italian Renaissance, Castilian literature decayed in quality.17 While in Estudios Amador de los Ríos focused on literary sources, the materiality of Jewish presence is reflected when he defines his theories of “Jewish art” in the Iberian Peninsula. He probably applied ideas already developed when writing his early works, Sevilla pintoresca (1843) and Toledo pintoresca (1845). 15 16 17
Amador de los Ríos, xvii. Translation by the author. José Amador de los Ríos, Historia social, política y religiosa de los judíos de España y Portugal, vol. 1 (Madrid: Imprenta de T. Fontanet, 1875), 26. See below. Amador de los Ríos, Estudios históricos, políticos y literarios sobre los judíos de España, xviii; Friedman, “Jewish History as ‘Historia Patria’,” 99.
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These were analytical studies of medieval monuments from both Seville and Toledo with the expressed intention to give value to the medieval (and hence “national”) architectural heritage of Spain. Amongst these were the Santa María la Blanca synagogue and the Tránsito synagogue in the Judería of Toledo. Curiously, however, he considers that these two structures, even though clearly related to the Christian kingdom that ruled them, were part of the Toledo arábiga, and not to the Toledo cristiana, though rather than making such distinction by the ethnic use of such buildings, he strictly adhered to the stylistic considerations defined by a predetermined chronology. On the synagogue of Santa María la Blanca, he starts with refusing the theories of Álvarez Fuente and Tamayo de Vargas (16th–17th Centuries) that claimed this structure was built in Roman times. The need to dismiss such claims, and not others, implied the lack of previous artistic or archaeological research on the building. The author proposes its original building in the 11th century, later renovated in Early Modern periods, thus giving a diachronic reading to the building.18 But as he limits himself to a strict description of the building, he ignores its use as a synagogue, thus making his study deficient in interpretation. It is in the case of the Tránsito synagogue that the first unavoidable analysis of Jewish material production and its presence in the archaeological record (or rather, of “Jewish architecture”) can be found. With evidence from the famous Hebrew eastern wall inscription inside the main hall of the synagogue, he gives much importance to the dedication of the building to King Pedro I of CastileLeon, the product of Jews’ protection under this monarch. He notices the mudéjar or mozarabic architectural style of the building through its plasterwork, and associates such architecture to a political message by and for the Castilian crown. Therefore, he rejects Tamayo de Vargas’ theory that such plasterwork has always been part of Jewish building tradition, especially considering that the building was originally a brick construction.19 This was the first case where Amador de los Ríos was forced to reflect on the Jews in Spain’s art history. Following the association of architectural styles with political power and availability, and noting that the Jews lacked any political authority of their own (let alone any history with political power in the Iberian Peninsula), he concluded that they would eventually just imitate the prevalent styles available at the time, as is the case of the mozarabic or mudéjar tradition.
18 19
José Amador de los Ríos, Toledo pintoresca, o descripción de sus más célebres monumentos (Valladolid: Maxtor, 1845), 236. Amador de los Ríos, 240–242.
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A little after these publications, he provided an initial theoretical account of his archaeological and art-historical method in two essays in the short-lived journal Boletín Español de Arquitectura (BEA) between 1846–1847, published in conjunction with his friend Antonio Zabaleta. It is here that we can best understand the nationalistic liberal frame that defined Amador de los Ríos’ works. In them Amador de los Ríos proposes two basic theses regarding the development of a national architecture: the first is a rejection of the 18th century “exclusivist” theories, in which only classical aesthetics were considered worthy of study and emulation and the wealth of medieval architecture and monuments was to be ignored;20 the second, and perhaps most relevant to this review, is the idea that architecture is the ultimate expression of a period and people’s artistic national style, as it summarizes in one field all other artistic fields. As such he considers archaeology in the following terms: Archaeology, which allows us to know about the monuments of the peoples […] is the science whose calling is to provide artists with such precious teachings, removing them from vulgar routines, and enlightening them with the ‘light of philosophy’ …21 These themes would be further explored in his article “Sobre la necesidad de escribir la Historia de la Arquitectura en España, y sobre la influencia de este estudio en el de la civilización española”, published in the same BEA volume, mostly denouncing neoclassicist authors for their “exclusivist” attitude towards architecture. He places the study of architectural heritage as part of the recovery of the “national honor” of the Spanish people.22 But what is more relevant is his call for the end of “exclusivist” and partial studies from a classical point of view, and the renewal of such architectural and archaeological studies in order to create a national and inclusive historical narrative. This includes the study of architectural traditions of other peoples, not only those inspired by classical conventions. That assumption implicitly includes the need to study the extensive Muslim heritage and remains present in different Spanish cities, as well as
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Isac, Eclecticismo y pensamiento arquitectónico en España, 55, 133, 138, with citation of the “BEA” from p. 15. La arqueología, que ha dado a conocer los monumentos de los pueblos … es la ciencia llamada a suministrar a los artistas tan preciosa enseñanza, apartándolos de la vulgar rutina, e iluminándolas con la “luz de la filosofía”. Translation by the author, quoted in: Isac, 141. This is in fact the first time that this theme appears in José Amador de los Ríos’ works, but it will not be the last. Isac, 143.
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minority cultural expressions, particularly in the Middle Ages. In many respects this conviction stands behind Amador de los Ríos’s initial interest in Jewish history. The most important archaeological publication by Amador de los Ríos was El arte latino-bizantino en España and Las coronas del tesoro de Guarrazar, the latter published in 1861 following the excavations in the site where, two years before, the Guarrazar crowns were found and exported (under dubious circumstances) to France. In summary, Amador de los Ríos suggests a series of artistic phases which defined the development of Spanish national art. Citing P. Flores’ 16th century treatise about Visigothic architecture (where he expresses how the Kings Wamba and Recared were keen in the construction of magnificent churches, palaces and regal chambers for their own glory in Toledo),23 while using both S. Ildephonsus (with a poem that he published already in Toledo pintoresca)24 and S. Isidore on the use of Vitruvius’ architectonic models,25 Amador de los Ríos puts forth the idea that the architecture, and therefore the art, of that period was based on a Roman (Latin) tradition. In his second chapter, dedicated to the origin of such a style, Amador de los Ríos considers that the Visigoths, much like their cousins the Ostrogoths, clearly adopted the architectural supremacy of the Roman Empire.26 However, in their need to promote a political style the Visigothic Kings felt comfortable with, they started to imitate not only the past and local Latin Roman tradition, but also that of the rising Byzantine Greek power under Justinian. He expresses such a development as follows: We find, then, the double source of such architecture, or rather of this art, that not lacking philosophical and historical precision we dare label it with the name Latin-Byzantine. It appears lively, energetic and powerful in antiquity’s tradition as Christianity had received it, though subordinating it to its cultic necessities: with the strength and freshness of youth, it is shown in its artistic productions, giving impulse to Justinian’s magnificence and at the same time is encouraged and characterized by the Greek civilization’s and eastern people’s cultures. Reaching the solemn moment that is the Third Council of Toledo in the history of the Visigothic Empire
23 24 25 26
José Amador de los Ríos, El arte latino-bizantino en España y las coronas visigodas de Guarrazar: ensayo histórico-crítico (Madrid: Imprenta Nacional, 1861), 16–17. Amador de los Ríos, 19; Amador de los Ríos, Toledo pintoresca, 163–164. Amador de los Ríos, El arte latino-bizantino en España y las coronas visigodas de Guarrazar: ensayo histórico-crítico, 12–13. Amador de los Ríos, 27–31.
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(…), the morally and religiously triumphant flock, saving at the same time its language, science, and literature, cannot surrender on their arts, cultivated by it during the times of trial and anguish. The Visigothic flock, first overwhelmed by the prestige of the ancient (civilization), then to the irresistible force of the Catholic doctrine, does not put any resistance to the development of such an art perceived also as theirs, being that the only concept under which it could carry on its name.27 He continues with his proposal that due to the existence of a Visigothic architecture that originates traditionally from Roman and Byzantine traditions, the treasure of Guarrazar, found in the context of what he considered a Visigothic building near Toledo (the capital of the kingdom), is inevitably part of this widely spread artistic style.28 This style, as Amador de los Ríos reminds us, is clearly related to the Visigoth’s conversion to Catholicism, which he at least implicitly relates to the very “Romanizing” and Eastern influences that modelled their art. Using this logic, Lasteyre’s notion that such goldsmithing is inevitably Germanic is therefore discarded. The importance of such a theory in a time dominated by Germanophile theories regarding the origin of national artistic tradition, particularly regarding the wider artistic composition of an ancient Germanic kingdom, is not to be taken lightly, regardless of the already exposed methodological flaws. The author concludes that architecture, and as a consequence, the rest of artistic development in a period, depended primarily on the existence of a national political entity that during this period the Jews lacked. Medieval Jewry lost its national identity as Jews assimilated to the epic project of the Spanish nation: the unification of the Iberian Peninsula following the Reconquista to expel the Muslim conquerors. Edifices such as the two Toledan synagogues, the synagogue of Cordoba, the literary achievements of the Jews in the Middle Ages, and other spectacular features of the medieval Jewish Spanish civilization are a direct result of this integration. Spanish Jewish achievements are considered a patrimony of Spain as much as those of the Jews themselves. In that sense, both Jewish art and non-Jewish Spanish art are regarded to have their origin in a “Latino-Byzantine” ancient substrate, therefore rejecting the predominant notion of “Germanic” influences in this development. It is through this theory that Jews are given a place within the “Castillian” artistic and literary development.
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Amador de los Ríos, 33. Translation by the author. Amador de los Ríos, 34.
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Like the Jews who lost their national character, the “Castillian-Spanish” civilization suffered decay with the introduction of Italian and French artistic expressions in Spain during the Early Modern Era. This occurred while the “theological-fanatical” element of the Spanish populace and the Inquisition imposed its will on the Crown. For Amador de los Ríos, who was a supporter of the Isabelline faction in the 19th century against Carlist traditionalism and radical democratic liberalism, a strong monarchy should be the predominant force for the development of the Spanish nation. Therefore, he considers the reign of Alfonso X of Castile as the essential model for the monarchy.29 For Amador de los Ríos, Spanishness is not necessarily Catholic, as integrated Castillian Sepharadi Jews were seen by him as Spanish as well. However, at the same time, the monarchy ought to be Catholic. Unlike Carlist traditionalism, the monarchy should subordinate the church under its interests. The next and most important work on Jewish history after Estudios is Amador de los Ríos’ Historia religiosa, política y social de los judíos en España y Portugal, published in three volumes between 1875 and 1876. It was his last major publication before his death in 1878. By then he was forcefully retired after the collapse of Isabel II’s monarchy in the 1868 revolution and had suffered the loss of his son to the Cuban war in La Havana, while several family members (including a brother and his father) were injured during the Third Carlist War in the 1870s.30 The tone of the first volume’s introduction reflects an abandonment of his previous romanticist passions. In its place a more positivistic approach can be found, giving more importance to the written records to achieve what he deemed historical impartiality: The need to give them (the Jews) a legitimate place, in accordance to the laws of chronology, and thus chain the events according to their cause,31 led me to notice that to the more free and less obliged form of my previous Estudios should be substituted with that of the more severe and organized
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López Vela, “Judíos, fanatismo y decadencia. Amador de los Ríos y la interpretación de la Historia Nacional en 1848,” 80–82. Francisco de Borja Pavón y López, “El Excmo. Sr. D. José Amador de los Ríos y Padilla, artículo publicado en el Diario de Córdoba, 27 y 28 de febrero de 1878,” Necrología de varios contemporáneos distinguidos especialmente cordobeses: dadas á luz con anterioridad en varias fechas y publicaciones y ahora coleccionadas (Córdoba: Establecimiento tipográfico de La Unión, 1892), 119–120. The original text says “… conforme a su razón de ser”, which could be translated to “according to their reason to be”. However, the translation given is more accurate in its message.
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History; with it I would manage to present for the contemplation of the readers a more exact and complete idea of the object, with the most chief aim of any work that aspires for a useful demonstration.32 Applied to the history of the Jews, Amador de los Ríos indicated that the rejection of stereotypes associated with them, which was the main objective of his Estudios, was not enough. Having searched historical sources, he believed he found another historiographical problem: that of bias from the Jews themselves, the vindication of their religious or national heritage, and their supposed (excessive) victimization due to the conflicts of which they were a part. However, he understood that the lack of partiality was not a product of the intentional manipulation by the Jews themselves. Rather this was evidence in itself for Jews’ victimhood, a level of persecution and social division that led to the impossibility of finding an impartial source through their conflictive history. This attempt to arrive at impartiality was a main reason for his extended discussion against the arguments of Rabbi Kayserling regarding the Jews’ participation in the Navarran Civil War of the mid-15th century and regarding the claim that there was no Jewish proselytizing of Christians that justified their expulsion in 1492.33 Even so, in a footnote regarding the lack of such impartial sources in the Iberian Peninsula in 1480,34 he expresses the importance for the study of Hebrew thusly: It is convenient here, however, to declare, as a present to historical veracity, that ever since the times of the converso Pero Alfonso (1106), the Hebrews sought their defense of the Mosaic religion. […] We should
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34
Amador de los Ríos, Historia social, política y religiosa …, vol. 1, x–xi. Translation by the author. In Friedman, “Jewish History as ‘Historia Patria’,” 114–115. Friedman concludes that Jose Amador de los Ríos suspected all Jewish historians, like Kayserling, of partisanship and therefore regarded them as unqualified to write a proper history. But the arguments adopted by Amador de los Ríos in his Historias …, vol. 3., p. 193, n. 2 and p. 326, n. 2 do not suggest such prejudice on the Spaniard’s part, especially since in the same work, vol. 1, vi–viii, he thanks Kayserling himself, and amateur Jewish historians as well, for valuable notes to improve his previous Estudios. His attacks should be seen mostly as a strong rejection of Kayserling’s arguments, not on the ability of Jews to do history. “[…] After that memorable date (1480) no longer could the light of historical truth shine serenely, majestically and calmly, having drowned all feelings of impartiality and justice under the black whirlwind of the most passionate and intolerable fanaticism.” Amador de los Ríos, Historia social, política y religiosa …, vol. 1, 15–16. Translation by the author.
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notice, and therefore our observation receives greater historical strength, that having all those books being written in Hebrew, these works only had an influence inside the Jewish flock, never transcending the boundaries towards the Christian people, while attacks were becoming more generalized as they came to be more popular with extraordinary speed and success.35 Following the spirit of his Estudios, Amador de los Ríos makes a plea for the study of Hebrew in order to understand what he considered part of Spanish History, a necessity that would allow researchers to better understand the contributions of such a people. He did this at a time when the Spanish courts were still debating the right for Jews to return to Spanish territory following their expulsion in 1492. If Estudios, together with his previous archaeological works such as his introduction to El estilo mudéjar en la arquitectura (1859), attempted to show the contribution of different peoples to the development of Spanish culture and originality, Amador de los Ríos’s Historia focuses on trying to give a complete development (including the successes and failures) of such a people in the Iberian Peninsula. Most of all he did so trying to give wider depth to the reasons and development of the persecutions that led to their ultimate expulsion. For Amador de los Ríos, the key factor for such inevitable decadence and disaster in the 14th and 15th centuries was the internal strife amongst the Jews, mostly due to the appearance of fanatical conversos to Christianity. Consequently, the Jewish people’s survival depended on their insistence on unity confronting adversity.36 With this stance, José Amador de los Ríos could not resist making a comparison with the events of 19th century Spain, which in turn led to its decline: These aspects are not unique for the age we are referring to, nor in the analogous case that we examine here. With pain we record this fact. For the 19th century had already presented the face of the Earth, inside the Iberian Peninsula, up to three times a very similar spectacle to those we allude to, and that our readers are already widely aware of its relationship with our present History. […] Their promoters, sordidly carried by their mundane interests, have launched, invoking the name of God, the popular masses to it, not lacking priests who, like an Olligoyen, a Ferrán
35 36
Amador de los Ríos, vol. 1, 15, note 1. Translation by the author. Amador de los Ríos, vol. 3, 535–536.
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Martínez or a Rodríguez Lucero amongst others, have hoisted, as the flag of extermination, the cross of Golgotha, to unfurl it impiously and with barbarity on their brothers, naming them heretics.37 This reaction to the three Carlist wars of the 19th century shows the position of José Amador de los Ríos when it came to that conflict, following the personal tragedies they provoked on his family. Nevertheless, there are many other theoretical aspects that we lack space here to treat properly. A focus will be put on the main subject of this section: his position on Jewish material culture, since it is in his Historia that we find his first direct mention of it. Developing what we have seen from previous works, Amador de los Ríos presented two reasons why there can be no real “Jewish art” like that of Christian and Muslim Spain. First, the iconoclastic nature of the Jewish religion, which led to the lack of an original figurative models for its art. Second, and consequently, there cannot be Jewish architecture per se, but as he puts it: “All buildings dedicated to the Mosaic cult belong to a derived art. And as it was not feasible that the Christians give to the Hebrews their architecture, devoid in mold of its Catholic message, nor that the latter accept it—given the huge liturgical differences, a perpetual source of controversy—they had to look towards Arabic art first, and mudéjar art, its by-product later.”38 For Amador de los Ríos, the Jews, unlike the Goths and Arabs, never had a sovereign political entity that allowed them to develop the material expression of their culture. The Jews, as a nation, could never have had their own original material expression of their culture, being limited to imitation and mastery of “non-Jewish” styles and achievements of different peoples, but always under the rule of Christians and Muslims and their political interests. Imitating architecture, the Jews would also mimic common crafts and minor arts as well, as a continuation of the “Latin-Byzantine” tradition of Late Antiquity, while ending with the mudéjar style of the Late Middle Ages. Despite this ideological premise, paradoxically his first volume starts with an archaeological and epigraphic study limited to Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. With few literary sources to work with, José Amador de los Ríos speculates about the origin of the Jews in the Iberian Peninsula, whether or not
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Amador de los Ríos, vol. 3, p. 530, n. 1. Amador de los Ríos, vol. 3, p. 417, “Todos los edificios dedicados al culto mosaico pertenecen a un arte derivado. Y como no era dable que los cristianos ofrecieran a los hebreos su arquitectura, vaciada en el molde de la creación católica, ni que aquellos tampoco la aceptaran—dadas las inmensas diferencias litúrgicas, perpetuo motivo de controversias—, hubieron de acudir primero al arte arábigo y después al mudéjar, su coderivado …”
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they arrived with the Babylonian exile of the 6th century bce.39 Even so, he suggests that the Iberian Peninsula was possibly the “the lands of Tarsis” mentioned in the Bible, associated with the period of King Solomon.40 He rejected the theory of Immanuel Aboab in the 17th century, which suggested an initial “Babylonian colonization” during biblical times, supposedly following classical authors such as Josephus and Strabo.41 He concludes that the arrival of Jews in the Iberian Peninsula must have been a consequence of Phoenician colonization during the 1st Millennium bce.42 Yet his most important contribution to the archaeological study of Iberian Jews was his collection of supposed Jewish epigraphic materials published by the time of the Historia’s publication. It is through these materials that, according to the author, the Jews are first visible in the historical record (being nomads before, and therefore lacking architectural remains in the Diaspora).43 He focused mostly on the collection of “Jewish” names available at the time:44 ANNIA SALOMONULA/SALONULA (see Chapter 2, 2.1), LICINIA, JUNIA and ANTONIA, considered “Jewish names” probably due to the very artistic elements accompanying the texts, and not due to the Latin-sounding names themselves. If the Jews integrated with the “Castillian civilization”, why were they expelled? For Amador de los Ríos, the germ of the eventual catastrophe awaiting the Jewish people appears with the Council of Elvira (4th century), and its antiJewish rulings, following the arrival of Christianity to the Peninsula.45 In line with his other comments, Amador de los Ríos saw the periods of tolerance in Iberian history to be that of “breathing” periods.46 In that regard, the Christian “character” of the Spanish nation made Jewish presence an experience of persecution with exceptional recesses of tolerance.
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41 42 43 44
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Amador de los Ríos, vol. 1, 53–57. While there is ample evidence for considering Tarshish as a land in Asia Minor, this is still a popular, though not accepted theory regarding naming of the Iberian Peninsula in the era of Phoenician colonization (8th–3rd centuries bce). Amador de los Ríos, Historia social, política y religiosa …, vol. 1, 55–59. Amador de los Ríos, Historia social, política y religiosa …, vol. 1, 64ff. Amador de los Ríos, vol. 1, 65–66. This is the only recorded study where Emil Hübner collaborated with José Amador de los Ríos in such a epigraphic study. Amador de los Ríos, vol. 1, p. 68, note 1; Francisco Cantera Burgos and José María Millás Vallicrosa, Las inscripciones hebraicas de España (Madrid: CSIC, 1956), 268. Amador de los Ríos, Historia social, política y religiosa …, vol. 1, 72–73. Amador de los Ríos, vol. 3, 392–395.
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When it comes to his considerations regarding Jewish material culture, a common theme is that they did not have a specifically Jewish art. Rather, he insists on the inclusion of the Jews into the predominant Spanish artistic development in its different reiterations. For all his historiographical production, José Amador de los Ríos’ works on Jewish history would not be as influential in the development of Spanish archaeology as that of other scholars of the following generation. Despite being somewhat distant from Adolfo de Castro’s more liberal leanings, with his moderate monarchist position, his theories regarding the Jews’ “objective history” did not receive a strong reception amongst several scholars in the Real Academia de la Historia. An example is the review given by Manuel Colmeiro in 1877 with the following assessment: Critics cannot forgive the Spanish Jews for their rebellion against Wamba, who flooded Gothic Gaul with blood, nor their secret deals with their brothers in Africa, waking and fueling Tarik’s and Muza’s wishes to invade the Peninsula, nor for their disloyalty when they proceeded to give them cities and fortresses they were entrusted to defend and protect, nor for their ingratitude for the benefits they received under the last Visigoth kings. […] (W)e, less lenient with the Judaic race, with a loud voice accuse them for conspiring against the security of the State, and effectively contributing to the loss and ruin of Spain, without admitting the excuse of persecution; for no grievance, regardless of its size, is enough to forgive the crime of opening the doors to the homeland’s enemies.47 Despite Amador de los Ríos’s efforts in understanding Spanish Jewry as an integrated part of Spanish archaeological and artistic development during the Middle Ages, the Jews would remain for mainstream Spanish historiography essentially outsiders, a sort of anti-Spain. Ironically this position is precisely one that Amador de los Ríos himself puts forward in his 1848 Estudios, which had a much wider acceptance amongst Spanish and other European historians and intellectual circles. While constituting an initial attempt at the development of a “Jewish archaeology” in Spain, the project was aborted by Amador de los Ríos’ own theoretical 47
Manuel Colmeiro, “Historia social, política y religiosa de los judíos de España y Portugal,” Boletín de la Real Academia de la Historia 1, no. 1 (1877): para. 34. Translation and highlights by the author. Contra Friedman, “Jewish History as ‘Historia Patria’,” 116–117, who goes on to state that Colmeiro’s review was favorably accepted. I believe this difference of interpretation proves the ambivalence of Colmeiro’s 1878 review of Amador de los Ríos’ work.
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contradictions. The main dilemma was not necessarily the presence of a nonCatholic Spanish people, but rather the fact that Jews achieved their artistic, literary, and scientific breakthroughs without any political authority to represent them. For him, the solution was their diasporic context, while considering Jews to be subordinated to the political whims of monarchs who subjected them. The price for their survival was the loss of their “national identity”, to be replaced by a religious one. While producing important, influential publications, it was not José Amador de los Ríos who would lay the foundations of Jewish studies in the Iberian Peninsula, but rather Father Fidel Fita y Colomer, who in turn placed archaeology as a secondary, supportive area for the more prevalent epigraphic and documentary studies in which he excelled.
3
Jewish Archaeology in the Iberian Peninsula: Fidel Fita and His Contemporary Descendants
Following the death of José Amador de los Ríos in 1878, few scholars dedicated themselves to the study of ancient Judaism in Spain and Portugal. However, the most important scholar to study the material remains of Jewish culture through the last third of the 19th century and the first decades of the 20th was Fidel Fita y Colomer (1835–1918). Although he had joined the Real Academia de la Historia in 1862, and had an early interest in Jewish history, there is no evidence for direct contact between Fidel Fita and Amador de los Ríos.48 Most publications by Father Fita were done in the Boletín de la Real Academia de la Historia (BRAH). The subjects he studied included many diverse fields. However, with regards to Jewish history, the sources he would primarily use were written records. His field of expertise was epigraphy, and this included an early knowledge of the Hebrew language.49 In that sense he followed the tradition of past Spanish scholars like Pérez Bayer. Indeed, his outlook towards history is positivistic, and the discoveries of material remains of the Jewish people from ancient and medieval periods would always be subordinate to the prioritization of written text.
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Juan Manuel Abascal Palazón, Fidel Fita, [1835–1918]. Su legado documental en la Real Academia de la Historia (Madrid: Real Academia de la Historia, 1999), 17–18; H. Gimeno Pascual and M.J. Albarrán Martínez, “FIDEL FITA,” Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum II, accessed August 27, 2011, http://www3.uah.es/imagines_cilii/Epigrafistas/textos/fita.htm. Abascal Palazón, Fidel Fita, 15–16; Casanovas Miró, Epigrafía hebrea, 22–27.
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A case in point is the publication in 1907 of his article “Monumentos hebreos”, in the BRAH. The title suggests the assessment of architectural features associated with (medieval) Jews in the Iberian Peninsula. He indeed studies the documented evidence for Jewish neighborhoods and their limits, left behind by the Jews who were expelled in 1492. Consequently, Fidel Fita was a crucial pioneer in mapping the physical (urban) spaces Jews inhabited and in which they conducted their lives amongst their non-Jewish neighbors. This includes the Jewish communities in Salamanca, Béjar, Plasencia, and Bembibre. Even so Fita was aware of certain methodological limitations. An example for this is found in the following quote: With these topographic novelties guiding our archaeological research, it is concievable that numerous inscriptions, some of them as old as those from Merida, Leon and Monzon de Campos, will be discovered soon enough.50 The “archaeological” research presented here is valued for the recovery of epigraphic evidence. The only valid evidence for the study of the Jewish past was written records, and little else. This view is not limited to Fita himself. Two years earlier, the Ilici basilical building and its findings was found by Pére Ibarra and Eugéne Albertini, published by Ibarra in 1906’s edition of the BRAH edited by Fita. As was common in archaeological research at the time, the site was mostly valued due to its richly decorated mosaic. Its interpretation depended mostly, if not solely on the reading of the inscriptions, and not the analysis of the site’s findings which were mixed with a deficient archaeological method (see Chapters VI, VII). To be sure, Fita did not have an aversion to archaeological research. A good example is his publication of an article about the funerary hypogea from the Segovian Jewish cemetery in Cuesta de los Hoyos following an “archaeological” excavation by J. Mª. Castellarnau and J. Grinda de la Cuesta in 1886. Fita concluded that the medieval hypogea were in fact temporary residences constructed by Jewish refugees fleeing the city following the Edict of Alhambra in 1492.51
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Fidel Fita y Colomer, “Monumentos hebreos,”Boletín de la Real Academia de la Historia 50, no. 2 (1907): 85. “Con estas noticias topográficas guiada la investigación arqueológica, de creer que es pronto allegará numerosas inscripciones, algunas quizá tan antiguas como las de Mérida, León y Monzón de Campos.” Joaquín María Castellarnau and Jesús Grinda, “La Cuesta de los Hoyos, ó el cementerio hebreo de Segovia,”Boletín de la Real Academia de la Historia Tomo 9 (1886): 265–269; Fidel
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Fidel Fita died in 1918. However, this was far from the end of the field of Hebraismo in Spain. Other members of the RAH, albeit working in more conventional documentary evidence, included Mariano Gaspar (1868–1925), who in turn was the Hebraist and Arabist mentor of José María Millás Vallicrosa (1897–1970). On the other hand Francisco Cantera Burgos (1901–1978), who studied Law in the University of Salamanca, would become professor of Hebraic studies in the Central University in Madrid in 1934. In 1940, following the Spanish Civil War, they both founded the Department of Hebrew in the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) and the “Arias Montano” Institute which were key in the promotion of Hebraic studies in Spain. The clear methodological line was that developed by Fidel Fita, as Hebrew philology in Spain was highly developed and had international fame. Amongst the most important publications at the time were Las inscripciones hebraicas en España in 1956 authored by both Cantera Burgos and Millás Vallicrosa, and a more architectural analysis of the extant synagogues in Spain, Sinagogas españolas, con especial estudio de la de Cordoba y la toledana del Tránsito in 1955 authored by Cantera Burgos. Despite the importance of these badly needed compendia of Jewish material remains in the Iberian Peninsula, the publications have little, if any archaeological analysis. Perhaps the most important contribution of this period was the continuation and accumulation of discoveries through the 20th century, published through the journal Sefarad: Revista de estudios hebraicos y sefardíes, whose first volume dates to 1940 and remains active today. The journal allowed for the publication and re-publication of scattered findings through the Iberian Peninsula, which is a useful tool for modern scholars dedicated to Sepharadic studies. Even so, archaeological findings are few and far-between, and until the 1970s there would be no archaeological analysis of them. This is the case of the paradigmatic discovery of the Besalú miqveh, which was found in 1964 by Miguel Olivera Prat and published by Millás Vallicrosa the following year in Sefarad.52 The publication was little more than an announcement of the discovery. A thorough architectural study by C. Munuera Basols three years later suggested that the few steps found next to its entrance would provide access to a structure above the modern floor level, probably a synagogue on top of the miqveh.53
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Fita y Colomer, “La judería de Segovia. Documentos inéditos,” Boletín de la Real Academia de la Historia 9 (1886): 460–468. Martín Olivera Prat, “Tesela arqueológica: importante descubrimiento arqueológico en Besalú,” Revista de Gerona, 1964; José María Millás Vallicrosa, “‘Una miqwah’ en Besalú,” Sefarad: Revista de Estudios Hebraicos y Sefardíes 25, no. 1 (1965): 67–69. Concha Munuera Bassols, “Sobre la sinagoga de Besalú,” Sefarad 28 (1968): 67–79.
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Other findings emerged from this period such as the trilingual basin from Tarragona (see Chapter 2) or the second half of the “Two Rebbis” from Mérida (Chapter 2, Ins. 4.6). These were studied almost exclusively as inscriptions, although some archaeological analysis of the pieces (particularly the documentation of their place of origin) was also recorded. During this period the Hebraic departments were, above all, philological and committed little to archaeological studies. As with Fidel Fita in the late 19th and early 20th century, the written text was the most valuable evidence, while the contexts where Jewish objects were found were generally lost. As a result, the relevance of archaeological discoveries such as the Besalú miqveh was based on the recovery of the Jewish object, which has its own intrinsic value. The 1970s saw an increased interest in excavating and studying the archaeological record of Jewish presence in the Iberian Peninsula. Amongst the most important examples are the publications of Luís García Iglesas “Los judíos en la España romana” in 1973 and his book, Los judíos en la España Antigua, in 1978, which are analyses of the available data of all known sources on the ancient presence of Jews in the Iberian Peninsula. We will expand on his works below. An important archaeological publication is that of the excavations by B. Pavón Maldonado in 1976 of the immediacies around the Tránsito Synagogue. This architectural analysis of the building concluded, amongst other things, that the entrance area on the side of the women’s gallery was an 11th– 12th century tower which was included in the construction in 1357.54 However, most relevant to this historiographical review is the publication in 1980 of J. Luís Lacave’s “Juderías y sinagogas extremeñas” in Sefarad. This study is a first part of what later became the important work of Lacave, his Juderías y sinagogas españolas, published in 1992 on the 400th anniversary of the Edict of Alhambra. Both publications are in fact a continuation of the method already applied by Fidel Fita in his 1907 “Monumentos hebreos”. They are exhaustive compendia of Jewish neighborhoods, their cemeteries, their synagogues, and their limits (if they had them). Through available documents Jewish topographical features were documented, registered, and published. One of these cases is the Jewish neighborhood of Trujillo. Using available documentary evidence from the 14th and 15th centuries, Lacave proceeded in identifying its synagogue. Apparently, he found a monumental building with a vaulted roof next to the Francisco Pizarro street, within the limits of the Judería with access from side-streets such as Tiendas street number 10. Removing
54
Basilio Pavón Maldonado, “Un problema arqueológico en la sinagoga de El Transito,” Sefarad: Revista de Estudios Hebraicos y Sefardíes 36 (1976): 141–144.
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the stucco of the outer wall looking to that street above one of the house’s entrances, he found the remains of an inscription that welcomed visitors to the synagogue. In other words, using the documentary evidence and some basic surveying, he found the location of one of Trujillo’s synagogues.55 However, his architectural analysis stops there, as he does not proceed to study the building thoroughly, including the architectural transformations that, no doubt, affected the building. There are no stratigraphic studies, nor any proposal for a future archaeological analysis of the site. In his 1992 publication this important mapping included all sites where Jews were documented, covering the whole of Spanish geography (although Portugal was excluded). Likewise, his 1992 book is not intended as more than a superficial survey that allows for future research in those neighborhoods. With Lacave’s two important publications, the method and epistemological line inaugurated by Fidel Fita reaches its maximum potential. However, it also reaches a limit. With the topography of Jewish presence in late medieval Spain published, one notices that these maps are reflective of what existed from the 12th century onwards, and in most cases from the 14th and 15th centuries. They do not reflect Jewish presence before the 12th century, where conventional documents are scarce, and where any knowledge requires at least the consideration of some archaeological study. 3.1
The Valencia de Alcántara Polemic and the Proposal of a New Jewish Archaeology In the summer of 2001 (published in 2003) the University of Castilla-La Mancha organized the reunion of the 11th Curso de Cultura Hispanojudía y Sefardí held in Toledo. The subject was Juderías y sinagogas de la Sefarad medieval (Jewish Neighborhoods and Synagogues of Medieval Sepharad), in memory of José Luís Lacave—one of the big names of late 20th century archaeological studies of Sepharad. One of the speakers was a researcher of Extremadura’s late medieval period, Marciano de Hervás (Marciano Matín Manuel) entitled “Juderías y sinagogas en los obispados de Coria y Plasencia. Estado de la cuestión”. In its concluding remarks we find this quote: Hebrew epigraphy and historical documents are the first sources of scientific information, and, we argue, the only ones at our disposal at the current moment in the province of Caceres. Archival research and not
55
José Luís Lacave, “Sinagogas y juderías extremeñas,” Sefarad: Revista de Estudios Hebraicos y Sefardíes XL (1980): 215–222, plates 1 y 2.
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passionate theories, documentary criticism and not invented traditions, specialized bibliography and not obsolete legends should be our work tools.56 According to him, one of the sites that demanded such a response was the published archaeological excavation of a 15th century building in the Gothic neighborhood of the Extremenian town of Valencia de Alcántara, near the Portuguese border. These excavations were directed by the late Professor Cármen Ballesteros and Jorge de Oliveira from the University of Évora, following their initial interventions in 1994. It was later restored by the municipal authorities of Valencia de Alcántara who, in turn, accepted the interpretation of this building as a 15th century synagogue, followed by its abandonment and reuse for other purposes.57 Hervás’ response was polemical. The origin of this discussion lies in the development of Spanish archaeological research regarding ancient and medieval Judaism through the 20th century. Or rather, it lies in the absence of such research, and the subordination of Jewish material culture to the more prevalent philological studies promoted by the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas’ (CSIC) Hebrew department in the second half of the 20th century. The last decades of the 20th century saw a surge of archaeological interventions and, with them, an increase of excavations associated with an improvement of techniques, a development of medieval archaeology in Spain, and above all the increase of construction activity in Spanish cities. During this period there was also an increased interest in the history and research of Spanish Jewish heritage, specifically in its material culture. Despite being founded in 1964, it was in 1985 that a comprehensive catalogue was done for the newly established Museo Sefardí in Toledo edited by Ana María López Álvarez.58 Likewise, in 1992 the above-mentioned Juderías y sinagogas sefardíes by Lacave was published. Meanwhile, the CSIC published La vida judía en Sefarad in 1991, 56
57
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Marciano Martín Manuel (de Hervás), “Juderías y Sinagogas en los obispados de Coria y Plasencia,” in Juderías y sinagogas de la Sefarad medieval, ed. Ana María López Álvarez and Ricardo Izquierdo Benito (Toledo: Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, 2003), 288. Carmen Ballesteros and Jorge Oliveira, “A sinagoga do Valencia de Alcantara,”Ibn Maruán: revista cultural do Concelho de Marvão 4 (1994): 115–139; Berta M. Bravo Escudero, “Restauración y rehabilitación de un edificio histórico olvidado: la sinagoga de Valencia de Alcántara,” Norba: Revista de arte 22–23 (2002–2003): 309–323. Ana María López Alvarez, ed., Catálogo del Museo Sefardí, Toledo, 1st ed. (Madrid: Ministerio de Cultura, Dirección General de Bellas Artes y Archivos; Museo Sefardí de Toledo, 1986).
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which attempted to give a complete view of Jewish life in medieval Spain and Portugal and included a catalogue of material remains of Jewish Sephardi culture before their expulsion in 1492. However, this interest is accompanied by important advancements regarding the application of archaeological method for the study of Jewish material culture. From the late 1980s, excavations such as those directed by J. Casanovas Miró in Barcelona’s Montjuic Jewish medieval cemetery or Girona’s equally named cemetery were under way. In the case of the Barcelona cemetery, Casanovas gave a revolutionary proposal in the studies of Jewish material history: the chronological classification of burials according to their type and stratigraphic positions.59 In effect Casanovas’ excavations in Jewish necropoli were an important development for later interventions as recent as the 2009 in Lucena (Córdoba).60 The 1990s saw a development in the study of different urban sites where Jews had their largest neighborhoods. Amongst them are the excavations of necropolises in Valencia,61 Seville,62 Cordoba, Segovia,63 and Toledo.64 For sites that were not necropolises there were interventions in Puente Castro, near León,65 Molina de Aragón (Guadalajara),66 and perhaps the most relevant
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Jordi Casanovas Miró, “Necropolis judías medievales en la Península Ibérica,” Revista de arqueología 71 (1987): 46–55; Jordi Casanovas Miró, “Nuevas investigaciones sobre arqueología funeraria judaica en España,” in Actas. 3er Congresso de Arqueologia Peninsular: UTAD, Vila Real, Portugal, setembro de 1999, ed. Vítor Oliveira Jorge and Pablo Arias (“Terrenos” da arqueologia da Península Ibérica, Porto: ADECAP, 2000), 169–176. Daniel Botella Ortega and Jordi Casanovas Miró, “El cementerio judío de Lucena (Córdoba),” Miscelánea de Estudios Árabes y Hebraicos 58 (2009): 3–25. Matías Calvo Gálvez, “Necrópolis judía de Valencia,” in Juderías y sinagogas de la Sefarad medieval (Toledo: Universidad Castilla-La Mancha, 2003), 583–612. Isabel Santana Falcón, Victor Oliveira Jorge, and Pablo Arias, “El cementerio judío de la aljama de Sevilla a la luz de las evidencias arqueológicas,” in Actas. 3er Congresso de Arqueologia Peninsular: UTAD, Vila Real, Portugal, setembro de 1999, vol. 8 (Porto: ADECAP, 2000), 177–189. Sonia Fernández Esteban, “Cementerio judío de la ciudad de Segovia en el medievo,” in Juderías y sinagogas de la Sefarad medieval (Toledo: Universidad Castilla-La Mancha, 2003), 557–582. Alberto Ruiz Taboada, “La necrópolis medieval del Cerro de La Horca en Toledo,” Sefarad: Revista de Estudios Hebraicos y Sefardíes 69, no. 1 (2009): 25–41. Jorge Sánchez-Lafuente Pérez and José Luis Avelló Alvarez, eds., El mundo judío en la Península Ibérica: sociedad y economía, Colección El legado de la Historia (Cuenca: Alderabán, 2012); Jorge Sánchez-Lafuente Pérez and José Luis Avello Alvarez, “El castro de los judíos de Puente Castro (León),” in Juderías y sinagogas de la Sefarad medieval (Toledo: Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, 2003), 533–556. Juan Pablo Martínez Naranjo and Jesús Alberto Arenas Esteban, “El Prao de los Judíos,
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one being the judería at the Castle of Lorca.67 Most of these findings were either excavated in the 1990s and published through the 2000s, or excavated and published in the first decade of the 21st century. Therefore, it was not until the mid-to-late 2000s that the increase of archaeological information in Spain was able to be processed and studied in a more comprehensive manner. Two articles published by Ricardo Izquierdo Benito in 1998 and 2003 reveal the prevalent methodological features at the time.68 Particularly, the 2003 article titled “Arqueología de una minoría: la cultura material hispanojudía” deals with the problem in researching the Jewish communities as a minority. Here, Jewish communities are said to be detectable archaeologically by the following features: 1) A denser urban planning. The location of Jews in aljamas in late medieval periods forced Jews to live in more concentrated neighborhoods. This reflects social conflicts between Jews and non-Jews, and naturally between Jewish neighbors themselves regarding their properties.69 2) Private space. Linked to urbanization, this area is the study of Jewish homes. This includes internal organization of living space. In general, there are no differences between Jewish and non-Jewish homes.70 3) “Profane” public spaces that allowed for a Jewish lifestyle within the societies in which they lived. This includes the evidence for slaughterhouses, furnaces, specialized markets, etc. In medieval aljamas, these would be organized either in open spaces such as inner plazas or, in the case of
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Molina de Aragón (Guadalajara),” in Investigaciones arqueológicas en Castilla La Mancha: 1996–2002 (Toledo: Junta de Comunidades de Castilla-La Mancha, 2004), 437–448. Ana Pujante Martínez and Juan Gallardo Carrillo, “Huellas del pueblo judío a través de elementos cerámicos en el castillo de Lorca,” AlbercA 2 (2004): 177–188; Ana María Pujante Martínez, “La sinagoga del Castillo de Lorca (Murcia),” Verdolay: Revista del Museo Arqueológico de Murcia 9 (2005): 293–320; José Ángel González Ballesteros and Juan Gallardo Carrillo, “La judería del Castillo de Lorca a partir de las evidencias arqueológicas,” in Lorca. Luces de Sefarad. Lights of Sepharad. ( אורות ספרדMurcia: Ediciones Tres Fronteras— Comunidad Autónoma de la Región de Murcia, 2009), 181–219. Ricardo Izquierdo Benito, “Arqueología de una minoría: la cultura material hispanojudía,” in El legado material hispanojudío, ed. Ana María López Álvarez and Ricardo Izquierdo Benito (El legado material hispanojudío, Toledo: Universidad Castilla-La Mancha, 1998), 265–290; Ricardo Izquierdo Benito, “Espacio y sociedad En La Sefarad medieval,” in Juderías y sinagogas de la Sefarad medieval (Toledo: Universidad Castilla-La Mancha, 2003), 29–55. Izquierdo Benito, “Espacio y Sociedad,” 32–36. Izquierdo Benito, 36–40.
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slaughterhouses or specialized industries associated with Jews, outside the city walls or outside the judería.71 4) Finally, and the most easily detectable, public “sacred” spaces. This includes cemeteries, synagogues, or miqvaot or ritual baths. This is the best identified “Jewish space”, at least in medieval periods. Generally, the aljamas and juderías develop around these features as they constitute the basic spaces where Jewish life can be expressed.72 The identification of these spaces and features is made through two basic sources: written records and typological identification through available “rules” that defined Jewish life. The latter was already developed through Jordi Casanovas Miró’s 1986, 1987, and 2000 articles about funerary archaeology, in which the use of halakhic principles are a valid source for the study of funerary practices of medieval Jews.73 For example, in 2003 Casanovas Miró proposed a reasoning from the Mishnah for the justification of the position for Jewish cemeteries outside the city walls.74 However, he did not take into account that this tradition was already applied in Roman times. The predominance of outer wall cemeteries was mentioned in Jewish law from the early rabbinic period as common practice under Roman rule, an aspect that was exploited in Flavius Josephus’ apologetical treatises for the association of Jewish and Roman customs.75 By the Middle Ages this practice was as much Roman as it was Jewish. In neighboring Portugal there was also a considerable development in the archaeology of Jewish communities. Without a doubt one of the key people who researched this material Jewish heritage was Professor Carmen Ballesteros (1961–2013). By the late 1980s there was already an important advancement with the first inscription found in Portugal, in the ancient town of Mértola (Chapter 2, Ins. 4.4). However, Ballesteros was the first researcher who applied
71 72 73
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Izquierdo Benito, 40–45. Izquierdo Benito, 47–48. Jordi Casanovas Miró, “Arqueología judía medieval en la Península Ibérica,” Revista de Arqueología 61 (1986): 46–54; Casanovas Miró, “Necropolis judías medievales”; Casanovas Miró, “Nuevas investigaciones sobre arqueología funeraria judaica en España.” Jordi Casanovas Miró, “Las necrópolis judías hispanas. Las fuentes y la documentación frente a la realidad arqueológica,” in Juderías y sinagogas de la Sefarad medieval, 505, note 39, citing M. Baba Batra 2:9. John R. Levison, “The Roman Character of Funerals in the Writings of Josephus,” Journal for the Study of Judaism in the Persian, Hellenistic, and Roman Period 33, no. 3 (2002): 247– 250. Here the author centers on the comparison between Josephus’ idealization of the Torah and Cisero’s idealized reading of the Laws of the Twelve Tables in Rome. The comparison extends beyond physical places, however it is most prevalent in the concept of piety and humility of burial practices.
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modern archaeological techniques to identify Jewish material culture beyond the limitations of documentary evidence. One of her key articles was her analysis of the Évora synagogue in 1994. In it she utilizes the mapping method as used by Spanish scholars such as Fidel Fita and J.L. Lacave for the description of the Jewish neighborhood of the Portuguese city of Évora.76 However, in this article she goes beyond only limiting the place and size of the judería in that town. After identifying the block where the late medieval synagogue was placed, she proceeded to analyze the extant housing structure diachronically. To that end she studied the building not as is, but assumed that elements of the original synagogue architecture could be found in the remains of this urban unit. According to Ballesteros, the Évora synagogue seems to have occupied a space that is today a frontal courtyard of a nobiliary home.77 To the east of this space are the remains of what was possibly a niche. Perhaps the most innovative feature of the article was the first attempt to analyze the building through metrological analysis. Measuring the width and length of the open rectangular courtyard, she noticed certain patterns that could be associated with late medieval architectural solutions, though mistakenly attributing biblical feet as the measurement unit used.78 The most controversial of her publications was done with her colleague Jorge de Oliveira regarding the excavation and study of the synagogue in Valencia de Alcántara.79 The archaeological team identified the synagogue based on two criteria: the first is the stratigraphy, where the building was identified as a mid-to-late 15th century construction and, therefore, was available for Jewish use. The second factor was typological: the main hall of the Valencia de Alcántara building was almost identical in plan and probably use to the Late Gothic and Early Renaissance synagogue of Tomar, Portugal (with a squared plan and central squared ciborium that defined the central community space). No document is available to attest the existence of a synagogue in this building. However, there are documents indicating that during the 17th century this building was a slaughterhouse. Indeed, Ballesteros’ and Oliveira’s excavations revealed there was a superposition of floors, a later one having a clear inclination to the street to allow liquid to pour out—associated with the slaughter-
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Carmen Ballesteros, “A sinagoga medieval de Évora (Elemento Para Seu Estudo),” A Cidade de Évora. Boletim de Cultura Da Camara Municipal, II, no. 1 (1995 1994): 179–211. Ballesteros, 190–191. Ballesteros, 191–194. Ballesteros and Oliveira, “Ibn Maruán”; Bravo Escudero, “Restauración y rehabilitación de un edificio histórico olvidado: la sinagoga de Valencia de Alcántara,” 311–312.
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house phase. Sealed objects indicate it was paved after the initial abandonment of the building in the early 16th century.80 The development of the archaeological field in the 1990s and the numerous publications of these findings in the 2000s increasingly challenged the traditional approach for research on Jewish medieval heritage. Hence, one finds Marciano de Hervás’ polemical quote described above, where he insisted—like Fidel Fita did almost a century before—that archaeology ought to remain as a supportive method for the more important documentary evidence. The polemic represented a methodological crisis from which Spanish and Portuguese scholarship has yet to recover, caused by the increasingly noticeable limitation of conventional methods when applied to aspects of Jewish life that are not covered by documentary evidence. In the case of the Valencia de Alcántara synagogue, authors using a traditional method did not give answers to new questions that arise from Ballesteros’ and Oliveira’s publications: why is there a monumental building of this nature in the middle of what was called the Gothic neighborhood? And if indeed the building was not a synagogue, how can we explain its similarity to the Tomar synagogue of similar date? During this period there were initiatives that allowed for the important development of what was called Arqueología judía (“Jewish Archaeology”) in the Iberian Peninsula, parallel to the Valencia de Alcántara controversy. One of those was the publication of the book Memorias de Sefarad in 2002, edited by Isidro Bango Torviso and Clara Bango García.81 This book is a catalogue of an exhibition of the same name, presented both in the 17th century Mozarabic church of San Marcos in Toledo and later in Washington DC between 2002 and 2003, and organized by the SEASEX (today AC/E or Acción Cultural Española). The publication covers all aspects of life through the one and a half millennia of Jewish presence in the Iberian Peninsula. However, the most important aspect of this work regarding archaeology is not only the contents of the articles, including one by L. García Iglesias on the Jews from Late Antiquity. It is also the editorial decision to give the exposed objects their corresponding historical background. This decision situates the material objects as part of the historical story presented in this work. Of course, this decision does not only apply to archaeological objects, but to manuscripts and miniatures, all of which reflect everyday life as much as the artistic production of Sephardi Jews. A case in point is an article by Bango himself, treating life in a Jewish home based on medieval Passover 80 81
Ballesteros and Oliveira, “Ibn Maruán,” 127–129. Isidro G. Bango Torviso and Clara Bango García, eds., Memoria de Sefarad: Toledo, Centro Cultural San Marcos, octubre 2002–enero 2003 (Toledo, 2002).
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agadot with miniatures, as well as elements indicating the production of furniture such a hanukiyah mold.82 Information from specific sites where ceramic plates and other everyday materials displayed were also associated to their context, such as the objects recovered from Burgos following the excavation of its judería in 1993. The materials recovered are clearly associated with typical mudéjar production (13th–15th centuries).83 The article by García Iglesias is perhaps the first where the materials from Late Antiquity are featured as valuable sources for the material life of Jews from this period. Even so, the objects are thoroughly analyzed by Clara Bango García and Jordi Casanovas Miró.84 Late antique objects listed here include the trilingual basin from Tarragona (see Chapter 3), the 1st century coins from Ampurias, an oil lamp with menorah found in Toledo, and the bas-relief from Orihuela (covered in Chapter 4). Other objects are presented without clear association with Jewish material culture. This includes the inscription of Iustinus from Flavia Neapolis found in Mérida, placed to demonstrate contacts with the city of Samaria in 2nd century Palestine, but not the Jewish origin of Iustinus (see Appendix for Chapter 2).85 Another is a 10th–11th century relief with a 6-pointed star classified as a “stone panel with Star of David”. Even so, the hexagram was not used as a Jewish symbol until the Early Modern era, and instead was a common feature of medieval, particularly Islamic, geometric motifs.86 This ambitious exhibit placed the materiality of Jewish culture at the forefront and as positive evidence, not only for the expression of Jewish art, but also as a source for Jewish life in the Iberian Peninsula in its different historical periods. This book, as well as the discoveries of the judería from Lorca with the “Luces de Sefarad” exhibition in 2009,87 and the methodological crisis following the 2003 Curso de cultura hispanojudía y sefardí, led scholars from the Iberian Peninsula to organize the first congress on medieval Jewish Archaeology in the Iberian Peninsula, entitled Congreso: Arqueología Judía Medieval en la Península Ibérica. Balance y perspectivas. Held in the Archaeological Museum of
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Isidro G. Bango Torviso, “El menaje del hogar,” in Memoria de Sefarad: Toledo, Centro Cultural San Marcos, octubre 2002–enero 2003, ed. Isidro G. Bango Torviso and Clara Bango García (Toledo, Sociedad Estatal para la Acción Cultural Exterior, 2002), 132. Ana Isabel Ortega Martínez, “Yacimiento de Burgos,” in Memoria de Sefarad: Toledo, Centro Cultural San Marcos, octubre 2002–enero 2003, ed. Isidro G. Bango Torviso and Clara Bango García (Toledo, Sociedad Estatal para la Acción Cultural Exterior, 2002), 133–134. Bango Torviso and Bango García Memoria de Sefarad, 54–59. Bango Torviso and Bango García, n. 1. Bango Torviso and Bango García, n. 6. José Ramón Ayaso, ed., Luces de Sefarad. Lights of Sepharad. ( אורות ספרדMurcia: Ediciones Tres Fronteras, 2009), 305–417.
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Murcia, it displayed almost exclusively medieval archaeological findings with special importance given to the spectacular findings from Lorca. However, this congress included an important and symbolic inaugural conference by Ángel Fuentes Domínguez and Mijal García Fernández entitled “Antes de Sefarad: Arqueología judía en la Península Ibérica en la Antigüedad”.88 This conference was in fact a call to deepen the research on late antique archaeological remains of Jewish communities before Sepharad. The conference proposed to overcome the archaeology of “objects that look Jewish” or the “Jewish objects” themselves. In other words, it proposed a “Jewish archaeology without Jewish objects” in order to read the Iberian Peninsula’s antique Jewish past. This conference came at a methodological crucible. When it comes to ancient archaeology the aforementioned methodological problems that were just starting to be confronted in the early 21st century were exacerbated for several reasons. There are barely any available written sources for the period, and certainly not ones that are written in first person or which come from Iberian Jewish sources. Most of the available evidence is archaeological and not literary. And yet the problem of studying this material, which increased in quantity in the last decades at an accelerated pace, was often considered as a mere curiosity amid the wider field of archaeology. Jewish objects were interesting to put in exhibitions like in the Museo Sefardí in Toledo, but rarely received proper attention for a comprehensive and contextualized study, except in the last 15 years. To understand that, it is important to review how historians of ancient Jews in the Iberian Peninsula treated this issue. 3.2 Ancient History of Iberian Jews: The Perpetual Foreigners The development of Jewish studies was a parallel affair to ancient Jewish historiography in Spain, as was evident by the fact that the main sources that Spanish Hebraists worked with were of a late medieval period. However, through the second half of the 20th century, particularly beginning in the 1970s, there was an increased interest in the study of Jews in the Iberian Peninsula. The most important publications in that field were done by García Iglesias with his 1973 “Los judíos en la España romana”, published in Hispania Antiqua, which followed García Iglesias’ doctoral thesis on Latin epigraphy from Mérida. The publication was included and amplified in 1978 with his book Los judíos en la
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Ángel Fuentes Domínguez and Mijal García Fernández, “Antes de Sefarad: Arqueología judía en la Península Ibérica en la Antigüedad,” in Preactas del congreso de arqueología judía medieval en la península ibérica. Balance y perspectivas, ed. José Ramón Ayaso and Juan García Sandoval (Murcia: Región de Murcia; Casa Sefarad-Israel, 2009), 33–35.
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España Antigua, which is probably one of the most influential works on the ancient history of Iberian Jews. García Iglesias’ publications are a watershed, as they were the first comprehensive study of Jews in Iberian antiquity. In contrast, most historical works regarding Spanish and Portuguese Jews were centered on the Middle Ages. When it came to the Roman period, for example, he places much weight in inscriptions that reveal Jewish presence in different points of the Iberian Peninsula. This stems from García Iglesias’ main area of expertise being ancient Latin epigraphy, particularly of Roman Lusitania. A key objective of García Iglesias’ book was a systematic rejection of assumed theories regarding the arrival and first settlement of Jews in the Iberian Peninsula. An example for this is his review of the Jews’ role in the socio-economic activity of Hispania. In his introductory chapter El pueblo de Israel en el mundo romano, he firmly rejects the idea that Jews were predominant in the fields of commerce and what he calls la economía mueble (the “mobile economy”). This is correctly seen as an anachronistic imposition of a medieval reality in an ancient environment, which is a result of centuries of prejudice and antisemitism. On the other hand, he attempts to present his book as a publication devoid of apologia and unbiased, much in the spirit of Adolfo de Castro’s and José Amador de los Ríos’ books. He rejects the assessment of authors such as Juster in Les juifs dans l’ Empire romain (vol. 2, 1914), H.L. Leon in The Jews of Ancient Rome (1960), and others, in which the Jews were not wealthy merchants at all, at least during the imperial period. According to Iglesias, the case of Leon is most paradigmatic of this “excess zeal” in portraying the Jews as indigent and impoverished by rejecting the very presence of Jews in the city of Ostia, despite the fact there was evidence of their presence in the form of the excavated synagogue and inscriptions.89 The rejection of these the-
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Jean Juster, Les Juifs dans l’ Empire romain: leur condition juridique, économique et sociale, vol. 2 (Paris: P. Geuthner, 1914), 314–315; Harry J. Leon, The Jews of Ancient Rome, Morris Loeb Series 5 (Philadelphia: Hendrickson Publishers, 1960), 233–238; Luis García Iglesias, Los judios en la España antigua (Madrid: Cristiandad, 1978), 21–22. Iglesias apparently forgets that until 1962 there was indeed no archaeological evidence for Jewish presence in the port town of Ostia, as it was that year when the synagogue was discovered. See Anders Runesson, “The Synagogue at Ancient Ostia. The Building and Its History from the First to the Fifth Century,” in The Synagogue of Ancient Ostia and the Jews of Rome: Interdisciplinary Studies, Birger Olsson, Dieter Mitternacht and Olof Brandt, Skrifter Utgivna Av Svenska Institutet i Rom 4 (57) (Stockholm: Paul Åströms Förlag, 2001), 29–37; L. Michael White, “Synagogue and Society in Imperial Ostia: Archaeological and Epigraphic Evidence,” The Harvard Theological Review 90, no. 1 (January 1997): 23–58; Maria Floriani Squarciapino, La sinagoga di Ostia (Rome, 1964).
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ses are part of an appeal by García Iglesias to give more validity to the available evidence for the study of these societies, and to reject preconceived ideological notions stemming from antisemitism or a reaction to it. García Iglesias’ book is divided into two parts: the first is dedicated to the Roman period—that is before the 5th century—beginning with the Jews’ arrival to Hispania. The second part is about the history of Jewish presence during the Visigothic period. In both periods a prevalence of available archaeological findings can be found. However, they are also put as a second-rate source next to the historiographical narrative based on the available epigraphic evidence (or lack thereof). The most poignant question is the date of the Jews’ arrival to Hispania. While rejecting the preconceived notions of a colonial-era arrival from the eastern Mediterranean Levant with Phoenician merchants, as well as the Renaissance-era notion of the Babylonian-exile theory,90 García Iglesias argued that the presence of the Jews in the Iberian Peninsula can be identified as early as, but not before, the 2nd century bce using primarily literary sources.91 Despite this fact, their material presence can only be detected by 2nd century ce, but not prior to that date, thanks to the inscriptions recovered in Adra (Málaga. See Chapter 2, Ins. 2.1). The mention of the 1st century ce coins from Emporion and of the town of Mataró suggest the existence of a Jewish community in the 1st century ce. However, he does not consider the existence of organized Jewish communities in ancient Emporion. Rather, he concludes that these coins are relevant for the continued contact between Judaea and the Iberian Peninsula for commercial or other forms of permanent contact.92 The consideration of archaeological material from the Iberian Peninsula, despite having little available evidence at the time, was important for the application of an archaeological method for ancient Jewish studies. Yet as was common during this period, the importance given to these archaeological findings was essentially epigraphical and little else. There are no comparisons between archaeological remains such as the Elche basilical building with other findings around the Mediterranean. Furthermore, he ignores the findings from Mauritania Tingitana in Northern Morocco, while at the same time, in the second
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This theory developed in the 16th century by authors such as Rabbi Isaac Abravanel and Shlomo Ibn Verga, with the intention of apologetically denying the accusation on Spanish and Portuguese Jewry that they were descendants of the Jews who participated in Jesus Christ’s execution. See Haim Beinart, ¿Cuándo llegaron los judíos a España? (Madrid: Instituto Central de Relaciones Culturales Israel-Iberoamérica, España y Portugal, 1962), 12–13; García Iglesias, Los judios en la España antigua, 37. García Iglesias, Los judios en la España antigua, 44. García Iglesias, 58–59.
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part of his book dedicated to the Visigothic period, mentions the evidence from the Narbonensis during the second part of his work. Considering the above, the most noticeable theme that defines García Iglesias’ work is the idea that Jews were a foreign element within the Iberian Peninsula. This trope was already a defining factor in his book from the first page of its introduction: … (A)s observed elsewhere, it could be that the interest in the history of the Jews was an immediate consequence of the special nature and specific behavior of these people, which in general made them unabsorbable by the societies that received them or with which they were associated.93 The contrast between what is “Roman” and what is “Jewish” is patent through his book. In it there is no clear assessment of the level of Romanization of the Jews themselves, who according to Iglesias became invisible in the archaeological or epigraphical record. For example, the author proposes the idea that the presence of the formula “dis manibus sacrum” (DMS) was an indicator that an individual cannot be considered a Jew, but a pagan.94 The absence of this feature was a criterion used by him to define the Jewish character of several ancient inscriptions. This is despite the clear evidence presented for the proselytizing activities of the Jews through Late Antiquity, which blurred these apparent ethnic divides particularly in the early Visigothic centuries.95 There is no reason to doubt that there was proselytizing before the Visigothic period. However, this aspect is not treated at length—nor is the socio-economic situation of the Jews in the Iberian Peninsula. A second important book about the history of Spanish Jews in Antiquity is García Moreno’s Los judíos de la España antigua (1993, second edition in 2005). The similarity of the title to García Iglesias’ book is a clear homage. However, it is also a reply to some of his theses and theoretical assumptions. An example of this is the fact that García Moreno associated ancient Iberian Jews with the medieval Jewish communities by the inclusion of the term Sepharad as a representation of what can be considered Hispanojewish history.96 In contrast García Iglesias avoids using the term that was associated with medieval Jewries.
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García Iglesias, 13. García Iglesias, 64. García Iglesias, 148–151. Take for example the chapter “Los orígenes bíblicos de ‘Sefarad’”, followed by “Sefarad romano. Judaísmo e Imperio Romano en las Españas”. Luis García Moreno, Los judíos de la España antigua (Madrid: Ediciones Rialp, 2005), 29–34, 35–62 respectively.
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In his book, it was not García Moreno’s intention to conflate the Jewish experience in the Middle Ages to that of antiquity. Rather it was to maintain that the questions that pertain to the study of these ancient people are similar across time. Tracing a set of contrasts, he states: Hispanity or foreignness, be it objective or subjective, of the Jews or juderías in antiquity; antisemitism and antijudaism or fundamentalism, endogamy and socioeconomic specialization of the Jews; the Synagogue versus the Church; Judaism and the Roman Empire or Visigothic Kingdom. In our understanding these are the stronger points upon which a history of the Jews of ancient Spain can be written.97 Here the author proposes a more succinct, less exhaustive work compared to that of García Iglesias. He does not enter too much into the archaeological evidence that demonstrates the physical presence of Iberian Jews in antiquity, although he does treat it in a summarized manner, much like García Iglesias in this case. Despite this, García Moreno correctly states that there are fewer archaeological and epigraphic remains for the Jews from Roman than Visigothic periods. However, Moreno concluded that this reduced number of remains was a product of a less intense Jewish presence in the earlier periods, compared to the more prevalent one of Late Antiquity. Archaeological and epigraphic evidence from Late Antiquity was mostly used for the geographic placement of the Iberian Jewish presence. This will be crucial for the rest of the book, particularly in his presentation of his theory regarding the socio-economic specialization of Jewish communities who mostly settled around commercial routes.98 Archaeological evidence was mostly used for the identification of where they lived, but these objects were seldom analyzed or valued for their historical information beyond that. García Moreno’s assessment of the presence of a Sepharad in Spanish antiquity led to several theoretical assumptions in his book. One of them, in reply to García Iglesias, was the analysis of the Jews’ socio-economic composition. In it, as in other parts of his book, García Moreno uses terms like aljama to describe settled Jewish communities in the Peninsula. There the author rejects the notion of Jews owning land and being economically integrated with the local Hispanic populations. In other words, Jews were essentially immigrants, be they voluntary or involuntary ones. Access to real estate, let alone the nec-
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García Moreno, 23. García Moreno, 49–61.
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essary wealth to become an important Roman magnate, was at best difficult. Their presence in settlements with easy access to maritime areas and commercial routes suggests their predominant participation in commercial enterprises and industrial specialization. The image of Jews in García Moreno’s work is that of an introverted people, set apart from the rest of the Hispanorroman and Hispanovisigothic populations. His use of medieval terms is accompanied with the consideration of Jews in Antiquity as having similar experiences to those of their medieval descendants. By that regard for García Moreno even by the 5th century, hundreds of years after the arrival of the first Jews to the peninsula, they remained essentially immigrants. In short, they are to be considered permanent foreigners. An article on this subject was published in 1993 by J.J. Sayas Abengochea titled “Cuestiones controvertidas acerca de los judíos en la Historia Antigua peninsular”. It has two sections, the first about the arrival of the first Jews in preHellenistic and Hellenistic times, which cannot be detected archaeologically.99 The second is dedicated to the Jews in the Roman period proper, where Sayas correctly states that concrete archaeological evidence for their presence was found. In this section the author presents an exhaustive review and analysis of available archaeological and epigraphic evidence from the antique presence of Jews in the Iberian Peninsula (see these features in Chapters 2, 3, 4). The prevailing question is to what level can modern scholars identify these archaeological and epigraphic features as Jewish? Sayas states that García Iglesias’ criteria of rejecting the Jewish character of the DMS pagan formula in their funerary inscriptions is flawed, due to both Jewish and Christian use of this same formula in other regions of the Empire.100 Sayas considers the Jewish people as a unified ethnos that does not correspond with a political organization, despite the above-mentioned material inclusion into ancient peninsular communities. Rather, the Jewish people are constituted on the foundation of a unified law and of the cult to one single divinity. Being a part of the Jewish people is associated with a kind of “common citizenship” under Judaic Law. Close contact between these Jewish communi-
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Sayas believes the first Diaspora Jews probably arrived to the Iberian Peninsula in early Roman or Hellenistic times, citing literary sources such as 1Maccabees 15:15–23 and Jubilees 8:13, amongst others, regarding the contacts between Jews from Judaea and the provinces of Hispania. Joan José Sayas Abengochea, “Cuestiones controvertidas acerca de los judíos en la historia antigua peninsular,” Espacio, tiempo y forma, II, Historia Antigua 6 (1993): 496–498, note 38. Sayas Abengochea, 525.
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ties through the major centers of their presence in cities such as Tarragona, Mérida, and Elche guaranteed such a unified outlook to their identity.101 This common outlook is a factor that unifies the Jewish people in all corners of the Roman Empire, beyond the linguistic and geographical barriers that were present. On the other hand, the Jewish people are presented as an independent or autonomous entity within the Roman Empire. Jews had a shared identity with other Jews from different parts of the Empire. However, this did not mean that the development of Jewish culture was identical everywhere in the Mediterranean basin. Their “integration” leads to the assumption that information is “hidden” and merged with the rest of the inscriptions and archaeological environment from the Roman period and Late Antiquity. As a result, there were probably more Jews than can be detected in archaeological and epigraphical evidence—such as the Ilici mosaic and late antique inscriptions show (see Chapters 7 and 11).102 This subject was treated by E. Gonzálbez Cravioto in 2010 in his article “En torno a los judíos en la Hispania romana”.103 Here the author put forth the theoretical distance between García Iglesias and García Moreno in their view of the Jewish presence in Spanish antiquity stemming from the nature of ancient Jewish communities in the Iberian Peninsula. For Cravioto, the key question is why are there so few archaeological and epigraphic remains in the Iberian Peninsula during Classical and Late Antiquity? For García Iglesias the answer lied in the small size of Western (including Hispanian) Jewish communities and their relatively late arrival following the destruction of the Second Temple.104 García Moreno on the other hand holds the more traditional position, of a more ancient arrival, but marginalized due to their economic specialization and the accompanying anti-Semitic stigmatization, that prevented their visibility in the archaeological and epigraphic record.105 Cravioto clearly belongs to the historiographical position of García Iglesias, as he admits in his article. When it comes to the absence of archaeological
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Sayas Abengochea, 521–522. Sayas Abengochea, 508–509. Enrique Gonzalbes Cravioto, “En torno a los judíos en la Hispania romana,” in Doctrina a magistro discipvlis tradita: estudios en homenaje al Prof. Dr. D. Luis García Iglesias, ed. L. García Iglesias and Adolfo J. Domínguez, Colección de estudios 143 (Madrid: Ediciones UAM, 2010), 310–326; this article is an update of a previous one I did not have access to until the conclusion of this research: Enrique Gozalbes Cravioto, “Algunos datos sobre las comunidades judías en el occidente romano,” Boletín de la Asociación Española de Orientalistas 36 (2000): 184–202. Gonzalbes Cravioto, “En torno a los judíos en la Hispania romana,” 311. Gonzalbes Cravioto, 312.
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material associated with Iberian Jewry, he rejects the proposals of past scholars like García y Bellido and Narciso Santos Yanguas, in which the Jewish presence is made “invisible” in epigraphy due to their adoption of non-Semitic names that make their identification impossible.106 Rejecting this, he suggested the “simpler” argument that there were in fact few Jews in the Western half of the Roman Empire, as opposed to the greater numbers in the Eastern half. The apparent “invisibility” of Jewish presence was rejected as this phenomenon does not occur in North Africa, where Yann Le Bohec had documented a large Jewish presence, particularly in Tunisia.107 Furthermore, these few Jews who indeed arrived at the Iberian Peninsula were mostly slaves, following their defeat during the Jewish wars between 70 and 135. Hence, they did not have access to commercial endeavors or other profitable specialized industries that would cause an anti-Semitic reaction from their non-Jewish neighbors.108 In this sense, for Cravioto, archaeological remains are limited to a series of objects that demonstrate a Jewish presence, but again they are not studied as an historical source beyond their mere existence.109 Cravioto, by adopting the theoretical positions of García Iglesias, ignored the problems that could be seen in Iglesias’ book. The absence of distinct evidence for their presence in the early centuries of Roman rule in Hispania was not necessarily due to the low number of Jews in these regions. As seen above, the main problem was the notion that Jews were seen by historians as foreigners in the first place, despite their long-term presence in the Iberian Peninsula. This is particularly the case when Cravioto cites García y Bellido uncritically when comparing Jews to other “foreigner” ethnic groups in imperial Roman periods.110 This theoretical standpoint defines the abovementioned studies regarding Jewish presence in late antique societies from the Iberian Peninsula: Jews are
106
107 108
109 110
Found in: Antonio García y Bellido, “El elemento forastero en la Hispania romana,”Boletín de La Real Academia de La Historia, (1959): 120–154; Narciso Santos Yanguas, “Los judíos en la Bética en época romana,” Sautuola: Revista Del Instituto de Prehistoria y Arqueología 3 (1982): 271–278. Yann Le Bohec, “Inscriptions juives et judaïsantes de l’Afrique romaine,” Antiquites Africaines 17 (1981): 165–207. Gonzalbes Cravioto, “En torno a los judíos en la Hispania romana”; This position has been also shared by José María Blázquez Martinez, “Recientes aportaciones a la situación de los judíos en la Hispania tardoantigua,” in Judaismo hispano. Estudios en honor de José Luís Lacave Riaño (Madrid: CSIC, 2003), 413. Gonzalbes Cravioto, “En torno a los judíos en la Hispania romana,” 318–319. Gonzalbes Cravioto, 315.
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excluded from being part of the society of Hispania. They are kept as “migrants” in a society that received them, even after generations following their arrival to the peninsula. This is prevalent in the dichotomy put forth by these authors, be it either Hispanorromans (i.e. local Roman or Romanized populations) versus the Jewish people, or Christianity (i.e. local Christians) versus the Jewish people. In either case the Jewish people are portrayed as the perpetual foreigners, and both Romanization and Christianization as transformations of local peoples. Why are Romanization and Christianization any less foreign than the Jewish people for the Iberian Peninsula? After all, since the first is a product of foreign imperialism and the second is a direct product of a Judean 1st century ce environment, are these phenomena and the people caught up in them any more “native” than the Jewish people who presumably resided in—or were in perpetual contact with—the Iberian Peninsula since Hellenistic times? Since the days of Adolfo de Castro and José Amador de los Ríos this question was entwined with the nationalistic studies on Spanish history. The idea of the Jew as a foreigner to ancient Hispania, having been born and raised in an environment with centuries-old roots, is a trope that has no basis in current historical circumstance. The increased evidence of Jewish material culture from the 4th century onwards is not necessarily the product of increased numbers of Jews in Hispania. Rather, as shall be seen below, it was a product of a new context that required Jews to insist in their artistic expression on the affirmation of their ideological message. An archaeological study and review require the abandonment of this trope that dominated Spanish historiography on ancient Judaism and its a priori assumption that the Jews who lived and died in these lands were foreigners, rather than an integral part of the archaeological registry of the time—at least as much a part as the early Christian and earlier Roman colonists were after their arrival in the Iberian Peninsula. The available evidence for Jewish presence in the late antique Iberian Peninsula goes beyond what is traditionally considered “Jewish materials”, thus rejecting the “small Jewish communities” theory as pointed out by Sayas Abengochea in his article. As more materials are identified pointing to Jewish presence in ancient Iberia, their history becomes a necessity to have a complete picture of the Roman and late antique Hispania.
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Theoretical Basis for the Archaeology of the Jews
The complexity of social interactions between Jews and non-Jews in the Diaspora was subject to extensive studies whose scope exceeds the limits of this research. The historiographic development of the application of archaeology for Jewish history is necessary to understand the theoretical proposals underlying the following chapters. As derived from the above sections, in the last years of the 2000s Jewish archaeology in Spain was facing a methodological crisis. This is not to say there were not important breakthroughs in the archaeological research in Spain. After all, the excavation carried out in Lorca applied the most modern techniques and methods for a complete archaeological study, published in the subsequent decades,111 such as the comprehensive book on the Castle of Lorca in 2008 by Gallardo Carrillo and González Ballesteros, where a 15th century Jewish neighborhood was excavated.112 The publication included an analysis of the site’s stratigraphy, full documentation of its detected buildings, and most importantly a typological analysis of its contextualized findings. In short, it was a full and successful application of the archaeological method to derive information not available through written records from the time. Even so, some aspects of the old archaeological positions remained. An example was the use of detected hanukiyyot found in houses V and VIII from that neighborhood so as to identify there a clearly Jewish character (although the synagogue was already previously detected). These hanukiyyot were identified typologically as subtype 2B.1 according to their classification, which would be dated to the 14th and 15th centuries.113 While their typological classification is well rounded and allows the reader to place these objects in the wider context of the 15th century Sepharad, there is no explanation yet for the reason as to why these objects were left scattered around the Judería. This is in fact a symptom of a consideration already presented above: the search for the Jewish object as evidence for the presence of the Jews in different sites, but not the archaeological analysis of these objects as to their significance. Adding to that we find that this Jewish archaeological record is presented with tropes such as the “Jews as foreigners” and “Talmudic orthodoxy” described above. The end result is the exclusion of the Jews from the history of Spain and Portugal. Paraphrasing Y.H. Yerushalmi’s term, this exclusion and removal 111 112 113
See note 67 above. Juan Gallardo Carrillo and José Ángel González Ballesteros, El complejo sinagogal de la judería de Lorca (Murcia: Asociación Patrimonio Siglo XXI, 2008). Gallardo Carrillo and González Ballesteros, 281.
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or omission of contexts of Jewish archaeological records from the rest of the local and regional population can be considered as an archaeological ghetto.114 The current availability of new archaeological techniques and methods allows for the removal of theoretical a priori assumptions and a review of the archaeological record completely. The premise should be to analyze Jewish presence in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages—these periods where the written record is not as numerous as in the Late Middle Ages—understanding that it developed as an integral part of the territories where they appeared. In other words, the Jewish presence in late antique Hispania was part of Hispanian society, and through the presence of such a minority this society was intrinsically diverse. Out of the Iberian Peninsula there were many studies that treated the Romanization and characteristics of Diaspora Judaism. From an archaeological point of view there were several starting points. The first publications came with the arrival of European scholars to Palestine such as Kohl and Watzinger who published their work Antike Synagogen in Galilea in 1916.115 In 1934 E.L. Sukenik would publish his work Ancient Synagogues of Palestine and Greece, which included analysis of the Beth Alpha synagogue he excavated six years before.116 However, when it comes to ancient Diaspora Judaism, an important starting point was E.R. Goodenough’s monumental 12-volume publication Jewish Symbols in the Greco-Roman Period between 1953 and 1968, with a later abridged version by J. Neusner in 1988. These publications were a product of two important developments in the Jewish world. The first was the intellectual movement of the Wissenschaft des Judentums, which first established the historicity of the Jewish people regardless of their loss of a national homeland. The Wissenschaft historians were not a united group and had varied historiographical positions. Few however were interested in archaeology, as the majority were mostly dedicated to the study of Jewish philology and medieval documents. It is through the Wissenschaft that we can today study many of the recovered medieval manuscripts, which 114
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Alexander Bar-Magen Numhauser, “Judaísmo y los judíos en la arqueología de la Antigüedad Tardía y la Alta Edad Media. Revisión de su investigación en el caso de la Península Ibérica” In Masteres de la UAM, Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Arqueología y Patrimonio, 2010–2011. Digital edition (Madrid: Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, 2011), 65–67. Heinrich Kohl and Carl Watzinger, Antike Synagogen in Galilea, Wissenschaftliche Veröffentlichungen der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft 29 (Leipzig: J.C. Hinrische Buchhandlung, 1916). Eleazar Lipa Sukenik, The Ancient Synagogue of Beth Alpha: An Account of the Excavations Conducted on Behalf of the Hebrew University, Jerusalem: From the Hebrew (Piscataway, New Jersey: Gorgias Press, Hebrew University, 1932).
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were subsequently printed through the 19th and 20th centuries. However, one of the late Wissenschaft scholars, Rabbi Ludwig Blau, did put forward the issue of “Jewish archaeology” in contrast to the methods used for Christian archaeology—the former of which consisted mainly in the recovery of possible contradictions between written Talmudic records and archaeological findings.117 For Blau the origin of a Jewish archaeology, parallel to Christian archaeology, is a field worthy of study considering the obvious limitations of textual evidence from late antique Jewish sources. According to Blau, this Jewish archaeology would complement and explain the phenomena found in the field of Christian archaeology, which itself comes from the development of Christian architecture to symbology. Blau’s position comes with a theoretical basis for late antique Jewish Archaeology, and certainly one that influences this current study: the notion in which Jews, for all their distinctiveness as a people, were an integral part of Roman society. Their artistic expression is as Roman as it is Jewish in this environment which could not have been exclusively Jewish in any case. This is particularly true when considering the evident mingling of Jewish and non-Jewish burials during Late Antiquity, which was a matter of fact for late antique Rabbis.118 The second important ideological phenomenon is expressed in the Zionist archaeological expeditions in Palestine, which accelerated during the British Mandate and were the seed of Israeli archaeology. Scholars like N. Slouschz who excavated in Hammath Tiberias in 1921 and later E.L. Sukenik himself had not only an academic intention to recover the lost history of the Jews from the Land of Israel, but also to reintroduce the Jewish people to a lost past that is reflected in its artistic achievements. The intention of these archaeological expeditions was the demonstration that Jewish art existed, and therefore of the monumentality of these features.119 Be that as it may, when it comes to modern archaeological research of Diaspora Judaism a very influential publication was A.T. Kraabel’s 1979 article “The Diaspora Synagogue: Archaeological and Epigraphic Evidence since Sukenik”.120 His article was a necessary review of several premises offered by 117 118 119
120
Ludwig Blau, “Early Christian Archaeology from the Jewish Point of View,” Hebrew Union College Annual 3 (1926): 157–214. Blau, 163–164. Citation in Blau, 205–206, note 57; Steven Fine, Art and Judaism in the Greco-Roman World: Toward a New Jewish Archaeology, 1st ed. (Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005), 22–24. Alf Thomas Kraabel, “The Diaspora Synagogue: Archaeological and Epigraphic Evidence since Sukenik,” in Aufstieg und Niedergang der Römischen Welt II.19 (Berlin, 1979), 477–510, 1 plan, 1 plate.
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previous scholarship on Diaspora synagogues since 1934, following the new publications of sites like Delos, Sardis, Apamea, and Dura Europos. These include the idea of identifying Jewish synagogues based on specific architectural types, while also reconstructing their chronology. Kraabel’s theory is based on the rejection of a specific typology for Jewish synagogues, and posits rather their adaptation to the available urban landscape in their respective cities. The differences between Jewish synagogues are based on the context where these were found, not on typological-chronological planning as suggested by Sukenik.121 Consideration of the adaptation of Jewish communities to the contexts in which they were found was further developed by later scholars on Diaspora Judaism. It included the study of the craftsmanship associated with late antique Jews, as in the case of Dura Europos’ representation of Esther which is identical to the representation of Diana in the house of the Great Atrium.122 The phenomenon could also be studied in the evident stylistic and architectural similarities between the Jewish catacombs of Rome and their Christian counterparts, including the use of loculi and arcosolia and in some occasions the more specifically Jewish kochim.123 L.V. Rutgers would call this the Common Workshop Identity, which is based on the premise that Jews, like other local inhabitants of multi-ethnic and multi-religious towns, would access the same workshops as those used by others in their communities. The difference in the end product, which all share a similar style, lie mostly in the specific motifs. The same thing was detected in Israel, where synagogue mosaics have a similar production style and method to their Christian-Late Roman counterparts.124 Assuming that halakhic prohibitions on decorative arts are limited only to illustrations of an idolatrous nature, A. Ovadiah presents Jewish iconographic tradition as a derivation from their non-Jewish surroundings, particularly in the case of mosaics. Therefore, Jewish art is not independent from the rest of the artistic repertoire from Late Antiquity.125
121 122 123 124 125
Kraabel, 500–501. Jás Elsner, “Archaeologies and Agendas: Jewish and Early Christian Art in Late Antiquity,” Journal of Roman Studies 93 (2003): 118–119. Leonard Victor Rutgers, The Jews in Late Ancient Rome: Evidence of Cultural Interaction in the Roman Diaspora (Leiden; Boston: Brill, 1995), 74. Asher Ovadiah, “Observations on the Mosaic Art in Ancient Synagogues,” in Art and Archaeology in Israel and Neighbouring Countries (London: Pindar Press, 2002), 481–509. In fact, for Ovadiah originality and cultural contribution in the late antique environment can be seen mostly in Rabbinic literature: through halakhah, the aggadot, and other types of literary achievements from the exegetical and interpretive works by late antique Rabbis. Ovadiah, 217.
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R. Hachlili has extensive chapters in her works on the similarities between Christian and Jewish art in the Land of Israel and the Diaspora.126 For Hachlili, styles can help identify workshops that operated in Jewish, Christian, and nonreligious structures and environments. In case of mosaics, sarcophagi, and stone carving in late antique Palestine, she proposes the existence of pattern books that included Jewish iconography amongst other motifs that would be available for hired artisans of different religious and ethnic backgrounds.127 For his part, Milson suggests that in fact Jewish synagogue architecture in Palestine was based on Christian basilical architecture, rejecting the idea that synagogues inspired the church from a typological point of view.128 This is particularly the case as synagogues adopted a more religious use by the 5th and 6th centuries, with furniture that could easily be found in their Christian counterparts.129 This integration led authors like J. Elsner to question whether it is even possible to identify Jews in the archaeological record. He compared it to trying to do a “Mythraic Archaeology”, which would indeed create artificial results due to modern imposition of ethnic-religious frontiers that did not exist in the late antique period.130 However the point of a modern archaeological research is not merely the identification of specific groups in the midst of a larger majority, a situation that is sufficiently evident from the written record. It is rather the search for how they lived. Remains of Jewish art is important, but it is not enough for a complete archaeological research. Jews were part of Roman and late antique societies and are a subject of their archaeological study in fields beyond synagogal monuments and funerary remains. Everyday life is as relevant to an archaeological study as a people’s monumental achievements. Therefore knowing from other available sources that Jews were present in different parts of the late antique world allows us to safely assume, even before the first archaeological survey is made, that the materials recovered in any contemporary archaeological excavations included the material anthropic activity of the Jews who lived at the time.
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127 128 129 130
Rachel Hachlili, Ancient Jewish Art and Archaeology in the Land of Israel (Leiden: Brill, 1988), chaps. XII, XIII; Rachel Hachlili, Ancient Jewish Art and Archaeology in the Diaspora (Leiden; Boston: Brill, 1998), 235–236. Hachlili, AJAALI, 391–395. David Milson, Art and Architecture of the Synagogue in Late Antique Palestine. In the Shadow of the Church (Leiden, Boston: Brill, 2007), 239–241. Versus Blau, “Early Christian Archaeology from the Jewish Point of View,” 169–172 who proposed that Jewish art and architecture were a fountain for early Christian art. Elsner, “Archaeologies and Agendas: Jewish and Early Christian Art in Late Antiquity,” 126.
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However, this assumption is a perilous affair for any scholarly work. On top of this theoretical foundation lies the need to test it, which is in part the objective of the study upon which the following chapters are based. Can we, as archaeologists, detect the life and death of members of a Jewish community beyond the literary sources from Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages? And on top of that: what is the nature of this life as a diasporic minority that for centuries lived in the midst of their majority non-Jewish neighbors in Hispania? As indicated in the introduction, trying to answer these questions will culminate in the analysis of the Ilici basilical building. This will be done following the exposition of its exemplary historiographic problems derived from the ones presented in this present chapter. However, a first part will be dedicated to general objects and contexts in which the Ilici building developed, a subject for the next chapters.
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Jewish Voices from Stone: Jewish Epigraphy and Its Art from Hispania The mosaic inscriptions in the Ilici basilical building are part of a wider epigraphical tradition that comes from both Jews and Christians in the Western Mediterranean. As a result of having been found in situ, they are one of the keys to understand the nature of the building that harbored them. However, they are also some of the few inscriptions that are associated with a non-funerary context of the Hispanojewish communities. The Ilici mosaic inscriptions will be described with its mosaic context in Chapter 7. This chapter will be dedicated to the foremost evidence for Jewish presence in late antique Hispania. Despite their explicit information, almost all Iberian inscriptions associated Jewish communities dated before the 10th century are either reused, decontextualized or even, in a few cases, lost. This is mostly due to their discovery in periods where archaeological contexts were either considered unnecessary or impossible to record, as were the cases of the Adra inscription found in the 18th century or the two Rebbis inscription found in two parts in the necropolis area of Mérida in the mid-20th century. Even recently, the inscription of Annianus Peregrinus Onorificus was recovered in 2009, years after its initial finding during the construction of Mérida’s train bridge. This makes Jewish epigraphy, while the most studied of all subjects in ancient Jewish archaeology in Hispania, the field where the least percentage of information can be recovered. Nevertheless, changes in approach in recent scholarship will hopefully provide more complete contexts for materials, allowing for a better understanding of the pieces, not only for their epigraphic or artistic value, but also for their historical information. The following list of inscriptions will be organized first according to their provenance in ancient provinces, later according to their date, and finally according to their alphabetical order. The provinces are based on the administrative division by Diocletian in 298 ce. Therefore, it will start in Balearica followed by Baetica, Lusitania, Carthaginensis, and Tarraconensis. Since the northwestern province of Gallaecia shows no evidence of Jewish epigraphy so far, it shall be omitted. Beyond the Iberian Peninsula two other provinces that were part of the administrative division of Hispania shall be included: the first is Septimania in the Gallia Narbonensis, or southern France, which start-
© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2021 | doi:10.1163/9789004419926_004 Alexander Bar-Magen
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ing from the 5th century was under Visigothic rule and remained dependent on Hispania until its Carolingian conquest in the late 8th century ce when the area was ruled by the Arab waliate of Al-Andalus. The second is Mauritania Tingitana, what is considered roughly as the northern regions of Morocco, from modern Meknes northwards. Starting from the late 3rd century, the region was under the Diocesis Hispaniarum, as its southernmost province. Close contact between the two sides of the Gibraltar straits resulted in a common cultural heritage that has been included in order to ensure a full picture of what we have termed Hispanojewish communities.
1
Balearica
The Balearic Islands were a crucial center for industry, trade, and habitation in the Western Roman Empire. The region was known for its production of purple dye in numerous baphia, which made this an important imperial province through Roman and later East Roman domination.1 In this context, the encyclical letter by Bishop Severus on Magona (Mahón) in Menorca can be dated between 416–418 ce. The document describes a prosperous Jewish community led by a man called Theodoros, who held the title of pater partum of the synagogue, as well as summus sacerdos perfidi populi (sic) and legis doctor of the Jewish community.2 He also held the civic title of defen1 Recent publications on this economic phenomenon indicate that during the 4th and 5th centuries the Balearic Islands experienced an increase of purple dye production, that in turn affected other economic sectors. See Maria Magdalena Riera Frau and Mateu Riera Rullan, “Un Possible Taller de Producció de Porpra de l’antiguitat Tardana al Pla de Ses Figueres (Illa de Cabrera),” Bolletí de La Societat Arqueològica Lulliana: Revista d’estudis Històrics 61 (2005): 388, who nontheless indicates that the rise of production is not necessarily related to the production of purple dye; Benjamí Costa Ribas and Carmen Alfaro Giner, “Methodological Aspects of Purple Dye Production on Ibiza: The New Site of Cala Olivera,” in Vestidos textiles y tintes. Estudios sobre la producción de bienes de consumo en la antigüedad, Purpureae Vestes II (Valencia: Universitat de València, 2008); Carmen Alfaro Giner, Benjamí Costa Ribas, and Jónatan Ortiz García, “La producción de lana en la Ibiza Antigua: el Proyecto Timeo,” in Production and Trade of Textiles and Dyes in the Roman Empire and Neighbouring Regions: Actas del IV symposium internacional sobre textiles y tintes del mediterráneo en el mundo antiguo (Valencia, 5 al 6 de Noviembre, 2010) (Valencia: Universitat de València, 2010), 29–31; Mark Van Strydonck, Mathieu Boudin, and Damià Ramis, “Direct 14C-Dating of Roman and Late Antique Purple Dye Sites by Murex Shells,” ArchéoSciences. Journal of Archaeometry 36, issue 1 (2012): 17. 2 There are two main translations used for this reference. The most recent critical edition in Catalan and Spanish is found in Josep Amengual i Batle, La Circular del bisbe Sever de Menorca sobre la conversió dels jueus (418–2018): una crònica mediterrània abans de lócupació dels vàn-
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sor ciuitatis of the city of Magona, which points to the date 438 at the latest, by which time Jews were forbidden to hold this title.3 Theodoros was also a large estate owner and apparently had a family network as evidenced by the mention of his brother, Melecius, who was another estate owner, as well as Inocentius, who fled from the mainland’s immersion in wars following the Germanic invasions.4 In the case of the latter, he was found joining his servants or famuli in the island, leaving behind several properties. The Altercatio presents the situation of the Jewish elite of the islands. However, according to Severus’ account, “Magona was infested with so many Jews— as if they were serpents and scorpions—that the Church of Christ was usually attacked by them.”5 Therefore, the evidence for a large Jewish community should be taken with a pinch of salt, considering the account was prone to exaggerations so as to give a miraculous aura to the Jews’ conversions.6
3
4
5 6
dals, Cova de pala 34 (Maó, Menorca: Institut Menorquí d’Éstudis, 2018). The most recent critical edition in English is in Severus, Letter on the Conversion of the Jews, ed. and trans. Scott Bradbury, Oxford Early Christian Texts (Oxford: New York: Clarendon Press; Oxford University Press, 1996). References for Theodorus: Epistula, Chapters 6 and 11. Scott Bradbury, “Introduction”, in Letter on the Conversion of the Jews, Oxford Early Christian Texts (Oxford: New York: Clarendon Press; Oxford University Press, 1996), 32–34; Severus, Letter, Chapter 6; Amengual i Batle, La Circular del bisbe Sever de Menorca sobre la conversió dels jueus (418–2018), 30, 43, 83. On the title see also: García Iglesias, Los judios en la España antigua, 89–90. Raúl González Salinero, “Los judíos y la gran propiedad en la Hispania tardoantigua: el reflejo de una realidad en la Passio Mantii,” Gerión 16 (1998): 440; Raúl González Salinero, “Ut nos iudaizare compellat. La responsabilidad episcopal de Liciniano de Cartagena ante las influencias judaizantes,” in V Reunió d’Arqueologia Cristiana Hispànica Cartagena, 16–19 d’ Abril 1998, ed. Josep Gurt (Barcelona: Institut d’Estudis Catalans; Universitad de Barcelona, 2000), 605–608; Raúl González Salinero, “Relaciones sociales y dependencia religiosa en la comunidad judía de Mahón (Menorca) a principios del siglo V d.C.,” Arys 3 (2000): 267–277; García Moreno, Los judíos de la España antigua, 165. Based on the translation in García Moreno, Los judíos de la España antigua, 156–157. The large presence of Jews and the “miracle” that came about following the arrival of Saint Stephen implies a religious and of course legal justification for an event that otherwise was legally and religiously unjustifiable such as the forceful conversion of the Jews. Of course, only a “miraculous” intervention such as this would permit the “injustice” of excess influence of Jews in the island to be corrected. See González Salinero, “Relaciones sociales y dependencia religiosa en la comunidad judía de Mahón (Menorca) a principios del siglo V d.C.,” 276–277.
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Amphora from Ibiza with Hebrew Characters
Catalogues: JIWE-1: 178. García Iglesias (1978): pp. 50–51. Transcription: דו
Translation: Da[vid]? This inscription was found as an incision on an amphora, on the island of Ibiza during excavations by Josep María Solá Solé. It was first published in 1959, and again in 1960 in the academic journal of Sefarad in collaboration with José Millás Vallicrosa. First interpreted as a Punic inscription, it was later accepted to probably contain Hebrew letters, although Aramaic was not excluded. This is the oldest inscription to be associated with contact between the provinces of Iudaea and Hispania, with the exception of half-shekels in mainland sites such as Ampurias, Elche and Mértola (as treated in chapter 4). The amphora on which the inscription is found was dated to the 1st century ce. The fragment is 87 centimeters tall and is inscribed with two letters which are one to two centimeters tall. One seems to be a daleth, and the second a vav. Bowers suggests its possible association with merchants from Samaria, without excluding the existence of a Judean or Samaritan community at the Balearic Islands from such an early date.7 Noy proposes parallels for this kind of amphora with incisions in Masada. He also suggests reading it as the first letters of the name “David”. However, the evidence from the inscription in Cástulo (see inscription III.1) might point towards the use of this amphora for ritual banquets. As in Cástulo, the mention of David might be a reference to psalms used as songs, associated with the stored wine within the amphora. However, this is speculative and requires further examination when more evidence becomes available for review.
7 W. Paul Bowers, “Jewish Communities in Spain in the Time of Paul the Apostle,” The Journal of Theological Studies XXVI, no. 2 (1975): 396.
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Lead Tablets from Ses Fontanelles
Catalogue: JIWE-1, 177. During agricultural labors three lead tablets or sheets were found in a plantation, property of Diego Zaforteza Musoles, three kilometers from the disappeared basilica of Santa María del Camí in Mallorca. In 1957, these sheets were first drawn and documented by Guillermo Roselló, drawings which in turn were sent to José María Millás Vallicrosa and published for the first time in Sefarad in 1958. The sheets were discovered within a corbel-arched chamber built with bricks, in an area next to a late antique cemetery found three hundred meters northeast of this burial. In that cemetery the bodies are placed with their heads eastwards, indicating its Jewish/Christian character. The chamber collapsed during the agricultural labors mentioned above. However, the first published account indicated the presence of red stucco which covered the chamber’s inner walls.8 To avoid further damage to the site it was covered again. Three inscriptions were placed near each other on three identical rectangular lead pieces, photographed in 1957. They are inscribed with two-centimeter high Hebrew letters, of variable length. The three have the same inscription, which are as follows: Transcription: שמואל בר חגי
Translation: Shmuel, son of Haggai. The three lead sheets were described by Millás Vallicrosa and republished by Casanovas Miró in 2013 (See Fig. 2.1). – Sheet 1: Irregular trapezoid shape, 22×35 centimeters. In its lower left corner, there is a two-centimeter hole, probably used for string in order to hold this sheet together with the other two. The inscription is 20 centimeters long. – Sheet 2: Rectangular shape, 23×32 centimeters. Presents a square hole with a two-centimeter side also at the lower left corner of the piece, and probably
8 José María Millás Vallicrosa, “Los plomos con inscripción hebráica de ‘Ses Fontanelles’ (Mallorca),” Sefarad: Revista de Estudios Hebraicos y Sefardíes 18, no. 1 (1958): 4–5.
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figure 2.1 Lead pieces from Ses Fontanelles from casanovas miró (2013): “inscripcions per a no ser llegides, símbols per a no ser vistos”, pp. 13–14 (figuras 1, 2, 3)
with the same function as the previous sheet. The inscription is 22 centimeters long. – Sheet 3: Irregular, 28×38 centimeters. Attached to this piece is a buckle which is used to attach the sheet to a shroud. The inscription is 16 centimeters long. According to Millás Vallicrosa, the presence of the name Haggai implied its “archaic” nature, also considered as such by Noy. Both dated it to between the 4th and 5th centuries, although Noy did not preclude a later date on account of the use of ברinstead of בןin this inscription.9 However, this is not a definitive date, as the use of בןis evident from Hebrew inscriptions of this type in Mauritania Tingitana (see inscriptions 7.2; perhaps 7.4). The short inscription, limited to the name of the deceased, is perhaps a better indicator of dating as it is comparable to the North African inscriptions which, themselves, have formulas associated with inscriptions from the Venosa catacombs. Be that as it may,
9 Millás Vallicrosa, 6–8; Noy, Jewish Inscriptions of Western Europe, 1993, 1: 239.
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the use of the term bar instead of ben could be a signal of an Aramaic expression. In that sense, it would be contrary to the proposal by Casanovas Miró, who suggested the inscriptions’ “archaic” features present a more isolated, rural community.10 These objects reflect aspects of the funerary practices applied to this individual. The first aspect to be noticed is that it seems to be attached to an unpreserved funerary shroud. Furthermore, it is a one of a kind, at least when considering that no other Jewish inscription from Hispania includes lead sheets placed in such a manner. Lead sarcophagi existed in many Jewish funerary environments, particularly the catacombs of Beth Sheʾarim. However, there is no evidence for lead sheets with repeated names on them. The purpose of these inscriptions is a mystery. The fact that these inscriptions are repeated on each sheet may point towards the association with a Jewish-owned workshop or mining operation, rather than the deceased himself, in a similar fashion to ceramic tituli that can be found in sigillata pottery. Another possibility is the application of some ritual for the deceased, as the lead pieces were attached to each other through some sort of a cord, and the lowest one was attached to the deceased’s shroud through a buckle. Either way, the use of Hebrew in the late antique Balearic Islands is attested through these pieces, which in turn were possibly associated with the vanished church of Santa María del Camí, whose mosaics had the strange particularity of representing the biblical saga of Joseph—an unusual thing for a Christian environment, and suggesting a Judaification of Balearic mosaic art.11 Either way, the date for these inscriptions is between the 5th and 6th centuries ce. Millás Vallicrosa proposed an earlier 4th to 5th century dating, but that was discarded by later authors like Zucca, Noy, Amengual i Batle and Orfila, amongst others.12
10 11
12
Jordi Casanovas Miró, “Inscripcions per a no ser llegides, símbols per a no ser vistos”, Tamid: Revista Catalana Anual d’Estudis Hebraics 9 (2013): 14–16. As covered in Pere de Palol, “En torno a la iconografía de los mosaicos cristianos de las islas Baleares,” in Actas de I Reunión nacional de arqueología paleocristiana (Vitoria, Fundación “Sáncho el Sabio”, 1967), 131–149, plates I–XVI. Noy, Jewish Inscriptions of Western Europe, 1993, 1: 239; Josep Amengual i Batle y Margarita Orfila Pons, “Paganos, judíos y cristianos en las Baleares: documentos literarios y arqueológicos”, ʾIlu, Revista de Ciencias de las Religiones XVIII (2007): 226–227; Raimondo Zucca, Insulae baliares: le isole baleari sotto il dominio romano, 1st ed. Collana del Dipartimento di storia dell’Università degli studi di Sassari 1 (Roma: Carocci editore, 1998), 202.
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Baetica
Baetica is the only senatorial province in Hispania during the Roman period. It is also the place where the capital of Roman Hispania, Corduba (Córdoba), was located, as well as cities such as Hispalis (Seville), Italica, and Gadir (Cádiz). The region was already prominent in Roman times as a commercial, agricultural, and economic hub, as it was also the gateway for the westernmost regions of the Mediterranean with such crucial ports as Gadir and Hispalis, the latter at the mouth of the mighty Guadalquivir River. Despite these large cities and population density, mostly concentrated in the western regions of the province, it is only in the mountainous eastern regions where more evidence for Jewish activity was discovered. The first inscription that suggests an association with Jews could be that of Thaddaus from an unknown part of the province of Syria, found in Cordoba.13 However, as correctly pointed out by García Iglesias and García Moreno, this inscription does not permit us to clarify if it is Jewish, as the only evidence is the presence of a Semitic name that could have many origins, not just Jewish. García Iglesias, perhaps too categorically, rejects this notion since the inscription uses the pagan formula of DMS.14 Clearer evidence for the presence of Jews in the Baetica province is found in Adra, in today’s province of Almería, as well as in the western region of Málaga, near the ancient city of Acinippo (near the modern town of Ronda) where a brick and a lead sheet with an inscription were found. An incantation lamella was also found in a personal collection possibly from Jeréz de la Frontera which gives interesting clues regarding religious practices and beliefs by the ancient Jewish community in Hispania. 2.1
Adra Inscription
Codification: CIL II, 1982. CIJ, 665. IHE, 283. JIWE-1, 179.
13 14
CIL II, 2232; CIL II2/7. García Iglesias, Los judios en la España antigua, 51; García Moreno, Los judíos de la España antigua, 49.
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figure 2.2 Adra inscription. Reproduction as done in 1783 by P. Bayer from casanovas miró (2005): epigrafía hebrea, p. 37
This is perhaps the only funerary inscription that clearly identifies the person as Jewish in the Baetica province. Sadly, the object has been lost following its discovery in the mid-late 18th century. It is important to note the following (conflicting) stories of its discovery and study before its disappearance, allowing modern scholars research it accordingly as a source for Jewish history in the Iberian Peninsula.15 The inscription was apparently collected in 1751 by the local priest of Adra at the time, José Valverde y Carreño, and placed within the walls of the Hermitage of San Sebastián in this town, amongst other Latin inscriptions of nearby Abdera. The piece in question was recovered by the prominent scholar Pérez Bayer when he arrived on May 1782 and published it in a commentary for the Valencian edition of the Historia general de España by P. Mariana, printed in 1783. According to Emil Hübner, this tablet was found by José Valverde before being handed to Pérez Bayer’s friend and companion, Antonio Benyeto, only to be given to Pérez Bayer on his visit. After this there are no more reports on its whereabouts. Regardless, Pérez Bayer was the first to clearly publish this inscription. All that remains is the well rendered drawing of it that can be seen above (Fig. 2.2), which allows for its epigraphic study. As such, it is recorded that the piece was made of white marble with a double fracture, on its upper and lower left corners. The upper fracture led to the loss of sections of the first two lines, leaving the following text: Transcription: […]NIA·SALO [..]NULA·AN·I MENS·IIII·DIE·I IUDAEA
15
These accounts were collected with certain detail in Casanovas Miró, Epigrafía hebrea, 37– 38; See also: Fidel Fita y Colomer, “Epígrafes romanos de la ciudad de Adra en la provincia de Almería,” Boletín de la Real Academia de la Historia 70, no. 1 (1917): 144.
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Development (accordng to IHE):16 [An]nia Salo/[mon]ula an(norum) I/3 mens(um) IIII die(rum) I/ Iudaea. Translation: Annia Salomonula, one year, four months and a day (of age), Jewess. The inscription leaves no doubt as to the Jewish origin of the deceased infant. Written in Latin, it provides the infant’s age of death despite it being very young. This is a common trait shared with Roman-Jewish inscriptions, specifically in their catacombs, although this feature can also be found in other funerary environments such as Venosa.17 Naturally, the most contentious aspect of this inscription is the reconstruction of its lost section, which specifically affects the deceased’s name. The inscription was first systematically studied by Hübner, who suggested the reconstruction of the nomen as Annia, which was reproduced by Fidel Fita in 1917. Cantera Burgos and Millás Vallicrosa accepted this transcription.18 The restoration of the nomen Annia was based on the presence of this nomen elsewhere in ancient Adra. This includes inscriptions such as CIL II 1984 of C. Annio Hispano and CIL II 1985 another of C. Annius.19 It could also be the suffix of Iunia or Licinia.20 The cognomen was identified with the word’s first part and its female diminutive suffix –nula, leading to the conclusion that the name would be either Salomonula, although the term Saloninula was not excluded either. As Noy correctly stated, the name Annia has no necessary Jewish implication as there are other Annia or Annius in Adra and elsewhere through Hispania.21 However, Annia is a parallel for other Jewish names and inscriptions, specifi-
16 17
18 19 20 21
Fita y Colomer, “Epígrafes romanos de la ciudad de Adra en la provincia de Almería,” 142– 143; Cantera Burgos and Millás Vallicrosa, Inscripciones hebraicas en España, 405–406. There is a keen interest, particularly in Jewish inscriptions from the city of Rome, to make the age of the deceased clear. While for older individuals there is a tendency for rounding them up—as an indicator for their advanced ages—in the case of infants Jews present their ages are more accurate than the rest of the Roman population. See David Noy, “The Life Course of Jews in the Roman Empire,” in Age and Ageing in the Roman Empire. Journal of Roman Archaeology, ed. May Harlow and Ray Laurence, Supplementary Series 65 (Portsmouth: Journal of Roman Archaeology, 2007), 92. Cantera Burgos and Millás Vallicrosa, Inscripciones hebraicas en España, 406. This epitaph beginning with the formula DMS, which according to García Iglesias makes it difficult to associate it with a Jewish family. Noy, Jewish Inscriptions of Western Europe, 1993, 1: 241. Noy, 1: 241.
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cally in the case of the Annianus Peregrinus Onorificus inscription from Mérida (see Ins. 4.3). In other words, it could be a Latinized version of the name Hannah ()חנה. It is important to note that only after the placement of the infant’s age would the term Iudaea be added, as an afterthought. Identification of her as a Jew was not included as part of her name, which means there was a specific necessity to insist on her Jewish origin. A later reconstruction by Fita added a menorah in the inscription’s lost upper left corner. However, there is no evidence for its presence when found and should therefore be ignored. Hübner dated the inscription to the 3rd century ce, based on its paleographic characteristics.22 Fita suggests the possibility that it could be earlier, due to the archaic form of the letter “A”.23 Between the words are hederae, further confirming a chronology from the 2nd century forwards, probably the 3rd century. 2.2
Angels’ Incantation from Andalusia
Codification: SEG XLIII: 684 Transcription: 1 Ὠς Σόδομα καὶ Γόμορρα ὑπέταξας, οὕτ⟨ω⟩ς καὶ τὸ πνεῦμα· 5 Βαρκιήλ, Ἀριήλ, α Κάλμια, Ἰαω, Γαβριήλ, Μικαήλ, Ἀδωναϊ, Ῥαφιήλ, [– – – – – –] Transcription: Ὠς Σόδομα καὶ Γό/μορρα ὑπέτα/ξας, οὕτ⟨ω⟩ς καὶ/3 τὸ πνεῦμα·/ Βαρκιήλ, Ἀριήλ/ [ι]α Κάλμια, Ἰαω,/6 Γαβριήλ, Μικαήλ,/ Ἀδωναϊ, Ῥαφιήλ/[– – – – – –]
22
23
Emil Hübner, Exempla scripturae epigraphicae latinae a Caesaris dictatoris morte ad aetatem Iustiniani consilio et auctoritate academiae litterarum regiae Borussicae (Berlin: G. Reimerum, 1885), LIV. Fita y Colomer, “Epígrafes romanos de la ciudad de Adra en la provincia de Almería,” 143.
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figure 2.3 Obverse of gold sheet inscription of the ‘angel’s incantation’ from f. gascó et alii (1993): “noticia de una inscripción griega inédita”, p. 334 (figure 1)
Translation: Just as you submitted Sodom and Gomorra, likewise you ⟨submitted⟩ the spirit. Barchiel, Ariel, Ia Kalmia, Iao, Gabriel, Michael, Adonai, Rafiel (Rafael) … The first news of this inscription, according to its first publication, was in 1993 when the private antiquities collector from Ronda, Mr. Llamazares, gave notice to the archaeologist B. Nieto in the town about the presence of a golden sheet with Greek characters. After that, Nieto in turn contacted his colleague from the Ronda excavations, Dr. M. Carrilero, who presented it in the 4th MeetingColloquium from the ARYS Association (“Antigüedad: Religiones y Sociedad”). Following this, a study was published in Gerión by F. Gascó, J. Alvar, D. Plácido, B. Nieto, and M. Carrilero, which to date has no follow-up publication.24 How24
Fernando Gascó La Calle et al., “Noticia de una inscripción griega inédita,” Gerión. Revista de Historia Antigua 11 (1993): 327–335.
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figure 2.4 Reverse of gold sheet inscription of the ‘angel’s incantation’ from f. gascó et alii (1993): “noticia de una inscripción griega inédita”, p. 335 (figure 2)
ever, other studies have cited the inscription,25 including a reconstruction for modern teaching of Greek in schools.26 The golden sheet was revealed to be a lamella, or incantation sheet in Greek. It was presumably found in Jeréz de la Frontera, near Cádiz, although even that is unclear due to the loss of this object’s original context. The object weighs 1.03 grams and is 4.15 centimeters high, and 4.25 centimeters wide. The inscription’s epigraphic space, according to its readers, occupies the entire surface in nine lines, which in turn were bent horizontally towards the interior, followed
25 26
María Juana López Medina, El municipio romano de Abdera: una aproximación histórica (Almería, Spain: Universidad de Almería, Servicio de Publicaciones, 1996), 159. Fernando Lillo Redonet, “ ‘Ostraca et saxa loquuntur’: El uso de grafitos y textos epigráficos sencillos en el aula de iniciación al griego”, Servicio de Publicaciones de la Universidad de Navarra 24 (2016), fig. 13.
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by subsequent folds. This allowed for the letters’ legibility to be relatively well preserved, except perhaps for a second omicron from l. 3.27 The reading of this inscription is based on that of Gascó et alii.28 The first two lines, and part of the third, mention Sodom and Gomorra, therefore invoking divine intervention from the God of the Bible. This inscription is a unicum in its invocation of the two doomed biblical cities. Line 3, as proposed above, was problematic in its reading as one of the folds affected the fourth letter of the word houtos (οὕτως). Furthermore, the interpretation of that word had a series of alternatives, from its reading as houto(s), therefore taking away the latest sigma to correlate it with the first line. Otherwise, it would be associated with the verb hypotasso and therefore the person who carries the sheet, thus avoiding the removal of the sigma but giving the carrier an equal standing to God. Either way the general meaning of this line does not change.29 Line 4 is unique in that it does not occupy the entire space of the sheet. According to Gascó et al., it is possible this open space demonstrates the avoidance of placing a name in genitive due to the costly nature of the gold sheet itself. In other words, it was left empty for its open use.30 However, there may be a simpler explanation: the incantation has two parts. Just below l. 4 is a list of angel names, which means the narrative aspect of the incantation is abandoned. The open space suggests that the second part of the inscription is perhaps another, separate section of the magical amulet, possibly a second incantation, or a generic one that accompanied its first part which was added by its carrier. Lines 5 to 9 are a list of names, associated clearly with biblical or apocryphal angels. These names have notable modifications that differentiate this from other epigraphic mentions. For example: Michael is written with a kappa instead of a chi (therefore, Μικαήλ). Similarly, Raphael is written as Ῥαφιήλ with an iotization of the last alpha, which led the original publishers to propose a date later than an Early Christian period.31
27 28
29 30 31
Gascó La Calle et al., 327, 328–329. The authors published only two black and white pictures where one can see some of the letters (Figs. 2.3, 4). While they proposed doing a follow-up study of this inscription, there is no new publication on it. Sadly, to this date there was no luck in finding the inscription’s location or a better photograph of it which would allow my own reading. Therefore, I limit myself to following the transcription of the original readers. Gascó La Calle et al., 328. Gascó La Calle et al., 328–329. Gascó La Calle et al., 329, 331. Gascó La Calle et al., 332.
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These names are also found elsewhere in the Mediterranean, both in Christian and Jewish contexts. A gold tablet was found in Rome at the tomb of Maria, wife of Emperor Honorius with the names of the standard angelic tetrarchy of Michael (Μιχαήλ), Gabriel (Γαβριήλ), Raphael (Ραφαήλ), and Uriel (Ouriel— Οὐριήλ).32 Conversely, a bronze lamella was found in Mazzarino, Sicily, according to its first publication by S. Sciacca in 1980.33 The inscription presents a large number of names that include the mentioned Michael (Μιχαήλ), Raphael (Ραφαήλ), Gabriel (Γαβριήλ), as well as Iaoth (Ἰάωθ), the latter similar to the name Iaó (Ίαώ) mentioned in the Iberian inscription. In Thessaly, a gold lammia created for the protection of a house mentions the name Ariel (Ἀριήλ) and the word Adone (Adonai?) (Ἀδωνέ) in its inscription, denoting its Jewish origin.34 In the case of Ariel, it could also be associated with Uriel (Οὐριήλ), widely mentioned in magical amulets of this nature. Other than these inscriptions, mentions of the angel Michael (Μιχαήλ), together with other names associated with divinity such as Iao (Ἰαώ), include the incantation sheet of Puteoli (Puzzuoli, Italy), which includes other names, such as El (Ἤλ) and Neftho (Νεφθώ).35 Notably there are names that do not appear in other magical amulets. These include the names of Barchiel (Barkiel—Βαρκιήλ) and Ia Kalmia ([ι]α Κάλμια) or Akalmia (Ἀκάλμια). The first publishers of the inscription found the presence of an angel “Barchiel” in the apocryphal Testament of Salomon,36 who participates as the counterpoint for the angelic dispute (vs. 36). In this case the angel appears as Baruchiel (“God’s blessing”). However, there is a clear mention of Baraqiel (in this case meaning “Lord of Lightning”) in 3 Enoch 14:4, as presiding over the lightning of the heavens. Both books were written between the 1st and 5th centuries ce. As for Akalmia or Iá Kalmia, the authors cited the correct statement by Dr. Natalio Fernández Marcos who suggested the identification of this angel as Kalmia in Sefer ha-Razin, published first by Margoliot in 1966.37 Indeed, one of
32
33 34 35 36 37
Roy Kotansky, Greek Magical Amulets. The Inscribed Gold, Silver, Copper and Bronze “Lamellae,” vol. 1: Published Texts of Known Provenance, 2 vols., Papyrologica Coloniensia, 22/1 (Cologne: Westdeutscher Verlag, 1994), number 26. Kotansky, number 33. JIWE-1, 159. Kotansky, number 41. CIJ 717. IG XIV 859. Gascó La Calle et al., “Noticia de una inscripción griega inédita,” 332. Gascó La Calle et al., 330. A full text of the Sefer ha-Razim ( )ספר הרזיםcan be found in the following link: http://www.hebrew.grimoar.cz/merkava/sefer_ha‑razim.htm. An analysis of this text, including relevant citations and the mention of the name Kalmia relevant
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the seven scribal angels ( )שוטריםof the “First Heaven” ( )הרקיע הראשוןis named Kalmia (with three name variations: כלמייה,כלמיי, and )כלמיא. The text was written in conventional Midrashic or Talmudic Hebrew, which points towards a late antique date for the text, and therefore places it (roughly) in the same period as that of the inscription. It is important to note that, like the case of Michael and Barqiel, there is a clear transcription of this name from Hebrew—with the predominance of kappa above a more usual use of chi. These angels’ names are found in esoteric and mystery rituals and tales associated with the most mystic elements in Jewish religiosity of the time. The appearance of these elements in an inscription from the Iberian Peninsula points towards the existence of a wide network of ideas exchanged between Jewish communities from the important centers of Jewish theosophy and theology, be they from the East or the West. Furthermore, this is a heavily Hebraized Greek, suggesting that the person who made this incantation had first-hand knowledge not only of conventional Hebrew Mikrah or biblical texts, but also texts associated with the Apocrypha and probably what could be associated with Rabbinic halakhic and aggadic literature. Perhaps, the person even had first-hand knowledge of esoteric literature such as the Sefer ha-Razim, associated with the Jewish term of sod ()סוד, denoting the deepest levels of wisdom one can achieve to understand Divine nature in Judaism. The dating of this inscription was difficult to ascertain due to the loss of its original context. The paleographic elements such iotization in Rafiel and the possible use of the verb hypotasso suggest a Roman period. In the original publication, its authors suggested a 2nd to 4th century dating, placing this text in the period when apocryphal works were being put to writing.38 However, following the dating of other similar inscriptions from around the Mediterranean collected by Kotansky (particularly number 33), its dating should be narrowed to the 3rd to 4th century, with preference for the 4th century date due to the predominance of Hebraic elements, such as the use of kappa.
38
to this study, can be found in Joseph Dan, Toldot torat ha-sod ha-ʿIvrit, vol. 3 (Jerusalem: Merkaz Zalman Shazar le-Toldot Yiśraʾel, 2008), 1060–1092 (Hebrew). Gascó La Calle et al., “Noticia de una inscripción griega inédita,” 332.
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Decorated Bricks from Acinippo (Ronda)
Catalogues: CER: 0568 JIWE-187a39 The objects to which these figures appear in three bricks first discovered in excavations carried out at or near the site of the villa in La Viscondeza near Ronda, Málaga, at the eastern edge of the province of Baetica. Over the years it was published by different authors.40 One of these bricks is luckily complete, while another is found in a fragmentary state. A third, complete brick is found, along with the fragmentary one, in a private collection in Ronda. Only one is displayed to the public, but outside Andalusian territory in the Museo Sefardí in Toledo.41 The objects consist of cooked bricks with a decorated side made from a mold. The complete brick is 31.5 centimeters high, 21 centimeters wide, and 4.5 centimeters thick. The decorated side is at its top, the widest face. The decoration is a representation of a Jewish aedicula with a menorah inside of it. 2.3.1 Analysis of Figures The brick was decorated using a mold that defined the figures before cooking. The area is enclosed in a shallow rectangular frame that limits it to the bottom three quarters of the object (Fig. 2.5). Below it is an aedicula represented by 39 40
41
Noy, Jewish Inscriptions of Western Europe, 1993, 2: 572. Amongst the first explicit mentions is by Helmut Schlunk and Theodor Hauschild, Die Denkmäler Der Frühchristlichen Und Westgotischen Zeit (Mainz am Rhein: P. v. Zabern, 1978), 59, taf. 73. Later studies include Carlos Gozalbes Cravioto, “Un ladrillo de época visigoda con simbología judía hallado en Ronda (Málaga),” Miscelánea de Estudios Árabes y Hebraicos XXXVI, no. 2 (1987): 89–94; Jean-Marie Hoppe, “Orient-occident, juifs et chretiens: A propos de la grande niche du musee archeologique de Mérida (Badajoz),” Norba: Revista de arte 7 (1987): 24–26, 40; Raquel Castelo Ruano, “Placas Decoradas Paleocristianas y Visigodas de La Colección Alhonoz (Écija, Sevilla),” Espacio, Tiempo y Forma, II. Historia Antigua, 9 (1996): 483; Rafael Barroso Cabrera and Jorge Morín de Pablos, “Ensayo sobre el orígen, funcionalidad e iconografía de los nichos y placas-nichos de época visigoda en la Península Ibérica,” Boletín de Arqueología Medieval 10 (1996): 53–54; Armin U. Stylow, “El culto a San Miguel en la Hispania visigoda: una revisión crítica,” in Actas del IV y V encuentro internacional ‘Hispania en la antigüedad tardía’. Guerra y rebelión en la antigüedad tardía. El siglo VII en España y su contexto mediterráneo (Alcalá de Henares: Ayuntamiento de Alcalá de Henares, 2005), 218–220. José Ildefonso Ruiz Cecilia and Julio Miguel Román Punzón, “Las placas cerámicas decoradas tardoantiguas con iconografía cristiana en el sur de la Península Ibérica,” Anuario de Historia de la Iglesia Andaluza 8 (2015): 27; José Manuel Castaño Aguilar, “Antigüedad Tardía y Edad Media en la serranía de Ronda” (Universidad de Granada, 2015), 421–422.
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figure 2.5 Menorah brick from Acinipo picture by rebeca garcía merino, in la red digital de colecciones de museos de españa—ceres, number: 0568/001
two Doric columns holding a semi-circular arch, with what seems to be a representation of sima cornice. What was originally identified as sun rays occupies the space within the arch, though it is probably a conch—a common motif for these types of representations in late antique Jewish art. At the center of the space framed by the aedicula is a large seven-branched menorah with semi-circular profiled branches and irregular ending, all of which, at the top, have a schematized representation of ceramic oil lamps. The branches, including the central shaft, are elaborated with a simple line. At the bottom of the menorah is a three-legged foot with rectangular and regular profile. It ends slightly above the base of the aedicula columns, which would give a slight illusion of depth (in other words, the menorah would be placed within the aedicula). Outside the aedicula are the representations of zig-zagged lines which were originally not interpreted by Cravioto, although considering they reach all the way to the base of the columns and stop on the upper limit of the decorative area’s frame, it is probable that they are the representation of a parokhet or curtain. In this scene the curtain is folded, allowing the viewer to see inside the aedicula. At the top of the structure, flanking the double-arch from its exterior, is a lulav (to the right) and what seems to be the remains of a globular figure, probably an etrog or citrus. Flanking the bottom of the menorah, one finds more symbolic ritual objects from Judaism, including a series of horizontal lines that possibly represented the holy scrolls held within the synagogue to the left. To the right are two branches which cannot be interpreted with certainty. A
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first possibility is the representation of olive branches, the symbols of divine redemption, salvation, and peace. Conversely, it could be the representation of hadas (myrtle) and aravah (willow), two of the four spices from the Feast of the Tabernacles, thus complementing the representation of the other two spices flanking the arches in the aedicula’s exterior. The schematized nature of these figures makes it impossible to define each distinct plant species with precision. However, one can imagine the curved, lower branch to be aravah, while the shorter, upper one would be hadas. At the very top, above the upper frame are two vertical lines that are possibly a product of the brick’s mold for the figured scene. However, the upper frame line was probably a representation of a roof top for the structure that held the aedicula. Therefore, the scene is a representation of a Torah niche, or altar, with a central menorah, depicting both the objects found in a late antique synagogue and the objects associated with the month of Tishrei which starts the Jewish year: the four minim of Sukkoth and the open scrolls associated with Simjat Torah. To the right of the horizontal lines identified here as Torah scrolls is the inscription. On top of the figures are a series of small globular attachments of unclear interpretation. According to Cravioto, these were representations of hands (particularly those placed next to the top of the menorah), reproducing the blessing of the kohanim.42 I disagree with that interpretation, as these features are found around the inscription. It could be an attachment from the of the brick’s production or, perhaps, to hold elements like metal decorative casing. However, a specific interpretation of these globular attachments can only be speculative. 2.3.2 The Inscription and Interpretation Transcription: ΜΙΧΑΛ Translation: Michal (Michael). The inscription was originally read as Nixan with Latin, or a kind of phonetic translation of the Hebrew month of Nissan ()ניסן. From this, it was assumed the brick was produced in the specific month of Nissan (March–April) and dedicated to Passover.43 However, a careful re-examination of its letters reveals it 42 43
Carlos Gozalbes Cravioto, “Un ladrillo de época visigoda con simbología judía hallado en Ronda (Málaga),” 92. Gozalbes Cravioto, 92.
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was clearly written in Greek, not Latin. Therefore, the reading is Μιχαλ, which is either the female name Michal, or rather the more plausible reading as Michael, the name of God’s angel. This is something accepted by Barroso and Morín in their study, though giving it a Christian eschatological reading.44 Stylow, rejecting this interpretation, suggests its reading as “MAXIM …”, probably the name of a person. However, the iconographic elements presented in this brick clearly indicate an association with Jewish rituals in a synagogue setting. This is particularly true with the four spices of the Tabernacles festivities depicted here. There are very few epigraphic mentions of the name Michal, including Michalos in Antioch45 and in an epitaph to a Michalazokoi from the 5th century in Sicily.46 On the other hand, the name Michael is quite commonly found, particularly in amulets. Naturally, the closest and most important parallel for this reading is the presence of Michael’s name in the incantation inscription described above, albeit it is dated earlier (see above, Ins. 2.2). The proximity of this last inscription suggests that a worship associated to this biblical archangel was widespread, particularly considering that he is one of the few angels mentioned explicitly in the Bible, something noted in Rabbinic literature.47 Decorated bricks with Christian symbols have been found in the context of Ronda and generally Eastern Andalusia since the late 19th century by scholars like Juan de la Rada y Delgado and Juan José Moretti,48 and studied more recently by authors like Stylow, Castelo, Ildefonzo Ruiz, and Román Punzón mentioned above. All decorated bricks with Christian symbolism were found in the area around Ronda. Those decorated with Chi-Rho are of two types, classified by their inscriptions.49 The first type mentions the name Marciano,
44 45 46 47
48
49
Barroso Cabrera and Morín de Pablos, “Ensayo sobre el orígen, funcionalidad e iconografía de los nichos y placas-nichos de época visigoda en la Península Ibérica,” 54–55. SEG XXXII: 1421. SEG XLIV: 775. From Rabbinic literature we find the angel associated with protecting the Patriarchs, such as in Pirke de-Rabbi Eliezer, 26. In the Talmud, specifically Y. Berakhot, 9:1 is the following prohibition regarding prayer to either Michael or Gabriel: אם בא על אדם צרה לא יצווח לא “—למיכאל ולא לגבריאל אלא לי יצווח ואני עונה לו מידIf a man has trouble do not pray to Michael or to Gabriel, but pray to me and I (God) will answer him immediately”. While we have to be careful regarding applying Rabbinic literature beyond Galilean and Babylonian contexts, it is clear from both this and epigraphic evidence that cults to an intermediary like the angels Michael and Gabriel, or others like Raphael and Uriel are quite extended in the Jewish Diaspora. Juan Manuel Abascal Palazón, Helena Gimeno Pascual, and Isabel Velázquez, Epigrafía hispánica, Catálogo Del Gabinete de Antigüedades, 1.2 (Madrid: Real Academia de la Historia, 2000), 172–173. Gozalbes Cravioto, “Un ladrillo de época visigoda con simbología judía hallado en Ronda
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figure 2.6 Bracari brick of Acinipo (Ronda) picture by inmaculada de la torre castellano, in la red digital de colecciones de museos de españa— ceres, number: ce04439. placed in the museo arqueológico y etnológico de granada
probably a bishop, and was found in the Cordoba region. The second is called the Bracaris type due to this name being inscribed on it. The menorah brick is more similar to the latter type, as it finds the same iconography but with a central Chi-Rho instead of a menorah (see Fig. 2.6). Comparison of the figures revealed the menorah and the Bracaris bricks used distinct molds. In other words, the mold was used to produce bricks with Jewish motifs for the Jewish community in similar fashion to how Christian authorities like bishops Marciano in Cordoba or Bracaris in Malacca (Málaga) used when producing decorated bricks with Christian images. Considering that the basis of Cravioto’s theory regarding a personal request for this production is based on the interpretation of the inscription as Nixan, it is possible to reject its commission by one person.50 Instead, this is evidence for the emulation of Christian practice by the Jewish communal organization. This association led authors like Barroso and Morín to suggest a Christian,51 eschatological interpre-
50 51
(Málaga),” 91. See also Pere de Palol, Arqueología cristiana de la España romana. Siglos IV– VI (Madrid-Valladolid: CSIC, Instituto Enrique Flores, 1967), 265–268. Gozalbes Cravioto, 93. Rafael Barroso Cabrera y Jorge Morín de Pablos, “Ensayo sobre el orígen, funcionalidad e
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tation of this brick, assuming logically that the similarities with the Christian bricks are indicative of a Christian context. The dating of the Bracaris type bricks is from the 5th to 6th centuries, following Schlunk and Hauschild.52 The dating of this brick specifically is more likely the 6th century ce.
3
Cartaginensis
Unlike other provinces in the Hispania Dioceses, few inscriptions were found in Carthaginensis, which encompasses the central and southeastern areas of the Iberian Peninsula. This does not mean that Jewish remains are absent in this province, as is evident from the identification of the Alcudia de Elche synagogue/basilica and the Orihuela stone (see Chapter 3 and Part 2 in this book). Other objects were found more recently in the excavations of Cástulo, near Linares (Jaen province, northern Andalusia). Therefore, the presence of Jews in this large province of Hispania can be clearly identified, although they are more concentrated in large urban agglomerations such as that of Ilici. Other than the inscriptions of the Ilici synagogue, which will be covered in Chapter 7, there is only one inscription identified with a Jewish context, in Cástulo. 3.1
The Grafitto from Castulo
Codification: Inventory number TCO 9 2395/34. This inscription was found and published recently in 2016 by the excavation team in Castulo (Linares, Jaén) led by Bautista Ceprián, Marcos Soto, and David Expósito.53 During the excavations of the 5th century abandonment phase of the thermae, within a dark-grey layer of earth mixed with ash, a ceramic fragment of a large storage pot or amphora of frustum shape was discovered. It was found as refuse within the large propigneum, placed there at a later period
52 53
iconografía de los nichos y placas-nichos de época visigoda en la Península Ibérica”, Boletín de Arqueología Medieval 10 (1996): 53–54. Schlunk and Hauschild, Die Denkmäler der frühchristlichen und westgotischen Zeit, 59. Bautista Ceprián del Castillo, Marcos Soto Civantos, and David Expósito Mangas, “Lucernas con ‘menorá’ en Cástulo,” Miscelánea de Estudios Árabes y Hebraicos 65 (2016): 11–31.
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figure 2.7 Picture and drawing of ceramic fragment with Hebrew grafitto from Castulo from: bautista ceprián del castillo, marcos soto civantos, y david expósito mangas, “lucernas con ‘menorá’ en cástulo”, p. 22
following its abandonment.54 The pottery fragment is made of local clay and seems to be associated with wine storage. The excavation team had to discard possibilities of this grafitto being NeoPunic (a possibility considering the large amount of Late Roman African imports found at the site) in order to confirm its identification as Hebrew. This was confirmed through the analysis by Dr. A. Zamora from the Instituto de Lenguas y Culturas del Mediterráneo y Oriente Próximo in the CSIC.55 Furthermore, a review of its lettering revealed there is no pigmentation on them.56 The fragment is approximately 18.9 centimeters wide and 10.4 centimeters high (Figs. 2.7, 8). Its letters are approximately 1.3 centimeters high and are placed on an irregular epigraphic space on the pottery’s bottom, at about 5 centimeters wide. Noticeably, the direction of this grafitto is placed in such a manner that the bottom of the pot is turned up, suggesting that this fragment
54 55 56
Ceprián del Castillo, Soto Civantos, and Expósito Mangas, 22. Ceprián del Castillo, Soto Civantos, and Expósito Mangas, 24. Ceprián del Castillo, Soto Civantos, and Expósito Mangas, 23.
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figure 2.8 Detail picture of ceramic fragment with Hebrew inscription grafitto from Castulo
was used as the top of a wider container. The fragment is made of browngreyish clay with small fragments of mica and other degreasers that created an irregular surface. The incisions are somewhat irregular due to this type of surface. On it is the following text: Transcription: שיר לדוד
Translation: Song to David. The original preliminary reading of this inscription was presented by Prof. Ayaso Martínez from the University of Granada, as two possibilities: של הכפרה (“of forgiveness”) or [ נר לכפרה-] (“… light of forgiveness”).57 Upon personal examination of the piece in February 2017, I noticed that this reading becomes impossible due to the insufficiently preserved letters. There is no evidence that
57
Ceprián del Castillo, Soto Civantos, and Expósito Mangas, 24.
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the last letter was a he ()ה. An alternative, much more plausible reading is שיר לדוד, a formula associated clearly with the book of Psalms in the Hebrew Bible. The use of the container for wine is also important, as it points towards a use in rituals associated with these psalms. Most Hebrew introductions to psalms mentioning David usually begin with ( מזמור לדודmizmor le-David). However, the association with Davidic psalms and the word שירis clearly seen in שירי ( המעלותThe Songs of the Steps). According to tradition,58 the Songs of the Ascent were sung by the Levites on the stairs before the Nikanor gate, looking towards the outer Court of Women. The Levites would sing a song for each step, hence its name. Specifically, Psalm 133 in the Hebrew Bible is associated to David (as its title is —שיר המעלות לדודShir ha-Maʾalot le-David). P. Van der Horst mentions the inscription IJO II 153 from the synagogue of Nicaea, where one of the Songs of Ascents, this time Ps. 136 is mentioned in its verses 25–26, stemming from the Septuaginta version—δίδους ἄρτον τῖ πᾶσι σαρχὶ ἐῶνα ἔλεος αὐτου.59 The mention of this psalm, whose Hebrew version is בשר-נתן לחם לכל כי לעולם חסדו, is found also in the LXX version: ὁ διδοὺς τροφὴν πάσῃ σαρκί ὅτι εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα τὸ ἔλεος αὐτοῦ. All authors who studied this inscription agree that variations between the versions of this Psalm verse could stem from slight variations in available biblical manuscripts in Late Antiquity. The lack of direct reference to a psalm as Shir le-David is similar to variations in the available manuscripts in late antique Hispania. However, the same basic premise is presented here: a container for wine or some other important liquid (oil, for example) has words invoking psalms inscribed on it. The container was located in the general area where three lamps with decorative menoroth were found (belonging to a similar period), which may be a reason to assume there was a Jewish synagogue within this area.60 This hypothesis will be reviewed further in Chapter 3, though in any case further excavations and research must be conducted to reach this conclusion.
58 59
60
M. Sukkah, 5:4; Midot 2:5. See John Arthur Smith, “Which Psalms Were Sung in the Temple?,” Music & Letters, May 1990, 174–175. Pieter Willem van der Horst, Studies in Ancient Judaism and Early Christianity, Ancient Judaism and Early Christianity, volume 87 (Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2014), 73; see also: Pieter van der Horst, “Biblical Quotations in Judaeo-Greek Inscriptions,” in The Scriptures of Israel in Jewish and Christian Tradition: Essays in Honour of Maarten J.J. Menken, ed. Bart J. Koet et al., Supplements to Novum Testamentum 148 (Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2013), 363– 376. He rejects an alternative, problematic reading by Rutgers and Fine in Steven Fine and Leonard Victor Rutgers, “New Light on Judaism in Asia Minor during Late Antiquity: Two Recently Identified Inscribed Menorahs,” Jewish Studies Quarterly 3, no. 1 (1996): 6. Ceprián del Castillo, Soto Civantos, and Expósito Mangas, “Lucernas con ‘menorá’ en Cástulo,” 15–16.
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Lusitania
Lusitania is probably one the richest provinces with Jewish epigraphy from the Roman and late antique periods. It is also remarkable for having almost exclusively Latin inscriptions, with no evidence of a Greek-speaking origin for the local Jewish community. The rather late development of important cities such as Olissipo (Lisbon), Portus (Oporto), Myrtilis (Mértola), and Conimbriga (Coímbra) explain the somewhat later appearance of Jewish inscriptions in this province compared to the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula. In any case, the jewel of the entire province was its capital Augusta Emerita, modern Mérida. From its foundation at the banks of the mighty Guadiana River up until the construction of the new Islamic regional capital of Batalyws (Badajoz) in the 9th century, the city of Augusta Emerita was one of the most important urban centers in the Iberian Peninsula, and probably of the Western Empire. Since the conversion of Constantine, the city became a theological hub, being the home of heretics such as Priscilianus, but also of powerful bishops such as Saint Paul and his nephew Saint Fidel from the 6th century. It was home for the far-reaching cult of Saint Eulalia and was a pilgrimage destination from all over the Christian world. And yet, despite that, very little is known of the Jewish presence in this area. Few inscriptions are preserved, and even fewer distinctly Jewish objects remain, which could help identify the development of what must have been a very influential and culturally wealthy community. Fortunately, recent studies allow for an increase of the corpus of Jewish inscriptions in Lusitania, particularly in Mérida, allowing them to be placed in a constellation of Jewish communities as early as the 2nd century ce. 4.1
Inscription of A. Lucius Roscius, Freedman of Villamesías
Codification: JIWE-1, 188.61 HAE, 4–5 (1953–1954), n. 752. South of the town of Trujillo in the western Spanish province of Cáceres, on the road towards the town of Mérida, is the village of Villamesías. In late antique times, the settlement was located strategically on the Vía de la Plata which connected Augusta Emerita with the northern mine regions of the Iberian Peninsula.
61
Noy, Jewish Inscriptions of Western Europe, 1993, 1: 261–262.
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As the name suggests, the origin of the town of Villamesías was as a villa placed within the Conventus Emeritensis, which in turn would develop into a rural village on the road between Mérida and Trujillo. After a first publication of this inscription by Mario Roso de Luna in 1905, Antonio Rodríguez Moñino published a note in 1953 of a revised reading of a Latin inscription,62 which at the time was found at the portal of the property of the local Bartolomé Tardido. The inscription had the following characters: Transcription: ALVCIVS ROSCIVS. C. L. H.S.E. IVDEVS ACOLI.C.S. Development: A. Lucius/Roscius C(ai) l(ibertus)/3h(ic) s(itus) e(st)/Iudeus./ ACOLI C S Translation: A. Lucius Roscius, freedman of Caius lies here, a Jew. ACOLI C S It is important to note that the only testimonies of this inscription originate from the 1905 and later 1953 manuscripts, which make any reading of it as having limited accuracy—particularly its last letters.63 However, there is no reason to doubt that the text is Jewish considering the explicit and unavoidable mention of the term IVDEVS in it. Line 1: The original interpretation suggests the possibility of reading Alucius as his nomen. However, it is probable that the first line included a praenomen starting with “A”, a common nomen of Lucius. According to Noy, this first line might be also a rare occasion where a cognomen is placed before the nomen, or could refer to someone else, in order to place the mention of libertus status in a correct order (before a non-existent cognomen).64 These readings overcrowd the inscription with names in what was almost surely an epitaph for the freed man. According to Álvarez Melero and Parodi Álvarez in 2010, Alucius is a cognomen placed before the nomen Roscius, therefore creating an inversion. Alu-
62 63 64
Instituto “Rodrigo Caro” de Arqueología y Prehistoria, Hispania antiqua epigraphica, vol. 4–5 (Madrid: CSIC, 1953). García Iglesias, Los judios en la España antigua, 52–53. Noy, Jewish Inscriptions of Western Europe, 1993, 1:262.
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cius would be then Al(l)u(c)q(u)ius, an indigenous pre-Roman name.65 Given the context of this inscription and the fact that such a solution would be a complication of its conventional reading, such an interpretation seems unlikely. Line 2: It includes the cognomen Roscius, who are members of the gens Roscius of Senatorial class from the republican period, with evidence for their settlement in Lusitania including the homage inscription of a Luscius Roscius Aemilius. The latter was a consul between 155 to 160 ce and is explicitly mentioned as being quaestor between 117 and 133ce—that is, under emperor Hadrian. Considering the above nomen Lucius of the freedman, it is possible to associate this person with the influential Lucius Roscius Aemilius mentioned in the other inscription.66 A mention of his military command in the Legio XIII Gemina suggests his involvement in military campaigns under the emperor. Although this legion did not participate in the suppression of the Jewish revolt of Bar-Kochba, there is no clear mention that his command in said legion came immediately after the quaestorship by 133ce. This suggests that Lucius Roscius Aemilius was probably involved in some way in the government during the suppression of the Jewish rebellion, with the subsequent increase of Jewish slaves following its spoils of war. The line follows with the mention of C[ai] L[ibertus], or the freedman of Caius. This is a suggested reconstruction following the 1905 study of this inscription, being kept in later reinterpretations. Evidently, this freedman was liberated from being the property of a Lucius Roscius, therefore adopting the nomen and cognomen of his former owner. However, by the time this inscription was made, he had a subordinate association with this Caius. This implies that the man commemorated in this inscription died many years after his manumission. Furthermore, his relations with the senatorial family Roscius were indirect, probably through Caius who was likely related to this family in some manner. Lines 3, 4: Hic situs est suggests the use of this inscription as a tombstone. The absence of any other formula might be due to the Jewish character, as mentioned in the following line Iudeus. Originally line 4 was read as U(xor) eius by Roso, but this reading was rejected in 1953 by Moniño. The explicit Jewish character reminds us of the Adra inscription, which has a relatively early date compared to most Jewish inscriptions in the Iberian Peninsula (see II.1).
65
66
Anthony Álvarez Melero and Manuel Jesús Parodi Álvarez, “Notes sur une inscription de la Baie de Cadix: l’ épitaphe d’ Optata Erennia,” SPAL. Revista de Prehistoria y Arqueología del la Universidad de Sevilla, no. 19 (2010): 199, note 12. Hispania Epigraphica, 15 (2009): number 59.
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Line 5: Originally unreadable, a later interpretation suggested its reading as Acholius following Niquet in 2004.67 However, this does not fit with the rest of the text as Acholius is a loose cognomen that does not have any significance if put into context. This little-studied text gives crucial information regarding the earlier stages of late antique Judaism in the Iberian Peninsula. The following is an interpretation of this text: the freedman from Villamesías, who was associated to a highranking officer in emperor Hadrian’s administration, was almost surely captured during the Bar-Kochba revolt and, at some point, became property under the household of Lucius Roscius Aemilius. The latter would in turn become consul from 155 to 160. The former slave would be freed and live in the immediate area of Augusta Emerita, where the senatorial family lived. He would keep a client-based association with this family through Caius, who was mentioned in genitive form. The use of a similar formula to that of the Adra inscription suggests an early date comparing to other late antique Jewish inscriptions. Considering the association with the Lucius Roscius family, this inscription should probably be placed in the latter half of the second century ce. The question remains regarding the praenomen of this freedman. It could either be the original name of this person before his capture, or rather it could be the first letter of Aemilius, which was the cognomen of his owner. Be that as it may, the Jewish identity of this person is undoubted and is a historical testimony for Jewish presence in Mérida as early as the 2nd century ce. 4.2 Titulus Pictus from Mérida A very recent publication proposed the presence of a titulus pictus placed on an amphora dated to the 4th century ce, found in the “Casa del Mitreo” in Augusta Emerita.68 The piece was found in a fragmented fashion, in a destruction level from the “Casa del Mitreo”, which was originally considered as a Mythraeum but later assumed to be a luxurious domus that included the lavish “Cosmogonic mosaic” in a northeastern room. The painted inscription was done in red ink (rubrum) on the upper part of the amphora’s belly. The letters are all 10 centimeters high and are placed in three short lines. The original suggested reading of these lines is as follows:69
67 68
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Heike Niquet, “Jews in the Iberian Peninsula in Roman Times,” Scripta Classica Israelica 23 (2004): 160–161. Horacio González Cesteros, Rui Roberto de Almeida, and Jaime Curbera Costello, “Special Fish Products for the Jewish Community?,” HEROM. Journal on Hellenistic and Roman Material Culture 5, no. 2 (2016): 197–237. González Cesteros, de Almeida, and Curbera Costello, 217.
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אכ סיללע
P. A. (?) The inscription was preliminarily interpreted as deformed writing of oxygaron (—אכסיגרוןlines 1 and 2), or the fish-based brine, or garum, exported to different corners of the empire from production centers such as the Bay of Cádiz.70 The interpretation stems probably from a Talmudic reading of the product’s mentions. Hebrew mentions of the product in Rabbinic literature are seen in sources such as in the Babylonian Talmud, tractate Avodah Zarah as mories ()מורייס,71 identified as garum by the 11th century scholar Rashi. But the most abundant mention is the word ( אכסיגרוןoxygaron), as suggested originally for this inscription’s reading.72 This means that the Hebrew inscription described the content of the amphora. However, if that is the case, why write it in Hebrew when the last line has a clear presence of Latin letters? The authors indicated that the letters could refer to the name of the merchant to whom the amphora belonged or to whom it was being sold. The use of garum as a Jewish product is attested in ancient sources and will be treated in more detail in Chapter 3. Furthermore, upon a careful review of the published titulus pictus, an alternative reading comes to the fore. In the first line, the first letter is indeed an aleph ()א. However, the second is not a kaf ()כ, but a stylized lammed ()ל. The letters in the second line can be read adequately, and in the third and last line the Latin letters of P and a composite A and X can be read. The reading is as follows: Transcription: אל סיללע
P⟨AX⟩ Translation: For silla, Peace.
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González Cesteros, de Almeida, and Curbera Costello, 218. B. Avodah Zarah, 31b. Y. Sheviʾit, 8:2; B. Shavuot, 23a; B. Yoma, 76a. The mention of the אכסיגרוןrelates to it being permitted or prohibited, and whether it is to be considered a solid food or a beverage. For more discussion and notes regarding the use of garum in Jewish environments, see Chapter 3, 3.
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In the first line, the word El is an article that shows the destination of the merchant or owner of this amphora. Silla (which can also be read Sille or Sillo) is a Latin name, which is a common feature in Lusitanian Jewry, as can be noted in the rest of inscriptions from this province. Finally, the word peace was for salutatory purposes. According to the ample and elaborate typological study in this same article, the amphora used was a Beltrán 72, which is apparently associated with production from Baetica rather than Lusitania.73 The context of this finding in destruction levels clearly places this inscription in an ante quem date for the first quarter of the 4th century. Therefore, this inscription should be dated from the end of the 3rd century to the early 4th century ce. The relevance of this inscription lies in its evidence of inter-communal commercial relations between provinces. The fact that the subject’s name (and its possessive article) is written in Hebrew suggests that both the sender and receiver were Hebrew writers and readers. There is no reason to assume that either was not Jewish. Latin names written in Hebrew are found elsewhere in late antique Jewish inscriptions, including ones in Venosa and provincial Italy in the Latin west.74 4.3 Annianus Peregrinus Inscription from Mérida75 The most complete and best-preserved Jewish inscription from late antique Hispania is probably one of its most enigmatic. Apparently found during the construction of Mérida’s railway bridge, which today is its train station, near the Guadiana River (and apparently the site of its necropolis), it was kept as a personal memento of one of the construction workers. In 2009 it was donated to the Museo Nacional de Arte Romano in Mérida. It was subsequently studied in 2010 by L. García Iglesias, who published his results in the journal Anas of that year.76 To date, it is the only publication.
73 74
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González Cesteros, de Almeida, and Curbera Costello, “Special Fish Products for the Jewish Community?,” 203–216. We find in Venosa the name Agusta in Hebrew letters ( )אגוסתהin JIWE-1, n. 107 (year 521 ce), Faustina ( )פאווסטנהin JIWE-1, n. 82 (5th to early 6th century) and Pratiosa ( )פרטיוסהin JIWE-1, n. 84 = CIJ i, 570; Arpidia ( )ארפידיאin JIWE-1, n. 127 from Taranto (7th–8th centuries). The study of this inscription was done in collaboration with my scholarly colleague and friend Mijal García Fernández, who provided important conclusions regarding the dating and epigraphic study of this piece. I would like to once more give my appreciation to her collaboration, without which this study would have never been possible. Luis García Iglesias, “Nueva inscripción judía del Museo Nacional de Arte Romano de Mérida,” Anas 23 (2010): 11–26.
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figure 2.9 Inscription of Annianus Peregrinus Onorificus, “exarc(h)on” of the two synagogues
The piece is a pinkish-white nearly squared marble rectangle, 34 centimeters long and 30 centimeters high (Fig. 2.9). It is also 4 centimeters thick. It is smooth on its front face, where an epigraphic motif is found. However, it is rough at its back, indicating it was probably attached to some other structure there. This Jewish inscription is one of the best preserved. Evidence for certain points of damage suggest that it was torn down from a previous structure and reused for the inscription’s incision. One of those is the lower left corner of the slab, as well as the left-of-center damage to which the inscription was adapted to avoid (therefore being of a previous date than the incision of the letters themselves). The epigraphic area occupies the whole of the front face, except for two lower corners occupied by two menoroth. Therefore, at that height, the epigraphic space is narrowed.
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Transcription:
5
Menorah with 10 lulav/shofar
ANNIANVSPEREGRINVSONO RIFICVSDVARVMSINAGOGE EXARCONVIXIT·AN·N·XLVDE QVEMBONVMTESTIMONI VMREDDENTENCIVESETAMICI SVIOTEINNOCENTEMNON FRVNITVMFVISSEAETA TEMTV AMBENE Menorah with DORMIAT lulav/shofar SPIRITVS TV VS
Development: Annianus Peregrinus (H)ono/rificus, duarum sinagoge/3 ex arcon vixit ann(os) XLV, de/ quem bonum testimoni/um reddent cives et amici/6 sui: o te innocentem, non/ frunitum fuisse aeta/tem tu/9am(!). Bene/ dormiat/ spiritus tu/12us. Translation: Annianus Peregrinus Honorificus (or: the honorable), exarchon of the two synagogues (who) lived 45 years, and whose ( fellow) citizens and friends will give good testimony: oh innocent (man) who has not enjoyed your age! May your spirit sleep well. The inscription was very well prepared. Its letters are between 15 to 20 millimeters high, although as pointed out by García Iglesias, the O from the second line; the E from AETATEM in line 8; the O and I from DORMIAT on line 10 and the second I from SPIRITVS are slightly reduced in size, at about 10 to 11 millimeters. The ducti to enclose and limit the size of the letters are still visible. Some of these ducti allow for about 8–10mm of separation between lines. The name ANNIANVS PEREGRINUS ONORIFICUS is slightly larger, indicating it as the tria nomina name and giving it greater importance than the rest of the text. As pointed out by García Iglesias, the letters have a regular form overall. However, there are clear stylizations, which are the basis the main method for dating the piece, considering that there is no mention of a date of death for this Annianus Peregrinus. The letter G is the most stylized in lines 1 and 2 with a diacritical line that does not enter the curved space made by the letter. This characteristic is found in preserved manuscripts from the 2nd century ce onwards. Also, there is an L with an everted curved lower line, and a T with a curved head tended to opposing directions. It also has a shortened E in most of its
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text, which is a paleographic characteristic rather than a result of adapting the letter to the available space. The closest parallels are found in two inscriptions from the early Christian cemetery of Tarraco: the first, mentioned by García Iglesias, is the epitaph of bishop Ringilio,77 with an almost identical stylized G. Not mentioned by García Iglesias, is the carmen of a peregrine sepulcrum with similar characteristics in the form of its T with curved head and its shortened E. Another parallel is the carmen with the mention of Peregrinus from Cordoba, with a stylized G and T similar to those found in our inscription. Even so, formal differences are visible between the peregrine sepulcrum inscription from Tarraco and the Annianus Peregrinus one from Augusta Emerita, particularly in the letters N and A. The A is also more stylized in the case of the Ringilio inscription. According García Iglesias, all of these features can be dated to the late 4th and early 5th centuries ce, which is shared by the author.78 However, the stylized nature of this inscription suggests an early 5th century rather than a late 4th century date. In any case, it is impossible to give a more precise date for this inscription. At the bottom are two menoroth in bas relief. These are placed in heraldic position, flanking the central text. The text itself seems to adapt to the menoroth, suggesting that the symbols were inscribed before its placement. However, this is not clear, as we find that below the word FRVNITVM the menorah adapts itself to the ductus, thus suggesting these symbols were placed at the same time as the inscription. A false symmetry is also present here: the left menorah is more squared, at about 8 centimeters high and 9 centimeters wide. The right menorah occupies a rectangular space 7 centimeters high and 11 centimeters wide. Curiously, while on the left side of the inscription, from lines 1 to 6 (that is, where they start inside the epigraphic area), lines start on a regular vertical line, on the right side they end on an irregular fashion. In fact, several words were broken in two at certain lines—such as TESTIMONIVM between lines 4 and 5—even though there was enough space to place the entire word at the end of the line. An anomaly in this piece is evidence of its use following its spolia. Ten centimeters above the bottom edge of the slab is a thickening of it with an inflection point, following which the slab’s surface would be “broken” with its thickness being reduced gradually. Therefore, at the bottom of the slab is a 3centimeter thickness compared to the 4 centimeters at the top. 77 78
García Iglesias, 17; Geza Alföldi, Die römischen inschriften von Tarraco, Digital edition (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1975), RIT 989. García Iglesias, “Nueva inscripción judía,” 17.
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Furthermore, at the bottom of the piece are two fractures. The first, below the left menorah, is a dent of about 7 centimeters across and 3 centimeters deep, cutting basically to the back of the slab. There is further damage in the lower left corner, which was broken. The dent is 10 centimeters high and 4 centimeters across. It seems that these dents were caused by an object during the piece’s removal. Looking at a superficial level it seems the central dent occurred in antiquity, while the corner dent occurred in modern times. Since the circumstances of its discovery are not known, it is impossible to be certain. Finally, at the top left quadrant of the slab is a scratch, over which the inscription is written, proving again the use of this marble piece as spolia when this epigraphic piece was produced. 4.3.1 Analysis of Figures The two menoroth are placed in an unusual space, on the lower left and right corners of the slab’s front face. They occupy roughly the space between lines 8 and 12 of the inscription. They were done in bas relief, with the same technique as the text. That is, the incisions were done in negative. The double ductus noticeable below the word FRVNITVM reveals that one of them was done to limit the left menorah, while another was to limit the bottom part of the text. Thus, the scene was planned beforehand, first doing the menoroth and later the text, as indicated above. The menoroth each have five central slightly curved straight branches looking upwards. At the top of these five central branches, each ending on a different height, are representations of oil lamps for lighting. The two outer branches of the menoroth are different. The leftmost branch was replaced by a branch with leaves. The rightmost branch is merely a curved object with no oil lamp as its termination. Their base is triangular, without a tripod. Such representation of menoroth is found in other inscriptions from the Iberian Peninsula. This includes the two menoroth on the inscription of Isidora in Pallaresos (see V.3). However, this type of menorah is also found with oil lamps at the top of it, on the decorated brick from Acinippo, Ronda (see Ins. 2.3). These candelabra have the particularity of the two outer branches being replaced, something that occurs in both. A reflection of a heraldic motif can be found, which includes the text that is flanked by the two candelabra, as in the case of the Pallaresos inscription. The two menoroth flanking a central text reproduces an extended motif of them flanking the Torah ark placed in the center. The ark represents the holy text, and likewise we find the replacement of the ark by this inscription. Such a motif was found in Roman catacombs such as Monteverde and Villa Torlonia (Fig. 2.10).
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figure 2.10 Representations of menoroth flanking a central open ark from Monteverde (a, b, c) and Vigna Randanini (d) from r. hachlili (1998): ancient jewish art and archaeology in the diaspora, p. 341, (fig. 7.27)
García Iglesias correctly proposed the two outer branches as being representative Jewish ritual objects as commonly found in late antique representations of the menorah in Jewish contexts.79 The left branch, with the botanical form, was interpreted as either a lulav (palm branch) or a Tree of Life. The elongated form, and the more common representation of a lulav in association with the menorah, favors the former over the Tree of Life.80 The rightmost outer branches of the menoroth were interpreted by García Iglesias as picturing either an etrog (citrus) or shofar (horn), both associated with the Feast of Sukkoth or Tabernacles, which of course fits with the representation of the lulav. In the Land of Israel, the shofar is the most represented ritual object associated with the menorah.81 It appears next to the menorah on the trilingual basin from Tarragona (see Chapter 2, Ins. 5.1) with an L-shaped form. The etrog is typically represented as a rounded or globular fruit. Despite this, originally Iglesias was more convinced in the interpretation of this branch as an etrog. Considering the more obvious formal similarities with the form of a horn, it seems more probable that the represented ritual object is a shofar. This is especially true for the left menorah, where the two branches are clearly rendered as two separate objects, whereas the joined representation of etrog and lulav typically occurs when depicted bundled together. This specific motif has few similarities, as it is a schematized and seemingly heraldic representation of Jewish ritual objects in a clearly Jewish scene. A menorah with a lulav replacing one of its branches is found in lamps, includ-
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García Iglesias, 17–19. Hachlili indicated that there are 52 depictions of “lulavim” next to seven-branched candelabra in the Land of Israel, Hachlili, AJAALI; the “lulav” appears in the Diaspora usually with the candelabra from the 3rd century on, according to Hachlili, AJAAD, 349–351. Hachlili, AJAALI, 266.
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ing one in Beth Sheʾarim dated to the 6th to 7th century,82 and another from Early Islamic Palestine, without a base.83 The triangular base is much less common than the tripod base for the menorah, and appears chiefly in diasporic funerary environments. This includes one inscription from the Roman Monteverde catacomb with a triangular base dated to the 3rd or 4th century,84 and several examples from the Vigna Randanini catacombs in the same city.85 Possibly, this is a schematized representation of a scaled, “pyramidal” base similar to the one represented in the Arch of Titus, as is found in the synagogue of Naʾaran in Israel.86 This shows that the repertoire included triangular bases for their menoroth in the Diaspora. 4.3.2 The Inscription and Interpretation A careful reading and study was already done by García Iglesias in his 2010 article. However, a review of the words should be undertaken here. Line 1: García Iglesias suggests that these two names are simply cognomina and therefore there is no demonym.87 Parallels in the Roman and Jewish world for the name Annianus abound. The gens Annius is very common since the 1st century bce in Hispania, particularly the Baetica, while the Anni Veri were the most important, being the ancestors of Marcus Aurelius.88 However, Le Bohec suggests the use of a nomen with Annius or derivatives was also extensive in North Africa, as the cases of L. Annius Constans and P. Annius Fuscus Masurius,89 Ἀννιανός90 and Ἀννιανοῦ91 (p. 181) in Carthage, and most significantly I. Anianus Iudeus92 in Sirte—all as nomen. 82 83 84
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Rachel Hachlili, The Menorah, the Ancient Seven-Armed Candelabrum: Origin, Form and Significance (Leiden: Brill, 2001), 469, number L10.18. Hachlili, 470, L10.21. Frey, CIJ, 318; Goodenough, Jewish Symbols in the Greco-Roman Period, vol. 2: The Archaeological Evidence from the Diaspora (New Haven, USA: Panthenon Books, 1953), 8; Goodenough, Jewish Symbols in the Greco-Roman Period, vol. 3: Illustrations for Volumes 1 and 2 (New Haven, USA: Panthenon Books, 1953), 723; Hachlili, The Menorah, the Ancient SevenArmed Candelabrum, pl. 80*; number D8.14. Frey, CIJ: 110, 136, 141, 161, 202, 225, etc. Hachlili, The Menorah, the Ancient Seven-Armed Candelabrum, 59; According to Sukenik in Sukenik, The Ancient Synagogue of Beth Alpha, fig. 21, the relatively similar bases of the two Naʾaran “menoroth” are product of reconstruction by their discoverer, Père Vincent. García Iglesias, “Nueva inscripción judía,” 20. Julián González, “Inscripciones inéditas de Córdoba y su provincia,” Mélanges de la Casa de Velázquez 17, no. 1 (1981): 41. Le Bohec, “Inscriptions juives et judaïsantes de l’ Afrique romaine”, n. 39. Le Bohec, n. 18. Le Bohec, n. 25. Le Bohec, n. 69.
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In Eastern Jewish contexts, an inscription from Quneitra in the Golan Heights was found mentioning an Archelaos, son of Annianos. In this case, Annianos should be seen as a Greek transcription of Hebrew Hanan ()חנן. In Rabbinic literature, there is mention of a Rabbi Hanan ben Dosa, a second generation Tanaitic Rabbi and student of Yohanan ben-Zakai in Yavneh (therefore, from the late 1st and early 2nd century ce). These are found in the Mishnah Berakhot 5:5, Sotah 9:15, and Avot 3:9–10. Therefore, it can be assumed that the Annianus from the Mérida inscription should be read as a Latin version of the name Hanan, and that such a name was apparently quite common in late antique Jewish communities. Peregrinus originally started as a term used for free men without the right to citizenship. However by the early 5th century, when this inscription was dated, it lost its original meaning.93 The use of Peregrinus is found in several Christian inscriptions from the 4th to the 6th centuries, including the aforementioned carmen from the Peregrine sepulcrum of the Tarraco early Christian necropolis,94 in which peregrine is mentioned in vocative and, therefore, should be associated with a man called Peregrinus to whom this carmen was made as an homage. Another Peregrinus funerary carmen comes from Montilla, Córdoba, mentioning the name and, in a second part of the carmen, using the term peregrini as a plural nominative.95 There is no doubt of the use of peregrinus both as a name and as the description of a man who undertakes pilgrimage. Onorificus should be read as Honorificus, as correctly stated by García Iglesias in his study. The question regarding whether this is a name, or an epithet seems to be solved by the larger size of this word’s letters, and similarly with the rest of the names, compared to the letters that come after it in line 2. This means that we find here an epithet that became part of his name, which should be read as Annianus Peregrinus Onorificus. A tentative translation would be Hanan, the honorable pilgrim, although this could be merely a play on words. Line 2: Duarum sinagoge should be read as duarum sinagog(a)e. Apparently the word sinagogae is in singular, hence the need to add duarum to insist in that there are two synagogues. Line 3: Exarcon should be read as exarc(h)on. The question regarding the title exarchon was studied extensively by García Iglesias, concluding that the title honorificus would indicate that this title is honorary more than anything else. As stated by Van der Horst, the title archon is the most mentioned amongst Jew-
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García Iglesias, “Nueva inscripción judía,” 20. Alföldi, Die römischen Inschriften von Tarraco, RIT 1004. CIL II/5, 555. Hispania Epigraphica, 1 (1989), n. 275.
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ish epitaphs.96 But these give little information regarding the function of the title. In Rome there are two mentions of the title exarchon in Jewish contexts according to Juster (following Müller).97 The first is the epitaph of C. Furfianus Iulianus exarchon,98 a man who died at the age of 28.99 The other is an inscription from the Monteverde catacomb mentioning a deceased Γελάσις ἐξάρχων τῶν Ἑβρέων.100 Both are from the 3rd to the 4th centuries. The latter is particularly interesting as this exarchon Gelasis needed to be mentioned as “of the Hebrews”, in case there was any confusion. Sadly, for these mentions, there is no indication of the function of this title or the responsibilities that accompany it. García Iglesias cites three theories proposed by three different authors regarding the interpretation of exarc(h)on: 1) Interchangeability between archon and exarchon, as proposed by Frey in Corpus Inscriptorum Judaicarum. This was rejected by Leon in 1960 as the title archon is widespread, widely known, and a traditional title that is not prone to modification.101 2) Citing Juster, is the proposition that this title is equivalent to the Christian title of exarchus or exarchos in Greek. The imitation of this Christian title leads Juster to compare the title exarchon with titles of leadership in late antique churches as seen today in the East. In other words, the author proposes the term exarchon as being equivalent to the Christian primate or the patriarch, or a leadership title that spans several Jewish communities.102 García Iglesias indicates that exarchus would in any case indicate the head of a monastery, and in civil administration the head of a province. This too is rejected by Leon. 3) Citing Müller, the title would be that of a former archon, and thus understanding the prefix ex-. However, he follows Leon’s qualms for this title, as there are many archons documented in Jewish Late Antiquity, and only three exarchons from all over the Diaspora, including two in Rome and
96
97 98 99 100 101 102
Pieter Willem van der Horst, Ancient Jewish Epitaphs: An Introductory Survey of a Millennium of Jewish Funerary Epigraphy (300 bce–700 ce), Contributions to Biblical Exegesis and Theology 2 (Kampen, the Netherlands: Kok Pharos Pub. House, 1991), 89–97. Jean Juster, Les Juifs dans l’ Empire romain: leur condition juridique, économique et sociale, vol. 1 (Paris: P. Geuthner, 1914), 404. Nikolaus Müller, “Le catacombe degli ebrei presso la Via Appia Pignatelli,” Bullettino Dell’imperiale istituto archeologico germanico 1 (1886): 49–56, n. 11. See also CIL 06, 39084 or JIWE-2, 4. Frey, CIJ, I—317. See also JIWE-2, 2. Leon, The Jews of Ancient Rome. Juster, Les Juifs Dans l’ Empire Romain, 1:404; García Iglesias, “Nueva inscripción judía,” 21.
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one in Mérida. Either most died with the title as archontes, or they were still named as such after they abandoned their duty for the community. Scholars, such as Muñoz Valle and Applebaum, treated the term archon as a hereditary title, like most titles found in Jewish environment from the Diaspora.103 This explains the presence of many minors holding community titles, as these were honorary as much as practical. In that context a supra-synagogal or regional title, such as exarchus applied to the Roman and Emeritan Jewish communities, could be a hereditary title, explaining the 28 year-old C. Furfianus from the Monteverde catacomb. However, both Applebaum and Leon reject this notion, as does García Iglesias. There is no evidence that exarchon should be associated with a supra-community title, even if it was honorable to carry it. Rather, the author proposes that with the presence of titles such as exduumvir, exebos, and exconsul attested in Latin inscriptions, it is not unreasonable to consider the term exarchon as a former-archon, as proposed by Applebaum.104 Line 3 contains the only occurrence of a shortened word, that of annus, followed by XLV, expressing the deceased’s age. The word de is a clear indication of the predominance of accusative. From lines 5 and 6, there are references to the people who ordered the production of this inscription and who dedicated it. They are his “fellow citizens and friends” (cives et amici sui). There is no mention of family. This fact, as well as the explicit mention of his “fellow citizens”, suggests this inscription was made by the civic administration of the city of Augusta Emerita. The amici are probably the people closest to this Annianus Peregrinus, probably his Jewish community. Following the word SVI in line 6, the inscription has a sudden change in person and tone with the exclamation O TE (“TE” being an accusative in second person), discarding alternative readings stemming from the assumption of text corruption as present in late imperial Latin.105 Therefore, García Iglesias is correct in indicating this as O te innocentem, which is both syntactically and grammatically correct, and with parallels from archaic to late antique periods.
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Isidoro Muñoz Valle, “El testimonio de las inscripciones sobre el régimen de las comunidades judías en la Roma imperial,” Cuadernos de Filología Clásica 4 (1972): 151–164. Shimʾon Applebaum, “The Organization of the Jewish Communities in the Diaspora,” in The Jewish People in the First Century, ed. Shmuel Safrai and Menahem Stern, vol. 1Historical Geography, Political History, Social, Cultural and Religious Life and Institutions, Philosophical Texts and Studies 22 (Assen: Brill, Van Gorcum, 1974), 494–495. García Iglesias, “Nueva inscripción judía,” 22. García Iglesias, 14–15.
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In line 7, the correct application of the words frunitum fuisse as a composite of fruniscor is found, although by Late Antiquity this term was seldom used. This is followed by the term aetatem tuam between lines 7 and 9, correctly used. García Iglesias read it as “did not enjoy your irreproachable life”,106 but is likely read as “did not enjoy your age”, referring to this Annianus’ wisdom associated with a title such as exarchon. In other words, the text refers to a premature death, which the community associated with him being mourned. Lines 9 to 11 refer to the deceased’s spirit: bene dormiat spiritus tuus, again in second person. The use of the adjective bene is seen in other Jewish inscriptions such as the famulus dei inscription from the 6th century in Mérida (see III.5), and elsewhere in the Isidora from Pallaresos inscription near Tarragona. In his publication García Iglesias points out to certain grammatical anomalies that reveal a vulgar late Latin. Three main arguments for this position are provided by the author: – Spelling mistakes: Onorificus should be (h)onorificus on line 1; sinagoge should be sinagog(a)e and exarcon should be exarc(h)on on line 2. – Use of person: the inscription starts in third person, later changing to second person starting with the exclamation “O te”. In that he further states the fact that sinagogae is in singular, hence forcing the carver to place duarum in order to indicate that these are two synagogues, and not only one, although both the numeral and declension are correct. He states that this is due to the common use of sinagogae rather than its plural version in genitive. – Predominance of accusative: the use of the word de in line 3 instead of the better used ablative case suggests a use of vulgar late imperial Latin, in which the accusative takes predominance over other cases. While García Iglesias is correct in stating this inscription as having clear traits of late antique Latin, what he apparently misses is the epigraphic characteristics of the inscription. Most notably, the fact that the inscription has a regular start to the left, whilst having an irregular ending of these lines to the right. Words such as ONORIFICVS and TESTIMONIVM are clearly divided between two lines. In the case of testimonium, there was enough space to place the rest of that word’s letters on one same line, without the need to divide it. Why did the carver adopt such arrangement? The answer lies in the use of this inscription. It was used for display as a commemoration for the deceased, as is particularly evident considering the already mentioned dedicators. Furthermore, despite the indicators by García Iglesias for a “deficient” Latin, the text is syntactically impeccable, and the changes
106
García Iglesias, 16.
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in grammar are only found in words such as sinagoge and exarcon, which were transcriptions from Greek and not originally Latin words, or in Onorificus where it was already concluded that this was part of Annianus’ name. All this leads to the conclusion that this is a commemorative carmen, or song to remind readers and citizens of a man of exceptional importance, who was nothing less than exarcon of “the two synagogues”. The text reads “The two synagogues”—not “two synagogues”. This aspect is important, because it should be considered whether the two synagogues were in fact extant buildings, or synagogues in the word’s original sense—that is, of communities or of a congregation. The fact that this person’s title is associated with the word sinagoge leads to the conclusion that what is indicated is in fact a concept of “congregation” or “community”, replacing the term politeuma used in early imperial periods. The “two synagogues” were probably represented symbolically by the two decorative and heraldic menoroth at the bottom of this inscription, thus symbolizing the two communities led by Annianus. A title associated with multiple synagogues is not new in Hispania. As can be seen in Volubilis, in Mauritania Tingitania, which was dependent on the Hispania Diocese, the following phrase is found (in plural): πατὴρ τῆς συναγωγῆς των Ἰουδέον, or “father of the Jewish synagogues” (see Ins. 7.2). The inscription is dated to the 3rd century.107 Considering this, it can be hypothesized that major cities such as Rome, Volubilis, or Augusta Emerita all had multiple Jewish congregations from a large enough Jewish community. What constituted those differences is unknown, although it certainly had some association with either linguistic and/or religious differences as can be seen today in Jewish communities of different denominations. García Iglesias’ proposition based on the assumption that this is a deficient “late period” Latin is unsustainable. The grammatical changes seem to have been the product of rhetorical requirement of the song. As for the formal aspects of the carmen, the lines are rationalized according to their syllables, as can be seen in Table 2.1. Some lines suggest anomalies, whereas some fit into the numbering of syllables, as can be seen in lines 7 and 8, which when merged, sum nine (equal to lines 5 and 6). Likewise, lines 11 and 12 sum six, which divided in two equals three. Therefore, the following order of syllables can be determined: 10, 10, 14, 8, 9, 9, 9, 3, 3, 3, 3. The third and fourth lines are problematic, due to the presence of the acronym for annus, shortened to ANN. The punctuation between the letters makes the interpretation of syllables more complicated. Likewise, the
107
Le Bohec, “Inscriptions juives et judaïsantes de l’ Afrique romaine”, n. 79.
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Correlation of lines with syllables in the Annianus Peregrinus carmen
Lines
Syllables
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
10 10 14 (including number); 10 without mentioning the full number. 8 9 9 7 2 3 3 5 1
mentioned number, quadraginta quinque, would increase the number of syllables from ten to fourteen (had only the letters been pronounced). However, it should be noted that the first four lines are based on pair numbers (therefore dividing the syllables by pairs) while the lower lines are all based on divisions of three syllables. It is plausible the song’s rhythm would have changed at that point in the text. In modern terms, it would change from a 4/4 time signature to 3/4 time signature. The above is primarily speculation until further study is conducted. It can be seen that the use of song in a Jewish environment was commonplace, such as in the “angel’s incantation” lamella from Baetica (Ins. 2.2), just as it was in Christian carmina, such as in the inscription of the peregrine sepulcrum from Tarraco, mentioned above. 4.3.3 Commentary on the Inscription’s Significance Who was Annianus Peregrinus (H)onorificus?108 Who could have deserved such honors as to have a commemoration from public officials that would provide 108
Many of the suggestions proposed in this section have been elaborated thanks to important conversations and exchange of ideas with my colleagues Mijal García Fernández, co-author of a future article on this inscription, and prof. Ángel Fuentes Domínguez of the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. I thank the latter for his valuable expertise and ideas to explore this fascinating piece of Jewish and Hispanian history.
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the spolia marble slab, as well as his influential amici, mentioning the honorable title of exarcon of the “two synagogues”, each with its heraldic representation at the bottom of this inscription? Certainly, he was a very influential man both in Jewish and Christian circles, which points towards close contacts between the two communities. In his study on the history of the Vulgata in the Western Empire, Samuel Berger mentioned an important person named Peregrinus, associated with the elaboration of Spanish versions of the Vulgata. This Peregrinus aides in the translation of the Book of Solomon, in the edition of the St. Jerome text. These sources are only known from Early Middle Ages versions of the Vulgata from Spain. He is also associated with the edition of the Canons for the Pauline Epistles written by the heretic bishop from Ávila, Priscilianus, in the mid-late 4th century.109 The canons are preserved in three Codices from the High Middle Ages: two from the city of Leon being the Codex Biblicus Legionensis also called the Mozarabic Bible of Saint Isidore of Leon. The other is the Toledan Codex. The two are of Mozarabic rite. They are also found in the so-called “Bibles of Theodulf”, named after bishop of Orleans during the Carolingian period.110 As a 5th century scholar with importance in Mérida, Peregrinus was hesitantly identified as one point, by Berger, to the diacon monk Bachiarius,111 an opinion followed by Menéndez y Pelayo,112 who in his book De Fide (a polemic against accusations of his belonging to the Priscilianist heresy) considers himself peregrino ego sum, a reference to his personal exile. Today, this theory has been rejected.113 There are several important mentions of Peregrinus from biblical Christian texts in Hispania. A manuscript of a preface for the Tres libros Salomonis, ends with the following phrase: Et ideo, qui legis, Semper Peregrini memento. Another mention occurs in a prayer that begins with Obsecro in the Codex Biblicus Legionensis, which ends with: Et Peregrini [ fratres] o karissini memento. In this specific Bible, Berger mentions the appearance of his signature in three places, thus suggesting him as an editor.114 Furthermore, in the three Mozarabic Codices is a preface by Priscilianus of the Pauline epistles. The editors of 109 110 111 112 113 114
Samuel Berger, Histoire de la Vulgate pendant les premieres siècles du Moyen Age (Nancy, France, 1893), 26–27. Marcelino Menéndez y Pelayo, Historia de los heterodoxos españoles, Vol. 1 (Barcelona: Linkgua Publishing, 2011), 277–278. Berger, Histoire de la Vulgate, 28. Menéndez y Pelayo, Historia de los heterodoxos españoles, Vol. 1, 278. Salvador Iranzo, “Baquiario. Estudio crítico,” Biblioteca Virtual Ignacio Larramendi de Polígrafos. Fundación Ignacio Larramendi, (Madrid, 2011), 2. Berger, Histoire de la Vulgate, 28.
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these codices, or the final editors of it, insisted that these texts were “expunged” from the corruption of Priscillianic heresy. This was done, as mentioned above, by Peregrinus, who is mentioned as a bishop: Proemium Peregrini Episcopi in Epistulas Pauli Apostoli.115 Despite this, there is no mention of a bishop Peregrinus in any available text or tradition of Hispanic bishopric lists. The absence of such a bishop from any ecumenical or regional council is telling—there was probably no bishop Peregrinus from the 5th century. Peregrinus seems to be a man who was consulted extensively for different texts, particularly translations, and for exegetical commentary in the intellectual environment of 5th century Augusta Emerita. While associated with Christian Orthodoxy, this may well be in the interests of the final editors of the Mozarabic codices to avoid association of their biblical text with such heresy, and thus prevent any accusations of lack of validity for their Christian rites. Either way, he was consulted to edit biblical texts adequately, particularly from the apocryphal Old Testament writings which could have been found in Hebrew and/or Greek. The insistence on Peregrinus being a bishop is in fact reflective of the interest to give credence and orthodox validity to such biblical exegesis. However, this “bishop” Peregrinus could very well be our Annianus Peregrinus from our inscription. Instead of being a bishop, Annianus Peregrinus was a duarum sinagoge exarcon. He was held in high regard both by his “two synagogues” and the general public of his city. He was surely part of the intellectual elite in a large and highly integrated Latinized Jewish community. It is in this intellectual environment when Priscillian heterodoxy developed and the Mozarabic Bible was being edited and written with its translations from Latin. Considering the prohibitions of mixing between Jews and Christians from the Council of Elvira (Granada) since the early 4th century, as well as the subsequent prohibitions of such mixing in later periods, it is not an impossible idea that Christian scholars would collaborate with a well-respected Jewish scholar regarding biblical translations and commentary. Considering the above, and the fact that the period fits, there is indeed a possibility that this Annianus Peregrinus (H)onorificus is, in fact, the same Peregrinus mentioned as a “bishop” who edits the Priscillianic prefaces and aids in the translation of the Book of Solomon. This suggests a level of coexistence between Jews and Christians that went beyond merely sharing material or necessities, but also included deep intellectual exchanges that became part of the non-Gregorian Mozarabic Christian rite in the Iberian Peninsula. This the-
115
Menéndez y Pelayo, Historia de los heterodoxos españoles, Vol. 1, 278, note 277.
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ory, whilst having to be considered with utmost care, is highly suggestive and seemingly more valid than other theories regarding the identification of this Peregrinus. To conclude, we find this inscription to be one of the most important inscriptions of the Jewish late antique world in the Iberian Peninsula. Its importance, if contextualized, goes beyond merely Jewish Studies or Archaeology. It shows evidence of a public display of admiration and commemoration of a highranking member of the Jewish community, who led not just one but apparently two synagogal congregations. Part of the piece’s importance lies in the right to use public constructive elements such as a marble slab of high quality to inscribe this text. Its structure is that of a psalm or a Latin carmen, thus disproving the proposition by García Iglesias that this was a deficient Latin proper of Jewish communities with an apparent unproven eastern origin. Finally, there is reference to a 5th century intellectual Peregrinus, from Mérida, participating in biblical commentary and the edition of the Mozarabic Bibles such as the Codex Biblicus Legionensis, which could point towards the possibility that the inscription mentions this Peregrinus of the early 5th century, a date that fits this inscription well. 4.4
Jewish Funerary Inscription from Mértola
Codification: AE 1988, 675. HEp 1990, vol. 2, no. 749. The city of Myrtilis Iulia (Mértola, Portugal) was the access point from the lower Guadiana towards the capital city of the province of Lusitania, Augusta Emerita. Considering the importance of the Jewish community in 5th century Mérida, which allowed for the public display of a carmen for Annianus Peregrinus (Ins. 4.3), it is unsurprising to find the presence a Jewish community from this important city. The inscription was found in three fragments during excavations within a land outside the northern walls of the Roman city (Fig. 2.11).116 It is made of greyish marble. The lower and largest fragment has the incision of a seven
116
Maria Manuela Álves Dias, “Fragmentos de um epitáfio do século V”, Ficheiro Epigráfico 21 (1987): 5–7.
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Image of the Mértola Funerary Inscription from alves días and sousa gaspar (2006): catálogo das inscrições paleocristãs do território portugués, number 11117
branched menorah, which denotes its Jewish character. The slab is 36 × 22 centimeters, although the thickness is so far unpublished. Only five lines are preserved while its letters are between 2.2 to 2.5 centimeters high.
117
Also available in Epigraphik Datenbank Clauss / Slaby. Link: http://db.edcs.eu/epigr/bilder .php?bild=$CIPTP_00011.jpg.
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Transcription: … X̣ ITANṆ … ..C̣ ESSIT I … … CEDIEQUAṚ … ONASOC⟨TO⟩ … ṢẸRAδXX Development:118 – – – – – – / [vi]xit ann[os / – – – re]cessit i[n /3 pa]ce die quar/[to N]onas Octo/[bre]s (a)era DXX. Translation: Lived … years … rest in peace, October 4th of the year of the (Hispanic) age 520. The fragmented state of this inscription caused the loss of much information. However, it is a Jewish epitaph for a deceased man originating from the outskirts of the city—which would point to its placement in Myrtilis’ necropolis. The “Hispanic Age” also called “Caesar’s Age” or “Gothic Age” is the predominant reference point for dates in late antique Hispania, counting from the Augustan decree in 38bce proclaiming the Aera Hispanica following its official pacification that year.119 Therefore, there is little doubt as to the date of this inscription: October 4th, 482ce. In line 4 the O is of reduced size and is merged with a T, forming one composite symbol to save space. In line 5 there is reduction of the text’s aera to era, a monophthong owing to the probable loss of the phoneme AE in favor of E, a sign of late antique Latin. The menorah is the defining element to identify this inscription as Jewish. It is standalone, measuring approximately 14 centimeters high and occupying the central lower part of the inscription, below the epigraphic space. It has seven branches made by concentric semicircles. The central shaft is straight, including its central foot at the bottom. The base is a tripod with rectangular profile. Overall, the type is similar to that of the decorated Michal brick from Acinippo (Ronda—Ins. 2.3). However, unlike the brick menorah, this one has an absence of upper illuminating lamps. The inscription suggests the existence of a Jewish community in important settlements along the Guadiana River, and certainly beyond the provincial cap118
119
VV.AA., “Portugal,” Hispania Epigraphica 1990, vol. 2 (1996): 219, no. 749 and HEp database, Record number 20544; Armando F. Coelho da Silva y Rui M.S. Centeno, eds., Museu Judaico de Belmonte. (Belmonte: Camara municipal de Belmonte, 2005), 128–129. José Vives Gatell, Inscripciones cristianas de la España romana y visigoda (Barcelona: CSIC, Instituto Jerónimo Zurita, 1942), 177–185.
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ital Augusta Emerita. One can imagine several Jewish communities in cities such as Onuba and the nearby Rio Tinto mine operation, or in the 7th century settlement found in Alqueva, identified as a Jewish community that was forced out following the 4th Council of Toledo in 633ce.120 A later parallel in this type of Jewish settlement is the case of the Rhine river cities such as Cologne, Mainz, Trier, and Worms through the 10th and 11th centuries, in which the Jews settled in the city’s regions establishing a common culture, rather than being limited to specific cities dotting the high medieval European map. 4.5
Famulus Dei Inscription from Mérida
Codification: J. Vives (1942): numbers 481, 483. IHE: 287–288. Found by A. Floriano in unknown circumstances, it was discovered in three parts (Fig. 2.12) and published separately by J. Vives in 1942.121 It is a white crème-colored marble epitaph. In total, the three combined fragments measure 23 centimeters wide and 2 centimeters thick. Its epigraphic area is surrounded by a wide frame of about 3.5 centimeters wide. Its concrete context is unknown, but according to notes by F. Floriano cited by Cantera Burgos and Millás Vallicrosa in 1956, it was found “almost surely in the city or its surroundings.”122 The inscription, with letters between 1.2 and 2.4 centimeters, is as follows: 1
5
120
121 122
[…]++AFAMVLVS[…] [D?]EIFIVSDOMV[…] […]+++ETRE[…] [V]IXITAN[…] ⟨XX⟩IETPAVS[…] INRE⟨QI⟩EET[…] BONA
Fernando Eduardo Rodrigues Ferreira, Arqueologia alto-medieval do regolfo do Alqueva: vestígios de uma ocupação judaica nas margens do Guadiana no século VII, Memórias d’Odiana: Estudos arqueológicos do Alqueva, series 2, vol. 11 (Évora, Portugal: EDIA— Empresa de desenvolvimento e infra-estruturas do Alqueva; DRCALEN—Direcção Regional de Cultura do Alentejo, 2013), 122–123. Vives, Inscripciones cristianas de la España romana y visigoda, 164. Cantera Burgos and Millás Vallicrosa, Inscripciones hebraicas en España, 410–411.
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Published image of the Famulus Dei inscription from Mérida ramírez sábada and mateos cruz (2000): catálogo de las inscripciones cristianas de mérida, nº 67
Development: […]ịa famulus […/D]ei filius domu[s …/3 …]C̣ + Ị et rẹ[…/V ]ixit anṇ[…]/XXI et pausa[uit]/6 in re⟨q(u)i⟩e et […]/ bona. Translation: … ia, servant of God, son of the house […] and re[…], lived for (or lived more than) twenty one years, and paused in the rest, and […] good. This segmented inscription provides a fragmentary reading. It is unclear whether it can be labelled Jewish or Christian. After all, the formula famulus dei is widely documented in Hispanian and generally Roman Christian inscriptions. However, a thorough analysis is warranted. Lines 1 and 2: according to Cantera Burgos and Millás Vallicrosa, the first A is the last letter of a name suffix, which suggests a Hebrew or a Semitic name considering that the inscription treats this person as a man and not a woman, thus making it impossible for it to be a female name suffix. Either way, it could be TA or IA. As indicated above, famulus is followed by a word ending with EI. The lack of space for a wider word suggests the formula famulus Dei (“Servant of God”) common in late antique inscriptions. It is followed by the filiation of the commemorated character ( filius domus), which with the house name was apparently lost.
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Line 3: It is almost completely lost, with only a few letters remaining. The first three detected might include a C and a T or an I. Following that is an ET, followed by what seem to be R and a possible E, although the latter is unclear. According to Ramírez Sábada and Mateos Cruz (ICERV 481)123 these could be the first letter(s) of the word Rebbi, as would be found in the 8th century inscription of the two Rebbis in Mérida (Ins. 4.6), or possibly also present in the probable 6th century inscription of the didascali from Tarragona (Ins. 5.2). However, this is a risky interpretation based only on the presence of one clear letter and therefore is not adopted here. Lines 4 and 5: Mention of age, which was 21 or perhaps more. The two X of “XXI” are joined, although the first letter of line 5 can be confused with an A. This points towards a funerary inscription, placed probably in the cemetery area. Vives reads line 5 as ET PAUS, and he correctly interpreted it as pausauit.124 The presence of the word pausauit in line 5 suggested a Jewish affiliation of the deceased, as it was present in other Jewish inscriptions, such as the inscription of Isidora from Pallaresos and that of the two Rebbis from Merida, from the 6th and 8th centuries, respectively. The verb is not used in other inscriptions that included the formula famulus Dei, proposing its Jewish affiliation. Lines 6 and 7: the final formula is a variation of the common in requieuit pace, although it is modified by omitting the central U, leaving only “REQIE”. In this the Q and I are composite and joined; therefore the reconstruction by Navascués, followed by Cantera Burgos and Millás Vallicrosa, in which the I is missing, is replaced here with only a discarded J. Vives, for his part, read this as in p(ac)e ʕ feria?, although it is probable to find the use of a more common funerary formula from Late Antiquity. The final line only has one word, bona. There is no indication of the inscription’s continuation, although as is seen from the Isidora of Pallaresos inscription it could be followed by memoria, or “in good memory”. However, the conclusion of the inscription could be similar to the –VS from the Annianus Peregrinus inscription of Mérida (Ins. 4.3). The paleography suggests a late date, probably from the 6th to 7th century. This includes the use of the “inverted S” in the words famulus, filius, and pausauit. It is elaborated with bezel, which was widely extended in that period. Possibly this inscription is contemporary to others of the kind, like that of Pallaresos dated to the 6th century. 123
124
Based on its reading in VV.AA., “España”, Hispania Epigraphica 1999, vol. 9 (2003): number 217, citing: José Luis Ramírez Sábada and Pedro Mateos Cruz, Catálogo de las inscripciones cristianas de Mérida, Cuadernos Emeritenses, vol. 16 (Mérida: Museo Nacional de Arte Romano, 2000), 116–119, no. 67. Vives Gatell, Inscripciones cristianas de la España romana y visigoda, 164.
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The Two “Rebbis” Inscription
Codification: Inscriptiones Hispaniae Cristianiae, 34 CIJ i2, 665a JIWE-1, 197 IHE, 289 (con lámina n. XXXV. Sólo parte siniestra de la lápida). L. García Iglesias, 1978, ill. 16 HEp 1996, vol. 6, no. 139 This Latin inscription from late antique and Early Middle Ages Mérida was found in two halves at two different instances. The first was published by E. Hübner in 1871 as an inscription found in Mérida, in the private house of a Juan Fernández.125 Later publications, including that of Cantera Burgos and Millás Vallicrosa from 1956, would only publish the left half of the piece, the only one discovered at the time. However, that year the scholar A. Marcelo Pous published the joined inscription for the first time, following the discovery of its other half in the Cerro de San Albín cemetery near Mérida after excavations by Martín Almagro Basch. Navascués would later undertake a thorough study of the piece in 1957, which was published in 1959.126 The position of this right half indicated its reuse after the slab was broken in two (Fig. 2.13). The piece is a white marble squared, reused cymatium, 47 × 47 centimeters, and 10 centimeters thick. The epigraphic area occupies the flat top surface of the piece. The backside (Fig. 2.14), which originally would be facing the top of a pillar, is decorated on with a series of tri-lobed rosettes of warped triangles incised as negatives inside a circumference. The cymatium was dated to Visigothic times, which points this inscription to a post-Visigothic, or 8th to 9th century period. Finally, a molded border frames the epigraphic area. The inscription is made in late Latin. The letters are between 2.5 and 3.5 centimeters high. It presents the following text, following Navascués and Noy:
125 126
Emil Hübner, Inscriptiones Hispaniae christianae (Berlin: G. Reimerum, 1871), 11, number 34; Noy, Jewish Inscriptions of Western Europe, 1993, 1: 279. Joaquín María de Navascués, “El epitafio latino del rebbi Iacob, Hijo del Rebbi Senior,” in Atti del Terzo Congresso Internationale di Epigrafia Greca e Latina. Roma, 1957 (Rome, “L’Erma” di Bretschneider , 1959), 29–44; Joaquín María de Navascués, “El Rebbi Jacob, hijo del Rebbi Senior,” Sefarad 19 (1959): 78–91.
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Picture of the inscription of the two Rebbis from Mérida courtesy of: museo arqueológico nacional. n.i. 71243. photo: ángel martínez levas
Transcription: SIT NOMEN […] EDICTUM QUIBI UIUIICAT ET MOR […] AT BENIAT PAX ET PAUSET IN SEPULCRO TUO: EGO IACOB FI LIUS DE REBBIS SENIORI PAVSO ANIMO 5 SVPORANS IN SORTE IVSTRORUM ABLIGA TVS IN LIGATORIUM VITE ANGELI PA CIS APERITI PORTA[S] PACIS DICITI ILLI INGREDECVM PACE VIXI ANNOS LXIII REPLETVS SAPIENTAM 10 PREDVCENS ARTEM ARVITICUM: EGO SIMEON FILIUS DE REBBI IA[CO]B EDIVICABI DO […] MI[S]SAM […] PAX
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figure 2.14
Picture of the back side of two Rebbis inscription, as exposed today in the MAN picture by the author
Development: Sit nomen [D(omi)ni ben]edectum quibi/ vivi[f]˹i˺cat et mor[tivi]cat. Beniat pax et/3 pauset in sepulcro tuo. Ego Iacob fi/lius de rebbi Seniori pauso animo/ suporans in sorte iustorum ab (a˹d˺) liga/6tus in ligatorium vite. Angeli pa/cis, aperitis porta[s], dicti illi: / ingrede cum pace. Vixi annos/9 LXIII repletus sapientam/ preducens artem artivicum./ [E]go Simeon filius de rebbi Ia[co]b edivicabi do[mum]./12 […] mị[ṣ]ṣạṃ[…] p̣ạx̣ . Translation:127 May the name of the Lord be blessed, he who (which) makes life and death. May peace come and stay in your tomb. I, Jacob, son of Rabbi Senior,
127
Based on Noy, Jewish Inscriptions of Western Europe, 1993, 1: 278.
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am at an end and my soul, sleeping with the lot of the just, bound in the bond of life. Angels of peace, upon the gates, say onto him: ‘enter with peace’. I lived 63 years, full of wisdom, foremost in the craft of craftsmen. I, Simon son of Rabbi Jacob, built the house … sent (?) … in peace. On Line 1 there is a mark on the upper left corner. Originally interpreted by Hübner as a mark that might indicate the term Yahweh, there is no indication this is the case, as indicated by Burgos and Vallicrosa.128 Noy suggests this is the result of a change while the inscription was being chiseled, in which the first line was centered to generate more emphasis. This is explained by the first letter S being placed slightly to the left.129 The first line follows the formula of Vivificante Deo or Vivificat et mortificat found in Deut. 32:39;130 1 Sam. 2:6,131 and the apocryphal Wis. 16:13.132 Noy suggests that the term pauset found on line 3 has an association with the deceased himself, unlike the Famulus Dei inscription (4.5) where the soul is this verb’s subject. The word also has the significance of “remain” rather than “pause” or “stop”. Conversely, on line 5 the verb pauso is also associated with the deceased who is expressing himself in first person, while animo or his soul is associated with suporans in sorte iustorum. Another parallel to the term pauset is the use of the term pauset anima in the Isidora of Pallaresos inscription. On lines 5 and 6, most authors read the word abligatus as ab ligatus. The use of the term abligatus was proposed by Navascués as typical for medieval Latin. The same can be said about ligatorum.133 However, as indicated by García de Iturrospe, the correct reading is ad ligatus, as it is followed by an accusative after the word in.134 If Iturrospe’s reading is correct, then the change in this word’s formulation would confirm Navascués’ medieval dating. The term is associated with the formula תהי נפשו צרורה בצרור החיים, stemming from 1 Samuel 25:29, also found in the trilingual inscription of Melliosa from Tarragona from a somewhat
128 129 130 131 132 133 134
Hübner, Inscriptiones Hispaniae christianae, 11; Cantera Burgos and Millás Vallicrosa, Inscripciones hebraicas en España, 414. Noy, Jewish Inscriptions of Western Europe, 1993, 1: 279. . מחצתי ואני ארפא,—אני אמית ואחיהI kill and give life, I wound and I heal. .—ה׳ ממית ומחיה מוריד שאול ויעלThe Lord kills and gives life, he lowers (you) to the grave and brings (you) up. σὺ γὰρ ζωῆς καὶ θανάτου ἐξουσίαν ἔχεις καὶ κατάγεις εἰς πύλας ᾅδου καὶ ἀνάγεις.—For thou hast power of life and death: thou leadest to the gates of hell, and bringest up again. Navascués, “El epitafio latino del Rebbi Iacob, hijo del Rebbi Senior,” 37. Muñoz García de Iturrospe, “Inscripciones sepulcrales latinas de la Hispania cristiana: algunas correcciones,” Veleia 11 (1994): 270.
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earlier date (Ins. 5.2).135 However, as Noy pointed out, the Vulgata’s version is custodia quasi in fascículo viventum, which would point that the people ordering the inscription’s elaboration were following the original Hebrew text rather than the available Latin Christian translations. Between lines 6 and 8, the phrase Angeli pacis, aperitis portas, dicti illi: ingrede cum pace is used. As correctly stated by Cantera Burgos and Millás Vallicrosa, a parallel can be found to this formula in a Hebrew inscription dated to the year 832ce from Brindisi, Italy, with the following text:136 שומרי גינזי גן עדן “—פיתחו לה שערי גן עדן ותבוא לאה לגן עדן פיתחו לה שערי גן עדןKeepers of the gates of Paradise, open for her the gates of Paradise and bring her to Paradise, open for her the gates of Paradise”. From lines 9 and 10, there is an insistence on this Rabbi Iacob’s attributes. Following the mention of his age of death (63), it is stated that he died “full of wisdom” (repletus sapientam) and “foremost in the craft of craftsmen” (preducens artem artivicum). Noy is correct in rejecting Navascués’ proposal of a referral to medicine, while following Fita’s citation of the Vulgate version of Ex. 35:31: implevitque eum spiritu Dei sapientae, which refers to the craftsmanship on metals, wood, and stone.137 However, perhaps this should be associated with a craft used for a ritual, such as that of ritual singing or the office of Ḥazan. Regardless, no current known interpretation has solved the meaning of this formula. Lines 11 and 12 conclude the inscription with a signature of the deceased’s son, who dedicates the epitaph to him. It has the function of a signature, coming from Simeon, son of Rebbi Iacob (a title not used in the first mention of Rebbi Iacob). The signature indicates that he is responsible for edivicabi domum, understanding domum as an allegory for the tomb, mausoleum or whatever structure where the body of Rebbi Iacob would be placed. The final words were presumably missam pax, or “sent” and “peace”, the latter replacing the word shalom ()שלום. As the latest of the inscriptions from the late antique period, the Latin is clearly associated with the Middle Ages and not with a late state of classical antiquity. The reuse of a structure of Visigothic origin, such as this cymatium of the 7th century, as well as the paleographic and grammatical evidence suggest an 8th to 9th century dating, as proposed by Navascués, Cantera Burgos and Millás Vallicrosa, and Noy.
135 136 137
Cantera Burgos and Millás Vallicrosa, Inscripciones hebráicas en España, 414. Cantera Burgos and Millás Vallicrosa, 414. Noy, Jewish Inscriptions of Western Europe, 1993, 1: 280.
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There is evidence of deep transformations in the Jewish community of Augusta Emerita, now under Islamic rule. The old titles like exarchon seen in a previous period are replaced with the more monotone representation of inter-generational Rebbis. Aside from a possible (unconfirmed) mention in the didascali inscription from Tarragona (Ins. 5.2), this is the oldest mention of a Rebbi in the Iberian Peninsula. It is important to note that despite evidence for an Eastern Hebrew title, as well as that of direct access to Hebrew biblical verses and their exegesis, the chosen language for this inscription was contemporary Latin—following the evident tradition of Lusitanian Jews centuries before. Furthermore, one finds the title of Rebbi to be hereditary, and not a product of an appointment—an aspect that is found in the already flourishing Geonic yeshivot from Babylonia. This inscription should be considered transitional between late antique Hispanic Judaism and the early medieval proto-Sepharadic Judaism that would develop, eventually, into the Sepharadic civilization that flourished in the 10th and 11th centuries ce (see Chapter 5). For now, the Jewish community is still essentially Latin-speaking. This is evidence, too, of continuity through the 7th century since this inscription demonstrates the establishment of generational roots in this Latin-speaking Jewish community. It thus confirms in part the proposition of Bachrach and Cordero Navarro regarding the failed application of anti-Jewish policies by the Visigothic Kingdom.138
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Tarraconensis
The Tarraconensis is the region with the second largest number of findings of Jewish inscriptions in Hispania. However, its characteristics are dramatically different from those in Lusitania. Only one Jewish inscription is exclusively in Latin. All others are predominantly in Greek or Hebrew. Much like Lusitania, most inscriptions are found in the immediate vicinity of the capital of the province, Tarraco (Tarragona).
138
According to which, anti-Jewish policies were motivated more by specific political interests and conflicts between competitors for the throne in Toledo than by an overarching anti-Jewish policy. See Bernard S. Bachrach, “A Reassessment of Visigothic Jewish Policy,” The American Historical Review 78, no. 1 (February 1973): 19ff.; Bachrach, Early Medieval Jewish Policy in Western Europe (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1977), 5– 22.
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figure 2.15
Water basin from Tarragona picture by rebeca garcía merino, catalogue of the museo sefardí de toledo. courtesy of the cer.es catalogue, http:// ceres.mcu.es
5.1 The Water Basin from Tarragona Following the demolition of a house in the city of Tarragona located in Enladrillado (currently Enrajolat) street, numbers 9–13, a water trough was found with inscriptions and images made on bas-relief.139 The discovery was made as the one-story housing was demolished to be replaced by modern buildings. Used as a washing basin in later times, it was stuck into a wall while the piece’s importance was discovered when the decorated face was uncovered during the wall’s demolition. The discovery of the inscription put the city of Tarraco, capital of the province of Hispania Citerior and later Hispania Tarraconensis in Late Roman times, on the map of ancient Jewish communities from the Roman era. Beyond the Hebrew inscription, one found that the image was a distinctly Jewish motif. However, the main interest from that object was the fact that the inscription and the symbols were put on what was interpreted as a reutilized “trough”. This “trough” was interpreted as a reutilized object from a previous Jewish environment from a Tarraco neighborhood built on top of the ancient circus. How-
139
Francisco Cantera Burgos, “¿Nueva inscripción trilingüe tarraconense?,” Sefarad: Revista de Estudios Hebraicos y Sefardíes 15, no. 1 (1955): 151–156; Cantera Burgos and Millás Vallicrosa, Inscripciones hebraicas en España, 350–351.
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Epigraphic features and incised decorations of the Tarragona basin picture by rebeca garcía merino, catalogue of the museo sefardí de toledo. courtesy of the cer.es catalogue, http:// ceres.mcu.es
ever, as shall be presented below, many questions arise whether the use of said piece as a water container is a later adaptation of the object to a non-Jewish use, following the expulsion of the Jews from the Iberian Peninsula in the late 15th century.140 The object, currently kept in the Museo Sefardí in Toledo with catalogue number 0080/001, is a rectangular cuboid-shaped marble basin, open on its upper side (Fig. 2.15). It is 57 centimeters long, 14 centimeters high and 44 centimeters wide. Its walls are four centimeters wide. Its internal volume is 46×34.5×9 centimeters, which allowed the basin to have a volume of approximately 11.45 liters. The inscription and images were put on the more spacious, long side of the basin, while its other faces were devoid of decorations or texts. Apparently, the side with the relief was underneath a smooth upper molding that defined the piece’s front. On the central back area, a drainage hole is found, three centimeters from the back internal limit. While the figured face is smoothened, the parallel back section of the basin presents marks, evidence for a ripper or a dented chisel, while the short, perpendicular areas were only finished with a larger chisel, creating a rough surface. This shows that the main objective was to make visible only the front, decorated face.
140
This seems to be the opinion of the team from the Museo Sefardí in Centro Nacional de Exposiciones (Spain) and Museo Sefardí (Toledo, Spain), eds., La vida judía en Sefarad: Sinagoga del Tránsito, Toledo, Noviembre 1991-Enero 1992 (Madrid: Ministerio de Cultura, Dirección General de Bellas Artes y Archivos, Centro Nacional de Exposiciones, 1991), 251.
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5.1.1 Inscriptions and Epigraphic Area Catalogues: RIT, 1076. CIJ i2, 660c. IHE, 243. JIWE-1, 185. The central images include the following: a central simple seven-branched menorah with semi-circular branches, an upper crossbar, and a schematized tripod base with horizontal “feet”. Flanking it are two large stylized peacocks with three feathers on their heads and decorative dots on their dove-shaped tails. Between the peacocks and the menorah there is a depiction of Jewish ritual objects. On the right of the menorah one finds a tree-shaped lulav with fifteen branches, seven on each side, and with a horizontal base. On the left, one finds a schematized inverted L-shaped shofar. On top of each of the peacocks is the epigraphic area of the scene. The left inscription is the more significant Hebrew text. On the other side are the shorter Latin and Greek inscriptions. The inscriptions are as follows: Transcription: שלום על ישראל ועלינו ועל בנינו אמן
PAX FIDES ΠΑΗ[…] Translation: Peace on Israel, and on us, and on our sons, amen. Peace, faith. Pae[sios] (?) (Hebrew in italics, Latin in normal lettering and Greek in bold). The short inscription shows a blessing motif for the people who read it. The Greek inscription is the least preserved. Heavily damaged, only the letters ΑΗ are clearly readable. Noy141 correctly states that the first letter was probably a Π, though it does not clarify the interpretation of the text. This inscription clearly intended to bless the people who read it, at least in Hebrew and Latin versions. The use of a more extended Hebrew blessing is already known from another important trilingual inscription from nearby Tortosa, also known as that of Kyra Melliosa (see Ins. 5.2 below).
141
Noy, Jewish Inscriptions of Western Europe, 1993, n. 185.
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Detail of Hebrew inscription in Tarragona basin picture by rebeca garcía merino, catalogue of the museo sefardí de toledo. courtesy of the cer.es catalogue: http://ceres.mcu.es
As explained above, this object was found during renovations done in what was then the street of Enladrillado (Enrajolat), now Roma Avenue in Tarragona.142 The area was once associated with the circus of the city, particularly where the pulvinar might have been present.143 It is certain that the object was found outside of its original placement, used as construction material for later medieval structures. Its use as a water basin was taken advantage of and a hole was made in its bottom for the drainage of water. Therefore, it was possibly used as a trough since Early Modern times. The inscription is important for several reasons. First, it is the only inscription put on the side of a water basin in the Western Roman Empire. It was found in an important Roman provincial capital, Tarraco. Significantly, the inscription does not belong to a funerary sarcophagus or tombstone, considering its insufficient inner space to harbor skeletal remains. Therefore, this is not a funerary inscription, but rather it is reminiscent of the traditional Hebrew
142 143
Cantera Burgos and Millás Vallicrosa, Inscripciones hebraicas en España. Joaquín Ruiz de Arbulo and Ricardo Mar, “El circo de Tarraco. Un monumento provincial,” in El circo en la Hispania romana, ed. Trinidad Nogales Basarrate and Francisco Javier Sánchez Palencia (Mérida: Museo Nacional de Arte Romano, 2001), 141–154; Carles Brull Casadó et al., “El circo romano de Tarraco: nuevos datos arquitectónicos. La intervención arqueológica de la calle Enrajolat (Tarragona),” in XVIII CIAC: Centro y periferia en el mundo clásico, vol. 1 (Espacios y edificios públicos en el mundo greco-romano. Modelos y difusión, Mérida: Museo Nacional de Arte Romano, 2015), 871–874.
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figure 2.18
Detail of Latin and Greek inscription from the Tarragona basin picture by rebeca garcía merino, catalogue of the museo sefardí de toledo. courtesy of the cer.es catalogue: http://ceres.mcu.es
blessings in the shmone ʿesre prayer recited at the end of the ʿamida in a synagogue. The need to translate it to a spoken language used by the Jews of Hispania, be it Greek or in this case Latin, suggests that the message was for passersby in an urban setting. A question arises from the interpretation of the Greek text, which evidently does not follow the Latin translation. Previous research on the inscription pointed out that it might be the remnants of a Greek inscription that was later replaced by the current Latin text. Therefore, the Greek letters were part of the Hebrew blessing’s translation. A change in religious attitudes, like those detected in the Greek-speaking Jewish communities of Constantinople, might be the cause for this replacement. However, as far as the images and material remains of the piece are concerned, there is no evidence for the defacement and replacement of an original Greek text with a Latin one. Instead, another possibility is that the Greek text are the initials or the remains of the basin’s donor’s name. The name seems to have been Παησιος, or Paesios, of Egyptian origin.144 This fits with evidence from other Jewish inscriptions in Tarragona,
144
For mentions in Egypt: “Paesioi” from the 3rd–4th century in the Dakla Oasis, IGR I,5 1161. “Paesis” in Philae, Étienne Bernand and André Bernand, Les inscriptions grecques de
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particularly the bilingual epitaph for Rabla, mother-in-law of a man from Cyzicus (see Ins. 5.3). While contacts between the Greek-speaking Eastern Roman Jews and those from the Latin West is evident elsewhere from the Iberian Peninsula, in Tarragona (where the inscribed, trilingual basin was found) they are particularly evident. 5.1.2 Analysis of the Decoration The decorations were done with incisions on a flat surface. They have a heraldic oriental motif. A central seven-branched candelabra is placed at the center of the scene. The candelabra is made with parallel curved lines forming a concentric semi-circular form that is cut by the central shaft. However, the curvature is not perfectly circular, particularly in the case of the left of the menorah that has apparently more straight-lined candles. The base is a tripod with rectangular section. The feet are everted, in such a manner that they end in a perpendicular direction in comparison to the central shaft. The middle foot shows that the feet also seem to be flat, therefore giving more stability to the menorah. Flanking both sides of the menorah are Jewish ritual symbols. To the right is an eleven-branched lulav with a flat base, which also appears like a tree. To the left is an L-shaped shofar. On both sides are two peacocks, identifiable thanks to their crowns and wide tails, the latter decorated with a series of circles reproducing the rich color of their feathers. The peacocks are looking towards the center in profile, thus establishing the heraldic motif. Significantly, we find that the peacocks are not identical, and are pseudo-symmetrical. The body of the left peacock is made with slight curvatures, giving it a sense of volume just below the depiction of the wing. Furthermore, the tail and the body show no break, as the body already starts widening before it is marked by the start of the appendix. The one from the right has an L-shaped body made with straight lines up to the tail, at which point the top line of the tail takes a diagonal direction compared to the body. Furthermore, we find that the left peacock has a longer beak compared to the right one. Representations of peacocks flanking the menorah occur elsewhere in the Jewish world. This includes the Orihuela relief to the south of Elche (see ChapPhilae, vol. 2 (Paris: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 1969), 371. Κυριως (?) Παησιος in Akoris/Tehna from the 4th–5th century, Gustave Lefebvre, Recueil des inscriptions grecques-chrétiennes d’Egypte (Cairo: L’Institut français d’archéologie orientale, 1907), number 130. From ancient sources there are mentions of a martyr Paesis according to Eusebius Bishop of Caesarea, History of the Martyrs in Palestine: Discovered in a Very Antient Syriac Manuscript (RDMc Publishing, 2008), 10–12. The latter is the best indicator that the name might have been present outside of Egypt, in circles associated with Jewish and Christian traditions.
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ter 3). However, they are also represented through the Mediterranean in Jewish contexts. In the Land of Israel they appear in Beth Alpha on the pediment of the Torah Ark145 and in the Gaza synagogue mosaic’s “inhabited scroll” surrounded by vines.146 In the Diaspora peacocks appear on a major panel below that of the central hall inscription, this time flanking a fountain representing the Garden of Eden and, therefore, salvation.147 The inscription, as well as the symbols, typical from late antique Jewish art, points to the use of said basin in a synagogue environment. The significance of said setting in the Iberian Peninsula can only be considered if we include the other basin supposedly found in a synagogue context: that of the basilical building in the Alcudia de Elche. 5.2
The Trilingual Inscription of Melliosa from Tortosa
Codifications: CIL II-14, 806. CIJ-i2, 661. IHE, 198. JIWE-1, 183. This is probably the most spectacular Jewish inscription from the Iberian Peninsula, due to its extensive text and the fact that it has Hebrew, Greek, and Latin on it. Simply put, there is no other inscription of this nature in any Hispanian province, and rarely in the Mediterranean basin. It is a white marble slab of 67×41×6 centimeters (Figs. 2.19, 20). It was discovered when placed within a wall, in the house of a private antiquarian Francisco González in 1860 by Emil Hübner at the Santa Ana street in Tortosa, near the mouth of the Ebro river (about 70 kilometers southwest of Tarragona). Before its removal, which affected the physical integrity of the object, it was varnished in black. It was somewhat preserved during its removal and drawing.148 It was later studied more extensively by Fidel Fita in 1879 and 1881 when they
145 146 147
148
Sukenik, The Ancient Synagogue of Beth Alpha, 22, suggests that they are ostriches. Asher Ovadiah, “The Synagogue at Gaza,” in Ancient Synagogues Revealed, ed. Lee I. Levine (Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society, 1981), 129–131; Hachlili, AJAALI, 312. Goodenough, Jewish Symbols in the Greco-Roman Period, 2: The Archaeological Evidence from the Diaspora (New Haven, USA: Panthenon Books, 1953), 95–98; Hachlili, AJAAD, 207–208. Cantera Burgos and Millás Vallicrosa, Inscripciones hebraicas en España, 268–269.
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figure 2.19 Picture of trilingual Tortosa inscription. courtesy of: red de juderías
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figure 2.20 Transcription according to Cantera Burgos and Millás Vallicrosa (1952): IHE, p. 270 located at: museo de la catedral de tortosa (tortosa, spain)
removed the inscription from its wall, revealing a Greek cross sign at the posterior face of the slab. The central cross includes an alpha and omega flanking it.149 The stone object was used on different occasions and therefore its original context is all but lost. Probably following the reuse of this slab as a Christian church’s lintel (hence, the addition of the cross),150 it was used as the pivot of a door hinge, where a large orifice, 7 centimeters in diameter, damaged the lower, Greek portion of the inscription.
149 150
Fidel Fita y Colomer, “Paleografía hebrea,” Boletín de La Real Academia de La Historia 2 (1883): 201–202. Cantera Burgos and Millás Vallicrosa, Inscripciones hebraicas en España, 273.
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The text is placed in an epigraphic area framed by a cord pattern (Fig. 2.19). It is divided in three sections: the upper Hebrew with six lines, the central Latin with seven lines, and the Greek portion with eight lines: Transcription:151
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( שלום על ישראלpentagram) ﬣקבר הזה של מוללאשא ברת ל יהודה ולקירא מאריס ]זכר[ צדקת [ לחײ עולם תנ]וח.לברכה [– –] אמן כן.נפשה בצרור החים שלוﬦ
IN NOMINE ΔOMINI (pentagram) (5-branched menorah) HIC [ES]T [MEM]ORIA VBIRE QVIESC[IT] BENE MEMORIA MELIOSA FILIA IVΔANTI ET CVRA MARIES VIXIT AN [NOS VIGI]NTI ET QUATTVOR CUM PACE AMEN [EN T]ω [ΣN]ώ[MA]TH K(YPÍO)N ωΔE ἜΣTEN ME MN[Ϊ]ON [N] ὣΠOY ANA Π[AYET]AH ΠÁMMNH ΣTOΣ M[EΛIώΣ]A [ΦH]ΛHA ἸÝDANT [OS KAÍ K(YP)ÍAS] MARÉS ZHΣ[ASA ETH EIKOΣI] TEΣEPA HN [EIRHNH AMHN]
Development: [ ]זכר.יהודה ולקירא מאריס3/הקבר הזה של מוללאשא ברת ל/שלום על ישראל . שלום6/[…] אמן כן. נפשה בצרור החים/[ תנ]וח. נשמתה לחיי עולם. לברכה/צדקת /In nomine Domini./ Hic est m[e]moria ubi re/9quiescit benememoria/ Meliosa filia Iudanti et/ Cura Maries. Vixit an/12[nos vigi]nti et quattuor/ cum pace amen/ Εν τω [σν]ώ[μα]τε κ(υρίο)ν/15 ωδε ἔστεν με/μν[ϊ]ον [ν] ὣπου ανα/π[αυετ]αυ παμμνη/18 στος Μ[ελιώσ]α [φη]ληα Ἰύδαντ/[ος καί κ(υρ)ίας] Μαρές ξεσ[ασα/ ετη εικοσι] τεσερα ην/21 ειρενε αμεν.
151
Based on Noy, Jewish Inscriptions of Western Europe, 1993, 1: 248–249.
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Translation (Hebrew in italics, Latin in normal lettering and Greek in bold): Peace upon Israel. This is the burial of Melliosa, daughter of Judah and the Lady Maris. Her memory (as?) a just woman is for a blessing. Let her soul rest for eternity. May her soul rest in the bond of life. Amen, let there … Peace. In the name of our Lord. Here is the memorial where Meliosa lies, remembered for her good (deeds), daughter of Juda and Cura Maries. She lived for twenty four years. With peace, amen. In the name of our Lord. Here is the memorial where the remembered Meliosa lies, daughter of Juda and Lady Mariah. She lived for twenty four years. In peace, amen. From a first reading, there are substantial differences between the Hebrew text on the one hand and the Greek and Latin texts on the other. The most significant lies in the inclusion of ritual formulas in the Hebrew text, which in turn are absent in the Latin and Greek texts. The non-Hebrew texts are almost identical; basically, a translation of each other. The Hebrew text begins and ends with a five-pointed pentagram, although at the time such a symbol did not have a necessary connection with Judaism. However, the five-branched candelabra that is a schematized version of a menorah certainly had such a connection. It is placed at the height of the first line of the Latin section—that is, at the end of the Hebrew section. Cantera Burgos’ and Millás Vallicrosa’s 1956 reading, as well as Noy’s from 1993 are the most complete to date. On line 1 is a standard opening formula blessing the whole of Israel, suggesting the reading that this is the opening of a prayer. On line 2 is the use of the term קבר, in the sense of its translation in Latin and Greek as “memorial”. This meaning has parallels in CIJ 900 and 1394 from Frey’s corpus, in Jaffa and Jerusalem.152 Burgos and Vallicrosa read מלליושא and not בלליושאas it was originally proposed by Graetz.153 The name Melliosa in Hebrew adds an extra L, although its reading ought to be the same as in the Latin and Greek versions. Furthermore, there is the rather archaic permanence of ( ברתbarat) and not ( בתbat) to indicate “daughter of …”. This Aramaic use of bar occurs in Rome154 and Naples.155 In a divergence from previous readings, the last letter proposed by Cantera Burgos and Millás Vallicrosa is a ר, which
152 153 154 155
Noy, 1: 250–251. Cantera Burgos and Millás Vallicrosa, Inscripciones hebráicas en España, 271. CIJ 291. CIJ 31 and 33.
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they suggested is an abbreviation for Rabbi, a reading kept by Noy.156 However, there is no evidence for this, as the term Rabbi is absent when referring to Melliosa’s father. Instead I suggest the letter ל, as in ליהודה, which gives a similar prefix to line 3 when there is a reference to Melliosa’s mother as לקירא מאריס. On line 3 we find a Hebrew translation from the Greek kyra Maries, where the mother’s name is written as מאריסwith the suffix –es in genitive. This probably implies, as stated by Noy, that the original or first written text was in Greek, followed by Hebrew. Parallels for the use of the name or title קיריסor Κυρα abound in late antique Judaism, in its male or female form. Therefore, it is entirely plausible for the text to not be a translation and assume the Hebrew text could have been written first. Lines 4 and 5 present Hebrew formulas found elsewhere in late antique Jewish inscriptions from Hispania. This includes the two Rebbis inscription from Mérida (III.6), which today is associated with Jewish izkor ( )יזכורprayers for the deceased. At the end of line 5, Cantera Burgos and Millás Vallicrosa concluded that it should be read כן תהא, כן יהיor כן רצון, all parts of prayer formulas that find closest parallels in later medieval inscriptions in Toledo and León, as well as in the Hebrew legend in the obverse of an 8th century coin (see Chapter 5).157 The Latin and Greek texts start with the formula In the name of our Lord, instead of Peace upon Israel as is the case of the Hebrew inscription. The two texts are basically identical. While the Latin text is better preserved, the fragmented preservation of the Greek text did not prevent readers from reconstructing the text based on the Latin. As such, it seems the base text was Greek and not Latin, due to the use of the term Cura Maries as a transcription of κυρα Μαριες.158 On the other hand, noteworthy is the reading, according to the two Spanish authors, of the term ΦΗΛΗΑ as a Greek transcription of the Latin word filia.159 Much like the case of the trilingual basin of Tarraco and the bilingual inscription of the didascali (Ins. 5.3), there is evidence for a multi-lingual community in which epitaphs, in order to reach the largest amount of public, required such rare and remarkable epigraphic solutions. There is demonstrable use of Hebrew for ritual purposes, which implies a significant shift in the Jewish community’s ritual functioning, as they start to abandon their targumim in favor of
156 157 158 159
Cantera Burgos and Millás Vallicrosa, Inscripciones hebráicas en España, 271; Noy, Jewish Inscriptions of Western Europe, 1993, 1: 251. Cantera Burgos and Millás Vallicrosa, Inscripciones hebráicas en España, 272. Cantera Burgos and Millás Vallicrosa, 272. Cantera Burgos and Millás Vallicrosa, 273; Noy, Jewish Inscriptions of Western Europe, 1993, 1: 252.
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returning to the original source material. Despite that, there is a permanence of Aramaic archaisms, such as the use of ברתinstead of בת, indicating an eclectic community which is in constant contact with Jewish communities from all over the Mediterranean basin—including the Eastern centers of Judaism in Palestine and Babylon. It is of note that in this inscription the person with the title is not the man, Judah, but rather the mother—the Lady (Kyra/Κυρα) Maries. This suggests that the most valuable heritage for Melliosa is not the father’s family ancestry, but the mother’s. In a society where, as mentioned, hereditary titles and honors are of importance, as in the non-Jewish society, the mention of such a title by her mother becomes a signifier of social status amongst the Jewish community— regardless of what parent allowed for this inheritance—as Jews apparently mimicked, in a modified way, Roman epigraphic practice in reflecting their political service mostly by equestrian and senatorial classes.160 This fits with the significant fact from late antique Judaism common for commemorative inscriptions of donators in synagogues to mention philanthropic women. The strict separation between genders in synagogues seems to be a product of High Middle Ages doctrine, and not to have been present in Late Antiquity. The use of Greek and Latin in 6th century Christian inscriptions provides parallels for the date of this inscription, although this date is not certain. A 4th century date, as suggested by Beinart, was rejected by Noy who, like Cantera Burgos and Millás Vallicrosa, placed it in the 6th century.161 5.3
The Bilingual Inscription of the didascali
Codification: JIWE-1, 186 (following Alföldi from 1975, RIT 1075). HEp 1997, vol. 7, no. 962. SEG LIII: 1154 GARCÍA IGLESIAS, L., Los judíos en la España antigua, ill. 7. Archaeological Museum of Tarragona (MNAT), inventory number 25397
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Rutgers, The Jews in Late Ancient Rome, 199–201. Rutgers correctly points out that Roman Jews seem not to give much importance to collegia titles which would be more adequate to imitate cursus honorum titles. Social status and imitation of political service was associated with the Jewish community. In fact, there is a general absence of Jews reflecting non-Jewish political office, with greater prevalence of the inner-Jewish titles. Cantera Burgos and Millás Vallicrosa, Inscripciones hebráicas en España, 273; Noy, Jewish Inscriptions of Western Europe, 1993, 1: 252–253.
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A fragmentary inscription from Tarragona was found in 1952 by J. Sánchez Real at the entrance of the municipal slaughterhouse, and later sent to the Institute of Secondary Education in the city. Only a left half of the original inscription was preserved (Fig. 2.21). It is made of white marble from Carrara. The fragment is 48×20 centimeters in area, and 9 centimeters thick. It consists of 17 lines, 6 of them in Latin, and 11 of them in Greek, with letters between 1 and 2.3 centimeters high. The Jewish character of this inscription is evident with the word αρχησυ[αγωγοΰ/-οσ] in line 11 and the presence of a schematized seven-branched standalone menorah at the bottom of the inscription. The reconstruction follows that of J. Gil (1982) for the Latin with translation by I. Canós (1996), and J. Curbera (in Hispania epigráfica vols. 7 in 1997, and again in 2003) for the Greek with additions by Denis Feissel in 2006 simplifying the Greek text. The transcription is based on Alföldi’s (1975) and Noy’s (1993) reconstruction: Transcription: IN NOMINE Ḍ[– –] VI REQVIESCI[T – –] TA IN QVISIC[– –] LASIES·SOCE[– –] 5 DIDASCALI·F[– –] CIT·CVM PAC[– –] ENΘΑ AKATAK[– –] PAB ΛΑTΟYΣ[– –] PA TOY MAK[– –] 10 TOY KΑ̣ […]Ε?[– –] ARXHCY[– –] KYZHKE[– –] ΔHKEω[– –] ΓHANH[– –] 15 NEYAω[– –] KYPHE[– –] TEΘNEK[E – –] (Menorah) Development: In nomine D[omini …]/ ui requiesci[t …/3 na]ta in Quisic[o … Rab]/la Sies socer[ra] / didascali fe[li]/6cit(er) cum pac[e …]/ Ενθα ακáκ[εῖται]/ Ραβλα του Σ[ίες έκύ]/9ρα τοῦ μ̣ακ[αρή]/του καί [δηκ]εο[τάτου], /αρχησυ[ναγωγοῡ/-ος ἀπὸ] /12 Κυζηκο[υ.] [Μνήα]/ δηκέω[ν ἠς/ εὐλο]/γήαν (εὐλογίαν). ἥ[της ἔζησε ἄ]/15νευ λώ[βης ἔτη …]/ κυρηε, (κυρύε) ε[ὐλογει τούς] / τεθνεῶ̣ [της]
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figure 2.21 Picture of didascali inscription courtesy of the museo museu nacional arqueològic de tarragona (mnat)
Translation (Latin in normal lettering and Greek in bold): In the name of our Lord, here lies … born in Cyzicus (Quisic …), Rabla, mother-in-law (socerra) of Sies the teacher, happily in peace. Here lies Rabla, born in Cyzicus, mother in law of Sies the blessed and keeper of the norms of the archysinagogos from Cyzicus. The memory of the righteous will be blessed (Prov. 10:7). I beg to live without blemish … Lord, praise her in her death. This inscription is very fragmented, but the best reconstruction seems to still be that of J. Gil from 1982, which was omitted by D. Noy and I. Canós. The most
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recent (and complete) additions are by J. Curbera from 2003, with further publication in 2016 in homage of Alföldi provided by Stylow.162 Noy follows Alföldi’s 1975 reconstruction for the most part, with certain additions. Lines 1 and 2 present standard formulas of funerary inscriptions. In line 3, Noy rejected Millás’ ista inquisition reconstruction as well as Alföldi’s inq(uilinus) Visigotis in favor of understanding that the letters –ta is a suffix or an ending of a name. However, J. Gil gives the correct reconstruction in his 1982 of the line nata in Quisico: that is “born in Cyzicus”.163 This proposition fits well with the Greek section, which adds more information than the Latin text while translating it. This is an epitaph with a Latin transliteration for a woman born in Cyzicus. On line 4 –la was reconstructed by Gil as the end of the name Rabla, which is found in the Greek text as well (line 8). A documented Semitic name, it should be associated with לה- רבor “abundance to her”. She was the mother-in-law of the didascali (line 5) or teacher Sies (from the Hebrew name —שיShai), also mentioned in this line. The term Latous or Lasies was a product of Millás’ erroneous reading of the last syllable of the first name and the rest of the other name.164 Alföldi too reads this as Lasies, which is what Noy adopted, although this reading should be discarded.165 The reconstruction of the last Latin formula is adequate, taking into account its association with the beginning of the Latin text, avoiding redundancy. The Greek text is more problematic in its reading, mostly due to the absence of any interpretation of its last five lines. Regardless, here too J. Gil’s interpretation appears to be the most complete, although certain valuable details ought to be noted from Canós and Curbera. The first part of the Greek text is a reproduction of what was already mentioned in Latin; therefore Gil’s reconstruction, and that of Canós and Curbera follow it: in lines 7 and 8 are the standard Greek formulas, which appeared also in Latin, of entha katákeitai, followed by the name Rabla, mother in law of Sies. From lines 9, 10, and 11 there are epithets associated with Sies such as “the blessed” or “the esteemed” (μακαρήτου) fol162
163
164 165
Geza Alföldy, “Inscripciones griegas y cultura griega en ‘Tarraco,’” trans. Jesús Carruesco García, in Géza Alföldy: Estudios tarraconenses, ed. Diana Gorostidi Pi (Tarragona: Universitat Rovira i Virgili; Institut Català d’Arqueologia Clàssica, 2017), 328–332. Juan Gil, “Notas a la epigrafía de Tarragona,” in Homenaje a Sáenz de Buruaga, ed. Sáenz de Buruaga (Badajoz: Institución Cultural “Pedro de Valencia”; Diputación Provincial de Badajoz, 1982), 363–364. See also: VV.AA., “España”, Hispania Epigraphica 1997, vol. 7 (2001): no. 962, based on Noy’s interpretation in JIWE-1, no. 186. VV.AA., HEp 1997 (7), 341. Alföldi, Die römischen Inschriften von Tarraco, RIT 1075; Noy, Jewish Inscriptions of Western Europe, 1993, 1: 258.
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lowed by the titles associated with the community, such as δηκεοτάτου, which I decided to translate as “keeper of the norms”, although it could also be “keeper of justice” (stemming from δηκέων) of the “synagogue from Cyzicus” (lines 11 and 12). From line 12 to 14 are biblical formulas from Proverbs 10:7: זכר צדיק לברכה ושם רשעים ירקב. Such formulas can be found in other Jewish inscriptions, particularly in Rome with three cases, such as JIWE-2, 307 from Vigna Randanini (μνήμη δικαίο[υ] σ[ὺ]ν ἐνκωμίῳ), JIWE-2, 112 from Monteverde (μνία δικαίου εἰς εὐλογίαν), and JIWE-2, 153 ()לברכתה תהי, although the latter is too fragmented to ensure the validity of that quote.166 Following this are two phrases (lines 14 to 18) which were, as Curbera himself claimed, exempli gratia.167 The translation is basically an exhortation and request for a blessing on the deceased. However, the reconstruction includes necessary changes in spelling, such as in κυρύε which in the inscription appears as κυρηε. I. Canós proposed an alternative reading which should be rejected as it does not have parallels in other inscriptions in the Jewish world, including terms such as “with justice we consecrate this sepulchral tombstone to the synagogue. She will die in the Lord. Amen”—converting a Jewish inscription into basically a Christian epitaph, with problems in translation and reconstruction as noted by Curbera in 1997. The bottom of the inscription includes a standalone seven-branched candelabra reminiscent of the Mértola inscription (III.4). While the fragmentary conservation of this epigraph complicates the reading, it is clear that the title Rabbi, as was proposed originally by Millás, can be discarded.168 The mention of Sias or Sies, archisynagogus of a town as far as Asia Minor in Cyzicus, suggests that during post-Roman periods the contact between Jewish communities did not falter. Familial relations were probably inter-provincial, allowing a glimpse of the networks that these Jewish communities maintained. It is clear, however, that Rabla was a local from Tarragona, as she was buried there despite her daughter being married (and probably living) in the Eastern Roman Empire. The fluency of the inscription’s Greek text compared to the Latin one, as suggested by Millás, is more evidence for the eastern origin of the family.169
166
167 168 169
Silvia Cappelletti, The Jewish Community of Rome: From the Second Century B.C. to the Third Century C.E, Supplements to the Journal for the Study of Judaism, v. 113 (Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2006), 185. VV.AA., Hispania Epigraphica, 13 (2007): 261. Noy, Jewish Inscriptions of Western Europe, 1993, 2: 259. José María Millás Vallicrosa, “Una nueva inscripción bilingüe En Tarragona,” Sefarad 17 (1957): 9.
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It is this fact that may explain the use of both Latin and Greek. The biblical verse was mostly reconstructed, although it was probably extant, making its reading correct. It is unclear whether it originated from the Septuaginta or some other Greek version of the Bible, or even whether it was translated from Hebrew, something difficult to conclude due to its limited preservation. However, it is evident that these Jewish communities operated on a common set of biblical traditions. The dating of this inscription did not vary much amongst most authors. It is firmly established as a 6th century inscription. Curbera places it after the Cyzicus earthquake in 553, after which the city entered a period of decadence. I found no basis for this assertion, and therefore rely on confirmation from a paleographic standpoint, particularly the use of the “inverted S” (Latin text), which is found the 6th to 7th century Famulus Dei inscription (Ins. 4.5). 5.4
Inscription of Isidora from Pallaresos
Codification: IHE, 290. RIT 1074 JIWE-1, 187. Found in Els Pallaresos (about 7 kilometers north of Tarragona), the Isidora inscription was discovered by a local town neighbor and registered first by Angel del Arco in 1918, who mentioned its finding in an olive grove by the town’s outskirts. It was identified in an area with sepultures made by Roman tegulae and fragments of funerary amphorae.170 It was later republished by A. Ferrúa in the priest J. Vives’ 1942 publication.171 It was further republished by Millás in 1946 (as a short note) and later by Cantera Burgos and Millás Vallicrosa with a complete translation collecting previous publications and considerations. Since then it has been kept in the Diocesan Archaeological Museum of Tarragona. This sepulchral inscription is 26.5 centimeters high, 30 centimeters wide, and 7 centimeters thick (Fig. 2.22). It is made of limestone with incisions, including Jewish symbols at the top, within and flanking the first introductory phrase. The inscription is nearly completely preserved, having 9 lines and with a well limited epigraphic space occupying most of the front of the slab in 170 171
Ángel del Arco, “Lápida hebraico-cristiana en Tarragona,” Boletín de La Real Academia de La Historia 72, no. 4 (1918): 499. Antonio Ferrúa, “Inscripciones griegas y judías,” in Inscripciones cristianas de España romana y visigoda, ed. José Vives (Barcelona: CSIC, Instituto Jerónimo Zurita, 1942), 145.
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Picture of the Pallaresos inscription from: ángel del arco, “lápida hebraico-cristiana en tarragona,” brah 72, no. 4 (1918): 496
its center. The first line has letters 3.6 centimeters high, while the rest of the lines have 1.6 centimeter high letters.172 It was transcribed as follows: Transcription: (lulav) (menorah) HI(lulav)C EST (menorah) (lulav) MEMORIA BONE RE CORDATIONIS ISID ORA FILIA BENE ME MORII IONATI ET AX 5 IAES PAUSET ANI MA EIUS IN PACE CU M OMNE ISRAEL [A]ṂẸN AMEN AMEN 172
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Development: Hic est/ memoria bon(a)e re/3cordationis Isid/ora filia bene me/morii(!) Ionati et Ax/6iaes(!) pauset ani/ma eius in pace cu/m omne(!) Israel(!)/9 [a]men amen amen. Translation: This is the burial (or commemorative monument) erected in good memory of Isidora, daughter of the well-remembered Iona and Axiaes. May your soul rest in peace with all Israel. Amen, amen, amen. As in the Annianus Peregrinus inscription from Mérida (Ins. 4.3), there are two menoroth and, in this case, three lulavim flanking and being part of the epigraphic area. This play between the figured objects and the epigraphic area stems from a concept of including the written text as part of the decorative features of the inscription itself, rather than as a separate part (see Ins. 3.3). A similar statement can be said about the Melliosa trilingual inscription (Ins. 4.1), the bilingual inscription from Tarragona (Ins. 4.2), and the Mértola funerary inscription (Ins. 3.4). Noy correctly presents a parallel for the first formula Hic est memoria bene recordationis in a Christian inscription from Bourdeaux (ICLV 1463) dated to the year 643ce.173 The name of the deceased, Isidora, does not appear in Jewish contexts. However, a masculine form of it does appear, according to Noy, in CPJ 410.174 On line 5 Ferrúa reads Ionati, as in Jonathan.175 However, Cantera and Millás read it as a genitive latinized ( יונהJonah). This is apparently confirmed by Noy with the parallel for the use of Zonati as genitive of Zonas in a Christian inscription from Italy, ILCV 2930.176 While originally the second name mentioned on line 5 was read as Axia by del Arco,177 it was rejected by Ferrúa who read it as a Latinized Greek name of Tassilus (Ταζίλης). Cantera and Millás read it as Axiaes.178 Both Ionatan/Iona and Axia are Hebrew names that denote a Jewish origin of both parents. The formula pauset anima eius in pace is virtually a translation of the Greek formula ἐν εἰρήνη ή χοίμσις αὐτοῦ,179 revealing an expected close association with Greek speakers. Noy indicated that the term pausat in pace occurs in Chris-
173 174 175 176 177 178 179
Noy, Jewish Inscriptions of Western Europe, 1993, 1: 260. Noy, 1: 260–261. Ferrúa, “Inscripciones griegas y judías,” 145. Noy, Jewish Inscriptions of Western Europe, 1993, 1: 261, also recorded as ICUR-01, 03028. del Arco, “Lápida hebraico-cristiana en Tarragona,” 498. Cantera Burgos and Millás Vallicrosa, Inscripciones hebráicas en España. Cantera Burgos and Millás Vallicrosa, 417.
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tian inscriptions as well from Gaul and Germany (ILCV, iii, p. 377), including ILCV 1154 from Narbonne that uses in signo pausati next to a chi-rho. Despite this, Noy states that the use of anima and the complement cum omne Israel makes this inscription indisputably Jewish.180 García Iglesias clearly places this inscription in a Visigothic period (7th century) based on paleographic criteria, as already proposed by del Arco.181 However, Goodenough suggested an unacceptably early 1st–3rd century date for this inscription,182 while Alföldi gave a 4th century date which also seems too early.183 The 8th century date suggested by Cantera Burgos and Millás Vallicrosa184 seems excessively late, as parallels proposed by Noy are found in the 7th century without needing to go beyond the Visigothic period. 5.5
“Samuel” Inscription from Mas Rimbau
Codification: CIL ii2, 14, 2230. AETHAM 330. HEp 2007, vol. 16, no. 562. Excavations led by David Bea Castaño and Albert Vilaseca Canals in the northwestern suburb of ancient Tarraco revealed an important necropolis with Jewish burial remains at the southern slope of the l’Olivar mount, today in Joan Antonio i Guárdias street, block PP4.185 Amongst the findings was an anthropomorphic cist burial with a stone slab having a 7-centimeter wide carved menorah, indicating a Jewish filiation of at least one of the burials (see Chapter 3). Despite having a Jewish burial in Mas Rimbau, the area was probably a mixed Jewish-Christian cemetery. One of the finds recovered from the excavations is an inscription today held at the Museu Nacional Romano de Tarragona, with inventory number
180 181 182 183 184 185
Noy, Jewish Inscriptions of Western Europe, 1993, 2: 261. del Arco, “Lápida hebraico-cristiana en Tarragona,” 499; García Iglesias, Los judios en la España antigua, 173–174. Goodenough, Jewish Symbols in the Greco-Roman Period, vol. 2: The Archaeological Evidence from the Diaspora (New Haven, USA: Panthenon Books, 1953), 59. Alföldi, Die römischen inschriften von Tarraco. Cantera Burgos and Millás Vallicrosa, Inscripciones hebraicas en España, 444. David Bea Castaño and Albert Vilaseca Canals, “Dues necròpolis del segle V d. n. E. a Tarragona: Excavacions al carrer de Prat de la Riba i al Mas Rimbau”, en Tàrraco 99. Arqueologia d’una capital provincial romana, Documents d’Arqueologia Clàssica (Tarragona: Universitat Rovira i Virgili, 2000), 157–159.
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figure 2.23
Samuel inscription from Mas Rimbau procured by codex to niquet (2004): “jews in the iberian peninsula in roman times”, sci, xxiii, p. 170 (fig. 5)
TRM 5.95-5779-1 (Fig. 2.23). Following Niquet and Hispania Epigraphica, it reads as follows: Transcription: Ṃẹmorịa / be(ne)m(erentis) p(atris?) Samueli /[– – –] Cosimi Translation: Good memory to father (?) Samuel [– – –] Cosimi (?). Being a funerary text, it has a conventional formula associated with the remembrance of a “Samuel”. The identification of this man as Jewish hinges on the name’s interpretation as such. Several problems arise from this. Firstly, the name was used by Jews, Christians, and Hellenes alike, and does not necessarily reflect a religious affiliation. Secondly, even if this was a primarily Jewish version of the name, as its declension suggests, there is ample evidence for Jewish-Christian exchange of aesthetic and architecture, as well as common funerary spaces.186 There is no reason why a Christian would not use a Jewish version of a biblical name, retaining their Christian convictions. However, even 186
Judit Ciurana i Prast, “Confessions religioses i rituals funeraris a la Tàrraco tardorromana”, in Tarraco christiana civitas, ed. Josep Maria Macias i Solé and Andreu Muñoz Melgar (Tarragona: Institut Català d’Arqueologia Clàssica, 2013), 183.
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if the person this inscription mentions could be Christian, the name is Judaizing at least. Being found in a context where a slab with a menorah was also discovered further indicates that this could very well be a “Jewish inscription”. It thus provides further insight into the Jewish presence in late antique Tarraco. The formula Memoria benemerentis reminds us of other Jewish inscriptions mentioned here, such as the Isidora inscription from Pallaresos (Ins. 5.4) or the Melliosa trilingual inscription from Tortosa (Ins. 5.2) with the formula bene memoria. Both inscriptions were found in towns located in the immediate vicinity of Tarraco. In Hispania Epigraphica it was proposed to read the word benemerentis in the second line as benememorii,187 although it seems a bit forced due to the word Memoria in the first line. In typical fashion, late antique Jewish inscriptions would make special insistence on the memory of the deceased’s merits within the community, Jewish or otherwise, as is the case of the Annianus Peregrinus Onorificus inscription from Mérida (Ins. 4.3). Interestingly, as indicated by Niquet, there is reason to assume that the “P” before the name Samueli indicates the title Pater which in Christian inscriptions is never abbreviated.188 He associates it with the honorific title Pater sinagogae, and suggests the abbreviation was to prevent confusion with a Christian title. However, Niquet does not dismiss the possibility for it indicating the term pater as a biological father. However, there is no clear evidence for that, nor is there clear evidence the abbreviation means Pater and is not a sign of a dua nomina.
6
Narbonensis (Septimania)
Often neglected in studies about Hispanic Judaism are the Jews of Septimania, who were originally part of the province of Gallia Narbonensis (southern France), and were an integral part of the history of late antique Judaism in this region. It was not until the 17th century that this northwards extension of Catalonia, what was once Languedoc, became part of the Kingdom of France and subsequently the French Republic. However, between the 4th and 7th centuries it was part of the Dioceses of Hispania, and later was part of the Visigothic Kingdom even after the fall of Toulouse to the Franks. Despite the documentation regarding the Jews of Narbonne (or the Narbonensis), there is only one bilingual inscription from this period, and it is of great interest. 187 188
VV.AA., “España,” Hispania Epigraphica 2007, vol. 16 (2010): 203. Heike Niquet, “Jews in the iberian peninsula in roman times”, 169–172.
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Bilingual Inscription of the Three Sons of Paragorus
Codification: La Blant (1865): n. 621 CIJ I, 670 JIWE-1, 189 One of the most dramatic epigraphic pieces is a marble slab published first by Tournal in Catalogue du museé de narbonne in 1864 as number 496.189 This was discovered at the courtyard of a Mesieur François Figueac, who subsequently donated the piece to the Museum of Narbonne. According to Tournal’s suppositions, the inscription was probably found to the south of the “station” (gare) of the city during its construction where, according to him, the ancient cemetery was placed. This probably means the train station that is still present today at the northeast of Narbonne’s cité, in a section of the city near the bank of the Canal de la Robine. It was republished by Le Blant in 1865,190 M. Reinach in 1889191 amongst other authors,192 before being first published in Spain in 1905 by Fita (Fig. 2.24).193 The inscription would be eventually published by Noy in 1993.194 The following is the proposed reading: Transcription: (menorah)ICREQUIESCUNT INPACEBENEMEMORI TRESFILIDNIPARAGORI DEFILIOCONDAMDNISA 5 PAUDIIDESTIUSTUSMA TRONAETDULCIORELLAQUI
189 190 191 192
193 194
Paul Tournal, Catalogue du museé de Narbonne. Et notes historiques sur cette ville (Paris: Emanuel Caillard, 1864), 44–46. Edmond Le Blant, Inscriptions chrétiennes de la Gaule anterieurs au Siécle VIII, vol. 2, 2 vols. (Paris: L’ Impremerie Imperiale, 1865). Theodore Reinach, “Inscription juive de Narbonne,” Revue des études juives 19 (1889): 76– 83. I did not have access to the studies made by Daniel Abramovich Chwolson, Corpus inscriptionum Hebraicarum: enthaltend Grabschriften aus dem Krim und andere Grab-Und Inshchriften in alter Hebraesicher Quadrtashchrift (St. Petersburg: H. Schmitzdorff, 1882), n. 33, which is cited by Reinach. Fidel Fita y Colomer, “Epigrafía hebrea y visigótica,” Boletín de la Real Academia de la Historia 47, no. 5 (1905): 367–372. Noy, Jewish Inscriptions of Western Europe, 1993, n. 189.
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Picture of the inscription of Paragorus’ three children. JIWE-1, 189 in joseph jacobs, israel lévi, executive committee of the editorial board, isaac broydé (1906): “france”, jewish encyclopedia, volume v, p. 445
UIXERUNTIUSTUSANNOS XXXMATRONAANNSXXDULCI ORELAANNOSVIII שלום על ישראל OBVERVNRANNOSECVNDODMIEGICANI REGIS
Development: (H)ic requiescunt/ in pace benememori/3 tres fili(i) d(omi)ni Paragori/ de filio Condam (Quondam) d(omi)ni Sa/paudi, id es(t) Iustus Ma/6trona et Dulciorella qui/ vixerunt Iustus annos/ XXX Matrona ann(o)s XX Dulci/9orela annos VIII. (!) שלום על ישראל/ Obverun˹t˺ (r=t?) annos secondo d(o)mi(ni) Egicani/ Regis. Translation: Here lie in peace, blessed be their memory, the three children of lord Paragorus, son of the deceased lord Sapaudo, who are the following: Iustus, Matrona, and Dulciorella; they have each lived Iustus 30 years, Matrona 20 years and Dulciorela 8 years. Peace upon Israel! They died in the second year of the reign of King Egica (688–689).
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This epitaph is clearly Jewish considering the menorah at the beginning of the inscription and the Hebrew blessing which has been seen already in the Melliosa trilingual inscription from Tortosa, as well as the basin from Tarragona, both from the 6th century. The translation and reading are relatively straightforward, with minor variations in its different interpretations. Originally the name of the father on line 3 was read as Paratori in genitive (therefore in nominative it would be Paratorus) by both Tournal and Le Blant, but eventually it was discarded by Reinach in favor of Paragorus.195 This reading was accepted in turn by Fita and later authors from then on.196 They cite an article by M. Schwab regarding the name Paragorus, stemming from the Greek Παρήγορος, which means “comforting” or “comforter”—i.e. a translation of the Hebrew name Menahem ()מנחם. As for the name Sapaudus (Sapaudi, lines 4 and 5), it is clearly of Galo-Roman origin. An infant with that name can be found in CIL XII 2033, from the 6th or 7th century and in Christian literature such as Gregorius of Tours and Ammianus Marcelinus.197 The names of Paragorus’ children (lines 5, 6) are all common Latin names, although the case of Dulciorella should be seen a name derived from female cognomina with a diminutive. Regardless, it can be assumed that Iustus could be a translation from ( צדיקTzadik), while Matrona and Dulciorella (stemming from Dulcis or Γλυκύς in Greek) are Greco-Roman names. That being the case, the name Matrona, daughter of a Rabbi Judas is found in a Hebrew inscription from Volubilis, Morocco, published by Le Bohec (n. 80).198 The blessing (line 9) is a common feature in other inscriptions from late antique Hispanic Jewry. It is found in the basin trilingual inscription, and is a formula from Psalms 125 and 128, commonly used in Jewish prayers as mentioned in Chapter 3 and in inscription 5.1 in this chapter. The Hebrew is somewhat deficient. Some letters in the word ישראלwere either lost or were not well preserved. The date of this inscription is explicitly mentioned on line 10, as any period between November 24th 688 and November 24th 689 ce, as the deceased was buried in “the second year” of King Egica’s reign. This is confirmed by the paleographic elements of this inscription, which places it firmly in late Visigothic times. The use of U instead of V in the main body of the text is also found in the two Rebbis inscription from Mérida (Ins. 4.6). 195 196 197 198
Reinach, “Inscription juive de Narbonne,” 78. Fita y Colomer, “Epigrafía hebrea y visigótica,” 369. Reinach, “Inscription juive de Narbonne,” 80. Le Bohec, “Inscriptions juives et judaïsantes de l’ Afrique romaine,” 195.
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The death of three members of one family with three different ages (30, 20, and 8) can be explained by two competing theories: the first was an epidemic that affected the Septimania region as mentioned by the 16th Council of Toledo from 692.199 The plague affected the capacity of local bishops to attend the Council of Toledo summoned by the King. The other possibility was an act of persecution by the late Visigothic kings which, according to the dispositions collected in the Councils of Toledo, were increasingly draconian and harsh.200 Reinach doubted either proposition, mostly due to the lack of written evidence for either theory. On the case of persecution, Egica did not apply his measure before the 17th Council of Toledo, seven years after the death of these three people. Reinach discards the case of a plague due to lack of direct evidence for such an event in the year 688. However, as correctly stated by Fita, the 16th Council’s conclusions already mentions the plague in the Gallia Narbonensis, which was also mentioned by the contemporary author of the Chronica Minora as ravaging the region by the late 7th century.201 Therefore, this led Fita to conclude these deaths were a product of plague rather than persecutions. However, many other accidents and events could have provoked this tragedy, without necessarily being collected by any contemporary document or testimony—a fire, a crime, other sickness, etc. The importance of this inscription, and its significance for Jewish history in Hispania, lies beyond its text. Julian of Toledo mentions in his chronicle about the rebellion of Dux Paulus under the reign of Wamba that the Jews of Narbonne aided the rebel forces, leading the King to finally expel at least a large group of them in the year 673.202 Egica was no less than the brotherin-law of Wamba, and successor to King Ervigius, who through the Liber Iudicorum written by Julian of Toledo became one of the harshest kings as of yet against Jews and, particularly, “Crypto-Jews” who converted in the previous century. However, this inscription was made with open and unquestionable iconography and text that would publicly display the Judaism of the deceased (and
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200 201 202
Juan Tejada y Ramiro, Colección de cánones y todos los concilios de la Iglesia de España y de América (en latín y castellano) con notas e ilustraciones, vol. II (Madrid: Pedro Montero, 1861), 583. See Luis García Iglesias, Los judios en la España antigua (Madrid: Cristiandad, 1978), Chapter V. Cited by Fita y Colomer, “Epigrafía hebrea y visigótica,” 369. García Iglesias, Los judios en la España antigua, 171; García Moreno, Los judíos de la España antigua, 139.
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the family). Other 7th century inscriptions such as that of Famulus Dei from Lusitania and particularly the Isidora of Pallaresos inscription from the Tarraconensis explicitly depict Jewish symbols and Jewish ritual formulas. There seem to be, from these late 7th century inscriptions, evidence for either a very successful resistance, or simply the impossibility for the Visigothic crown to apply their anti-Jewish measures upon different territories of their realm. Or, rather, there may have been an unwillingness to impose this upon the whole kingdom, instead selecting such application on different provinces depending on the political interest of each monarch.
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Mauritania Tingitana
The last province to be mentioned is Mauritania Tingitana. Like the case of the Gallia Narbonensis, this province was part of the Diocese of Hispania. During the 7th century the province was separated from the rest of Hispania following the fall of Eastern Roman Spania to the Visigoths. However, the two sides of the straits of Gibraltar would again be under a common administrative rule with the Islamic conquest in the late 7th and 8th centuries, respectively. Considering this, the province of Mauritania Tingitana, which occupies roughly northern Morocco, was seldom included in studies of late antique Hispanic Jewry until recently. Epigraphic and archaeological evidence suggests there was a large Jewish community in this region, particularly in the Roman city of Volubilis, today Kfar Pharaoun, near the modern city of Meknes (itself a site of a large and historic Jewish community during the Middle Ages). 7.1 Inscription of Mareinos Ptolemaios from Chellah (Sala) Located on the Atlantic coast, the site of Chellah or Sala was home of the city of Sala Colonia, a key port city for the province of Mauritania Tingitana. During the late medieval and modern periods, it was used by the Merinid kings as a fortified necropolis. During the French protectorate, as the authorities were building a Résidence Générale in 1916, a marble plaque was found with a Greek inscription that must have belonged to the site’s necropolis.203 It has the following text:
203
See Jeanne Robert and Louis Robert, “Bulletin épigraphique,” Revue des études grecques 59–60, no. 279–283 (1946): 371, n. 256; Le Bohec, “Inscriptions juives et judaïsantes de l’ Afrique romaine”, n. 78.
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Transcription: ΜΑΙΕΙΝΟΣ ΠΤΟΛΕΜΑΙ ΟΣ·ΙΟΥ ΔΕΟΣ (three hederae in triangular position). Development: Μαιεινος/ Πτολεμαῖ/ος Ἰου/3δεος. Translation: Maieinos Ptolemaios, Jew. Little can be said about this inscription beyond the fact that it reflects the presence of a Jewish man called Maieinos Ptolemaios in the port city of Sala Colonia. However, one detail should be noted: the need to present the person as Ioudeos, which is reminiscent of the inscription from Adra, Almería, and that of A. Luscius Roscius near Mérida. It seems that in this case the difference stems from the use of Greek rather than Latin, therefore revealing that these epigraphic solutions are found in communities and persons who speak different languages as their primary option. Recent publications indicate that this last phrase indicate provenance from Judea, instead of “being Jewish”.204 However, given that complications to differentiate between place of origin and ethnic belonging in early late antique settings, it is not possible to mark such a distinction. Comparisons with the inscriptions from Adra and that of Luscius Roscius suggest a 2nd or 3rd century date. 7.2
Inscription of “Father of the Synagogues” of Volubilis
Catalogues: Année Epigraphique, 1969, n. 748. Le Bohec, Inscriptions Juifs, n. 49.205 Found in 1952, this inscription is placed on the side of a vaulted epitaph stone found in the necropolis area of Volubilis. The structure (Fig. 2.25) is 95 centimeters long, 32 centimeters wide, and 56 centimeters high. The epigraphic area (Fig. 2.26) is 32 centimeters long and 28 centimeters high. With seven preserved lines, their letters are 3.5 centimeters high, having the following text: 204 205
Sofia Andreeva, Artem Fedorchuk, and Michael Nosonovsky, “Revisiting Epigraphic Evidence of the Oldest Synagogue in Morocco in Volubilis,” Arts, 2019, 7. Le Bohec, “Inscriptions juives et judaïsantes de l’ Afrique romaine,” 194–195.
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figure 2.25
Image of epigraphic area of the Pater tes Synagoges inscription authorship: dorieo (creative commons)206
Transcription: ωΔΕΚΟΙΜΑΤΕ ΚΑΙΚΙΛΙΑΝΟΣΟ ΠΡΟΤΟΠΟΛΙΤΕΣ ΠΑΤΕΡΤΕΣΣΥΝΑ 5 ΓΟΓΗΣΤωΝΙΟΥ ΔΕωΝΤωΝΜΕ ΜΕΝΑΣΗΕΜΕΡΑΣΓ Development: Ώδε χοιμᾶτε/ Καικιλιανὸς ὁ/3 προτοπολίτες, / πατὴρ τῆς συνα/γογης τῶν Ἰου/6δέων ἠτῶν με’, / μενας η’, ἑμέγας γ’. Translation: Here lies Caecilianus, the protopolites, father of the synagogue of the Jews, age 45 years, 7 months, 3 days. On line 2, Le Bohec proposes Καιχιλιανὸς for the name of the deceased, probably based on the extensive use of this name in other inscriptions from Volubilis. 206
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fichier:Epitaphe_en_grec_du_p%C3%A8re_de_la_synagog ue_de_Volubilis.jpg. Accessed: February 2021.
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figure 2.26 Figure representing the epigraphic area on the cupular tombstone found in Volubilis from: r. thouvenot (1969): “les origins chrétiennes en mauretanie tingitane”, revue des études anciennes, 71, pl. iv.2
However, the overuse of kappa seems to be a distinct Jewish characteristic, as it assimilates the Hebrew kaf in a Greek name—a similar feature can be found in the incantation inscription from Baetica (Ins. 2.2). Other grammatical errors, especially the apparent lack of distinction between long and short vowels, are also common in late antique Jewish inscriptions from late antiquity.207 The gens Caecilianus is widely known in Volubilis, which raises the question whether this person was a migrant, or perhaps a convert to Judaism, stemming from the same illustrious local family. Regardless, he must have held an esteemed position by the time he died at the age of 45, being Father of the Jewish Synagogue. In fact, two titles are presented here: the first is the protopolites and the other pater tes synagoges. E. Frézouls suggests in the Acta of the 5th International Congress of Greek and Latin Epigraphy (1967) that the title protopolites is given to the head of the local Jewish political organization (πολιτεύμα) within the wider city.208 There is no evidence to suggest this. Other similar titles are found in the eastern provinces of the Roman Empire, including πρῶτος τῆς πολέως, πρῶτος ἐν τῇ πόλει, πρῶτος τῆς πατρίδος, as proposed by Thouvenot.209 These titles are political in nature, and reflect the belonging of Caecilianus to the local urban aristocracy, although debate is still ongoing over the term protopolites, which literally means “first citizen”.210 Stern suggests that this title was associated to the Jewish community, while he was possibly a liberates slave associated with the Caeciliani of North Africa.211 If that is the case, this text would have important similarities to the 207 208 209 210 211
Andreeva, Fedorchuk, and Nosonovsky, “Revisiting Epigraphic Evidence,” 5. As cited in Presses Universitaires de France, “Afrique”, L’Année épigraphique 1969/1970 (1972): 245–246, n. 748. Raymond Thouvenot, “Les origines chrétiennes en Maurétanie Tingitane,” Revue des Études Anciennes 71, no. 3 (1969): 358. Andreeva, Fedorchuk, and Nosonovsky, “Revisiting Epigraphic Evidence,” 5. Karen B. Stern, Inscribing Devotion and Death: Evidence for Jewish Populations of North Africa (Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2008), 114.
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A. Luscius Roscius inscription, that describes another Jewish former slave associated with a high-ranking family (Ins. 4.1). These public titles are accompanied by the title pater tes synagoges Ioudaion, which reflects his leadership amongst the Jewish community. Therefore, while Frézouls proposed two ways to name the Jewish community in the inscription, the outward politeuma and the inward synagoge, in truth the titles mentioned in the inscription should be seen as the political achievements of Caecilianus as a citizen of Volubilis as well as a leader of the Jewish community in the city. Most authors suggest a 3rd century date based on paleographic characteristics,212 before Volubilis was abandoned by the Roman authorities and conquered by local Mauri tribes. However, the lack of imperial authority over the city did not imply the abandonment of the city at all, as it was still inhabited and in later centuries and Christian communities would be detected archaeologically. As a result, there is no certain date for the inscription, beyond belonging to a late imperial period. 7.3
Hebrew Epitaph of Matrona
Codification: Monceaux (1904): “Enquete sur l’épigraphie chrétienne d’ Afrique”, n. 152. Besnier (1904): “Recueil des inscriptions antiques du Maroc” vol. 1, n. II. IAM (1966), n. 6.213 Le Bohec (1981), n. 80. Villaverde (2001): Tingitana en la antigüedad tardía, siglos III–VII, n. 34. In 1888, a yellowish-colored stone with Hebrew inscription was found by Henri de la Martinère, which was subsequently published in 1892 by Ph. Berger. Following that two publications were made: one by P. Monceaux in Revue archéologique and another by M. Besnier in 1904 (Figs. 2.27, 28). The stone is 14×13 centimeters in area and 7 centimeters thick. There is no publication of the heights of its letters. Transcription: מטרונא בת רבי יהודהנח 212 213
Le Bohec, “Inscriptions juives et judaïsantes de l’ Afrique romaine,” 195. Georges Vadja, “Inscriptions Hébraïques,” Études d’antiquités Africaines, Inscriptions antiques du Maroc, 1, no. 1 (1966): 133–140.
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Image of Hebrew inscription of Matrona from Volubilis. To the left is the original drawing made by Ph. Berger in 1892 and republished by Monceaux in 1904 in Revue Archéologique (27)
Development: נח. יהודה3/ בת רבי/,מטרונא Translation: Matrona, daughter of Rabbi Judah. Rest (?). This short text reveals the name of the person to which this epitaph is dedicated and her illustrious father. There is reference to Matrona, a Latin name found also in the Gallic inscription from Septimania, from the late 7th century (Ins. 6.1). However, she is clearly the daughter of a man with a Hebrew name, Judah. Of note is mention of Judah’s title as Rabbi, in Hebrew. According to Berger, there are similarities between these inscriptions and those found in the synagogues of Barʾam in the Galilee, which according to him dates this inscription to the 4th century ce, used by later authors.214 With
214
Philippe Berger, “Rapport sur une inscription punique trouvée a Lixus et sur une inscription juive ancienne de Volubilis,” Bulletin archéologique du Comité des travaux historiques et scientifiques 10 (1892): 64; This date is followed by Noé Villaverde Vega, Tingitana en la antigüedad tardía, siglos III–VII: autoctonía y romanidad en el extremo occidente
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new data regarding Jewish epigraphy, the 1892 proposal is no longer acceptable. The Barʾam synagogues apparently survived for centuries, and they were constructed at the earliest in the end of the 4th century, more probably during the 5th.215 While authors have indicated the oddity of this inscription from a North African perspective,216 it has better parallels and is not unusual from Hispania in later periods. This type of funerary inscription, written in an elongated Hebrew lettering on a yellowish stone, is similar to what can be found on 9th or 10th century epitaphs from the Iberian Peninsula. These include the funerary Hebrew inscription of Lucena of Rabbi Lactosus ()רבי לכטושוש, found as a reused tombstone in an 11th century environment.217 Another is the inscription of the tombstone of Rabbi Amicus ( )רבי אמיקושfound in an Islamic funerary area of Cordoba,218 which was probably produced at a similar data as that of Rabbi Lactosus, i.e. the 9th century (see Chapter 5). The use of an exclusively Hebrew script for funerary purposes is found in the Samuel bar-Haggai inscription of Mallorca. Beyond Hispania, the closest parallels for the use of the term noach ( )נוחin a funerary environment is from the late catacomb inscriptions at Venosa, Italy, such as CIJ I, 569 and CIJ I, 611. In both the term נחis associated with the rest of the deceased’s soul ( )נוח נפשas proposed by Vadja in 1966.219 According to J.B. Frey, neither inscription is from before the mid-5th century ce nor do they have any reference to the title Rabbi. Considering the parallel for the use of the name Matrona as late as 688, the paleographic characteristics, and parallels in Venosa, it is safe to assume a late date for this inscription probably between the 7th and 8th centuries ce. In this sense, a parallel to this inscription would be the two Rebbis text from Mérida, dated to the 8th century. Therefore, this is a late inscription that should not be associated with 4th century Judaism, but of a later early medieval Judaism present in Mauritania. However, the fact that in a place such as Volubilis, Jewish communities continued to flourish centuries after the abandonment of Roman imperial authorities
215 216 217 218 219
mediterráneo, Bibliotheca Archaeologica Hispana 11 (Madrid: Real Academia de la Historia, 2001), 408. Milson, Art and Architecture of the Synagogue in Late Antique Palestine, 80, 309–310, citing Aviad, “The Ancient Synagogues at Barʾam”, 159. Karen B. Stern, Inscribing Devotion and Death, 167–168. Botella Ortega and Casanovas Miró, “El cementerio judío de Lucena (Córdoba),” 10–15, lámina 3. Placed in the Archaeological Museum of Cordoba, catalogue number DO000097. Vadja, “Inscriptions Hébraïques,” 137.
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Picture of the Matrona inscription published by Berger in 1892 and by Besnier in 1904 from: m. besnier, “recueil des inscriptions antiques du maroc”
demonstrates that these communities were an integral part of the late antique urban and political landscape of the city regardless of the region’s political fortunes. 7.4
Yosef ben Rabbi Nahman
Codification: IAM I, 5. Villaverde (2001): Tingitana en la antigüedad tardía, siglos III–VII, n. 35. The first of two Hebrew inscriptions from Volubilis, which remained unpublished until 1954, was probably from the same area where the Hebrew epitaph of Matrona was found (see Ins. 7.3). It was discovered by Thouvenot in 1886. To date, there are no physical descriptions of the piece that was published. The first publication was made by Février in 1954,220 followed by G. Vadja in 1966.221 The last review of this inscription was done by Villaverde in 2001.222 220 221 222
James Germain Février, “Découvertes épigraphiques récentes en Afrique du Nord,”Bulletin archéologique du Comité des travaux historiques et scientifiques, 1954 (1956), 42. Vadja, “Inscriptions Hébraïques,” 136–137. Villaverde Vega, Tingitana en la antigüedad tardía, siglos III–VII, 408.
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Picture of Yosef ben Rabbi Nahman inscription as published by g. vadja in 1966, iam i, 5 (pl. iii)
The epigraphic area is placed within an arched doorway that frames it (Fig. 2.29). The arch is semicircular and is sustained by two pillars. Such decoration, according to Villaverde, is also found in 4th century Christian inscriptions, thus providing its date. It includes the following text: Transcription: […]יוסף ב […]רבי ͙ נח […]תנוח נ בצרור [.]החיי
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Development: [ החיי]ם/ בצרור/[ תנוח נ]פשו3/[רבי ͙ נח]מן/[יוסף ב]ן Translation: Yosef, son of Rabbi Nahman, may his soul rest in the ligaments of life. The inscription has lost half of its text. However, it can be reconstructed with relative fidelity. It consists of two parts: the name, a man called Yosef, son of a Rabbi, and then a blessing formula which has already been seen in the trilingual inscription of Melliosa from Tortosa (Ins. 5.3). The presence of a Rabbi, the type of short direct text, and the context of being found together with other similar inscriptions such as the Hebrew epitaph of Matrona, suggest a similar date to the others. However, the parallel with Christian inscriptions, while indicative of a 4th century date, can also be an argument for a later, 5th or 6th century chronology. The name from line 1 is common in Jewish contexts, particularly Palestinian ones. The presence of such a name and this early reference to a Rabbi is considered below, in the analysis of the next inscription. The reconstruction of the father’s name from line 2 was read as Nahman. Février suggested it to be a bet; however, as can be seen in line 3 the letter nun’s horizontal line extends under the next letter, as occurred with נוfrom the word תנוח. It was assumed that the last seen letter from line 2 was a het, therefore allowing for the name Nahman. However, a mem cannot be discounted, leading to some variation of the Greek name Νουμήνιος found commonly in Jewish inscriptions in Rome as Νουμένις (CIJ 142), Νουμ(μ)ήνις (CIJ 143), Νουμήνις (feminine, CIJ 305), and Νωμητωρα (CIJ 318). Considering the inscriptions of Matrona (Ins. 7.3) and of Judah (Ins. 7.5), there seems to be greater probability for a Hebrew name than a Greek one. A further noticeable trait of this inscription is the fact that the deceased’s name is devoid of the title Rabbi. However, the absence of the title when referring to the deceased’s first name should not be taken as proof he was not given the title in life, considering the two Rebbis inscription from Mérida where in its first section “Iacob” is devoid of the title Rebbi, which does appear at the bottom as “Rebbi Iacob” by his son Simeon (see Ins. 4.6). We can assume this to be a rhetorical device present in late antique Jewish inscriptions with the title Rebbi or רבי.
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7.5
Inscription of Judah from Volubilis
Codification: IAM I, 4. Villaverde (2001): Tingitana en la antigüedad tardía, siglos III–VII, n. 36. This inscription was found and published in similar conditions to that of Yosef ben Rabbi Nahman (Fig. 2.30). Sadly, like the previous epigraph, there is no published physical description of this inscription. It remained unpublished until 1966 by Vadja,223 and later published once more by Villaverde.224 Both agree on the following text: Transcription: […][ ׅשׅמ ׅו.יהודה ב נוח נפש
Development: נוח נפש/[יהודה ׅב]ן[ שמו]אל Translation: Judah son of Shmuel, may his soul rest. Line 1 is the worst preserved. The first name is clearly Yehudah or Judah. The word for son of … should be seen either as ben ( )בןor the Aramaic bar ()בר, as the bet is clearly seen, being partially preserved. The second letter has not been preserved at all. The father’s name is more complicated to detect. It seems there is evidence for a samekh or a shin, followed by a crudely made mem and what is certainly either a daleth, vav, or resh. Most of these interpretations are somewhat speculative, as these letters are badly preserved and are not clearly visible in available published photographs. However, from the evidence gathered, and considering the prevalence of Hebrew names in these inscriptions, the name Shmuel or Samuel was suggested. Line 2 has the formula seen in Venosa נוח נפשor may your soul rest. This formula is reminiscent of the Hebrew epitaph of Matrona from Volubilis (see Ins. 7.3), the Melliosa inscription from Tarragona (Ins. 5.2), and the Paragorus inscription in Narbonensis (Ins. 6.1). It is probable that this inscription is contemporaneous to the other Hebrew ones, in which case it cannot be dated prior to the 5th century. Neither Vadja nor Villaverde gave a concrete date for the inscription. 223 224
Vadja, “Inscriptions Hébraïques,” 136. Op. Cit.
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Picture of Judah from Volubilis inscription as published by g. vadja in 1966, iam i, 4 (pl. iii)
The empty lower part of the piece suggests that this tombstone was placed vertically. However, there is an “extra space” for the inscription’s continuation on line 2. The intention was to place a short text referring to the deceased’s name and a wish for a peaceful rest, as seemed to be common practice in late antique Volubilis regarding Hebrew inscriptions. 7.6
Latin Inscription of Sabbatrai from Volubilis
Codification: Frézouls (1956): MEFR, n. 34. IAM II, n. 529. Le Bohec (1981): n. 81. The absence of published photographs of this epigraph prevents an independent assessment of the preserved text. First published by Frézouls, its provenance is from the necropolis area of Volubilis, although its origin is not described in detail. It has a “mutilated cupula” form, 79× 51 × 33 centimeters. The epigraphic area is 25×22 centimeters, and its letters are between 2 and 3 centimeters high. Eight lines are readable, although the end of the text,
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specifically its last line, is badly preserved. From past publications the following text can be reproduced: Transcription: DMS ANTSABBA T⟨RAI⟩ VIX ⟨AN⟩ NIS III MEN 5 SES·V ⟨ET⟩ DIE BVS IIII PATER PISSIMUS FE C T Development: D(is) M(anibus) S(acrum)/ Ant(oni) Sabba/3trai vix(it) an/nis III men/ses V et die/6bus IIII pater/ pi(i)ssimus fe/c[i]t. Translation: Sacred Manes Gods, Antoni Sabbatrai lived 3 years, 5 months and 4 days. The most pious father did this (dedication). There is a reduction of certain words to preserve space. On line 3 is the union of RAI in the suffix –trai, and likewise in the letters AN at the beginning of the word annis. Likewise, there is the union of E and T on line 5’s et. Letters are taken away, such as an I in piissimus from line 7. Frézouls proposes the reading of the cognomen as Sabbatari, which was reproduced in IAM II, 529.225 Le Bohec suggests the reading of Sabbatr[a]i, which implies the A was not visible. While assuming his reading is correct, the A is apparently clearly visible which makes that specific detail unacceptable. The cognomen is quite rare particularly for this province. Similarities are mostly found in the immediate environs of Carthage, as cited by Frézouls, such as Sabbatis on two inscriptions in that city’s environs.226 In Rome, its appearance as a cognomen is found in an inscription from the immediacies of Rome (but of an uncertain origin) which says Isacis/Sabbatius/Felix Tineosus Iudaeus/Cretic[u]s Iudeus.227 Another use of its cognomen is found in a Via
225
226 227
Edmond Frézouls, “Inscriptions nouvelles du Volubilis (II),” Mélanges d’archéologie et d’ histoire 68 (1956): 100; Maurice Euzennat et al., Inscriptions antiques du Maroc, 2. Inscriptions latines, vol. 1 (Paris: Éditions du Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 1982), 326. CIL VIII, 24976; CIL VIII, 9114. CIJ I2, 530. Frey dated it to the 4th century.
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Portuensis inscription as one of the illustrious ancestors of a L(ucio) Maecio L(ucii), with the name Lucia Maecia Sabbatis (Sabatidi).228 The name Sabbatius is found standalone on an inscription from the Via Portuensis.229 In the Via Appia the name appears in Greek in the Vigna Randanini catacomb as Σαββατιδι230 and Σαββατις.231 The wide use of these inscriptions in Jewish contexts suggest this Antoniae Sabbatrai was either Jewish or Judaizing—in other words, a convert. This would explain the use of the formula DMS, which is an essentially polytheistic Latin expression. It is important to remember that the use of DMS is not absent in Jewish contexts, as was evidenced by Frey.232 However, the use of this formula is rare, and in all cases, there is a general lack of consideration regarding the archaeological context of these inscriptions or their association with Judaism. As a result, Rutgers considered the inscription to be non-Jewish, although he does not specify the argumentation behind this position.233
8
Analysis of the Inscriptions
Including the Ilici synagogue inscriptions (to be considered in Chapter 7), a total of 26 epigraphic objects have been detected, all associated in some way with the presence of Jewish communities in the provinces of Hispania. The objects span a period from the 2nd to the 8th century, in total more than six hundred years, and include regions as diverse as Southern France, Portugal, Catalonia, the Balearic Islands, Extremadura, Andalusia, and Northern Morocco. Any conclusions from these epigraphic remains should be regarded as tentative, since out of these 25 inscriptions, only 4 (16%) have been properly contextualized. If inscriptions with a general context are included (that is, an origin testimony allowing a rough approximation, such as a construction site or the burial area of a settlement), this number rises to 16 (64%). The rest are either decontextualized due to their reuse in later medieval or modern periods or their origin was not properly documented, thus being completely lost (such as the Adra inscription—2.1).
228 229 230 231 232 233
CIJ I2, 470. CIJ I2, 477: Sabbatius in pace. CIJ I2, 155. CIJ I2, 156, 157. CIJ I2, 287, 464, 524, 531, 678. Rutgers, The Jews in Late Ancient Rome, 272, note 17.
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chapter 2 Percentages of inscriptions according to language used
Languages
Inscriptions
table 2.3
Total
Latin
Greek
Hebrew
25 (100%)
14 (56%)
7 (28%)
9 (36 %)
Percentage of inscription languages separating multi-lingual epigraphy
Languages Total
Inscriptions
Only Latin
Only Only Trilingual Bilingual Bilingual Greek Hebrew L+G+H G+L L+H
25 9 5 (100%) (36%) (20%)
6 (24%)
2 (8%)
1 (4%)
2 (8%)
Regardless, this number is greater than just a few decades ago, when David Noy published his Jewish Inscriptions of Western Europe. Inscriptions such as 2.3, 3.1 and those of the Mauritania province were not included in his work. Nor did Noy include other inscriptions such as the decorated brick from Acinippo (Ins. 2.3) and the Angel’s Incantation (Ins. 2.2). Therefore, though still limited, there is a larger amount of evidence that can be used to formulate some tentative conclusions with the objective of contextualizing the Ilici synagogue. 8.1 Linguistic Aspects The inscriptions provide us with three languages used by the Jewish communities in Hispania: Latin, Greek, and Hebrew (Table 2.2). The bilingual and trilingual inscriptions cause some overlap in the percentages. Taking this into account, and separating these inscriptions from the rest, results are in rounded percentages found in Table 2.3. The above charts show the significant fact that during this period there were numerous Hebrew inscriptions emerging from Jewish environments, and relatively few Greek ones. This difference is also seen when considering overlapping multi-lingual inscriptions, in which case Hebrew use is still greater than
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Percentages according to language within each province
Languages Total
Only Latin
Only Greek
Only Trilingual Bilingual Hebrew L+G+H G+L
2 2 (100%) (100 %) Baetica 3 1 2 (100%) (33.3%) (66.6%) Cartaginensis 2 1 1 (100%) (50%) (50 %) Lusitania 6 5 (100%) (83.33%) Tarraconensis 5 2 (100%) (40%) Narbonensis 1 (100%) M. Tingitana 6 1 2 3 (100%) (16.67%) (33.33%) (50 %)
Bilingual L+H
Balearica
1 (17.67%) 2 (40%)
1 (20%) 1 (100%)
Greek. This review would not be complete without consideration of their discovery according to province (Table 2.4). The 100% values are to be ignored as they are a product of only one inscription in that province. The highest value is that of Lusitania’s only Latin inscriptions (83.33%). The relatively large number of Jewish inscriptions from that province, specifically from the city of Mérida, did not correspond with linguistic variety. All Lusitanian inscriptions include Latin, as it the overwhelmingly predominant language of that province. The only exception is the Titulus Pictus inscription from Mérida (Ins. 4.2) with a Hebrew and Latin text. However, it was imported to that province from Baetica. Merging multi-lingual inscription percentages, the next highest value is that of multi-lingual inscriptions in the Tarraconensis (40 %). While admittedly a small sample number (there are only 5 confirmed Jewish inscriptions from the province), it is still telling that the majority are multi-lingual, while only two have one written language: the Isidora inscription from Pallaresos (Ins. 5.4), and the Samuel inscription from Tarragona (Ins. 5.5). The contrast between Tarraconensis and Lusitania is indicative of a wider phenomenon.
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While there was a different sample number between Baetica and Mauritania Tingitana, the similarities between the two provinces are important. In both provinces there are two Judeo-Greek inscriptions for each Judeo-Latin one. Similarly, the prevalence of Greek is most notable at sites with direct contact with the Mediterranean: Volubilis (Mauritania), Ilici (Carthaginensis), Acinippo/Ronda (Baetica) and Tarraco (Tarraconensis). In comparison, Lusitania has no Greek inscriptions, nor any Hebrew beyond that on an important vase from Baetica. This leads to identification of a distinction of Jewish communities based on preferred languages. It seems as if the Jewish communities from Lusitania were exclusively Latin users, even though they had access to both Hebrew and Greek to produce their epitaphs. On the other hand, communities looking towards the Mediterranean coast show a considerably greater use of Greek. The multi-lingual inscriptions from Tarragona and Narbonne should be placed in this context, in communities whose direct communication was made much easier and, therefore, required use of translations for the messages transmitted through funerary inscriptions. It is in this context that we should place the Greek inscriptions of the Ilici synagogue (see Part 2). Exclusively Greek inscriptions were not uncommon, as demonstrated by evidence from Baetica and Mauritania. It is no accident that Ilici was part of the province of Spania under Eastern Roman control together with the eastern Andalusian coast and a large part of North Africa. Even though Ilici’s synagogue mosaic was constructed before the Eastern Roman invasion, the community-based, inter-provincial networks were already present, based on already existing trade and communication networks between these regions. Cultural and ideological exchanges, including linguistic preferences, would also be detected. The Balearic Islands seem an anomaly, as the inscriptions found are exclusively in Hebrew. However, despite the lack of Greek and Latin inscriptions, these are probably yet to be found in future excavations since only two Jewish inscriptions were identified there. The two presented inscriptions are also centuries apart, have different origins, and different uses. It is significant that the Ses Fontanelles inscriptions are texts that indicate the name of the deceased and/or owner of the lead plaques, and nothing else. The rather laconic nature of these inscriptions is reminiscent of the Hebrew texts from Volubilis in Mauritania, in which these are short and mostly consist of a name and a short blessing (VII.4, 5 specifically). Comparing the Volubilis Matrona epitaph with the Ses Fontanelles plaques shows a clear similarity, although their form differs. It can be assumed then that the Balearic Islands were part of this network of Jewish communities that included the eastern Iberian Peninsula and northern Morocco.
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From a linguistic point of view, there is recognition of the presence of two types of Jewish communities in Hispania: one is a Hellenized Classical Judaism, which shares the characteristics of Jewish communities found in Rome, the early stages of the Venosa catacombs, the immediacies of Carthage, and other sections of the central Mediterranean, including the majority of the Iberian Peninsula; the other is a Latinized/Romanized Jewish Community, seen specifically in the province of Lusitania. From these inscriptions, common features with the speech practices of Jewish populations from elsewhere in the Empire can be seen. Leon already pointed out in his The Jews of Ancient Rome that there were specific spelling mistakes common amongst Jews from Late Antiquity. These mistakes reveal the way that these people spoke in the past. While an extensive philological study is beyond the scope of this project, some aspects detected during this study can be presented: – The confusion between αι and ε in Greek inscriptions can be seen in the Ilici synagogue with the confusion between καί and κε in the northern inscription (see Chapter 7). However, this is not only limited to Greek. In the Latin inscription of Annianus Peregrinus is the replacement of sinagogae by sinagoge, which might be a product of the same phonetic phenomenon. The word is of Greek origin, and therefore its original pronunciation would stem from Jewish Greek speakers. In Rome this can be seen in several inscriptions, including CIJ 391 and 511 (χε for χαί) as well as 291 (Ιουδεα for Ιουδαία) amongst other more common cases (χειτε for χεῖται).234 This interchangeability between ae and e in Latin inscriptions from Rome is also present in cases such as CIJ 68, 250, 213, 217, amongst others. Such confusion occurs regardless of declensions.235 – The abandonment of aspiration in letters such as χ and θ can be seen by them being commonly confused with κ and τ. In the case of Hispania, we find this phenomenon in the angel’s names from the Baetica incantation (II.2—Μικαήλ instead of Μιχαήλ) and the “Father of the synagogue” inscription from Volubilis (Καικιλιανὸς instead of Καιχιλιανός). This phenomenon occurs particularly in inscriptions from Rome with the formula ἐνθάδε κεῖται, such as CIJ 277 when we find ενθαδε χειθε εθων instead of ἐνθάδε κεῖται ἐτῶν. Other examples of this confusion are found in CIJ 384, 397, and 391.236 These speaking habits were probably mere adoptions of phonetic phenomena of the local people of the differed (western) provinces which Jews inhabited. 234 235 236
Leon, The Jews of Ancient Rome, 79. Leon, 87. Leon, 82–83.
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In Rome, Jews did not adopt any specific accentual distinction from their fellow Latin or Greek speakers. However, it is also significant that Roman Jews were more Greek than Latin speakers, which is not the case in Lusitania. While Jews from Hispania share speaking habits with those of Rome, the distinction between the Jews of Hispania lies mostly in the language they preferred to use than the way they spoke it. 8.2 Naming Practices Thematically, most of these inscriptions are funerary or commemorative (a total of 18, or 72%). The rest include 3 tituli (12%), two of which were part of synagogue architecture (8%), and one amulet incantation (4 %). From funerary inscriptions we find two features that are of interest: onomastics and age. It is important to note the presence of one name in the Ilici inscriptions, specifically the southern aisle mosaic text (inscription 3—see Chapter 7, 4.1.2.3). To review the names that appear from these inscriptions, it was decided to count them per individual. In other words, a name such as Ses Fontanelles’ Shmuel bar-Haggai include two names: Shmuel and Haggai. Both would be considered Semitic. Only people’s names are considered, and not names from literary or religious texts and works (such as those that can appear in Hebrew verses or names of angels from the Baetica incantation or decorated brick). The names are classified according to the origin of the word. In other words, names such as Paragorus, even if it can be a translation of מנחם, is considered as Latin. On the other hand, Sabbatrai is considered a Semitic name as its origin comes from Shabbat, even if it is written in Latin letters. In total there were thirty-five names, ten of which are Latin (28.5 %), four are Greek (11.5%), eighteen are Semitic (51.5%), and three are hybrid, basically a mixture of Latin and Semitic (8.5%). The percentages might be somewhat inflated for Semitic names, if considering that most names presented in Hebrew include the name of the deceased’s father. However, such counting methods are also applied in Latin and Greek cases, such as the trilingual Melliosa or the Isidora of Pallaresos inscriptions (Ins. 5.2, 5.4 respectively). In the bilingual inscription of Narbonne, we find five Latin names in one case alone, even if two of those names were probably translations from Hebrew counterparts (Ins. 6.1). In two cases with hybrid origins for the names (such as Annianus Peregrinus Onorificus and Annia Salomonula), they should be considered Latinizations. This suggests a preference for the Latin language when transcribing the deceased’s name, rather than depending on Greek or Hebrew. This is particularly true when considering that these hybrids follow Latin naming protocols of
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Onomastic distribution according to origin language amongst provinces
Names Balearica Baetica Cartaginensis Lusitania Tarraconensis Narbonensis M. Tingitana
Total 3 (100%) 1 (100%) 1 (100%) 6 (100%) 10 (100%) 5 (100%) 9 (100%)
Latin
Greek
Semitic
Hybrid
3 (100 %) 1 (100 %) 1 (100%) 3 (50%)
5 (100%) 2 (22.22%)
1 (16.67 %)
2 (20%)
2 (33.33 %) 8 (80 %)
1 (11.11 %)
5 (55.56 %)
1 (11.11 %)
dua and tria nomina. In the case of Antoni Sabbatrai, a genuinely hybrid name is found, although it is noticeable how the preferred nomen is in Latin, followed by a clearly Semitic name. Regardless, the prevalence of Hebrew names is substantial, as is the low number of Greek names, although that can be a result of the relatively low number of Greek Jewish inscriptions. Divided amongst provinces, as can be seen in Table 2.5. The provinces’ distribution reflects, once more, a curious case where Lusitania has a high prevalence of Latin. The alternative to Latin in this case is not Greek, but Hebrew. Simply put, Greek seems to not have been as widely used in naming as either Latin or Latinized Hebrew, such as the case of the of the two Rebbis inscription where the Hebrew title was transcribed to Latin in the 8th century. In the titulus pictus the Hebrew lettering merely transcribed the Latin name of the proprietor. In the case of Balearica, there is again the same problem of a small sample number, with only three Hebrew names, including one in a titulus. In the Cartaginensis there is only the name from the Ilici building. In the Narbonensis there is evidence of one inscription, which could reflect the naming practice within one family, and not that of the local Jewish community. Even so, it is significant that here all names are Latin, and none are Greek. This even includes
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the Gallo-Roman name Sapadius, father of Paragorus who ordered the placement of this epitaph for his three children. In the Tarraconensis, on the other hand, there is a general absence of Latin names. Rather, one finds a predominance of Hebrew, with two Greek versus five Semitic ones. A similar situation can be described about Mauritania, where most of the recorded names, including the sole Latin inscription recovered, were in Hebrew. Two Latin names are found (Caecilianus and Matrona), with one Greek (Mareinos Ptolemaios), although the latter could be considered a Hellenized name of Latin origin. The one hybrid, Antoni Sabbatrai, introduces the Semitic name into a Latin naming practice of a dua nomina. The mixture of the two names might suggest, as proposed by Le Bohec (see VII.6), that the deceased comes from a converted family. Both linguistic and onomastic evidence suggest Jews were aware of, and in some cases used, local names. A question arises whether the prevalence of Hebrew or Semitic names are the result of modern scholars’ search for Jewish objects (including Jewish-sounding names), thus provoking a sample bias when studying the subject of Jewish epigraphy. However, the samples collected in this study included only those inscriptions whose text or decoration clearly allude to the Jewish character of the people mentioned or the object itself, or ones that present a context that suggests Jewish affiliation. Other Semitic names like the abovementioned Thaddeus inscription were not included. Therefore, in inscriptions that unambiguously reflect their Jewish character, it is evident that the prevalence of Semitic names is a clear feature of Hispanian Jewish communities. Comparing this to the wider data as collected by authors like Leon and Rutgers on the Roman Jewish community, we find a distinct picture. In Rome, Jews overwhelmingly accepted Latin and Greek names more than Semitic ones.237 46.1% (254) of names were only Latin; 31.8% (175) were only Greek; 13.1% (72) were only Semitic. Hybrids included Latin and Greek (35 or 6.4 %) or Latin and Semitic (12, or 2.2%). When excluding hybrids, the total ratio is: Latin 54.6 %, Greek 38.1%, and Semitic 15.2%. As seen above, only Lusitania has numbers comparable to Rome. While the linguistic practices of Hispanian Jews were comparable to their Roman counterparts, naming practices seem to be very different. Unlike Roman communities where Semitic names were a clear minority, in Hispania there is a significantly greater prevalence. Could this be a distinctive feature for the Jewish community compared to the rest of Hispano-Romans?
237
Leon, 107–108.
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Distribution of name origin according to sex, including parent names
Language
Male
Female
Only Latin Only Greek Only Semitic Hybrid Total
7 (20%) 1 (2.86%) 15 (42.86%) 2 (5.71%) 24 (68.57%)
3 (8.57%) 2 (5.71%) 3 (8.57%) 1 (2.86%) 9 (25.71%)
Indeterminate
1 (2.86 %)
1 (2.85 %)
The distribution of name origin according to sex gives us an expected picture in Table 2.6. As one can see, there is a predominance of male names, due to the practice of inscribing the name of the deceased with their father’s name, and not with their mother’s, save on certain cases such as the Melliosa trilingual inscription from Tortosa and the Isidora of Pallaresos inscription near Tarragona. This is best detected with the relative predominance of Semitic male names in the overall number of inscriptions. The female naming ratios are fairly balanced out. Considering the Annia Salomonula inscription as Latin, the number of female Latin names rises to four, which is more than either Semitic or Greek female names. Like their male counterparts, female Semitic names still surpass Greek names in number. Furthermore, if we do not consider the inclusion of the father’s name in Hebrew inscriptions, the number of male Semitic names remains at nine, more than any other group from Table 2.6. However, the ratio becomes similar to that of the female names column. What about the evidence of dua and tria nomina? Only a handful of inscriptions reveal the use of dua nomina. There are only two that could classify as tria nomina, one of them from a period where such naming practices were already abandoned or were irrelevant. Dua nomina appear thrice: twice in Mauritania and once in nearby Baetica. The cases of Mauritania are males, one in Greek (Mareinos Prolemaios) and the other in Latin (Antoni Sabbatrai). The latter’s early age would naturally leave him with only a dua nomina, as he did not become a full citizen. The case of Annia Salomonula clearly reveals the presence of a dua nomina, which, as is the case for women, was her complete name. This reveals the integration of her family to Roman naming practices, although this does not necessarily reveal the achievement of Roman citizenship with complete tria nomina for her male family members. A complete tria nomina is found in
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the A. Lucius Roscius inscription from Mérida. It is evident that this 2nd century freedman has adopted Roman naming customs and with it a completely Latin name. His praenomen remains unclear, although it could possibly be a Roman Aulus or some variation of Annius as seen elsewhere in Judeo-Hispanic names. Finally, there is the apparent tria nomina of Annianus Peregrinus Onorificus. It is probably a name derived from a two-part Annianus Peregrinus, with the added title Honorificus which would make it appear like a tria nomina. However, there is no nomen to signify the gens, as expected from late inscriptions such as those from the 5th century. This is a quite typical Latin name from the 5th century in a Latin-speaking environment such as that of Augusta Emerita. Inscriptions from later dates are all either one singular name or mention the name of the father to indicate family filiation. 8.3 Sex and Age from Funerary Inscriptions It is important to note that the mention of males and females in commemorative inscriptions is also slanted towards males. Even so, taking into account the sex of the funerary and commemorative inscriptions’ protagonists (excluding the southern aisle inscription of the Ilici building’s commemorative inscription, which is indeterminate), there are twenty inscriptions, thirteen male (65%) and seven female (35%). In short, it is nearly a 2:1 ratio in favor of males. However, that may be due to the small sample number, which would cause any new additions to change the ratio percentages significantly. From funerary inscriptions, quite a few reflect the age of the deceased—12 in total, as presented in Table 2.7 with comparison to their sex. From only one case can the adult age be inferred: Rabla, mother-in-law of Sies from Tarragona. The fact that she is mentioned as mother-in-law is an indication of being of an advanced stage of adulthood, at least for the late antique period. On the other hand, Samuel of Tarragona’s age is unpublished, although the tomb where it was found belonged to an adult. From the table below it can be derived that the mention of age of death occurs in almost equal number for the sex of the deceased, and that the sex distribution is fairly even (7 males, 5 females, 1 indeterminate). This is contrasted with the overall sex ratio in the inscriptions mentioned above. The explanation for this is probably found in the lack of enough samples to have a complete picture of Hispanojewish funerary practices, which would allow us to know whether there was gender-based difference in funerary customs. Conversely, when it comes to age there is a predominance of adults. Of the thirteen inscriptions belonging to aged individuals, three are pre-pubescent children or infants (23.1%), four are young adults before the age of 35 (30.7 %),
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161
List of deceased names and their ages
Inscription number
Sex
Age(s) of death
2.1 (Annia Salomonula) 4.3 (Annianus Peregrinus Onorificus) 4.4 4.5 4.6 (R. Iacob son of R. Senior) 5.2 (Meliosa) 5.3 (Rabla, mother-in-law of Sies) 5.5 (Samuel of Tarragona) 6.1 (Iustus) 6.1 (Matrona) 6.1 (Dulciorella) 7.2 (Caecilianus) 7.6 (Antoni Sabbatrai)
F M
1 year, 4 months, 1 day 45 years Unknown (More than) 21 years 63 years 24 years Adulthood (unknown age) Adulthood (unknown age) 30 years 20 years 8 years 45 years, 7 months, 3 days 3 years, 5 months, 4 days
M M F F M M F F M M
two are middle aged individuals before the age of sixty (15.4 %), one is elderly beyond the age of sixty (7.7%), one is unknown (7.7 %), one has a mentioned age that was not preserved (7.7%), and one is an adult without a specific age (7.7%). In total the percentage of adults is 69.23 %, the majority. Again, the small number of samples should be considered when making any conclusions regarding the life and health practices of the Hispanojewish communities. There is a significant practice of mentioning with detail the age of death of individuals whenever it is possible. However, rounding of the age does occur in inscription 4.5 and probably in that of Annianus Peregrinus (Ins. 4.3). Only one adult, Caecilianus of Volubilis, has a specific age inscribed, to the day. That could probably be due to the data available for his epitaph’s makers, as he was a public official as much as a community leader. 8.4 Language for Cult Practices and Formulae Here “cult practices” mean specifically actions or customs associated with synagogue rituals and/or Jewish religious practices without a funerary nature. There are in total five inscriptions associated with this feature. Three are linked to synagogue architecture (the Tarragona trilingual basin, the decorated brick from Acinippo, and the Ilici synagogue mosaic), one for apparent rituals in the synagogue (grafitto inscription from Cástulo), and one personal incantation (lamella from Baetica).
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A common feature from all these inscriptions is the significant absence of Latin, except for in the trilingual basin of Tarragona. Unlike the general trend in linguistic preference for Jewish inscriptions during Late Antiquity, and despite the naming practices, both of which present a reduced use of Greek, it is in inscriptions associated to synagogues that a clear presence of Greek is seen, at least in earlier centuries. Considering funerary inscriptions with blessing formulas, there is a trend where Hebrew starts to take increased presence as a preferred religious or ritual language. This is clearly the case in the Melliosa trilingual inscription from Tortosa, where the prayer is placed exclusively in Hebrew, while the Latin and Greek texts do not have such a feature. In 7th century inscriptions, blessings in Hebrew, such as in the bilingual one from Narbonensis ()שלום על ישראל, are detected. Naturally, a similar blessing is seen in the trilingual Tarragona basin. Curiously, here the Latin text receives predominance over the badly preserved and unavoidably short Greek text. The translation of a Greek formula into Latin is found in the Isidora of Pallaresos inscription, which whilst it may be evidence for the maintenance of Greek rituals in synagogue environments, seems to have been cast aside in favor of a Latin translation. In Mauritania there is a clear predominance of Hebrew in later centuries and the abandonment of Greek starting from the 5th century. However, the only preserved ritual formula is that of the inscription of Yosef ben Rabbi Nahman (VII.4), which reproduces the same one as the inscription of Melliosa (תנוח )נפשו בצרור החיים. The use of Hebrew blessings is also noticeable in the other two Hebrew inscriptions from Volubilis, with formula נחor נוח נפש, with comparable use in the Venosa catacomb (see Ins. 7.3 and 7.5). Could this be evidence for a chronological change in preferred language for rituals by the Hispano-Jewish communities during Late Antiquity? The trend is detected elsewhere in late antique Judaism, such as the catacombs of Venosa, where the tombs have an increased predominance of Hebrew and specifically Hebrew names through the 4th to 6th centuries.238 Even so, it is important to remember that catacombs such as Venosa or the evidence from Aphrodisias in North Africa reflect a provincial realty that should not be confused with that of the capital Rome. Likewise, the case of the urban centers of Hispania, whilst important, are still subordinate to Rome itself.
238
Rutgers, The Jews in Late Ancient Rome, 155–157; Noy, Jewish Inscriptions of Western Europe, 1993, 1: 61–149, numbers 42–116.
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Regardless of the above, the predominance of Greek in 3rd to early 5th centuries in Hispania is an unavoidable conclusion. The question is whether Jews used that language for prayers as much as for incantation inscriptions and architectural features. There does not seem to be a discordance between the case of the Ilici building and other architectural and ritual inscriptions associated with synagogues and religiosity from the Iberian Peninsula. While this theory is tempting, it is evident that until more discoveries are published, it will be impossible to establish this phenomenon in Hispanian Judaism as more than speculation.
9
Conclusions
Epigraphic evidence provides a voice from the Hispanojewish communities that lived in these Western reaches of the Roman world. The story they present, considering other archaeological remains found around the provinces of the Diocesis Hispaniarum and the neighboring province of Septimania, reveals a reality that sometimes strikes one as contradictory to the conventional historiographical narrative regarding Visigothic persecutions. The most striking aspect of these inscriptions is that they insisted on a public display of the protagonist’s Judaism, be that by mentioning it explicitly (Iudaea or Ἰουδεος) or through figurative depiction of Jewish symbols such as menoroth and lulavim. It seems that the earliest inscriptions would favor the former. Starting from the 4th century there was increased use of Jewish symbols such as the menorah. In the case of the Ilici synagogue, the detected mosaic menoroth are from a repair stage, dated to roughly the early-mid 5th century (see Part 2 of this book). Naturally, this is the case of the samples selected for study here. However, there might be many epigraphic pieces without any such symbols and that cannot be identified as Jewish. This is probably the point: the similarities in epigraphic practices between the local Jewish and non-Jewish communities required for those explicit mentions and symbols if they wanted readers to identify their Jewish identity. Probably those inscriptions were placed in general necropoli that included people of different cultural, religious, and ethnic backgrounds. The open expression of Judaism in epigraphic evidence from Hispania reveal a continuity regardless of political and social change. The 7th century had two inscriptions with open and explicit association with Judaism, and both in provincial capitals within the Visigothic Kingdom (Ins. 5.3 and 6.1). Both are inscriptions made by adults or elders dedicating epitaphs to their deceased
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sons or daughters. Both are in Latin and are readable to any passer-by. Both are remarkably well preserved, probably recovered from their original placement in situ. In other words, these inscriptions reveal an open Judaism at the foot of Visigothic seats of power, at a moment when, in theory, Visigothic persecution against Jews was becoming more and more prevalent. After the Visigothic period we found an inscription of two Rebbis from Mérida, using Visigothic architectural features that were available for spolia. By the time Arab ruled settled firmly in the Iberian Peninsula, Jews had the local authority or permission of using spolia for the production of their funerary texts. However, up until now the inscription raised the question: where did the Jews come from in the 8th century, if during the 7th they were supposed to have suffered politically-inspired calamities, from expulsion under Reccared to slavery during the latest years of the kingdom? The answer is that this seems not to have been the case. Visigothic persecution of Jews was limited at best, particularly considering the constant rebellions and endemic coup d’etats during this period. Instead, from the 2nd century onwards, there was the presence of a highly integrated Jewish community that quickly became part and parcel of the urban, linguistic, religious, and cultural landscape of late Roman Hispania. In cities abandoned by the Roman authorities, such as Volubilis, Jewish communities remained. In regions where the local population was highly Latinized and Romanized, so too were the Jews highly Latinized and Romanized. What are the general aspects that define this late antique Judaism from epigraphic evidence? The first is linguistic. There were two general regions in which language use and preference differed. In the area from Tarraco to Volubilis there was a prevalence of language mixtures, with particular weight to Hebrew. This is especially true starting from the 5th century onwards. The Hispanic-Mediterranean Jewish community, which naturally includes the users of the Ilici synagogue, preferred the use of Greek in their building. However, while sharing similarities from the Roman and Italian Jewish communities from this period in the prevalence of Greek or Latin, the weight of Hebrew was disproportionate for Hispania. The other area detected is the Hispanic-Lusitanian Jewish community, with clear predominance of the use of Latin through the entire period, from the 2nd to the 8th century. This area included the settlements found through the Guadiana River, including cities from Portugal such as Olissipo (Lisbon) and Conimbriga (Coimbra), although evidence for ancient Jewish communities from those areas is scarce. Secondly, there was a distinction in nomenclature. Even considering the use of paternal names in Hebrew epitaphs, Semitic names are still predominant
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compared to Latin and Greek naming practices. It is probable that as early as Late Antiquity there was increased use of Hebrew or Semitic names amongst Jews that would differentiate those communities from non-Jewish groups, particularly Christians. However, that was not always the case, as seen from the Lusitania province or the inscription of the Narbonensis, where Latin names were clearly preferred. It can be assumed that these Hebrew naming preferences were mostly prevalent in the Hispanic-Mediterranean Jewish communities, as can be seen in the surrounding areas of Tarraco and the city of Volubilis, as well as in the Balearic Islands. Thirdly, there was chronological development for the use of cult practices and funerary formulas. In those, Greek seemed to be a prevalent language in synagogue architecture and probably cultic practices up until the 5th century, a period that includes the building of the Ilici synagogue (see Chapter 7, 5 for more details). However, starting from the late 5th or perhaps 6th centuries there is a substantial weight for Hebrew formulas, its use in the Tarragona basin as a predominant text, and the marginalization of Greek to a secondary status. By the 7th century Greek was possibly still used, but Jewish inscriptions preferred blessings in Hebrew and translations of original Greek texts into Latin. Of course, the most important aspect of this study is not so much the conclusions that can be drawn from the limited number of inscriptions available, but the fact that they reveal the existence of a local Hispanian Jewish community that spoke Latin, Greek, and distinctively Hebrew. They lived in a multilingual world that allowed for a cultural, ideological, and religious diversity which no doubt led to contact with local Christian communities and the inclusion of Jewish scholars in the political and intellectual discussions of the day. Finally, their material culture was found within the shared cultural expressions of all other populations in late antique Hispania, as evidenced by the Titulus Pictus from Mérida. This is further evidenced by the objects from different sites that reveal to us the Jews’ presence in the archaeological record, as much as epigraphy revealed their unavoidable presence in the literary and historical record.
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Appendix to Chapter 2239
10.1 Iustinus from Flavia Neapolis The inscription was found in Merida during the 18th century and, according to CIL II, 515, was published first by Pérez Bayer in the introductory hallway of a house of Dr. Bartolomé Rodríguez, in the “Moreno Plaza” in Mérida. As a result, its context was lost. The inscription was fully published first by E. Hübner as CIL II, 515. It was later republished by L. García Iglesias in his 1973 doctoral thesis, followed by his publications on Roman Jewish Hispania in 1973 and completed in 1978,240 which contains the reading adopted by Noy and by this author.241 The reading of the inscription is as follows:242 Transcription: IVSTINVS·MENANDRI·F·TER FLAVIVS·NEAPOLITANVS·ANNO XLVI·H·S·E·T·T·L·SABINA·MARIT OPTIMO·ET·MERETISSIMO·ET 5 MENANDER·FILIVS·CVM·SERORIBVS SVIS·RECEptA·ET·SABINA PATRI·PIISIMO ……………… P e
239
240
241 242
During this book’s publication process I came across an article by S. Andreeva, A. Fedorchuk, and M. Nosonovsky, referring to inscriptions from Volubilis. The article mentioned an inscription of a Σαλεμον, first published by L. Robert in 1934. I did not have time to include a thorough study of this inscription in this appendix, mainly because it was not considered originally as part of the Jewish epigraphic repertoire. While the 2019 article suggests a “Jewish” origin for this inscription, a cursory look at Robert’s publication demonstrates that it is a dedicatory to the pre-Islamic Arabic deity Theandrios. The name Salemon itself could be of Arabic origin as much as Jewish. While further study is warranted, it seems that at best this inscription indicates a kind of hybridization akin to Theos Hypsistos from the Bosphorous region. Otherwise, we should discard its attribution to a Jewish inscription. Andreeva, Fedorchuk, and Nosonovsky, “Revisiting Epigraphic Evidence of the Oldest Synagogue in Morocco in Volubilis,” 7; Louis Robert, “Epigraphica,” S 49(229) (January–March 1936): 6–7. Luis García Iglesias, “Epigrafía romana de Augusta Emerita” (PhD diss., Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 1973); Luis García Iglesias, “Los judíos en la España romana,”Hispania Antiqua 3 (1973): 341–342; García Iglesias, Los judios en la España antigua, 51–52. Noy, Jewish Inscriptions of Western Europe, 1993, 1: 229–300. Based on CIL II, 515.
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figure 2.31 Picture of Iustinus of Neapolis inscription from Mérida
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figure 2.32 Profile picture of the inscription
Development: Iustinus Menandri filius/ Flavius Neapolitanus anno(rum)/3 XLVI h(ic) s(itus) e(st) s(it) t(ibi) t(erra) l(evis) Sabina marit(o)/ optimo et merentissimo et/ Menander filius cum seroribus(!)/6 suis Rece[pt]a et Sabina/ patri piissimo [– – –] / p(onendum) [c(uravit)]. Translation:243 Iustinus Flavius, son of Menander, of the Terentine tribe, from Neapolis, in his 46th year is buried here. May the earth be light to you. Sabina to her best and most deserving husband, and Menander his son with his sisters Sabina and Recepta to their most dutiful father … posited. Authors like García Iglesias insisted this inscription is evidence of Jewish or Samaritan presence in the Iberian Peninsula dating to mid-imperial periods. However, as correctly stated by Noy, this inscription’s formulas and names do not suggest any association with either Jewish or Samaritan communities. The association of this Iustinus to a tribe would make him a Roman citizen. His origin from Samaria might suggest his belonging to a colonial family in the 2nd century Judea/Palestine. The formulas are clearly pagan, and the inscription
243
Based on Noy’s translation. JIWE-1, 222.
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is placed in an ara which would receive libations. This is confirmed with the side iconography of the inscription, decorated with jars and pointing to this practice. This makes the association with the Samaritan community, let alone a Jewish community, weak and unlikely. Even so, the fact that this Roman citizen perished in Mérida while his family was present in Samaria suggests links between the province of Lusitania and Palestine in the 2nd century. This fact could not have been possible without the available infrastructure from the previous century, suggested by evident contact between Hispania and Iudaea, both for Jews and non-Jews in the 1st century. Even after the destruction of the Temple, contact between Eretz Israel and the Diaspora remained, as it can be assumed that this non-Jewish Roman citizen was not the sole user of the communication lines between the two sides of the Mediterranean. 10.2 Lost Trilingual Inscription from Tortosa This lost trilingual inscription was first published by E. Hübner in his Inscriptiones Hispaniae christianae (1871) as number 187, although it was featured in the unpublished Historia de la ciudad de Tortosa from 1747 by Antonio Cortés. In it, he explains that this inscription was found by a farmer near Tortosa, just as was the trilingual inscription of Kyra Melliosa (Ins. 5.1). It was published by Cantera Burgos and Millás Vallicrosa in Inscripciones Hebraicas en España as number 291 and by Noy as JIWE-1, 184.244 No further information can be derived. It was published as seen in Figure 2.33. According to Hübner, this piece is described by Antonio Cortés from his Historia de Tortosa in 1747, as a trilingual inscription. No remains have been found of it to date. The only information that can be taken from this is its multiple languages and probable similar dating to the other multilingual inscriptions from the region. Even though the presence of “Hebrew letters” could suggest it is a Jewish inscription, the presence of the apparent “moon” decoration at the top questions this assertion. There is no reason for the “Hebrew” part to have been better preserved than the Latin section. Furthermore, the last part, in Greek, might also contain other letters that do not seem to correspond with that script, but rather with what seems like Neo-Punic. That being the case, the “Hebrew” lines might just as well be Aramaic, belonging to someone of Syrian origin. The
244
Hübner, Inscriptiones Hispaniae christianae, 61, n. 187; Cantera Burgos and Millás Vallicrosa, Inscripciones hebraicas en España, 417–418, n. 291; Noy, Jewish Inscriptions of Western Europe, 1993, 1: 253–254, n. 184.
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figure 2.33 Depiction of the Trilingual inscription from Tortosa e. hübner (1871): inscriptiones hispaniae christianae, p. 61
moon represents several Mediterranean divinities, including Selene and, perhaps more importantly, Ishtar/Astarte. There is no parallel for the depiction of a standalone moon in Jewish late antique art, as it is typically presented with the sun as a symbolization of the calendar. Therefore, this inscription is considered not to belong to a Jewish context.
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chapter 3
Jews from Their Objects: Ergology and Sites from Late Antique Hispania For the past centuries, objects, be they inscriptions or others, have been typically used to identify the physical presence of Jews in the Iberian Peninsula or in Hispanian provinces. Hence any study mentioning them took the objects’ existence for granted. Jews are documented in the Iberian Peninsula through epigraphic evidence at least from the 2nd century, so what novelty could come from additional objects? Their value consisted in being a curiosity for antiquarians or museums, to the point that most contexts for them were either lost or left undocumented. It was in these conditions that most non-epigraphic objects pertaining to Jewish communities were studied. Needless to say, they were and continue to be decontextualized. In addition there is the question whether objects and materials associated to specific Jewish origins or environments really demonstrate Jewish presence at the different sites. Objects of potentially Jewish origin were often used by non-Jews for their utilitarian or decorative features, or for their symbolic, religious, or protective aspects. Similarly, considering that Jews used non-Jewish motifs in synagogue art, as can be detected clearly in late antique Galilee, we ought also to assume that they used non-Jewish symbols, whether Hellenic or Christian, for other available objects as well. What this question often misses is the fact that the very presence of Jewish symbolism and decorative themes implies contact at a certain point, be it direct or indirect, with Jewish communities and their religious ideas. This is not merely an ancient phenomenon. In one of the pillars’ capitals in the Uppsala Cathedral in Sweden, dated to the late 13th century, we find the image of the medieval anti-Semitic trope of the Judensau, or the “Jewish pig”. The scene, where Jews suckle on a pig, must have come from illuminated manuscripts or some other medium. Jews would not make an appearance in Sweden until the early 18th century following the German-Jewish Reform movement. However, it is evident that anti-Semitism, or the image of Jews and Judaism, travelled faster than the migration movements of Jews themselves. This is not to say that the “Jewish objects” found in Hispania reflect a similar phenomenon. As a matter of fact, other documents stemming from different historiographical fields make the denial of such Jewish presence a larger theoretical problem, as they are a clearer attestation of Jewish communities in these
© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2021 | doi:10.1163/9789004419926_005 Alexander Bar-Magen
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western provinces of the Roman Empire. These objects, and their Jewish symbolism, simply reflect that late antique Judaism could be perceived materially, therefore being something beyond an abstract idea. The objects’ dates span many centuries, starting from before the destruction of the Second Temple and continuing through the Late Roman Empire, all the way to the Early Middle Ages. From the earlier period belong a series of coins, minted during the late Second Temple period under the Roman procurators of the province of Iudaea. Objects such as the Orihuela stella, the oil lamps from Cástulo, or the bronze menorah oil lamp of Volubilis are of a later date (roughly from the 4th to the 6th centuries), more elaborate, and reflect the prevalence of Jewish architectural decoration. From the 7th century there is a report of a proposed short-lived Jewish settlement on the banks of the Guadiana River, where today is the artificial lake of Alqueva, Portugal, though the publication indirectly admits a problem regarding the settlement’s positive identification.1 Eighth to eleventh century objects and inscriptions shall be covered in Chapter 5. While few, these objects reflect information pertaining to the history of the Jewish communities in the Iberian Peninsula. However, this information is limited, and it ought to be considered together with the other archaeological evidence treated in other chapters from this book.
1
First-century Coins from Iudaea in Hispania
One of the clearest proofs for early settlement of Jewish communities is the presence of half-shekel coins in the provinces of Hispania, be they in the Citerior or Ulterior, dated as early as the late 1st century ce. The distribution of these findings is significantly wide: Mértola in southern Portugal, Elche in southern Valencia, and the ancient city of Emporion (today Ampurias) in northern Catalonia. These findings are typically made fortuitously and lack documented contexts. 1 Ferreira, Arqueologia alto-medieval do regolfo do Alqueva: vestígios de uma ocupação judaica nas margens do Guadiana no século VII, 108–109. It is noteworthy that the primary evidence for Jewish habitation of this site its sudden abandonment at the end of the first third of the 7th century, thus associated with the 4th Council of Toledo. The site was a series of wellconstructed homes just a few decades prior. Therefore, and so concludes the author, it was possibly inhabited by people who had to abandon another area and were ultimately forced to ultimately abandon the site in Sisebut’s time—probably a Jewish community. While the identification of this site as a 7th century Jewish village is suggestive, I believe more studies, and certainly a more thorough review of archaeological evidence, is required.
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Some discussion has occurred as to whether these coins are evidence for the presence of Jewish communities in the Iberian Peninsula as early as the late 1st century, or whether they were brought as mementos by the Hispanian troops who participated in the capture and razing of Iudaea, Jerusalem, and its Temple. From the epigraphic evidence provided in Chapter 2, specifically the 1st century incised amphora from Baleares (Chapter 2, Ins. 1.1), it seems that commercial and transport routes were well established already by the Herodian and post-Herodian periods at the latest. There is no reason to believe Jewish communities in cities along important commercial routes would not have contact with the Jerusalem Temple in this period. Likewise, it is safe to assume that by the 1st century bce permanent settlement in Hispania would at least be viable, if not a reality. 1.1 Ampurias (Emporion) The Emporion Iudaean coins were discovered through several excavations in the ancient city. According to Ripoll, Nuix, and Villaronga, the coins were apparently found at different areas of the archaeological site.2 However, they were placed in the local archaeological museum without their context, therefore being published after their storage. The majority of the so-called “half shekels” are in fact copper alloy prutot with chronology starting from Herod I to the first years of the procurator Valerius Gratus. The coins vary in size and inscriptions. Summarizing their features is Table 3.1. As indicated in the table, these prutot (singular: prutah / )פרוטה, unlike the silver half-shekels, were typically minted in the city of Tyre. The prutah is made of copper alloys or bronze, having the value of a fraction of a shekel. Generally, one gram was at the time equal to 1/40th of a silver gram. In other words, one half-shekel was equal to 20 prutot. The finding of these prutot were studied statistically. Their first publishers indicated their disproportional representation within the wider numismatic collection in Emporion. From all coins found by 1976 associated to the periods of Augustus and Tiberius, the authors found 142 coined from Emporion (69%), 21 from Rome (10%), 18 from nearby Gallia (8.8 %), 15 from nonEmporitan Hispanic coinage (7.3%) and, finally, 10 Judean coins (4.9 %).3 In
2 Eduardo Ripoll, José María Nuix, and Leandro Villaronga, “Monedas de los judíos halladas en las excavaciones de Emporiae,” Numisma 26 (1976): 60. 3 Ripoll, Nuix, and Villaronga, “Monedas de los judíos halladas en las excavaciones de Emporiae,” 61–62.
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List of characteristics of coins found by 1976 in Emporion
Coins of Emporion
Material
Weight and diameter
Obverse
Reverse
Date
1. Herod I (The Great): 37–4 bce
AE
W = 2.05 g d = 15 mm
Anchor. Unread inscription.
Caduceus and double cornucopia.
37–4bce
2. Herod Archelaus: 4bce–6 ce
AE
W = 1.86 g d = 15 mm
Grapes and leaf. Unread inscription.
Helmet with double 4bce–6ce crest. Inscription below (name of Archelaus).
W = 1.39 g d = 17 mm
Barley ear. Ins: ΚΑΙCΑΡΟC
Palm tree. Ins (date): L (λ) Β.
8–9ce
Prefects under Augustus 3. Marcus Ambibulus: 9–12 ce
AE
Prefects under Tiberius 4. Valerius Gratus (15–26 ce)
AE
W = 1.29 g d = 16 mm
Laurel wreath. Inscription inside.a
Branch with leaves. Inscriptions to the sides.
15–16ce
5. Valerius Gratus (15–26 ce)
AE
W = 1.59 g d = 16 mm
Laurel wreath. Inscription inside.
Branch with leaves. Inscriptions to the sides.
15–16ce
6. Valerius Gratus (15–26 ce)
AE
W = 1.16 g d = 15 mm
Laurel wreath. Inscription inside.
Caduceus and double cornucopia.
16–17ce
7. Valerius Gratus (15–26 ce)
AE
W = 2.72 g d = 15–16 mm
Laurel wreath. Inscription inside.
Three lilies joined at 16–17ce the base. Ins: L Γ
8. Valerius Gratus (15–26 ce)
AE
W = 2.22 g d = 15–16 mm
Laurel wreath. Inscription inside.
Three lilies joined at 16–17ce the base. Ins: L Γ
9. Valerius Gratus (15–26 ce)
AE
W = 1.69 g d = 15–16 mm
Laurel wreath. Inscription inside.
Three lilies joined at 16–17ce the base. Ins: L Γ
10. Valerius Gratus (15–26 ce)
AE
W = 1.66 g d = 15–16 mm
Laurel wreath. Inscription inside.
Three lilies joined at 16–17ce the base. Ins: L Γ
a According to Mesh2 and the Biblical Numismatics Handbook, these coins have the inscription “TIB” in that position.
other words, Judaean coins represent the fifth largest group from the coins found in Ampurias, despite originating from the other side of the Empire. The coins’ seemingly random distribution in different parts of Emporion suggests that they were in use and not a rarity. In other words, apparently an important section of the population was using these coins.
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figure 3.1 The 10 coins found in Emporion by 1976 as published by ripoll, noix and villaronga (1976): “monedas de los judíos halladas en las excavaciones de emporiae”, p. 62
From a chronological consideration it is possible to notice that the first coins are those from Herod I and his son, Herod Archelaus, followed by yet one more from the prefect Marcus Ambibulus dated to the late Augustan period. However, most coins are from the time of Tiberius, not later than the year 17 ce— before the so-called persecutions under the influence of Sejanus in Rome. In fact, from the ten coins found here, seven are from the period of Valerius Gratus (all of them from the years 15–17ce). Fascinatingly enough, the earliest physical evidence for Jews in the Iberian Peninsula is found in the oldest Roman town in Hispania. A different picture emerges from the coins found in Iulia Myrtilis, or modern Mértola.
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jews from their objects: ergology and sites from hispania table 3.2 Coins of Myrtilis
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List of characteristics of coins found in 1968 in Myrtilis Iulia Material
Weight and diameter
Obverse
Reverse
Date
Under Augustus 1. Coponius: 6–9ce
AE
W = 1.69 g d = 17 mm
Barley ear within dotted border. Ins: ΚΑΙCΑ-ΡΟC
Palm tree with 8 branches and 2 flanking dates within dotted border. Ins (date): L Λς.
6ce
2. Marcus Ambibulus: 9–12ce
AE
W = 2.26 g d = 16 mm
Barley ear within dotted border. Ins: ΚΑΙCΑ-ΡΟC
Palm tree with 8 branches and 2 flanking dates within dotted border. Ins (date): L ΛΘ.
9ce
3. Marcus Ambibulus: 9–12ce
AE
W = 1.57 g d = 16 mm
Barley ear within dotted border. Ins: ΚΑΙCΑ-ΡΟC
Palm tree with 8 branches and 2 flanking dates within dotted border. Ins (date): L ΛΘ.
9ce
4. Marcus Ambibulus: 9–12ce
AE
W = 2.14 g d = 16 mm
Barley ear within dotted border. Ins: ΚΑΙCΑ-ΡΟC
Palm tree with 8 branches and 2 flanking dates within dotted border. Ins (date): L ΜΑ.
11ce
5. Marcus Ambibulus: 9–12ce
AE
W = 1.98 g d = 16 mm
Barley ear within dotted border. Ins: ΚΑΙCΑ-ΡΟC
Palm tree with 8 branches and 2 flanking dates within dotted border. Ins (date): L ΜΑ.
11ce
Under Tiberius 6. Valerius Gratus (15–26 ce)
AE
W = 2.31 g d = 16 mm
Tied wreath with an inscribed medallion with date. Dotted margin. Ins: ΚΑΙ/CΑΡ at the center.
Caduceus and double cornucopia. Ins: (Margin) ΤΙΒΕΡΙΟ[Υ]. (Center) L—Γ
16ce
7. Valerius Gratus (15–26 ce)
AE
W = 1.94 g d = 15 mm
Branch from which two leaves and tendrils sprout to the bottom. Dotted margin. Ins: ΙΥΔ
Narrow amphora with two high handles. Dotted margin. Ins (Legend): L—Δ
17ce
8. Valerius Gratus (15–26 ce)
AE
W = 1.79 g d = 15 mm
Branch from which two leaves and tendrils sprout to the bottom. Dotted margin. Ins: ΙΥΔ
Narrow amphora with two high handles. Dotted margin. Ins (Legend): L—Δ
17ce
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chapter 3 List of characteristics of coins found in 1968 in Myrtilis Iulia (cont.)
Coins of Myrtilis
Material
Weight and diameter
Obverse
Reverse
Date
9. Valerius Gratus (15–26ce)
AE
W = 2.24 g d = 15 mm
Branch from which two leaves and tendrils sprout to the bottom. Dotted margin. Ins: ΙΥΔ
Narrow amphora with two high handles. Dotted margin. Ins (Legend): L—Δ
17ce
W = 2.52 g d = 18 mm
Canopy (umbrela) on a lance. Dotted margin. Ins: ΒΑCΙΛΕWC Α[ΓΡΙΠΑ].
Three barley ears joined at 41/42ce the base with two leaves. Dotted margin. Ins: Λ—ς
W = 1.57 g d = 15 mm
Wreath tied at the bottom made by groups of pairs of leaves. Medallion with date at the top. It is off center. Dotted margin. Ins: ΝεΡ/WΝ[Ο]/C
Vertical palm branch. Dot- 59ce ted margins. Ins: [L] ς ΚΑΙC[Α-ΡΟC].
Agrippa I (under Claudius) 10. Agrippa I (39–44ce)
AE
Procurator under Nero 11. Festus (52–60ce)
AE
1.2 Mértola (Myrtilis) The coins presented here are dated nearly five hundred years before the 488 ce inscription from Mértola (Portugal) presented in the previous chapter (inscription II.4). According to their first publishers, Rui M.S. Centeno and J.M. Valladares Souto,4 these coins were discovered in 1968 as a treasure while demolishing an ancient wall of what seems to be a room. The authors published them as 11 meios-quadrantes or prutah/lepton like the case of Emporion, and not as half-shekels. These include the pieces found in Figures 3.2–4. The oldest coin is that produced by the prefect Coponius on his arrival to Iudaea in the year 6 ce. While the last coin is that of procurator Festus, most of these findings are from either Marcus Ambibulus from the end of the Augustus’ rule or from Valerius Gratus during the first years of Tiberius’. In other words, from the eleven coins found here, seven are from the years 9–17 ce.
4 Rui M.S. Centeno and Valladares Souto, “Depósito de moedas da Judeia achado em Mértola,” Nummus, 2nd Series, 16–20 (1993–1997): 197–204.
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figure 3.2 Color pictures of coins from Myrtilis, numbers 1–4 courtesy of rui m.s. centeno
Therefore, again one finds the case for increased numismatic evidence at a certain date between the end of Augustus’ reign and the start of Tiberius’. However, the fact that this collection could not have been stored before the year 59 under Nero’s rule suggests that these sets of coins were accumulated and kept for years. Their concealment could have been a reaction to the Jewish revolt that erupted seven years after the minting of the latest coin (see below in the chapter). Today the coins are located in the local Museo Judaico de Belmonte (Belmonte, Portugal), and are one of the few Jewish archaeological remains studied from that period which includes its context.5 This coin collection, as well as other objects belonging to the town’s Jewish history, can be found in a recent catalogue from 2005 published by Rui Centeno.6
5 Armando F. Coelho da Silva y Rui M.S. Centeno, eds., Museu Judaico de Belmonte. (Belmonte: Camara municipal de Belmonte, 2005), 124–127. 6 Silva and Centeno, Museu Judaico de Belmonte, 25–30.
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figure 3.3 Color pictures of coins from Myrtilis, numbers 5–8 courtesy of rui m.s. centeno
figure 3.4 Pictures of coins from Myrtilis, numbers 9–11 courtesy of rui m.s. centeno
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Coins found in Iluro (Mataró, Barcelona)
Coins of Iluro
Material
Weight, diameter and direction
Obverse
Reverse
Date
1. Marcus Ambibulus: 9–12ce
AE
W = 1.77 g d = 11 mm. Direction of minting:
Barley ear within dotted margins. Ins: (καισα-) ΡΟC
Palm tree with 8 branches and 2 flanking dates within dotted border. Ins (date): L ΜΑ.
10–11cea
Barley ear within dotted margins. Ins: (καισα-) ΡΟC
Palm tree with 8 branches and 2 flanking dates within dotted border. Ins (date): L. The rest is unreadable.
Unknown. Probably the same period as number 1 (that is, between the years 10–11ce).
↑↓ 2. Marcus Ambibulus: 9–12ce?
AE
W = 1.96 g d = 15 mm. Direction of minting: ↑↓
a According to Jener, it is the year 13, under Annius Rufus.
1.3 Other Coin Findings from 1st Century Hispania The above are the largest sets of findings to date. However, several publications propose a series of similar coin findings dotting the Iberian Peninsula. They were first published in the same issue of Numisma of 1976 as the Emporion are two coins found in the Roman city of Iluro, in Mataró (Barcelona).7 Two coins dated to the 1st century ce were found by a team from the Museo Arqueológico de Barcelona at a Phase II stratum of a building at the city’s southern limits. According to Gusi i Jener, the discovered coins are described in Table 3.3 (see also Figs. 3.6, 7). Several details should be mentioned. First, the date of these coins is identical to those mentioned in previous tables as minted under the prefecture of Marcus Ambibulus. However, the authors identified the date of coin number 1 to 40–41 of the Augustan Age, that is 13–14 ce, under the prefecture of Annius Rufus. However, there is no evidence of coinage under that prefect. Consequently, this type of coin should not be associated with Rufus but rather M. Ambibulus. To explain the date discrepancy, it seems the inscribed date in Greek μαʹ does not start from the Hispanic Augustan Age at 27 bce, but at the
7 Francesc Gusi i Jener, “Hallazgo de dos monedas de los Procuradores de Judea en Iluro (Mataró, Barcelona),” Numisma 26 (1976): 67–70.
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figure 3.5 Picture of obverse of coins 1 (left) and 2 (right) from Iluro (Mataró, Barcelona) from gusi gener (1976): “hallazgo de dos monedas de los procuradores de judea en iluro”, p. 69
figure 3.6 Picture of reverse of coins 1 (left) and 2 (right) from Iluro (Mataró, Barcelona) from gusi gener (1976): “hallazgo de dos monedas de los procuradores de judea en iluro”, p. 69
eastern Augustan Age, starting from the Battle of Actium in 30 bce. Therefore, the date of both coins seems to be 10–11ce. It is significant that Jener proposed the oddity of these coins’ discovery in a relatively small city such as Iluro.8 He suggested that this could signify the
8 Gusi i Jener, “Hallazgo de dos monedas de los Procuradores de Judea en Iluro (Mataró, Barcelona),” 68.
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establishment of far-reaching commercial relations with eastern provinces. However, it is more likely that, like Emporion and Myrtilis, these coins were used for commercial relations, as they had a limited value despite originating from the other side of the Roman Empire. The number of the other prutot coins found in Hispanian contexts is unknown. We know of a finding of several coins in Andalusia from different collections as published by Xavier Calicó and L. Villaronga in 1981. Sadly, they do not describe these coins specifically, nor do they say how many coins they found. They do describe the largest number of them which include the following characteristics: – Weight: 1.87g. Diameter: 15mm. – Obverse: bunch of grapes sprouting from a branch with two leaves and tendrils. On top a Greek legend: ΙΟΥΛΙΑ? (published as IOULIA), all within a dotted margin. – Reverse: Amphora with two large S-shaped handles. It is flanked by legend: L and Δ. Accordingly, the coins were identified as having been minted by Valerius Gratus in 17ce. Two silver half-shekels were found in the Iberian Peninsula. One was found in the Alcudia de Elche, and first published by Pérez Bayer in 1790 (Fig. 3.7). From Pérez Bayer’s account the coin was found by the Marquéz de Algorfa, who accompanied him to the site where he discovered it near the oppida, which almost assuredly are the remains of the Alcudia de Elche, ancient Ilici. Its context is lost, as is much of its information beyond its general origin near modern Elche. Nevertheless, Pérez Bayer’s description is interesting as it is the main testimony of its original decorative features. He indicates that on the coins are “Samaritan letters” (old Hebrew script), which in Assyrian script would read on one side שקל ישראל, and on the other ירושלים הקדושה. Furthermore, on top of a chalice are the letters ש בin old Hebrew script (that is, shanah bet, or “year 2”).9 Pérez Bayer apparently mistook this coin as belonging to the Hasmonaean period, specifically to the second year under Simon the Maccabee. Parallels today clearly point towards it belonging to the second year of the first Jewish revolt, or the year 67ce. This makes this the latest Jewish coin of the 1st century series before the 8th century coin produced in early Al-Andalus (see Chapter 5). Considering this coin was found in the 18th century and taking into account the excavation process from that period (see Chapter 6), we can assume that this
9 Pérez Bayer, Numorum hebraeo-samaritanorum vindiciae, 33–34.
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figure 3.7 Drawing of the Elche half-shekel from p. bayer (1790): numorum hebraeo-samaritanorum vindicare, p. 42
coin was found following one of these interventions or in removed earth at the immediacies of the so-called oppidum of the Alcudia de Elche. Be that as it may, this coin would remain in collections from the region until 1952, when it was catalogued by Mateu y Llopis as number 490 of his catalogue “Hallazgos monetarios (VII)” as a “Hebrew” coin, citing Pérez Bayer’s work.10 Another half-shekel was found in Algeciras (Cádiz) in September 1986, within removed earth from a construction site in a site of the Villa Vieja de Algeciras, which happens to be the site of the old city of Iulia Transducta (a small Roman town with Augustan foundation). Its first publication by Marfil, de Vicente, and Villada was in 1989, with a complete physical description.11 Its features are as follows (Figs. 3.8, 9): – Weight: 7.53g. Diameter: 23mm. – Material: silver with low levels of purity. – Obverse: chalice with figurative motif above the cup. Legend directly on top of the chalice: Arching on top of the scene: – Reverse: Three pomegranates joined at the base as one branch. Within a dotted margin. As correctly stated by Marfil, de Villeda, and Villada, the legends were written in Paleo-Hebrew script as was used in the Jewish coins during the revolt of 66– 73ce. The obverse legend says ( שקל ישראלshekel Israel), while the solitary sign on top of the chalice is an aleph, indicating “year 1” of this minting series. That
10 11
Felipe Mateu y Llopis, “Hallazgos monetarios (VII),” Numario hispánico 1 (1952): 239. Pedro Marfil Ruiz, Juan Ignacio de Vicente Lara, and Fernando Villada Paredes, “Consideraciones en torno a la problemática del estudio del judaismo en el sur de la Península Ibérica y el Norte de África en la antigüedad: un medio shekel de plata de la guerra judaica contra Roma hallado en Algeciras (Cádiz),” Cuadernos del Archivo Municipal de Ceuta II, no. 5 (1989): 35–36.
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figure 3.8 Picture of obverse of the Algeciras halfshekel from marfil ruiz, vicente lara and villada paredes (1989): “consideraciones en torno a la problemática del estudio del judaismo …”, p. 33
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figure 3.9 Picture of reverse of the Algeciras half-shekel from marfil ruiz, vicente lara and villada paredes (1989): “consideraciones en torno a la problemática del estudio del judaismo …”, p. 33
being the case, it was minted in the year 66, and somehow brought to Algeciras where it lay before its fortuitous finding in 1986. The coin was well elaborated. The weight fits nearly precisely that of half a full shekel, despite being made of a low alloy. Strangely enough no indication of a reverse legend was described, suggesting that it was not preserved. Three other coins appeared with uncertain archaeological context. One of the coins was first published in J. Martí Sanjaume, Dietari de Puigcerdá in 1926 was found in Llivia. It was a coin minted during the reign of Herod Agrippa. In the Museo Arqueológico Nacional there are coins minted from Caesarea Maritima mentioned by Kadman in 1957.12 In the Museo Sefardí in Toledo there are four coins minted by Pontius Pilate dated to the year 30 ce, and a fifth coin, an as minted in the year 69 during the Jewish revolt. However, their origins within the Iberian Peninsula remain unknown. With all the mentioned coins it is important to review what their data reflect. While there are a few coins from before the year 9 ce, including one by Herod the Great, one by Herod Archelaus, and one by the first prefect Coponius, most findings correspond to the prefectures of Marcus Ambibulus and above all Valerius Gratus. The vast majority of these coins are bronze prutot. Only two coins are half-shekels, both from port cities. 12
Cited by García Iglesias, Los judios en la España antigua, 58.
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As pointed out by Ripoll, Nuix, and Villaronga in 1976, as well as by Centeno and Vallarades Souto in 1993, there is an implication in these coins of some sentimental, ethnic value rather than an economic one—as they were relatively worthless as currency. While in the right direction, past authors missed the fact that such “sentimental value” does not lead someone to hide it in a treasure, such as is the case of the Myrtilis findings. There is another, more symbolic reason for the presence of these prutot: they are evidence of pilgrimage to Jerusalem. By late Herodian times the unitary supremacy of the Jerusalem temple in Judaism was increasingly reaffirmed. Herod’s massive expansive reforms to the Temple itself were accompanied with a conscientious policy of opening the center of the Jewish world beyond the limits of Jerusalem, potentially bringing prosperity to his kingdom and making it more amenable to his political messages.13 This would undoubtably benefit the arrival of Jewish communities considered “marginal” for the Jewish elite: newly converted Galileans, Idumaeans, and of course Diaspora Jews. The port of Caesarea Maritima significantly aided in this endeavor, as it placed Iudaea not only on the map, but as part of a crucial transport and commercial route that eased access between Jerusalem and the Diaspora. Ease of access was probably also accompanied by migration towards Hispania. This could have occurred in the period of Tiberius through the apparent expulsion order in 19ce. This would explain the arrival of many coins from the year 17ce. However, this hypothesis is merely speculation, and the whole expulsion under Tiberius is subject to historical scrutiny.14 Nevertheless, the sudden rise of coins associated with Marcus Ambibulus and Valerius Gratus in the Peninsula must have been due to a migration wave of Jews coming to Hispania during those periods. Whether Jews were forced to migrate out of Italy or left for new opportunities in the west of the Roman Empire, they took these prutot with them, mementos of their pilgrimage to their holiest site. Many of these ended up at the shores of Hispania, which at the time was in the process of expansion as new cities were being founded or refounded.
13 14
Martin Goodman, “The Pilgrimage Economy of Jerusalem in the Second Temple Period,” in Jerusalem: Its Sanctity and Centrality to Judaism, Christianity and Islam, 1999, 72–75. E. Mary Smallwood, The Jews under Roman Rule: From Pompey to Diocletian, Studies in Judaism in Late Antiquity, v. 20 (Leiden: Brill, 1976), 201–210; a complete bibliography and summarized review of this incident can also be seen in Shlomo Simonsohn, The Jews of Italy: Antiquity, Brill’s Series in Jewish Studies, volume 52 (Boston: Brill, 2015), 24–27, note 20.
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This is not to say that there were no Jews before the Tiberian period. However, by the time Tiberius died, Jewish communities were firmly settled in these western regions. Following that, evidence for coins dating to the first Jewish revolt reveal that such contact from Hispania to Iudaea and back was constant and uninterrupted. However, it is telling that the latest 1st century coin from Iudaea is from the Jewish revolt, and that these are not prutot but more valuable half-shekels. Furthermore, the latest prutah is from the year 59, a few years before the Jewish revolt erupted. It was hidden within a late 1st century wall in Myrtilis for unknown reasons. The prutot are therefore potential evidence of pilgrimage activities between the Diaspora to Jerusalem. The transport routes must have allowed for a safe journey to Iudaea and back to Hispania. Possibly this required an organized Jewish community in Hispania as early as the early 1st century ce. Pre year 10ce prutot were probably a product of either such activity as early as Herodian times, or more likely these belongings being brought with families that arrived en masse from Italy or other regions of the Empire following documented expulsions in the early reign of Tiberius. The evidence for these coins ends after the destruction of the Temple. There is no evidence of either Bar-Kochba revolt coins or other post-Temple prutot in Hispania.
2
Decorated Oil Lamps
2.1 Cástulo and Its Possible Synagogue Excavations in the site of Cástulo allowed for interesting well contextualized discoveries. Beyond the 4th century grafitto discovered in 2012 and published recently in 2016,15 other findings were also recovered during that campaign: decorated oil lamps with printed menoroth on their discus. The context of their finding allows us to have a complete archaeological study and review of these objects. Their finding was made during excavations in what the archaeologists of the site call Edificio T (Building T—Fig. 3.10). This monumental early imperial public building had direct access from the Decumanus Maximus from the west. Another decumanus was detected from the east flanking the building, where a series of tabernae were found. In later periods the tabernae were demolished and on them, using the eastern street’s
15
Ceprián del Castillo, Soto Civantos, and Expósito Mangas, “Lucernas con ‘menorá’ en Cástulo.”
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figure 3.10
Satellite picture of “Building T” (Castulo) as published in ceprián del castillo, soto civantos and expósito mangas, “lucernas con ‘menorá’ en cástulo”, p. 14
area as well, a squared basilica was built. Access to the basilica was from the south, achieved through the main access point of Building T which was compartmentalized and reformed. Near the Decumanus Maximus in its entrance area and path, a series of fills associated with early 5th century demolition phases revealed the presence of three fragmented oil lamps. Two (lamps 1 and 2—Figs. 3.12, 13) were found in the fill itself (Fig. 3.11), and one (lamp 3—Fig. 3.14) was removed in later phases following the spolia activities that mixed materials from different local layers.16 16
Ceprián del Castillo, Soto Civantos, and Expósito Mangas, 15–16.
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figure 3.11
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Picture of section where the Castulo oil lamp were found. Notice the missing ashlar stone, where the spolia hole was dug (thus removing lamp 3 with the ground)
The fill where the oil lamps were found was mixed with ashes, and was formed following the abandonment of the building as the lamps would “fall” from the eastern area down the slope that goes towards the Decumanus Maximus to the west. However, a wooden structure has blocked the layer’s erosion, in such a manner that they remained within the building’s space.
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figure 3.12 Picture of oil lamp 1
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figure 3.13 Picture of oil lamp 2
figure 3.14 Picture of oil lamp 3
Materials from this layer accompanying the oil lamps include two olive bones which permitted a Carbon-14 dating. Two samples were studied: Beta-408323 which dates to the second half of the 4th century, and Beta-408322 which dates between 394 and 540ce. The two calibrated calculations meet in the date of around 425ce, which comparing with the typological dating of the oil lamps themselves reveals a formation for the fill around the mid-5th century according to their publishers. The three lamps were found in a fragmented state. Lamps 1 and 3 are apparently the same type. With beige paste, only their back (upper) section is preserved. They had an ovoid body with a straight, solid cupula handle. The mar-
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gins of the discus are decorated with a wreath of wheat. The type of these lamps was identified as Atlante VIIIA or Bonifay type 45 lamp, dated from the late 4th and early 5th centuries. Oil lamp 2 was only preserved at its nozzle and attached sections of the shoulder and body, including one lower filling hole. The lamp has an ovoid flat body with a nozzle of concave profile made with smooth red paste. The discus preserved a depiction of what seems to be a tripod base of a menorah. On the discus’ edges are two wheat branches. The excavators identified this lamp as an Atlante VIIIC or Bonifay type 46 lamp also of North African (Tunisian) production and importation. The date of these lamp types is the first half of the 5th century.17 These lamps, along with the pottery shard with a grafitto discovered in a 5th century abandonment phase in the nearby thermae, suggest that in this sector was a Jewish center that used sections of a former public area of the city. The transformation of late antique cities to a “Christian urbanism” is already well attested when it comes to Christian architecture. However, as is revealed in cases such as Sardis (Chapter 11, 4.1), Apamea,18 and perhaps the so-called synagogue of Leptis Magna,19 we have seen that such urban transformations were not exclusive to Christians, as Jews too used public areas and transformed them into synagogues. The case of the Ilici synagogue (see Part 2) is not a valid example as it is a transformation of a formerly private area into a communitarian one, or what can be classified as domus synagoga. The excavation of the basilica found between these two sets of findings was never published, and even so there is no evidence this building was a Jewish synagogue. From a personal visit in 2017, as can be seen in photographic evidence, a series of separation structures between the apse and the main hall can be found, which could point to the use of chancel screens or some wooden structure. Despite the findings around the basilica, it seems the latter was built
17
18
19
Ceprián del Castillo, Soto Civantos, and Expósito Mangas, 15; M. Bonifay, Etudes sur la céramique romaine tardive d’Afrique, British Archaeological Reports International Series 1301 (Oxford: Archaeopress, 2004), 359, 364. Hachlili, AJAAD, 32–34; Levine, The Ancient Synagogue, 258–260; I did not have access to Beat Brenk, “Die Umwandlung der Synagoge von Apamea in eine Kirche. Eine mentalitätsgeschichtliche Studie,” in Tesserae: Festschrift für Josef Engemann, Jahrbuch für Antike und Christentum. Ergänzungsbände (Münster: Aschendorff, 1991), 1–25, which is widely cited in these works. Gideon Foerster, “A 5th Century Synagogue at Leptis Magna,” in Proceedings of the World Congress of Jewish Studies. Vol. 9, Division B, no. 1: The History of the Jewish People. From the Second Temple Period until the Middle Ages. (Jerusalem: World Union of Jewish Studies, 1986): 53–58 (Hebrew); Hachlili, AJAAD, 49–51.
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after the destruction of the public building. As a result, the absence of positive evidence for identification of the building either as a Christian church or a Jewish synagogue prevents further identification. The presence of a possible late Christian basilica, the evidence of the grafitto associated with rituals in which psalms are sung, as well as the discovery of oil lamps used for the lighting of a Jewish building or a building associated with Jewish environments suggest that indeed there was a synagogue at the area of Building T. However, confirmation of this can only be achieved following renewed excavations of the immediate vicinities of the site, particularly in areas that remained untouched in past excavations and that can be better studied with modern techniques. 2.2 Other Sites with Decorated Lamps During the last century there were several discoveries in the Iberian Peninsula and Morocco that show the presence of decorated lamps elsewhere in Hispania. However, they are few and generally decontextualized, therefore providing little information beyond their mere presence. One oil lamp with decorated menorah was found in Baleares in 2005, within a room at the site of Sa Calatrava next to Palma de Mallorca.20 The finding was of a 4th century context. In Lusitania we find two oil lamps. The first was found in Mérida at the vicinities of the Temple of Diana found in the late 20th century (Fig. 3.15).21 It is curiously close to a Church of Santa Catalina that was until 1492 a synagogue following the official report of the Order of Santiago’s canonical visit of 1498.22 However, the date of the oil lamp points to the late 4th and early 5th century, a millennium before the late medieval Jewish building, negating a direct connection with the medieval building. It was made of white-olive paste, and possibly belonged to a Deneauve VIIIB type produced near Carthage.23 20
21
22 23
Francisca Torres Orell, “Restes romanes a Sa Calatrava, Palma. Avanç sobre l’excavació arqueològica,” in L’antiguitat clàssica i la seva pervivència a las Illes Balears, XXIII Jornades d’Estudis Locals, ed. María Luisa Sánchez León and María Barceló Crespí (Palma de Mallorca: Institut d’Estudis Baleàrics, 2005), 293, 300 (Fig. 5). Francisco Germán Rodríguez Martín, Lucernas romanas del Museo Nacional de Arte Romano, Mérida, Monografías Emeritenses 7 (Madrid: Ministerio de Educación y Cultura, 2002), 119; José Manuel Jerez Linde, “La cerámica,” in Forum Coloniae Avgustae Emeritae. Templo de Diana, ed. José María Álvarez Martínez and Trinidad Nogales Basarrate (Mérida: Asamblea de Extremadura, 2003), 348 (fig. 63); José Antonio Ballesteros Díez, “Judíos en Mérida (siglos II al XVII),” Revista de Estudios Extremeños 72, no. 2 (2016): 1068. Eladio Méndez Venegas, “Aportación documental sobre Mérida a finales del s. XV. Una visita de La Órden de Santiago,” Norba: Revista de arte 11 (1991): 27. Rodríguez Martín, Lucernas romanas del Museo Nacional de Arte Romano, 119. In this catalogue it is pointed to its production date after the 3rd century ce.
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figure 3.15 Fragment of oil lamp with decorated menorah courtesy of josé manuel jerez linde. published in rodríguez martín: lucernas romanas del museo nacional de arte romano, xiv, nº 196
The menorah is depicted with semicircular branches cut by a central shaft. Both the branches and the shaft are made by a sequence of dots which reproduce decorative elements that made a tri-dimensional menorah. The base is tripod and was made of elongated sections joined by dots. At the upper part of the menorah is a bar to stabilize the lamps. A dotted margin surrounds the scene, framing it. Next to the menorah’s base, on its left, is a feeding hole, while its nozzle and handle and most of its body are missing. There is no publication of its measurements. Another Lusitanian oil lamp was found in the city of Troía, the port of Setúbal, Portugal. The finding was proposed as evidence for a Jewish settlement in this port city by V. Mantas,24 cited by Nuno Simões Rodrigues,25 although the Jewish adscription to this piece is doubted by de Alarçao, who denied the identification of the figurative feature of this oil lamp as a menorah. From Mauritania Tingitana are three oil lamps with decoration of a menorah. One is a bronze lamp with a large 10.5 centimeter menorah as its handle (Fig. 3.17). The menorah has semi-circular branches and a central shaft, topped by a bar. The lower part of the shaft has what seems to be two scrolls flank24
25
Vasco Gil Mantas, “Navegação, economia e relações interprovinciais: Lusitânia e Bética,” Humanitas 50 (1998): 235, note 166; Vasco Gil Mantas, “A Lusitânia e o Mediterrâneo: Identidade e diversidade numa província romana,” Conimbriga 43 (2004): 68. Nuno Simões Rodrigues, “Os Judeus na Hispânia na Antiguidade,” Caderno de Estudos Sefarditas 6 (2006): 27.
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figure 3.16 Ceramic oil lamp from Volubilis from r. thouvenot (1969): “les origines chrétiennes en maurétanie tingitane”, pl. viii-367 pl. iv-3
figure 3.17 Bronze oil lamp with menorah handle from r. thouvenot (1969): “les origines chrétiennes en maurétanie tingitane”, pl. viii-367 pl. iv-3
ing it. The body is egg-shaped or oval, and there is an elongated continuous nozzle. This object was certainly used in a building, probably a synagogue, as it would be hung for the illumination of inner spaces. However, the finding was decontextualized, despite its publication by Thouvenot (Fig. 3.16).26 A review of the lamp indicates an Atlante VIIIA type, although the drawing might hide variations. The menorah is placed on the discus and has a semi-circular form crossed by a central shaft. Only the handle and parts of the body are preserved. Surrounding the menorah are two wheat branches at the edge of the discus. Finally, another oil lamp was found in Mogador, and published by Ponsich in 1961 (cited by Le Bohec in 1981).27 An oil lamp with an impressed menorah was found in the recently excavated necropolis in Águila (Murcia), on the southeastern coast of Spain (Fig. 3.18).28 The lamp was found specifically in excavations carried out in Gloria Street number 19, at the northwestern area of the salvage intervention. During the excavation a series of tombs (21 in total) were found. All were individual, and were generally constructed with fieldstone walls with inner covering of lime 26 27 28
Thouvenot, “Les origines chrétiennes en Maurétanie Tingitane,” 359 (Pl. IV.3). Le Bohec, “Inscriptions juives et judaïsantes de l’ Afrique romaine,” 196, note 4. Juan de Dios Hernández García, “La necrópolis tardorromana del Molino. Paganismo y cristianismo en un mismo espacio cementerial (Águilas, Murcia),” Memorias de Arqueología 13 (1998): 171–210.
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figure 3.18 Oil lamp with menorah decoration from Águilas, Murcia from j. de d. hernández garcía (1998): “la necropolis tardorromana del molino”, p. 201 (figura 10)
and a false dome made of either opus signinum mortar or with bricks.29 The burials in this area were all in NE-SW direction, following the direction of a parallel street that separates this area from a western apse. There, a large amount of cupulae were preserved beneath a mortar floor that sealed the lower levels, including the roof tiles of the apse which was partially demolished. These are triclinia-type burials and were typically accompanied with mensae for ritual banquets and libations. Materials recovered from the opus signinum of the cupulae and the fills within and around the burials indicate a dating between second half of the 4th century to the first third of the 6th century ce. The oil lamp was found in a fill next to the monumental burial 16 and a ritual basin was placed to the northwest of it. It was sealed beneath the mortar floor
29
Hernández García, 193–198.
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that sealed the apse tiles. In other words, it was placed before the final phase of the necropolis, but after the necropolis began to be used.30 The lamp itself is almost completely preserved. It is a Pavolini-Anselmino VIIIA1c type of African importation, with a slight damage to its handle.31 On its discus, between its two feeding holes, is the seven-branched menorah made of three slightly curved branches flanking a central shaft which at the bottom has a tripod rectangular base. Evidence for use of this lamp is seen with the slight blackened color of its nozzle. On its shoulders are two laurel or wheat branches. Of a similar type (Pavolini-Anselmino VIIIC1) was another oil lamp with a chirho motif on its discus. Although only partially preserved, the lamp was found in a similar level as that of the menorah lamp.32 Hernández García refused to assume a Jewish adscription of this burial site and instead he indicated that menoroth were also used by Christian communities as a symbol. Rather than a Jewish interpretation, for that author the oil lamp indicated this burial site was undergoing a transition from Pagan to Christian communities following the Constantinian “peace of the Church” in the early 4th century.33 A similar type of necropolis is found in other sites around the Iberian Peninsula, from the early Christian cemetery of Cartagena (Cartago Nova or Carthago Spartaia) where Pagan mensae were found in clearly Christian environments, to cupula burials of Troia near Setúbal (Portugal). However, we can also recall the tomb of Ses Fontanelles from Mallorca where the three lead plaques of Shmoel bar-Haggai were found—the tomb being a false-cupula with lime stucco covering its inner wall. Much evidence supports the possibility that site has Judaizing as much as Christianizing features dating to the 4th century. As the excavators themselves admitted, citing Testini from 198134 and S. Carmona in 2001,35 in a region like Hispania that severely lacks catacomb burials such as those found in Rome or elsewhere in the Mediterranean, the possibility of identifying the spiritual asso-
30 31 32 33 34
35
Hernández García, 199–201. Hernández García, note 34. Hernández García, 203 (Lámina 22). Hernández García, 201–202. Pasquale Testini, Archeologia cristiana: nozioni genarali dalle origini alla fine del sec. VI: propedeutica, topografia cimiteriale, epigrafia, edifici di culto (Bari: Edipuglia, 1980), 76–80. The author cites oddly enough page 81, but it does not seem to relate to the topic discussed in his article. Desiderio Vaquerizo Gil and J.A. Garriguet, eds., Funus Cordubensium: costumbres funerarias en la Córdoba Romana (Córdoba, 2001), 227.
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ciation of burial sites devoid of epigraphic evidence is extremely difficult. The lack of burial goods and other indicators make it even more complicated.36 If one admits the possibility that early Christian burial sites with Pagan elements were found, why do these types of necropolises not include Jews or Judaizing people as well? It is probable that this is indeed the case here. The point has added weight if we recall, as the excavators of this site did, that both Jews and Christians were involved in proselytizing. A process where populations would retain Pagan rituals or practices despite their conversion to Christianity can easily be applied to Judaism—after all, Christianity and Judaism share a common aversion to what they saw as idolatry. Furthermore, if evidence from late antique Palestine is considered, there seem to have been no qualms in adding “Pagan” stories, symbols, and iconography in order to express a Jewish message in synagogues and other Jewish contexts.37 Nor should one discard the likelihood that Jews, Christians, and polytheistic Hellenes would at times have shared a common cemetery. This would make the explicit adscription of deceased persons through Late Antiquity, be it through mentioning them as Iudea/Iudeus or through the use of symbols such as a double-menorah, amongst other things a logical feature. In an environment where people of different religious sentiments and faiths are buried in one and the same area, the ability to find the burial place of a loved one or an esteemed member of one’s community becomes paramount. One final oil lamp from Hispania was found in Toledo by Jesús Carrobles and Sagrario Montero in 1988, which apparently is on display in the Museo de Santa Cruz in Toledo (Fig. 3.19).38 It was found during the excavations in the Nuevo Mercado de Abastos, east of the city of Toledo in a modern industrial area, specifically in cut 8, level 3—a debris level. The object is associated with
36
37 38
Oddly enough, neither Hernández García nor the citation by Carmona present the fact that the difficulties include Christians, Pagans, and Jews. Instead, they center on the lack of identification between Pagans and Christians, despite the fact that Testini indicated the evident origin of Christian burials to be heavily influenced by classical Jewish catacombs and burial practices, as much as by Pagan hypogea. Something already noticed as early as the 1920s in Blau, “Early Christian Archaeology from the Jewish Point of View,” 163–164. Jesús Carrobles Santos and Sagrario Rodríguez Montero, Memoria de las excavaciones de urgencia del solar del Nuevo Mercado de Abastos (Polígono Industrial, Toledo): Introducción al estudio de la ciudad de Toledo en el siglo IV d.C (Toledo: Diputación Provincial de Toledo, Servicio de Arqueología, 1988), 179, fig. 1; cited in Ceprián del Castillo, Soto Civantos, and Expósito Mangas, “Lucernas con ‘menorá’ en Cástulo”; In Hernández García, “La necrópolis tardorromana del Molino,” 201, there is a reference to its stay in the Museo de Santa Cruz.
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figure 3.19 Lamp from the Nuevo Mercado de Abastos excavation in Toledo from jesús carrobles santos y sagrario rodríguez montero (1988), memoria de las excavaciones de urgencia del solar del nuevo mercado de abastos, p. 179, fig. 1
the 4th century and is a Deneauve IX A or Ponsich IV C type, elaborated in North Africa at the end of the 3rd and early 4th century.39 The lamp is decorated in its discus with a seven-branched menorah flanked by two wheat branches on its borders, as is common in North African lamps with this figure. The menorah has straight angled elongated branches. It is apparently cut by the feeding hole. This suggests the production of the lamp through a mold that gave it form, with a later removal of inner clay to make the lamp operational. Carrobles and Rodríguez suggested that this might reflect the possible existence of a Jewish community in the vicinity of Toledo as early as the 4th century. However, they cite Ponsich so as to indicate that these lamps could very well have been used by Christians as well.40 Nevertheless, the lamps seem similar to others with North African origin and dating found across Hispania, which makes it plausible to assume that this lamp was made for a Jewish community or clientele. Significantly, this site is not in the city of Toledo itself, but is placed in its outskirts. This is a rural area associated with Toledo’s territorium. The presence of Jews in this area is a parallel to a site such as Villamesías near Mérida. 39
40
Jean Deneauve, Lampes de Carthage (Paris: Éditions du Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 1969), 220–222; Michel Ponsich, Les lampes romaines en tierre cuite de la Mauretanie Tingitane (Rabat: Publications du Service des Antiquités du Maroc, 1961). Carrobles Santos and Rodríguez Montero, Memoria de las excavaciones de urgencia del solar del Nuevo Mercado de Abastos (Polígono Industrial, Toledo), 95, 128–129.
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Storage Stamp
In the port city of Puerto de Mazarrón a plaster-stamped plug was found in what is probe L-2, N-3, in what was once an area dedicated to garum production.41 The stamp is roughly circular and was made by pressing the menorah’s negative on the plaster, forming its positive schematized depiction. The menorah itself has similarities to the Águilas cemetery oil lamp depiction (see Fig. 3.18): a central shaft flanked by three semi-circular and parallel pairs of branches that do not reach the upper part of the figure. It seems that a lowermost branch implies either the presence of a 9-branched menorah, or more probably a lower attached decorative element, perhaps an open Torah scroll (Fig. 3.20). The stamp is 4 centimeters high and has a maximum diameter of 11 centimeters. According to its excavators, it is from the 4th to 5th centuries.42 The stamp was found in a dump fill next to the Factoría street, next to the garum production facilities which included a storage and industrial zone. Specifically, the dump area was to the north of the industrial sector, west of the modern town port. It is clearly associated with industrial production from the 4th and 5th centuries, at a time when a series of homes and a necropolis were active in Era street to the west. Martínez Alcalde and Iniesta Sanmartín understood that while the symbol was clearly Jewish, there was no reason to assume Jews were participants in this industrial activity or that this symbol reflected a Jewish presence in late Roman Mazarrón.43 Nevertheless, the symbol’s similarity and contemporaneity with the menorah oil lamp found in nearby Águilas provides the possibility of the two community’s association. In fact, the Mazarrón production center was not only accessible by sea but was also a key industrial area between the two urban centers of Carthago Nova (modern Cartagena, 25 km distance east) and Águilas (33km distance southwest). As a result, the nearby towns to Carthago Nova were interconnected and interdependent. Four similar plaster plugs were found in the same dump, two of them still attached to the amphora’s mouth.44 The other two, found separately, had a central decorative feature (ivy leaf?) with legends surrounding it within two
41 42
43 44
Inventory number 2/9/03 from the Museum of Mazarrón. María José Martínez Alcalde and Angel Iniesta Sanmartín, Factoría romana de salazones guía Museo Arqueológico Municipal de Mazarrón (Mazarrón: Ayuntamiento de Mazarrón, 2007); Ayaso, Lorca, 358. Martínez Alcalde and Iniesta Sanmartín, Factoría romana de salazones guía Museo Arqueológico Municipal de Mazarrón, 183. Inv. Num. 2/5/03; 2/6/03.
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figure 3.20
Storage stamp from Puerto de Mazarrón (Murcia) from a. fuentes and m. garcía (2009): “antes de sefarad: arqueología judía en la península ibérica en la antigüedad”, in preactas del congreso arqueología judía medieval en la península ibérica. balance y perspectivas. murcia, 28–26 de febrero, 2009
concentric circles.45 These are an indication that the menorah plug is not a unique element, but rather was accompanied by many other plugs for different storage amphorae, with different symbols representing the producers.46 This feature, well documented in its context, should point towards an organized Jewish community, possibly from Águilas, that used a specific type of menorah as a representative motif. By placing the plug with such a symbol—a stamp that could only be taken out if the amphora or the plug is broken—one could have insurance that the inner contents of said amphora remained unaffected. Likewise, the plaster was porous enough to allow fermentation gasses to abandon the receptacle, suggesting its use for either a wine or garum amphora. The context points clearly to its use for storage of garum. The need for such a stamp and plug points towards its use for such storage by the Jewish community, as these productions would be used for consumption by
45 46
Inv. Num. 2/7/03; 2/8/03. Martínez Alcalde and Iniesta Sanmartín, Factoría romana de salazones, 119.
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Jews living either in the area or, perhaps, for export around the Roman Empire. Such features are made particularly visible in the archaeological record through the finding of imported amphorae associated with a Jewish community in Castulo (see Chapter 2, Ins. 3.1) or a Jewish individual Sillo in Merida (Chapter 2, Ins. 4.2). Jewish involvement in Hispanian garum production is attested in ancient sources, both Jewish and non-Jewish from the Roman imperial period.47 Despite this, one other possibility cannot be discarded: that the Jewish community or a Jewish-associated group owned the industrial firm itself. In this case, the plug stamp symbol would not be an indicator of kosher garum, but rather of the producing Jewish community itself. However, this theory as much as that of Jewish consumption is speculative, requiring more future findings for its confirmation or rejection.
4
The Orihuela Stela
Orihuela (ancient Auriaola), is located 30 kilometers southeast of Elche (28 from the Alcudia of Elche) on the road towards the city of Murcia. The stela presented here was originally found by Juan Bautista Vilar in 1976 through his research on the history of Orihuela, in the Public Library of “Fernando de Loazes” without knowledge of its specific place of origin or moment of discovery (Fig. 3.21).48 The piece consisted of a stone bas-relief made of one central Solomonic column with a Corinthian capital sustaining two parallel curved bands. Flanking the column are two peacocks. The left is looking down eating what seems to be a branch or a serpent, with the right one looking up and 47
48
See Chapter 2, Ins. 4.2, note 72 on Hebrew mentions in the Talmud. The use of Garum in Herod’s court has been widely attested through findings in Herodian palaces such as Masada, as presented in Adam Kolman Marshak, The Many Faces of Herod the Great (Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2015), 178–181; Piotr Berdowski, “Garum of Herod the Great (Latin-Greek Inscription on the Amphora from Masada),” The Qumran Chronicle 16 (2008): 107–122. Even so, there is discussion of whether it was considered “kosher Garum”, like that mentioned by Pliny the Elder, in his Historia Naturalis, XXXI, Ch. 44. There is discussion of whether Pliny considers it to be kosher for not having scales (forbidden in Jewish dietary law) or having scales. The latter is the suggestion of the translation of Pliny according to Gessner (non carentibus). Based on Pliny the Elder, The Natural History of Pliny, trans. John Bostock and Henry T. Riley, vol. 5 (London: H.G. Bonn, 1855), 508. Juan Bautista Vilar Ramírez, “Lápida judía de Orihuela,” Sefarad: Revista de Estudios Hebraicos y Sefardíes 36, no. 2 (1976): 337–339; Antonio Poveda “Un supuesto relieve hebreo y la dudosa presencia de comunidades organizadas judías en la Carthaginensis oriental (ss. IV–VII d. C)”, Verdolay: Revista del Museo Arqueológico de Murcia 9 (2005): 215.
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figure 3.21 Picture of stela from Orihuela courtesy of the consejalía de patrimonio histórico, ayuntamiento de orihuela, and emilio diz. published at the blog post “museo y patrimonio mueble” of the consejalía de patrimonio histórico, ayntamiento de orihuela. link: http://patrimoniohistorico.orihuela.es/ p/museo‑y‑patrimonio‑mueble.html
eating fruits, probably grapes. From this we find the intent of representing a paradisiacal scene. The stela was reviewed by Llobregat Conesa who proposed a Jewish origin of the relief, which Vilar subsequently published. Furthermore, while Vilar suggested the possibility that this stela could have originated from Elche, he decided to present it as originating from Orihuela itself, an opinion shared by García Iglesias.49 The stela is displayed today in the Museo Arqueológico Comarcal de Orihuela. By reviewing its production technique, the object was dated to between the late 6th and 7th centuries. Vilar considered that given the destruction of the city under King Suinthila in 628, this piece would have been produced after the Visigothic conquest when the city was in full development. However, there is no positive evidence to confirm this hypothesis. In 2005 Poveda Navarro would focus his criticism of the theory of Jewish presence in the Ilici area on this stela. He indicated that there is no evidence that this bas-relief represents a menorah at all, and in fact we should look at parallels for this iconography elsewhere. Firstly, the flanking peacocks was a widespread theme in contemporary (6th century) Christian iconography, with examples in Saint Apollinare in Classe and the Basilica of Saint Apollinare Nuovo in Ravenna.50 Furthermore, Poveda suggests that the use of Corinthian capitals are present in the depiction of architectural designs in the Palace of Theodoric from Ravenna as well, while pointing out the absence of the column feature for the base of menoroth to suggest any iconographic parallel. As for the features that could be interpreted to represent a menorah, Poveda indicates that while these curved lines could have represented the branches
49 50
García Iglesias, Los judios en la España antigua, 175. Antonio Poveda Navarro, “Un supuesto relieve hebreo”, 224–225.
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of the seven-branched candelabrum, they could probably also have represent a chi-rho.51 As such, the curved lines would be the base of a relief frame for the central motif, which would have a chi-rho symbol, possibly flanked by an alpha and an omega. A parallel for such features is presented from the Cemetery of Comodilla, Rome, where within an aedicula motif was a Greek cross surrounded by a circular frame and sustained by a Solomonic column with a simple, decorated Doric capital.52 Eastern Roman influence that include iconographic models from Ravenna would support this proposition of a Christian reading of this relief.53 While there is no positive evidence for the Jewish adscription of this piece as a menorah, there is just as much or little evidence for the adscription of it as a chi-rho. We need not look far to find evidence of flanking peacocks next to a menorah, such as the trilingual Tarragona basin (see Chapter 2, Ins. 5.1). If anything, the two parallel lines at the top of the preserved stela reveal the impossibility of a chi-rho. For example, the reconstruction proposed by Poveda necessitates that while the chi is clearly placed, the rho would be hidden by the supposed second (inner) frame. Furthermore, the appearance of a Solomonic column alongside Jewish symbols is not an impossibility in Late Antiquity. Stranger associations with menorahs have been found in the Land of Israel, including a menorah placed on the human figure’s head in Beth Sheʾarim—a feature not found anywhere else.54 Comparing the plausibility of a Christian or Jewish representation of this stella, the simplest explanation would be that indeed there is a menorah placed at its upper section.
5
The Mas Rimbau Menorah
In 1997 news of a tombstone with a menorah carved on one of its cover stones was published from the Tarragona late antique burial site of Mas Rimbau (5th to 7th centuries ce).55 The site is located to the northwest of the ancient walled 51 52
53 54
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Reconstruction of the stella according to Poveda Navarro “Un supuesto relieve hebreo,” 228, plate 5. Poveda Navarro, 226, lámina 3. Includes a relief with two pigeons flanking a chi-rho on top of the described figure. It was published in 1980 by Testini, Archeologia cristiana, 395, fig. 181. Poveda Navarro, “Un supuesto relieve hebreo,” 226. Goodenough, Jewish Symbols in the Greco-Roman Period, vol. 1: The Archaeological Evidence from Palestine (New Haven, USA: Panthenon Books, 1953), 92; Hachlili, The Menorah, the Ancient Seven-Armed Candelabrum, 191. Bea Castaño and Vilaseca Canals, “Dues necròpolis del segle V d. n. E. a Tarragona: Excava-
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city of Tarraco, in what was classified as a suburban section of the late antique town, or what was called periferèria septentrional. The excavations were specifically done in an area surrounded by the modern street Joan Antonio i Guardias, block PP4 (Tarragona 2), under the direction of David Bea. As such, its topographic location is on the southern slope of l’Oliva mount, and therefore would be visible from the city itself, unlike the other contemporary found necropolis from Tarraco. Aside from the inscription recovered from the site (see Chapter 2, Ins. 5.6), the most significant find is an incised slab with a seven-branched menorah carved on one of its faces.56 The slab covered an anthropomorphic cist burial not unlike those found from later medieval periods in Montjuic, Barcelona. It has a tripod base, an upper bar and slightly curved branches that start in the upper third of the central mast. It is approximately 7 centimeters across. Its date was placed by the original excavators in the 5th century at the earliest, without further specificity.57 However, Vilar placed it at the second phase of the late antique cemetery, or the 6th to 7th centuries ce.58 The excavators and later publications have explored the Jewish filiation of the person buried at the site. According to David Bea and Albert Vilaseca, the original discoverers of the tomb, the menorah indicates a Jewish filiation of the buried individual, but does not the identification of the entire late antique necropolis as a Jewish burial site.59 This interpretation is shared by Judit Curiana i Prast, who considers the menorah to be potentially used by Christians as well, thus not being definitive enough evidence to identify the individual as belonging to a Jewish community even if it is likely.60 Even so, the menorah itself seems to have close parallels with Jewish iconography and not Christian depictions of the symbol. Most important is the upper bar, which signifies a menorah with a three-dimensional projection, prepared for holding
56 57 58 59 60
cions al carrer de Prat de la Riba i al Mas Rimbau”, 157; Ciurana i Prast, “Confessions religioses i rituals funeraris a la Tàrraco tardorromana”, 182. Jordi López Vilar, Les basíliques paleocristianes del suburbi occidental de Tarraco: el temple septentrional i el complex martirial de Sant Fructuós., vol. 1, Sèrie Documenta 4 (Tarragona: Univ. Rovira i Virgili, Institut Català d’Arqueologia Clàssica, 2006), 248. Bea Castaño and Vilaseca Canals, “Dues necròpolis del segle V d. n. E. a Tarragona: Excavacions al carrer de Prat de la Riba i al Mas Rimbau”, 163, fig. 13. Bea Castaño and Vilaseca Canals, 159. López Vilar, Les basíliques paleocristianes del suburbi occidental de Tarraco, 1:248. Bea Castaño and Vilaseca Canals, “Dues necròpolis del segle V d. n. E. a Tarragona: Excavacions al carrer de Prat de la Riba i al Mas Rimbau”, 158. Ciurana i Prast, “Confessions religioses i rituals funeraris a la Tàrraco tardorromana”, 182– 183.
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lamps at the top of the candelabra. The symbol is not uncommon in other sites of Tarraco, such as the trilingual basin, amongst other inscriptions from the city. Another important finding can represent a distinction between Jewish and Christian burial practices in the 5th century. One of the individuals buried is a 30-year-old woman with fetal remains in her abdomen placed in the birth position.61 Everything indicates that the woman died giving birth. This finding is rare amongst early Christian burial sites, as women would typically be buried separately from their dead pre or neonates. However, here there seems to have been a hurry to have the burial completed as soon as possible. Was there an interest of burial fulfilling Judaic law regarding body impurity? Could there have been a divergence regarding the consideration of the fetus in Judaic and Christian burial practices? We can only speculate. However, considering the potentially Jewish-Christian mixture in the necropolis, this apparent “anomaly” could be salvaged by exploring Jewish law. Much like the decorated lamp in Águilas seen above, there seems to be evidence of a mixture of practices as pertains to the Jewish community of Tarraco. The necropolis’ visibility from the urban center should not be overlooked. Like the Ilici basilical structure and other late antique urban centers, such visibility would be taken for granted by the inhabitants of the town. The archaeological reconstruction of Tarraco’s landscape must not be studied exclusively as that of a Christian town, but involving a variety of communities including the Jews, who seem to have made a significant impact in the material cultural record of the city.
6
The Intaglio of Ammaia
The Roman town of Ammaia was located about 15 kilometers north-northeast from Portalegre, near the Portuguese border with Spain. From the immediacies of the site are a series of engraved gems originally associated with rings or some other jewelry. These were reportedly found in the early 20th century during different surface agricultural works and held in the personal collection of the Maças family (first António Maças, originally from Portalegre, and then his daughter Dr. Delmira Maças who donated the collection to the Museu Nacional de Arqueologia).62 One of the objects from that collection is a blue nicolo gem 61 62
Bea Castaño and Vilaseca Canals, “Dues necròpolis del segle V d. n. E. a Tarragona: Excavacions al carrer de Prat de la Riba i al Mas Rimbau”, 159, 162 (figs. 7, 8, 9). Graça Cravinho and Shua Amorai-Stark, “A Jewish Intaglio from Roman Ammaia, Lusita-
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with the image of a menorah with a tripod base and other ritual objects flanking it (a shofar and etrog to its left, and a standalone lulav to its right).63 The gem is oval-shaped, colored pale blue, and has a black background. Its cut is a Henig F4 type.64 In other words, it has a flat surface with angled sides, with the measurements of 12.3×10.8×3.7 millimeters. Associated with this intaglio is another produced gem with smaller proportions (9.6 × 7.0 × 2.5 millimeters) with the decoration of a standalone lyre without sound box as a large central object.65 Both gems were probably produced by the same officina gemmaria which seemingly operated in ancient Ammaia as it was a center for mining operations in the province of Lusitania.66 The recent discussions surrounding these intaglios are worth mentioning. Cravinho and Amorai-Stark suggest that the absence of a ground line in the menorah and lyre engravings indicates a transcendental motif, so that the menorah and lyre are not intended to depict merely earthly objects. Citing Posèq in his study on the symbolic nature of Jewish art,67 the authors suggest that the fact the objects float in a seemingly empty space is an accentuation of the image’s symbolic and religious nature, which escape the limitation of temporality or physicality.68 Similarly, they correctly point out that the menorah is a symbol that associates the viewer with the messianic hopes of a restored Temple in Jerusalem. The menorah is flanked by three ritual objects in an asymmetric fashion, thus connecting it with other examples of asymmetry in Jewish art where the phenomenon indicates the existence of cosmological disorder following the destruction and absence of the Jerusalem Temple.69 Notwithstanding the symbolic interpretation of this iconography, the depiction of the menorah with the flanking ritual objects is quite common as seen elsewhere in Hispanojewish art. It is seen in inscriptions such as that of Annianus Peregrinus in Mérida, the water basin in Tarragona, the Pallaresos inscrip-
63 64 65 66 67 68 69
nia,” Liber Annus 56 (2006): 521; Graça Cravinho, “Some Engraved Gems from Ammaia,” Pallas 83 (2010): 15, note 8. Cravinho and Amorai-Stark, “A Jewish Intaglio from Roman Ammaia, Lusitania,” 522; Cravinho, “Some Engraved Gems from Ammaia,” 20–21, Pl. I-4. Jeffrey Spier, Ancient Gems and Finger Rings: Catalogue of the Collection (Malibu, California: J. Paul Getty Museum, 1992), 3. Cravinho and Amorai-Stark, “A Jewish Intaglio from Roman Ammaia, Lusitania,” 522–523; Cravinho, “Some Engraved Gems from Ammaia,” 20. Cravinho and Amorai-Stark, “A Jewish Intaglio from Roman Ammaia, Lusitania,” 541. Avigdor W.G. Posèq, “Towards a Semiotic Approach to Jewish Art,” Ars Judaica 1 (2005): 31–45, 50, especially on his discussion of the Dura Europos murals. Cravinho and Amorai-Stark, “A Jewish Intaglio from Roman Ammaia, Lusitania,” 526–527. Cravinho and Amorai-Stark, 528; Posèq, “Towards a Semiotic Approach to Jewish Art,” 40– 41.
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figure 3.22 Nicolo intaglio with menorah, lulav, etrog, and shofar courtesy of cravinho, amoraistark, from: “a jewish intaglio from roman ammaia, lusitania”, p. 33, fig. 1a
tion near Tarragona, and the decorated brick from Ronda, Málaga. Above are the cases of the storage stamp from the Puerto de Mazarrón, or the stamp found in Merida. However, one key difference between this decorated gem and the cases presented in Chapter 2 and this chapter is the date. According to stylistic parallels found within Ammaia, including a glass imitation of nicolo intaglio depicting what seems to be an ear of corn or a trident and parallels from magical gems from the 2nd to 3rd centuries, this object should be dated to that period.70 As correctly pointed out by Cravinho and Amorai-Stark, the menorah motif with the etrog, shofar, and lulav appear in a late antique setting, and certainly there is no clear depiction of such a motif as early as the 2nd century ce outside of Palestine. As a result, the object should be dated to the 3rd century ce at the earliest.71 While the symbolic meaning of these depictions is important, I believe there is more information to be gleaned. The fact that the gem is probably of a 3rd century date indicates that the representation of the menorah in a heraldic setting, as found in stamps and other features of late antique Hispanojewish productions, is a phenomenon that predates the conversion of the empire to Christianity.
70 71
Cravinho and Amorai-Stark, “A Jewish Intaglio from Roman Ammaia, Lusitania,” 543; Cravinho, “Some Engraved Gems from Ammaia,” 26. Cravinho and Amorai-Stark, “A Jewish Intaglio from Roman Ammaia, Lusitania,” 543.
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It is unknown what use this object had, though in any case it must have been decorative. However, the production of such a series of symbols in a workshop that produced other symbols like the lyre suggests that the menorah was part of the repertoire of late antique craftsmanship starting from the 3rd century onwards. It also suggests the connection between Jewish communities and the economic life of their cities, including an apparent mining center such as Ammaia, just as the evidence presented above suggested Jewish involvement in the garum industry in southern regions of Hispania.
7
A Review of the Objects
The last two chapters were a catalogue of objects, be they epigraphic, numismatic, or only iconographic, that present clear association with Jewish communities in the Iberian Peninsula. Contextualized by the findings described in previous chapters, we can give these objects greater value than what they have traditionally received. Despite the fact that many of them lack context, such as the stela of Orihuela or the half-shekel of Algeciras, a common feature can be detected for all of them: if they had no Jewish symbols on them, it would not be possible to differentiate them from any other object of late antique context. This is not to say that Jews were not visibly different in matters of dress or ritual practice—things that are generally invisible for archaeologists. Rather, this presents us with confirmation of some premises from which this study began. The lack of differentiation between Jewish, Christian, and other religious communities when it comes to material culture also goes the other way: if the lack of an explicit Jewish symbol on an object prevents us from identifying it as Jewish, could this not be applied also to Christian findings as well? It is important to notice how Hispanian Jews participated fully in the economic and social environment of the regions where they lived. The first century is only detected through the presence of Second Temple coins, which were apparently associated with the increase of pilgrimage to the Land of Israel from Herodian times and with apparent increased intensity from the early reign of Tiberius. During the first years of the Great Rebellion in Iudaea the contact routes between the opposite sides of the Mediterranean Sea remained. But once the Temple was destroyed this stream of pilgrims ceased. From the 2nd century ce are the first detected Jewish inscriptions in Hispania, by people who seem to have been well integrated into the socio-political frames of Hispano-Roman society. But we can only detect non-epigraphic objects from the 4th century onwards, at a moment when the menorah becomes a crucial Jewish symbol. We find it in centers like Cástulo, where there
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seems to have been a Jewish community building, the area of “Building T”, using oil lamps for lighting, to be found later in a demolition phase of the site, together with the Cástulo grafitto from the same date. Other decorated lamps are found in funerary and non-funerary environments, revealing the probable presence of Jewish communities or at least Jewish people in said areas as most of these lamps are African imports. In other words, the presence of the lamps reflects a particular demand, probably on the part of Jews. Evidence for this explicit use of the menorah as a Jewish symbol is present in later centuries, with the stela of Orihuela. It has clear influence from Christian iconography, from which many of the motifs are borrowed. Again, we notice the use of a locally available artistic production for the expression of a Jewish message in works of art, as in the case of the Jewish synagogue of Ilici. The participation of Jewish people in economic activities is evidenced with the storage stamp from Puerto de Mazarrón, near Cartagena, and the nicolo intaglio found in Ammaia, Algarve. The similarity in the symbol of the stamp in Mazarrón with that of the lamp from Águilas reveals that these communities established not only inter-provincial networks such as the one revealed by the titulus pictus from Mérida (Chapter 2, Ins. 4.2), but also regional networks. This feature is not unique to this phase and area in Jewish history. We can find such networks established in other historical periods and areas, such as the Rhine cities of Trier, Mainz, Cologne, and Speier in the 10th and 11th centuries, before the destruction of the 1st Crusade in 1096. The Cairo Genizah reveals a large network of Jewish communities between the 10th and 13th centuries facilitated by Islamic rule that protected commercial networks. Likewise, the production of an intaglio with a similar Jewish heraldic motif as those found elsewhere in Hispania has symbolic/religious implications while also being evidence for the active part Jews played in the economic/industrial life of Roman Hispania. These commercial and communication networks not only allowed for the transport of goods such as garum or African oil lamps. Crucially, it also allowed for the transport of people and books and, with them, ideas. In these circumstances it is possible to find the multilingual inscriptions from Tarragona or the multiplicity of languages used in major Ancient cities like Rome and Carthage as not only a product of some conservative preservation of linguistic traditions, but a cultural necessity. Jews from the Western Roman Empire were in constant contact with their eastern counterparts. While they probably spoke Latin, knowledge of Greek and Hebrew became imperative to share messages and ideas that could be used not only by local Jews, but also by people from all around the known world. Objects such as the 1st century coins reveal the existence of such networks from the dawn of Hispanian Jewry.
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The ideas that were imported and exported from were not exclusively associated with the Jewish communities, but also affected other groups in late Roman Hispania. These Jewish communities were part of a wider Judaism, yes, but they were Hispanian through and through, in the sense that they were part of the cultural landscape of Iberian Late Antiquity. The similarities in artistic expression reflected social tension as much as contact, as we notice a tendency to convert sites—such as the supposed Cástulo public “Building T” area and the Ilici synagogue—into Christian churches. Judaism and Jews are archaeologically detectable precisely because it is impossible to separate “Jewish objects” from their Christian counterparts. The archaeological visibility becomes a necessary part of to build a complete picture of the late antique society that existed in late antique Hispania. The insistence of certain authors to deny this material expression of Jewish communities, or to marginalize them from late antique societies by considering Judaism a foreign element to Hispanian society (all the while apparently seeing Romanization and Christianization as a natural evolution of Spanish and Portuguese history) originates from ideological interest, and not historical inquiry. It is evident that the material evidence from late antique Hispanian Jewry places them as an integral part of the story of Hispania itself, and not an outsider element. To understand the Roman and late antique Iberian Peninsula, late antique Judaism must be considered as well.
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The Elche Basin and Water Installations in Iberian Peninsula Synagogues 1
Introduction
Epigraphic evidence shows that Roman-era Jewish communities were highly integrated, spoke and read Latin and Greek, and possibly even held religious services in those languages. However, interestingly the eastern communities, particularly those around the ancient city of Tarraco (present day Tarragona) used Hebrew, at least for ritual purposes. Post-Roman literature evidences a considerable number of Jews in the Hispanic provinces, especially if important regions such as the Balearic Islands are included. Documents from the 7th and 8th centuries, including epigraphic evidence from that and later periods, show that Jewish communities in the Iberian Peninsula shared many philosophical, social, and religious aspects with other Jewish communities across the Mediterranean. However, these Hispanian Jews did not leave much information about their actual customs and rituals. Added to that is the difficulty of interpreting archaeological evidence due to the striking lack of any synagogues found in the Iberian Peninsula other than the case at Ilici. However, through a comparative study of late antique synagogues from the Mediterranean, it is possible to start mapping some aspects of Jewish life and rituals in Hispania before the important reforms made by Hasday Ibn-Shaprut in the 10th century. One of those rituals is the washing of hands and feet before entering the synagogue, which was mentioned in Talmudic and post-Talmudic works in Jewish Rabbinic literature, while evidence for such rituals is also present in excavated synagogues around the Mediterranean. Importantly, this ritual can be applied to study several remains from the Hispanian Jewish communities, opening a window to a forgotten Jewish culture that was replaced by later orientalizing reforms of the 10th century.
2
Two Water Basins from Hispania
This chapter will focus on two basins found associated with late antique Jewish presence in the Iberian Peninsula. The first is a water basin with a Jewish
© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2021 | doi:10.1163/9789004419926_006 Alexander Bar-Magen
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inscription on one of its wider sides from the city of Tarragona. The other is from the Ilici synagogue (B/022) which has no clear interpretation regarding its use. The Tarraco basin (see Chapter 2, Ins. 5.1) was found in a clearly urban context, though in a reused environment that prevents its positive association with the spot of its first discovery. Lacking this context, it is hard to describe with certainty its use. However, its interpretation as being a funerary sarcophagus of sorts cannot be sustained based on its physical description, more likely being a trough of sorts, with capacity for 11.45 liters approximately. The inscription and decoration themselves reveal it was probably placed in an introductory space for a synagogue. The other object reviewed here is the basin found at the western edge of the Alcudia de Elche synagogue mosaic (B/022), whose circumstances require further description. The basin is surrounded by a series of marble slabs used to repair the damage done to the floor when the basin was placed (B/012—see Chapter 7, 2.2.1). Previous scholars did not manage to find an explanation for its presence, mostly because it has no parallels in Christian architecture and, therefore, did not fit the a priori denomination of the building as a church (see chapters 2, ins. 5.1, and 9, 2.2.3). The finding of the basin is demonstrative of the complicated history of the synagogue’s excavation. After the original 1905 intervention by Albertini and Ibarra, where there is mention of mauvais dallage in the western edge of the mosaic but not of a basin at a lower level; it was only in 1948 with the reexcavation of the mosaic by Alejandro Ramos Folqués accompanied by his friend Dr. Helmut Schlunk from the Deutsches Archaeologisches Institut that the basin was found and positively identified. The reason why this feature was not found initially in 1905 is probably explained in the 1971 Hauschild plan (Fig. 7.4). It is evident that most of the basin was found at a few centimeters below the mosaic floor. During the 1905 excavation it is made clear by both Albertini and Ibarra that the objective was mostly the uncovering of the mosaic floor and the main features surrounding it (mainly, the eastern apse).1 They did not dig below the mosaic level; therefore, the basin feature was not found at the time. Little research was made into the use for which the basin was intended. Some more recent scholarship associates it with early Christian martyrial cults, which were very prevalent in the Iberian Peninsula. This is due to the interpretation of burial T/207 to the south of the basilical building’s remains as an
1 For more on the excavation history of the Ilici basilica, see Chapter 6.
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ad sanctos cemetery which had to be next to a saint’s or, better yet, martyr’s remains.2 However, there is no evidence linking this basin to funerary or ritual use. In fact, the lack of any funerary evidence recovered within the basilical building either in 1905 or 1948, and of course in the follow-up excavations in that area underneath the mosaic floor between 1949 and 1955, is enough to indicate that the structure was not used for an ad sanctos cemetery (see Chapter 9). The basin itself is not big at all. Of a circular plan and semicircular cut, it has a semi-spherical form. The top internal diameter is of 32 centimeters and the outer diameter of 36 centimeters. Sadly, the basin’s depth was never published. However, the notes from the excavation suggest that this measure was not superior to the diameter. Considering the possibility of having a spherical basin, it can be assumed that the maximum volume of it is enough to have 8.578 liters. Notes from the moment of its excavation as well as publications by Ramos Folqués show that it was located 4.15 meters from the southern wall of the basilical building, and 0.22 meters from its western entrance. Therefore, it was located precisely on the entrance section to the mosaic area. The presence of the marble slabs to fix the areas broken by the placement of the basin in the entrance of the mosaic area shows that the craftsmanship that created the mosaic in the first place was then unavailable. But this was not always the case. In fact, the northeastern corner of the mosaic—or what was preserved from it—indicate the existence of attempts to fix a damaged area of the mosaic floor, though with a noticeable reduction in quality (see Chapter 7, 5.2.4). Therefore, the basin and its surrounding marble slabs are probably from a later time, a second reform that is associated with other objects put within the mosaic floor itself. It appears that the basin was located at the entrance of the mosaic area, placed there during a second renovation, at a time when there were no available artisans to make proper repairs on the damaged parts of mosaic floor. The basin had a maximum capacity of around 8.5 liters. Therefore, it had a small capacity, but enough for a container of water used to wash hands and feet, or a token harboring of water at the entrance. A significant problem is the dating of this basin. The presence of marble slabs (B/012) shows it was made at the same time as the mauvais dallage to the southeast of the mosaic floor. It is also from a period in which the mosaics were
2 Roberto Lorenzo de San Román and Javier Morcillo, “La basílica paleocristiana de Ilici (L’Alcudia, Elche). Desmontaje, contextualización y restitución desde la reexcavación bibliográfica,” Madrider Mitteilungen 55 (2014): 524.
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unable to be repaired, that is, Phase IIc3 of the Ilici Basilica, associated also with the central stones B/008 and B/009. This phase is dated to the second half, and more probably late 5th century ce, before the construction of the eastern apse by the 6th century. However, could this basin belong to a later period? It is certainly a possibility. Its placement at the central axis of the mosaic leads us to discard the dating of this basin to the 8th century or Phase Ib. However, there is nothing to suggest it could not belong to phases IIb or IIa (between the 6th and 7th centuries). Regardless, the feature was an addition that was unavailable before Phase IIc. It is important to remember that the absence of this stone basin does not mean there was no feature of similar use before Phase IIc, much like the absence of the central stones do not imply the absence of a Torah ark on the central-eastern panel of the mosaic floor. We ought not to omit possible use of wooden furniture fulfilling a similar task, or at least consider the use of other furniture elements from before this phase, with the laying of the original mosaic floor in Phase IIe. What is evident and beyond doubt is that basin B/022 and marble slabs B/012 were placed after mosaic floor B/011.
3
Water Basins in the Mediterranean Jewish Sites in Late Antiquity
With the recent publication of a review of the Ostia synagogue study, A. Runneson gave an interesting point of view on an aspect of the Diaspora synagogue that was, until then, left relatively unnoticed from an archaeological perspective. Through the later phases of the structure, that of the Intermediary and Late buildings, there was an extended use of water installations in the entrance area of the synagogue. The review of the Ostia synagogue’s building history led inevitably to the question regarding the water basin present in Area A, an introductory vestibule passage area to the east of the main synagogue entrance in Area B. In fact, this led to Runesson to commit a whole article to these water installations in contexts such as Ostia. The water installations of the Ostia synagogue are mostly located in Area A (Figs. 4.5, 6), with another one located in the Area B vestibule during the second period of the synagogue. The area is a monumental introductory passageway, 23.6×3.8 meters. It is the only monumental entrance to its north, looking towards the higher Via Severiana. The entrance is flanked by two columns, including two steps into the lower level of the opus sectile floor of the vestibule
3 For more on the Ilici synagogue/basilica phases, see Chapter 7, 5.
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area (Figs. 11.9–12). To the left of the marble steps is a cylindrical marble well head.4 It is 42 centimeters in diameter and 70 centimeters high. The well’s depth, according to the last 2001 publication of Ostia’s findings, is 2.10 meters. Next to the well is a rectangular cistern that was covered by the latest opus sectile floor of “Area A”. The cistern was apparently covered before the well was installed, and therefore was in use during a previous phase of the building. The well was placed on top of yet another well that was in use since the first building.5 Such installations were, however, linked to what seemed to be a water basin from Area B1 (southern room of Ostia’s Area B, connecting the vestibule to the main four-columned Area C—see Fig. 11.10). There, underneath a mosaic floor level that is to be associated with the latest phase of the synagogue, was an opus signinum floor that is to be associated with a water basin. The basin was connected through a drainage channel to the cistern.6 It is important to indicate that “Area B1” had a strange arrangement as an access point. The main, eastern door found in its latest phase was sixty centimeters above the mosaic floor, which ended about two meters from the eastern wall of the area. The door was symmetrical with the door to the southeastern area of B3 that together flanked the main central door to Area B2. This was an aesthetic addition, rather than a strictly functional one, with the objective of imitating the “Galilean-type” three-door entrance. The drainage was covered by the marble slab pavement following the second major reform.7 Therefore, we find a significant change in the use of water installations in the entrance area of the Ostia synagogue. Considering its tripartite chronological sequencing, from Early, Intermediate, and Late building, scholars found that water installations were present in the synagogue’s entrance in two distinct moments: the Intermediate Period, from the late 2nd to the 4th centuries, with an opus signinum water basin in the northeastern entrance area of the complex draining into a cistern in the then-secondary Area A; following that, the Late Building defined by reforms such as those in Area B1 and Area A, blocking the original B1 entrance, establishing a monumental entrance in Area A, covering both the basin and the cistern with their respective new floors, and replacing it with a marble well.8
4 Runesson, “The Synagogue at Ancient Ostia. The Building and Its History from the First to the Fifth Century,” 65, 84–85, passim. 5 Runesson, 65–66. 6 Runesson, 44–45. 7 Runesson, 44–45. 8 Runesson, 65.
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figure 4.1 Picture of the Ostia entrance cistern and later well courtesy of the archivio fotografico of the parco archaeologico di ostia antica, ministerio per i beni e la attivitá culturali, direzione generale musei
figure 4.2 Position of the water installations in the late synagogue (4th century) plan courtesy of the archivio disegni of the parco archaeologico di ostia antica, ministerio per i beni e la attivitá culturali, direzione generale musei. n. inv. 888
While Runneson accepted the existence of ritual washing before entering the synagogue, he associated it not with these water installations in the entrance area, but rather with the sea. Thus, he attempted to explain the proximity of the Ostia synagogue to the shoreline. A ritual need for washing required the proximity of a natural source of water, like the sea. For this he cited several sources: the first is from a Second Temple classic, the Letter of Aristeas’ mention of such hand-washing (305–306) in the following terms: And as is the custom of all the Jews, they washed their hands in the sea and prayed to God and then devoted themselves to reading and translating the particular passage upon which they were engaged, and I put the question to them, why was it that they washed their hands before they prayed? And they explained that it was a token that they had done no evil (for every form of activity is wrought by means of the hands) since in their noble and holy way they regard everything as a symbol of righteousness and truth.9 9 Letter of Aristeas, vss. 305–306. Based on the translation from Henry St. John Thackeray, The Letter of Aristeas (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1917), 83–84.
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Further evidence comes from Josephus where he mentions washing of hands in the sea before proceeding to handle sacred texts and in preparation for their interpretation in Ptolemaic Egypt.10 Considering his acceptance of Hengel’s position regarding the use of the synagogue, amongst other things, to translate and work on the sacred texts,11 Runesson proposed that the references in Josephus and the Letter of Aristeas are clear indicators of a practice existing before the first evidence of the architectural synagogue.12 He further poses that the location of the synagogue by the sea or other important bodies of water was associated with a sense of purification in a land where the majority are “idolaters” and non-Jews. It is in this context that he places the synagogue of Ostia, which lies close to the Mediterranean coast and outside the city walls. Runesson associates this feature with the location of the similarly ancient diaspora synagogue of Delos.13 The author of this important study on Ostia does not answer the problem of water installations in the synagogue’s entrance area. In fact, his consideration of the placement of synagogues next to large bodies of water like the sea raises the following question: what was the purpose of water installations like the well of the late phase, and most importantly the water basin and cistern in the intermediary phase? The cistern would probably be a result of a factor seen in other diaspora synagogues: availability from an economic and urban standpoint. Most importantly there is another factor that should be considered. In a port city like Ostia, there was a need for a synagogue that could be entered without having to enter the city itself. The presence of the synagogue outside the city walls could be better associated to the need for Jews to avoid paying taxes on Shabbat, and the need for swift court of law to settle disputes in the port area, rather than washing rituals in the sea that would make the water installations redundant. 10 11
12
13
Antiquities of the Jews, XII.2.13. Martin Hengel, “Proseuche und Synagoge: jüdische Gemeinde, Gotteshaus und Gottesdienst in der Diaspora und in Palästina,” Tradition und Glaube: Das Frühe Christentum in seiner Umwelt, Festgabe für Karl Georg Kuhn zum 65 (1975): 157–184. Anders Runesson, “Water and Worship. Ostia and the Ritual Bath in the Diaspora Synagogue,” in The Synagogue of Ancient Ostia and the Jews of Rome: Interdisciplinary Studies, Birger Olsson, Dieter Mitternacht and Olof Brandt, Skrifter Utgivna Av Svenska Institutet i Rom 4 (57) (Stockholm: Paul Åströms Förlag, 2001), 117–119. In Runesson’s The Origin of the Synaoguge, there the author describes the synagogue as a Torah-reading institution that originated in the 5th century bce, only to receive an architectural building, typically assembly halls, in the 1st century bce to the 1st century ce. See Anders Runesson, The Origins of the Synagogue: A Socio-Historical Study, Coniectanea Biblica New Testament Series 37 (Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell International, 2001), 161–193. Runesson, 126.
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It is safe to say that water installations such as those found in Ostia are pervasive in the Diaspora, as well as the Land of Israel. A case is the water basin found in the central southeastern annex room of the Hammam Lif synagogue in modern Tunisia (Fig. 11.48). The basin is accessible through a side passageway to the north of three elongated rooms similar to those found to the south of the Bova Marina synagogue in its first phase. Two basins are, in fact, found one next to the other in the center of these three rooms, one to the north of the other. The access to them, available before entering or exiting the synagogue itself, but after passing through the main entrance passageway, suggests it was associated with the entrance area of the synagogue. These water basins, according to Ernest Renan, are 20 centimeters high, which reproduces closely the type of stone basin found in the Ilici synagogue in Hispania and the ʿEn Gedi synagogue in Palestine.14 A “laver basin” was found in Dura Europos, specifically interpreted as providing for the washing of hands at the introductory courtyard of the late building.15 However, a previous basin was also found associated with the earlier synagogue building of the late 2nd century, which apparently would be part of common features of the local domestic architecture.16 Two basins were found in the excavation and re-excavation of the Priene synagogue in Asia Minor. They were found stuck between the retention wall of the oikos structure and the synagogue basilica to its south. The larger rectangular basin was built into the space between the first phase and second phase of the northern synagogue wall. However, it seems to have been in use mostly in its second phase, and therefore was a later addition to the original synagogue plan. Drainage channels were found in the second phase flooring with direction coming from this water basin inside the synagogue’s main hall which, in turn, would reach a drainage channel along the northern stylobate. North of the basin there is a supply channel found also on top of the basin itself, probably providing the installation with rainwater and avoiding waste of water.17 The second Priene basin was stuck into the eastern area of the second phase synagogue. It is a circular basin, 0.95 meters in diameter. However, the excavators could not determine whether it was connected to the larger basin through
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Ernest Renan, “Mosaique de Hammam-Lif. Nouvelles observations,” Revue archéologique, III, no. III (June 1884): 274. Kraeling, The Synagogue, 13. Carl H. Kraeling, The Synagogue, Augmented edition (New York: Ktav Pubishing House, 1979), 28, fig. 10. Nadin Burkhardt and Mark Wilson, “The Late Antique Synagogue in Priene: Its History, Architecture and Context,” GEPHYRA 10 (2013): 172–173.
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figure 4.3 Picture of northern tube before the southeastern entrance. Looking west by b. mazar, from the israel antquities authority archives, online sites catalogue. entry: beit sheʾarim (sheikh bureikh). atq/901, atq/83/6 (excavation)
a water channel.18 What is probable is that it is more similar to the Bova Marina second phase synagogue’s southeastern dolium (see Chapter 11, Fig. 11.17) which served as a genizah, rather than a water basin. The monumental Sardis synagogue is introduced by a similarly monumental fountain installed in the latest phase of the building’s use. It was added at the same time as the two eastern aediculae that flank the three-door entrance wall, thus creating a vestibule area between the street and the main hall.19 In the Land of Israel there are similar water installations in synagogue entrance areas. From the Galilee we find water basins installed in the Beth Sheʾarim structure. These two circular basins were associated to the second, later phase of the synagogue, and accompany the two southern entrances to the building (Figs. 4.3, 4). Its water feeds from drainage channels that pour water into said installations. Crucially we notice that between the two basins, which
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Burkhardt and Wilson, 173. Andrew R. Seager, “The Building History of the Sardis Synagogue,” American Journal of Archaeology 76, no. 4 (October 1972): 426; Marianne P. Bonz, “The Jewish Community of Ancient Sardis: A Reassessment of Its Rise to Prominence,” Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 93 (1990): 344–345.
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figure 4.4 Picture of northern channel before the southeastern entrance. Looking west by b. mazar, from the israel antquities authority archives, online sites catalogue. entry: beit sheʾarim (sheikh bureikh), atq/901, atq/83/6 (excavation)
the original excavator Binyamin Mazar called cisterns, was a channel which made the water ways unavoidable for anyone accessing the synagogue from the street.20 Comfortable access must have been provided through a wooden platform or some other solution on top of these channels. This seems to demonstrate that there would be no problem in placing such structures in an entrance area regardless of the inconvenience it might cause. Photographs from the Beth Sheʾarim synagogue provide evidence that the cisterns were rather deep. However, Mazar does not give a detailed description of them, unlike Ramos Folqués for the Ilici synagogue. Also, unlike the Ilici case, drainage channels were found connected to the basin, which were in turn found in synagogues such as Ostia and Priene. Similar basins in the access area to the synagogue were found in the central courtyard of the Beth Sheʾan Jewish synagogue (synagogue A) excavated first as the “house of Kyrios Leontis” in 1964 (published in 1966)21 and again as a sal20 21
Short mention is found in Benjamin Mazar, “Fourth Excavation Season in Beth Sheʾarim,” Bulletin of the Jewish Palestine Exploration Society 9, no. 1 (1942): 14 (Hebrew). Nehemia Zori, “The House of Kyrios Leontis at Beth Shean,” Israel Exploration Journal 16, no. 2 (1966): 123–134.
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vage excavation between 1970 and 1973.22 It is dated to between the 5th and 7th centuries when it was subsequently abandoned in late Umayyad times with the rest of the city of Scythopolis. In the central courtyard next to the synagogue excavated by Bahat were a series of water installations, particularly drainage channels with two basins, found next to walls W18 and W17 according to the excavation reports from the site, in what Bahat called locus 9.23 This follows the previous discovery of water channels built with basalt stone and earthenware pipes next to the Kyrios Leontis house to the northeast of the courtyard, associated to a 3rd to 4th century Roman structure.24 These features were probably affected by later reforms, but much of it was remarkably preserved. According to the plan preserved in the Israel Antiquities Authority,25 Bahat followed the stratigraphy established by Zori in 1964, and placed these features in “Level VI” or 3rd to 4th century, which points towards the water installations being associated with a Roman bathhouse placed before the synagogue’s construction.26 The synagogue itself would be constructed at the same time as the Kyrios Leontis synagogue, in the 5th century.27 The question is whether these installations, which were preserved after the many subsequent reform phases, had a ritual significance for the synagogue. In this context the baraita from Talmud Yerushalmi, Megillah 3:3 becomes quite relevant—stressing the need to wash oneself before entering the synagogue (see below), meaning, in a courtyard such as the one found in the outer edges of the city of Scythopolis. Nevertheless, the stratigraphy does not point towards the preservation of these installations as late as the synagogue phase. It seems, like the Ilici building (see Chapter 7), the domus-sinagoga had such installations before the conversion of the structure into a synagogue. This can be seen clearly with the “Level N” sub-mosaic channel in B/115 and B/116 (see Chapter 7, 2.2.3). For its part, the water cistern underneath the Sepphoris synagogue narthex is certainly contemporary to the first synagogue structure.28 Occupying the underground of the entire vestibule, it seems to have harbored the water drained from the nearby east-west street. The cistern had a sloped floor, and
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Dan Bahat, “The Synagogue at Beth Shean,” Qadmoniot 18, no. 2 (1972): 55–58. IAA Archives, A-299/1971, p. 23 (9/8/1971). Zori, “The House of Kyrios Leontis at Beth Shean,” 124. Israel Antiquities Authority Archives, A-425/1973, Plan 1/92 XVIII-ט. Bahat, “The Synagogue at Beth Shean,” 55. Zori, “The House of Kyrios Leontis at Beth Shean,” 124–125; Milson, Art and Architecture of the Synagogue, 318–319. Weiss and Netzer, The Sepphoris Synagogue, 40–41.
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it was covered in antiquity by a mosaic floor to allow access to the main hall itself. Its specific location, at the entrance of the synagogue, is especially noteworthy, as it signals a ritual use for a water basin that could not possibly be used for ritual ablutions like the more prominent miqvaoth from the Second Temple and later periods. There seemed to be a mosaic floor covering this vestibule cistern. However, its northeastern corner has no evidence of this mosaic floor, which fell on top of the cistern floor. Its excavators detected the presence of an opening with a bucket to draw water. In the Darom region one finds more cases of synagogues with water installations at their entrances. One of these is the early late 1st century or early 2nd century (possible) synagogue of Horvat ʿEtri, although its water installation was associated with a purification miqveh rather than a washing basin.29 This is certainly the case regarding the synagogue at Maʾon (Nirim), near Gaza. The synagogue is located within an enclosure that was interpreted as a kind of pomerium for the synagogue’s sacral functions. The synagogue itself, having two phases, in the latter one included adjacent structures that included a large water basin to the east of the main synagogue hall (structure I, accompanied by canal L).30 The basin was not big enough to be a miqveh, and was probably similar to water basin structures from contemporary synagogues. However, what seems to be a miqveh was indeed found outside of the courtyard (structure K). Another structure from that region is the ‘En Gedi synagogue. The excavators indicated that it was in the latest of its four-phase history that the outer, westernmost vestibule was added to it. This outer vestibule was accessible from north and south, giving access through two doors to an inner vestibule, which in turn gave access to the synagogue through three western entrances. The latest phase includes the blocking of a northern access behind the aron hakodesh and bema, which were amplified during the modifications.31 To the west was a vestibule that, in its latest phase, had a white mosaic pavement. In the original 1971 excavation a rare finding was discovered next to the southern entrance of the two vestibule entrances: a one-meter high structure 29 30
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Boaz Zissu and Amir Ganor, “Ḥorvat ʾEtri—the Ruins of a Second Temple Period Jewish Village on the Coastal Plain,” Qadmoniot 123 (2002): 23, 24 (Hebrew). Levi, “The Ancient Synagogue at Maon (Nirim),” 78, 79 (Hebrew); Ora Yogev, “The Synagogue at Maʾon—New Discoveries,” Eretz-Israel: Archaeological, Historical and Geographical Studies Michael Avi-Yonah Memorial Volume (1987): 208, 209 (Hebrew). Barag and Porat, “Synagogue at ʿEn Gedi”; Barag, Porat, and Netzer, “The Second Excavation Season in the ʿEn Gedi Synagogue”; Dan Barag, Yosef Porat, and Ehud Netzer, “The synagogue at ʿEn Gedi” in Ancient Synagogues Revealed, ed. Lee I. Levine (Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society, 1981), 116–119.
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holding, on top of it, a space for a semi-spherical stone basin.32 The basin presumably was found separated from that structure, on the nearby floor. This phase of the synagogue is dated to the 6th century, and therefore is slightly later from the other examples cited here. The presence of a higher water basin in this synagogue, together with the lower ones such as in the Bet Sheʾarim or Bet Sheʾan A synagogues, indicates that they were certainly not used for purification rituals as is typical of miqvaoth. The type of these water installations was not relevant, since they had different typologies and were accessed from different points. Especially significant are the similarities between the Sepphoris and Ostia cistern models, the latter to be replaced by a well. There is one important aspect that is most relevant for these water installations: they were strictly associated to synagogues, and almost all of them were located in the entrance areas of said structures. The presence of these installations at such a location entailed at times an odd arrangement for the synagogue’s access. For example, the Ostia southern entrance is useless with the presence of a basin from the intermediate period in area “B1”. Similarly, the addition of the well in the eastern edge of the entrance cistern narrows the access itself, which as far as is known is the main one from the Via Severiana. The Sepphoris cistern is also placed in such a way that was impossible to avoid for any visitor to the synagogue, unless the visitor accessed it from the alternative, eastern entrance. In fact, according to the excavators such a second entrance existed for the dual purpose to “alleviate congestion” and to provide direct access to the synagogue’s main hall without going through the introductory narthex.33 If this is indeed the case, the water installation was deemed a necessary nuisance.
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The Water Installations in Medieval Fustat and the Iberian Peninsula
While being more thoroughly researched, few synagogues from late medieval periods were studied archaeologically in the Iberian Peninsula—compared to the large number of synagogues known to have existed from written sources. 32
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Dan Barag, Ehud Netzer and Yossef Porat (1971): דין וחשבון ראשוני על עונת החפירות השניה .(71/31 —בבית כנסת בעין גדי )רשיון חפירה מס׳Israel Antiquities Authority Archives. G37/1971. Barag, Porat, and Netzer, “The Second Excavation Season in the En Gedi Synagogue,” 55–56; Barag, Porat, and Netzer, 116–117 (Hebrew). Weiss and Netzer, The Sepphoris Synagogue, 41.
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However, modern excavations in Lorca provide us with interesting information regarding the architectural makeup of 14th and 15th century synagogues in the Iberian Peninsula. Before mentioning the Iberian synagogues, it is important to review the crucial evidence of the Ibn Ezra synagogue in Fustat (Cairo). The Fustat building (Fig. 4.5) was architecturally studied in 1993 by a team led by Johan Ballert, Pare Richard, and Phyllis Lambert, with results published in 1994. In it, team members P. Sheehan and C. LeQuesne reveal a series of construction levels including the original 11th century and several 19th and 20th century reforms. This study will focus on the publication by Sheehan, who mentions the earlier phases.34 One of these late reforms included the construction of a staircase that led to a second story platform allowing access to the women’s gallery, in the southern area of the synagogue’s courtyard. Underneath this staircase a cistern and well was found, of similar type to the Ostia synagogue water cistern and well.35 It consists of a rectangular brick structure covered by stone slabs and a circular well opening. Between the cistern hall and the well opening there seems to be a trough, probably for the cumulation of water to allow for washing and other actions. Sadly, the team did not give a concrete dating for this feature, nor an interpretation of it beyond a relative chronology compared to the women’s gallery staircase. Also, this cistern’s discovery was not associated or compared with another important water installation found underneath the building: an 11th century miqveh beneath the eastern wall of the synagogue itself. The miqveh was accessed through a staircase attached to the outer face of the southern wall. Further publications on the Fustat synagogue, as is common in other North African synagogue structures, are scarce and therefore any interpretation of the synagogue’s features remain sadly inconclusive. Concern for the conservation of the structure led to a study which identified it as being at medium-to-high risk as of today.36 The abovementioned water installations have a special importance when we notice that the Genizah documents mention the suggestion to wash one’s hands and feet as an act of decorum before entering the mikdash meʾat (see
34
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Peter Sheehan, ed., “Archaeological Survey of the Ben Ezra Synagogue,” in Fortifications and the Synagogue: The Fortress of Babylon and the Ben Ezra Synagogue, Cairo, 2. ed (Montreal: Canadian Centre for Architecture, 1994), 64–95. Peter Sheehan, ed., “Archaeological Survey of the Ben Ezra Synagogue,” 66, 70. Sayed Hemeda, “Geotechnical and Geophysical Investigation Techniques in Ben Ezra Synagogue in Old Cairo Area, Egypt”, Heritage Science 7, no. 23 (2019), https://doi.org/10.1186/ s40494‑019‑0265‑y.
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figure 4.5 Southern facade of the Ibn Ezra synagogue (Fustat) from: hemeda, sayed (2019): “geotechnical and geophysical investigation techniques in ben ezra synagogue in old cairo area, egypt”, heritage science 7, no. 23, p. 2
below).37 The difference in use for these two water installations is noticeable: one, under the synagogue, is for ritual ablutions and purification (strategically placed under the aron hakodesh), and the other is a common water installation that did not allow for ritual purification, but for mere washing. The Iberian synagogue of Lorca is a more significant example. While in a clear decline following the rise of the openly or tacitly hostile Trastámara dynasty in Aragon and Castille, and following the disastrous pogroms of 1391, the Jewish communities still managed to pull through and construct new synagogues as juderías and aljamas were subsequently closed off by the local and/or royal authorities. It is in this context the early 15th century synagogue of Lorca was built. It was excavated by a team of archaeologists in the 1990s and the early 2000s.38
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Mordechai Margoliot, The Laws of the Land of Israel from the Genizah, ed. Yehuda Flicks (Jerusalem: Rav Kook Institute, 1973) (Hebrew). Pujante Martínez and Gallardo Carrillo, “Huellas del pueblo judío a través de elementos cerámicos en el castillo de Lorca”; Pujante Martínez, “Un supuesto relieve hebreo”; González Ballesteros and Gallardo Carrillo, “La judería del Castillo de Lorca a partir de las evidencias arqueológicas,” 181–220.
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The synagogue is of a rectangular plan looking east (Figs. 4.6, 7). It is the most remarkable building excavated from the Jewish neighborhood. With a flagstone pavement, it presents an eastern Aron ha-Kodesh and central bema, while the hallway between the two is specifically marked by its distinct floor. Attached to the walls are benches. The access to the synagogue is made through two doors: one giving access to a north-south corridor that acts as a vestibule, and the other, at the north, giving access to the main hall directly. The presence of a second story is evidenced to the southwest of the main hall, next to the vestibule, with a massive squared structure that might have sustained the women’s balcony with an unknown access point. On the western wall of the vestibule is a curious finding that cuts through the inner lintel of the hallway. This is a wide tube surrounded with square-shaped wall plaster “decoration” (Figs. 4.8, 9). The excavators and first publishers of this feature indicate the presence of a spout at the center of a plaster “squared pattern” that decorated the access walls of the synagogue.39 More likely this “pattern” was an imprint of ceramic tiles that were widely used for monumental architecture in the late medieval kingdom of Castille. Should this be the case, here is evidence of a water installation for the synagogue’s visitors. Similar presence of water installations is seen in other synagogues of the period, particularly Santa María la Blanca in Toledo. While of a previous period, even today the access patio or courtyard has, to the right of the entrance, a water well. Architectural features to avoid damage provoked by water accumulation are also detected in the structure of this synagogue. Could this be a continuation of a practice from Late Antiquity? And if so, what is the nature of these features that most likely are associated with water installations? In other words, what were these basins and cisterns for?
5
What Were These Basins For? Evidence from Literary Sources
Like all aspects of late antique Judaism, the use of said water installations, with their diverse typology and solutions, seems impossible to be resolved by a general answer. The chronological and geographical diversity of these installations as well as the absence of universal codification of Jewish rituals outside of those provided in Rabbinic Judaism from Palestine and Babylon, make such a unified solution improbable.
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González Ballesteros and Gallardo Carrillo, “La judería del Castillo de Lorca a partir de las evidencias arqueológicas,” 206.
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figure 4.6 Plan for the synagogue of Lorca as published in gallardo carrillo and gonzález ballesteros (2009): “la judería del castillo de lorca a partir de las evidencias arqueológicas” in luces de sefarad, p. 203. courtesy of the authors
However, the archaeological material shows that these features were prevalent in different moments and locations throughout the late Roman world, and this included of course the environment where the Gemarah developed. Again, Runesson attempts to find a solution for this question by reflecting on two aspects: 1. A theosophical value of water in Jewish ritual, particularly in the synagogue. He cites the Mekhilta de Rabbi Ishmael, Piskha 1, when they treat
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figure 4.7 The Lorca synagogue’s main hall creative commons. author: josé lorca
2.
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the issue of the presence of God (Shekhina) in bodies of water outside the Land of Israel. For this, midrashic rabbis used to explain why God was able to be present in Jonah’s attempts of escape through the sea, as well as other biblical incidents outside the Land of Israel.40 Ritualistic reason. The washing of hands and feet, particularly purification in salt or fresh water, was a practice mentioned by Second Temple and late antique Jewish and Christian sources that allows for rituals such as reading and writing the scriptures41 or prayer rituals such as the recital of the shema in the synagogue.42 In another case we find from Tractate Berakhot in the Babylonian Talmud the requirement to was one’s hands with “earth, a pebble, or sawdust” ()בעפר ובצרור ובקסמית.43 Runesson, “Water and Worship,” 120. In M. Yadayim 3:5 it clearly says ״.“( ״כל כתבי קדש מטמאין את הידיםAll Sacred Texts defile the hands”). Even so, the issue of the texts’ “uncleanliness” was attempted to be explained as a result of historical circumstance (B. Baba Qama 82a–b), or its allusion only to texts that are fragmentary or broken (b. Shabbat 14a). As is the case in B. Berakhot 15a, where there is a discussion regarding R. Yosi and R. Hisda regarding the validity of washing one’s hands during or before the shema, indicating the cleaning of one’s hands by at least some of the assistants of synagogues from the 3rd century. Runesson, “Water and Worship,” 116. B. Berakhot, 15a. While not mentioned by Runesson in his publication, such practice was
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figure 4.8 Entrance to the Lorca synagogue (southwestern narthex) gallardo carrillo and gonzález ballesteros (2009): “la judería del castillo de lorca a partir de las evidencias arqueológicas”, in lorca. luces de sefarad, pp. 205, 207. courtesy of the authors
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figure 4.9 Detail of tube in the southwestern jamb gallardo carrillo and gonzález ballesteros (2009): “la judería del castillo de lorca a partir de las evidencias arqueológicas”, in lorca. luces de sefarad, pp. 205, 207. courtesy of the authors
Mention of washing for purity appears already in biblical texts.44 These acts are explicitly described as “washing” and not “purifying” and were not associated necessarily with later Second Temple expansion of the miqveh and ritual purifying baths.45 During the Second Temple period the practice of washing for purification became widespread, with its requirements largely collected in Tractate Yadayim from the Mishnah.46 Likewise, there seem to have been
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mentioned in the 16th century Shulḥan Arukh, Tractate Orakh Hayim, 92:4–6. Unlike other mentions of ritual hand-washing, the synagogue case gives no mention of the participant in the act. The intention behind such washing was therefore different. Examples are in Ex. 30:18, Lev. 15:16, or Num. 19:2–10. Ronny Reich, Miḳṿaʾot ṭohorah: Bi-teḳufat ha-bayit ha-sheni uvi-teḳufot ha-mishnah ṿehaTalmud (Jerusalem: Yad Yitsḥaḳ Ben-Tsevi: ha-Ḥevrah le-Erets Yiśraʾel ṿa-ʿatiḳoteha, 2013), 15–17 (Hebrew). Shmoel Safrai and M. Stern, eds., The Jewish People in the First Century: Historical Geography, Political History, Social, Cultural and Religious Life and Institutions, 2. print, vol. 2 (Assen: Van Gorcum, 1987), 828–830.
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associations between water installations and ancient Second Temple period synagogues, as is demonstrated by the Theodotos inscription from the 1st century ce: Theodotos son of Vettenus, priest and archisynagōgos, son of an archisynagōgos, and grandson of an archisynagōgos, built the synagogue (συναγωγὴσ) for the reading of the law and for the teaching of the commandments, as well as the guest room, the chambers, and the water fittings (χρηστήρια τῶν ὑδάτων) as an inn for those in need from abroad, the synagogue which his fathers founded with the elders and Simonides.47 Reich indicates that these installations should not be confused with a miqveh, making its identification a mystery. This is especially the case considering that the inscription does not mention the word miqveh specifically in a Jerusalemite context where the feature was common. However, the absence of a specific Greek word for the term means that such an identification cannot be fully discarded.48 Positive archaeological evidence for the presence of water installations for washing and a “synagogue” type structure is found at Qumran. Specifically, through a water basin placed to the left of the entrance to room 4 from locus 13, plastered to the wall. The basin was interpreted to hand washing before entering the room 4 and others adjacent to it, thus becoming a necessary practice, whether ritual or not, before doing the ritual or liturgical practices of the Qumranite community there.49 Other than Second Temple period mentions of washing practices, such as the abovementioned Letter of Aristeas and Josephus’ Antiquities of the Jews, most references for these practices are provided by Rabbinic Literature. The most important rabbinical literary evidence for the washing of hands and feet
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Translation by John S. Kloppenborg Verbin, “Dating Theodotos (CIJ II 1404),” Journal of Jewish Studies LI, no. 2 (2000): 244. Reich, Miḳṿaʾot Ṭohorah, 243. Anders Runesson, The Origins of the Synagogue: A Socio-Historical Study, Coniectanea Biblica New Testament Series 37 (Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell International, 2001), 179; Sidnie White Crawford, ed., The Dead Sea Scrolls at Qumran and the Concept of a Library, Studies on the Texts of the Desert of Judah 116 (Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2016), 95. The basin apparently had a channel that led to it from locus 13. While the placement of this basin in the Qumran complex is an interesting antecedent, and clearly falls into Runesson’s classification of a synagogue ritual, we should still be careful of the idea of the Qumran community being a precedent to the late antique synagogue. This is mainly because of the obvious architectural differences between buildings classified as 1st century synagogues in Gamla, Herodion, or Jericho and the Qumran site.
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would be an obscure third century baraita from the Talmud Yerushalmi, Tractate Megillah 3:3, which reads as follows: ר׳ ברכיה אזל לכנישתא דבית שאון חמי חד בר נש משזיג ידוי ורגלוי מן גורנה אמר לי׳ אסור לך למחר חמתי׳ ההוא גוברא משזיג ידיו ורגליו מן גורנה אמר לי׳ רבי לך שרי ולי אסור א״ל אין א״ל למה א״ל כן אמר ריב״ל בתי כנסיות ובתי מדרשות לחכמים .ולתלמידיהם
R. Berekhiah went to the synagogue in Beisan (Bet Sheʾan). He saw someone rinsing his hands and his feet in a fountain [in the courtyard of the synagogue]. He said to him, “It is forbidden to you [to do this].” [E] The next day the man saw [Berekhiah] washing his hands and feet in the fountain (Aramaic: גורנה, can also mean basin). [F] He said to him, “Rabbi, is it permitted to you, and forbidden to me?” [G] He said to him, “Yes.” [H] He said to him, “Why?” [I] He said to him, “Because this is what R. Joshua b. Levi said: ‘Synagogues and schoolhouses belong to sages and their disciples.’”50 The quote from Megillah 3:3 is interesting for two reasons. The first is the fact that the man who washes hands and feet in the fountain/basin does so as a matter of fact before entering the synagogue. What Rabbi Berekhiah denounces about the common man is that by washing, he is attempting to enter the synagogue, which is reserved for “sages and their disciples”. This of course includes the school-houses (batei midrash )בתי מדרש, which were deemed different than the more community-oriented synagogue. The second reason is that it finds no parallel in the Babylonian Talmud. This custom seems to be associated more with the western, Mediterranean Judaism from Late Antiquity and the High Middle Ages, than the eastern Babylonian Judaism that would dominate the rabbinic world from the 6th century onwards. For his part, Runesson does not give a concrete conclusion on the use of water installations at the entrance of synagogues. While associating them with a kind of purification ritual, he does not include the wide discussion on the washing of hands and feet before entering synagogues as an act of cleansing out of respect for the presence of God. Instead he assumes a priori that this practice is an alternative to purification rituals in full immersion. He interpreted this by indicating that in Diaspora contexts there were probably variations from the
50
Y. Megillah, 3:3. Translation of explanation by B. Barry Levy, ed. J. Neusner—CD format, 2009. The bold lettering is an addition by the author.
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practices in the Land of Israel. As such basin “B1” from the Ostia synagogue, which did not allow necessarily for full immersion, could allow for the washing of a full body, but it was not designed as the miqvaoth from the east (see above). A crucial piece of the puzzle comes to us from a 12th century Cairo Genizah document relating to the practice of washing hands and feet, found in the already mentioned Ibn Ezra synagogue in Fustat, Cairo. The document, transcribed by Mordechai Margoliot in 1973, presents us with the following detail regarding decorum when attending a synagogue:51 ואם בע]ונותי[נו הר הבית אין.… וכן אמרו חכמ׳ לא יכנס אדם להר הבית במקלו ומנעלו לפיכך.לנו מקדש מעת יש לנו וחייבים אנו לנהוג בקידוש ובמורא שנ׳ ומקדשי תיראו התקינו הראשונים בכל חצירות בתי כניסיות כיורות שלמים חיים לקידוש ידים ורגלים
ואם היה אסתנס או חולה ואינו יכול לחלוץ והיה מתבונן בהליכתו אין מטריחים עליו … ואל יכנס אדם לבית הכנסת בכסות מנוולת ולא בבגדים צואים.שיחלוץ
… And thus said our sages: no man shall enter the Temple with his stick and shoes. And if in our burden we have no Temple, we have a lesser temple (synagogue) and we have to behave with sanctity and reverence, as was said “and you shall reverence my sanctuary” (Leviticus 19:30 and 26:2). Therefore, the Firsts decreed that in all our synagogues whole basins shall be set for the blessing of hands and feet. And if he was weak or sick and could not take off his clothing, or if he was lame one mustn’t press on him to take off his clothing … The “Firsts” ( )ראשוניםthis document alludes to are probably the Tannaitic and Amoraic rabbis from the Mishnaic and Talmudic periods. It is important to keep in mind that this document was found in the Genizah of the Palestinian synagogue in Fustat, and therefore was not of Karaitic nor Babylonian traditions. The document itself was sent from Palestine, therefore indicating a profound link to the minority, mostly Talmud Yerushalmi-based tradition. It would be misleading to say that the tradition of washing hands and feet was not present in other Jewish rabbinical schools and discussions from the High Middle Ages. As both N. Wieder52 and M. Bar-Ilan53 have shown, there was
51 52 53
Margoliot, The Laws of the Land of Israel from the Genizah, 131–132 (Hebrew). Translation to English and bold letters are an addition by the author. Naftali Wieder, Hashpaʿot Islamiyot ʿal Ha-Pulḥan Ha-Yehudi (Oxford: Sifriyat Mizraḥ uMaʿarav, 1947), 7–30 (Hebrew). Meir Bar-Ilan, “Washing of Feet Before Prayer: Islamic Influence or Jewish Practice,” Mahanayim 1 (1992): 162–169.
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a considerable discussion over the ritual of washing hands from the perspective of the Babylonian Talmudic and Geonic schools. An important mention of this practice is in the Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Berachot 14b–15a. It does not mention the synagogue explicitly, though it does describe practices done mostly in synagogue settings:54 ואמר רבי יוחנן הרוצה שיקבל עליו עול מלכות שמים שלמה יפנה ויטול ידיו ויניח תפילין כל הנפנה, א״ר חייא בר אבא א״ר יוחנן.ויקרא ק״ש ויתפלל וזו היא מלכות שמים שלמה כאלו בנה מזבח והקריב:ונוטל ידיו ומניח תפילין וקורא ק״ש ומתפלל מעלה עליו הכתוב עליו קרבן דכתיב ״ארחץ בנקיון כפי ואסובבה את מזבחך ה׳״
And R. Yohanan said: he who wants to receive the Kingdom of Heaven should turn (to Jerusalem), wash his hands ()נטילת ידים, place Tefillin, read the Shemaʾ and pray, being all of that the Kingdom of Heaven. R. Haya barAbba said that Rabbi Yohanan said: everyone who turns (to Jerusalem) and washes his hands and places tefillin and reads the Shemaʾ and prays, as was written, is as if he goes up to build an altar and make a sacrifice. As was written: “I shall wash my hands and go round the Lord’s altar” (Psalms 26:6). The passage is accompanied with a discussion regarding the mention of the Shemaʾ in a synagogue context. It includes the explicit act of “going out” ()יצא, which implies that the “synagogue” mentioned here is a building, not merely a congregation. Dated to the 3rd century ce, it is nonetheless interesting to note the comparison between acts from the synagogue and the Temple, although without indicating the replacement of the Temple with the synagogue. This type of comparison is the same as found in the Cairo Genizah text mentioned above of a later period. While also not associated directly to the synagogue, the parallel reinterpretation of this verse in the Halakhot Gedoloth from the 8th to 9th century is reminiscent of the Genizah document cited above:55 אמ׳ רבה בר בר חנה אמ׳ ר׳ יוחנן הרוצה שיקבל עליו מלכות שמים שלימה יפנה ויטול .ידיו ורגליו ויניח תפילין ויקרא קרית שמע ויתפלל וזו היא מלכות שמים שלימה
54 55
According to the Mahadura Rashit. See Wikitext: תלמוד בבלי/מסכת ברכות, edited on the 21st of August, 2017, at 19:57 hours. Shimʾon Kaira, Sefer Halakhot Gedoloth, edition by R. Azriel Hildsheimer (2nd, 1972), vol. 1, p. 41.
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Said R. Yochanan: he who wants to receive the whole of the Kingdom of Heaven must turn (to Jerusalem), wash his hands and feet (נטילת ידים )ורגלים, put on Tefillin and read the call of Shemaʾ, and that is the whole Kingdom of Heaven. Wieder interpreted these texts as originating from Islamic influence following the Arab conquest of Babylon in the 7th century. Jews adopted a ritual that was widely used, and was very public, when entering the mosque to perform the ṣalāh ritual. Bar-Ilan contested this, indicating that the Halakhot Gedoloth was probably a more accurate depiction of the original Babylonian Gemara, which in fact fits well with the Yerushalmi Talmud quote presented above. The practice of washing hands and feet was a common one in the ancient and medieval Near East and is indicated in biblical passages describing entrance into the Tabernacle.56 With the increased sacralization of the synagogue (seen for instance in the Genizah document, which does not hesitate in calling the synagogue Mikdash Meʾat, or Small Temple), the ritual of washing hands and feet would be necessary before entering the sacred premises of the synagogue. Bar-Ilan adds that later rabbis were bewildered by the ritual of “נטילת ידים ”ורגלייםin the Halakhot Gedolot, including Abraham ben-Maimon, son of Maimonides and nagid of the Jewish Community in Fustat during the early 13th century. This implied changes to the Jewish rituals, and the increase abandonment of the practice of washing hands and feet, to be replaced by a simple washing of hands before rituals. His conclusion is that the washing of hands and feet is an ancient practice that would fall into disuse in later times. The act of washing hands in synagogue contexts is described in the 16th century Shulḥan Arukh.57 But in the spirit of the Genizah text, that washing is not for purification but more for hygiene and decorum. There is no obligation to use water, and the focus is that of avoiding dirty hands during prayer (though water is preferable in all occasions). The contexts where most of these sources are found reveal that the washing of hands and feet should not be associated with purification rituals, but rather with proper decorum before entering a building with divine presence. In other words: these sources suggest or ask for proper dress and proper presentation, as is revealed initially in the text that gives way to the Yerushalmi baraita from tractate Megillah 3:3. In it the rabbinic discussion begins with a Tosefta tradi-
56 57
Ex. 30:18; Lev. 15:16; Num. 19:2–10. See again Tractate Oraḥ Ḥayim 92:4–6.
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tion in which the rabbis ask for visitors to “not behave frivolously” with respect to synagogues. The sense behind it is expressed in the following phrase: , ובצינה מפני הצינה, לא ייכנס בהן בחמה מפני החמה:״אין נוהגין בהן קלות ראש ואין מטיילין, אין אוכלין בהן ואין שותין בהן ואין ישינין בהן,ובגשמים מפני הגשמים ״.בהם ואין ניאותין בהן One should not behave frivolously: one should not go into them on a hot day on account of the heat, or on a cold [day] because of the cold, or on a rainy day because of the rain, nor shall one eat inside, drink inside, or sleep inside, and one should not wander around within them or play (enjoy frivolity) inside.58 A similar version of this saying on the use of the synagogue appears in the Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Megillah 28a–b, but with a slightly different tone. It adds the prohibition of giving praise to a “singular deceased man” (הספד של )יחיד, meaning a man who did not present sufficient importance for a public praise in a synagogue. It is contrasted with the mention of what the synagogue should be used: “for reading (the Law) and praise of the many” (i.e., important people of the community—)אבל קורין בהן ושונין בהן ומספידין בהן הספד של רבים.59 Based on the above quotes, according to the rabbinic attitude in Late Antiquity, the synagogue is a place for worship and learning and not for casual activity. As such entrance to the synagogue should show due respect and the use of its space requires the same. In a similar sense Geonic literature expressed concern regarding the need for proper cleanliness and decorum in the synagogue, particularly Natronai Gaon in the 9th century, as mentioned by Wieder, who cited the biblical passage from Amos 4:12, “( הכון לקראת אלוהיך ישראלbe ready for your God, Israel”).60 However, while these quotes can have an association with practices in the synagogue, the text from the Cairo Genizah undoubtably mentions such washing customs as part of a wish for decorum, and not for ritual purity. The quote is followed by the suggestion to wear the best clothing in the synagogue that one can afford.61
58 59 60 61
According to Wikitext: תוספתא/מגילה, edited on June 22nd, 2015, at 22:59 hours. According to Wikitext: תלמוד בבלי/מגילה, edited on May 22nd, 2018. Wieder, Hashpaʿot Islamiyot ʿal Ha-Pulḥan Ha-Yehudi, 11–12, notes 19, 20. Margoliot, The Laws of the Land of Israel from the Genizah, 142.
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The Water Basins in the Iberian Peninsula: A Summary
Considering the evidence from the Mediterranean Jewish synagogues, both in the Land of Israel and the Diaspora, one finds then that the Mediterranean regions of the Iberian Peninsula share in a common prevalent practice. The decontextualized water basin found in Tarraco and the properly contextualized Elche basin at the entrance of the basilical building are an indicator of a common Jewish practice, expanded through a grid of Jewish communities that transmitted common ideas through the Late Roman Empire. Most importantly, the basin found at the entrance of the Elche synagogue is probably a water basin for washing at the entrance of the main synagogue hall. The basin is typologically similar to the two found in Beth Sheʾarim, both in their form in the latter case and location in the former. Therefore, it is possible to conclude that the Ilici synagogue had a feature typical of a Jewish synagogue, at least at the phase when the water basin was placed. Despite the above conclusions, several questions remain. The first is the original location of the Tarraco basin—information lost to modern scholarship as it was found outside its original location as a reused trough. Second, despite associating the basins to Jewish washing rituals at the entrance of synagogues, there is no clear evidence for whether they were used as the group was entering or exiting the buildings. Finally, and most importantly, the decontextualization of the Tarraco basin and the destruction of upper levels of the Alcudia de Elche’s basilical building, as well as the latter’s faulty excavation methods in 1905, led to the loss of much information regarding the actual water installations that might have been associated with said objects. In other words, there is no information regarding the water installations that could have complemented these features in situ. While the loss of such information cannot be ignored, the evidence from other synagogal structures throughout the Mediterranean can be considered in order to cover the gaps in information. Indeed, the Tarraco basin’s inscription and figures denotes a clear connection to synagogue rituals in Late Antiquity, as seen in other synagogues and funerary art from the Land of Israel and the diaspora. The Ilici synagogue, while more problematic in its interpretation, fits well as a Jewish structure through typological, ritual, and epigraphic considerations. Evidence is found for continued use of water installations for washing oneself before entering the synagogue through the Middle Ages. The practice is mentioned in baraitot and quotations from late antique Rabbinic sages who moved across the Eastern Mediterranean, a practice that apparently was copied in Geonic literature and, through it, would reappear in the Genizah records
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from the 11th and 12th centuries—something that would be archaeologically confirmed after water cisterns and wells were revealed in the Fustat synagogue courtyard. These entrance water installations would again reappear in the 15th century’s Lorca synagogue, and potentially in Toledo’s 12th to 13th century Santa María la Blanca synagogue, although the latter requires further study to confirm its date and use. While these water installations seemed part and parcel of a synagogue in Late Antiquity, these washings seem to be associated not with purification, but rather with hygiene and decorum upon entrance to the synagogue. There is no indication that the washing of hands and feet before entering the synagogue is a purifying ritual act in late antique and medieval Judaism, as rather it is akin to dressing in formal wear before meeting one’s creator. While implied in the late antique Talmudic baraita, in the Genizah text this is certainly the case. Whether or not the washing of hands and feet was maintained in later centuries is uncertain. Also uncertain is whether this practice became part of Jewish ritual in late medieval Spain, which would have meant the requirement of a decorated water installation in the synagogue of Lorca. However, what is certain is that access to water was an important factor when building synagogues in exilic periods. It is possible to reconstruct a small part of Jewish practice in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages period in the Iberian Peninsula. In conclusion, while the water basins from the Iberian Peninsula are but a fraction of a wider field of study in late antique Jewish archaeology, we can find through the limited, yet valuable evidence presented here a window into the rituals of Iberian and wider late antique Mediterranean Jewish communities. Such a window shows that the practices of said Jewish communities, particularly in the eastern regions of the peninsula, were akin to the ritual and cultural practices recorded in the Palestinian and Eastern Mediterranean Jewish traditions. We should associate the Ilici building with a Mediterranean Judaism that was in constant contact and exchange of religious, artistic, and architectural ideas. One of those, as seen here, was the use of water for washing in a synagogue context, which shows its importance for the Jewish communities in the diaspora as well in the Land of Israel. In this sense the Ilici synagogue should not be considered an exception, but rather a part of the mosaic and grid that was late antique Judaism in the Mediterranean basin.
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The Early Middle Ages: Dawn of Classical Sepharad The Islamic conquest of the Iberian Peninsula and the quick collapse of the Visigothic Kingdom did not entail a dramatic change initially. However, in hindsight it was a crucial historical event that would change the Hispanojewish communities in the long run. The new Islamic powers brought with them the basis for the rise of new religious and cultural centers in the Western Mediterranean such as Cordoba in Andalusia and Kairouan in Tunisia. Islamic religious pilgrimage allowed for easier transportation of people and, with them, ideas across the known world. Artistic, linguistic, and religious changes deeply affected the Jewish communities in what was eventually known as the Geonic period of Jewish history. The end of this period in the Iberian Peninsula comes in the 10th and 11th centuries, when Hispanojewish communities would enjoy the cultural flourishing of what was the classical “golden age” period of Sepharad, a process that started with the important reforms of Hasday Ibn-Shaprut under the leadership of Caliph Abd al-Rahman III of Cordoba in the 10th century. And yet, when it comes to the Iberian Peninsula, little to nothing is known regarding that period’s Jewish communities. However, a review of these few objects allows us to find a continuous pattern from the late antique period all the way to the Sepharadi “Golden Age” of the 11th century.
1
A Supposed Hebrew Eighth-century Coin from Al-Andalus1
The presence of a supposed 8th century coin, preserved in two specimens, with Hebrew characters provides a significant importance for the understanding of Jewish relations with the new Islamic conquerors of the Iberian Peninsula. 1 Most of this section of Chapter 5 was published in the following articles: a first Spanish version in Alexander Bar-Magen, “Una supuesta moneda del siglo VIII con ‘caracteres hebreos’— nuevos datos,” OMNI, Journal of Numismatics 9 (2015): 196–211; the more updated and complete study was published more in Alexander Bar-Magen and Boaz Zissu, “An Eighth-Century Gold Coin from the Iberian Peninsula with a Supposedly Hebrew Inscription,” The Israel Numismatic Journal 19, no. Studies in Honour of Dr. David Jeselsohn (2016): 76–105. In this book, it was decided to provide a summary of the findings. Special thanks should be given to Prof. Alberto Canto Garcıa for his help in reviewing this section, and for providing access to the graphic material of a project for which he is
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The first question that comes to mind concerns the coins’ provenance. This is particularly important for understanding their authenticity in the wake of recent doubts on the subject.2 1.1 The History of the MAN Coin The following is a detailed history from the present backwards, to establish the pedigree of the two known coin specimens. The coin in the MAN is in the museum’s catalogue.3 It was sold to the museum by Antonio Prieto y Vives in 1930, surviving the Spanish Civil War thanks to its low gold standard.4 Since then, scholars such as Navascués in 1959 and Anna M. Balaguer Prunes in 1976 have studied its physical properties and epigraphy. Before it reached the MAN, it was in the collection of Prieto y Vives, who had two paper imprints created (Figs. 5.2, 3): one shortly before it was sold to the MAN and the other ten years earlier, in the 1920s; the latter is in the Valencia de Don Juan Institute. Prieto y Vives had received the coin in the 1920s from his uncle Antonio Vives y Escudero, who had purchased it in 1893. Vives y Escudero had included it in his publication Monedas de las dinastías arábigo- españolas, codifying it as number 8 in his collection and making the first imprint of the coin (Fig. 5.1). Although Vives y Escudero had bought Antonio Delgado’s collection following the latter’s retirement in 1865, he seems not to have received this coin. For fourteen years the coin’s proprietor was unknown. Then, in 1879 the numismatist Francisco Codera y Zaidin reported that it was part of the collection of a Carlos Camerino and was in a “good state of preservation.”5
2
3 4
5
the main researcher: “Estudio y clasificacion del material grefico numismetico de epoca andalusı, depositado en el Instituto Valencia de Don Juan de Madrid” (financed by the Consejerıa de Educacion de la Comunidad Autonoma de Madrid: Proyectos de Investigacion en Humanidades, Ciencias Sociales y Economicas, 2003, ref. no. 06/0131/2002). During the coin’s research, the Bode Museum authorities in Berlin questioned the authenticity of the museum’s specimen, based on the obscurity of its donor and its low gold content. Although this was merely a precaution, we shall see that there is no reason to regard either the coin in Madrid or the one in Berlin as a forgery. MAN ref. 2004/117/11. Martin Almagro Gorbea, “El expolio de las monedas de oro del Museo Arqueologico Nacional en la Segunda República española,”Boletín de la Real Academia de la Historia 205 (2008): 7–72. In November 1936, at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War, when Madrid seemed to be on the verge of falling to the Fascist forces, the Republican government ordered the gold and silver coins and treasures removed from the MAN and hidden from the enemy. Following their defeat in early 1939, the exiled Republicans sent the coins to Mexico, where they were lost. Francisco Codera y Zaidín, Tratado de numismática arábigo-española, 2nd ed. (Mairena del Aljarafe, Sevilla: Extramuros, 1879), 50–51.
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figure 5.1 14:49 Paper print of coin by A. Vives y Escudero (1890s) from instituto valencia de don juan. figures 5.1, 2, and 3 were published by dr. alberto canto garcía and dr. paula grañeda miñón in their research project (ref. num. 06/0131/2002): estudio y clasificación del material gráfico numismático, de época andalusí, depositado en el instituto valencia de don juan de madrid. consejería de educación de la comunidad autónoma de madrid. the use of these images is courtesy of dr. alberto canto garcía.
figure 5.2 Paper print of coin by A. Prieto y Vives (1920s) from instituto valencia de don juan
figure 5.3 Paper print of coin by A. Prieto y Vives (1930?) from instituto valencia de don juan
Going back further in time, the coin was probably the property of Antonio Delgado, the nineteenth-century numismatist from the Real Academia de la Historia (RAH), who had a collection of medieval Muslim and transitional coins from the Iberian Peninsula. His collection, made up of coins from other collections associated with the RAH, was mostly completed by the 1850s and was kept together until his retirement in 1865. His unpublished work mentioned above included a study of this coin, in which he identified the central legend on the obverse as consisting of Hebrew characters. Delgado did not
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provide any information about the provenance of the coin or about how he acquired it. Given the publication history, particularly Delgado’s readings in the 1850s in his unpublished manuscript,6 one might speculate that both the Madrid and Berlin specimens were together in his collection, and therefore were regarded as one type for the manuscript of his Estudios de numismática arábigo-hispana.7 However, Vázquez Queipo, who had an epistolary exchange with Delgado while living in France and who apparently never saw the coins himself, seems (based on his reading of the marginal legends) to have had access only to the current Madrid specimen, not the Berlin one.8 Nothing is known about the history of the coin before the 1850s. Delgado presumably regarded it as authentic, as have all scholars who have held the Madrid specimen in the subsequent century and a half. 1.2
History of the Bode Museum Coin (Münzkabinett der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin) The history of the Berlin coin is more straightforward, but its origin is still unknown.9 It was given by a Dr. Nachtigall in 1875 to the Kaiser Friedrich Museum, later renamed the Bode Museum.10 It was subsequently documented by Heinrich Nützel in 1898 and by John Walker in 1956. Recently it was “sponsored” by the author for purposes of research and digitalization. No information is available on the history of this specimen before it was obtained by a Dr. Nachtigall. We can only speculate that it was in Delgado’s collection before 1865, was sold following Delgado’s retirement, and eventually reached Dr. Nachtigall. This specimen came to light separately from the Madrid coin, but both were documented as extant by 1875. 6
7
8 9 10
Antonio Delgado y Hernández (1850–1865?), “Estudios inéditos para la obra sobre las monedas arabigo-hispanas, no 1” (Manuscript), Real Academia de la Historia. Also published in Alexander Bar-Magen and Boaz Zissu, “An Eighth-Century Gold Coin from the Iberian Peninsula with a Supposedly Hebrew Inscription”, The Israel Numismatic Journal 19, Studies in Honour of Dr. David Jeselsohn (2016): 105. An interesting detail is the fact that Antonio Delgado did not have enough knowledge in Hebrew to read the text, despite his interpretation of the script. This is evident from his need to use the dictionary by Ernst Friedrich Leopold, Lexicon Hebraicum et Chaldaicum in libros Veteris Testamenti (Stereotypia, 1832), 157. Antonio Delgado y Hernández, Estudios de numismática arábigo-hispana: considerada como comprobante histórico de la dominación islámica de la península, ed. Alberto Canto García and Tawfiq ibn Hafiz Ibrahim (Madrid: Real Academia de la Historia. Gabinete de Antigüedades, 2001), 92, paragraph 134. Fátima Martín Escudero, “La numismática andalusí. Génesis y desarrollo de una disciplina (siglos XVIII–XIX)” (PhD Thesis, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, 2006), 791. Bode Museum Münzkabinett, object no. 18236214. We thank Dr. Karsten Dahmen of the Bode Museum for this information.
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table 5.1
Summary of the physical attributes of the two known coins from the series
Current location
Material Weight Diameter Direction of axis
Madrid
Berlin
Gold 4.41g 12.91mm 6h
Gold 4.27g 12mm 6h
1.3 Descriptions of the Coins The two coins are of a “transitional” type, minted during the Muslim conquest of the Iberian Peninsula between 711 and 714 ce. These types generally used Latin lettering like East Roman and rarely Visigothic coins but had Muslim themes. The first post-Ummayyad reform coins started to be minted in the Iberian Peninsula in 98ah (718ce). Table 5.1 summarizes the physical attributes of the coins. Madrid coin (figs. 1–2): Codera y Zaidın, no. 28 (type IV);11 Vives, no. 8;12 Navascues, no. 16;13 Balaguer Prunes, no. 33.14 Berlin coin (figs. 3–4): Nützel, no. 75;15 Walker, no. B-13;16 Balaguer Prunes, no. 32.17
11 12 13 14 15
16
17
Codera y Zaidín, Tratado de numismática arábigo-española, pl. 1. Antonio Vives y Escudero, Monedas de las dinastías arábigo-españolas (Madrid: RAH y Establecimiento tipográfico de Fortanet, 1893), vii–viii. Joaquín María de Navascués, “Los sueldos hispano-árabes,” Numario Hispánico VIII (1959): 58–59, plates 2 and 8. Anna M. Balaguer Prunes, Las emisiones transicionales árabe-musulmanas de Hispania (Asociación Numismática Española, 1976), 139, pl. 5. Heinrich Nützel, Katalog der Orientalischen Münzen II: Die Münzen der Muslimischen Dynastieen Spaniens und des westlichen Nordafrika (Berlin: W. Spemann, 1898), 21, n. 75, pl. 1. John Walker, A Catalogue of the Muhammadan Coins in the British Museum: A Catalogue of the Arab-Byzantine and Post-Reform Umaiyad Coins, vol. 2 (London: British Museum, 1956), 75 and note to B-13. Balaguer Prunes, Las emisiones transicionales, 138–139.
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Madrid Coin18
figure 5.4 Madrid coin obverse
figure 5.5 Madrid coin reverse
Obv/ Central Legend: 1st Interpretation: ̅או ̅כירor 19 ̅אוּ ̅כויוּ- א)מן( ו)כן( י)היה( ר)צו(ן Transcription-Translation: “Amen Ukhen Yehi Ratzon”—“Amen, and let it be [His] will”.20 2nd Interpretation: אנדיב. Transcription-Translation: Ind 12—“Indiction 12”. 3rd Interpretation: ¿IM̅LI̅S? / ¿SI̅NDI̅Z?21 SIMILIS—Similar. Fringe: II […] IẟSNSẟSSLSNS—[…] Deus nisi Deus Solus Non Socius … / (… there is no) God but God, without any companion … Rev/ Central legend: IN̅ ẟCXII—Indiction XII.
18 19
20 21
Found in cer.es catalogue: http://ceres.mcu.es. Photos courtesy of the Museo Arqueológico Nacional. Photo: Rut de las Heras Bretín. Vicente Vázquez Queipo, Sistèmes métriques et monétaires des anciens peuples, vol. 2 (Paris, 1859), 397–398, note 84. While Vázquez Queipo read the signs as אוכויו, the interpretation led him to consider it as אוכיר. For more, see below. Could also be read as “Amen, and let it be so”. Reading based on Balaguer Prunes, Las emisiones transicionales.
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Fringe: SLẟ FRT IN SPN ANN XCII Solidus feritus in Spania, anno nonaginta et duo. Solidus coined in Spania,22 year ninety-two. 1.3.2
Berlin Coin23
figure 5.6 Reverse of the Berlin coin
figure 5.7 Obverse of the Berlin coin
Obv/ Central Legend: 1st Interpretation: א)מן( ו)כן( י)היה( ר)צו(ן— ̅או ̅כירן “Amen Ukhen Yehi Ratzon”—“Amen, and let there be will for it”. 2nd Interpretación: ¿IM̅LI̅S? / ¿SI̅NDI̅Z? SIMILIS—Similar. 3rd Interpretation: — ̅או ̅רגוReading unknown.24 Fringe: INNẟMINIẟSNSẟSSLS(N)ISI In Nomine Domini Non Deus nisi Deus Solus Non Socius … In the name of the Lord there is no God but God, without any companion …25
22
23 24 25
While the East Roman province of Spania was practically limited to the Southern and Southeastern coasts of the Iberian Peninsula, the term Spania in this coin was an adaptation of the Eastern Roman name of the region, used to describe what would later be called Al-Andalus by the conquering Arabs. Therefore, the term Spania should be translated to the previous Latin name of the region, Hispania, or the later name of the region, Al-Andalus. Photos courtesy of the Bode Museum Online Catalogue. Münzkabinett der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin. https://ikmk.smb.museum/object?id=18236214. Adolf Erman, “Codera, Francesco, Tratado de numismática arábigo-española. Madrid, 1879,” Zeitschrift für Numismatik 8 (1881): 150–154. Walker, A Catalogue of the Muhammadan Coins in the British Museum: A Catalogue of the Arab-Byzantine and Post-Reform Umaiyad Coins, vol. 2, 75, note for B-13.
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Rev/ Central legend: IN̅ ẟCXII Indiction XII. Fringe: … SSẟFRTINSPN […] I Solidus feritus in Spania, [anno nonaginta et duo]. Solidus coined in Spania (Spain), year ninety-two. Around the marginal legend on both coins is the mark of the actual margin— probably the edge of the stamp when the coins were minted. The letters in the margin that were lost in the minting process can be filled in by reading and comparing the two coins. Significantly, the two coins were produced with two different stamps. The most notable difference is the central legend on the obverse: the “fourth letter” on the Berlin coin was identified by Erman as something resembling a ( גgimmel), while on the Madrid one the character is more horizontal and looks more like a shortened irregular N or a double ( ייdouble yud). In fact, these are the same character, but the one on the Berlin coin is perpendicular to the one in Madrid. The epigraphic significance of this will be seen below. This detail proves that more than one stamp was used for this series, and that craftsmen struggled to keep the characters the same on the different stamps. The position of the central legends relative to the margins is regular, at 6 o’clock. The marginal legend starts at 12 o’clock and is read clockwise. The lettering retains the same position and characters; the slight differences in form can be attributed to different states of preservation. The Madrid coin shows more evidence of use than the Berlin exemplar, with its characters having suffered more erosion. However, there are clear indications of differences in the forms of these letters, for example in the letters for Feritus in the reverse margin, or for Solus in the obverse margin. 1.3.3 Authenticity In recent times the Berlin coin has been alleged to be a nineteenth-century forgery, based on its rarity and low gold fineness, as well as its unknown origin. The evidence of its pedigree and the fact that two coins of this rare series have been found, as well as other aspects, indicate otherwise. A curious aspect of the Berlin coin is that there are two marks above the central obverse legend that were made after minting. These marks were probably made by one of the coin’s owners, or perhaps by Bode Museum officials in the nineteenth century, to determine the authenticity of the coin. The idea was to see if the coin was copper with a gold alloy. In fact, it was proven to be a gold solidus of low fineness. Low fineness in itself is not proof of forgery.
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Nineteenth-century forgeries tended to show their copper body, as in the case of the al-Andalus coins in the Tonegawa Collection.26 Furthermore, as proven by Balaguer Prunes in 1976, the limited availability of precious metals led to uneven highs and lows in fineness, which also explains the weight differences between coins of the same type, such as these two in Berlin and Madrid.27 The reading of Vázquez Queipo of the legend as אוכוּיוּin 1859, like Antonio Delgado’s studies in the 1850s and his final manuscript from 1865, does not answer the question of the origin of the Berlin specimen. Vázquez Queipo does mention another coin following the reference to this one, but his description does not match the Berlin coin at all. The difference in these two coins’ state of preservation might indicate a different story before the nineteenth century, but that would be speculative. Regardless, these two coins, belonging to the same minting series, were part of a larger number of almost identical coins and were not produced with the same stamp, as forgeries from that time tended to be. The very fact of having two coins of the same series also points to the authenticity of both of them. The physical description, their similar gold grade, as well as the history of both that can be dated back to the 19th century, are presumably enough evidence to conclude that these coins are not forgeries but authentic 8th century productions. 1.4 Paleography and Epigraphy The central obverse legend has been the subject of controversy among scholars for more than 160 years. Despite attempts by top numismatists during this period—experts in early Al-Andalus coinage such as Delgado, Vives y Escudero (1893), Navascues (1959), and Balaguer Prunes (1976), as well as foreign scholars such as Nützel (1898) and Walker (1956)—no solution was found to the reading of this legend. In fact, the different interpretations by these scholars are of crucial historiographic value for understanding the difficulties of “Jewish archaeology” in the Iberian Peninsula, illustrated from the scholars’ limited knowledge in the field of Jewish Studies and to their incredulity regarding the presence of Hebrew in these coin inscriptions. The following is a tentative interpretation of these coins in view of the physical evidence and previous interpretations.
26 27
To view the coins online, see http://www.andalustonegawa.50g.com/gov_period_falsifi cations.htm. The link was last accessed on September 28, 2014. Balaguer Prunes, Las emisiones transicionales, 101–102; Giulio Bernardi, Arabic Gold Coins, the First Essay of a Corpus, vol. 1 (Edizioni Universitá Trieste, 2010), 103.
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1.4.1 The Marginal Legends on the Reverse and Obverse The reverse legends give two conflicting dates: The first is indiction 12, indicating that the coin was minted in the twelfth year of a fifteen-year indiction cycle. The second is in the margin: “year 92,” i.e., ah 92, the ninth year of the indiction cycle. According to Navascués, the true date is not the Hijri date but the indiction one, which takes judicial and factual priority as the margin was probably part of a reproduced model. This means that the date of the coin is 714ce and it is a transitional production made during the Muslim conquest of the Iberian Peninsula. Nevertheless, it should be kept in mind that this was one of the last such coins minted, assuming that it was indeed minted in ah 95 and not in 92. The date is confirmed by a more recent reading of Walker’s similar African coins C-14/B-12, where the Hijri date that appears to be XCII is, in fact, XCV.28 Furthermore, since on other coins the previous indiction year is identified with ah93, this series must have been minted in the summer of 714 ce. In addition, the legend tells us that the coin was minted in “Spania,” and it is apparent that the minters followed Arab-East Roman models common at the time. Given the period when it was minted and its location, one can conclude merely that it was produced in a southern enclave somewhere on the Iberian Peninsula. As for the obverse, the margin has the Muslim declaration of faith (shahāda), which probably complements the information on the reverse regarding the minting process. Therefore, analyzing the characters on the two coins (including an L with an extra appendage that Balaguer Prunes missed, though it was read correctly by Navascués), we read in the margin: … non deus nisi Deus, solus non socius. Based on the evidence of the Berlin specimen, this legend probably began with the words ‘In nomine Domini.’ The complete marginal legend would thus be In nomine Domini, non deus nisi Deus, solus non socius, a common formula found on transitional coinage from the period, generally completed in the central obverse legend by the Latin word SIMILIS.
28
Walker, A Catalogue of the Muhammadan Coins in the British Museum: A Catalogue of the Arab-Byzantine and Post-Reform Umaiyad Coins, vol. 2, 73; Michael L. Bates, “The Coinage of Spain under the Umayyad Caliphs of the East, 711–750.,” in III Jarique de Numismática Hispano-Árabe. [Madrid, 13–16 Diciembre 1990]. Actas (Museo Arqueológico nacional, Madrid: Museo Arqueológico Nacional, 1992), 275–276; Trent Jonson, “The Earliest Dated Islamic Solidi of North Africa”, In Arab-Byzantine Coins and History. Papers presented at the 13th Seventh Century Syrian Numismatic Round Table held at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, on 10th and 11th September, ed. Tony Goodwin (London, 2011), 165.
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1.4.2 The Central Obverse Legend The coin’s interpretation history has been covered extensively in previous publications. The coin’s interpretation can be summarized in two approaches: the first is a limited understanding of its reading, whether it be in Hebrew (as the case of the unpublished work by Delgado seen in a manuscript from the 1850s or 60s;29 other authors include Vázquez Queipo, or Adrien P. de Longpérier who accepted the former’s interpretation30), or Latin reading (Codera y Zaidín, Vives, Walker, Navascués, and Balaguer Prunes). Another is skepticism to the first published reading of the legend, specifically its Hebrew interpretation, as can be seen in Walker. The interpretation of the central obverse legend as a Latin inscription is mainly focused on its reading as Similis, continuing the obverse inscription in the coin’s margin. Authors like Walker and Balaguer Prunes suggested this reading based on parallels from transitional coins between 714 and 718. Balaguer specifically suggested that these coins should be classified as part of a “SIMILIS 2b” series, and therefore the reading would be “SIN DIZ” as a parallel to coin n. 31 in her catalogue. These would reflect a fossilization of Latin in early Islamic coinage models from North Africa. The Latin reading is logical in it being a conclusion to the shahāda declaration in the coin’s margins. It has parallels from numismatic evidence in the early 8th century, and would fit well in the overall historical context of the period. However, upon examination several problems arise: the central obverse legend’s physical appearance has no parallels elsewhere in the coin. For example, the apparent “D” is never depicted as a capital Latin letter as presented here, but as a Greek delta. The apparent “Z” at the end of the Latin reading of this legend is clearly produced with two strokes of an awl: the central diagonal axis and lower appendage form one part of the letter, and the upper appendage is the other.31 Another problem lies in the very reading of SIMILIS. Navascués, for example, rejected this reading in the “SIMILIS 2” coin group to which this series apparently belonged.32 He correctly commented on the existence of considerable variability in the production of coinage legends and styles in this period, due to either stylistic reasons or variant capabilities of the artisans. 29 30 31
32
Antonio Delgado y Hernández (1850–1865?), “Estudios ineditos para la obra sobre las monedas arabigo-hispanas”. A.P. de Longpérier, Oeuvres, vol. 1 (Paris, 1883), 441. On a paleographical comparison and similarities between this lettering and East Roman depiction of the aleph, see: Ada Yardeni, The Book of Hebrew Script: History, Paleography, Script Styles, Calligraphy & Design (Jerusalem: Carta Jerusalem, 1997), 196–197, 200–201, 206–207, 209–211. Joaquín María de Navascués, “Los sueldos hispano-árabes”, 27.
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Other interpretations, such as INDCX proposed by Vives or Arabic/Greek lettering for the reading of this legend were also discarded: the first for being somewhat forced, considering the coin already provides an indiction date on the reverse; the second, due to the absence of any satisfactory evidence for either Greek letters (read from left to right) or a “deficient” Arabic. What remains is a review of a Hebrew reading of the legends.33 The Hebrew reading of this series was not entirely ruled out by previous authors, despite their attempts of solving the puzzle by presenting a Latin interpretation. However, any reading requires a thorough comparison between the two extant known specimens. Firstly, it is noticeable that out of the lettering, all are identical except for the second sign from the left. This sign, interpreted as a double yud ()יי, was simply placed differently between the two coins. In the Madrid specimen the two yuds were placed one next to the other horizontally. In the Berlin version, one is put on top of the other, vertically. Two readings have been proposed for this central obverse legend. The first stems from Vázquez Queipo’s first publication, which reads the legend as אוכיר, which is an acronym for: “( אמן וכן יהי רצוןAmen, and let it be [His] will”). As in other coins from this period, there would have been a presumable inclusion of multiple words within one legend or lettering, thus saving space and providing for aesthetic distinctiveness. Differing from Vázquez Queipo’s reading, the double yud is integrated within the acronym: אוכייר. As in other paleographic readings, the double yud is an acronym of God’s name, and as a result makes this legend appropriate for the theme covered by the obverse marginal legend. As a result, it should be read as “( אמן וכן יהי רצון ייAmen, and let it be God’s will”). In summation, the whole obverse inscriptions are read as follows: “In the name of the Lord, there is no god but God, without any companion. Amen, and let it be God’s will” (the Hebrew in bold). While this interpretaton fits the coin’s theme, and does not cause a redundancy, two problems arise. The first is the absence of parallels that suggests that Jewish communities used the אוכירacronym before late medieval Provençal and Sepharadic liturgical traditions.34 The oldest use we know of this formula is the 17th century Siddur kol Bo. The second problem affecting the general Hebrew interpretation of this coin is the absence of any Hebrew parallels in 33
34
Alexander Bar-Magen and Boaz Zissu, “An Eighth-Century Gold Coin from the Iberian Peninsula with a Supposedly Hebrew Inscription”, The Israel Numismatic Journal 19, Studies in Honour of Dr. David Jeselsohn (2016): 90–91. One example is found in E. Karmi (ed.): Seder ha-Tamid, Avignon, France, 1766/67, vol. 1, p. 46 (Hebrew).
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early medieval coins. As a result, this suggestion of Hebrew reading is inconclusive, applying equally to the second Hebrew interpretation of the central obverse legend. The second Hebrew reading of the legend stems from the Latin interpretation of Antonio Vives as “INDCX”.35 Instead of reading the second and third Hebrew letters as a וכ, it is possible to read them as ( נדnun and daleth), while the last letter would be read as ב. As a result, the letters would produce אנדיב, which should be read as אנד יב: latinized to “Ind XII”. This would make the central obverse legend a Hebrew verbatim translation of the central reverse legend, making the coin itself the parallel from which to read the text. However, the use of this coin would remain a mystery. A possible parallel to interpret this feature would be the use of multilingual epigraphic tradition that characterized the late antique period’s inscriptions (see Chapter 2), having the use of Hebrew letters as a date be a well attested in Jewish numismatics from the Classical period.36 As with the first reading, paleographic problems render this interpretation inconclusive. Firstly, it requires our acceptance of the third Hebrew letter as a ד and the last letter as a misshapen ב. The latter is particularly problematic when considering that paleographic evidence from the period shows little confusion between a resh and a bet, the latter having a wide base below a narrower roof. In the Berlin specimen there is only a convex roof above a straight line, and in the case of the Madrid coin, there is no base at all.37 There are also other problems with these two Hebrew readings. One is paleographically sound, but lacks the epigraphic context to ensure such an interpretation. The other takes into account the context, but fails to provide adequate paleographical coherence. Yet both Hebrew readings have fewer weaknesses than their Latin interpretation, and should be regarded as the best interpretation yet of this section of the coins. Thus scholars should exercise caution when interpreting the central obverse legend, ruling out neither possibility of its being Hebrew or Latin, and, if the former is accepted, taking care to review the conveyed message. 35
36
37
Bar-Magen and Zissu, “An Eighth-Century Gold Coin from the Iberian Peninsula with a Supposedly Hebrew Inscription”, 93–95; Antonio Vives y Escudero, Monedas de las dinastías arábigo-españolas (Madrid: RAH y Establecimiento tipográfico de Fortanet, 1893), vii–viii. Yaʿaḳov Meshorer, A Treasury of Jewish Coins from the Persian Period to Bar Kokhba (Jerusalem; Nyack, New York: Yad Ben-Zvi Press; Amphora, 2001), numbers 218 and 222. See also C. Levias: “Abbreviations”, in Jewish Encyclopedia, vol. 6, (New York; London, 1904), 40. Bar-Magen and Zissu, “An Eighth-Century Gold Coin from the Iberian Peninsula with a Supposedly Hebrew Inscription”, 94–95.
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1.5 Historical Context 1.5.1 Place of Minting Following the Muslim invasion of 711 and the rapid collapse of the Visigothic kingdom in little over a year or two, the conquering armies found themselves with access to considerable treasures in the former kingdom’s capital, Toledo.38 When considering the expansion of the Muslim empire in the Iberian Peninsula during its first century, there are two important aspects to account for. First, most of the expansion took place through pacts with the local populations that allowed them local autonomy and ensured tolerance of their religious practices in exchange for tribute to the Caliph and his deputies.39 This is certainly the main explanation for the clear continuity of coin designs from earlier periods, and particularly for the adoption of Eastern Roman and Sassanid minting formulas. Second, in cases in which force was used for conquest, Muslim law required the division of booty into five parts, one for the Caliph and the remaining four for the soldiers. The early minting of Muslim coinage in “Spania,” later Al-Andalus, probably resulted from the need to share the booty among the victors. Both Christian and later Muslim chronicles report that Tariq Ibn Ziyad’s expedition in 711 was preceded by a failed expedition to Spain led by Tarif Ibn Maliq Abu Zara, who informed the Muslim authorities in North Africa, probably camped in Ceuta under the leadership of the Gothic nobleman Urban, of the riches available there.40 It is known that artisans arrived together with Tariq’s soldiers. When Musa Ibn Nusayr arrived in southern Spain in the spring of 712, more minters were brought, as one of Musa’s main concerns was adherence to Islamic law regarding the distribution of booty.41 Walker subscribes to the theory that the mints during the transitional period were in either Seville or Toledo.42 According to Navascués, the first Muslim
38
39 40
41 42
Luis A. García Moreno, “Unos años que cambiaron el mundo,” in 711. Arqueología e historia entre dos mundos: Museo Arqueológico Regional, Alcalá de Henares, Madrid, del 16 de diciembre de 2011 al 1 de abril de 2012, ed. Luís A. García Moreno (Madrid: Museo Arqueológico Regional. Comunidad Autónoma de Madrid, 2011), 19–45. Hidden treasures seem to be the reason for cases like the Guarrazar trove found in 1858, near the city. William Montgomery Watt and Pierre Cachia, A History of Islamic Spain (New Brunswick, New Jersey: AldineTransaction, 1965), 13–14. Luis A. García Moreno, ed., 711: Arqueología e historia entre dos mundos (Catálogo). Museo Arqueológico Regional, Alcalá de Henares, Madrid, del 16 de diciembre de 2011 al 1 de abril de 2012 (Madrid: Comunidad de Madrid, Consejeria de Cultura y Deportes, 2012), 32–33. Watt and Cachia, A History of Islamic Spain, 14–15. Walker, A Catalogue of the Muhammadan Coins in the British Museum: A Catalogue of the Arab-Byzantine and Post-Reform Umaiyad Coins, vol. 2, lxxii–lxxiii.
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mint was a centralized one located in Seville, the first capital of the Muslim region of Al-Andalus.43 Balaguer Prunes, however, notes, based on studies of the dies, that reverse dies were generally used for only one year—not as long as obverse dies, due to the change of indiction dates used for minting. Nevertheless, the evidence from coinage shows a variety of dies even within a single minting series. According to Balaguer Prunes, this demonstrates that more than one mint was active during the early years of the Muslim presence, most probably located not far from the armies that needed the coins. On the other hand, the uniformity of later bilingual coinage from 717ce on is evidence of the minting process taking place in one location, either Seville or, more likely, the new capital of Cordoba.44 Although the minters’ workshops may have traveled with the conquering armies, the first aspect of the Muslim conquest is important to take into consideration: conquest through pacts. These pacts were applied in the Muslim advance in the Middle East, North Africa, and the Iberian Peninsula alike. One such pact was concluded with the Gothic nobleman Theodomirus, who commanded the Visigothic Mediterranean fleet and governed a territory including modern Valencia, Albacete, Alicante, Elche, and Murcia, i.e., the southeastern part of present-day Spain. The terms of this pact included the surrender of these territories to the Muslim troops in exchange for religious tolerance, preservation of property, and self-rule under Theodomirus and his descendants.45 Other territories were handed over with similar pacts, including the area of Zaragoza under the Banu Qasi.46 One possibility is that these coins were issued in these autonomous territories under the auspices of the Muslim authorities for payment of the jizya by “protected” peoples (dhimmi). This tax became the main source of income for the expanding Muslim empire.47 The subsequent introduction of Caliph Abd al-Malik’s monetary reform to Al-Andalus by 717ce, as well as the centralization of Muslim rule in Cordoba, put an end to this sort of minting. Whether they were minted in Seville, by itinerant minters, or in an autonomous local mint, the coins discussed here reflect the specific historical context 43 44 45
46 47
Navascués, “Los sueldos hispano-árabes,” 45–48. Balaguer Prunes, Las emisiones transicionales, 91–93. Sebastián Gaspariño García, Historia de Al-Andalus según las crónicas medievales (Lorca: Fajardo el Bravo, 2007), 116–117. Translation of Ajbar Maymuʾa and Al-ʾUrdi’s Tarsi ʾal-ajbar wa-tanwi ʾal-atar wa-l-bustan fi ʾib al-buldan wa-l-masalik ila yami ʾal-mamalik. Lorenzo de San Román, “Ilici en la Antigüedad Tardía,” 585–597. Manuela Marín, Individuo y sociedad en Al-Andalus, Colecciones MAPFRE 1492 4 (Madrid: Editorial MAPFRE, 1992), 24. Watt and Cachia, A History of Islamic Spain, 20.
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of the Muslim conquest of the Iberian Peninsula. This context is responsible for the surprising fact that Spanish transitional coins were not influenced by previous Visigothic models, but rather by local symbols (the multi-pointed star), East Roman models (date), and North African models (the word SIMILIS and the position of the legends). Perhaps this is an indication of the weakness of the Visigothic state vis-à-vis local authorities and minority groups that soon found their place in the new Muslim regime. 1.5.2 The Coins, Pacts, and Jewish Communities Little is known about the Jews in that period other than what Christian and Muslim chroniclers selectively wrote, including the notion that Jews were a key factor in the Muslim advance.48 Traditional Spanish historiography accused the Jews of “opening the doors to the enemy,”49 thereby collaborating in the destruction of the Visigothic kingdom. The truth is that they were not the only group standing to gain from such incursions, and certainly not the most numerous to have collaborated with them, considering the constant internal wars and strife that plagued the Visigothic kingdom in the late 7th and early 8th centuries. This stems from the supposed retribution to the persecutions caused by the Visigothic monarchs in the late stage of their rule in the Iberian Peninsula, as Jews were being forced to conversion or exile.50 The last Councils of Toledo, under Egica between 693 and 695,51 forced slavery and loss of property on “Judaizers” and remnant Jewish communities. The extent of the application of these policies is unknown, as repetition of such widescale persecutions tend to suggest their failure. However, there could have been Jewish emigration to regions like Morocco, just as the Muslim conquests were reaching these confines of the western Mediterranean.52 Medieval chronicles describe active collaboration by some Iberian Jews in the Muslim conquest of the peninsula and the establishment of Al-Andalus, to an extent unseen in any other Muslim conquests.53 Pacts such as the one 48 49 50 51 52 53
Eliyahu Ashtor, The Jews of Moslem Spain, 1st ed. (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1973), 23–24. Colmeiro, “Historia social, política y religiosa de los judíos de España y Portugal,” 70. García Iglesias, Los judios en la España antigua, 199–202. García Iglesias, 131–132; Ashtor, The Jews of Moslem Spain, 13–14. Watt and Cachia, A History of Islamic Spain, 12. Significantly, while there are reports of Jewish collaboration in the Muslim conquest in early Muslim chronicles (9th to 10th centuries), it is only mentioned in connection with southern cities. It seems to have been limited to the establishment of garrisons in major cities of present-day Andalusia. This collaboration was greatly exaggerated by Christian
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signed with Theodomirus were presumably not limited to Christian communities and leaders. According to tenth-century accounts, the Jews enjoyed autonomy under Muslim rule so long as they abided by the rules imposed on them by Islam, particularly the payment of the jizya tax. This is evident from the achievements of Hasdai ibn Shaprut, the trusted advisor and physician of Caliph Abd al-Rahman III, who later served as a “chancellor” of sorts of the Caliphate of Cordoba, as well as head of the Jewish communities of Al-Andalus under the Caliph. A similar situation can be seen in the Cairo Geniza records dating from the 11th and 12th centuries regarding Jewish leadership and its relations with the Fatimid Caliphate.54 Recent archaeological evidence suggests a link between this kind of pact, written on paper, and a coin-like lead stamp known as a precinct. Based on the archaic nature of the Arabic on them, the precincts were probably struck in the very first decade of Muslim rule in Al-Andalus.55 These objects are believed to have predated or been concurrent with the local copper fals, which also had archaic Arabic characters.56 One precinct was associated with the “pact of Seville,” a city conquered twice in 712 ce.57 Such pacts must have been quite numerous, and some of them must have been concluded with Jewish communities, covering the jizya tax and other issues, as seen in the pact of Theodomirus around that time. Pacts with clauses concerning Jewish institutions were presumably also concluded in other regions of the Muslim conquest. In fact, during the Early Middle Ages the spread of influence of eastern Jewish institutions such as the Exilarchate of Babylon and the yeshivas of Sura and Pumbedita (as well as the “Western” yeshiva of Eretz Israel) led to the replacement of Jewish liturgy and law as established in Mediterranean Jewish communities and the Jerusalem Talmud with those described in the Babylonian Talmud and Geonic centers
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chronicles from the 12th century onwards in order to accuse the Jews of “perfidy.” For more on this subject, see Norman Roth, “The Jews and the Muslim Conquest of Spain,” Jewish Social Studies 38, no. 2, Spring 1976, 148; For another account of Jewish participation in the Muslim conquest, see Ashtor, The Jews of Moslem Spain, 24–25. Shelomo Dov Goitein, A Mediterranean Society: The Jewish Communities of the Arab World as Portrayed in the Documents of the Cairo Geniza, vol. 2: The Community (Berkeley; Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1971), 2–3, 8–9. Tawfiq ibn Hafiz Ibrahim, “Nuevos documentos sobre la conquista Omeya en Hispania,” 711. Arqueología e historia entre dos mundos, ed. Enrique Baquedano, Luís A. García Moreno, Alfonso Vigil-Escalera, Manuel Acién Almansa, Zona arqueológica 15, vol. 1 (Alcalá de Henares, Madrid: Museo Arqueológico Regional, 2011), 148–151. Pedro Cano Ávila, “Numismática omeya oriental y de Al-Andalus,” Philologia Hispalensis XIX (2005): 23–28. García Moreno, “Unos años que cambiaron el mundo,” 162.
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of scholarship.58 During the previous Sassanian period, these Eastern institutions had had considerable influence over local provincial and imperial affairs as intermediaries between the Persian state and the numerous Jewish communities in Mesopotamia. This influence was strengthened by the strict hereditary nature of titles such as heads of yeshivas and Exilarch. After the Muslim conquest of the Sassanian Empire, the Jews were probably allowed to continue administering their own affairs.59 A fundamental change seems to have taken place in the Iberian Peninsula in the 8th century.60 Epigraphic evidence seen in Chapter 2 suggests the use of late antique community titles in Latin and Greek, such as archisinagogos,61 presbiteroi in the Ilici synagogue,62 and exarchon in Mérida in earlier periods.63 This use of classical Jewish community titles, reflecting a social hierarchy and functions that imitated late antique Roman and post-Roman society, continued well into the Visigothic period, at least until the 6th century.64 The increased persecutions in the 7th century led to a hiatus of sorts that should not be considered solely a lack of evidence, although Jewish life would continue despite the abandonment of official patronage from the State. The last known Iberian Jewish inscription in Latin is the two Rebbis’ inscription of Mérida, finding changes of the predominant title that defined Jewish leadership. While the Muslims in Spain and Portugal seem to have become increasingly “orientalized” over the centuries as the Abbasids adopted Iranian culture and political organization, this sudden adoption of a title “Rabbi”, seemingly never 58
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Shmoel Safrai, “The Period of the Mishnah and the Talmud in the Common Era,” in Toldot ʾam Israel. The Middle Ages, ed. Haim Hilel Ben-Sasson, vol. 1 (Tel-Aviv: Dvir, 1969), 342– 343 (Hebrew); Menahem Ben-Sasson, “Inter-Communal Relations in the Geonic Period,” in The Jews of Medieval Islam: Community, Society, and Identity. Proceedings of an International Conference Held by the Institute of Jewish Studies, University College London, 1992, ed. Daniel Frank (Leiden; New York: Brill, 1995), 18–25. Michael G. Monroy, “Religious Communities in Late Sassanian and Early Muslim Iraq,” in Muslims and Others in Early Islamic Society, ed. Robert Hoyland, Formation of the Islamic Classical World, vol. 18 (Wiltshite: Ashgate Variorum, 2004), 1–23. Salo W. Baron, A Social and Religious History of the Jews. High Middle Ages, 500–1200; Hebrew Language and Letters., vol. 7 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1958), 135– 140. Baron understood that during the 8th century and possibly even earlier, the ease of transporting paper allowed for increased contact between eastern and western Jewish communities, including the communication of eastern Jewish ideas to the western Mediterranean. See Chapter 2, ins. 5.3. See Chapter 7, 4.1. See Chapter 2, Ins. 4.3. Bar-Magen Numhauser, “Judaísmo y los judíos en la arqueología de la Antigüedad Tardía …,” 136–139.
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used before the 8th century, demonstrates a fundamental change in the political expression of the Jewish community. The Arab conquest of the Iberian Peninsula probably included a pact with the local Jewish authorities. Applying titles from the Jewish communities of their places of origin, the term “Rabbi” started to gain a foothold following the Islamic conquest, despite not being available in non-Hebrew inscriptions beforehand.65 Coins with Hebrew characters or symbols are not unusual in this early medieval period. The most important parallel to the studied coins is a copper fals found in Palestine and dated to the first half of the 8th century (Umayyad). The coin, recorded by Walker as no. 605,66 has parts of the Shahada in the margin, including the explicit mention of Muhammad as the prophet of God. Within the central area of the obverse is a five-branched menorah that includes a horizontal bar at the top, typical of menorah depictions. Walker suggested that this could have been taken from the designs of ancient local coins, like the extremely rare menorah coin of Mattathias Antigonus. However, the production of new coinage with an explicitly Jewish symbol still found in synagogues in the 8th century (such as the Jericho synagogue) indicates that this was a local issue associated with the Jewish community. Significantly, the Hebrew lettering on the Al-Andalus coins does not convey a message that conflicts with the Shahada; nor is there any symbol on the coins that violates the tenets of Islam. The use of a Jewish phrase associated with the priestly blessing (specifically, the congregation’s response), would have been highly symbolic for Jews. Its use to complete and reaffirm the Muslim declaration of faith could be interpreted as a confirmation of the Jews’ status as a protected people, tolerated yet never equal to those of the “true” Muslim faith. Likewise, the possible presence of Hebrew lettering for the indiction date (אנד׳ )יבdoes not negate the Muslim message and limits the Jewish element of the coin to a mere translation of the central Latin legend on the reverse. The anomaly would be, rather, that we find this Hebrew legend on a gold solidus/dinar instead of a copper fals, as fulus tended to be more variable in 65 66
Noy, Jewish Inscriptions of Western Europe, 1993, 1: 279. Walker, A Catalogue of the Muhammadan Coins in the British Museum: A Catalogue of the Arab-Byzantine and post-reform Umaiyad coins, vol. 2, 205. The five-branched menorah motif on its reverse is of particular relevance as a parallel in which a Jewish theme is used on a Muslim coin. The Kufic Arabic lettering shows it to be from after the coinage reform of Abd al-Malik. Its legend has the phrase “Muhammad is the Prophet of God.” Clearly, then, the Jewish motif neither negates nor challenges the Muslim message of the coin. See also Fredrick W. Madden, Numismata Orientalia—Coins of the Jews, vol. 2 (London: Trübner & Co., 1881), 276; Melchior de Vogüé, “Monnaies juives”, Revue Numismatique 5 (1860): p. 291, pl. xiii (7, 8).
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their symbols and inscriptions.67 A Hebrew legend would suggest the survival of the multilingual Jewish culture of previous centuries, as well as the increased orientalization of this culture. The inclusion of a Hebrew phrase might suggest a need to affirm a Jewish identity in the new regime established after the Muslim conquest. The relatively small armies that entered Al-Andalus, combined with the unusual (and unexpected) success encountered by the Muslim troops, prompted the establishment of Jewish garrisons in the most important cities, including Seville and Cordoba.68 This practice must have been formalized through a pact that assured autonomy for Jewish communities. While it is unusual for such coinage to include a Jewish phrase in Hebrew, the message itself reaffirms the Muslim message. This is supported by the contextual evidence for Umayyad orientalization of local (including Jewish) institutions as evidenced in the Latin inscription from Mérida (Chapter 2, Ins. 4.6), and the parallels of other Muslim coinage with Jewish or Christian symbols and messages. One way or another, the evidence supporting Hebrew lettering points towards fundamental changes in the early 8th century, when these Jewish communities abandoned their late antique organization and liturgy and adopted something more like the medieval Jewish tradition, thus marking the origins of Sephardic tradition. This tradition can be further explored with a small number of inscriptions found in the central area of the Al-Andalus 8th to 10th century Emirate and the 10th century Caliphate.
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Seven Jewish Inscriptions from the Early Middle Ages
There are seven important inscriptions from the late 8th to the 11th centuries that shall be proposed here as evidence for a continued community organization of local Jewish communities from the Iberian Peninsula. Two of them are from the capital of Islamic Al-Andalus, Cordoba, and one from a High Middle Ages cemetery in Lucena, near the capital. 2.1 Tombstone of Yehuda bar-Abon The tombstone was found in 2008 through an excavation in the northeastern quadrant of Cordoba, at a neighborhood called Zumbacón. The discovery was 67 68
Walker, A Catalogue of the Muhammadan Coins in the British Museum: A Catalogue of the Arab-Byzantine and Post-Reform Umaiyad Coins, vol. 2, lxviii. Ashtor, The Jews of Moslem Spain, 10–14.
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figure 5.8 Inscription of Yehuda bar-Abon from the cemetery of Zumbacón, Cordoba courtesy of the museo arqueológico y etnográfico de córdoba
made at a debris fill for an abandoned kiln furnace near what is the city Puerta del Osario, also known in Emirate and Caliphal periods as Bab al-Yahud. The discovery of this debris fill indicates the possible presence of a nearby Jewish cemetery. The excavation area was previously called “fonsario judío” during excavations under the Second Republic in the 1930s and had limited results. The publication of this piece was first made by its excavators I. Larrea Castillo and R. Henrique Hiedra in an article from 2010.69 The inscription is a reused marble architrave piece, 21 centimeters high and 32 centimeters wide.70 With an epigraphic area of 17 centimeters in height and 29.5 centimeters in width, it is six lines with letters 2.5 centimeters high (Fig. 5.8). The text was translated originally by Prof. José Ramon Ayaso of the University of Granada.71
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Isabel Larrea Castillo and Enrique Hiedra Rodríguez, “La lápida hebrea de época emiral del Zumbacón. Apuntes sobre arqueología funeraria judía en Córdoba,” Anejos de anales de arqueología cordobesa 2 (2009–2010): 327–342; Enrique Hiedra Rodríguez, “Córdoba, 845 d.C.: la inscripción funeraria hebrea de Yehudah Bar Akon en el marco del corpus epigráfico hispanojudío,” in Entre Oriente y Occidente. Textos y espacios medievales, ed. Manuel Marcos-Aldón and Maurizio Massaiu, Serie Abacus 3 (Córdoba: UCOPress, Editorial Universidad de Córdoba, 2016), 165–178. Larrea Castillo and Hiedra Rodríguez, “La lápida hebrea de época emiral del Zumbacón. Apuntes sobre arqueología funeraria judía en Córdoba,” 331–332, lám. 5. Hiedra Rodríguez, “Córdoba, 845 d.C.: la inscripción funeraria hebrea de Yehudah Bar Akon en el marco del corpus epigráfico hispanojudío,” 178.
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Transcription:
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זה הקבר ליהודה בר אבון )אכון?( זכרונו לברכה ונשמתו עם הצדיקים ונפטר בששי בשבת בשלושה בכסליו שנת שש ]מ[אות ושש ותנוח נפשו בצרור החיים
Development: /. ונשמתו עם הצדיקים3/. זכרונו לברכה,(?בר אבון )אכון/ זה הקבר ליהודה . ותנוח נפשו בצרור החיים6/. בכסליו שנת שש ]מ[אות ושש/ונפתר בששי בשבת בשלושה Translation: This is the burial of Judah bar-Abon (Akon?) of blessed memory. And may his soul be with the righteous. (And) He died on the sixth day of the week, on 3rd of Kislev, the year [4]606 (845ce). (And) may his soul in the bond of life. In line 2 the name was originally published as אכון. However, it is more plausible to read the name אבון. We find here a solely Hebrew text with well-written Hebrew formulas, which seems to make the use of Latin unnecessary for the conveyance of the inscription’s message. The date is from the Hebrew calendar, and not from Hispanic or other non-Jewish dating as seen in the case of the Mértola inscription (Chapter 2, Ins. 4.4). The last formula from line 6 is already present in the late antique Hispanian inscriptions from Mauritania (Chapter 2, Ins. 7.3, 4, 5) with abbreviated form, or in the Tarraconensis’ Melliosa inscription (Chapter 2, Ins. 5.2), and the Latin inscription of the two Rebbis (Chapter 2, Ins. 4.6). The date is telling, as the inscription was made in the year 845 ce, during the Umayyad Emirate period of Al-Andalus. The use of a completely Semitic name is not unheard of in Hispania, as seen in Mauritania’s late antique inscriptions, or the Balearic Island’s Ses Fontanelles lead plates (Chapter 2, Ins. 1.2). However, while Jewish Semitic names in Late Antiquity could be derived from the biblical origins (Hanan, Shmoel, Yehuda, Maris/Mariam, etc.), Abon is one deriving from post-biblical, i.e. Talmudic literature.72
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For example Rabbi Abin ()ר׳ אבין, also named Rabin ( )רביןand Rabbi Bon ()ר׳ בון, a 4th century (3rd generation) Amora, who is found in B. Berakhot 27b, Shabbat 23b and Baba Batra, 142b. The name Abin or Abon comes from a private name of a great man, which itself is a derivation of Aba ()אבא. The addition of the last nun is a common feature in Early Rabbinic times, with names such as Raban ()רבן. Rabbi Abin/Abon was born in Eretz Israel and apparently left for Babylon (Iraq) following the Gallus revolt in 351–352ce. Another,
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Near the area where the inscription was found was a Muslim cemetery with clear signs of coexistence with a nearby kiln. However, one burial (A-501) was distinctively separated from the rest in both direction and a barrier. While the direction of most burials was NE to SW, with their heads placed to the south looking to the side, burial A-501 was placed in an East-West direction. Nails found in the burial suggest the presence of a coffin, which were not found in the rest of the Islamic cemetery. The apparent Jewish burial was located within the neighborhoods Zumbacón and Santos Pintados in the northeastern and northern area of the city, outside the city walls. In the case of Santos Pintados, a series of individual burial pits are found with calcarenite limestone inner covering. Some were topped with stone slabs, and others were left without such cover. The burials with an east-west direction (with their feet placed on the east and the head on the west) suggest these were not Islamic. The similarities with burial A-501 from Zumbacón are important to suggest that the latter belonged to the type of community associated with Santos Pintados, and not with the other, Islamic burials. The lack of an ad sanctos burial area as is common in Christian cemeteries suggests, for its excavators, that this is a Jewish burial area, probably associated with this Rabbi Yehuda bar-Abon mentioned in the inscription. However, the lack of trousseau prevents their clear identification.73 2.2 San Miguel Inscription of Meir The second inscription found in the northwestern area of the city of Cordoba is a cylindrical dark marble tombstone dedicated to a Meir. It was found next to the abovementioned Bab al-Yahud and is made of a reused landmark stone that was probably present in the nearby access road to Cordoba. It is hard to access, although it was first published in 1977 by Díaz Estéban in Sefarad, with a follow-up reading by Jordi Casanovas for Red de Juderías and a recent review by Larrea Castillo and Hiedra Rodríguez in 2010.74 The inscription is attached
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5th generation Amora named Rabbi Abin was from Babylon itself, living during the times of Rabbi Pappe during the 4th century. In either case, we find that the term Abin or Abon, and its derivative Rabin ()רבין, are mentioned several times in both the Yerushalmi and Babli Talmuds. See Yehuda David Eisenstein, ed., “Abin,” Entziclopedia Otzar Israel (New York: Pardes, 1952) (Hebrew); Aharon Hyman, “Abin,” Toldoth tanaim ve-amoraim (London, 1910) (Hebrew); Aharon Hyman, “R. Abin-Rabin-R. Bon,” Toldoth tanaim ve-amoraim (London, 1910) (Hebrew). Larrea Castillo and Hiedra Rodríguez, “La lápida hebrea de época emiral del Zumbacón. Apuntes sobre arqueología funeraria judía en Córdoba,” 338–339. Fernando Díaz Esteban, “Inscripción hebrea inédita en Córdoba,” Sefarad: Revista de Estu-
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figure 5.9 Picture of funerary landmark of Meir from the San Miguel Church courtesy of red de juderías. website: https://www.fluido.es/google/ google_maps_print/cronologia ‑cordoba‑en.html. accessed: february 2021
to the wall of a house, making parts of the first line impossible to read. According to Díaz Estéban the inscription is partially preserved, as the last letters and words were either erased or are only found at the point where the cylindrical funerary cipus was attached to the wall. According to Díaz Estéban and Jordi Casanovas Miró, it is made of three lines (see Fig. 5.9). Looking at its only available picture, published in a Red de Juddios Hebraicos y Sefardíes 37, no. 1 (1976): 309–315; Larrea Castillo and Hiedra Rodríguez, “La lápida hebrea de época emiral del Zumbacón. Apuntes sobre arqueología funeraria judía en Córdoba”; “Cordoba,” Red de Juderías de España, Caminos de Sefarad (blog), 2012, https://www.fluido.es/google/google_maps_print/cronologia‑cordoba‑en.html. Accessed: February 2021.
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erías blogpost, it is possible to provide a partial reading of the inscription, as sections of it are beyond access in this study: Transcription: [… ?מאיר בר נאי]ת [תנוח נפשו ]בצרור החיים
Development: . החיים/[ תנוח נפשו ]בצרור/[?… מאיר בר נאי]ת Translation: Meir son of Nait …(?), may his soul rest in the bond of life. Díaz Esteban suggested that the first phrase could be read as follows: Meir son of Rabbi G … May his soul rest in the ligaments of life. The funerary formula of lines 2 and 3 are beyond doubt. However, the progenitor’s name for Meir was interpreted as a gimmel. This could be the case, which would give the reading as the possible beginning of Gaon ()גאון, as it is followed by an alef. However, the reading following the review from the available photograph suggests that rather the name begins as Nait … ()נאית, discounting the previous proposal.75 The presence of the funerary formula in line 2 and the fact that we can only read the word נפשוsuggests there was more text in the unread side, enough for the word בצרורto complete it. The use of the term נפשוinstead of נשמתוas found in the Puente Castro inscription from the year 1026 would point towards an earlier date, similar to the 6th century Melliosa inscription from Tortosa (Chapter 2, Ins. 5.1). However, Esteban Díaz gives paleographical arguments for its early medieval date, parallel to the Lucena inscription of R. Amicus (particularly regarding the form of the mem, taf and the confusion between the form of the nun and the gimmel—see below, inscription 2.3).76 The placement of this inscription is telling. According to Díaz Esteban it is stuck into a wall of a house from the San Miguel neighborhood. Its placement near the Zumbacón cemetery and Bab al-Yahud suggests that it too probably belonged to the Islamic-period Jewish cemetery where inscription 2.1 is from. 2.3 Rabbi Amicus from Lucena This 10th century Hebrew inscription was found in the San Miguel Church of Cordoba as a reused stone for its construction. It is placed today in the Cordoba
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Díaz Esteban, “Inscripción hebrea inédita en Córdoba,” 310–311. Díaz Esteban, 313–315.
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figure 5.10 Obverse of the Lucena Rabbi Amicus inscription’s reproduction by rebeca garcía merino, courtesy of museo sefardí de toledo (ref. number, 0290/001)
Archaeological and Ethnographic Museum.77 It was first published by F. Cantera Burgos in 1959.78 The inscription was found in December 1958 on an upper story wall of a house in Santiago Street number 2, in the town of Lucena (Figs. 5.10, 11). Therefore, it was found as reused construction material and not in its original historical context. It is made of limestone, is 38 centimeters wide and 84 centimeters high. The inscription itself was worked twice. The first, on its obverse, had apparently been stopped in mid-production. As a result, the full text is found on the irregular surface of its reverse.79 Its lettering changes according to the lines. In the reverse and preserved side, line 1 has letters 18 centimeters high, and those of the lower lines are between 12 to 15 centimeters high. Transcription: Obverse: י אמיקוש ישן שלום שכב בשלום עד יבוא מנחם ͙ש
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A plaster reproduction is on display in the Museo Sefardí de Toledo. Francisco Cantera Burgos, “Lápida hebráica opistográfica de Lucena,” Sefarad: Revista de Estudios Hebraicos y Sefardíes 19, no. 1 (1959): 137–142. Cantera Burgos, 137.
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figure 5.11 Reverse of the Rabbi Amicus inscription of Lucena, Cordoba made by the museo arqueológico y etnográfico de córdoba
Reverse:
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רב ̣י ̣אמיקוש ישן בשלום ושכב [בשלום עד יבא מ ̣נח]ם משמיע שלום ב]ש[ער שלם מבשר שלום ויאמ]ר[ ל]ו[ משכב בשלום
Development: (Reverse) / עד יבוא מנחם3/ שכב בשלום/]רב[י אמיקוש ישן שלום …ש (Obverse) משמיע שלום/[ בשלום עד יבא מנח]ם3/ ישן בשלום ושכב/,רב ̣י ̣אמיקוש בשלום/ ויאמ]ר[ ̣ל]ו[ משכב6/. מבשר שלום, )ירו(של)י(ם/ב]ש[ער Translation: (Reverse): Rabbi Amicus sleeps peace, rest in peace until the Consoler comes, peace (?) … (Obverse) Rabbi Amicus, who sleeps in peace and rests in peace until the Consoler comes, who declares peace in the gate of Jerusalem, announcer of peace, who will tell him rest in peace.
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Several facts about this inscription are of interest. First and most obvious is that it was attempted first to be written on its obverse. It seems that grammatical errors of the original text in the obverse (such as ישן שלוםinstead of )ישן בשלוםled the carver to restart it on the reverse. Second, it left space at its bottom, pointing towards its vertical placement. The letters were carved into the damaged sector visible at the top of the piece and through the epigraphic area in the form of an inverted Latin cross. This suggests that this was a reused architectonical feature from the late antique period by a community or people with knowledge of Hebrew. In line 1 is the name of the buried person: Rabbi Amicus (Cantera Burgos read it as Amicos or Amiqos),80 ending with a שas was common in Hebrew transliteration of Latin names since Late Antiquity. Here is found a man with a Latin name having the title of Rabbi, a title not shared by all members of the community as is seen in the tombstones of Yehuda bar-Abon (Ins. A) and Meir from the San Miguel Church (Ins. B). The terminology ישן בשלום ושכב בשלום עד יבוא מנחם משמיע שלום בשער שלם ( מבשר שלוםlines 2 to 5) is an appeal for the Messiah’s arrival, the reconstruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, and the announcer of times of peace (that is, the end times). Cantera Burgos associated it with Is. 56:7, “these I will bring to my holy mountain and give them joy in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations”.81 It is not clear if there is a direct association with this specific verse, although either way it is correct to affirm that the messianic message found in this inscription surely makes this verse relevant. It uses a word play between the word שלוםand the abbreviation for Jerusalem שלם, which in itself can also indicate “peace”. In this case we find this funerary formula in the ʿAliya la-Keber, a prayer recited each time one visits a grave: ִתְּשַׁכּב ְבָּשׁלוֹם ְוִתיַשׁן ְבָּשׁלוֹם ַﬠד בּ ֹא ְמ ַנֵחם ַמְשִׁמי ַע ָשׁלוֹם.82 Even so, the addition of the Messiah’s future actions to this formula is not found in funerary Jewish rituals. Therefore, this inscription is clearly dedicated to people who knew how to read and pray in Hebrew, reflecting a well-established ritual, perhaps with local
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Cantera Burgos, 139. Cantera Burgos, 139. This section is the conclusion of ‘Aliyah la-Keber in Nusaj Sefarad, or the conventional prayer format particularly for Ashkenaz, although also used in Sepharadic communities. The difference is that, in our inscription, the order is changed. While in the first case, we find “may he sleep and lie down in peace”, in the modern reiteration, it is “may he rest and sleep in peace”.
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modifications. The insistence of his “rest in peace” is probably rhetorical as is common in other funerary inscriptions, Jewish or otherwise. The dating of this inscription is not explicit in the text. Cantera Burgos indicated that the מ, שand אpoint towards a pre-11th century date.83 However, its paleographic and material parallels are clearly similar to another inscription found in the Ronda Sur cemetery in Lucena, described below, which would place it during the 10th century. 2.4 Rabbi Lactosus Inscription from Lucena (Cordoba) This Hebrew inscription was first published by Daniel Botella and Jordi Casanovas in 2009, alongside some results of the excavations carried out in the medieval cemetery from Ronda Sur, a hill near the town of Lorca in the province of Cordoba.84 It was found during the excavations directed by Daniel Botella and José Antonio Riquelme in 2007, following the finding of human remains during a southern expansion of the city’s highway CP-19. The inscription was placed in the Ronda Sur cemetery tomb 239, facing down. The tomb was a double-pit type—that is, with a general rectangular pit below which is a marked space for the placement of the individual, in anthropomorphic form. The lower part of the pit was marked by peripheral stones that probably sustained a structure (see Fig. 5.12). Amongst these stones was the inscription itself. The inscription was then reused for this pit. Carbon 14 dating and typological comparisons with High Middle Ages cemeteries like Monjüic in Barcelona suggest a mid-11th century dating—that is, the period of the taifa kingdoms. Other tombs such as numbers 11, 26, and 131 were also dated to the mid-11th century. However, the fact that this inscription was reused implies that it was from an earlier date than this.85 The inscription has the following measurements: it is 21.3 centimeters high at its right side; 23.5 centimeters high at its left side. Width: 17.4 centimeters at its upper part; 17.2 centimeters at its lower. It is 9 centimeters thick at its right side; 6.8 centimeters thick at its upper section, and 6.2 centimeters thick at its lower-left corner. Like the general measurements, the epigraphic area is likewise irregular. It is between 17.2 and 17.4 centimeters high, and between 15 to 16.3 centimeters wide. The letters’ height varies according to the line and even letters, as they were carved on the damage the stone suffered before the inscription’s placement. Botella and Casanovas list them as follows (in height): 83 84 85
Cantera Burgos, “Lápida hebráica opistográfica de Lucena,” 140. Botella Ortega and Casanovas Miró, “El cementerio judío de Lucena (Córdoba).” Botella Ortega and Casanovas Miró, 9.
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Picture of the Ronda Sur Lucena tomb 239, where the inscription was found. Notice the stones around the bottom section of the pit from botella ortega and casanovas miró (2009): daniel botella ortega y jordi casanovas miró, “el cementerio judío de lucena (córdoba)”, meah 58, p. 17, lám. 3
– Line 1: 1.5cm, with some being 1.96cm. – Line 2: 1.5cm; 1.6cm; 1.8cm; with the two last letters being 1.17 cm. – Line 3: 1.6cm; 1.7cm.; 1.8cm; 2cm; 2.2cm. – Line 4: 1.4cm; 1.9cm; 2.7cm. – Line 5: 1.18cm; 1.4cm; 1.5cm; 1.7cm. – Line 6: 1.3cm; 1.5cm; 1.7cm; 2cm; 2.2cm; 2.4cm. – Line 7: 1.4cm; 1.7cm; 1.8cm; 1.9cm. As can be seen the letters’ size varies dramatically, from the smallest (1.17cm) to the largest (2.7cm). This confirms the reused character of the stone where the inscription is placed. The median of the letters is 1.78 cm, which should be in my opinion the guiding measurement of the inscription’s letters. According to Botella and Casanovas, the carver adapted the letters to the changing width of the inscription. It should be added that the inscription has seven lines, as is the case of the Rabbi Amicus from the Cordoba inscription (Ins. C), with similar characteristics and elaboration techniques. It is probable that this was intentional, as seven is a holy number associated with the days of
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the week (therefore the creation of the world) and a number associated with God and the divine in Jewish tradition. It presents the following text (Fig. 5.13): Transcription: []̣ר[̣ב ̣י ל]כ[טושוש יש]ן ב̣ש̣לו]ם ̣מ[שכב בשלום ]ע[ד ]י[בא מנחם ̣משמ]י[ע שלום 5 בשער שלם ]מ[ב ͙שר [שלום יאמרו ל]ו משכבו בשלום
Development: / ]ע[ד יבא מנחם3/ )ו(משכב בשלום,[ בשלו]ם/[ יש]ן,]ר[בי ל]כ[טושוש . משכבו בשלום/[ יאמרו ל]ו. שלום6/ ]מ[בשר, בשער )ירו(של)י(ם/משמ]י[ע שלום Translation: Rabbi Lactosus, sleeps in peace (and) rests in peace until the Consoler comes, who declares peace in the gates of Jerusalem, the announcer of peace. And he will tell him “his rest in peace”. In line 1, we find the name ( רבי לכטושושRabbi Lactosus), which is a Latin name as in the case of the inscription of Rabbi Amicus. It is followed by the word ישן, sharing Botella’s and Casanovas’ interpretation. The reconstruction of line 2 is also adequate, although it also בשלום ושכב בשלוםwould have been a possible reconstruction, as the space between the end of the first and the middle of the second words was heavily damaged. Lines 3 and 4 have the reconstruction of the phrase עד יבוא מנחם משמיע שלוםas proposed by the aforementioned authors. However, we find in the last word of line 5 a difference in interpretation. Botella and Casanovas proposed reading [---]יש. However, considering the parallel from the Rabbi Amicus inscription, and reviewing the damaged inscription from the photograph, it is more likely we find here the word מבשר, with the upper section of the בbeing well preserved. We also differ in the interpretation of the middle word, which was taken as שלם, an abbreviation of ( ירושליםJerusalem), and not the word שלוםwith a middle vav as placed in the original reading. Shared interpretation is also present in lines 6 and 7. The text is almost identical to the Rabbi Amicus inscription. They are both reused stones with damage upon which the letters were written. In both, we find a Latin name with a rabbinic title (Rabbi Amicus; Rabbi Lactosus), both having a yud at the end of the word Rabbi, instead of the word Rab ()רב. Following that the two inscriptions are almost identical funerary formulas, based on the ‘Aliya la-Keber prayer.
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Picture of Rabbi Lactosus inscription from Lucena’s Ronda Sur cemetery from botella ortega and casanovas miró (2009): daniel botella ortega y jordi casanovas miró, “el cementerio judío de lucena (córdoba)”, meah 58, p. 18
This inscription’s chronology must be placed before the early 11th century to which tomb 239 is dated. Botella and Casanovas proposed a second half of the 10th century and early 11th century date for this inscription, as it gives a series of well documented formulas. The Rabbi Amicus inscription was dated by Cantera Burgos to the 12th century, but the parallel with this inscription and the clearly defined archaeological dates make it virtually impossible to be of that late period. These two late 10th to early 11th century inscriptions are an interesting revelation of two Rabbis with clearly Latin names—names whose transcription
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from Hebrew was done using the letter shin, rather than the available samech. They reveal the existence of ritualized visits to grave sites, with customary associated blessings based on salvific proclamations. Such an organized community confirms the already widely known accounts of a vibrant Jewish community in Islamic-era Lucena. However, despite the Latin names mentioned here, the texts are completely in Hebrew. These, like the tombstone from the Zumbacón inscription (Ins. 2.1) and the San Miguel “Meir” inscription (Ins. 2.2), reveal a much wider use of Hebrew than the late antique (pre-8th century) period. 2.5 Calatayud Hebrew Inscription (Zaragoza) Turning to the province of Zaragoza, which in the Early Middle Ages was the northern frontier of the Al-Andalus Emirate and Caliphate, there is an inscription first published by F. Fita in 1888 in the Boletín de la Real Academia de la Historia, followed by a publication by I. Loeb in the Revue d’Études Juifs that same year and M. Schwab in 1907 who basically followed Loeb’s conclusions.86 It was later republished in 1956 by Cantera Burgos and Millás Vallicrosa.87 The inscription was found in April 1882 by a local, well-educated journalist, D. Mariano de la Hoz, who passed away and took with him the location of the inscription, today lost (Fig. 5.14). Cantera Burgos and Millás Vallicrosa supposed the inscription is roughly 80 centimeters high and wide, square.88 However it seems to have been 21.5cm × 13.5 to 13.4 cm. It was found at the slope of a hill to the northwest of the town of Calatayud, where today is located the Sanctuary of Nuestra Señora de la Peña. The text is as follows: Transcription: הקבר ]?[ שמאל בר שלמה תנוח נפשו בצרור החים עם ישני
86
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Fidel Fita, “Lápidas hebreas de Calatayud,” Boletín de la Real Academia de la Historia 12 (1888): 15–20; Isidore Loeb, “Une inscription hébraïque de Calatayud,” Revue des études juives XVI (1888): 273–275; Moïse Schwab, Rapport sur les inscriptions hébraïques de l’ Espagne, Nouvelles archives des missions scientifiques et littéraires: choix de rapports et instructions, XIV (Ministére de l’ instruction publique et des Beaux-Arts, 1907), 241– 244. Cantera Burgos and Millás Vallicrosa, Inscripciones hebraicas en España, number 205. Cantera Burgos and Millás Vallicrosa, 286.
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figure 5.14 Published picture of the Calatayud inscription in fita (1888): “lápidas hebras de calatayud”, brah, pp. 15–20 5
חברון נפטר מן [?]העולם ש⟩נת⟨ ̣רפ [ואחד עשר ]לירח [מרחש]ון
Development: / החים ע˺י˹ם ישיני/ נפשו בצרור3/ תנוח. בר שלמה/זה הקבר שמ)ו(אל .[ מרחש]ון/[ ואחת עשר ]לירח/(?) העולם ש⟩נת⟨ ]ת[ר׳׳פ6/חברון)!( נפטר מן Translation: This is the tomb of Shmoel bar-Shlomo. May his soul rest in the bond of life with those who sleep in Hebron! He left the present world in the year 4680, at the 11th of the month of Marḥesvan. Loeb already noted the textual irregularities stemming from the relatively archaic Hebrew found here, mostly associated with the application of the yud: החיםinstead of עים ;החייםinstead of ישיני ;עםinstead of ישני. These grammatical “mistakes” are reflective of the dialect used by the Jews in Calatayud at this moment. In line 1, we find the transcription by Loeb, Schwab, and Cantera Burgos of the name שמאלas ( שמואלShmoel). While correct, it is significant from the available picture of the inscription that the central vav of the name was omitted in the text. However, the name remains the same regardless. Lines 3–5 have a combination of two formulas into one. The first is a common one found in the Iberian Peninsula: תנוח נפשו בצרור החיים. The other is עם ( ישני חברוןwith those who sleep at Hebron). The second part clearly references the biblical Patriarchs and Matriarchs who, according to biblical tradition, are buried in the Machpelah cave in Hebron (Gen. 23:8–19). The formula itself, according to Loeb and followed by later authors, has a parallel in the Seliḥa prayer in Yom Kippur. In fact, the parallel that they are referring to is an introductory piyyut or hymn called Shofet kol haʾAretz (שופת כל הארץ, or “Judge of the Entire Earth”), sung before the Seliḥa prayer mostly in Sepharadic and Yemenite communities, although occasionally Ashkenazi communities do so as well in
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modern times. The hymn is sung in Shaḥarit of both Rosh ha-Shanah (New Year) and Yom Kippur. The phrase is specifically associated with the second stanza of the hymn: .לוֵבשׁ ְצ ָדָקה וַּמֲﬠֶטה ְלָך ְלַבד ַה ִיְּתרון .שֵׁני ֶחְברון ֵ ִאם ֵאין ָבּנוּ ַמֲﬠִשׂים ָזְכ ָרה ְי . ִלְפ ֵני ה׳ ָתִּמיד.ְוֵהם ַיֲﬠלוּ ְל ִזָכּרון .עוַֹלת ַהבֶֹּקר ֲאֶשׁר ְלעוַֹלת ַהָתִּמיד Thou who art clothed with righteousness, Supreme, exalted over all How oft so ever we transgress, Do Thou with pardoning love recall Those who in Hebron sleep: and let Their memory live before Thee yet, Even as the offering unto Thee Offered of old continually.89 The inscription in truth insists on remembering the ancestors and the belonging of the deceased to the endless succession line of the Jewish people, and in this sense the parallel with the piyyut becomes even more relevant. However, this saying was used in later dates by Maimonides in his Commentary to the Mishnah, specifically in commentary on Mishnah Tamid, 2. The commentary relates to the application of what was called זכות ישני חברון, or the “right to the sleepers in Hebron”, associated with a reminder of the burial ground of the ancestors of the Hebrews. This association with the cave of the Machpelah in Hebron is a method to indicate not only the Jewish heritage of the man buried here, but also hopes for messianic salvation like other inscriptions from this early medieval period. The last part of the inscription (lines 5–9) is an indication of the deceased’s date of death. In line 6, we find the word ( שנתyear) having a merging of the nun and taf. Following that is the year which probably was not preserved at its end. However, it is possible to recover the letters resh and pei, which indicate a year 280. Loeb suggested this to be the year 4680 since creation, adding a taf before the resh due to the fact that, without it, we would be faced with either the 89
Translation and explanation of the song taken from: Edwin Seroussi, “Shofet Kol Haʾaretz,” Jewish Music Research Center of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Song of the Month (blog), September 2014, http://www.jewish‑music.huji.ac.il/content/shofet‑kol‑haaretz‑0 #Ref1. Bold added.
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year 1519 or 519, either the 6th or 5th millennium since creation respectively— two impossible dates, the first since it follows the expulsion of the Jews in 1492, and the second because of the clearly medieval language used. Therefore, the date presented would be דתר׳׳פor 4680 of the Hebrew calendar, which is the year 919 in the Gregorian calendar. This is confirmed with the archaic nature of the Hebrew script.90 The complete date, 11th of Marcheshvan (Cheshvan), 4680 points towards the exact date being October 14th, 919 ce. This is a potential date, as we have lost the last part of this sentence and we are not sure if there was one extra number that could place it nine years before or nine years after the one proposed. However, it is quite evident that this inscription belongs to the first third of the 10th century. The inscription was made at the moment when Emirate of Cordoba was in the process of becoming a Caliphate under Abd al-Rahman III. The parallel of a medieval piyyut points towards a Jewish community firmly associated with the cultural framework we know as the classical Sepharadi “Golden Age”. However, despite this we notice the remainder of formulas found in other inscriptions such as that of Melliosa in Tarragona and early medieval inscriptions mentioned here. 2.6 Barcelona Inscription of Abraham Son of Deodatus First mentioned in the Catálogo de los objetos arqueológicos de la Academia de Bellas Artes de Barcelona en el museo de la Comisión de Monumentos de la Provincia, a catalogue elaborated by José de Manjarrés and Antoni Elías de Molins in March 15th, 1880, this inscription was associated with its discovery in the area of Montjuic, Barcelona. However, already with this publication the origin of the piece was unknown.91 It was first republished by Schwab in 1907 from an ink pressed drawing with a large amount of imperfections. The study was followed by a publication by J. María Millás Vallicrosa in Anuari de l’Institut d’Estudis Catalans in 1931, and again a Spanish version of this study in 1945 in the journal Sefarad. It was followed by its inclusion in the Inscripciones hebraicas en España by Cantera Burgos and Millás Vallicrosa. Another synthesis of it can be found in Epigrafía hebraica by Jordi Casanovas Miró.92
90
91 92
Loeb, “Une inscription hébraïque de Calatayud,” 274–275; Schwab, Rapport sur les inscriptions hébraïques de l’ Espagne, 243; Cantera Burgos and Millás Vallicrosa, Inscripciones hebraicas en España, 287. Casanovas Miró, Epigrafía hebrea, 50. I had no access to this catalogue, although it was cited in Jordi Casanovas’ catalogue number 18/1. Schwab, Rapport sur les inscriptions hébraïques de l’Espagne, 381 [153], with drawing in Fig. 19. José María Millás Vallicrosa, “D’Epigrafia hebraico-catalana,” Anuari de l’Insti-
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The piece is a trapezoid-form stone with a narrow top part and a wider base at the bottom. It was a reused fragment of a large and probably public 2nd century Latin inscription with a first line saying OMVN … and the second with visible AV, upside down compared to the direction of the Hebrew text, and on its backside.93 The stone is 32.3 centimeters high and 24.5 centimeters at its widest point.94 According to Cantera and Millás, it is 30 × 38 centimeters, with 10 centimeters width.95 It is today placed in the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya according to Jordi Casanovas. As such the inscription has five lines of varying length. The reused nature of this stone, as evidenced by its previous public use for a 2nd century Latin inscription, is a further explanation for the irregular size of the Hebrew letters. The first line has smaller letters, adapting themselves to the narrower available epigraphic space. However, the last line has wider letters due to the wider space. The adaptation suggests the full text is visible, against what Cantera Burgos and Millás Vallicrosa suggested.96 From the available photographs published by Millás Vallicrosa in 1931, Cantera and Millás in 1956, and particularly by Jordi Casanovas in 2005, the following text is proposed for this inscription: Transcription:
5
לאוורח קבר שלם אברהם בר דאודטוש לטב ועד זכר
Development: לט)ו(ב ועד/ בר דאודטוש/ אברהם3/. של)ו(ם/לאוורח )לאורח( קבר (!)זכ)ו(ר Translation: For the grave’s visitor, peace (welcome). Abraham son of Deodatus, remember him for good and for eternity!
93 94 95 96
tut d’Estudis Catalans MCMXXI–XXVI (1931): 298; José María Millás Vallicrosa, “Epigrafía hebraico-española,” Sefarad: Revista de Estudios Hebraicos y Sefardíes 5, no. 2 (1945): 295; Cantera Burgos and Millás Vallicrosa, Inscripciones hebraicas en España, 188–190, number 105; Casanovas Miró, Epigrafía hebrea, 49–50, numbers 18/1 and 18/2. CIL II, 4599 (p. 982). Casanovas Miró, Epigrafía hebrea, 50. Cantera Burgos and Millás Vallicrosa, Inscripciones hebraicas en España, 188. Cantera Burgos and Millás Vallicrosa, 190.
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Most of the inscription has been read the same since Schwab’s reading. Two lines are contended. Lines 1 and 2 were read by Schwab as זאת מצבת של ר׳, or This is the burial of Rabbi, based on the print available to him. However, this ought to be discarded as the second line is clearly the word שלםalone. Millás Vallicrosa in 1931 and, by extension, Cantera and Millás in 1956 read them as … א זו דלקבר שלם. The word ( דלקברto the grave) was the basis for the interpretation of it as an archaic, Arameized Hebrew. However, a review of the photographs indicates this is not the case, as there is no clear evidence for a lamed before the word keber ()קבר. In fact, the letter looks more like a ḥet, which would imply that word has the suffix -aḥ. The letter before the ḥet can be read as a resh. Considering the presence of a vav and an aleph before it, the reading is the word אורח, or “visitor”. The problems lie in the fact that we either have a superfluous zayin or, more likely, a superfluous vav, which seems to be the case as the vav was not apparently used in the same way as it was in other Hebrew texts. Line 3 is read as Abraham, a Hebrew or Semitic name. However, the fourth line was read by Schwab as [בר ר׳ דוד שנפט]ר. Millás and later Cantera and Millás read it as ( בר דאוד טושBar Daud Tosh) following an Arabization of the name David. However, in fact it seems to be a Latin name, ( דאודטושDeodatos), with a transcription of the S with a samech as was seen in the other transcribed Latin names in this chapter. Schwab’s reading of line 5 was לעדן כ׳י׳ר נ ב ת, which is read as “To Paradise, let it be so! May his soul remain in good”. However, this can be clearly discarded reviewing the picture. First Millás and later Cantera and Millás proposed the correct reading לטב ועד זכר, or “remember him for good and for eternity.” The absence of vav is found in three occasions: שלםinstead of טב ;שלום instead of זכר ;טובinstead of זכור. However, in the first line, as explained above, we found a superfluous vav: אוורחinstead of אורח. It might be that the vav was not generally used, and, when it was, it made an alternative sound that we are not aware of today. Be that as it may, the text’s archaic nature can be seen in the vertical aleph and the rounded shin following Cantera and Millás, thus suggesting a late 10th to early 11th century date.97 Most interesting is the use of a Semitic name as the son of a man with a Latin name, at least according to Casanovas.98 However, this should not be surprising if we consider the Semitic name Ionati as the father of the Greek-named Isidora from Els Pallaresos (Chapter 2, Ins. 5.3).
97 98
Cantera Burgos and Millás Vallicrosa, 190. Casanovas Miró, Epigrafía hebrea, 50.
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2.7 Funerary Inscription on a Brick from Toledo The last of this short list of inscription stems from Toledo. It is odd that the earliest known epigraphic reference from the Jewish community of Toledo comes from a period when the city, while still an important center, was no longer the capital of the country. However, evidence of Jewish communities in this city was found with the early 4th century lamp from the Nuevo Mercado de Abastos excavation in 1988 (see Chapter 3, 2.2). The inscription was found in 1916 following excavations before the construction of edifices at the edge of the city, in “Venta de la Esquina”, which today is the Buenavista neighborhood (in the immediacies of the Roman circus north of the Door of Alfonso VI) according to Abraham S. Yahuda who first published this finding (see below). The detailed circumstances of the discovery are unknown; however, it occurred during the construction of the urban expansion beyond the city walls which was beginning in the early 20th century. The brick inscription was first published by Yahuda in the 1917 edition of the Boletín de la Real Academia de la Historia. A second publication was by Cantera Burgos in Sefarad’s 4th volume in 1944, which was recovered in the Inscripciones hebráicas de España in 1956 by Cantera Burgos and Millás Vallicrosa, as number 15. At the time, it was displayed in the Archaeological Museum of Toledo, in its Sección VII, with the number 487. It is placed today in the Museo Sefardí de Toledo, published in its catalogue as inscription number 8 (Room III) in 1986 by A.M. López Álvarez. Today it is still in the museum with the modern catalogue number 0002/001.99 The inscription consists of 6 lines placed on the largest area of a parallelepiped brick (Fig. 5.15). The brick is 20 centimeters high, 28 centimeters wide, and 10 centimeters thick. The height of the letters was not published despite their regularity. The reading of this inscription is highly problematic, mostly due to the clear grammatical mistakes found across the text. However, for its study, it seems clear that the reading of Cantera Burgos and Millás Vallicrosa is the best one.
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Abraham S. Yahuda, “Inscripción sepulcral hebraica en Toledo,”Boletín de la Real Academia de la Historia 70 (1917): 323–324; Francisco Cantera Burgos, “Inscripciones hebraicas de Toledo. Nuevo hallazgo epigráfico,” Sefarad: Revista de Estudios Hebraicos y Sefardíes 4 (1944): 57–62 + plate IV; Cantera Burgos and Millás Vallicrosa, Inscripciones hebraicas en España, 40–44, number 15; Ana María López Alvarez, ed., Catálogo del Museo Sefardí, Toledo, 1st ed. (Madrid: Ministerio de Cultura, Dirección General de Bellas Artes y Archivos; Museo Sefardí de Toledo, 1986), 56–57.
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figure 5.15 Picture of the Toledo medieval brick inscription from the Museo Sefardí de Toledo picture made by rebeca garcía merino (cat. number 0002/001). link to catalogue picture: http://ceres .mcu.es/pages/viewer?accion=4& amuseo=msto&museo=msto&ninv= 0002/001
Transcription:
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ורחםיו יעתרהו וצתר קנפו לקיצ הימם יהמהההו ומנחל עדוניו ישקהו יצר נשמת יצים קבד מנחת ילב עליו ועל משקב היו שלמ אמן אםן כמן
Development: ומנחל3/ לק˺ץ˹ הימ)י(ם יהמי˺ד˹הו/ברח˺מ˹יו י˺ס˹תירהו ב˺ס˹תר ˺כ˹נפ)י(ו 6/( יל˺ו˹ה עליו ועל משקב)ו/( נשמת)ו( י˺ש˹ים ˺כ˹ב)ו(ד מנ)ו(חת)ו/עדניו ישקהו יצ)ו(ר (?)יה˺י˹)ה( של)ו(˺ם˹ אמן א˺מ˹ן ˺א˹מן Reading:
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ברחמיו יסתירהו בסתר כנפיו לקץ הימים יהמידהו ומנחל עדוניו ישקהו יצור נשמתו ישים כבוד מנוחתו ילוה עליו משכבו היה שלום אמן אמן אמן
Translation: In his mercy may he be hidden by the secret refuge of his wings, until the end of days may he revive, and from the burst of delights make this short, receive his soul which would accompany him in his dignified rest, may there be peace on his resting place. Amen, amen, amen! As can be seen above, there are many grammatical and typographical mistakes in this brick. Cantera and Millas treat this issue extensively: – In lines 1 and 6 is the replacement of normal מby final םin ורחםיוand אםן, and a replacement of םby מin שלמ. Similarly, final ץwas replaced by צin קיצ instead of קיץ.
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– The word יעמהההוappears instead of יעמידהוin line 2 – The absence of a יin ימםand the addition of one in קיצinstead of קץas it appears in line 2. – Replacement of כwith קin קנפו, which ought to have been כנפיוin line 1; קבד instead of כבודin line 4; משקבinstead of משכבוin line 5. – Absence of וin words such as יצרinstead of יצורin line 3; suffixes such as in the word משקבinstead of משכבוin line 5 and מנחתinstead of מנוחתוin line 4. – Confusion between בand וsuch as in ילבinstead of ילוהin line 5 and וצתר instead of בסתרin line 1. – Most noticeable is the merging of the S sounds into one letter: tzadik ()צ, which replaces סin line 1 and שin the word ישיםfrom line 4. – Absence of a suffix –הin )ילוה( ילבin line 5. – Other grammatical errors such as היוinstead of יהיהor היה, and כמןand אםן instead of אמןin line 6. Other errors presented by Cantera and Millás, such as the “replacement” of a vav by a yud in the first letter of line 3, are in fact an incorrect reading by these authors. At least two groups of errors can be associated with phonetic variations in Toledo. The first is evidently the replacement of shin and samech with tzadik. The latter does have a tz sound in modern Hebrew, but in the case of High Middle Ages Toledo, the association reveals a phonetic similarity between that sound and the S sound of a non-lingual shin or samech. Another group that we have seen was found in the Barcelona inscription and that is the superfluous use and removal of vav in different words. This, together with the confusion between vav and labial bet reveals a possible phonetic similarity in the spoken Hebrew of Toledo. The grammatical errors were explained mostly as a use of popular dialects for the inscription. In the case of Yahuda, he proposed that the family that elaborated the brick was from the lower classes of the Jewish community, which is evidenced by the fact that they requested the support of the text on a brick and not a stone.100 This suggestion was completely discarded. The inscription was elaborated and printed from a mold by a specialist craftsman and bricks themselves were relatively costly—certainly not something anyone could afford. As Cantera and Millás correctly stated, there is no reason to believe the craftsman was not Jewish as Yahuda suggested either. He was fully aware of the replacements between מand final ם, which suggests a good know-
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Yahuda, “Inscripción sepulcral hebraica en Toledo,” 323.
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ledge of the Hebrew language, but a limited one with regards to its correct writing and grammar.101 The inscription reveals a common structure with other Early and High Middle Ages inscriptions from the Iberian Peninsula: the mention of the name (which is absent) followed or preceded by an independent formula. In this case, the formula is a variation of the hashkabah ( )השכבהprayer for the deceased, as Cantera and Millás suggested in detail.102 Parallels for the use of the hashkabah are found in Toledo in the 14th century (IHE, numbers 23 and 24) and two earlier inscriptions from Puente Castro, León (IHE, numbers 1 and 5). The latter two are both inscriptions made for murdered people, the first from the year 1025 and the other from 1104. This formula is found in use from the 11th century onwards, at a moment when elaborate Hebrew texts were placed in inscriptions with both ritual and narrative use. The carvers already assume that the visitors were Hebrew speakers and knew the rituals and formulas that were inscribed in those tombstones. There is no date for the inscription. Cantera and Millás propose a late 10th to the end of the 11th century date, which would place this at the end of the proposed chronological frame for this book. Accordingly, they understand this piece to be the earliest Hebrew or Jewish inscription in Toledo. However, the text is decidedly late compared to late antique and Early Middle Ages inscriptions. The form of the pei at the end of line 1 suggests a parallel with the Calatayud piece (Inscription E), pointing to a 10th century date as well. Considering the text and parallels in Puente Castro, it could very well be a late 10th or early 11th century date.
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Conclusion
From the second quarter of the 11th century we find a dramatic rise in the number of findings associated with the Jewish communities of the Iberian Peninsula. The excavations at Puente Castro, near León, reveal the potential of an archaeology of Judaism applied with modern methodology.103 However,
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Cantera Burgos and Millás Vallicrosa, Inscripciones hebraicas en España, 42. Cantera Burgos and Millás Vallicrosa, 43–44. Manuel Carriedo Tejedo, “Los judíos en el reino de León (1055–1230). Documentos y testimonios.,” in El mundo judío en la Península Ibérica: sociedad y economía, ed. Jorge SánchezLafuente Pérez and José Luis Avelló Alvarez, Colección El legado de la Historia (Cuenca: Alderabán, 2012), 21–23. Here, this author proposes the possible presence of Jews in Leon since the late 9th century. However, only in 1055 does Jewish presence become impor-
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its conclusions are limited if the development of the Jewish communities from before the 11th century is ignored. Puente Castro, the synagogues of Toledo, Cordoba, Segovia, and other medieval cities are beyond the scope of this book, as they are clearly part of the medieval Jewish environment of what is called Sepharad.104 It seems from the data presented above that there is no cultural, political, or even economic break from the previous period. With recent studies and discoveries, it is possible to notice that the so-called “absence of evidence” or “dark ages” between the 8th and late 10th centuries regarding the Jewish communities has been somewhat exaggerated. While not yielding as many inscriptions and objects, Jewish material culture in the Iberian Peninsula from the Early and High Middle Ages is revealed to continue trends that were already visible from the last centuries of Late Antiquity. In previous chapters, we have seen that the notion of a segregated Judaism, devoid of influence or even integration within the overall late antique societies in Hispania is contrary to the picture presented to us by material evidence from that period. The sole exception would be onomastic evidence that apparently follows trends already seen in the Catacombs of Venosa of the 4th to the 6th centuries (see Chapter 2, Analysis). Therefore, just as late antique Judaism is an integrated part of general society, so should early medieval Judaism in AlAndalus be seen as an integral part of Al-Andalus society. The Islamic conquest and the quick collapse of Visigothic administration revealed the flaws of a kingdom that was apparently incapable of applying the widespread persecution with which it is generally associated. The 8th century coin from the moment of the Arab conquest reveals that Jews quickly adapted to the new political reality that ruled over them in Hispania. However, this should not be seen as marking sudden change in linguistic, ritual, or other practices of the Hispanojewish community. Such a change was, if anything, gradual. Starting from the 8th century, it is possible to detect the application of the title Rabbi, which in the previous period was absent, as in the two Rebbis inscription from Mérida (Chapter 2, Ins. 4.6). The inscription reveals the permanence of a Latin-speaking, well organized Jewish community after the Islamic conquest. The presence of the above-mentioned coin also reflects the existence of an organized Jewish community at the end of the Visigothic period, which was further confirmed by the late 7th century inscription from the province
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tant enough for the organization of the Council of Coyanza to order the legal separation between Christians and Jews, by order of king Ferdinand I. On their excavations and the importance of these interventions from a historiographical point of view, see Chapter 1.
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of Septimania (Narbonne, Chapter 2, Ins. 6.1). The new Arab authorities that began organizing their newly acquired territories applied their organization method from what they encountered in the east, namely the Geonic yeshivot of Babylon and the Jewish political representation of the Babylonian Exiliarch. This led to a change in the wording and perhaps even the concept of the titles reflected in these inscriptions. However, the use of the title “Rabbi” did not change the theme of these inscriptions. The inherited nature of the titles is maintained, as is the predominance of their association with social status within the Jewish communities. This aspect would apparently maintain itself through the High Middle Ages, as is reflected in the Cairo Genizah from Fustat, Egypt.105 In it are 11th century documents revealing the social organization of the community, specifically how social status was defined by the wealth donated to the community as a mitzvah.106 The continuity between Late Antiquity (3rd to 7th centuries) and the later classical Sepharadi period (11th to 13th centuries) is further reflected by the seemingly continuous application of synagogue rituals such as the washing of hands and feet as part of its decorum. This is found in material evidence of water installations found in the Ilici building (5th century) and the Lorca synagogue (15th century), as revealed in Chapter 4. This 1000-year continuum might be a simplification, as this ritual most probably suffered modifications such as the apparent abandonment of the washing of feet and the retention of just washing one’s hands. However, one should not discard the continuity of rituals that reflected the specific way that the Jewish community applied not only their Jewish law and practices, but also adapted themselves to the cultural and geographic environments that other Jewish communities did not share. This continuity is put into perspective when noticing the changes in epigraphical practices. Starting from the mid-9th century, we find that all Jewish inscriptions in the Iberian Peninsula are exclusively in Hebrew. Even so, the retention of Latin naming practices is evident in the two inscriptions from Lucena (2.3, 2.4) and the Barcelona (Tarragona?) inscription (2.6). However, as expected Semitic names predominate in many of the inscriptions, such as 2.1,
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Goitein, A Mediterranean Society: The Jewish Communities of the Arab World as Portrayed in the Documents of the Cairo Geniza, vol. 2: The Community, 24–26, the “Nagid” as an example. Goitein’s description, collected from the Cairo Genizah, proposes a view of the Jewish communities as legitimized by both the loyalty of the community led by the “Nagid”, as well as the confirmation of the Muslim leader above him. In this case, one finds a change from a previous, Christian environment in which Jews are typically placed outside the legal and political system. Goitein, II: The Community, 143.
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2.2, and 2.5. There seems to be a greater use of Hebrew compared to the previous period, which includes the use of verses from songs and, in the case of the Toledo text (2.7), a whole prayer. Even so, the greater use of Hebrew did not prevent these inscriptions from having specific grammatical errors that reflected possible early medieval Hebrew dialects in the Hispanojewish world. The abandonment of Latin and Greek should not only be seen as an aspect of the Arab conquest of Al-Andalus and the increased orientalization following the rise of the Abbasid Caliphate in the mid-8th century. Nor should it be associated necessarily with proto-nationalist sentiments or resurgence. Rather, it is also a product of the new reality in the Mediterranean world of the time. Simply put: the ease of epistolary responsa made it possible for the Iberian Jewish communities to open up to new ideas and contacts with communities from the different confines of the Islamic world. Through the extensive commercial routes by land and sea, the Islamic world became a catalyst for the transport, translation, and dissemination of new knowledge. The ease of transport for goods was defined by the ease of transporting people and, with them, ideas. Why did the Jews not use Arabic for their inscriptions, as they used Greek and Latin in previous periods It is possible they had easier access to communication routes compared to Late Antiquity. Furthermore, the use of Arabic was certainly present in Jewish communities under Arab or Islamic rule. For example, the Cairo Genizah reveals a large number of letters and documents written in Judeo-Arabic from the 11th, 12th, and early 13th centuries.107 However, the epigraphic and solemn language used in the Iberian Peninsula was Hebrew. There seem to be two explanations. First, the inscriptions were elaborated for its visitors. The visitors would presumably be Jewish and would probably orig107
On the use of Judeo-Arabic for Geonic texts: Talya Fishman, Becoming the People of the Talmud: Oral Torah as Written Tradition in Medieval Jewish Cultures, Jewish Culture and Contexts (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011), Chapter I; A rather complete summary of studies regarding biblical translations in Judeo-Arabic found in the Genizah: Friedrich Niessen, “La Geniza de El Cairo y las traducciones y comentarios bíblicos en judeo-árabe de la colección Taylor-Schechter,” ʾIlu, Revista de ciencias de las religions, Annex IX (2004): 47–74; Joshua Blau, The Emergence and Linguistic Background of Judaeo-Arabic: A Study of the Origins of Middle Arabic, 2nd ed (Jerusalem: Ben-Zvi Institute for the Study of Jewish Communities in the East, 1981), 20–22, in his study of the emergence of Judeo-Arabic, proposes that, by the late Geonic period, Middle-Arabic superseded all other languages, including Aramaic, as a scholarly and common tongue. Even so, it still derived from a Classical Arabic, at least in its written form. In the introduction to Shelomo Dov Goitein, A Mediterranean Society: The Jewish Communities of the Arab World as Portrayed in the Documents of the Cairo Geniza, vol. I: Economic Foundations (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1967), he indeed clarified that the vast majority of texts were in Judeo-Arabic, including those written in Hebrew script.
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inate from different parts of the known world. While Jews in Al-Andalus could speak some form of Arabic by the 10th century, Jews coming from the Frankish kingdoms, North Africa, or the East Roman Empire probably did not.108 This implies that Hebrew was a convenient lingua franca for Hispanian Jews of this period. Naturally, the Jewish communities did form elaborate trading and contact networks with each-other, permitting an easier transport of ideas and people through vast territories which probably spoke different languages or at least dialects. Second, the Hebrew renaissance led by scholars of the 10th century such as Saʾadia Gaon, which served as the basis for the Sepharadi “Golden Age” of the 11th century, is only part of the story. With the available organizational base and institutions of the Jews of Al-Andalus, Hasday Ibn-Shaprut managed to proceed and create an independent yeshiva in Cordoba.109 It is with him, under the rule of the self-proclaimed Caliph Abd al-Rahman III, that we see the main break of this period, which allowed the Jewish community to, at least in terms of halakha and prestige, be independent from the Abbasid-controlled Sura and Pumbedita yeshivot. From this moment on there is a dramatic rise of Hebrew inscriptions and the reflection of literary and religious texts found in 10th and 11th century Jewish epigraphy. While gradual, these changes did occur eventually, leading to the significant cultural expansion of Sepharadic culture in the following period. Therefore, the Jewish communities of the Early and High Middle Ages were a continuation of organized Jewish communities in Late Antiquity. However, the Arab conquest in 711ce allowed for easier access to the Jewish cultural hub in Iraq, which gradually changed the linguistic makeup of the local Jewish communities. This conquest also changed the way that Jews interacted with political authorities, as evidenced by the 8th century coin mentioned in this chapter. However, what changed the most seems to be the increase of use of extensive Hebrew texts with lyrical aspects that were probably inspired by this opened contact with the east. By the 9th and 10th centuries the Jewish communities, inheritors of late antique Judaism with the increased Babylonian and Arab Islamic influence, were organized and numerous enough to allow Hasday Ibn-Shaprut to insist on Sepharad’s independence from Iraq.
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Fishman, Becoming the People of the Talmud, 54. Richard Gottheil and Meyer Kayserling, “Ḥasdai, ABU YUSUF (BEN ISAAC BEN EZRA) IBN SHAPRUT (SHABRUT, SHAFRUT, BASHRUT, or, Incorrectly, SHPROT; Called Also Ḥasdai Ha-Nasi),” The Jewish Encyclopedia 6, (New York; London: Funk and Wagnalls Company, 1904), 248–249.
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One final aspect should be noted before concluding this chapter. Geographically, four of the inscriptions were found in Cordoba or its vicinity, including the town of Lucena where a significant Jewish community lived.110 The proximity of such findings to the capital of Al-Andalus should not come as a surprise—the Jewish community of Hasday ibn-Shaprut would want to have access to their representative in the Emirate and the Caliphate court. For that reason, we find a great number of inscriptions in the vicinity of Mérida from Late Antiquity. However, other findings are revealed in Calatayud and possibly in Barcelona. These urban centers had their development mostly in the Early Middle Ages, and specifically in the case of Calatayud, the Muslim authorities “refounded” the city as a fortress (Qalʾat Ayyub) in a nearby location, as was common practice. It is during this same period that the Alcudia de Elche was abandoned and the city of Ilici was refounded as Ilš, using the debris of the original urban center—including the former synagogue explored in Chapters 6 to 11 (Part 2). Did this imply a change of the Jewish communities themselves? From a linguistic or epigraphical point of view, this seems unlikely. However, one thing is certain: these Jewish communities participated in the construction of new urban centers such as those of modern Elche and Calatayud, together with the rest of their non-Jewish neighbors. While this is a presumptive notion, it is what we should expect considering the inclusion of Jews in other aspects of life in Hispania and Al-Andalus through the centuries. 110
Ashtor, The Jews of Moslem Spain, 143–149.
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part 2 The Ilici Basilical Synagogue Building
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Archaeological Research in the Elche Basilical Building and Its Sources The challenges regarding the methodology used for archaeological research into the Elche basilical building and its sources, come not only from the technical limitations and methodological problems in the excavation and research of past Jewish remains, but also from theoretical problems stemming from the different archaeological theories of the 19th and 20th centuries. The case of Elche, as with the rest of the Iberian Peninsula, is complicated by the fact that the researchers themselves had ideological biases, particularly shaped by a period wherein the concept of Spanish identity was under strict political control. All of this has its expression in the historiography of the Elche site, particularly as its basilical building was identified as a Christian basilica by the end of the 20th century.
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Location of the Alcudia de Elche and Its “Basilica”
The area where the city of Elche (Valencià: Elx) and the Alcudia d’Elx (Spanish: Alcudia de Elche) are located is a northern extension of the Murcia coast plains with a slight inclination in direction towards the Mediterranean Sea to the southeast and east. The plains are surrounded to the north and west by the ranges of Molar, Tabalá, and Castellar, which are the last, eastern edges of the Betic mountain range. These mountain ranges separate the plains of Elche from the inner Albacete plateau towards the interior. The plains themselves are cut by the Vinalopó River which has a north-south direction and today crosses the city of Elche through its city center.1 The Alcudia de Elche site is located two kilometers south of the modern town of Elche proper (Fig. 6.1), on a quaternary hill east of the main southern road CV-885, that leads to Cartagena, ancient Carthago Nova, capital of the Byzantine province of Spania. Its geographic coordinates are 38° 14′ 16″ N
1 Rafael Ramos Fernández, La ciudad romana de Ilici: Estudio arqueológico, Publicaciones del instituto de estudios alicantinos: Serie 2; No. 7 (Alicante: Instituto de Estudios Alicantinos, 1975), 17–20.
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and 0° 41′ 46″ W, and it occupies 11 hectares in the rural administrative division (partida) of Alzabares. Originally, the site was a series of private cultivated lands limited to the west by the Vinalopó River and to the east by the area corresponding with the modern Camí Alborrocat, or the Borrocat road (Fig. 6.2). It is accessible today through a small one-aisle east-west road surrounded by palm trees, which conspicuously grow in the area. While the site was not excavated west of the CV-885 road, the classical and late antique city probably reached the slopes of the Vinalopó River, located one-kilometer west of the current western limits of the archaeological site. The valley where the Alcudia is situated was formed during the Pleistocene through the erosion of the surrounding mountain ranges and its subsequent clogging, covering a previous floor plain. This feature, together with the climate bubble formed by the mountain ranges surrounding it, made this area suitable for intensive cultivation and, hence, habitation since the Neolithic Period. However, it was not until the 6th to 5th centuries bce that intensive anthropic activity is detected in the area. The site itself is divided in quadrants, according to the cardinal directions (north-south vs east-west). The quadrants are 40 × 40 meters. The north-south columns are numbered by letters, while the east-west rows are numbered by Arabic numerals. Therefore, each quadrant is labelled first by representing its longitudinal row and then its latitudinal column. For example: 5-F where a Roman domus was found, or 11-D where the famous Dama de Elche was discovered. The Ilici basilical building, which is the object of this study, was found partially in quadrant 10-A. Or rather, the mosaic floor and the main hall was found in the northeastern corner of that quadrant. However, the eastern annex “Area S” was found in quadrant 10-B, and the northeastern annex “Area P” in 9-B. In any case, the late antique basilical complex is found in the southwestern area of the Alcudia, near the western “wall” structure defined in 1621, as described below.
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figure 6.1 Map of distance from the city of Elche to the Alcudia de Elche from google earth. satellite image accessed on april 4th, 2017
archaeological research in the elche basilical building
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figure 6.2 Map of the Alcudia de Elche with relation to notable features. Includes the Borrocat Road to the east, highway CV-885 and the Vinalopó River to the west from google earth. satellite image made in september, 2015
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First Interventions
The periods before the late 19th century archaeological excavation are rather obscure for the site of the Alcudia de Elche.2 The site was apparently abandoned by the 8th or 9th century, as modern Elche was founded a few kilometers to the north and much of the old city’s construction materials were ransacked for the construction of the new city. The first reference to archaeological findings in the Alcudia is dated to June 26th, 1401. It mentions a testamentary donation by a Bernat de Codinet of two granite columns from the Alcudia, to support landmark crosses for the road in a place called “Huerto de la Cruz”.3 It wasn’t until 1621 when there was a first antiquarian study of the old remains of the city, particularly, the measurement of the still visible city walls, by Cristófol Sanz in his Recopilación en la que se da cuenta de las cosas anci antiguas como modernas de la inclita villa de Elche. There were few references to past remains in the Alcudia, as the author was more preoccupied with the bishopric’s history.4 Even so, the main thrust for the study of Ilici came in the mid-18th century with the establishment of the Bourbon dynasty, which sponsored institutions like the Real Academia de la Historia for the study of the ancient remains of the country. In 1752, Ascensio Morales, delegate of King Ferdinand VI, was sent to Elche to “excavate and retrieve” antiquities “of the Romans” from the old site of the city. His results were published in the Actas capitulares of the Archivo Municipal de Elche on November 18th, 1753. There he explains that he discovered “in the name of His Majesty” the remains of “Roman buildings”, a considerable quantity of ancient columns, statues, and coins. This was subsequently displayed in the city of Elche.5 2 The following is a summary to give a general picture of the studies made before the 1905 intervention. More complete studies can be found in recent as well as previous publications made by different authors, including: Roberto Lorenzo de San Román, “Ilici en la Antigüedad Tardía. Ciudad y territorio del ocaso imperial al pacto de Tudmīr” (PhD diss., Universidad de Alicante, 2016), 55–71; Ramos Fernández, La ciudad romana de Ilici, 41–44; Pere Ibarra Ruiz, Elche, materiales para su historia. Ensayo demostrativo de su antigüedad e importancia histórica (Elche: Talleres tipográficos Ruíz de Lara, 1926), 57–59; and especially Concha Papí Rodes, Aureliano Ibarra y La Alcudía: una mirada a la arqueología del siglo XIX, Serie Arqueología (Alicante: Universidad de Alicante, 2008), 65–84. 3 Today the reference document is placed in AHME, catalogued as A-2. Lorenzo de San Román, “Ilici en la Antigüedad Tardía,” 59; Papí Rodes, Aureliano Ibarra y La Alcudía, 65; Ramos Fernández, La ciudad romana de Ilici, 41; Ibarra Ruiz, Elche, materiales para su historia, 57; Aureliano Ibarra y Manzoni, Illici, su situación y antigüedades, Establecimiento Tipográfigo de Antonio Reus (Alicante, 1879), 146. 4 Lorenzo de San Román, “Ilici en la Antigüedad Tardía,” 62–62. 5 Lorenzo de San Román, 65–66; Ramos Fernández, La ciudad romana de Ilici, 42; Ibarra Ruiz,
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From 1775 to 1776 another expedition was organized by sergeant of infantry, José Caamaño, sub-lieutenant Diego Cuesta, and the priest of the church of San Juan de Elche, Leonardo Soler, amongst others, uncovering several pavements and remains of ancient buildings in ruin.6 They also uncovered copper and marble statues, columns and architectural remains, medallions and other objects. In what they called the “great building with columns” they found a treasure with collars, earrings, golden ringed jewelry, and precious stones. That treasure was handed over to King Charles III, great patron of archaeology in Naples and Spain, to be eventually deposited in Real Gabinete de Historia Natural, later to be sent to the Museo Arqueológico Nacional, where it is located today. This expedition was published in the official bulletin Gaceta de Madrid on March 26th, 1776, with news about the discovery of concrete structures and stone columns, including the finding of a copper statue.7 It is important to note about these early interventions that there is little remaining evidence for where they were carried out. These excavations, regardless of their results, might have included the Elche basilical building. As will be discussed below, the building was found by accident, which was possible only because of it being on a shallow level compared to the then modern floor. In other words, it is perfectly plausible that between the 15th and 18th centuries some architectural elements from the basilical building were extracted from the earth, without the researchers being aware of the existence of the ancient mosaic floor. In the 19th century there would be better records of the Alcudia excavations, as they would be taken over by Aureliano Ibarra Manzoni, brother of Pere Ibarra. Ibarra Manzoni started excavations in 1855, at a moment when these lands were private property, under the ownership of several local farmers and their families.8 By the late 19th century, according to Pere Ibarra’s testimony in his Efemerides,9 all the loma (hill) of the Alcudia de Elche would be bought
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Elche, materiales para su historia, 58; full citation and study in Papí Rodes, Aureliano Ibarra y La Alcudía, 70–71. Full references and transcription of the submitted report of these expeditions are in Lorenzo de San Román, “Ilici en la Antigüedad Tardía,” 68; Papí Rodes, Aureliano Ibarra y La Alcudía, 72–73. “Noticia de las Antiguedades descuviertas en el sitio de la Alcudia,” Gaceta de Madrid, March 23, 1776. A complete account of Aureliano Ibarra’s figure can be found in Papí Rodes, Aureliano Ibarra y La Alcudía, 83–183. Number 1197, October 8th, 1915. Also see accounts on M. Campello’s properties in the Alcudia by 1895 in Concepción Papí Rodes, “La venta de la Dama de Elche: desmontando algunas justificaciones,” Recerques del Museu d’Alcoi 14 (2005): 160.
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figure 6.3 Map of the Alcudia de Elche site. Highlighted: sectors 10A–B and 9A–B where the basilical building is located published in: ana ronda (2018): l’alcudia de alejandro ramos folqués, p. 155
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by one landowner. During this time, the excavations in the Alcudia were done mostly by those who had permission from the landowners to excavate in those lands, particularly, scholars such as the Ibarras or the Marquez de Lendínez in 1880.10 In 1890, following his brother’s death, Pere Ibarra continued with the excavation efforts at the Alcudia, particularly in its northern half. To do so he founded, with much enthusiasm, the “Sociedad Arqueológica Ilicitana” that would promote the archaeological and artistic research of the city of Elche. Amongst his discoveries he identified an ancient Roman bath and excavated the remains of the ancient walls of the city in its northwest. By 1896, the French archaeologist Pierre Paris arrived at Elche as part of his archaeological travels around Spain. He returned in August 1897, invited by Pere Ibarra for the celebrations of the “Misterio de Elche”.11 It was in that summer when Pere Ibarra and Pierre Paris made the most important and controversial discovery of the Alcudia site: the Dama de Elche, a marble statue of what seems to be an Iberian goddess bust, including the representation of an elaborate headdress which at the time was a unique testimony of pre-Roman costumes.12 Importantly, the Dama de Elche was discovered during agricultural works in Dr. Campello’s lands. It was one of these agricultural labors that led to the discovery of the Elche basilica eight years later.
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The Discovery of the Elche Basilical Building: The Ibarra-Albertini Expedition and Publications
Even though the oldest report of the basilical building’s discovery was made in 1905, Ibarra indicated that knowledge of the basilica’s mosaic was known from
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It was not until 1911 when the first law for protecting archaeological heritage was established in Spain, under the auspices of Manuel Gómez Moreno. It was in fact the irregularities of the Elche excavations, particularly the discovery and “export” of the famous Dama de Elche in 1897, followed by the national crisis Spain suffered in 1898 following its military defeat against the United States, which would provoke the need for such legislative measures. The “Misterio de Elche”, done every August at the date of the Virgin Mary’s ascension, is marked with a notoriously antagonistic attitude towards Jews. The ceremony signals the final conversion of the Jews who tried to defile the Virgin’s body and soul following her death. This ceremony is quite relevant to understanding the cultural and historic attitude of Spanish society towards Judaism, especially at a moment when Jewish material culture was being discovered and beginning to be studied archaeologically. Papí Rodes, “La venta de la Dama de Elche: desmontando algunas justificaciones,” 158–157.
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“several years before”, when they were discovered while fig trees were being planted in that area of the site. However, as described in the original documents, there was no suspicion the researchers were above the basilical building studied here. Even so, plans for an extensive excavation were well underway by 1905, and these included the arrival of Eugéne Albertini who was introduced by Pierre Paris and Archer Milton Huntington, the latter seemingly funding the French expedition to the Alcudia through his Hispanic Society of America (HSA).13 There is no reference to this arrival in the preserved Efemérides. However, there is a reference to Arthur Engel’s visit to Elche in April of that year, when there was a proposal for excavating in the site of the Alcudia.14 On his end, Ibarra was seemingly ignorant of the American sponsor’s finance of the French expedition, as can be seen in Efemérides 480 from June 3rd, 1905, where he clearly states that the “excavation expenses are covered by the French”.15 This means two options: either Huntington was financing the excavation through Paris, or there was no financing at all. While it is true that Huntington had a keen interest in Spanish archaeology, especially after the foundation of the Hispanic Society of America and his previous excavation of the city of Italica, near Seville, it is unclear what arrangement the HSA had with the French expedition or the Spanish scholars. By the time the excavation was proposed to the owners of the southeastern section of the Alcudia, Dr. Campello had passed away and left the property to his daughter and son-in-law, who were hesitant to give these scholars access to the site.16 It was only in early July, when Engel had already left the site, but with the presence of Pierre Paris and his colleague Eugéne Albertini, that the proprietor’s approval for the excavation was achieved. The Efemérides document says that the original plan was as follows: a trench would be dug between the lowest point of the western section of the city’s wall uncovered in the 1890s, and the point where the Dama de Elche bust was discovered in 1897, which the excavator described as “diagonal”. The idea was to discover different structures between those two points, in the first wide-scale excavation done since the death of Aureliano Ibarra. The excavation began on June 4th with a single team of workers that some days later was divided into 13
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Rafael Ramos Fernández and Alejandro Ramos Molina, “Historia de la Alcudia,” in Iberia, Hispania, Spania. Una mirada desde Ilici, ed. Lorenzo Abad Casal and Mauro S. Hernández Pérez (Alicante: Caja de Ahorros del Mediterráneo, 2004), 274; Gloria Mora Rodríguez, “Huntington, Archer Milton,”Diccionario histórico de la arqueología en España: (Siglos XV– XX) (Madrid: Marcial Pons Ediciones de Historia, 2009), 336. Efemérides 420. April 20th, 1905. Efem. 480. June 3rd, 1905. “Todos los gastos son de cuenta de los franceses.” Efem. 420.
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two teams, as the owners of the site allowed for excavations on the perimeter areas of the Alcudia. By July 13th they uncovered what was considered the “plant of a previously unknown building”.17 This was the first mention of the basilical structure, and the surprise of Ibarra’s writing points to the fact that he was unaware of the structure’s existence. Despite the description of the excavation procedures by Ibarra, it seems that Albertini was the real planner of the excavation campaign in 1905. In the 1906 publication of the Fouillés d’Elche there is a descriptive map of the excavation area, wholly present in the western sections of the Alcudia. Albertini describes six trenches in different parts of the site. Taking the north as a reference direction, “Trench I” is the “diagonal one” and is located to the north of the excavation area. Trenches II, III, IV, and V are located to the east of the excavation area, including the discovery of several structures found near the discovery site of the Dama de Elche. To the center-north of the excavation area there were three sondages, probes, with seemingly few results. Finally, Trench VI, with a visibly north-south direction and located to the west of the excavation area, is where the basilica was found. The excavation effort must have been extraordinary to uncover such large structures in a matter of two and a half months. Furthermore, the costs must have been considerable, and included many workers behind the effort. Sadly, there is no clear data about these material aspects of the excavation, neither from Ibarra’s nor from Albertini’s accounts, apart from the mention of twenty workers and two teams working simultaneously in different parts of the site. There is no information about the excavation between July 13th and August 8th. Apparently, Albertini was directing the building’s excavation those weeks. In fact, in August 8th Ibarra wrote that he was “visiting Albertini’s excavation”, which implies that Ibarra was not excavating the site up to Albertini’s return to France on August 13th. The publication on the Elche basilica excavation by Roberto Lorenzo San Román (2005) reviews the publications by Ibarra and Albertini the years after the intervention, showing considerable incongruences as each scholar intervened in the site at two different moments. Even though Albertini started the excavation in the first month since its discovery on July 1905, Ibarra would be the one who took over the site until the uncovering of the mosaic by late August of that same year. However, this supposed lack of coordination can be examined by a review of the original documents. The Efemérides document from August 8th, 11th, and 13th indicate a clear preoccupation by Ibarra to recover the data from the
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“[…] y … una planta de un edificio, aún desconocido.”—Efemérides 28(3/5). July 13th, 1905.
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uncovered basilical building. On August 8th Ibarra writes “copy all notes when I pass it to a cleaner sheet. This one and 493 (are) parts of the study.” While we know the exact dates when the discovery and excavations took place, we do not know how the excavation itself was done. It is evident Eugéne Albertini took over the site with the return of Pierre Paris to Bordeaux in early summer 1905. It is also stated that by August 13th Albertini would complete most of the excavation, when Pere Ibarra took over. Yet what did each excavator discover, and did they work together? The excavation process was recorded by Roberto Lorenzo San Román from the University of Alicante,18 and is established best through the publications on the site by Albertini and Ibarra between 1905 and 1907. The first publication to appear was the Rapport sommaire sur les fouillés d’Elche, in the Comptes rendus de l’Académie des Inscriptions, from mid-1905.19 The report was little more than some notices about the discoveries done by Albertini in his excavations. Only the last three paragraphs of the report mention the basilica, probably written just before he left the site itself. By then Albertini mentions that the building is “ten by seven meters”, with a polychrome mosaic floor. He mentioned that the apse which he excavated was a “3 meter arch”, 2.10 meters deep and 1 meter away from the end of the mosaic floor to the east.20 Most importantly, he mentions the first appearance of the three identified mosaic inscriptions, meaning that by the moment he left the site, nearly all, if not all the building was laid bare. Albertini mentions that the mosaic was 1 meter below the modern floor surface. Furthermore, mixed with the ground he found remains of “architectural features”, including “stone Corinthian capitals” amongst other “Arab features”. Finally, he mentions already the presence of two architectural findings: the “mur grossier”, the future A’-B’ wall from the later 1907 publication that covered part of the southern area of the mosaic, and the tangential wall to the east of the apse. Both were attributed, according to the excavator, to the “Arab period”.21 Later publications by Albertini gave more detail on the objects he recovered from the basilica’s excavation, such as the Corinthian capital from the site.22 Most importantly there was a new interpretation of the building based on its
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Roberto Lorenzo San Román, “La basílica-sinagoga de L’Alcudia d’Elx (1905–2005). Problemes i estat de la qüestió 100 anys després.,” Lucentum XXIII–XXIV (2004–2005): 127–130. Eugène Albertini, “Rapport sommaire sur les fouilles d’Elche (Espagne),” Comptes rendus des séances de l’ Academie Des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres 49, no. 6 (1905): 611–620. Albertini, 619. Albertini, 619–620. Eugène Albertini, “Fouilles d’ Elche,” Bulletin Hispanique 9, no. 2 (1907): 127.
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mosaic floor. By 1907, he concluded in his article that the mosaic inscriptions indicate a place of Jewish worship, or a synagogue. He stated that by indicating that the terms presbyteroi and, most importantly, the central inscription reading proseuché lao(s) refer to a “place of worship for the Jews”.23 Through his publications Albertini insisted on a gap that existed between the apse walls and the mosaic floor, which is broken or stops where the apse is supposed to have started. Another important discovery was mentioned in his second, 1906 publication. This was the evidence of a “staircase structure” in the first publication of a sketch plan of his discoveries in the Alcudia (Fig. 7.1).24 In Albertini’s sketch account of his discoveries, this stepped structure would be located on top of the south-eastern section of the mosaic, therefore covering part of it. Considering that Albertini already stated, in his 1905 publication, that the “A’-B’ wall” was dismounted to uncover the mosaic, it is likely that this feature suffered the same fate. The change in opinion by Albertini is contrasted with the studies of Pere Ibarra. After Albertini left the site, Ibarra proceeded to excavate the apse area to find some floor, or at least the continuation of the arch.25 What he found is a series of features that made it look as if the apse did reach the mosaic floor, with a prolongation of the side walls of the apse in a straight plan. He did not, however, find evidence for the walls that connected the apse with the north and south walls of the main hall. He drew his version of the basilica first in a sketch from his 1905 publication “El cristianismo en ‘Ilici’ ” (Fig. 7.2)26 and then made another, complete plan in 1905 that was published posthumously by H. Schlunk (Fig. A.3). Furthermore, he found no identifiable floor in the apse.27 The excavator did find what he interpreted as a base for an altar structure in it, though it seems, from the account of the discovery, that this was found at the bottom of his excavation. The “base of the altar” was a reused attic marble base. The apse area allowed the excavator to see what was under the mosaic floor, which was about 20 centimeters of lime-based mortar that the excavator interpreted as
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Albertini, 124. Eugène Albertini, “Fouilles d’ Elche,” Bulletin Hispanique 8, no. 4 (1906): 337. Fig. 2. Pedro Ibarra Ruiz, “Antigua basílica de Elche,” Boletín de la Real Academia de la Historia 49, no. I–III (1906): 125. Pere Ibarra Ruiz, “El cristianismo en Ilici. Descubrimiento de la planta de una iglesia cristiana en la loma de La Alcudia junto a Elche,” Revista de La Asociación ArtísticoArqueológica Barcelonesa 4 (1905): 913. Ibarra Ruiz, “Antigua basílica de Elche,” 125–126.
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a “Roman level floor” of the basilical building. Furthermore, he confirmed the existence of a tangential wall, going from north to south, touching the apse to its east.28 The differences between Ibarra and Albertini are mostly about the interpretation of what they found in the eastern part of the basilica. Albertini writes that to the east of the mosaic floor there was a cement floor, of varied preservation. Ibarra insinuates, but does not say, that this same floor is underneath the mosaic.29 Furthermore, Ibarra, while confirming the existence of a structure in the southeast corner of the mosaic, finds that this structure had a “quartercircular” plan, not being made of steps. The confusion between the two excavators on this particular finding is the result of Albertini’s demolishing of the structure before Ibarra’s excavation, and the lack of its proper interpretation by both archaeologists. The differences can also be explained due to the differing opinions between the two excavators over the building’s identification. They indicated that there were architectural elements found in the debris above the mosaic, but they did not associate anything to a Christian cult. In Ibarra’s account, both in the Efemérides as well in the 1906 publication, the Spanish author was surprised that this was to be considered anything but a Christian building. Even then, he did not find any object to prove his point. Instead both researchers had to use the mosaic floor to give a proper explanation. Albertini contacted his colleague and art historian Seymour de Ricci, from the Montefiore family, to help him with his interpretation of the mosaic inscriptions. De Ricci concluded that the inscriptions point to the use of the building as a synagogue, and not a church.30 Convinced by this, the 1907 publication of his Fouillés indicate that the inscriptions of the mosaic, particularly the terminology of proseuche, presbyteroi, and others make sense in a Jewish and not a Christian context. Ibarra remained steadfast on the idea that this was a Christian church. While he surely had access to the Albertini theory, he suggested in subsequent publications that the inscriptions can have a Christian context. In fact, he insisted on the Christian character of the building since the site was an important Christian city, with a Greek and later Latin bishopric established through the late antique period.31 Be that as it may, the basilical building would not remain uncovered for long. In a melancholic Efemérides account from 1907, Ibarra writes that locals from 28 29 30 31
Ibarra Ruiz, 126. Albertini, “Fouilles d’ Elche,” 1907, 126. Albertini, 124. Ibarra Ruiz, “Antigua basílica de Elche,” 120.
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the city of Elche, as well as visitors who came to the site, had the practice of “taking souvenirs” from the mosaic and slowly destroying it.32 As a result, a decision was made to cover up the site once more, and it remained that way until the re-excavation of 1948. Following the publications by Ibarra and Albertini, mentions of the “synagogue” achieved both national and international interest. In fact, it is possible to detect a difference between Spanish and international scholars regarding the identification of the building. Starting from A.J. Reinach in 1907, there was an adoption of Albertini’s interpretation, though the presumed date varied. Reinach himself dated the available inscriptions to a possible 7th century ce. Kohl and Watzinger’s Antike Synagoguen in Galilea considered the inscriptions as parallels to terminologies associated with Palestinian synagogues.33 According to them, the synagogue was dated to the fifth-sixth centuries. In H. Leclercq’s Diccionnaire d’Archaéologie chrétienne et de liturgie, from 1922, there is a mention and description of the petit chapelle from Elche.34 In a later mention, this time related to the building’s mosaic style and its inclusion in the wider Early Christian context, he is more descriptive than interpretative, indicating the building’s importance for Christian archaeology, while accepting Albertini’s interpretation of the mosaic floor as belonging to a synagogue. However, he concludes this identification with the phrase “On en peut douter”,35 meaning that despite accepting the “Jewish formulas”, the identification is not secured. Leclercq’s scholarly inclusion of the building, even with Jewish formulas, into the artistic development of early Christianity (especially its comparisons with Balearic mosaics) does not indicate that he accepted a Christian denomination of the building as other authors did.36 Later scholars, such as Frey in his CIJ 1936 and Katz in The Jews in the Visigothic Kingdoms of Spain and Gaul (1937), based their interpretation of the building on the analysis of the mosaic floor, particularly its inscriptions. Both concluded it was a 6th century ce synagogue.37
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Efém. 592. October 7th, 1907. Kohl and Watzinger, Antike Synagogen in Galilea, 141, note 2. Henri Leclercq, “Espagne,” Diccionnaire d’Archaéologie chrétienne et de liturgie (Paris: Librairie Letouzey et Ané, 1922), 430–434. Leclercq, 516. Such as the list of authors and their identification as either “Basilica” or “Synagogue” and its dating in Roberto Lorenzo de San Román and Javier Morcillo, “La basílica paleocristiana de Ilici (L’Alcudia, Elche),” 495. Frey, CIJ, pts. 662–665; Solomon Katz, The Jews in the Visigothic and Frankish Kingdoms of Spain and Gaul, Monographs 12 (Cambridge: The Mediaeval academy of America, 1937), 147–148.
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Most scholars in Spain followed the Ibarra interpretation. An example was the book Historia de la arquitectura cristiana Española en la Edad Media by Lampérez y Romea, published first in 1908 but put into writing in 1906. Given that it was in fact published before the article by Albertini, the prevailing theory would inevitably be its reading as a Christian mosaic as proposed by Ibarra in his articles from 1905 and 1906. While not giving a clear date, Lampérez does write of the “Grecorroman style” of the mosaic, while attributing the “Elche chapel” to a “Visigothic period”. This would probably place its dating, according to this author, to the 5th or 6th centuries.38 This Christian adscription and date was shared in J.R. Mélida’s section “El arte romano-cristiano” in 1935, introduced as part of Menéndez Pidal’s Historia de España, second tome.39 On his part, Puig i Cadafalch in 1909 published a plan of the structure, indicating its Christian character based on the reading of the mosaic inscriptions.40 He compares the mosaic to Byzantine productions in Ravenna which places it, accordingly, to the late 6th and early 7th century as Ilici was under Byzantine domination. However, despite his conclusions, he adds that the supposed divisions of the basilica’s space could not be compared clearly to other Christian cases, as there was no physical barrier or separation between the area north, dedicated presumably to the “presbyters”, and the rest of the hall, dedicated to the lay members of the community. Interestingly, A. Ferrua firmly regards the inscription as part of a Jewish synagogue, in his Apéndice 1º from the J. Vives’ corpus of Christian inscriptions in Roman and Visigothic Spain. Here he explicitly rejects Ibarra’s attribution. Likewise, by placing these inscriptions in the appendix dedicated to “Jewish and Greek Inscriptions”, J. Vives Gatell, the main editor of this corpus, also indicates he shares the notion that the mosaic floor was part of a Jewish synagogue and not a Christian church. No date is given by Ferrua for the building or mosaic, although he cites Frey directly as a source and probably shares the position of it being built in the 6th century.41 Finally, in 1947, P. Batlle Huguet mentioned the Elche building and mosaic in his section “Arte paleocris-
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Vicente Lampérez y Romea, Historia de la arquitectura cristiana española en la Edad Media según el estudio de los elementos y los monumentos, 2nd ed., vol. 1 (Madrid: EspasaCalpe S.A., 1930), 158, 164, 167. Juan Ramón Mélida, “El arte romano-cristiano,” in Historia de España, ed. Ramón Menéndez Pidal, 2nd ed., vol. II: La España Romana (Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, 1962), 721–722. Josep Puig i Cadafalch, L’arquitectura romanica a Catalunya, vol. 1 (Barcelona: Institut d’Estudis Catalans, 1909), 293–295. Antonio Ferrúa, “Inscripciones griegas y judías,” 145.
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tiano” from Ars Hispaniae volume 2. In those short mentions, he indicates that the mosaic is a Christian building from the 5th century onwards, with similar features to the mosaic and unitary basilical hall found in Játiva (Valencia, Spain).42 While these authors had a holistic and scholarly view of early Christian artistic production, their contributions to the study of the site did not improve on the original publications by Albertini and Ibarra immediately after the mosaic’s discovery in 1905. New theories would only appear with the second uncovering of the mosaic floor and the wide excavation efforts conducted by Alejandro Ramos Folqués between 1948 and 1955.
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Rediscovery of the Elche Basilical Building
Despite the original discovery of the basilical building in 1905, it was not until 1948 when the first systematic excavation of this sector was undertaken. Its undoubted protagonist was Alejandro Ramos Folqués. To understand these excavations and his interpretations, it is important to review his biography, especially in a period of deep political, economic, and social depression that the Spanish Civil War and the Franco dictatorship caused in the whole of Spain. Alejandro Ramos Folqués was born on July 5th, 1906 in Elche.43 He was the son of Encarnación Folqués and Rafael Ramos Bascuñana, an important scholar on Ancient History who wrote in 1878, amongst other works, a manual on Roman Law titled El derecho romano. Following the death of Dr. Campello and after the excavation efforts made by Ibarra and Albertini in 1905, Campello’s heirs sold the land to Bascuñana before his untimely death in 1918, when his son Alejandro was 12 years old. Following his father’s death, his mother decided to use the Alcudia site as a summer home. With his coming of age, he developed a greater interest in archaeology and antiquities, conducting surveys particularly in an effort of finding a second Dama de Elche to the one found in 1897. Through the years he educated himself in typological studies, numismatics, and archaeological excavation practice during the 1920s and 30s.
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Pere Batlle Huguet, “Arte paleocristiano,” in Ars Hispaniae: historia universal del arte hispánico, vol. 2 (Madrid: Plus Ultra, 1947), 183, 213. Most of the following data is based on A. Ramos Folqués’ biography given by his son, R. Ramos Fernández in Rafael Ramos Fernández, “Alejandro Ramos Folqués. Perfil biográfico,” Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes (blog). Accessed: April 3, 2017, http://www .cervantesvirtual.com/portales/alejandro_ramos_folques/autor_biografia/.
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It is important to note that his main area of expertise was pre-Roman and early republican and Iberian material culture. The first official excavation of the site, which by then was his private property, was done in 1935, a year after the death of Pere Ibarra and the creation of the historical museum based on his and Ramos Folques’ collections from the Alcudia site. The 1935 excavation is the first of the following forty-eight excavation campaigns done in the Alcudia. These labors were only interrupted by the Spanish Civil War that erupted a year later. The war and its aftermath are crucial events in understanding 20th century Spanish archaeology, on which little has been written or published. The collapse of the once-vibrant Spanish cultural life from following the Spanish Civil War was widely felt in intellectual circles of the time. This included deaths like those of the poet García Lorca and novelist-philosopher Unamuno, or the exile of artists like Antonio Machado and Pablo Picasso. Naturally, the disaster was also felt in archaeology with the exile of crucial scholars like prehistorian Bosch Gimpera, who supported left-wing Catalan factions and was forced to flee to Mexico in 1939 as the Spanish Republic collapsed. The 1940’s saw the rise of a Fascist totalitarian state, with the imposition of a hierarchical ideologicallymotivated archaeological department led by Nazi-sympathizer Julio Martínez Santa-Olalla. During the war, Folqués was head of a Catholic agricultural syndicate Peña y Carrús, through which he raised funds to aid right-wing political prisoners in Republican jails. This led to his arrest on April 6th, 1938, by the Republican Servicios de Inteligencia Militar, being sent as a prisoner to the prison ship Rita Sixter. He and other Ilicitan prisoners remained there until the fall of Republican control in Valencia in early 1939. After the war, he was placed as head of the municipal historical archives of Elche, today the Archivo Histórico Municipal de Elche (AHME), allowing him full access to the documentary evidence of Pere Ibarra and other Ilicitan intellectuals regarding the archaeology of the area. He was also named head of the archaeological department of Elche and its environs, under Santa-Olalla. Despite that, he was more inclined to establish close relationships with the Austrian numismatic collector William Zotter, Augusto Fernández Avilés, who was head of the Provincial Archaeological Museum, Juan Cabré, who provided him access to the archaeology center of Rodrigo Caro in Madrid, and especially with the archaeologist Antonio García y Bellido, student of the father of modern Spanish archaeology, Don Manuel Gómez Moreno, who would also become a very close friend of his. Other relevant scholars from the field were Lafuente Vidal, who had reviewed the evidence from the Elche basilical building in 1948, and later Helmut Schlunk, who was the first head of the Deutsches Archaeolo-
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gisches Institut in Madrid since its foundation in 1943. His friendships allowed him to develop his knowledge of the archaeological field, despite his professional vocation in Law.44 The documents from the Fundación Universitaria de Investigación Arqueológica de la Alcudia de Elche (FLA) archives preserved by demonstrate his repeated visits to prisons following the war. While such information is unclear, there is indication that he visited republican political prisoners to aid in their defense during the early dark years of the dictatorship. There is a strong possibility for this, considering that he had strong Catholic, but non-Fascist political and social inclinations. A turning point in his academic and professional career was the preparation of the 4º Congreso Arqueológico del Sudeste (4th Archaeological Congress of the Southeast) in Elche in 1948, which led him to meet Helmut Schlunk and who henceforth accompanied him in some of his excavations. It was probably from the influence of attendees such as Lafuente Vidal and Helmut Schlunk that he agreed to excavate and uncover the Elche basilica that year.45 The uncovering of the mosaic was the centerpiece of the Congress, despite being specialized on pre-Roman or proto-Roman archaeological material. Folqués’ publications show a new approach to the site’s excavation. Their most important aspect during this period is seen in his training as an archaeologist, specifically his ability to distinguish different types of soil and define floors or levels. This was the first time such methods were applied in this site, particularly in the basilical building. This is first noticeable when, in the publication of his report for the Diputación of the 1948 excavations (published in 1955),46 he immediately ignored all the soil used to cover the basilica in 1907. Following the uncovering of the mosaic floor, Ramos Folqués proceeded to excavate on the southern end of the basilica, giving the first account of horizontal stratigraphy applied on the basilical building.
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Most biographical details can be read in: Rafael Ramos Fernández and Instituto de Etnología. Fundación La Alcudia, “Ramos Folqués, Alejandro,” Memoria digital de Elche (blog), I 2011, http://www.elche.me/biografia/ramos‑folques‑alejandro; Ramos Fernández, “Biografía.” A mention of the preparation for this congress is found in ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: March, 1948, n. 7, f. 44v. A complete account on the congress’ development, the personal contributions by Ramos Folqués, and their implications for the research in the Alcudia de Elche site, are collected by Ana Ronda in Ronda Femenia, L’Alcudia de Alejandro Ramos Folqués, 136–141. Alejandro Ramos Folqués, “Elche (Alicante). La Alcudia [campañas 1940–1948],”Noticiario Arqueológico Hispánico II, no. 1–3 (1953) (1955): 107–133.
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Documents from 1948 and early 1949 indicate that Ramos Folqués still accepted the synagogue hypothesis for the building. This was apparently the accepted theory by Schlunk in his publication of 1947 (published in 1948),47 even though Folqués had not uncovered the mosaic yet. However, by 1949 their opinions on the matter changed utterly. Before understanding the results of the publications from Ramos Folqués and Schlunk, it is important to review the archaeological methods and techniques applied for the re-excavation. 4.1 The 1948–1949 Excavation: Areas, Techniques, and Their Logic The uncovering of the synagogue was prepared in 1948, with the objective of displaying the mosaic floor at the 4th Congress of Archaeology in Southeastern Spain. Apparently, few archaeological diary entries were written when the building was uncovered. The first documented account of the findings from this campaign is found in Diary nº4 from 1948, that begins on May 25th of that year.48 However, predated documents describing the Congress’ preparation were found alongside the excavation diaries.49 Since the original stratigraphic registry of the basilical building was lost in the 1905 excavation, what Ramos Folqués removed from above the mosaic floor were only the remains of the soil that was used to cover it. Ramos Folques clearly had, however, other objectives beyond the mere uncovering of the floor. His ambition was to remove the floor from its place and place it in the newly formed Municipal Archaeological Museum (today the Alejandro Ramos Folqués Museum) which he founded during the 1940s. Furthermore, he sought to research and register the archaeological evidence from the adjacent structures around the basilical building, convinced those structures would give much more information than what Albertini and Ibarra uncovered between 1905 and 1907. On May 25th, 1948, we are presented with a series of structures from the areas east and north of the basilical building in two sketches (Figs. A.1, 2). The original sketch of the then-uncovered structures also reveals further details that the 1905 excavation apparently missed, including a wall that connected the east-
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Helmut Schlunk, “El arte de la época paleocristiana en el sudeste español. La sinagoga de Elche y el martyrium de La Alberca,” in III Congreso Arqueológico Del Sudeste Español. Murcia, 1947 (III Congreso Arqueológico del Sudeste Español. Murcia, 1947, Murcia, 1948), 335–379. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: May 25th, 1948, n. 7, f. 2r. Ronda Femenia, L’Alcudia de Alejandro Ramos Folqués, 139–140. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: March 1948, n. 7, f. 44v–44r.
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ern apse with the northern wall. It also revealed an important detail: the first sketch of his excavation diary50 presents the Sacristía area (Area S—see Chapter 8 and Annex A) as having walls that reached more to the south than the mosaic floor. Such structures connected to another wall that pointed towards additional southern structures of the basilical building. The 1948 diaries also revealed the existence of archaeological levels associated with the structures surrounding the original basilical building. This is the case of June 7th, 1948, which describe the floor levels and associated materials of what he called Area B” of the Sacristía area (here Area S).51 Such levels were later published in the only report of the 1948 excavations, in the Noticiario Arqueológico Español in 1955.52 While the mosaic floor was removed from the site from 1948 to 1990, there is no clarity regarding the process of removal itself. In this Ramos Folqués almost certainly had the collaboration of Helmut Schlunk, who is seen reviewing the basilica before and after the process. It was in a document recovered from the Ramos Folqués archive in the Alcudia foundation that one finds the inclusion of a sketch that tried to divide the mosaic between different sections (Fig. 6.4) for its later “safe” removal. The division of the mosaic sketch included thirtythree sections, or panels. It is probable that these were the panels used for the division of the mosaic afterwards. However, the uncovering of the floor, and technical necessities, must have led the team to decide to divide the mosaic into regular sections. Following up on the physical division of the mosaic, the removal required the strengthening of the base of the floor to prevent its destruction upon removal and transport. This was essentially done through modern concrete. Once removed, by 1949, the mosaic floor was kept in the museum storage facilities. The process is extensively documented by photographic evidence. The uncovering of the basilica in the summer of 1948 is shown in photographs such as Fig. 7.53. One can see that after the reburial of the building, there was a distinctive growth of wild trees that might have affected the preservation of the structures below. The excavation team seems to have removed the earth without touching these trees, allowing for the mosaic to be revealed for the visiting public. Despite the very rudimentary excavation methods, the archaeological team had in mind the documentation and registry of the mosaic floor
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ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: May 25th, 1948, n. 7, f. 1v. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: June 7th, 1948, n. 7, f. 8r. Ramos Folqués, “Elche (Alicante). La Alcudia [campañas 1940–1948],” 132.
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figure 6.4 Sketch of parts of the Ilici basilical building mosaic by alejandro ramos folqués. from the fla archives
before the intervention, should any damage occur during that process. Importantly, these photographs allow the modern observer to notice features that, upon removal of the mosaic, were destroyed. A case in point is the reveal of a wall coating (B/018) covering a southern structure (B/138) that is attached to the southern wall of the basilica (classified as B/028). The reveal of such coating allowed Ramos Folqués, in 1974, to elaborate on the existence of an original “wall of the mosaic”, the majority of which was replaced by later walls, but which is best located to the south of the basilical building. Without such photographic evidence, it would have been impossible to pinpoint and identify the features Ramos Folqués published only in 1974, twenty-six years after the original excavation.53 The uncovering of the basilical building allowed for the recovery of the mosaic, its removal (Fig. 6.5), and the preparation of different adjacent areas to the basilica for future excavations. The 1955 publication of the 1948 excavation report in the Noticiario Arqueológico Español reveals the areas and levels excavated in that year.
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Alejandro Ramos Folqués, El cristianismo en Elche (Alicante: Caja de Ahorros Provincial, 1974).
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figure 6.5 Picture of fragments from findings of the Alcudia de Elche from the 1940s onwards. Includes the fragmented basilical building’s mosaic from the fla archives
Aside from the excavation of the mosaic area and the uncovering of the apse, the 1948 campaign apparently uncovered features that were absent from the 1905 intervention’s description. One of the most striking discoveries was the evidence of a “basin”, in the words of Ramos Folqués, near the entrance of the basilical building to the west (B/022). The basin was placed after the mosaic floor, which is evident from the arrangement of marble plaques to replace the damaged areas of the mosaic. While the marble plaques were already discovered by Albertini during the excavation, the question arose of how he did not see the sink located in the center of such arrangement. The answer for such a mystery, however, is found in the original photographs from the 1971 expedition. Two of them (Figs. 7.18 and 20) show that the basin was found on a lower level than the marble arrangement (B/012). While the basin feature is stratigraphically placed after the mosaic, the original excavators simply did not dig underneath the mosaic level in 1905. Upon the removal of the mosaic by the 1940s excavators, this important feature was found. From these expeditions, the most important novelties were the excavation and probes of the adjacent buildings to the basilical structure, thus exploring previously untouched areas of the site. The excavation included four distinct probes (see Fig. 7.4). 1—the eastern area to the Basilica proper, what in this project is called the Sacristía (Area S). The probe led to an excavation on the southern end of this area, leading to the first account of stratigraphic levels of this sector. 2—an identified area filled with debris and archaeological material
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to the north of the Sacristía area, between said Sacristía and a one-hall building which in the excavation diaries will be called “Area B” (sub-area N/E). 3—an adjacent building to the north of area 2, called in the excavation diaries Palacio (named in this project Area P). Excavation included the identification of several levels, from a late antique (“Visigothic”) level to an “Ibero-Roman” level. The lowest, “Iberian” level was not excavated in the 1948 campaign. Finally, 4— a probe to the south of the Basilica area. By early September, 1948, Ramos Folqués finds, to the south of the basilical building, a series of structures connected to what he associated later to “Level O” of the August 1949 campaign (see Chapter 9).54 The excavations also show the existence of a series of walls from east to west that were parallel to the direction of the mosaic floor itself. The materials recovered here are the first contextualization of said findings in the Quadrant 10-A corresponding to the basilical building area. The interpretation of such materials required a holistic approach to the reading of his excavation diaries. The probes are extremely important for the account they present us about the stratigraphic annotations by Ramos Folqués. The distinct identified levels are divided by floors and types of soil. In the excavation diaries, Ramos Folqués shows an ability to identify different levels, before the modern notions of strata codification. However, here already, we find the famous lack of flexibility in Folqués’ concept of the site’s stratigraphy. As he explains: The current state of excavations is reflected by the adjoining sketch […] and I must give note that here in this place, like in other places I have excavated in “La Alcudia”, I have found the same archaeological levels, that is: Ibero-Punic, Ibero-Roman, republican, and imperial and Roman. Deduced from the archaeological findings, due to the fact that the superior level coincides with the agricultural one, and therefore is destroyed, the Visigothic one cannot be appreciated.55 Indeed, we find here the existence of Ramos Folques’ stratigraphic sequencing. In fact, this is important to understand the following archaeological interventions on the site. The horizontal, floor-based strata was to be enumerated from 1949 forwards as follows: – Level A = Visigothic. For the purposes of this project, we will call it “late antique”, also called “post-Roman”. 54 55
ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 14th, 1948, n. 7, f. 21r; September 19th, 1949, n. 10, f. 14r. Ramos Folqués, “Elche (Alicante). La Alcudia [campañas 1940–1948],” 130.
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– Level B = Imperial and Roman. Shortened to imperial. – Level C = Republican. – Level D = Ibero-Roman, approximately from the end of the Second Punic War to a late republican period. – Level E = Ibero-Punic, corresponding with the third century, before and during the Second Punic War. – Level F = Base rock, and probably associated with 4th and 3rd century Iberian culture. This simplified notion of the site’s stratigraphy will be applied throughout Ramos Folques’ life, especially during his 1940s and 1950s excavations. This is especially true when one reads his 1966 article “Estratigrafía de la Alcudia de Elche”, where he reveals the stratigraphic layers of six probes in different points of the site. In all of them between six and five strata are found, replacing their lettering with Roman numerals.56 However, despite its utter oversimplification, one cannot ignore that it has a sound archaeological basis—one from a period where the very consideration of stratigraphic layers was largely absent.57 Most of the archaeological site follows this Tell-like pattern, with distinct levels. When it comes to the Basilica site, Ramos Folqués first applied archaeological criteria rather than theoretical ones. There is no evidence that he ignored a floor level, or merged strata for the benefit of his archaeological theory of the site. The problem lies in the interpretation of recovered materials, rather than the actual stratigraphy of the organized probes. The 1948 to 1949 excavations are registered in the following diary entries: – ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: nº7 (1948), Excavaciones. 25 Mayo – 12 Octubre 1948. Sinagoga. Pages ff. 0r – annex 12v. – ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: nº9 (1949), Excavaciones. 26 Abril – 11 Agosto 1949. Sinagoga, Palacio, Sacristía B’. Pages ff. 0r – 29v. – ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: nº10 (1949), Excavaciones. 29 Agosto – 6 Octubre 1949. Sacristía, Sur Sinagoga, Rincón ábside. Pages ff. 0r – 38v. – ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: nº11 (1949–1950), Excavaciones. 11 Octubre 1949 – 31 Diciembre 1949 y Febr y Mayo 1950. Pages ff. 0r – 36v. These documents are the basis to understand the excavation process, and to appropriately vet the validity of archaeological arguments given by the excavator. They also give an account of how the excavations were handled by the archaeologist. 56 57
Alejandro Ramos Folqués, “Estratigrafía de La Alcudia de Elche,” Saitabi 16 (1966): 71–76. Sonia Gutiérrez Lloret, “Ilici en la antigüedad tardía. La ciudad evanescente,” in Iberia, Hispania, Spania. Una mirada desde Ilici, ed. Lorenzo Abad Casal and Mauro S. Hernández Pérez (Alicante: Caja de Ahorros del Mediterráneo, 2004), 97–98.
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There is no clear indication of Schlunk’s presence during the excavation process following the mid-1948 intervention. However, once the mosaic was removed, Ramos Folqués proceeded to excavate in the Alcudia in two parallel sites. One was the Palacio, or “palace”, to the north of Area S. It was called in this study Area P. It was a series of discovered rooms, with high amount of recovered ceramic fragments mostly associated with the early imperial period (see Chapter 10 and Annex A). On the other side of the site was the continuation of the intervention in what he still called the Sinagoga (Areas T and C). Specifically, he started his excavation in the southern end of an adjacent room to the northeast of the complex, unearthed in 1948. The excavations revealed several structures around the main building, attached to it to the south. This meant the structure was a complex of interconnected buildings, rather than a singular hall as proposed by the 1905 excavation. 4.2 Helmut Schlunk: Two Conflicting Opinions Schlunk, who managed to get a teaching position between 1948 and 1953 in the University of Valencia, had worked closely with Ramos Folqués in the following years. It is important to note that his works on Visigothic culture and archaeology were highly influential at the time. As he became again the head of the Deutsches Archaeologisches Institut in Madrid in its 1954 reopening, his influence in Spanish archaeology became much more distinguished. From what can be perceived in available sources and publications, he was active in the excavation efforts through the late 1940s, during his tenure professorship in Valencia. His original position was based on the interpretation of the site as a synagogue, following Albertini’s reading of the mosaic inscription. This he made clear in his 1947 publication at the 3rd Congress of Southeastern Spanish Archaeology, held the year before.58 There he added previously unavailable information, including valuable unpublished photographs of findings from the first Ibarra-Albertini excavation since 1905. One of those was the attic column base, interpreted by Ibarra as the altar for the Christian cult from within the eastern apse area. It was later, by 1952, when Schlunk changed his interpretation.59 The base of this change was the 1948 visit to Elche. It was not a new archaeological discovery that made him change his mind, but his new reading of
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Schlunk, “El Arte En Época Paleocristiana,” 334. Helmut Schlunk, “La sinagoga di Elche e il martyrium di La Alberca,”Rivista di archeologia cristiana 28, no. 3–4 (1952): 182–184.
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the mosaic’s images, particularly, of the figurative scene to the north of the southern inscription of the mosaic, which he repeated in 1978 and 1982.60 He specified the interpretation of said scene as the biblical story of Jonah in the sea. While there are few cases of mosaic representations of biblical scenes from so early in Christian art, the exception is that of the Jonah cycle, which has a clear Christological connotation.61 While he did not propose that theory openly, his brief publication on the basilical building in 1952 explicitly mentioned his change of mind regarding the denomination of that structure. Schulnk’s newfound conclusions led to a new impetus for the Ibarra interpretation of the site. And, in fact, these views influenced both Ramos Folqués as well as the archaeological departments of Alicante for decades to come, even to this very day where his theories about the maritime scene still holds value (see below). This is the reason why, by 1972, Ramos Folqués had published the findings of the basilica as a Christian (Visigothic) church.62 By 1974, the basilica would become the centerpiece of Folqués’ main publication of his archaeological findings in his El cristianismo en Elche.63 Even so, it is important to point out that Schlunk did not present the newly found evidence from the excavations in the Alcudia during his stay in the University of Valencia. His change of heart comes almost entirely from a review of the mosaic floor’s reading. Paradoxically, his interpretation comes accom-
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Helmut Schlunk and Theodor Hauschild, Die Denkmäler der frühchristlichen und westgotischen Zeit (Mainz am Rhein: P. v. Zabern, 1978). Helmut Schlunk, “Conexiones históricas del cristianismo hispánico a través de la arqueología,” in II Reunió d’Arqueologia Paleocristiana Hispànica: Montserrat, 2–5 novembre 1978, ed. Pere de Palol (Barcelona: Instituto de Arqueologia y Prehistoria, Universidad de Barcelona, 1982), 55–70. So far, the only evident parallel for such a representation in Christian contexts is the 4th century mosaic floor from the basilica in Aquileia, back then the province of Pannonia and today in Northeastern Italy. The depiction was complete however, including the three main stories of Jonah’s cycle: his first encounter with God in the land of Israel; his failed attempt of fleeing and his being swallowed by the Leviathan creature; and finally, Jonah’s scolding by God under the fig tree. In the case of Elche, although the scene is badly damaged, it seems there is not enough room to represent the entire cycle as happens in Hispanian late antique sarcophagi. For more, see Manuel Sotomayor, “Sarcófagos paleocristianos en Murcia y zonas limítrofes”, Antigüedad y cristianismo 5 (1998): 165–184; Cármen Fernández Ochoa et al., “Cubierta de sarcófago con el ciclo de Jonás hallada en Carranque (Toledo)”, Archivo Español de Arqueología 84 (2011): 231–242; Jodi Magness et al., “The Huqoq Excavation Project: 2014–2017 Interim Report”, Bulletin of the American Schools if Oriental Research 380 (2018): 61–131, fig. 45. Alejandro Ramos Folqués, “Un cancel visigodo en La Alcudia de Elche,” Pyrenae 8 (1972): 167–171, plates. I–IV. Ramos Folqués, El cristianismo en Elche, chap. V.
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figure 6.6 Picture of column base supposedly used for an “altar” in the eastern apse published by h. schlunk in 1948: “el arte en época paleocristiana”, lam. cv, fig. 11. original picture in schlunk archiv, dai-madrid, i-159-1-76
panied by the 1906–1907 publications by Albertini of the structures found on top of the mosaic, mostly the A’-B’ wall and the stepped structure in the southeastern corner of that pavement. There is no clarity as to why a trained archaeologist such as Schlunk changed his mind regarding the Jewish nature of the mosaic floor’s based on evidence equally available to him two years before. Written evidence from his publications and personal notes indicate that his change of heart was strictly limited to his personal interpretation of what the building represented, rather than concrete evidence from the building’s excavation. 4.3 Lafuente Vidal’s “Secular” Interpretation Another important researcher who presented his theory regarding the study of the basilica is Jorge Lafuente Vidal, who collaborated through the news presented to him by Ramos Folqués. Unlike Schlunk or Folqués, Lafuente had another theory altogether, subsequently published in 1948.64 Considering the evidence Folqués recovered in 1948 regarding the southern structures and southern “extension” of the Sacristía area, Lafuente proposed the theory that the original basilical structure was wider than what was preserved in the original studies by Albertini and Ibarra.
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José Lafuente Vidal, “La supuesta sinagoga de Elche,” Archivo Español de Arqueología 23 (1948): 392–399.
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Lafuente Vidal followed up on Schlunk’s publication in 1947, accepting the German’s proposal that the structure was built originally in Roman times— specifically the 2nd century ce, before the “Moorish invasion” during Marcus Aurelius’ reign.65 Nonetheless, most of his study centered on the three mosaic floor inscriptions. The relations between Lafuente Vidal and Ramos Folqués was friendly, which led him to send data on his work to Ramos Folqués before and after his publication on the building.66 The first letter, dated June 7th, 1948, repeats more or less the data as published by Lafuente Vidal in his 1948 article. Presenting the theory of this being a Roman basilica for merchants, he wrote to Ramos Folqués the following: If this transcription is correct, then the theory that this was a synagogue is debunked. (This theory) surprised me very much since the beginning, since I never knew there were remains of Jewish communities in Roman Ilici. I also do not believe the argument that convinced Mr. Schlunk— in which the word proseuché is placed within a Jewish lexicon with the meaning of “place of worship”, synonym of a synagogue—is irrefutable because this is one of two Greek words that can be interpreted in other ways. Furthermore, this interpretation does not fit well the other two inscriptions that are not appropriately of a synagogue—not by its content, nor by the three inscriptions’ placement.67 Lafuente follows this with the reading of the inscriptions as part of a secular, non-religious merchant’s basilica, including his interpretation of the proseuché inscription as, in part, a “place for the people’s suits” at the central nave of the
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Lafuente Vidal, 396. Documents from the L’Alcudia d’Elx Foundation. CG-4-18.1: Letter to Alejandro Ramos Folqués, June 7th, 1948, 4 pages; Letter to Alejandro Ramos Folqués by José Lafuente Vidal, October 22nd, 1948, 2 pages. FUIA Archives. CG-4-18.1: Letter to Alejandro Ramos Folqués, June 7th, 1948, pages 1–2. “Si esta transcripción fuese acertada, quedaría desmentido de que haya sido una sinagoga, cosa que desde el principio me sorprendió mucho, porque nunca supe que en el Ilici romana hubiese muestras de comunidades judías, y la razón que parece convencer al Sr. Schlunk de que la palabra griega Proseuché fuese utilizada en el léxico judío con significado de “lugar de oración” sinónimo de sinagoga, no creo que sea irrebatible porque se trata de una o dos palabras griegas que pueden traducirse de otra manera. Aparte de que esta interpretación no case bien con el contenido de los otros dos epígrafes que no son propios de una sinagoga, ni por el contenido, ni por el lugar que ocupan los tres.”
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figure 6.7 Section of page 2 from the letter sent by Lafuente Vidal to Alejandro Ramos Folqués on October 22nd, 1948. Includes legend for “area AB”: “Plan of the Christian basilica”. Below it, in “area AC”: Plan with mosaic of the commercial basilica fla archives, cg-4-18.1
mosaic floor.68 However, in the second letter Lafuente sends him a follow-up, this time considering the archaeological discoveries made by Ramos Folqués to the south of the basilical building. In it Lafuente proposes the following: I believe you have found walls 1–2 and 3, and no doubt you have not found 4 because its materials were used for the construction of part B of the Christian basilica. The sepultures you have found must have been buried victims of the barbarian invasion, placed there by loyal slaves next to the Christian basilica.69 This interpretation comes after the finding of the sepulture of individual T/207 found on an upper layer of ground, basically within top soil of the Alcudia (see Chapter 9 about the southern singular sepulture to the south of the mosaic area). The author apparently indicates that the apse’s closest position to the easternmost post of the mosaic floor was 1.4 meters.70 This was different from the account given by Albertini in 1906, when the apse’s northern arm was merely one meter to the east of the mosaic floor. It is with this account that the sig-
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Lafuente Vidal, “La supuesta sinagoga de Elche,” 394. FUIA Archives. CG-4-18.1: Letter to Alejandro Ramos Folqués, October 22nd, 1948, page 2. “Creo que Vd ha encontrado los muros 1–2 y 3, sin duda no ha encontrado el 4 porque sus materiales se aprovecharon para la construcción de la parte B de la basílica cristiana. Las sepulturas que Vd encontró deben ser de víctimas de la invasión bárbara enterrados por fieles esclavos junto al templo cristiano.” Lafuente Vidal, “La supuesta sinagoga de Elche,” 392.
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nificant decay of the apse structure is found, which can be seen in subsequent excavations until 1990. As exposed in Fig. 6.7’s sketch, Lafuente’s reading is unique in that he presents an alternative interpretation of the basilical building in two phases. The first phase is based on the concrete floor found underneath the mosaic floor, as detected by Ibarra during his excavation of the eastern apse. According to Lafuente, such a floor is between “15 and 25 centimeters” below the mosaic itself, which includes the horizontal “preparation level” for the mosaic.71 As seen below, his article holds important details regarding the original 1905 excavation, and particularly about the view of Ramos Folqués at the moment of the 1948 campaign during the southern area’s uncovering. His reading of the three mosaic inscriptions are as follows: the first one, to the north of the mosaic is as follows: “Here is the voice of the ship captains and elders”. The second, in the central panel within a tabula ansata was read as: “A place for the people’s (legal) suits”, followed by “and for the offering by them (the litigators)”.72 The third and last inscription is to be read as “Happy voyage. May you have good luck and honors.” The Greek used in said inscriptions was deemed “barbaric”, following Albertini. In short, Lafuente interpreted the inscriptions as denoting a commercial basilica that was used in two distinct stages: the first, before the use of the mosaic floor, identified by the cement floor underneath it. As was seen above he dated said basilica to the first and second centuries ce, before the Moorish invasions that ravaged the Iberian coast during Marcus Aurelius’ reign (161– 171ce). Following such destruction, the basilica was rebuilt, with the mosaic being made during that period. According to Lafuente, it was through the 3rd century ce that eastern Greeks and Jews arrived en masse as merchants and established the cultural contacts to allow the creation of a mosaic floor with three Greek inscriptions. Therefore, he understood that the three panels of the mosaic floor, divided by the three inscriptions, denote the uses of said “commercial basilica”: – Presiding over the whole structure is the eastern apse, used as an exedra. – To the north are the members of the commercial collegium, which of course presides over judicial and other aspects of the basilica. – The Transeptum to the center was mostly used by recently arrived merchants, where they would offer to the public products that they brought with them, as well as the proposal of petitions or grievances to be discussed in the basilica. 71 72
Lafuente Vidal, 392. Lafuente Vidal, 394–395.
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– To the south is an area for the public for witnesses of judicial procedures, ceremonies and other events associated with the basilica. After the conversion of Constantine to Christianity the building, already partially in ruins following the economic decadence of the Roman Empire during the 3rd century, becomes a humble Christian church. Through this “decay” the building received its current form with the following features:73 – To the left a matronikon for the women. – To the right an andron for male worshippers. – The center, spaciosa, was reserved for the clergy and their ceremonial needs. Likewise, Lafuente refers to the transformation of the eastern part of the building when he notes that the construction of the eastern apse was with “demolished materials”, which explains the bad quality of the construction. The southern entrance was blocked by the “A’-B’ wall” identified by Albertini in 1906, opening a new access to the west. The two rooms to the north and south of the apse would be used as a sacristy: the diaconicum and the gazophylacium. The two ashlar stones that limit the central mosaic nave were added to locate a wooden architrave or a pergula which would act as a primitive wooden iconostasis.74 In short, the late Christian building was perceived as the result of the Christian community’s poverty at the time, thus reusing old, abandoned buildings. The repairs done to the western area of the mosaic with marble slabs was evidence of this aspect. The Christian building was finally demolished by the early 5th century, with the collapse of Roman authority and the invasions of Alans and Vandals during that period. His positions are best summarized by his published plan (see Fig. 7.52), based on the sketch given by Lafuente in a personal letter to Ramos Folqués (Fig. 6.7). There, curious details that tell us much about the excavations under way by Ramos Folqués are found. First is the southern limit of the mosaic that was revealed to not be as clear as earlier publications had proposed. It was only by late 1948 that Folqués got a clearer picture of the southern walls that limited the basilical structure. Even so, there is a distinct difference between the southern edge of the mosaic and the southern edge of the basilical building. This is evident from the pictures taken in the 1948 excavation by Folqués and Schlunk (see Chapter 7, 2.2.5). The lack of clarity regarding the southern part of the basilica was followed by accounts about the findings of Ramos Folqués to the east of the building,
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Lafuente Vidal, 397–398. Lafuente Vidal, 398.
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a kind of “continuation” to the south in the Sacristía area (Area S). Furthermore, he suggests that there is a clear diachronic relation between the mosaic floor, the eastern apse and tangential wall that were, according to him, built at a later date. However, for some reason the author “centered” the apse with relation to the central mosaic panel. It is safe to assume that this was a mistake by Lafuente, as he is aware that there must have been a relation between Albertini’s “A’-B’ wall” with the apse itself, thus associating an element that divided the original plan of the basilica and moved the central axis northward—just as the apse axis was north to the main central axis of the mosaic floor. Finally, Lafuente used parallels from Christian buildings in the Valencia region to indicate that the “poverty” of the Christian community did not allow for another floor other than rammed earth—thus explaining why Ibarra did not find the “apse floor”.75 Of course, this is problematic from an archaeological standpoint, considering the excavation techniques from 1905. However, it does insist on the poor materials used for the apse’s construction. This fact was considered a problem for later scholars who studied the building. By 1949 Ramos Folqués has already identified the different areas associated with the basilical building. The first were the Sacristía and Palacio areas to the east, which amount to areas divided by different internal walls that make a series of compartments. Sadly, there is no clear registry of the walls’ measurements. Ramos Folqués was convinced that these buildings had a direct link to the life and use of the basilical building, even though later researchers eventually rejected such claims. The second area, to the north of the basilical building, has been scarcely excavated or researched. It is mostly documented in two sketches recovered from the 1948 excavation diaries, and the publication of the report in the Noticiario Arqueológico Español in 1955. A third area is that to the south of the mosaic. This area is not to be confused with the structures to the south of the basilical complex. The 1948–1949 campaigns revealed that the 1905 expedition did not uncover the southern walls, and the complex sequence associated with it. This is linked to a fourth area of the excavation presented in this work as Tabernae (Area T) and Calle (Area C). By 1949, the levels of the southern street to the basilical building were revealed, and with them its two given names by Folqués: Calle Estatuas (“Statue Street”, linked to the “Levels D and C” of the stratigraphical sequencing of this area),76 and Vía Sacra (“Sacred street”, named that way following the evidence that
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Lafuente Vidal, 399. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 19th, 1949, n. 10, f. 14r.
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this urban route was possibly in use for centuries, associated with ceremonial Iberian burial, religious rituals, and the basilical structure in much later periods). Finally, it was in October 1949 when the first interventions for the levels below the mosaic floors in the Basilica area are mentioned. There, a series of floor levels that are not clearly associated with each other were revealed. Ramos Folqués, instead of using his usual stratigraphic reading, called the two levels underneath the mosaic “Nivel M” and “Nivel N”.77 The uncovered structures from this campaign were accurately drawn by Theodor Hauschild in 1971 (Fig. 7.4), in a Deutsche Archaeologisches Institut expedition organized by Folques’ friend, H. Schlunk (see Annex A). 4.4 Later Excavations by Ramos Folques: 1950–1954 Later in situ excavations by Alejandro Ramos Folqués revealed further evidence for the structures around the main mosaic area. The most important excavation during these years is the uncovering of structures to the west of the original mosaic. Curiously, the excavation of this area originated from research of the area north of the “Vía Sacra”. These interventions were detailed in the following notebooks of the Excavation Diaries, all transcribed by Ana Ronda and published in 2018:78 – ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental notebook 13, 16-XI-1950. Prolongación calle sacra. Pages: 0r–8r, 31v–32v. – ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental notebook 14, Excavaciones 1951 (continuation of Prolongación calle sacra). Pages: 2r–11r.79 – ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental notebook 15, Excav. 1952. 28 Enero 1952–23 abril 1952. Pages: 0r–54r. – ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental notebook 19, Excavaciones 1954. January 4th– April 17th. Pages: 0r–56r (also to annex 10r).80 – ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental notebook 20, 4º Septiembre 1954–Octubre 1955. Pages: 0r–80v.81 – One small intervention in ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental notebook 23, Excavaciones 1958 (17 Abril–12 Junio)/1959 (13 Abril–11 Septiembre). October 29th, 1959, n. 23, f. 76r.
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ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: October 11th, 1949, n. 11, f. 1r; October 13th, 1949, n. 11, f. 4r. Regarding the validity of these sources and their reading, see below. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 20th, 1951 to October 10th, 1951. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: April 12th, 1954 to April 17th, 1954, n. 20, ff. 47r–56v. Specifically ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: October 12th, 1954 to April 15th, 1955, n. 21, ff. 28r–31r; 34r–41r; 45r-annex 2r.
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After the first half of 1950 there was a hiatus in excavations for several months before a return to the area of the basilica in November of that year. It was on the 24th of that month that Ramos Folqués excavated the areas to the west of the mosaic floor, where he found “remains of a chancel (screen)”. Following this Folqués dug into lower levels “underneath the mosaic”. From 1951 to 1952 there was a return to the area to the south and west of the basilica. This is best described in a sketch done on January 28th, 1952 of that year,82 where the remains of several structures adjacent to the mosaic floor have already been found. In addition, there is evidence for a room between the westernmost area of the basilical complex and the continuation of the southern street in that direction, with uncertain interpretation. From February 2nd onwards, Ramos Folqués proceeds to excavate a room to the south of the described road, with a clear increase in quality for the description of archaeological stratigraphy, as he starts describing detailed cuts and measurements for the different structures.83 This excavation, while apparently of a different structure from that of our basilical complex, is significant due to its development as part of the city in its different periods. From April 1952 to early 1954 there are few interventions in either area, as Ramos Folqués concentrated his efforts in other sectors of the Alcudia, including near the eastern Camino del Borrocat. This area’s excavation goes beyond the limits of this review. By April 12th, 1954, there is a return to the area “to the southwest of the Basilica, in the house where we found the lamp of Saint Senent or Abdón”. By that he meant one of the structures to the southwest of the basilical building, a clear continuation of the last excavation in 1952.84 Two important sketches of the excavation are found in the Excavation Diaries’ entry for April 15th, 1954, describing a series of structures to the west of the basilical building (Figs. 7.62, 63), but without a certain description for their vertical level compared to the mosaic floor or other elements. Apparently, the excavated area is around 14.7 meters west of the western edge of the mosaic floor. Following another hiatus, this time including a loss of documents between April 17th and September 1st, 1954, the second diary treating that year’s excavation indicates that the western part of the basilical structure, that is to the west of the mosaic (and not to the southwest), was excavated starting October 1954,85 finding further evidence for “chancel screens”. These intermittent excavations revealed a
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ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: January 28th, 1952, p. 12.4a. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: February 2nd, 1952, n. 15, f. 17r. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: April 12th, 1954, n. 19, f. 47r. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: October 12th, 1954, n. 20, f. 28r.
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few structures to the west of the mosaic. However, they centered around what Ramos Folqués called “the Roman room that remained between the entrance of the Basilica and the E-W road” (sub-area T/HR in this study). In other words, the area to the southwest of the mosaic floor. The intermittent excavations lasted until April 14th, 1955, where the diaries reveal an updated sketch of the structures found by then to the west of the mosaic floor (Figs. 7.64, 65), with special detail to the southwestern area of the structure. Indeed, it reveals a final element that further completes the picture of this urban area: to the west there was what seems to be a North-South road, perpendicular to the southern road, which would close the urban block to the west. Apparently, the southwestern area included a series of structures that narrowed the southern road considerably, revealing a diachronic development of the street’s width (sub-area C/W). After 1955 there were no more excavations by Ramos Folqués of this quadrant, save for one small intervention in 1959.86 Remains of these excavations can still be seen today to the west of the current basilical structure in situ, as was revealed in the 1990 excavation on the site. Today a complete archaeological excavation using modern methods is pending.
5
Reassessment and Review (1955–2005)
5.1 Publications between 1955 and 1971 Between 1955 and 1971 Spanish academia was more inclined to follow Schlunk’s theory of a Christian denomination of the basilical building. On the other hand, in 1967 the Catalan researcher Pere de Palol published his corpus of Paleochristian structures from Iberian Peninsula and the Balearic Islands (4th to 6th Centuries). There he writes a short reflection regarding the Elche basilica, presenting four versions of the plan for it, though the original plan elaborated by Pere Ibarra in 1905, made public only in 2014 by Roberto Lorenzo, is absent. Pere de Palol, unlike most researchers of his period, had an open mind when studying the influence of Jewish motifs in early Christian art in the Iberian Peninsula and specifically in the Balearic Islands during the 6th century. In his publication in 1967 regarding the latter,87 Palol proposed that the motifs in the Balearic basilicas, particularly the flanking lions in decorative mosaic pave-
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ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: October 29th, 1959, n. 23, f. 76r. Pere de Palol, “En torno a la iconografía de los mosaicos cristianos de las islas Baleares,” 139–142.
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ments found in Es Fornás de Torelló and Illeta del Rei, had their closest parallels in late antique Palestinian synagogues. As a consequence, Palol treats the issue of the Elche basilica without defining it either as a synagogue or a church. While giving a summary account of the debate about its identification as a Christian basilica or as a Jewish synagogue (the latter theory, according to him, based on the first interpretation by Schlunk and the reading of the mosaic’s Greek inscriptions), Palol proposes a first typological comparison for its structure (Fig. 6.8). According to him, the type of building which includes the eastern apse within a series of walls behind it was like “those studied in Baleares or in Ampurias” (see Chapters 7 and 11).88 Ultimately Palol reveals his conviction that the building was a synagogue which was later converted to a church after the beginning of the 5th century. He compares the conversion of this synagogue to the situation in Baleares following the account given by the bishop Severus from 417ce, Mahon (Menorca).89 In his analysis of the building’s mosaic, he places such a synagogal and later ecclesiastical conversion “beyond any doubt”.90 The study of the mosaic was placed in a separate section of his important book regarding Christian Archaeology between the 4th and 6th centuries. His plan of the Ilici basilical mosaic91 has a few mistakes that made it useless for later metrological studies, such as an addition of a guilloche pattern to the south of the northern inscription (Inscription 2—see Chapter 7, 4.1.2.2), as well as an error regarding the northeastern preserved panel of the mosaic (panel Nor/I, see Chapter 7, 4.1.1), where the menoroth were placed to the west of the boxed rhomboids, and not to the east where they belonged. Nevertheless, at the time it was the most complete account of the mosaic. It also gave a clear picture of its importance as an art piece. In giving a series of significant parallels for the Elche basilical mosaic, Palol assumed it had a 4th century chronology. He did this through his own analysis of stylistic parallels, including North African examples such as 4th century mosaics in Antioch (particularly Room D in its termae) and Apamea in northern Syria, in Hippo, Orléansville and Tebesa in North Africa, the villa of Prado (Valladolid) and Daragoleja in Hispania, and elements from the Rhone school in Gaul amongst many other parallels. Palol concludes that Elche and the
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Pere de Palol, Arqueología cristiana de la España romana. Siglos IV–VI (Madrid-Valladolid: CSIC, Instituto Enrique Flores, 1967), 66. de Palol, 66–67. de Palol, 201–203. de Palol, fig. 73.
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figure 6.8 Comparative plans of the Ilici basilical building published in palol (1967), pere de palol, arqueología cristiana de la españa romana, p. 67
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basilical mosaic of Santa María de Tarrasa, both with all-geometric motifs, are influenced by North African models with elements stemming from Gallic or Germanic origin.92 The most important contribution is historiographical. Palol did not shy away from the idea of comparing a Jewish synagogal mosaic with Pagan and Christian basilical and mosaic pavements from Late Antiquity.93 International publications caught wind of the archaeological development in Elche, particularly with Schlunk’s contributions. One such study included the 7th volume of the now-classic book by E.R. Goodenough, Jewish Symbols in the Graeco-Roman Period, where he indicates it to be a 6th century synagogue based on the building’s architecture,94 though citing an “agreement” that was patently unclear at the time. R. Wischnitzer, based her study on Schlunk’s publications, suggesting it to be a 4th century synagogue that was later converted to a church, without specifying when.95 The opinion seems to be shared by Don Halperin who bases his mention of the Elche synagogue on Wischnitzer’s account, but he does not mention a date and rejects a later Christian conversion of the building.96 Paul Bowers in his study on Jews from the 1st century in Spain indicates it to be a 4th century synagogue.97 The adscription is indicated by a consensus, though he cites works such as Leclercq’s and Mélida’s that accepted a Christian denomination to the building. The date is based on Schlunk’s first publication of the basilical mosaic in 1948. 5.2
The German Research Team and Helmut Schlunk’s Theory (1971–1982) By 1956 the Western German government was able to reopen the Deutsches Archeologisches Institut. With the aid of many of his friends in the field, including Dr. Cayetano de Mergelina, Antonio García y Bellido, the architect Félix
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de Palol, 201–210, Fig. 73. By including Jewish artistic expression as an integral part of the corpus of Paleochristian art, Palol made one of the most important historiographical breakthroughs from the 20th century when it comes to Jewish archaeology in late antique Hispania. Despite this, it went largely ignored by conventional historiography, more focused on his contributions on early Christian art and archaeology. E.R. Goodenough, Jewish Symbols in the Greco-Roman Period, vol. 7: Pagan Symbols in Judaism, Bollingen Series 27 (New Haven, USA: Panthenon Books, 1958), 177. Rachel Wischnitzer, The Architecture of the European Synagogue (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1964), 11–12. Don A. Halperin, The Ancient Synagogues of the Iberian Peninsula, Social Sciences Monographs 38 (Gainesville, USA: University of Florida Press, 1969), 26–28. Bowers, “Jewish Communities in Spain in the Time of Paul the Apostle,” 397, n. 4.
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Hernández, and the archaeological school of Manuel Gómez Moreno, the original library of the Institut was saved and remained almost intact in the post-war hiatus. With the library remaining in Madrid, and with his newfound position, Schlunk proceeded to prepare his return to Elche for research on the basilica, which materialized in 1971. The current archive of the Deutsches Archaeologisches Institut (DAI) in Madrid keeps almost all of the original drawings made by two young members of the expedition: the Spaniard Laureano de Frutos, who worked for the Institut for the following decades, and Dr. Theodor Hauschild, who became one of Schlunk’s closest disciples and the head of the Institut in Lisbon, Portugal. The objective of the 1971 expedition was twofold: first, to make a detailed drawn account of the geographical position of the excavated structures in the Alcudia d’Elx site, which was done by Frutos; second, to make a planimetry of the structures recovered from the basilical building—that is, the structures that remained there since 1954. This was done by Hauschild with utmost detail. The importance of Hauschild’s planimetry is that for the first time he registers the relative elevation of each of these structures (see Fig. 7.4). It is especially noteworthy that he registers the altitude of the mosaic floor with respect to the Zero Point, the highest point of what was then the preserved tangential wall to the east of what remains of the apse. Regarding the preserved structures, the most significant is the apse. Following the 1905 excavation and covering in 1907, and its re-excavation in 1948, most of the apse wall structure collapsed, as can be seen in Fig. 7.40. The apse wall was first definitely measured in 1971, revealing a reduction of its width by half, from approximately 58 to 60 centimeters in 1905, to not more than 25 centimeters. The remains of the apse circumference were reduced considerably, being a fraction of the original finding sixty-six years before. Such a reduction is a testament to the type of material employed for the construction of this feature (see Chapter 7, 2.2.4). The photographs from the 1971 intervention demonstrate a special interest in the western areas of the mosaic which by then was removed. These show the remains of the marble slabs around the western remains of the sink discovered in 1948. Another shows a southwestern feature, a gravel floor that remained underneath the mosaic. Another picture, published by Roberto Lorenzo in 2005, shows that the expedition in 1971 excavated that element (Fig. 7.66). Diaries of said excavation have not been preserved. However, its photographs have remained mostly in the archives of the DAI, with copies in the Archives of the Alcudia d’Elx Foundation. Following the expedition in 1971, Schlunk and Hauschild published their results in a corpus of late antique architectural art called Ars Hispaniae, in 1978,
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titled Die Denkmäler der frühchristlichen und westgotischen Zeit.98 The German publication gave significantly different suggestions regarding the mosaic floor as an artistic feature. First, Schlunk and Hauschild presented the fact that the central panel of the Elche mosaic was 2.7 meters wide, leaving the width of the rest of the mosaic floor at 4.85 meters.99 Furthermore, they proposed that the southeastern stepped structure found by Albertini in 1905 and published in the Bulletin Hispanique in 1907 was in fact the remains of a baptistery. Finally, they indicated the possibility that the southern inscription with the formula “ΕΥΠΛΟΙΑ” is in fact linked to a Christian formula associated with the previous pagan cult of Isis, which is a wish or a prayer for a “good voyage” to the afterlife.100 Accordingly, Schlunk and Hauschild present the parallel of a Latin mast for the maritime image in the church mosaic of Khaldeh, Lebanon.101 Schlunk would further refine his theory before his retirement to West Germany in a conference intervention at the II Reunió d’Arqueologia Paleocristiana Hispánica at Montserrat in 1978, which was published in a final article before his passing in 1982. He writes, as in his previous publication, that the inscription mentioned above (specifically the figurative maritime scene below it) is a representation of the cycle of Jonah. The ship, with a Latin mast, has figurative parallels in Christian churches in the East, once more presenting the parallel of the church of Khaldeh.102 As for the other inscriptions, Schlunk proposed that the terminology used is not exclusive to Jewish synagogues, and that Christian worship would use it extensively. Furthermore, he repeats that the date of the mosaic is the second half of the 4th century ce, based on stylistic comparisons (on the inscriptions and mosaic, see Chapter 7, 4.1).103 While the German archaeologist did not manage to see the fruits of his theories, his positions were widely accepted by Spanish archaeologists who did not follow Albertini’s theory of the building being a Jewish synagogue. Ramos Folqués did not doubt the Christian character of said mosaic floor, and neither did the researchers from the University of Alicante, associated closely with the excavation of the Alcudia as well as other sites such as nearby Tolmo de Minateda (Hellín, Albacete) and Elda (Alicante). However, Schlunk’s positions went beyond the interpretation of the inscriptions present on the mosaic. He was one of the first authors to notice that the
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Schlunk and Hauschild, Die Denkmäler der frühchristlichen und westgotischen Zeit. Schlunk and Hauschild, 134. Schlunk and Hauschild, 134. Schlunk and Hauschild, 146. Schlunk, “Conexiones históricas del cristianismo hispánico a través de la arqueología,” 62. Schlunk, 62.
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basilical building had anomalies such as two parallel axes, a rare occurrence in churches of the Iberian Peninsula: one for the mosaic floor, defined best by the median between the two ashlar stones that limit the central mosaic panel, and another for the apse. Schlunk concluded that the apse was built after the mosaic floor, and therefore there are several stages for the use of this building which might have lasted for centuries.104 Furthermore, excavations by local archaeological teams would confirm the original proposal by Schlunk, used by Lafuente Vidal in 1948, that the mosaic was laid by the late 4th century. Similar compositions were found in other sites from the Elche municipality, particularly the mosaic floor in the port of nearby Santa Pola, with identical compositions and style as the Basilica mosaic, or the villa of Algorós. The contextualization achieved through a rigorous excavation allowed for the confirmation of said chronology. During the 1970s and 80s, Schlunk’s and Hauschild’s theories were certainly not the only ones regarding the Elche basilical building. Juan Bautista Vilar, in his Historia de Orihuela, volume 1, proposed the building to be a 4th century Jewish synagogue, arguing that it was evidence for a large Jewish community in the region.105 Likewise J. Orlandis’ work on La España visigoda accepts it to be a synagogue “of Roman times”, without giving specific dates.106 Similar to Vilar’s publication is the opinion shared by Michael Koch in his article “Zur frühen jüdischen Diaspora auf der Iberischen Halbinsel”.107 In his 1973 work L’ art preromán hispanique, Jacques Fontaine suggests it to be a 4th century synagogue which possibly converted later to a church, at an unknown moment. However, he refers to the building as a “synagogue” in quotation marks, suggesting the insecurity of this identification.108 Also from outside Spain, S. Applebaum, in 1974, identifies the Elche building as a synagogue, presumably being the key headquarters of the Jewish community’s organization. As such, he identifies the term proseuché found in the central inscription of the mosaic as having the same meaning as the word’s use in late Ptolemaic Egyptian contexts. Even so, he does not provide a specific date, only indicating it as from a “later” period than
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Schlunk, 62. Juan Bautista Vilar, Historia de la ciudad de Orihuela: Orihuela en el mundo antiguo, vol. 1 (Orihuela (Alicante): Patronato Angel García Rogel, Obra Social de la Caja de Ahorros de Nuestra Señora de Monserrate, 1975), 167–173. José Orlandís Rovira, Historia de España: La España Visigótica (Madrid: Gredos, 1977), 83. Michael Koch, “Zur Frühen Jüdischen Diaspora auf der Iberischen Halbinsel,” Revista de La Universidad Complutense 109 (1977): 231, note 20. Jacques Fontaine, L’ art préroman hispanique, La Nuit Des Temps, 38, (Paris: Éditions Weber Zodiaque, 1973), 46.
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the 1st century.109 The publication by Alfredo Rabello in 1983 follows Albertini’s interpretation of the building as a synagogue, dating it to either the late 4th/early 5th centuries or the 6th century, depended on whether the mosaic had a greater or lesser eastern (Byzantine) influence respectively.110 Manuel Sotomayor, who published his general history of the Spanish church in 1977, follows Schlunk’s assertion of its identity as a Christian church since its first construction in the 4th century.111 When it comes to the reading of this building’s history, the advances achieved by Schlunk and his disciples cannot be overestimated. However, there are important flaws in some of Schlunk’s theories, particularly regarding the Christian denomination of the late 4th century mosaic floor. This is the case of the parallels used for the rendering of a Latin mast ship in Khaldeh to prove its association with the cycle of Jonah. The available evidence for maritime scenes in synagogal art such as the Kyrios Leontis synagogue in Beth Sheʾan, Israel, forces the modern researcher to move beyond methodological limitations such as merely reviewing Christian contexts alone (see below). Three years after Schlunk’s death in 1982, the Alicante archaeologist Enric Llobregat published a short summary of early Christian archaeological research which included the most recent studies in the Ilici basilical building. While already having touched on the topic of the Elche mosaic in a previous publication in 1975, accepting the earlier synagogue interpretation by Schlunk (a 4th century synagogue followed by a Christian period from the 5th to 7th centuries), he reviewed the latest interpretation given by Schlunk to the building.112 On that, Llobregat wrote:
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Applebaum, “The Organization of the Jewish Communities in the Diaspora,” 490. Alfred Mordechai Rabello, Ha-Yehudim bi-Sefarad lifney ha-kibbush ha-ʾaravi bi-reʾi hahakika, Mekoroth le-Toldoth ʾAm Israel (Jerusalem: Zalman Shazar, 1983), 116–118 (Hebrew). Manuel Sotomayor y Muro, Historia de la iglesia en España (Madrid: Biblioteca de Autores Cristianos, 1979), 144–146. Enrique A. Llobregat Conesa, “Los orígenes y el final del obispado de Elche,” in Ilucant. Un cuarto de siglo de investigación histórico-arqueológica en tierras de Alicante (Alicante: Diputación Provincial de Alicante, Instituto Alicantino de Cultura Juan Gil-Albert, 1991), 404. Llobregat, on this occasion, was aware of recent publications by Schlunk and above all Ramos Folqués, like the latter’s 1972 article on the chancel screens. However, it seems Llobregat’s theory regarding the 6th-century arrival of a bishop to Ilici made him question the early-Christian identification of the mosaic and the building that harbored it. However, he accepted the interpretation of it being a 4th century synagogue, converted late in the 6th century into a Christian church.
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The denomination of this building is still controversial. Initially and with regards to the Greek inscriptions found in three places at the mosaic, it was interpreted as a synagogue, which followed the reading of the technical term of proseuchȇ that, on top of its ordinary meaning as an oratory, also has that of a synagogue. Until 1948, when it was once more excavated and contemplated by participants of the Southeast Archaeological Congress in Elche, everyone believed its attribution as a synagogue. This autopsy convinced Schlunk to interpret it as a Christian Church, something he first published in 1952 and not changing his opinion since. Comprehensively, his erudition and expertise compelled the assent of all scholars. In my opinion there would have been no problem in accepting the Ilicitan hall as a 4th century Christian church, all the more since the first known bishop is Juan, dated to the year 514, at which the separation that accompanies written and archaeological sources reaches a rare high rate of chronological proximity. However, what bothers me is the textual formulas from Palestinian synagogue pavements. In Huldah we read eulogia tȏ laȏ, that can be easily paralleled with two of the texts of the Illicitan church that were filled with spelling mistakes. Other previous and later examples can present the practice of placing texts in a mosaic. Therefore, while I join Schlunk’s venerable opinion, I cannot help but have a certain revulsion [at that theory] ultimately, and wish for a more complete study of textual parallels in mosaic pavements of eastern synagogues, since by those dates Jews were present in these lands. What should be considered an utter fantasy is the hypothesis that it is a civil basilica and that which proposes the reuse of this hall as a (Christian) basilica following Sisebut’s expulsion of the Jews.113 113
Enrique A. Llobregat Conesa, “Las épocas paleocristiana y visigoda,” in Arqueología del País Valenciano: panorama y perspectivas (Alicante: Universidad de Alicante, 1985), 398– 399. “La atribución de este edificio sigue siendo controvertida. Inicialmente y en relación con las inscripciones griegas que aparecen en tres lugares del pavimento mosaico, se interpretó como sinagoga, a lo que daba pie un término técnico proseukhê que, además de su valor normal de oración, tiene el de sinagoga. Hasta 1948 en que fue de nuevo excavada y contemplada por los asistentes al congreso arqueológico del sudeste celebrado en Elche, todos creyeron en la atribución sinagogal. Aquella autopsia convenció a Schlunk de que se trataba de una iglesia cristiana lo que expresó en 1952 por primera vez y desde entonces no ha cambiado de opinión. Su erudición y pericia arrastran, comprensiblemente, la opinión de todos los investigadores. A mi juicio no habría mayor problema en aceptar que el aula ilicitana fuese una iglesia cristiana del siglo IV toda vez que el primer obispo conocido es Juan, fechable en el 514, con lo que la separación entre fuentes arqueológicas y fuentes escritas alcanza, excepcionalmente, un alto grado de cercanía cronológica. Me molesta, sin embargo, el formu-
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Enric A. Llobregat Conesa (1941–2003) was a specialist in Southeastern proto-historic archaeology and came from a generation following that of Alejandro Ramos Folqués and Helmut Schlunk. He was not a disciple of either archaeologist, although he belonged to the nearby Department of Archaeology of the University of Alicante. His opinion regarding the denomination of this building as a church following Schlunk’s notions touched upon something that was not mentioned before: since 1948, when the Ilici mosaic was uncovered a second time, few efforts were made to compare it to synagogal art, which at the time was found in Israel and its surrounding territories in the previous decades, be they Jewish or Samaritan. Llobregat correctly pointed out the fact that Schlunk’s opinion, while sound at the time, became outdated, as he did little to change his mind despite the 1971 intervention. In fact, for him Schlunk’s theory regarding this basilical building was little more than presumption that confirmed his predisposed theories. Hence Llobregat’s unusually strong wording when describing his rejection of said theory with the word repugnancia (translated here as “revulsion”, “disgust” would also be appropriate). Llobregat’s words came with contemporary justification. Despite the theoretical problems of Schlunk’s publications, many scholars at the time took his opinions uncritically. Llobregat’s warning, while sound and important, fell on deaf ears by most subsequent Spanish scholars who worked on the building. As in many times in Spanish history, a golden opportunity to break past dogmatism was missed once again. 5.3 The 1990 Excavation and Follow-Up Publications A final excavation in 1990, directed by Alejandro Ramos Folqués’ son, Dr. Rafael Ramos Fernández, had the intention of studying the structures that could be found underneath the basilical floor. Photographs from the excavation, as well as a couple of publications in the subsequent years,114 provide scholars with information concerning the procedure and areas excavated in that site.
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lario textual de los pavimentos de sinagogas contemporáneas palestinenses. En Huldah leemos eulogia tô laô, que se puede fácilmente paralelizar con dos de los textos, repletos de faltas de ortografía, de la iglesia ilicitana. Otros ejemplos anteriores y más tardíos presentan la costumbre de los textos en el mosaico. Por ello, aunque me uno a la venerada opinión de Schlunk, no puedo menos de quedarme con una cierta repugnancia en el fondo y de desear un estudio más completo de los paralelos con los textos musivarios de las sinagogas orientales, ya que judíos los había por estas tierras en las fechas indicadas. Lo que ha de considerarse como fantasía desbordante es la hipótesis de que se trata de una basílica civil y la que plantea la reutilización del aula como basílica tras la expulsión de judíos por el rey Sisebuto.” Rafael Ramos Fernández, “Los templos ibéricos de la Alcuida de Elche,” Anales de Prehis-
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First there was a general removal of the grass that had grown over the years (Fig. 6.9). Such a removal revealed the presence of the structures as they had been left in 1971. Since the ground on the basilical area was below the northern, southern and western ground, there was a process of erosion of the original archaeological registry left behind in the 1970s. This was particularly acute on the northern area that apparently was not registered in the 1971 expedition, and therefore must be considered untouched since the 1948 excavation. The procedure involved the digging of trenches that revealed the structures originally excavated by Alejandro Ramos Folqués forty-two years earlier (Fig. 6.11). These included the northern north-south wall that connected the northern wall with the apse structure. Other revealed structures included the northern wall, the southern walls, the eastern tangential wall, the ashlarcovered walls of the Sacristía (Area S) areas, and the southern adjacent structure to the center-west section of the southern wall. The complete disappearance of the western wall (B/024 in this book) is also extremely important, as later restorations would omit it altogether (Fig. 7.6). After uncovering the site as it was abandoned in 1971, the excavators proceeded to dig the area starting from the axis marked by the southern edge of the southern adjacent structure (B/138), all the way to a western wall revealed in 1954, but apparently not registered in any of A. Ramos Folques’ diaries or publications. This western wall was about four to five meters to the west of the original mosaic western wall and is today preserved in the current site as the “western wall” of the basilical building. The excavators revealed that underneath the floor of the basilical level, there was a fourteen-centimeter archaeological hiatus where there was no evidence for any kind archaeological finding, ceramic or any other kind of material. Below that fourteen-centimeter hiatus,115 the excavators revealed the existence of a new structure defined by walls marked with fieldstone structures and adobe elevations (Fig. 6.12; see also Chapter 7). That structure was at the time interpreted as an Iberian temple (Fig. 6.13). The excavation concluded when the floor of the lower building was discovered, after revealing that adjacent to the above-mentioned western wall of the basilical hall, there was another wall with similar reused material as revealed in the Area S ashlars, with a protohistoric Iberian capital (Fig. 7.85). The capital was used probably as a base for a
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toria y Arqueología 7–8 (1992 1991): 87–95; Rafael Ramos Fernández, El templo ibérico de La Alcudia: La Dama de Elche (Alicante, Spain: Ajuntament d’Elx, 1995). Ramos Fernández, “Los templos ibéricos de la Alcuida de Elche,” 87.
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figure 6.9 Picture of the site as it was found before the 1990 excavation fla archives, 1990 excavation pictures
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Picture of the site after the removal of grass fla archives, 1990 excavation pictures
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Picture of northern trench in 1990 excavation. At the front, northern section of wall B/026 (see Chapter 7) fla archives, 1990 excavation pictures
late antique wall and was interpreted as linked to the previous Iberian structure underneath the western area of the basilical building site.116 Following the excavation, the archaeologists proceeded to restore both the Iberian and the late antique structures, as was the interpretation in the early 1990s. This included the removal of the western Iberian structure, the covering of the excavation, and the reinforcement of the basilical walls. These actions were accompanied with the restoration of the building’s mosaic floor, and its return to its original location. The process for the horizontal placement of a
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Ramos Fernández, 88–89; Ramos Fernández, El templo ibérico de La Alcudia, 12.
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figure 6.12
Stratigraphy of the “Iberian temple” below the Ilici basilical building according to rafael ramos fernández (1995): el templo ibérico de la alcudia, p. 10 (lam. 1)
mosaic, removed from the site more than forty years before, was published in 2004 by Alejandro Ramos Molina, who directed the Alcudia Foundation and was present during the excavation. The mosaic was strengthened with a concrete bed above which they placed a mortar level within a frame to fix the mosaic floor. Following that, certain sections were restored using white tesserae using the forms detected in the mosaic, while the areas that weren’t restored were covered with a colored reddish gravel that would not bother the viewing of the mosaic.117 The restoration was undertaken in accordance with the theory of an early 4th century construction of the basilical building with mosaic, with a 5th century addition of the apse.118 On their part, later scholars such as Utrero Agudo (in 2004),119 Roberto Lorenzo (in 2004–2005),120 and Lorenzo and Morcillo (2014),121 warned that the current restored building has little to do with the original basilical structure. The following are some of the problems for the basilical restoration (Fig. 7.5): – The disappearance of the original western wall that limited the mosaic led to the assumption that the wall was, in fact, the first western wall detected 117
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Alejandro Ramos Molina, “La recuperación del patrimonio,” in Iberia, Hispania, Spania. Una mirada desde Ilici, ed. Lorenzo Abad Casal and Mauro S. Hernández Pérez (Alicante: Caja de Ahorros del Mediterráneo, 2004), 269–271. Ramos Molina, 269. Ma de los Ángeles Utrero Agudo, Iglesias tardoantiguas y altomedievales en la península ibérica: análisis arqueológico y sistemas de abovedamiento, Anejos de AEspA, XL (Madrid: CSIC, Instituto de Historia. Departamento de Historia Antigua y Arqueología, 2006), 630. Lorenzo San Román, “La basílica-sinagoga de L’Alcudia d’Elx (1905–2005).” Lorenzo de San Román and Morcillo, “La basílica paleocristiana de Ilici (L’Alcudia, Elche).”
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Plan of the uncovered “Iberian temple” underneath the Ilici basilical building according to rafael ramos fernández (1995): el templo ibérico de la alcudia, p. 11 (lam. 3)
by the archaeologists—more than five meters to the west of the mosaic. This makes the main hall of the basilica to be longer than it really was. – The apse is shorter and more “centered” with the rest of the mosaic, which as was seen violates the original plan as detected by Helmut Schlunk since the 1930’s, and certainly in 1947 and 1952. – The circumference did not include all the apse, making it wider than it originally was. The apse was, as earlier plans suggest, a rectangular one with a semicircular ending to its east. Alexander Bar-Magen Numhauser - 978-90-04-41992-6 Downloaded from Brill.com 03/03/2024 09:27:00PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison
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– The southern wall to the basilical building’s apse, to the east of the mosaic, has an undocumented entrance. – The western wall of the current restored basilica was not studied well enough. Original photographs from the 1990 excavation indicate that there was a “smooth” entrance (Fig. 7.68), and no clear evidence for a two-step entrance as it appears today. Without an excavation, it is hard to assume such a restoration that might have originated from the process of excavation itself. – The mosaic floor was well placed in its east-west axis (the mosaic is 3 to 3.2 meters from the tangential wall, as insinuated by Ibarra). However, it is slightly tilted to the north, due to its apparent limitation to the south with the southern adjacent structure to the southern wall. The plan elaborated by Th. Hauschild in 1971 (Fig. 7.4) and probably the sketches made in 1949 for the levels underneath the mosaic floor (Figs. 7.26, 27) indicate that some of the stones of that “adjacent structure”, around 10 centimeters of them, were placed underneath the original mosaic and lower floors. In other words, the current mosaic floor is 10 centimeters tilted to the north. – Finally, in line with the previous point, the mosaic floor is located on a level distinctly underneath its original placement. This also accompanies the disappearance of the western basin and its accompanying marble slabs. Today these important features are not found. On the other hand, the two ashlar stones with upper holes, which limit the central nave, still remain in situ as they were never removed from their original location within the site. The above problems mean that the current basilical structure, open for public visits, is not representative of the original building. Nevertheless, it is important to mention several features that were luckily preserved through this restoration, and that are important for the current study of the basilica: – The western structures beyond the basilical building itself are important for the interpretation of the current structure. While any study without a proper excavation of these features cannot produce more than theories, such studies do point towards the existence of a complex structure that went beyond the prayer hall area. As will be seen in the following chapters, the area to the west of the mosaic is crucial to understand the area from which a visitor had access to the basilical building. – The preservation of the above-mentioned southern adjacent structure is significant. Such a structure was badly documented in earlier studies, including the confusing account of the southern walls by Alejandro Ramos Folqués. Photographs from the 1948 intervention, however, provide evidence that such a structure was integral to the original plan of the basilica. Such a structure has new evidence that cannot be discarded for studying the building.
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– Finally, regarding the measurement of the original basilical building, clues about it can be seen from the plan of the excavation of the structure underneath it. This structure has a squared plan with an eight-meter side, which means it was eight-meters wide (Fig. 6.11). If indeed the walls of the basilical building were on top of the temple structure below, then this means that the basilical structure was, at least, eight-meters wide as well. The publications in 1991–1992 and 1995 presented an account of the materials recovered from underneath the “Basilica”, which mostly include the area excavated to uncover and remove the Iberian temple. Such a study goes beyond the scope of this research. In the 1995 XXI National Congress of Archaeology, Ramos Fernández published a series of findings to the northeast of the Sacristía area, including coins attributed to Constantine I and Constans.122 The coins were entombed behind a series of ashlar stones that composed the bulk of the latest walls of the area. Such coins present a post quem dating for the building and the walls (see Chapter 8). In the short note from that congress the author presents these coins as evidence for the early 4th century dating of the basilica’s construction—a claim to be contested by scholars in later publications (see below). Outside Spain, new attention was brought to the Elche structure by foreign researchers who continued to consider the basilica as a synagogue, at least in its early stages. In 1993, David Noy included the Elche basilical building mosaic inscriptions in his compendium, Jewish Inscriptions in Western Europe, vol. 1.123 The three inscriptions were introduced for the first time as part of a database of a wider Jewish context. In 1998 R. Hachlili, from the University of Haifa, published the Elche basilical building as a 4th century synagogue which was later converted to a church in the 5th century, thus following Schlunk’s first theory from 1947.124 As treated in Chapter 1, this period marked the fifth centenary anniversary of the expulsion of the Jews from Spain. In those publications the Elche building was mentioned, mostly by scholars of Jewish history like Lacave in 1992, who regarded it as a 4th to 6th century synagogue.125 Other authors shared this interpretation, such as Luis García Moreno in 1993 and María Antonia Bel Bravo in 1995, both providing a 4th century dating for a proposed synagogue.126
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Ramos Fernández, El templo ibérico de La Alcudia, 1231. David Noy, Jewish Inscriptions of Western Europe, 1993, 1: 241–247. Hachlili, AJAAD, 45–47. José Luís Lacave, Juderías y sinagogas españolas (Madrid: MAPFRE, 1992), 76–77. María Antonia Bel Bravo, Sefarad: Los judíos de España, Cuarta edición, revisada y corregida, Claves Históricas (Madrid: Sílex, 2012), 80.
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Outside of Spain, treatment of the subject was given by David Noy in his Jewish Inscriptions in Western Europe. In it there seems to be an acceptance of a late 4th century ce dating for the building and the inscriptions, though he certainly suggests that it would have been built before the Byzantine period (i.e. 5th to early 6th century ce).127 Rachel Hachlili holds a similar view, who nevertheless proposes that it was converted into a church at an uncertain date. This includes her understanding that later reforms, including the series of anterooms adjacent to the apse, were part of the conversion process.128 By the end of the 20th century the discussion over the building’s identification was far from over. As in previous periods, the discussion was centered on the interpretation of the mosaic, using it also as a main criterion for dating the building. 5.4 The Push to a Conclusion (1999–2016) With the last decade of the 20th century, especially following the publication of the results of the 1990 excavation, a new generation of scholars coming from the University of Alicante reviewed the reading and attribution of the Elche basilical building. They focused especially on its mosaic floor. However, this new generation of scholars had an intention to put to rest the discussion over the attribution of the basilical building, favoring the theories proposed by Schlunk. The push was noticeable with the apparently conclusive study of the Elche basilical mosaic floor inscriptions by Corell i Vicent in 1999.129 While he offers an interesting new reading of them, trying to bring a definitive conclusion to the discussion in the process, he fails to show why the site should be read as exclusively Christian. In fact, the most striking feature of his argument concerned the use of the word proseuché, found in the central inscription of the mosaic, in New Testament literature.130 Corell again proposed this theory in a 2009 publication on Greek inscriptions in the Valencian Autonomous Community, where he suggests that the term λαός is also a biblical technical term, thus denoting the “people of Israel” in the Old Testament and the “church” in the New Testament.131
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Noy, Jewish Inscriptions of Western Europe, 1993, 1: 242–243. Hachlili, AJAAD, 45–47, 93. Josep Corell, Inscripcions romanes d’Ilici, Lucentum, Allon, Dianium i els seus respectius territoris, collab. Xavier Gómez i Font and Concha Ferragut (València: NAU Llibres, 1999), 97–102. Corell, 98–99. Josep Corell and Xavier Gómez Font, “Las inscripciones griegas del País Valenciano (IGPV),” in Estudios de epigrafía griega (España: Universidad de La Laguna, 2009), 28.
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While that might superficially point towards a Christian reading of these inscriptions, this theory falls apart if the New Testament Greek’s Jewish environment is considered. In other words, if anything, the use of such archaizing rare Greek is a signal of Jewish use as much as a Christian one. Again, the New Testament appears in Corell’s reading of the more problematic northern inscription, where he proposes a logical solution to the reading of the starting point for this inscription as “vote of the potentates” (ευχὴ ὀχόντων).132 This requires several emendations of the text which make it nothing more than a theory. Supposing that this is the correct reading, he notes that the terminology ευχὴ ὀχόντων is associated with εύχηv εχειν found in the book of Acts on several occasions. The premise behind this association is to emphasize the Christian character of these inscriptions. However, the terminologies are not exclusive to the New Testament, nor does their presence in New Testament texts imply they would not be found in a Jewish context. In fact, mention of the “vote of the potentates” could be associated with philanthropes or donatives for the synagogue that allowed for the laying of the mosaic pavement and the construction of the main hall. The conclusion presented by Corell follows the a priori assumption that the building was Christian, in accordance with the publications by Schlunk and Hauschild in 1978 and Schlunk in 1982. In the year 2000, a new article by Juan Carlos Marquez Villora and Antonio Poveda Navarro, followed by a second article that same year by Poveda, present the building as always having been a Christian church.133 A later article by Poveda in 2004 expands upon the first paper on the Elche basilical building, and would have a more lasting impact when it comes to the discussion of the structure’s attribution.134 The first article by Marquez and Poveda takes into account the positive evidence, as presented by Schlunk in 1982, that the maritime scene at the southern panel of the mosaic was a representation of the biblical Jonah cycle, with a clear Christological message.135 The fact that they repeat the main example presented by Schlunk as a typological parallel between the ship’s features and that from the church of Khaldeh, Lebanon, is striking. Surprisingly the authors did not consider the most obvious paral132 133
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Corell and Gómez Font, 100. Juan Carlos Marquez Villora and Antonio M. Poveda Navarro, “Espacio religioso y cultura material en Ilici (ss. IV–VII DC),” in V Reunió d’Arqueologia Cristiana Hispànica Cartagena, 16–19 d’ Abril 1998, ed. Josep Gurt (Barcelona: Institut d’Estudis Catalans; Universitad de Barcelona, 2000), 185–198. Antonio M. Poveda Navarro, “Un supuesto relieve hebreo,” Verdolay: Revista del Museo Arqueológico de Murcia 9 (2005): 215–232. Marquez Villora and Poveda Navarro, “Espacio religioso y cultura material en Ilici (ss. IV– VII DC),” 189.
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lel between a Jonah cycle representation as presented here and the only other example for such a representation in a mosaic floor in the Western Empire, which is the early Christian Basilica Patriarchale di Santa Maria Assunta in Aquileia.136 Furthermore, the authors attempted to explain the features found by Albertini in the 1906 excavation in the southeastern corner of the mosaic floor. The evidence for a stepped structure in that section meant for them the existence of a side baptistery as found in other early Christian churches from the Iberian Peninsula.137 This is particularly the case of Casa Herrera and San Pedro de Mérida in Extremadura. In the first case, the baptistery had two stages, with the earliest one being a sizeable, cruciform single baptistery with two stairways that allowed for the submergence of both adults and children, and the latter with a baptistery altar.138 The latter, from a rural church, has its baptistery in the southeastern corner, separated from the rest of the structure by a chancel screen and a platform.139 The association of said feature to a baptistry is, according to the authors, reinforced by their interpretation of the southern inscription of the mosaic. This is strengthened by what they saw as the representation of the Jonah cycle in the maritime scene: a blessing for a good voyage in the ship that represented the Church. The voyager is the baptized who has entered the ship and now is sailing through the hardships of life, until his resur-
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Margo Stroumsa Uzan, “Jonas of Aquileia. A Gesture to Constantine the Great,” in Between Judaism and Christianity: Art Historical Essays in Honor of Elisheva (Elisabeth) Revel-Neher, ed. Elisabeth Revel-Neher, Katrin Kogman-Appel, and Mati Meyer, The Medieval Mediterranean, v. 81 (Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2009), 55–71; Sebastian Ristow, “Zur Problematik der spätrömischen Reste auf dem Gelände der Domkirche zu Aquileia,” Jahrbuch für Antike und Christentum 37 (1994): 97–109. Marquez Villora and Poveda Navarro, “Espacio religioso y cultura material en Ilici (ss. IV– VII DC),” 194, note 9. Luis Caballero Zoreda and Thilo Ulbert, La basilica paleocristiana de Casa Herrera en las cercanías de Mérida (Badajoz), Excavaciones arqueológicas en España, no. 89 (Madrid: Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia, Dirección General del Patrimonio Artístico y Cultural, Comisión Nacional del Patrimonio Artístico, 1975), 66, 235; Cristina Godoy Fernández, Arqueología y liturgia: Iglesias hispánicas (Siglos IV al VIII), 1st ed. (Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, 1995), 290; Achim Arbeiter, “Los edificios de culto cristiano: escenarios de la liturgia,” in Repertorio de arquitectura cristiana en Extremadura: época tardoantigua y altomedieval, Anejos de AEspA, XXIX (Mérida: Instituto de Arqueología de Mérida, 2003), 199. de Palol, Arqueología cristiana de la España romana. Siglos IV–VI, 97–99; Ángel Fuentes Domínguez, “Extremadura en la tardía antigüedad,” Extremadura arqueológica, 1995; Pedro Mateos Cruz, “La cristianización de la Lusitania (ss. IV–VI): Extremadura en época visigoda,” Extremadura arqueológica 4 (1995): 256; Godoy Fernández, Arqueología y Liturgia, 282–284; Arbeiter, “Los edificios de culto cristiano: escenarios de la liturgia,” 186–187.
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rection following death. Despite the support from eminent past scholars, this theory fails to explain how the southeastern structure can be interpreted as a baptistry, especially considering that it was clearly attached to a post-mosaic wall that covered the maritime scene in the first place (Chapter 7, 2.2.1). Poveda, in his article with Marquez Villora in the year 2000, and later in 2005, proposed an early 4th century date for the mosaic floor and the church, accepting Rafael Ramos’ dating following the finding of the early Constantinian coins in the Sacristía area.140 Consequently, the church was to be associated with the bishopric of Ilici up until the 7th century. In fact, his main thesis was the adscription of the basilica to the different bishoprics in conflict at a moment of political transformations in the region. For Poveda, the Byzantine conquest of Ilici forced the previous Latin Christian bishopric to establish a new seat, loyal to the Gothic monarchy first in Toulouse, and later in Toledo. This competing seat of Elo was therefore linked to the ruined late antique town of Tolmo de Minateda. First conceived by Professor Sonia Gutiérrez Lloret from the University of Alicante, one of the excavators of the site, the theory is based on the mention of the bishopric in the Councils of Toledo from the late 6th century onwards. It is also based on the proximity and geographic location of the site to other centers like Ilici, to which it had a relationship of dependency.141 The Ilici basilical building was to be associated, then, to an Eastern Christian church that apparently dominated the area until the final expulsion of the Byzantines by the early 7th century through military campaigns led by Leovigild and his successors. The subsequent changes to the basilical structure were associated with the new Latin Christian regime imposed by the Catholic Visigothic kings of the 7th century.142 Poveda and Villora accept Ibarra’s account of the attic base as a base for an altar table at the center of the apse. Following Poveda’s excavations in the early Christian structure in Elda, near Elche, he indicates that the polylobed face of the base for its altar has clear parallels with the use of the attic base for the Elche basilica’s altar.143 The parallel presents a clear inclusion of the Elche 140 141
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Marquez Villora and Poveda Navarro, “Espacio religioso y cultura material en Ilici (ss. IV– VII DC),” 192; Poveda Navarro, “Un supuesto relieve hebreo,” 221–222. Juan Carlos Marquez Villora and Antonio M. Poveda Navarro, “Espacio religioso y cultura material en Elo (ss. IV–VII DC),” 185–198; Lorenzo Abad Casal et al., “Una ciudad en el camino: pasado y futuro de El Tolmo de Minateda,” Zona arqueológica, Recópolis y la ciudad en la época visigoda, 9 (2008): 323–336. Marquez Villora and Poveda Navarro, “Espacio religioso y cultura material en Elo (ss. IV– VII DC),” 195. Marquez Villora and Poveda Navarro, “Espacio religioso y cultura material en Elo (ss. IV– VII DC),” 180.
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basilical structure in the milieu of craftsmanship and architectural styles from the 7th century. From a historiographic perspective, Poveda’s 2005 publication is much more relevant for the discussion of the identification of the basilica as Jewish or not. With the title, “Un supuesto relieve hebreo y la dudosa presencia de comunidades organizadas judías en la Carthaginensis oriental (ss. IV–VII d. C)”, the apologetic stance of the author is revealed. While centering on a relief object associated with a Jewish community from the 6th or 7th centuries in the town of Orihuela (ancient Auriuela) to the southeast of Elche, the author’s main argument, that the object is in fact a lower part of an imperial Chi Rho symbol, begins as expected by challenging the identification of Elche basilica as a Jewish synagogue. In fact, we find there the following affirmation: Since the relief was related to the existence of an organized Israelite community, that had the character in Ilici of an hypothetical synagogue, starting from the 4th century, the first issue here must be to demonstrate that this belief is absolutely erroneous, since this alluded cult building always was, since its construction, a primitive Christian church that would eventually become the basilica of the main Ilicitan episcopal seat for the Roman, Byzantine, and finally Visigothic periods.144 Such strong words at the very beginning of the article denote the intention of putting an end to the argument regarding this basilica’s denomination. This is particularly true with the insistence on seeing the Ilici basilica as a Christian building since its inception, and thus denying any association of said building with a Jewish community from the region. Following a historiographic summary of the discussion regarding the denomination of the building, the author proposes that following a thorough archaeological analysis, the building was clearly a Christian church from the early-mid 4th century ce.145 Meanwhile, he presents the case for the Jewish adscription of the basilical building as being based on a misreading of two of the three mosaic inscriptions, specifically of the central and northern texts. The main basis of denying the Jewish character of these inscriptions was the fact that the Greek terminology present there was used in the New Testament and Christian literature, thus citing the work by Corell i Vicent mentioned above.
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Poveda Navarro, “Un supuesto relieve hebreo,” 216. Poveda Navarro, 218.
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Poveda writes that the figurative motifs have nothing really associated with a Jewish repertoire. The author casts doubt on the identification of two geometrical patterns from the northeastern corner of the mosaic floor that have the shape of two seven-branched candelabra or menorot, arguing that had they been menorot they would have been presented with a tripod base, which is not the case in the Elche mosaic.146 Furthermore, he indicates that this type of maritime scene is not present in any synagogue mosaic or artistic repertoire of the period.147 When presenting his theory, Poveda does not consider the damage on the mosaic floor dating to antiquity, which was probably done on purpose to hide what could be deemed offensive or problematic repertoire for the final, Christian users of the mosaic (see Chapter 11, 5). This includes the two menorot figures on the northeastern corner of the mosaic mentioned above, which will be treated below (Chapter 7, 4.1.3 and 2.2.1; Fig. 7.16). As for the maritime scene on the southern aisle, one must only review the more recent discoveries that were already published by the year 2005 regarding synagogue archaeology to notice that this position is problematic. Maritime scenes were dominant in the Hammam Lif synagogue in Tunisia.148 A Latin mast such as the one found in the Elche mosaic is clearly visible in the Kyrios Leontis synagogue in Beth Sheʾan.149 More recent discoveries show the conspicuous maritime theme for synagogue mosaic floors such as the one found in Sarandë, Albania, in 2004.150 Poveda once more insists on the interpretation of the southern maritime scene and the southeastern corner feature as associated with a baptistry for an early Christian church. Parallels for the Jonah cycle are indeed found, as the author presents, in churches such as the one in Aquileia, the African Basilica of Furnus Minus, and most importantly the Palestinian church of Beth Guvrin.151 However, he fails to mention that the Beth Guvrin mosaic motif is clearly found in contemporary synagogues such as the ones found in MaʾonNirim and Gaza.152 Furthermore, the scene depicting Jonah in Beth Guvrin, while probably including the maritime scene, is accompanied however with 146 147 148 149 150
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Poveda Navarro, 219. Poveda Navarro, 221. Ernest Renan, “Mosaique de Hammam-Lif”, 273–275. Lea Roth-Gerson, The Greek Inscriptions from the Synagogues in Eretz-Israel (Jerusalén, Israel: Yad Ben Zvi, 1987), 36. Hebrew University of Jerusalem, “Hebrew University Archaeologists Reveal Additional Sections of Ancient Synagogue in Albania,” ScienceDaily, dated October 21st, 2004, http:// www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/10/041020094144.htm. Poveda Navarro, “Un supuesto relieve hebreo,” 221. Hachlili, AJAALI, 310–316.
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the scene of Jonah under the gourd where the name ΙΩΝΑΣ actually appears.153 Most importantly, this argument cannot be evidence for a Christian depiction of Jonah in the Elche basilical building, as evidence for Jonah in synagogue mosaic floor settings were found in more recent years, specifically the synagogue of Huqoq in the Galilee.154 The apologetic language of this article is quite common in more recent publications about the Ilici basilical building. The problem is not in the insistence on a thorough archaeological study of it, as of all excavated structures from that and other periods, but is the a priori assumption that the structure is a 4th century Christian basilica, regardless of the ambiguous nature of the positive evidence for its identification as a church. The eventual result is that most recent publications would merely assume, as a matter of fact, that this building is a Christian church without taking into account a thorough archaeological study of Jewish art and material remains. In short, the main problem of Schlunk, Corell, Márquez, and Poveda is that they did not consider that Jewish communities shared the same material culture with Christians in that society and region. In other words, they assumed that Jewish synagogues would somehow have easily recognizable “Jewish” art, distinct from Christian artistic expressions in their mosaic floors. This assumption is erroneous, and therefore, the study of the mosaic floor is not enough to define if this structure was either a church, a synagogue, or a hybrid. 5.5 Recent Archaeological Conclusions and Reopening the Debate Reaching the end of this historiographical review, two articles, one by Roberto Lorenzo in 2004–2005155 and one in 2014 by Roberto Lorenzo and Javier Morcillo,156 followed by a doctoral thesis on late antique Elche from 2016, were, to date, amongst the most complete studies of the Elche basilical building.157 The first, published in Lucentum, number(s) 23–24, is the basis of later publications in recent years. Reviewing the previous studies of the basilical building, Lorenzo writes that these studies were based almost exclusively on the incomplete evidence available from the series of partial publications on the structure.
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Rachel Hachlili, Ancient Mosaic Pavements: Themes, Issues, and Trends. Selected Studies (Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2009), 91, http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/ej.9789004167544.i‑420. Magness et al., “The Huqoq Excavation Project: 2014–2017 Interim Report”, 111–115. The evidence for this depiction is fascinating and probably far-reaching. Naturally, the mosaic was found very recently, and is still one of the few depictions of Jonah in a synagogue setting. Lorenzo San Román, “La basílica-sinagoga de L’Alcudia d’Elx (1905–2005).” Lorenzo de San Román and Morcillo, “La basílica paleocristiana de Ilici (L’Alcudia, Elche).” Lorenzo de San Román, “Ilici en la Antigüedad Tardía.”
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A definitive publication of its evidence was never made, nor was any real interpretation of the basilical structure from an archaeological, and not artistic, perspective. Lorenzo takes a new approach when tackling the issue of the Ilici basilical building. He is the first researcher who reviewed the original, unpublished content of the 1905, 1948, and 1990 excavations in a holistic perspective. Unsurprisingly, he follows previous theories concerning the Christian description of the building, including Corell’s and Poveda’s thesis, although not uncritically. While not conclusive yet in his 2004–2005 publication, most of his archaeological interpretations stem from this reading, which became more explicit in the 2014 article. Significantly, in his 2005 publication, Lorenzo tries to solve the disparity between the accounts of Albertini and Ibarra by indicating that the site’s excavation had two different interventions: the first by Albertini, who uncovered the mosaic itself and the upper parts of the eastern apse; the second by Ibarra, who would excavate the apse area and recover the apse’s plan.158 For Lorenzo, the Christian character of the building is made clear with what he interpreted as an ad sanctos cemetery. Regarding this, the author suggests the possibility that the rectangular gravel pavement, discovered in 1971, was somehow associated with later use of the area as a necropolis, which would be evident from the latest period of the site (Figs. 9.17, 18).159 In fact, the author insists he does not know if such a structure predates the mosaic floor, and therefore the use of the site as a supposed Christian basilica. However, the date of the later burials remains unspecified. Since most burials were probably done with a simple cloth shroud, and with direct contact to the earth (no sarcophagi nor remains of coffins were found at the site or in its surroundings), the author concludes that they were probably dated between the 5th and 7th centuries, associated with the Subtipus 1.A burials from the Vinalopó river valley (with no cover nor any other burial material except for the pit itself).160 The association of the basilical building with the late necropolis is only highlighted with positive evidence by the presence of what was interpreted as a Visigothic burial in an amphora from the 7th century, found “100 meters away from the place where the Dama de Elche was found” (see Chapter 11, 6.2).161 Therefore, the author proposes that this burial is associated with the extensive
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Lorenzo San Román, “La basílica-sinagoga de L’Alcudia d’Elx (1905–2005),” 134–136. Lorenzo San Román, 146. Lorenzo San Román, 147. Alejandro Ramos Folqués, “Memoria de las excavaciones practicadas en la Alcudia,” Noticiario Arqueológico Hispánico III–IV, no. 1–3 (1954–1955) (1956): 107; cited by Lorenzo San Román, “La basílica-sinagoga de L’Alcudia d’Elx (1905–2005),” 144.
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ad sanctos necropolis next to the Christian basilica, even though the distance between the basilica and said burial is about 58 meters! Incidentally, the insistence that this necropolis is near the basilica follows the acceptance of the Christian nature of the building. The assumption is that no synagogue would have ad sanctos burials, and indeed that there is no clear evidence for such ad sanctos burials in the Jewish environment. However, both in Palestine and the Diaspora there is ample evidence for even shorter distances between synagogues and what appears to be associated necropolises, such as Beth Sheʾarim and Bova Marina.162 As will be indicated in Chapter 9 and elaborated in Chapter 11, there is simply no evidence for an ad sanctos burial associated with the human remains from the site. Another issue presented by Roberto Lorenzo’s article was the lack of certainty when it came to the building’s chronology. The author dated the Ilici basilica with the arrival and the establishment of Christianity in the late antique town. Despite the admittedly early arrival of Christianity to Ilici, Lorenzo’s chronological considerations followed Schlunk’s, denying the validity of the arguments presented by Rafael Ramos, Poveda, and Márquez for an early 4th century dating of the establishment of the basilical structure—that is around the year 322.163 Rather, he proposed a late 4th century dating for the mosaic floor. He did not indicate a different dating for the apse, which would be a crucial argument for his later 2014 publication. Instead, he indicates that the arrival of Byzantine influence in the 6th century led to the use of a similar style in furniture and architectural features as the one found in Elda, following Poveda and Márquez. Finally, the two ashlar stones that marked the limit of the central mosaic nave were dated to the 7th century, associated by Lorenzo with a change in ritual within the building.164 Lorenzo also devoted a few paragraphs to the issue of the “non-central” position of the basilical building itself with regards to the rest of the site. He argued, following Barral (1982), that this was a typical feature of early Christian churches from the 4th century, thus signaling a possible early date for the church.165 However, he correctly states that the placing of a church in such a location was common also in later periods. If anything, this could only prove
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This will be treated with more detail in Chapter 9. Lorenzo San Román, “La basílica-sinagoga de L’Alcudia d’Elx (1905–2005),” 149–151. Lorenzo San Román, 151. Xavier Barral i Altet, “Transformacions de la topografia urbana a la Hispania cristiana durant l’antiguitat tardana,” in Actas de la II Reunió d’Arqueologia Paleocristiana Hispànica (Montserrat-Barcelona 1978) (Barcelona: Institut d’Arqueologia i Prehistòria, 1982), 119.
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that the site was merely another Christian basilica in the city amongst many. Certainly, he denies the association of this basilica to the seat of the Ilici bishopric.166 Up until the publication of Lorenzo’s thesis in 2016, the most complete study of the Elche basilical building was Roberto Lorenzo and Javier Morcillo’s 2014 article, “La basilica paleocristiana de Ilici (L’Alcudia, Elche). Desmontaje, contextualización y restitución desde la reexcavación bibliográfica”, published in the Madrider Mitteilungen number 55. It is very important to cite this publication as one of the key articles for the present study, since while applying similar methodology as this project, the conclusions reached by Roberto and Morcillo were significantly different than those of the present study. The 2014 publication follows where the 2005 one stopped: not delving into the historiographical questions that plagued the issue of the Elche basilica’s denomination or chronology, but rather presenting their own attempt to reconstruct the structure according to the theories already touched upon in previous works. Methodologically, this 2014 article was a significant improvement from previous studies, as it included evidence from the excavation diaries and original manuscripts and photographs that were not published in previous works. Another important aspect is the introduction of metrological analysis of this ancient structure, attempting to find the precise measures and mathematical harmony in such a building, as was researched elsewhere in Spain (for example: in the Tolmo de Minateda in Albacete and in the San Fructuoso basilica in Tarragona).167 These two new methods allowed for a proposed reconstruction of the structure based on the findings Roberto Lorenzo and Javier Morcillo presented. Their diachronic summary is as follows: I. Pre-basilical structures that included the adobe walls excavated in the 1990 campaign, on top of which one would find the remains that were registered on two occasions: in the Excavation Diaries corresponding to October 1949, where two levels “M” and “N” were identified by Alejandro Ramos Folqués, and in the plan prepared by Th. Hauschild in 1971 of the structures underneath what would have been the mosaic floor. The author centered on the excavation diaries made by Alejandro Ramos, indicating the existence of a series of walls and structures. The ground included a mixture of ceramic materials of Iberian and late republican 166 167
Lorenzo San Román, “La basílica-sinagoga de L’Alcudia d’Elx (1905–2005),” 152. Lorenzo de San Román and Morcillo, “La basílica paleocristiana de Ilici (L’Alcudia, Elche),” 539–550.
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periods, giving an unreliable date as these pottery fragments appear on several horizontal levels. Either way, the authors associate these demolished structures with the northern wall, in whose foundations a 1st century ce pottery fragment was found, thus suggesting that the northern wall of the basilical structure must have been constructed in the 1st century. The northern wall alluded to, must have reached the northeastern corner of the Sacristía area identified to the east of the tangential wall of the eastern apse. Accordingly, the area to the east of the basilica was to be associated with the pre-basilical urbanization. In turn the authors state that all the walls found here follow the direction the later basilical structure would adopt. Such features would have lasted until, at least, the 3rd century ce.168 II. The basilical structure, built by the late 4th century, as indicated by the typological parallels between the mosaic floor and other mosaics from the Ilici area (including the Algorós villa and the Santa Pola port nearby).169 One of the main arguments for the reconstruction of the basilica was that nearly all the main features discovered in the 1905 and 1948 excavations were constructed as part of an original plan. In other words, the apse was included as part of the basilical building with mosaic pavement. The argument in favor of this is a reading of Alejandro Ramos’ note concerning the “Study of the Mosaic”, which proposes a similar type of construction between the apse itself and the wall that “frames” the mosaic floor—that, according to the authors, being exclusively the eastern wall next to the mosaic.170 As for the space beyond the apse, the authors proposed that by the time of the basilica’s construction, it was already a demolished open space. Therefore, we find a reconversion of the original rectangular space into a Christian late 4th/early 5th century basilica with an eastern rectangular apse with an arched eastern edge.171 III. Following the construction of the original basilica with mosaic floor, internal reform occurs that defined the current basilica. These reforms include “repairs” in the northern panel of the mosaic floor as a result of its long period of use. They also point towards the finding in Ilici of a polilobed altar table that has late 6th century parallels, though they do 168 169 170 171
Lorenzo de San Román and Morcillo, 517–521. Lorenzo de San Román and Morcillo, 534–535. Lorenzo de San Román and Morcillo, 521. Lorenzo de San Román and Morcillo, 521–529.
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not seem to associate it directly with the building, but rather with the presence of changes in Christian ritual following the collapse of Byzantine rule in the Vinalopó valley. It was only to the 7th century that the authors point for a more substantial reform for the building. They frame the introduction of the two ashlar stones around four meters to the west of the apse within this period, which according to the authors was to sustain a transenna or balustrade that would in turn separate the common congregation from the sacred area of what they deemed a church (in other words, what should be deemed a chancel screen). The bezel work found around the building is not to be considered, according to them, as part of said screen, but rather as part of latticework for what were probably windows found on the apse walls and the entrance.172 IV. The burials found in the immediate vicinity of this basilical building were, in turn, interpreted as ad sanctos Christian burials from the 6th to 7th centuries. At a certain point, a southern wall was put on top of the mosaic floor. The authors indicate that such a wall, probably put on top of another floor destroyed by Albertini and Ibarra in their 1905 excavation, protected part of the mosaic floor from the destructive forces following the abandonment of the site. However, the evidence from the maritime scene panel, which was underneath that wall, suggests that this mosaic scene was probably affected by iconoclastic destruction before the wall was constructed. This wall represents an uncertain change of the urbanization of the area south of the basilical building, which also affected the use of the now abandoned four-meter street in the area that gave access to the basilica. Following the establishment of the new city of Elche after the Muslim conquest in the 8th century, the site was abandoned, its walls being used for the construction of the new buildings. Only the foundation of the ancient buildings and a few decimeters of said walls survived, as well as what remained of the mosaic floor.173 The history of the basilical building is followed by a curious metrological study, which attempts to understand the architectural calculations used for its foundation and construction. The conclusion is that the basic unit for measurement was the Roman foot in use by the late 4th century, which is about 29.6 centimeters.174 Furthermore, following certain calculations made by Alejandro Ramos 172 173 174
Lorenzo de San Román and Morcillo, 531–533, 538–539. Lorenzo de San Román and Morcillo, 529–533. Lorenzo de San Román and Morcillo, 541.
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Folqués in his 1949 excavations underneath the mosaic floor level, the authors concluded that the width of the basilical building was not 7.55 meters, but rather 7.75 meters.175 A calculation based on the division between the length of the mosaic plus half the depth of the apse and the new measured inner width of the basilica after their conversion to Roman feet (that is, 42:26) presents us with a the golden ratio proportion of 1.615.176 The 2014 publication in the Madrider Mitteilungen was extremely important as a first attempt for a complete study of said basilical structure. However, this study has several problems when considering basic factors regarding the development of the building, and the parallels used for its denomination. A case in point is the metrological analysis mentioned above. In order to justify the use of the pertica decempeda (10 feet) based on the Roman foot of 29.6 centimeters, the authors wrote that the depth of the eastern apse is 3 meters, which would imply 10 Roman feet. However, as was indicated above, Ibarra clearly states that the depth of said apse was 3.2 meters! And even so the true depth was 2.7 meters as stated below in this study (see Chapter 7). The “rounding” of this measurement is an important modifier of the results, as twenty centimeters is nearly one extra foot. In fact, the rounding of numbers is widespread in the article’s metrological study, as in the case of the distance between the “center of the apse” and the entrance to it, which amount to 12.60 meters. Calculating it based on the Roman foot leads to 42.56 feet in total. However, the authors round it to 42 feet, even though it would be more logical to round it to 43 feet (see Chapter 7, 4.2). Lorenzo and Morcillo argued that a reason for this method was the problem in preservation and the partiality of evidence the current scholar faces. Yet the evidence presented in their metrological study is faulty at best, as the “rounding” of values causes a distortion that might equally result in faulty interpretations. Another problem is that the authors do not consider the fact that the mosaic floor never touched its “eastern wall”. It breaks off approximately 1.1 meters from it. Therefore, the eastern apse does not touch the mosaic, which may have important stratigraphical and chronological implications. Furthermore, there are other problems stemming from the a priori identification of the building as a Christian church. Lorenzo and Morcillo seemed to have abandoned the proposition that the southeastern structure discovered by
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Lorenzo de San Román and Morcillo, 504. Lorenzo de San Román and Morcillo, 542–543. A thorough review of these measurements will be developed in Chapter 7, 4.2.
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Albertini was a primitive baptistry. Instead, they accurately read it as a probable late structure associated with the abandonment of the basilical building itself.177 On the other hand, there are features for which they do not seem to find an explanation, as in the case of the basin found on the western part of the mosaic floor. The authors, in fact, reject “the interpretation in which the pavement was broken to introduce a basin, an element so foreign to liturgical and architectural logic of basilicas”.178 Instead, the authors present this as a mere reparation of an area that needed it most, as was the case with the entrance to the main hall. Evidently, this does not answer the question why a basin would be added for such a purpose. The fact that such a feature is not easily found in late antique Christian architecture does not mean that it is absent from basilical structures altogether. This includes Jewish buildings, which do in fact have features of water installations at the entrance of synagogal complexes. A third feature of the article is the discussion of the important discovery that parts of the mosaic were vandalized before their abandonment. The authors only indicate that the maritime scene panel on the southern nave was a victim of such iconoclasm.179 However, there is reason to believe that other sections of the mosaic floor were vandalized, as is evident from the almost surgical destruction of certain features, including what appears to be two sevenbranched candelabra on the northeastern section of the mosaic (Fig. 7.16), as well as the central inscription in tabula ansata (Fig. 7.15). The above article, with a few minor changes, was included in Lorenzo’s doctoral thesis published by the University of Alicante in 2016. The hypothesis, reconstruction, and material are the same. However, other sections of the thesis are of interest to the reader. In Chapter 6 of his thesis he details his theory regarding the so-called ad sanctos cemetery, based on the reading of Ramos Folqués’ Excavation Reports on his 1950 intervention.180 He concludes that the cemetery reached the basilical building based on the finding of the secondary burial from the area to its south. However, as shall be seen in Chapter 11, 6.2, this grave belongs to a post-basilica phase of the site. Other sections add a study of the chancel screens from the area. This includes the base found in the apse’s fill and the association of the “chancel screen fragments” in the Ilici basilica with 7th century window screens citing his mentors S. Gutiérrez Lloret and M.A. Utrero Agudo.181 177 178 179 180 181
Lorenzo de San Román and Morcillo, 544–546. Lorenzo de San Román and Morcillo, 524. Highlight added by me. Lorenzo de San Román and Morcillo, 531. Lorenzo de San Román, “Ilici en la Antigüedad Tardía,” 273–276. Lorenzo de San Román, 399–403.
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Roberto Lorenzo’s thesis goes beyond the scope of the Ilici basilical building, as it occupied an important, yet minor section of his study. It is a general overview of the late antique history and archaeological findings in the territorium of the city of Ilici, which includes findings from the Portus Ilicitanus, Elda, villae such as Algorós, roadways associated with the Via Augusta, and necropolises such as those of El Borrocat and El Arsenal (Granados de Espuig). His complete study contextualizes the findings within the historical development of the area, specifically its Christianization and the foundation of Christian bishopric authorities that defined the urban development of the Alcudia site, as well as its final abandonment in the early Islamic period. Accordingly, he dates the stones at the center of the mosaic floor to the 7th century, following his previous articles.182 Regarding the site’s abandonment, there seems to be a relation between the “obliteration of the structures” according to Lorenzo’s 2014 article and an early Islamic phase. He dates the wall on top of the mosaic (B/014) to an 8th century construction, that is with the remains of the town possibly before the suppression of a local revolt by emir Abd-alRahman I in 778. Following that, the final abandonment of the site was dated to the 9th century with the construction of the new medieval town of Elche.183 The a priori assumptions of the authors led them to these important shortcomings in the interpretation of the features found on the Ilici basilical building. These works, just as those by Corell, Márquez, and Poveda, are an expression of scholars who are victims of their own apologetic attitudes with regard to their archaeological and epigraphic studies. This attitude has caused an academic blindness towards the evidence that showed how the artistic tendencies within the Ilici basilica had clear Judaizing features, and therefore led to the establishment of widespread acceptance, without certain evidence, that such a building was indeed a Christian church since the first laying of the mosaic. Such features would also be present had the building been proven to be a Christian church—as would a Christianizing feature in Jewish synagogues. Both chronological and metrological considerations were affected by these aprioristic assumptions, which attempted to put aside the discussion regarding the building’s denominational nature. The review of the academic production in Alicante surrounding the Ilici basilical building would be incomplete without mention of the most recent publication in 2018 of Ana Ronda Femenia’s work on the original documents by Alejandro Ramos Folqués and their archaeological review with the title
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Lorenzo de San Román, 634. Lorenzo de San Román, 635–636.
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L’Alcúdia de Alejandro Ramos Folqués: contextos arqueológicos y humanos en el yacimiento de la Dama de Elche. It was based on a doctoral thesis by the author in the Universidad de Alicante, completed in 2016—at the same time as that of Roberto Lorenzo. This is the most complete review of the accounts provided by Alejandro Ramos Folqués in the entire site of the Alcudia de Elche. Ronda dedicates three chapters to sectors 10A–B and 9A–B, or the “basilica area”.184 The most important contribution is the fact that, with direct access to the material storage of the archaeological findings from that period, Ronda could identify the catalogue number of thousands of materials, which otherwise would have been impossible. Sadly, given the methodological limitations from that excavation, a large amount of these materials remained unidentified, and their only known account is only present in Folqués’ excavation diaries. Even so, it is impossible to underestimate Ana Ronda’s contribution to the study, not only of the basilical building, but of the entire site of the Alcudia de Elche. Nevertheless, Ronda’s study is not an interpretative work when it comes to the basilical building. Her thesis and book intentionally avoid delving into the debate over the building’s denomination, which admittedly has contributed to the considerable entanglement and confusion regarding the interpretation of Ramos Folqués’ findings.185 However, at points where she does give a description of the building, she follows Roberto Lorenzo’s and Javier Morcillo’s interpretation of it being a Christian basilica, based on the human remains near the basilical building as evidence of an ad sanctos burial. This reading caused several problems when studying burials from previous periods, such as the skeleton found at Ramos Folqués’ “Level C” found south of the southern street complex (“Area C”, see Chapter 9) and therefore supposedly dated to an early imperial period, yet interpreted as part of a late antique cemetery.186 However, given her admittance of a later date (6th to 7th century, according to Lorenzo and Morcillo), she does not negate the possibility of it being a late antique synagogue before its conversion, as is evident by her description of the site as that of “the basilica or the synagogue” in the opening paragraph of this section in her book.187
184 185
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Ronda Femenia, L’Alcudia de Alejandro Ramos Folqués, chaps. 10, 12, 13. On a direct conversation with the author, Ana Ronda pointed out that of all sectors of the Alcudia, the “Elche Basilica” or sectors 10A–B and 9A–B, was the most complicated and time-consuming to describe and study, not the least because of the deficient excavation methods, repetitive notes, and above all the fact that it was excavated intermittently and at different historical periods. Ronda Femenia, L’Alcudia de Alejandro Ramos Folqués, 184–185. Ronda Femenia, 136.
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Mention should be given of the important advancement of her methods compared to previous studies. The key aspect is the fact that Ronda, who has participated with other archaeologists such as Mercedes Tendero or Alejandro Molina in the excavation and interpretation of the site, contextualizes the “levels” presented by Ramos Folqués in his diaries as part of the wider site. Another is her attempts to reconstruct the archaeological interventions, mapping in chronological order the process of Ramos Folqués’ research based on the positive evidence available in his excavation diaries.188 However, these advancements are accompanied by an important problem in Ronda’s reading of the documents. This is particularly the case when interpreting Ramos Folqués’ excavation of what he called the “Palacio” (Area P), which is located north of what he called the “Sacristía” (Area S—see Annex A and Chapters VIII and X). While correctly identifying many of the material findings, Ronda confuses the probes from Area P with Area S itself, thus deepening the confusion regarding the peripheral areas of the basilical building.189 A review of the materials recovered from the Schlunk Archive in Madrid would clarify the location of Area P as another room separate from Area S and the main basilical building (Area B). In summation, Ronda’s thesis and book is important not only as a compilation and a necessary source for the documents of Alejandro Ramos Folqués, but also for the study of the entire Alcudia site. It is an important advancement in the description of findings and of the process in which the complex was excavated, but it does not provide a definite interpretation of the site as previous articles did. Attempts to give conclusions regarding the building’s identification did not end the scholarly debate. In 2016, Robyn Walsh published a summary of her conclusions following her review of the site between 2009 and 2011. In her article “Reconsidering the Synagogue/Basilica of Elche (Spain)”, she reviews the building’s identification using the iconography of the original 4th century mosaic. The author follows a conventional review of the archaeological interventions done there. However, her study depends mostly on published materials by the excavators and other authors, and not the unpublished material found in the Alcudia de Elche. As a result, while she mentions the Alcudia Foundation where those documents are placed, she does not cite them directly in her article.
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Ronda Femenia, 160. See chronological table. Ronda Femenia, 160, fig. 178.
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Therefore, Walsh misreads several important details of the site that would be appropriately placed in archaeological context had she accessed those materials: 1. The indication that the mosaic was reburied not only after the 1905 excavation, but also following that of 1948 as well—thus leaving future scholars only with the 1948 registry as valid archaeological evidence for later research.190 2. Ramos Folqués is faulted with a lack of study on the masonry of the walls—something that was not only noted in the original excavation diaries by the archaeologist, but also in his 1974 book El cristianismo en Elche.191 3. The idea of the apse walls being of “better quality” than the rest of the rectangular hall, thus proving its diachronic relation with the mosaic floor. While the author is not mistaken (as presented in Chapter 7), the photographs and available evidence indicates the apse’s masonry is in fact of a more deficient quality than the walls—thus being unable to sustain its own weight after its 1905 discovery. This is best detected, however, through the DAI—Madrid photographs. 4. Finally, her indication that the coins and dove bones found by Ramos Fernández were in the northeastern corner of the “apse antechamber” in 1991. However, the finding was not made within the “apsidal building’s” area, but rather in the anteroom, which in this book is called Area S. This is important, because the detected masonry and construction history of this area is parallel to the one from the main hall. In other words, the finding does not inform directly on the apse’s construction, as Walsh has proposed reading Ramos Fernández’s report. Even so, she is still accurate on the theoretical problems with Fernández’s proposed chronology based on these early 4th century coins.192 Likewise, Walsh does not fully consider the archaeological evidence provided by archives and photographs from previous excavations and interventions— this is despite the availability of the Alcudia archives during her visits there, according to her own account.193 For example, while identifying the archaeological actions by Ramos Folqués in the late 1940s and through the 1950s at the
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Robyn Walsh, “A Reconsideration of the So-Called Synagogue-Basilica of Elche, Spain,” Jewish Studies Quarterly 23, no. 2 (2016): 109–110. Walsh, 111. Walsh, 113, note 92. Walsh, 98, note 29. Here she indicates that she was granted “unlimited access” to the mosaic floor as well as to the “private libraries and image galleries” by the Ramos fam-
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site, she ignores the fact that to the south of the basilical building there were important buildings as well as a street with its own, related, stratified history. Notwithstanding the paper’s problems, Walsh’s work provides an important reinterpretation of the mosaic floor’s features. Specifically, the northeastern corner of the mosaic, and its supposed representation of a seven-branched candelabrum.194 While treated before by other authors, including Poveda in 2005, Walsh suggests that the figure, produced as a repair of the mosaic sometime after its first laying, was indeed a Jewish menorah. She rejects Schlunk’s and Poveda’s interpretation of the figurative motifs of the mosaic, indicating the prevalence of expressions like euploia or the maritime scenes in non-Christian contexts as much as Christian ones.195 She also argues correctly that Poveda’s objection to the type of menorah represented in Elche is unprecedented, citing Hachlili’s 2000 work on the menorah that does present menorot of similar form and representation. As a result, the menorah gives a Jewish meaning to the mosaic’s inscriptions and figures, restoring the value of the building’s identification as a synagogue.196 The identification of the building as a synagogue allowed for her to summarily place it in its wider Hispanian Jewish context. This includes objects such as the decorated brick from Ronda (see Chapter 3) with a bas-relief of a menorah and an aedicula, to the dozen or so identified Jewish inscriptions published through the years covered in Chapter 2. To understand the history of this Jewish synagogue identified in Elche, Walsh proposes to place it in the wider Jewish history of late antique Hispania.197 One of the suggestions for the end of the Elche synagogue’s history was a forced conversion, the type detected in other incidents in the late antique Mediterranean, such as synagogues in Alexandria, Rome, Amapea, or Stobi. As such, the Elche synagogue is presented as a first case for the conflictual relationship between the Jewish minority and the Christian majority seeking to convert them, and which would ultimately expel them in the late 15th century.198 Despite these interesting conclusions, which contributed to the present study, the paper’s limitations implied the absence of crucial direct archaeological evidence to allow for the reconstruction of the building’s history. These
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ily, who are caretakers of the archaeological sites and directors of the Alcudia de Elche Foundation where the archives are located. Walsh, 113–120. Walsh, 118–119. Walsh, 119–120. Walsh, 121. Walsh, 122.
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problematic aspects touch upon the shortcomings of archaeological studies undertaken without the full set of data due to its lack of publication. Ultimately, the Ilici synagogue became a representation of a trope of Hispanic Jewish history, rather than an object which can contribute its own history to the puzzle of Hispanojewish culture.
6
Conclusions
The history of research on the Elche basilical building allows us to have a complex view of ideological, theoretical, and epistemological changes in Spanish archaeology through the 20th and early 21st centuries. This is especially true when it comes to the question regarding the denomination of the building as either a Christian church or a Jewish synagogue. The question over its denomination hides other aspects that greatly affected the recovery of information from the site. First, there are the changes in techniques for excavation starting in 1905, the 1940s and 50s, 1971, and finally in 1990. Technological advancements in photography, application of architectural techniques for the study of the site, advancements in stratigraphic registry, and other developments are found through this site’s history, all contributing to increasingly better archaeological interventions. The 1905 excavation had very rudimentary tools for such registry, although the excavators were keen on registering, with utmost precision, everything that they deemed important, from a scientific standpoint. Alejandro Ramos Folqués was highly talented in his ability to perceive different archaeological phases and periods in the site, which he excavated for decades, despite the perhaps simplistic interpretation of the site’s stratigraphy. The 1971 and 1990 interventions saw the official registry of the interventions done on the site, as well as the use of colored photographs that allowed for better understanding. Furthermore, there was better awareness that the archaeological phases presented by Alejandro Ramos Folqués were not to be applied necessarily at all places in the Alcudia. Through that whole period, we can see two historiographical phases. The first was of open discussion regarding the use of this paradoxical building. Different archaeological interventions made a singular interpretation more complicated, though it had the positive effect of opening the discussion to interpretations that in other circumstances would be closed. A case in point are the theories of Albertini in 1906 and Schlunk in 1947 that it is a late antique synagogue, or Lafuente Vidal’s “secular merchant basilica” interpretation in 1948, according to which it later converted into a church. Schlunk’s “change of mind” by 1952, followed up with his joint publication in 1978 with Hauschild
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and his solo publication in 1982, became highly influential for other researchers regarding the interpretation of the site, including the excavator of the basilica, Alejandro Ramos Folqués. The second period follows Schlunk’s death in 1982. Despite Enric Llobregat’s warning in 1985, later researchers based in the University of Alicante eventually assumed a “strict” Christian reading of the inscriptions and the building, drawing conclusions from it. This includes Poveda’s 2005 apologetic article that rejected vehemently any archaeological registry of Jewish communities whether in the Alcudia d’Elx or its environs, assuming his reading on Jewish archaeological material to be that they weren’t Jewish at all. The 2004 publication by Roberto Lorenzo de San Román and his publication together with Javier Morcillo in 2014 of a more complete comprehensive study of this basilical structure were an attempt to solve most, if not all controversies that arose through the years. As stated above, the aprioristic assumptions present in these publications were a cause for accepting “rounded” and inexact metrological conclusions, which are flawed from a methodological standpoint. Furthermore, despite the attempts to present a conclusive study for the building, Walsh’s publication in 2016 opened yet again the question regarding its Christian adscription. This included a comprehensive reading of the artistic evidence from the mosaic as part of a Jewish synagogue, something that remained plausible through the decades. Finally, the latest publication by Ana Ronda of the building’s excavation, though it does not provide an interpretation of the building’s use, is an important advancement in the description of its findings. Regardless of the objective, strengths, and flaws of different publications and scholarly research on this structure, one cannot ignore the evident importance of this basilical building for the subject at hand in this book. Any study of late antique Jewish archaeology in the Iberian Peninsula must start at the research on the Ilici basilical building. It is through the conclusions one draws from the study of this structure, including its complex development as a building in use for hundreds of years, that it is possible to draw a historiographical and archaeological understanding of late antique Judaism in the Iberian Peninsula. Any study of that archaeological material requires, at least, to contextualize the presence of Jewish communities in the Mediterranean, including their artistic and architectural materials, within a wider, non-Jewish environment. This must be done following the archaeological review of evidence preserved in archives from the different past interventions, which allows us to tentatively reconstruct the chronological and physical development of this architectural complex.
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Stratigraphic Sequencing and Architectural Features of Area B 1
Introduction
The first area to be excavated, Area B will be the first to be interpreted in this study. It is important to note that Area B is the area with least amount of archaeological information available, despite being the most studied and excavated area of the entire site. The 1905 excavation by Albertini and Ibarra caused the loss of a large amount of information, and therefore presents only a partial picture. Moreover, as described in Chapter 6, most of the original documents that probably contained the day-to-day information of the original discoveries made in the basilical building were lost, sometime in the mid-20th century. Later excavations gave much more information regarding the development of this area, but apparently the 1948 excavation only uncovered the mosaic floor and included some digging to the southern edge of Area B. The main architectural features of Area B were already uncovered before the 1948 intervention, and therefore little more could be said about the building in this general area. It is only in the other sub-areas, excavated by Alejandro Ramos Folqués, where the largest amount of archaeological information relevant to solve the puzzle of this building’s history can be found. This puzzle can only be solved if the other areas of the site, including Area S (Chapter 8), Areas C and T (Chapter 9) and Area P (Chapter 10) are considered.
2
Main Area B
As summarized in Annex A, the area considered “B” is thus named because of its association with the basilica proper. The basic criterion to locate stratigraphic units is their relation to the mosaic floor and the main hall of the building. General Area B was opened then in 1905 and continued to be researched until the 1990s, after which the restoration of the main building was completed. This was the most explored area. However, it was also the area with the least archaeological information. In the late 40s and 50s, new information was available when the stratigraphic units underneath the mosaic were excavated. The
© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2021 | doi:10.1163/9789004419926_009 Alexander Bar-Magen
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units that were codified as “B” before the unit number were those detected in more than one sub-area of this sector, or were located in the central section of the area (next, below, or on top of the mosaic floor). The area presents two features that are crucial for the understanding of the building’s history: the mosaic floor (B/011) and the apse structure (B/006). Both will be the main object of interpretation for two distinct periods of the building’s history, despite recent publications that indicate that the mosaic and apse were built simultaneously.1 It is through these features, and their physical relation to different stratigraphic units, that we can approximate a concrete historical periodization of the structure’s phases. The mosaic floor itself is divided into a central nave and two side aisles. Its boundaries are best detected through the presence of two stone blocks introduced to the mosaic floor after its completion (B/008 and B/009), though they were a later addition to the original mosaic floor. This arrangement is the basic division of space of Area B. However, considering the locus B/002 and upper topsoil B/001 were excavated without proper registration of finds, sub-divisions of the space based on this tripartite division of the basilica would be pointless from a stratigraphic point of view. Nonetheless, it will be important for the interpretation of the building’s use and division of space. The main stratigraphic issues regarding the mosaic is its framing. The mosaic is surrounded by walls. Yet from available publications there is little information about the history of these walls, their superposition, or the period in which they were constructed. 2.1 Delimitation of the Area: Framing the Mosaic General Area B also has the presence of the main vertical stratigraphic units, including the “original” enclosure of the basilical hall. Following Pere Ibarra’s account from his publication from 1906, the enclosure classified here as B/005, can be divided to several walls with their own classified loci. These divisions include the northern wall (B/023), the succession of southern walls (B/021, B/020 and B/028), the tangential eastern wall of the apse (B/010), and the original western wall bordering the mosaic floor (B/024). This original enclosure was recovered in different plans published by both Albertini (Fig. 7.1) and Ibarra (Figs. 7.2, 3). Adding to the enclosure of B/005 is the wall corresponding with sub-area B/OM to the west, or B/OM/027, which was first documented in photographs from the intervention of 1971 by the Deutsches Archaeologisches
1 Lorenzo de San Román and Morcillo, “La basílica paleocristiana de Ilici (L’Alcudia, Elche),” 542–543.
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figure 7.1 Elche building plan from e. albertini (1906): “fouillés d’ elche”, p. 337
Institut expedition to Elche, and later confirmed in 1990 by a team led by Rafael Ramos Fernández, son of Alejandro Ramos Folqués. This set of walls establish the “original enclosure” for which the current limits of Area B are based. From the original set of walls, only B/024 has not been preserved, save for a few remains in the southwestern section of the mosaic and the northwestern remains of stucco (B/313). Nevertheless, wall B/024 is the dividing line between Area B proper and the sub-area B/OM. This “original enclosure” raises the question: what were the original limits of the mosaic floor? Despite the documentary evidence available since 1905, and the preservation of different plans for the basilical structure, some of its features were added from plans of an idealized version of the building, rather than what was found during the excavation. In fact, there is scarce material evidence for the wall to the west of the mosaic, designated B/024. Excavations and re-excavations saw the disappearance of this wall, with today’s structure, restored in the 1990s, omitting the existence of said wall entirely (Fig. 7.5).
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figure 7.2 Elche building plan from p. ibarra (1905): “el cristianismo en ‘ilici’ ”, p. 913
A more confusing picture emerges when it comes to the eastern limit of the mosaic floor. Two eastern walls, identified as B/026 to the north and B/321 to the south, were first documented in 1949 by Alejandro Ramos Folqués and flank the apse arch’s starting point.2 These walls’ state of preservation is deficient: only 1.5 meters to the north, and 0.5 meters to the south.3 Photographs from the 1971 intervention and especially the 1990 excavation reveal remnants of these walls (Figs. 7.38, 39, 40, 48). Many of these features were apparently demolished in ancient times. These walls are not, however, the eastern limit of Area B, but merely the eastern limit of the preserved mosaic floor (despite its 1.1 meters distance from the mosaic’s eastern edge). To its east we find the apse complex (B/006), area B/NE (including boulder floor B/NE/025 and B/NE/077), and finally the tangential wall to the east of the apse, B/010. These limits were clearly defined by mid-1948, but their chronological development was not. Despite the fragmentary and confusing information regarding the development of this central area, much information can still be derived for the understanding of this site.
2 ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 13th, 1949, n. 10, f. 10r; October 11th, 1949, n. 11, f. 4r. 3 Ramos Folqués, El cristianismo en Elche, 105.
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2.2 Stratigraphic Development of Main Area B 2.2.1 On Top and after the Mosaic In this main area was the first encounter with the topsoil level B/001. According to the account in Pere Ibarra’s personal diaries (Efemérides), this area of the site was previously used as an agricultural field, dedicated to the plantation of figs. It is unknown how much this activity affected the archaeological levels below. However, it must have resulted in some destruction of the upper levels, since according to Albertini who began the excavation on June 1905, the first findings, including the mosaic, were found a meter below modern soil level.4 The height of the topsoil is unknown. Immediately after revealing the depth where the mosaic was found from the modern soil, Albertini wrote that he found “on top of the floor (the mosaic) several architectural fragments here and there”. It is not clear to what fragments he is referring. However, under an agricultural level (which is referred to in other sections of the excavation—see sub-area S/B in Chapter 8) there is an archaeological level of abandonment, which is the first introduction to B/002. Through the excavation, the difference between B/001 and B/002 was ambiguous, as excavation methods in 1905 and in 1948–1954 were not perfected enough to differentiate between these two upper levels. Fill B/002 has parallel associations with other units surrounding Area B. Therefore, it cannot be a unitary level. Lack of information regarding the stratigraphy of phases above the mosaic floor forces us to accept that this ambiguous level is one associated with the abandonment of the building, and therefore its latest phase. This stage is associated with other levels from Area B: B/SE/A’/241 at the southeastern section of Area B, on and beyond the mosaic, excavated in 1948, and B/D/240 at the “north section” excavated in 1949, where similar findings to those made in 1905 were made. Other sections from other areas are also associated with B/002, including S/002, P/002, C/002, and T/002. Those levels have a similar, if not identical nature as that of B/002, which is a phase of abandonment and ruin of the structure around the site. The findings in locus 002 in other areas of the site will be treated in their corresponding chapters. Area B unit 002 includes a series of findings related to architectural features and some ceramic material. All information regarding these objects are from the publications by Albertini and Ibarra following the 1905 campaign.5 Albertini was the first to describe the fragments of two architectural elements
4 Albertini, “Rapport Sommaire,” 619. 5 Albertini, “Fouilles d’ Elche,” 1907, 126; Ibarra Ruiz, “Antigua basílica de Elche,” 120, 130.
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recovered on top of the mosaic floor. They are decorated reliefs on their two sides, with forms of “crossing” lines made by a bevel, which was interpreted by the French excavator as being “certainly Arabic”, pointing to the possibility that they were used as part of an “Arabic-style” window in the latest period of the building. This fragment, as well as others found in later excavations in the 1940s and 50s, were interpreted as chancel screens by Alejandro Folqués in 1972 (Figs. 11. 39–43).6 However this interpretation was abandoned through the publications first of Sonia Gutiérrez Lloret and Julia Sarabia Bautista in 2006, and later by Roberto Lorenzo and Javer Morcllo in 2014, who correctly indicated its use as window decoration.7 Luckily, the ensemble is still preserved in the Fundación Universitaria de Investigación Arqueológica l’Alcudia (here shortened to: FLA) and is today displayed there. Identification of said ensemble is seen in one of the photographs from the 1905 findings (see Figs. 7.6, 7), which includes material found from many excavations from that year in the Alcudia, and not only the basilical building. Therefore, this is the only clearly identifiable piece from the excavation in that photograph. Albertini also describes the presence of other architectural features, all of which are lost today: three fragments of Corinthian capitals, which were associated with the 3rd or 4th centuries; other fragments in worse state of preservation such as loose volutes, and a cylindrical stone that could be considered a “tambour de colonne non calanée”.8 The photographs with the recovered materials do not show with clarity such a “column drum”. Nor is there figurative evidence for the Corinthian capitals. These architectural features might not be related to the mosaic floor either, as the mosaic was covered by other architectural features from later periods (see below). What little we know of the other findings is given by Ibarra, who apparently directed the excavation in its later stages. Ibarra describes the findings of “Iberian style” pottery (6th–2nd Century bce), pottery fragments of “little historic value”, and “one or two” decorated oil lamps, probably fragmented (otherwise Ibarra would not be ambiguous in his description), described together with other late antique lamps found around the site beyond Area B itself. Probably these oil lamps are graphically represented in the 1905 photographs preserved through publications from the period (see again Figs. 7.6, 7). Further-
6 Ramos Folqués, “Un cancel visigodo en La Alcudia de Elche.” 7 See Sonia Gutiérrez Lloret and Julia Sarabia Bautista, “El problema de la escultura decorativa visigoda en el sudeste a la luz del Tolmo de Minateda (Albacete): distribución, tipologías funcionales y talleres,” Anejos de Archivo Español de Arqueología, 2006, 319; Lorenzo de San Román and Morcillo, “La Basílica Paleocristiana de Ilici (L’Alcudia, Elche),” 525–526. 8 Albertini, “Fouilles d’ Elche,” 1907, 126.
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more, architectural fragments described as piedra franca were also found, but without any description as to their nature. These are possibly the same as those found by Albertini. Under stratigraphic unit B/002 are several other features, including the first architectural elements preserved from the latest phases of use of the mosaic floor and its environs. This includes what Albertini indicated as mur a-b, which was catalogued in this study as B/014. This wall, located on top of B/011, is not associated with the original plan of the basilical building nor with its later additions. Put directly on top of the mosaic floor, the process of its excavation is the best-preserved element from the 1905 intervention, including a series of photographs that shows this wall before its subsequent removal (Figs. 7. 9, 10). According to Albertini, the wall was of “irregular appearance”,9 about 60 centimeters wide, with a preserved height of 35 to 80 centimeters.10 In other words, it must have appeared already at the early stages of the excavation, just twenty centimeters under the modern top soil. Its length can be recovered from the position of the wall with regards to the limits of the mosaic. Apparently, it starts 2.1 meters east of the western ending point of the pavement and ends 1.5 meters east of the easternmost point of the mosaic. Considering Albertini’s measurement of the mosaic as 10.9 meters long, then the length of wall B/014 was 10.3 meters.11 Since it covered an area 1.1 meters to the north of the southernmost limit of the mosaic, it covered a 0.6-meter-wide band just to the north of the bon voyage inscription (see below). Significantly the distances and position of the wall indicate it was also built after the apse structure, since this wall reaches a point where the southern branch of the apse B/006 disappears—or in other words, was demolished. The wall was apparently built directly on top of the mosaic, thus helping in the floor’s preservation. Destruction phases of the mosaic itself did not affect the area preserved underneath this wall as Lorenzo and Morcillo correctly indicated (Fig. 7.10).12 This proves that at some stage of the mosaic’s use, the occupiers vandalized it before finally ending the use of this pavement, albeit partially. 9 10 11
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Lit. un mur d’ appareil irregulier. Albertini, “Fouilles d’ Elche,” 1907, 121. The review proposed in the metrological study, where the preserved mosaic is only 10.5 meters long, should not be considered. Albertini’s original calculation served as his reference point for the rest of measurements. Even if indeed the real measurement of the wall was modified by 0.4 meters, it does not seem to be relevant to the historical analysis of the building. Lorenzo de San Román and Morcillo, “La basílica paleocristiana de Ilici (L’Alcudia, Elche),” 531.
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figure 7.3 Elche basilica plan following the 1905 intervention p. ibarra. fla archives
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figure 7.4 Plan for the structures visible in Area B by 1971 made by th. hauschild. deutsches archaeologisches institut archiv, d-daimad-a-62-z-3-1971-fru (dai-madrid schlunk archiv i-159-14)
figure 7.5 Plan of the basilical structure (Area B) and eastern “Sacristía” (Area S) as it is today, following restoration in the 1990s
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figure 7.6 Picture of findings in the Alcudia de Elche excavations from 1905 taken by pere ibarra. fla archives. c59–29
figure 7.7 Picture of more findings in the Alcudia de Elche excavations from 1905 taken by pere ibarra. fla archives. c59–30
figure 7.8 1905 Picture of the “western portal” area, looking north fla archives. c58–10
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figure 7.9 1905 picture of the southern panel of the mosaic. Notice at the upper-left corner the remains of wall B/014 fla archives. c582
figure 7.10 1905 picture of the southern inscription and figurative scene. B/014 at the right side (looking north) fla archives. c58-5
figure 7.11 Picture of southern inscription and maritime panel, as it was found in 1905 (after the removal of the wall B/014. Looking south) fla archives. c58-6
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The abandonment of the mosaic is marked with the construction of wall B/014, which indicates that the original arrangement defined by this pavement was undone. However, there is reason to believe that this wall was somehow associated with the eastern apse axis, despite the destruction of part of the apse for the construction of this wall. Preservation of the wall indicates that the available space for the main hall of the structure did not end with the mosaic floor to the east, or with walls B/026 and B/321, but continued further east, possibly to the tangential wall B/010. Another structural feature found by Albertini, associated with the upper levels, is a stepped element B/015. However, unlike B/014 this structure is found to the of the wall, at the eastern section, east of the mosaic itself, and therefore does not cover the mosaic floor (see Fig. 7.1). According to Albertini, who first described it, the structure consists of three steps attached to the southern face of B/014. The only other detail about this element is that its total height was 75 centimeters. The location of B/015 implies that the area to the north of wall B/014 suggests that the southern section of Area B was the primary area in use during the last stage of the building’s use. To the north of B/014 we find that the space was abandoned or the mosaic floor was no longer in direct use. After Albertini, Pere Ibarra described this structure in a peculiar manner. While completely ignoring wall B/014, Ibarra believed the stepped feature was put on top of the mosaic floor itself. It is associated with a quarter-circular feature at the southeastern corner of the main hall (see Fig. 7.3). If we follow Ibarra’s plans, the structure would have a total radius of 1.9 meters on top of the mosaic floor. Likewise, he gave the details in his plans of two considerably large stones put in a circumferential order around the southeastern corner, possibly originating from a reused site. Ibarra furthermore stipulated the possibility that this was mirrored by another to the northeast. There is no evidence such a structure ever existed. Instead, it is more probable that Ibarra confused the accounts by Albertini, merging two structures together. The first is what Albertini would label as “E” in his plan, which here is classified as B/015. The second is what Albertini described as Mauvais dallage, or “bad pavement” in his label as “D’” (Fig. 7.1, classified here as B/298).13 This pavement is different from a similar mauvais dallage found on the western section of the mosaic, according to the same plan, which was designated “D”. This “bad pavement” seems to be a series of stone slabs put at the southeastern corner of the mosaic floor, where it was not preserved. Apparently, some of those
13
Albertini, “Fouilles d’ Elche,” 1906, 337. Fig. 2.
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stones were still visible when in 1948 Alejandro Ramos uncovered the mosaic. Photographs of said slabs were found at the site where Albertini pointed to that kind of pavement. However, these are unrelated to B/015, even though Ibarra related both pavements as one feature. We do not know what height the stepped structure B/015 had in relation with the Zero Point (see Annex A), as there is no evidence as to what floor or fill this structure was built on. A possibility was the “cement flooring” found to the north of wall B/014, which would put its starting point at about 10 centimeters under the mosaic floor, ending at 35 centimeters under the topsoil. However, those heights can only be speculative, as no account of the structures underneath these steps was preserved by either Albertini or Ibarra. Regardless, it seems the use of this feature points towards the presence of a staircase found in the eastern edge of the hallway created by wall B/014. The remains of such a staircase was demolished as well as the rest of the building, leaving only the remnants of the lower, three steps. To the south of B/015 there would possibly be a small hallway that avoided the main hall. This is perhaps a connection between Area B and Area S from the southeast through an upper level. However, the lack of further descriptions of these elements limit our interpretation of the feature. Both B/014 and B/015 have no clear relation to the two stones, first described by Ibarra in 1906 (Figs. 7.13, 14), found at the central area of the mosaic. These two stones were stuck on the borders of the central nave of the mosaic pavement, and therefore have a clear relation with the design and use of said floor. The two are on the same axis, the first found 2.4 meters to the south of the northern wall,14 classified in this project as B/008. It measures 85 centimeters long and 70 centimeters wide. It has a central hole of about 20 centimeters in diameter, and is, according to the 1971 plan of the Area B structures (Fig. 7.4), 13 centimeters deep. The second stone of almost identical feature is catalogued as B/009, at 1.7 meters south of B/008. The southern stone has the same general measurements, except for two differences: the central hole is located to its north, and it is only 9 centimeters deep; furthermore, it is about 30 centimeters in diameter, being slightly larger than its northern counterpart. The stones have the same distance from the eastern edge of the mosaic: 4.1 meters according to Ibarra,15 and as recovered in the 1971 plan. The relevance of these stones for the study of the main hall’s spatial features will be elaborated below. For now, it is important to state that these
14 15
Ibarra Ruiz, “Antigua basílica de Elche,” 121–122. Ibarra Ruiz, 121.
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figure 7.12 Picture of north “base stone” ashlar B/009 taken in 1971. th. hauschild. daimadrid archives, r214-71-4
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figure 7.13 Picture of north “base stone” ashlar B/008 taken in 1971. th. hauschild daimadrid archives, r214-71-5
stones’ height is unclear, except that their upper face is at the level of the mosaic (B/008 is –0.26 meters compared to the Zero Point, while B/009 is – 0.30 meters). The difference is slight, and insignificant considering that their main intention was to sustain a structure held from the limits of the nave of the mosaic floor. The two stones give emphasis on the central axis of the mosaic, which in turn is around 0.56 meters to the south of the apse’s central longitudinal axis (see 3.2.2 in this chapter). The first excavation team led by Albertini apparently did not find these features, while Ibarra did. Photographs from 1905 do not clarify whether these stones were visible from the beginning of the excavation. Possibly not, as it was Ibarra who would complete the task of cleaning the mosaic floor and laying it bare for the creation of the Ibarra plan (Fig. 7.3). Stratigraphically, these two stones are clearly from a later period than the laying of the mosaic itself. The use of the mosaic axis, as opposed to that of the apse axis, implies that it is associated with a period before the construction of the apse itself. The stones are a representation of an intermediary period between the laying of the mosaic floor (late 4th century/early 5th century ce) and the construction of the eastern apse (6th century ce). Evidence for the partial destruction of the mosaic when laying these stones was recovered during the 1949 excavation campaign led by Alejandro Ramos Folqués. In his diary entry on October 15th of that year, he wrote the following:
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On Level C, which corresponds with the part under the mosaic’s ashlars and next to them, various fragments of the mosaic were found, with black and white tesserae, which reveals that the mosaic was broken to lay those ashlars.16 Evidently, the “ashlars” that Ramos Folqués is referring to are base stones B/008 and B/009. Based on this quote, regarding a “Level C” underneath these ashlars, we can state that there are three phases following the layout of the mosaic floor: 1) Breaking the mosaic, catalogued as negative loci B/-139 to accommodate B/008 and B/-142 to accommodate B/009. 2) Once the negative loci were prepared, both would have a small fill of unknown height, described in the above quote as “Level C”, and catalogued here as B/212. Considering that the excavator did not describe the place where the fill was found, we can only assume that this fill must have been the result of the same anthropic activity on both holes. Therefore, it is safe to consider this stratigraphic unit as one and the same. That said, the inclusion of the mosaic tesserae as part of this fill demonstrates it to be from a period after the laying of the mosaic, despite being under the base stones themselves. 3) Finally, once B/212 was located, B/008 and B/009 were laid in their respective holes, marking the limits of the central nave, and defining the central longitudinal axis of the mosaic floor. Fill B/212 is therefore important to give a concrete date for the placement of these stones. Most important are the findings of an amphora handle with a potter’s mark, with a rectangular epigraphic area and the Greek letters ΕΛω within it (BAE/1949/B/212/cer/I/5). Other amphora fragments include an everted, perhaps flanged rim, and what seems to be the start of a straight or wide mouth (BAE/1949/B/212/cer/I/6), and a cylindrical, flared amphora base (BAE/1949/ B/212/cer/I/2). The rim does not provide an identifiable type for this amphora. In fact, there is no evidence this is an amphora rim instead of the remains of a later development of “top-hat pottery” bowls as published by Reynolds in 1993 of a late Roman chronology.17 However, other amphora fragments found in this
16
17
Excavation diaries of Alejandro Ramos Folqués. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: October 15th, 1949, n. 11, f. 12r. En este nivel C, que corresponde con la parte inferior de los sillares del mosaico y junto a éstos, aparecieron varios fragmentos del mosaico con teselas blancas y negras, lo que revela fue roto el mosaico para poner dichos sillares. Paul Reynolds, Settlement and Pottery in the Vinalopó Valley (Alicante, Spain): A.D.400–700, BAR International Series 588 (Oxford: Tempus Reparatum, 1993), 108–109 (Plates 20–21, form W1.26D and 26H).
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fill should be considered, including its base, that can point to one and the same piece. Two general forms are associated with the drawn description found in Folqués’ excavation diaries. The first is a Keay 68/91 amphoras, classified by considering the large size of one of the pieces found according to Ramos Folqués.18 The other, more likely, is a Keay 35B form, which fits especially with the triangular profile rim and is noticeable for being extensively distributed in the Western Mediterranean. Both forms are attested for being of North African production and are prevalent in the first half-to-mid 5th century.19 From a typological point of view and noticing the existing fragments of the base and the rim, it is possible that the form is indeed a Keay 35B, which suggests a mid-to-late 5th century dating for the fill.20 Some reference should be mentioned regarding the use of the mosaic floor B/011 itself. Being the only pavement with absolute dating by the end of Ramos Folqués’ excavation, little attention was given to it beyond its stylistic aspects. However, there are clear indications of intentional destruction on this mosaic floor at a certain phase of its use. The first scholars to point that out in a publication were Lorenzo and Morcillo in 2014, when they correctly found that the mosaic’s maritime scene was mostly destroyed, despite having been in theory preserved by Albertini’s “A–B wall” B/014 on top of precisely this scene.21 However, as far as I could perceive, the mosaic floor’s intentional defacement was present elsewhere: on all three inscriptions in the central area, as well as on two menoroth found at the northeast section of the mosaic (see Fig. 7.16). Precisely in the latter detail of the mosaic can one perceive best the presence of the intentional destruction level, catalogued as B/-190. The preserved mosaic demonstrates that the outermost candles of the southern menorah, which looks towards the central nave, was carefully defaced. While the outer candles had their tesserae removed (thus preserving its negative), the rest of the figure remained intact. Had this been an accidental or general destruction, the product of the passing of time or exposure to natural elements, such defacement would not have been as precise.
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Josep Anton Remolà Vallverdú, “Keay 78/91 (Tarraconensis northern coastal area)”, Amphorae ex Hispania. Landscapes of production and consumption (http://amphorae.icac.cat/ amphora/keay‑7891‑tarraconensis‑northern‑coastal‑area), 10 July, 2016 (accessed March 1st, 2017). S.J. Keay, Late Roman Amphorae in the Western Mediterranean: A Typology and Economic Study: The Catalan Evidence, BAR International Series, 196 (Oxford: BAR, 1984), 234–240. Keay, 240. Lorenzo de San Román and Morcillo, “La basílica paleocristiana de Ilici (L’Alcudia, Elche),” 531.
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figure 7.14 Picture of central inscription panel as it was found (and cleaned) in 1905 (looking east) fla archives
figure 7.15
Picture of mosaic panels following their removal from the site located at the museo arqueológico de elche, 1948
This aspect touches upon the late use of the mosaic floor, as well as its denomination as a synagogue, an aspect which will be analyzed below, as indicated by Robyn Walsh in 2016 (see Chapter 6, 5.5). More signs of a careful defacement of the mosaic can be seen at the preserved remains of the last letter of the central inscription’s second line (Figs. 7.14, 15). Most likely this defaced line would have revealed the identity of the congregation that used this main hall, requiring its destruction for its conversion into other purposes for other congregations.
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figure 7.16 Detail from northeastern quadrant of the mosaic, of defaced menoroth associated with defacement unit B/-190
The above allows us to establish a stratigraphic scheme for the phases after the original laying of the mosaic. One can notice that these phases cover a period of hundreds of years. Therefore, it is striking to see that the number of stratigraphic units and quantity of information is relatively low compared to other phases of the site. Other sub-areas add to the history of the main hall during this period, allowing for a more complete picture. 2.2.2 The Entrance Area to the Mosaic Room On the west of the mosaic floor both Albertini and Ibarra identified the entrance area, particularly through the discovery of a large ashlar stone at the central section of wall B/024. However, this supposed entrance area was never properly documented. In fact, there is no clear evidence for the position of said entrance, as no remains of it were found in situ after 1905. The ashlar stone was first described by Albertini as une dale de pierre calcaire, de 1m35 sur 0m50 (sic.).22 There are no further descriptions of it. Nevertheless, in Albertini’s plan 22
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of the basilica, it is clearly shown that the so-called ashlar entrance was found slightly to the north of what he called mauvais dallage “D”, on the western section of the mosaic floor (see Figs. 7.1, 3). This “bad pavement” to the west was identified, in 1948, as paving B/012, which will be described below. Ibarra, in the Boletín article from 1906, merely pointed to the finding of a portal de cantería (“ashlar portal”) on the western border of the mosaic that measured 1.35 meters wide. The calculation of its width using the scale from Ibarra’s 1905 plan reveals it to be 0.33 meters, thus fitting within that of the western mosaic wall B/024. This entrance stone is catalogued as B/003. The presence of B/003 points towards the existence of a portal at the entrance to the main Area B. The only evidence available for this piece is the background of a 1905 photograph during the archaeological expedition (see Fig. 7.8). Despite the bad quality of the photograph, there is visible evidence of a stone feature stuck into the fill on the western edge of the mosaic pavement to its west, roughly in the middle of what would be identified as western wall B/024. However, it does not break into the mosaic, as such an action would have been documented already in the 1905 excavation, something that was not the case. The visual evidence suggests that this element was the base of the portal, and therefore was found in situ. However, there is no evidence for this element’s measurements beyond the horizontal length and width (therefore its height remains unknown). Considering the existence of other similar features found in the 1949 excavation and documented in the 1971 expedition (particularly ashlar stone B/315, found to the southwest of the area of the mosaic pavement), there is reason to believe that B/003 certainly had enough depth to be well held within the pavement itself. Other than the limited photographic evidence for B/003, we also have the two plans of the “basilica” made by Albertini and Ibarra (Figs. 7.1–3). As indicated above, Albertini presents the stone within the mosaic area’s limits. It is placed on the main hall central axis’ western edge, to the north of the “bad pavement” identified as B/012. On the other hand, Ibarra’s more specific plan locates the entrance not in the same axis as the mosaic pavement, but rather displaced slightly to the north—to be more in line with the apse’s axis. In that regard, all evidence suggests that the excavators found this element in situ, stuck in the mosaic pavement’s westernmost edge, and that it was not aligned with the mosaic’s central nave, but rather slightly displaced to its north. This raises the question, what happened to this feature? By the time Alejandro Ramos Folqués started his excavations in 1948, the boulder had disappeared. However, in 1974 he published negative evidence of its presence in the following terms:
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In the western wall, where Ibarra and Albertini pointed towards the presence of a threshold, we don’t find more than a gap (lit. hole) that in its day must have been occupied by the mentioned bar or doorstep from the threshold, not interrupting the wall, but next to it in its external face.23 There is no evidence on the type of threshold (B/004) it supported. Considering its width, it was most likely a monumental portal, which required a kind of lintel to sustain the wall’s weight—a lintel whose remains were never found. The fact that this doorstep was put in the floor supports the possibility that it was a monumental entrance present only above the foundations of wall B/024. Hence any relations between the threshold B/004 remain unknown. The fact that it was not broken might suggest that the entrance was planned at the moment of the western wall’s original construction. On the other hand, it might also be the case that the threshold, being at an upper level, simply did not survive. Therefore B/004, which is the “Type I” stratigraphic unit associated to the threshold, only survived in its upper part of B/003, that is the surface used for passage into the basilica. Regardless of the form for B/024, the fact is that following the 1948 to 1955 excavations there was no longer any positive evidence for the wall save for three loose stones ordered in a North-South axis (Figs. 7.17–18) and the remains of white stucco found in the northwestern corner of the mosaic (B/313, Fig. 7.19). The photographs from the 1948–1949 excavations show a continuation of the stucco from northern wall B/023, and therefore should be considered the same stucco line. This demonstrates that the western and northern walls associated with the mosaic were probably built beforehand. At the very least wall B/024 was built for the enclosure of the mosaic to its west. Its finding at a –0.31 centimeter level, one to two centimeters below the mosaic, indicates that the stuccos B/019, B/313, and southern stucco B/018 were placed before the floor was laid. However, it is not clear if it was placed before or after the sub-mosaic lime preparation level B/013. It seems this white stucco was associated with the mosaic floor, and probably had geometric or other decorative designs that were not preserved. Slightly to the southeast, within the mosaic floor itself, is a strange feature found originally in the 1948 excavation by Alejandro Ramos Folqués, though 23
Ramos Folqués, El cristianismo en Elche, 103–104: “En el muro oeste, en donde señalan Ibarra y Albertini la existencia de un umbral, no encontramos nosotros más que un hueco que en su día debió estar ocupado por el referido barrón o peldaño del umbral, pero no interrumpiendo la pared, sino junto a ella por su lado externo.”
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elements of it were already identified by Albertini in the 1906 publication of his first “Foullés d’Elche” article, as “D” in his plan sketch of the basilica (Fig. 7.1; also known as western mauvais dallage). What Albertini first found in 1905 was a series of marble slabs on the western edge of the central nave (B/012), which was better documented in 1948. However, the marble slabs were a repair for the mosaic floor, following the placement within the mosaic of a round basin that broke the pavement (Figs. 7.20, 21; see “Loose Notes” sketch, Fig. 7.22). The basin (B/022) is, unlike the entrance ashlar described above, aligned with the central mosaic nave, which means it was placed on the floor decorations of the basilica, and not on the axis of the eastern apse. The specific location of this basin is 14 centimeters to the east of the western wall. Furthermore, according to a sketch of the western section of Area B by Alejandro Ramos Folqués, it is located 8.3 meters to the north of the southern wall of the mosaic area. Furthermore, according to the publication by Ramos Folqués in 1974, the basin’s outer diameter was 36 centimeters, while its rim was 4 centimeters wide (thus giving a 28 centimeter inner diameter). Finally, following the plan made by Th. Hauschild in 1971, the object’s height is as follows: –0.31 meters to its upper part, and –0.52 meters in its lower section, making the basin 21 centimeters deep. Through the fragmentary information given by different interventions in the 1940–1950s and 1971, as well as the published plans and articles on the basilica, it is possible to reconstruct the sequencing of this element. The original mosaic B/011 was broken on a wide enough area to place the basin, in what was identified as the entrance area at the central-western edge of the original pavement. Hole B/-189 was then filled, first with a mud mortar B/299, and then with the stone basin itself, or B/022. The remains of the hole in the mosaic around the basin were covered with the white marble mauvais dallage B/012. At a certain point, the feature was abandoned and filled with dirt B/132, within which remains of mosaic tesserae were found of an unknown quantity and colors. Eventually it was all covered by B/002 when the site was finally abandoned and collapsed. The use of white marble to repair the damaged mosaic pavement around the basin implies the continued use of the mosaic at a time when the community, or the city, did not have available mosaic workshops. Furthermore, its location at the central axis between the two central ashlar stones B/008 and B/009 (see above) suggests this basin was placed at a moment those features, like the mosaic, were still in use. Furthermore, the finding of tesserae within fill B/132 indicates that this feature ceased to be used at some point when the mosaic floor was still on the surface of the site.
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To be sure, several phases for the mosaic floor’s use were detected elsewhere. At the northwestern area of the mosaic, restorations to the mosaic floor’s original pavement can be found, evidenced by the lesser quality of artistry there. However, the lack of tesserae around the basin proposes that B/022 was laid even after this first reparation, but before the construction of the eastern apse, which is the moment when the central axis of the building shifts slightly to the north. What was the use of this feature? Despite different theories from several authors, none had a satisfactory answer. Ramos Folqués limited himself only to its description.24 Schlunk and Hauschild outright ignored this feature in 1978, despite the studies the Deutsches Archaeologisches Institut conducted in 1971. In 1982 Schlunk limited himself to describing the mosaic floor’s style, and did not go further into the study of this basin. In their reconstruction, Roberto Lorenzo and Javier Morcillo deny its ritual use in the basilicafail to pinpoint the use of this feature (see Chapter 6, 5.5). The mystery surrounding this basin is due to two reasons: the first is its obvious association with the mosaic floor, already on a late period but before the shift of the main axis of the building. The second is that it was placed in an uncomfortable location near the supposed entrance of the site. However, archaeological parallels point towards the possible use of the basin as a water installation that collected rainwater from the rooftops or from outside the roofed area (see Chapter 4, 3). 2.2.3 Stratigraphy of the Mosaic Floor and Lower Pavements The levels associated with the preparation and placement of the mosaic floor were first found in 1905, as Albertini first, and especially Ibarra in 1905, excavated the apse area in depth. Ibarra’s objective was the discovery of the apse pavement which he failed to find (see 2.2.4 in this chapter). However, in the process he discovered that the mosaic pavement’s eastern edge ended abruptly, in such a manner that there was “no bar” nor other feature to limit it. However, despite these limitations, a series of discoveries were identified and published by Albertini and Ibarra separately, which until 1949 led to confusion and were not properly solved. The first publication was made in Ibarra’s 1906 article. There he described a pavement found underneath the mosaic’s height: In its eastern side there is no foundation next to the mosaic, as can be appreciated by the attached photographs, according to which I had the 24
Ramos Folqués, 104.
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figure 7.17 Picture of features near western wall B/024, (underneath the mosaic; looking north) alcudia de elche foundation archives
occasion to undertake the excavation within the apse. The mosaic floor ends with a sharp edge, without any bar or chain to close it, so that we can appreciate its sub-soil with two particular aspects worthy of note. The first is the presence of a sub-soil, floor or cement support, separated from the pavement by 25 centimeters, which they would make to solidify the mosaic’s seat. The second was the finding, mixed with inferior detritus at the level of this floor, of many Iberian ceramic fragments.25
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Ibarra Ruiz, “Antigua basílica de Elche,” 125. En el lado del Este no existe cimentación alguna junto al mosaico, como puede apreciarse por la adjunta fotografía, según tuve ocasión de ver al practicar la excavación interior del ábside. El piso del mosaico termina en arista viva, sin barrón alguno ó cadena que lo cierre, pudiendo apreciarse el subsuelo que ofrece dos particularidades dignas de nota. Es la primera la presencia de un subsuelo, piso ó sostén de argamasa, separada del pavimento 25cm., que le harían al mosaico para
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figure 7.18
Picture of features around western wall B/024, (underneath the mosaic; looking north). After excavation of cobble stone structure B/185, 1971 fla archives
figure 7.19 Picture of northwestern corner of the mosaic pavement area, including stucco and northern wall B/023. Looking northwest, 1971 deutsches archaeologisches institut archives (r-214-71-11)
The above quote by Ibarra does not detail the elements that were found between the mosaic floor level and that of the lower floor 25 centimeters beneath it. Ibarra’s floor was an uncontestable finding, which was catalogued here as B/EM/025. Albertini, for his part, published his findings of the excavation before Ibarra’s intervention. Therefore, his findings, while published a year
solidificar su asiento. Y la segunda, hallarse mezclados con los detritus inferiores, al nivel del piso, muchos tiestos ibéricos.
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Detail of western basin (B/022) and surrounding white marble slabs (B/012) at the western edge of the mosaic area, 1971 fla archives
later, reflect a stage before they were affected by Ibarra’s digging. In his publication, he described his findings to the “left” (that is south) of the “A–B” wall B/014 in the following terms: To the left there is a fragment of a cement floor, 0.10 meters below the mosaic, under which it seems to have a continuation.26 This floor was once more described as he excavated the apse structure to the east, following the excavation of the apse: After the clearing operation, one could appreciate that practically occupying the entire space underneath the mosaic floor, and preserved on the southeast angle of the pavement to the left of the a-b wall—there was a Roman cement floor, devoid of decoration, similar to those found in ruins recovered in other points of the Alcudia.27 26 27
Albertini, “Fouilles d’ Elche,” 1907, 121, “à gauche, par un fragment de sol cimenté, inférieur de omio à la mosaïque, sous laquelle il semble d’ ailleurs se prolonger.” Albertini, 126.
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figure 7.21
Picture of basin B/022 as found in the 1990 excavation (in situ) fla archives. 1990 excavation pictures, n. 50.2
On these references to the lower floor identified as “Roman”, there is a contradiction between Albertini’s account in the 1906 sketch plan of the building (where the remains of the floor were found to the southeast of the building, and not of the mosaic, as well to the north—“right”—of wall A–B; B/014, see plan Fig. 7.1),28 and Ibarra’s account. The 1907 citations indicate that evidence for this floor is found to the southeast, something that is not mentioned at all in the sketch. However, it is clear from both accounts that this sol de cimenté romain is found through the entire width of the mosaic, and therefore covered the whole eastern section of the building beyond it. Furthermore, it was evidently found underneath the mosaic itself. Hence it was clear that it was another detected floor, catalogued in this study as B/016. Another issue is that Albertini’s description contradicts that of Ibarra’s account. Further studies were not conducted after this excavation until 1949, since in 1907 the whole structure was covered again. The first scholar to publish a review of these findings, after Ibarra’s and Albertini’s deaths, was Helmut Schlunk who subsequently had access to the data held by Ibarra himself
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Albertini, “Fouilles d’ Elche,” 1906, 337.
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figure 7.22
“Loose Notes” by Alejandro Ramos Folqués, aprox. 1954. Includes description of western features of the mosaic area, B/OM area, and southern walls fla archives
during the 1930s (see Chapter 6, 4.2). In 1947, Schlunk presented his take on the mosaic floor and the structures surrounding it, before the re-excavation of the site in 1948 by Alejandro Ramos Folqués. Facing the obvious contradiction between the two accounts, Schlunk concluded that the two floors were one and the same, as the description of their materials was very similar, and in both accounts Roman materials found.29 For his part, Lafuente Vidal gives the following account in his 1948 article of the sub-soil of the mosaic: Under the mosaic, following a rubble level 15 to 25 centimeters thick, remains of a Roman cement pavement are found that seems to correspond to the previous building.30 This more nuanced approach regarding the divergent height of this “Roman level” implies that there was a difference of about 10 centimeters for the height
29 30
Schlunk, “El Arte En Época Paleocristiana,” 338–339. Lafuente Vidal, “La supuesta sinagoga de Elche,” 392.
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in which these remains were found. With this dilemma in mind, the following step was to review the evidence recovered in later archaeological interventions—particularly the 1948 excavation photographs, the October 1949 archaeological excavation of the area underneath the mosaic, whose only account was documented in Alejandro Ramos Folques’ excavation diaries from that date, and the 1971 plan made by Th. Hauschild, which is the only one collecting the heights of elements found at a lower level than the mosaic floor (Fig. 7.4). The first clear account of the layers beneath the mosaic floor, apart from the photographs from the 1905 excavation of the apse area, were photographs made by Helmut Schlunk during his visit to Elche in May–June 1948 (Figs. 7.23, 24). Two of these photographs reveal that there is not one “Roman floor”, but several, as is evident from the general picture of the mosaic, including parts of the B/EM sub-area, taken during the excavation (Fig. 7.23). These pictures are of utmost importance, because they are the only clear preserved photographic evidence of floors found beneath the mosaic floor. The levels underneath the mosaic were described in two distinct levels: “Level M” (Fig. 7.26)31 and “Level N” (Fig. 7.27).32 The presence of two distinct layers of the sort fit the visual evidence recovered in Schlunk’s pictures. Both levels were sketched in a horizontal plan, and in his sketch from October, 1949 (see Fig. 7.25).33 Likewise, important evidence of his excavation process to arrived at “Level M” is found in the following description by Ramos Folqués: As the level of lime (mortar) upon which the mosaic tesserae were placed was removed, we discovered the inferior floor that only covers the section signaled (in the sketch from f. 1r) ////////, as the rest of the surface occupied by the mosaic was levelled with battered earth and a layer of lime.34
31 32 33
34
ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: October 11th, 1949, n. 11, ff. 1r–2r. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: October 11th, 1949, n. 11, f. 4r. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: October 11th, 1949, n. 11, f. 1r. It is important to note that these do not account for the whole of the mosaic floor area. The westernmost section of the mosaic floor remained untouched until the 1971 campaign by Schlunk, Hauschild, and Laureano de Frutos. This is made evident with the registration of findings made in Hauschild’s plan from that year, while ignoring the possible findings present through almost all the area excavated in 1949. On the other hand, Ramos Folqués did excavate the eastern edge, as well as the northern and southern limits of the mosaic area, as is evident from his findings in the Excavation Diary from October 11th and 12th, 1949. From this we assume that Ramos Folqués’ main objective was the understanding of the phases preceding the mosaic floor. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: October 11th, 1949, n. 11, f. 2r.
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From this account, it is evident that the first removed “layer of lime” was different from “Level M”. Therefore, what is being described here is a level associated with the placement of the mosaic floor itself, or B/013. This level was noted to be 8 centimeters deep. Furthermore, considering that, according to Hauschild’s plan, the mosaic floor was at –0.29 centimeters below Zero Point (–0.00 in the plan, the upper face of the northeastern ashlar stone being part of wall B/010), then B/013 would have been between –0.30 (assuming the tesserae are 1 centimeter deep, and following the level of the northern central mosaic ashlar stone B/008) and –0.38 meters. While covering the entire floor under the mosaic, the only finding in that pavement was made on September 24th, 1949, of a lead sheet with decorative curls (BAE/1949/B/013/Pb/1).35 The stratigraphic sketch documented by Alejandro Ramos Folqués, as well as the sketch plan of Level M, suggests that Level M included three distinct floors, two of them contemporary, and one underneath another. The first is the floor that covers the “////////” section, which was significantly a cement floor, catalogued here as B/113. This cement floor was 5 centimeters deep, thus occupying a height between –0.38m to –0.43 centimeters. This height corresponds with the height proposed by Albertini in 1907, in which a “cement floor” B/016 was found ten centimeters below the mosaic surface. This was preserved, accordingly, to the north and south of “A–B wall” B/014, and therefore should be identified as such. This floor’s width was 2.3 meters wide, without having a continuation beyond the mosaic floor’s area. In fact, the Level M sketch clearly indicates there was a gap between the eastern edge of this floor and the eastern wall B/026. On top of that, according to the sketch of the mosaic made by L. de Frutos in 1971 (juxtaposed on the Hauschild heights plan), the central mosaic stones were 3.8 meters from the eastern edge of the mosaic.36 Therefore, it is possible to assume that B/113 begins 1.5 meters to the east of these stones. Curiously, it does not reach the southeastern corner of the mosaic floor, which was apparently the main area where B/114 was visible. A second floor was only documented in this level at the southeastern section of the mosaic area and was classified as being made of “earth and cobble stones”. It is catalogued in here as B/114. According to the stratigraphic sketch in notebook number 11, f. 2r of Ramos Folqués’ excavation diaries in the Corpus documental, the height of this floor is 5 centimeters. In other words, it would 35 36
ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 24th, 1949, n. 10, f. 26r. Against Ibarra’s account, which calculated 4.1 meters from the central stones to structure B/EM/301, probably detected during his excavations and included as part of the apse B/006. See the following pages.
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Picture taken by Schlunk of the May–June 1948 excavations, including apse area and mosaic. Looking west dai-madrid archives, schlunk archives: d-dai-mad-schl-sch-plf-1132
have a height between –0.43 to –0.48 meters. While there is no clear evidence for the preservation of this kind of floor east of the mosaic floor area, some remains are found there in Hauschild’s 1971 plan, as well as in other sections of Folqués’ excavation diaries. Hauschild’s plan indicates that in the central area east of the limits of the mosaic a series of pebbles were attached to a cement area having the following heights, classified as B/EM/302: –0.43 meters at its highest point, and –0.49 meters for the lower cement level. This fits well with the stratigraphic sketch evidence from Ramos Folqués’ diaries, and therefore indicates that these pebbles were found underneath the apse area, to the east of the mosaic floor area. More evidence is its association with B/NE/077, a pebble and lime floor found at the northeast corner of the structure, between the northern side of apse wall B/006, northern wall B/023, and eastern tangential wall B/010. When Ramos Folqués excavated the pavement a few weeks before on September 13th, 1949, he proposed that it “must have covered all the apse’s room” (see section 2.2.4). It is therefore considered the continuation of B/114 and equal to B/EM/302. It must have been a gravel pavement that have covered a large section of the structure from its central area until B/010. Alexander Bar-Magen Numhauser - 978-90-04-41992-6 Downloaded from Brill.com 03/03/2024 09:27:00PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison
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figure 7.24
Picture of the stratigraphic levels as seen from the east of the mosaic (apse area) taken by h. schlunk in 1948. dai-madrid archives, schlunk archives: ddai-mad-schl-sch-plf-0198 (i,159-1-128)
figure 7.25
Stratigraphic sketch for levels under the mosaic floor from excavation diaries by Alejandro Ramos Folqués entry in arf, amrf, corpus documental: october 11th, 1949, n. 11, f. 2 r . fla archives
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figure 7.26
Sketch of “Level M” under the mosaic floor from excavation diaries by Alejandro Ramos Folqués entry in arf, amrf, corpus documental: october 11th, 1949, n. 11, f. 1 r . fla archives
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figure 7.27
Sketch of “Level N” under the mosaic floor from the excavation diaries by Alejandro Ramos Folqués entry in arf, amrf, corpus documental: october 12th, 1949, n. 11, f. 4 r . fla archives
A third pavement found in Level M was an “earthen and wide layer of lime”, as indicated in the aforementioned citation by Alejandro Ramos Folqués in the 1949 excavation diaries. This level must have occupied all the depth of Level M, and therefore includes the width of both B/113 and B/114. In this case, it is not clear which pavement was prepared first. It was apparently used contemporarily. However, this does not mean that all these pavements were contemporary. The stratigraphic sketch clearly points that B/113 covers B/114. Therefore, one can assume that B/114 was simply visible to the southeast of the mosaic pavement on “Level M”—it is curiously the area where Albertini proposed the existence of pavement B/016 south (or “to the Left”) of wall “A–B” B/014. Could it be that pavement B/113 was destroyed during Albertini’s or Ibarra’s interventions, as they uncovered the mosaic? This possibility cannot be more than speculation with the current available evidence. Alexander Bar-Magen Numhauser - 978-90-04-41992-6 Downloaded from Brill.com 03/03/2024 09:27:00PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison
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To solve the issue of the stratigraphic development of “Level M”, a key detail concerns what Ramos Folqués called suelo A, which he included in the hall’s sketch: The border of floor A, like that of the Sacristía (Area S), has fragments of attached preserved stucco that would be painted decoration on the wall that delimited it.37 This stucco, given the catalogue B/122, led to the conclusion that layer B/112 was contemporary to B/113, while B/113 covered that of B/114. The stucco apparently covered both pavement B/112 and B/113, and therefore would be the last pavement of “Level M” associated with the abovementioned stucco. This stucco, which covered northern wall B/023, was removed on a later date by B/-131, therefore giving space for the placement of later white stucco B/019.38 In other words, the three floor layers detected in “Level M” should be considered as contemporary in use, but structurally layers B/112 and B/113 were probably of a later date than B/114, placed as a preparatory layer for the rest of the floor. This suggests that the room associated with Area B was sub-divided for different uses before the placement of the mosaic. One final detail regarding “Level M” must be mentioned. Attached to the southern section of the mosaic area was a rounded field delimited by the drawing of small square marks. It consists of an earthen fill of little depth (B/121) in which several findings were associated, curiously, with the upper mosaic level. Of importance was the discovery of black tesserae (BAE/1949/B/121/tes/1), amongst other objects which include: a smooth painted pottery fragment (BAE/1949/B/121/cer/I/1), a weight in the form of a distal section of a tibia (BAE/1949/B/121/cer/I/3), and the fragment of a painted ceramic piece with an animal together with the altar stone, which sadly could not be positively identified (BAE/1949/B/121/cer/I/2). Other findings, associated with the general layer B/112, include an altar stone with molded horns on its corners (BAE/1949/B/ 112/pet/1),39 and other unknown archaeological “fragments” (BAE/1949/B/112/ misc/1…). Level B/121 must be associated with the removal of earth underneath the already placed mosaic. Therefore, it does not belong to “Level M”, but reflects a 37 38 39
Ibid.: “El borde del piso A, como los de la sacristía, conserva adheridos fragmentos de estuco que enluciría la pared que le limitaba.” It is unclear if this stucco has any relation with the southern stucco B/018. On the issue of the development of the wall stratigraphy, see below. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 24th, 1949, n. 10, f. 26r. AMRF note 58.
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point in time after the placement of the mosaic floor B/011. This is made particularly evident due to the mixture of archaeological material from different periods found there: the weight, altar stone, and painted ceramic fragment with an animal figure are most probably from the pre-Roman Iberian or republican periods. However, the smooth painted ceramics might point to an early imperial period, which would be completed with the presence of tesserae found from the mosaic floor itself. Following the description of “Level M”, Ramos Folqués proceeded with its removal as described in his excavation diaries: Having taken out floor M we discovered its inferior one, which had an only in the sketch), having a battered a 30 centimeters wide cement floor ( earth floor with a thin level of lime on the rest of the mosaic area. Next to the southern stone (of the mosaic) was a C wall made of ashlars.40 Underneath “Level M” was a level identified as “N” (Fig. 7.24), in which he apparently recognized two distinct floor levels. The first is a thin cement level that, according to his stratigraphic sketch, was only 6 centimeters deep, catalogued as B/117. It begins at the eastern edge of the mosaic and ends 30 centimeters from that edge, with a space of 3.8 meters between the central ashlar stones B/008 and B/009 and this cement floor. The rest of this level is the mentioned battered earth, or B/120. Despite this, there is another apparent “intermediate” floor boxed between B/117 and B/120, which in the sketch for Level N is described as capa de cal de 1cm (“1 centimeter layer of lime”, B/118 in the catalogue). It was located between B/117 and what seemed to be a sort of north-south trench catalogued as B/115, just east of the central ashlar stones of the mosaic. The central trench was divided in two. One was the main trench, which crosses the whole width of the excavated sub-mosaic area from north to south, or B/115. However, to the south of this area there was an apparent continuation of this trench, or B/116, going beyond what was considered the stucco of the mosaic floor on top of it (B/018). With these floors defined, the most significant feature from this level is the presence of two walls that are located on top of Level N, but are covered completely by the loci in Level M. The above-mentioned “C wall” is, in fact, a 40
ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: October 11th, 1949, n. 11, f. 3r: “Sacado el piso M descubrimos el inferior, que de hormigón sólo tiene un ancho de 30cm ( en el croquis) siendo el resto de la superficie del mosaico de tierra apisonada con una fina capa de cal. Junto a la piedra [figura de la jamba con espacio de poste] sur del mosaico, una pared C, de sillar.”
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structure to the south of B/009 that cuts through B/115, B/117, B/118, and B/120 (Fig. 7.20). Catalogued in this project as B/123, it was made of worked ashlar stones with two lines of stone with a central mortar nucleus in between them. Its measurements were only collected from the sketch from the Corpus documental (in meters): – Width: 0.45 – Length: 1.3 + 1.1 + 1.441 + 1 = 4.8 Furthermore, Ramos Folqués describes the distance between this wall and its surrounding architectural features. It is located 1.2 meters to the north of the mentioned “stucco”, which is considered B/018. On the other hand, it is also 0.6 meters to the south of B/009. The measurements are important because it led Lorenzo and Morcillo to conclude that the true width of the mosaic floor was 7.75m and not 7.55m as was proposed both by Albertini and Ibarra following the 1905 excavation.42 A second wall (B/125) is found to the southwest two meters east of the western edge of the excavated area (Fig. 7.29), and 2.5 meters from wall B/024.43 Its width is 0.35 meters, and it is 0.7 meters across. This wall has the least description of all the structures. However, this feature is part of a wider structure preserved just north of the southern wall, and is associated with bench B/138, preserved even today following its restoration in 1990. The relation between these two elements is more fortuitous than direct: according to Hauschild’s 1971 plan, the remnants of structure B/138, with an east-west direction, are attached physically to B/125. However, stones associated with B/138 are at a height of 0.25 meters below Zero Point. This means it was four centimeters above the mosaic
41
42 43
From the sketch made by Alejandro Ramos Folqués (Fig. 7.27), it has become almost impossible to read the precise measurement between the western “1 meter” and the eastern “1.1 meter”. The original reading was that it was 0.4 meters, corresponding with the width of the detected trench B/115. However, this seems impossible, as the sketch clearly puts the westernmost preserved section of wall B/123 to be to the west of B/009. Therefore, it is more plausible that the correct reading of this measurement would be 1.4 meters. Lorenzo de San Román and Morcillo, “La basílica paleocristiana de Ilici (L’Alcudia, Elche),” 504. Considering the western edge of the excavated area was at the edge of basin B/022, we can measure roughly the distance of B/125 from wall B/024 that limits the mosaic floor to its west. First, we consider that the basin was 14 centimeters east of the “entrance” to the hall, that is, from the western wall. Second, we consider that the basin itself has a maximum diameter of 36 centimeters. Therefore: 2 m + 0.36 m + 0.14m = 2.5m. We must assume this is a rough estimate. Evidence from the 1971 Hauschild plan (Fig. 7.4) presents us with an irregular excavated area, where the southeastern corner was not fully dug, nor dug in a straight line.
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floor and would be approximately 20 to 25 centimeters above structure B/125’s uppermost possible level. This is made more evident from photographic evidence from the 1990 excavation (Fig. 7.22), where the north-south wall is placed on a lower level than B/138, and therefore must be considered of a previous, demolished structure. Remains of the wall might have been reused for the final plan of the building with the mosaic floor, including a southern “bench” feature that was attached to the southern walls B/028 and B/020. The stucco (B/018) covered B/138, and would have been placed on top of B/125 when it was already covered by Level M’s B/112, lime layer B/013, and mosaic floor B/011. While B/123 cuts through the eastern floors as described by Alejandro Ramos Folqués (Fig. 7.26), wall B/125 is only on top of the battered earth and gravel floor B/120. Ramos Folqués does not describe the depth of either wall, probably because he did not reach that level. A few words must be said about trenches B/115 and B/116. Both are features that are of a later period than that of northern wall B/023, as they start from that point to the north. However, they continue beyond the southern edge of the excavated area, as described in Alejandro Ramos’ sketch of “Level N”. According to the stratigraphic sketch from page 1r of diary number 11 from his Corpus documental, what he called hueco (“gap”) is three centimeters deep. Such a gap and position are confirmed through photographic evidence from 1949 (Fig. 7.31). Certainly, it would be enough to cut lower than the B/118 lime layer to the east. The continuation of this feature to the south implies that in pre-mosaic times this area would have continued to the south, probably reaching the southern street identified as Area C (see Chapter 11). Furthermore, both walls B/123 and B/125, as well as trenches B/115 and B/116, present the use of an orthogonal urban plan in this area.44 Several levels were identified below “Level N”, none of which were excavated fully by the end of Alejandro Ramos’ campaigns. Some would be further excavated in the 1990 intervention by Alejandro Ramos’ son, Rafael Ramos, but with limited results. The first indication of stratigraphic units underneath “Level N” was in Alejandro Ramos’ excavation diaries entry for October 14th, 1949, with the following quote:
44
A point already made by Lorenzo de San Román and Morcillo, “La basílica paleocristiana de Ilici (L’Alcudia, Elche),” 517–521.
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The square stones of the mosaic are placed on top of the north-south wall and, therefore, are later than it (and for sure of the mosaic).45 This implies the existence of two stratigraphic units under Level N, around the central square stones (B/008 and B/009): a north-south wall classified here as B/133, which is not seen at all in any of the two sketches from Level M and Level N and therefore is at some point underneath Level N floors; and fill B/119, which would have covered, albeit partially, B/133. From B/119 there is no report of material findings, measurements or depth, but only its existence as a testimony for more findings to be made below this level. There are further stratigraphic units that are associated with the sub-mosaic levels, particularly the materials recovered on levels given the conventional lettering by Alejandro Ramos (A to F, from top to bottom respectively). We know from other stratigraphic sketches46 that Ramos Folqués considered the level immediately above the mosaic pavement as a “Level B”. This implies that B/013 and “Level M” would be classified as a “Level C” in the traditional stratigraphy of the site. However, it was registered differently as “Level M”, since Ramos Folqués was unsure about making this association. There were two probes identified in his diary, with their stratigraphic equivalency as levels “C”, “D”, and “E”, which would be associated to “Level M”, “Level N”, and a level underneath it. The first was B/E, or east of the mosaic floor, which probably was an excavation between wall B/026 and mosaic floor B/011. The second was to the southeast of the mosaic floor, an untouched area that was likely excavated by October 1949. Starting from the B/E probe, first fill was described as “Level C”, catalogued as B/E/128.47 This level includes few findings, particularly one fragment of a painted cup with a middle-sized hollow foot (BAE/1949/B/E/128/cer/1). However, this finding should not be associated with “Level M” due to its presence “between the stones and the apse”, meaning between northeastern structure
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ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: October 14th, 1949, n. 11, f. 11r—“Las piedras cuadradas del mosaico están puestas sobre la pared N-S y por tanto, posteriores a ésta (y seguramente del mosaico).” Particularly from ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: May 9th, 1959, n. 11, f. 30r. From AMRF, ARF, Corpus documental: October 11th, 1949, n. 11, f. 12r, one could assume that the “Level C under the mosaic” was part of B/E/128. However, Ramos Folqués clearly states that this “Level C under the mosaic” is associated with levels underneath the square stones B/008 and B/009, and therefore are placed elsewhere in the site. Although like B/E/128, fill B/212 is from a later period than the mosaic floor itself. It is a reminder of the flaws of Ramos Folqués’ traditional stratigraphy, where he catalogued strata based mostly on their physical placement within the site, and not accounting chronological considerations.
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figure 7.28
Picture of excavation in 1949, from west looking east (to apse area). At the center: east-west wall B/123 south of ashlar stones B/009 fla archives
figure 7.29
Picture of excavation in 1949, from the southwest looking northeast. Center-bottom: north-south wall B/125. The description of the picture: “Level underneath the mosaic at its SW” fla archives
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figure 7.30
Detail of Picture from 1990 excavation, number 38.1 (Fig. 7.82), including remains of north-south wall B/125 under structure B/138. Looking southeast fla archives
figure 7.31
Picture of excavation in 1949, from the southwest looking northeast. Canal B/115 to the east (right) of the two ashlar stones in situ fla archives
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figures 7.32–33 Pictures of structures southwest of the mosaic, underneath it, 1971. Including fill B/184, gravel structure B/185, and ashlar stone B/315 (looking south) fla archives
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Picture of southwestern gravel floor B/185, after its partial excavation, 1971 (looking south) fla archives
figure 7.35 Gravel floor B/185 after its excavation, from west to east, 1971 fla archives
figure 7.36 Gravel floor B/185 after its excavation, from east to west, 1971 fla archives
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figure 7.37
Gravel floor B/185 after excavation, looking west from east, 1971 fla archives
identified as B/318 and wall B/026 and apse area. Consequently, this fill should be seen as a fall or a mixture of earth following the intervention following the building of eastern apse B/006, dated after the mosaic floor. Underneath that layer was a mixture fill “Level D–E”—a label that suggests the lack of clear separation between Level N (D) and the one under it (E)—probably the first catalogued as B/129 and the second as B/130. The mixture of both levels calls for caution when defining the chronology of this fill. However, as in other cases around the site, “Level D” is extremely rich in archaeological findings, certainly more so than the more modest parallel levels “C” or “E”. Finally, another “Level E” (B/130) is found, this time identified as parallel to the “Level C” fill (B/213) underneath the ashlar stones of the mosaic B/008 and B/009.
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Considering the large amount of materials recovered from “Level D” under the mosaic floor, only a few will be listed here (see catalogue for B/129 in Annex C). It is important to mention the finding of late Campanian ceramic fragments both in B/129 and B/130. Curiously, only a few Campanian pottery findings can be attributed to layer B/129, including a foot with ringed base (BAE/1949/B/E/129/cer/I/8) and half a Campanian plate without a mark (BAE/1949/B/E/129/cer/I/3) identified as a Lamboglia 68A type dated to the late 2nd century ce. Other pottery shards of note include a painted oenochoe with an eye painted at its upper section on top of vegetal decoration (BAE/1949/B/E/129/cer/I/12),48 a complete (restored) plate with borders protruding inwards, of limited height, and having a ringed base (BAE/1949/B/E/ 129/cer/I/11),49 and another restored complete piece with a closed, ovoid form, mouth protruding outwards and a base ring (BAE/1949/B/E/129/cer/I/10). Also significant from this level is the amount of lead pieces, particularly perforated lead disks, which were found in this locus (BAE/1949/B/E/129/Pb/1 to 5). Lead disks were associated with architectural features, particularly columns. This suggests that “Level N”, seemingly contemporary with this “Level D”, was made after the demolition of a previous structure. Other findings suggest a variety of materials found from before this fill was made, including a bronze electrum disk (BAE/1949/B/E/129/met/1), a bronze sheet (BAE/1949/B/E/129/met/3), and a conical pink loom weight (BAE/1949/B/E/129/cer/I/6). Within a big undecorated vase (BAE/1949/B/E/129/cer/I/5) a triangular piece of iron was found (BAE/1949/B/E/129/Fe/2),50 alongside one of the previously mentioned small lead sheets with three holes (BAE/1949/B/E/129/Pb/2), the fragment of a flint (BAE/1949/B/E/129/pet/1), and a black stone sharpener (BAE/1949/B/E/ 129/pet/2). According to Ana Ronda, this is probably a votive foundational deposition.51 Unit B/130 is significant for having more complete pieces of late Campanian pottery. All the pieces found in this level, as well as others associated with Level E (B/213 and B/SE/135—see below) were of open forms, including a Lamboglia 28 type Campanian plate with cuatrifolia decoration at its bottom (BAE/1949/B/E/130/cer/I/2), dated to the late 2nd and 1st centuries bce.52
48 49 50 51 52
Item LA-1536 according to Ana Ronda. See ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: October 12th, 1949, n. 10, f. 6r. AMRF note 12. Item LA-995 according to Ibid. AMRF note 11. Ibid.: October 12th, 1949, n. 10, f. 5r. Identified as item LA-2474 by Ana Ronda. See AMRF note 9. Ronda Femenia, L’Alcudia de Alejandro Ramos Folqués, 170. Ibid.: October 12th, 1949, n. 11, f. 7r. AMRF note 13.
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Most important is the presence of painted ceramic pieces with vegetal decoration (BAE/1949/B/E/130/cer/I/4), and a votive (perhaps feminine?) figure with an inscribed face and broken base (BAE/1949/B/E/130/ter/1), dated to the 3rd or 2nd centuries bce.53 Other findings, like a pottery red-paste fragments with outer burnish (BAE/1949/B/E/130/cer/II/1…) and a second Campanian vase with convex base and groove (BAE/1949/B/E/130/cer/I/3) confirm an early imperial (Augustan-Tiberian) date for this fill, although other found objects were never fully described. The ceramics are similar in B/SE/135, particularly with the presence of pre-Roman late-Iberian forms, as well as Late Campanian ceramics in B/213 and B/SE/135. A finding to date this fill is the semis from the period of Tiberius minted in Carthago Nova, dated circa 17ce (BAE/1949/B/E/130/num/1),54 but which the excavator associated with the previous “Level D” (B/129) due to the possible mixture and intrusion of material from the upper level during the excavation.55 The semis only has a sketch of its obverse, with a bust with what seems to be a helmet or a headband looking to the right.56 However, despite the difficulty of its identification, trients coins with such types of busts representing the goddess Minerva appear in Elche in late republican periods, specifically the mid-2nd century bce.57 All the above evidence would indicate that levels “E” and “D”, which sums the fill for Level N, would have such a date. Despite the excavation of “Level E” on several points of the sub-mosaic levels, there is no evidence for what Alejandro Ramos called “Level F”. This is probably due to the fact that he did not arrive to bedrock layers and could not apply fully his theoretical stratigraphy in Area B. Regardless, the bedrock would be reached in another sub-section of Area B, what is sub-area B/F, to the north of the mosaic floor, where Ramos Folqués applied fully his theoretical framework reaching a “Level F”.
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55 56 57
Ramos Folqués, “Memoria de las excavaciones practicadas en la Alcudia”, Pl. CII, 5; Ronda Femenia, L’Alcudia de Alejandro Ramos Folqués, 170, note 279. Juan Manuel Abascal Palazón and Antonio Alberola, Monedas antiguas de Los museos de Elche, Bibliotheca Nvmismatica Hispana 5 (Madrid: Real Academia de la Historia, Gabinete de Antigüedades, 2007), 47, number 97. Found in the Museo Arqueológico Municipal de Elche with reference “GW”. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: October 12th, 1949, n. 11, f. 8r. Despite the temptation to see the figure sketched by Alejandro Ramos Folqués as wearing a helmet, it could well be a headband. Abascal Palazón and Alberola, Monedas antiguas de Los museos de Elche, 66–67. Numbers: 233–237. The identification of the coin originally as a semis could be a mistake at the moment of discovery on Ramos Folqués’ part. Both types of coins, the triens and semis, are made of bronze.
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While the bedrock was not reached, there was certainly an association between these sub-layers under the mosaic floor and the area’s northern limit defined by B/023. Apparently, this wall was certainly present before the mosaic floor and Level M. It seems to have also been present before Level N, as evidence for the “trench” B/115 and B/116 was not found to the north of this wall. In fact, following the stratigraphic sketch from sub-area B/F (see below; entry from May 9th, 1950), there is little correlation between the levels of this area to the north of the wall and those to its south, if at all.58 This detail will be important for the presumptive reconstruction of the pre-basilical urbanization in this area. The second probe done to the east of the mosaic area is B/SE, and is described as having levels equivalent to area B/E. However, this probe is defined by the excavation of the southeastern corner of the mosaic, below cobble stones and lime mortar floor B/114 from “Level M”. In fact, the first level mentioned by Ramos Folqués associated to this area was a “Level D”, catalogued as B/SE/134. This “Level D” fill layer included only one finding, a Campanian pottery base with decorated painted tetrafolia in its inner base (BAE/1949/B/SE/ 134/cer/1).59 Following it is a “Level E” layer B/SE/135, in which there were a larger number of findings. Of significant are the fragments of a sandstone statue (mouth of a horse) (BAE/1949/B/SE/135/pet/1, 3)60 and rectangular axshaped polished stone (BAE/1949/B/SE/135/pet/2) next to a black vase with incised spiral motif (BAE/1949/B/SE/135/cer/I/1), identified by Ana Ronda as item LA-605.61 Amongst the ceramic findings there is a small Iberian plate (BAE/1949/B/SE/135/cer/I/2) and a Campanian vase (BAE/1949/B/SE/135/ cer/I/3), amongst other unidentified pottery fragments.62 58
59 60 61 62
Most important is the complete absence of an ash level, including during the 1990 excavation when the area west of the mosaic was dug in depth. Ash levels were found, however, to the north in sub-area B/F and to the east in Area S, all at the height of what Ramos Folqués considered “Level E” (see below and Chapter 8). The lack of a complete excavation and stratigraphic section prevents the arrival at a conclusion on this matter. With the evidence at hand, it seems plausible that when the basilical structure was built, including the floors for levels “N” and “M” under the mosaic, whatever remained from that possible “ash level” was removed. The limits of that removal were, of course, walls B/023 and B/010, both of which are considered contemporary due to similar building methods, blended courses between them, and a similar height for their foundation—circa 70 centimeters below the mosaic floor, or around 1 meter below Zero Point. See Ramos Folqués, El cristianismo en Elche, 107. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: October 14th, 1949, n. 11, f. 11r. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: October 14th, 1949, n. 11, f. 10r. AMRF note 17, identified as item LA-805. Ibid. AMRF note 18. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: October 14th, 1949, n. 11, f. 10r.
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Below the above fill is a mortar floor marked with “i” and catalogued here as B/SE/137. This mortar floor in theory belongs to a “Level E” or “Level F”. However, like in the B/E probe, there was no finding of a bedrock level, which would have allowed Ramos Folqués to apply these letters to classify those levels. Under this apparently sealed floor, was one final fill layer excavated in the southeastern area of the mosaic (B/SE/136), made of cobble stones and earthen mortar. This was the lowest-level floor detected in this area of the site. A series of findings were registered between the discovered stones. The most noticeable is a large bronze coin or medallion of Hadrian (BAE/1949/B/SE/136/num/1), a triangular ax (BAE/1949/B/SE/136/pet/1) and a small vase (possibly a cup) made of red paste, with high foot and everted rim (BAE/1949/B/SE/136/cer/1). The form apparently is a variation, perhaps an imitation, of a Dragendorff 11 form from the 1st century ce. The recovered material points towards a 1st and 2nd century chronology. It was apparently found between the cobble stones, as clearly indicated by Ramos Folqués in his excavation diaries entry for October 14th, 1949.63 At a first glance, the materials from the upper layers (B/SE/134 and 135) are from an earlier date than those of the lower fill layer (B/SE/136). However, there is an explanation for this. First we have to consider that the material from B/SE/136 was found stuck “between the stones” according to Ramos Folqués’ account. Therefore Hadrians’ bronze coin should not be considered an intrusion of an upper layer. This cobble stone floor with earthen mortar was with all probability built in the first half of the 2nd century ce. Above this last lower layer is a mortar floor B/SE/137, which further sealed the findings from the lower stratigraphic unit. The upper layers, on the other hand, are placed below B/114, and seem to be a mixed fill placement of different origins. The finding of two sandstone fragments of a horse’s statue points that this fill was prepared after the laying of levels such as C/091 and C/081 in Area C, or in other words the southern street’s “Level C” that seals the lower “Level D” layer C/080. These fills were probably preparatory layers for the placement of floor B/114, explaining the earlier 2nd and 1st century bce chronology of its materials. Finally, there is the evidence of sub-mosaic units found to the west of the excavated area of 1949, first registered in the 1971 expedition by the Deutsches Archaeologisches Institut in Madrid. It includes is a large gravel pavement in the southwestern area of the mosaic floor, or B/185 (Figs. 7.32–36). The pavement is a relatively small rectangle, 1.57×0.85 meters (its eastern edge has a reduced width of 0.57 meters) following the mosaic’s axis. It was found at a height of 63
Ibid.
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–0.38 meters, that is 9 centimeters underneath the mosaic floor height. On top of this level was an earthen fill (B/184) documented photographically (Figs. 7.32, 33). While the other sides of this rectangle are irregular, the southern edge follows a clearly straight line, pointing towards the possibility it followed a wall structure that was lost. The purpose of this pavement and its association with the rest of the sub-mosaic levels is unclear. It is only possible to assume with the available data that it was contemporary, at least in its final stages, to the other floor and fill units of Folqués’ “Level M” described here. Photographs from the first, 1948 excavation, revealed a northeastern “wall structure” (B/318) that is immediately next to the mosaic floor, between B/026 and the mosaic itself. It was only registered in the I,159 folder of the DAI Madrid Archives, including plan sketch I,159-4. However, while Schlunk points towards it being a kind of wall, its construction is in fact found at a lower level than mosaic floor, and, it seems, placed under the mosaic. The construction was done with stones of medium-small size compared to those of the wall B/023 to which this structure is attached. The photographs indicate it to be a structure immediately under B/013, and attached to B/023, therefore being constructed after the northern limit wall. It seems that this element was the source of confusion between this feature and B/026 in Ramos Folques’ publication of the finds in 1974, presenting the north-south wall “bordering the mosaic” of the same construction to the northern wall. In fact, it is evident that B/026 breaks the structure that must have included B/318, in a similar fashion as apse B/006 broke the gravel pavement B/NE/077, as we shall see in the next section. For now, it is possible to assume that B/318 is associated with a pre-mosaic construction similar in nature to other remains of walls found underneath the mosaic. 2.2.4 The Apse and Eastern Structures To the east of the mosaic floor lies the eastern apse. First discovered in 1905, the apse’s location, stratigraphy, and plan were complicated to study due to its deficient state of preservation, as well as the fact that it was found at a distance from the eastern edge of the mosaic floor itself. The apse’s walls were classified here as B/006. They were made of fieldstones with mud mortar. Originally discovered by Albertini, the apse wall was originally preserved up to one meter in height, with a median height of 0.8 meters. This wall was the only one in the entire Area B which was preserved above its foundation. Albertini described the width of the wall to be 0.58 meters,64 something corroborated by Ibarra who understood the width to be 0.6 meters.65 64 65
Albertini, “Fouilles d’ Elche,” 1907, 121. Ibarra Ruiz, “Antigua basílica de Elche,” 216.
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Roberto Lorenzo66 and later Lorenzo and Morcillo67 considered that Albertini did not complete the excavation of the apse, leaving it to Ibarra in early August 1905. Therefore, the data published by Albertini in “Fouillés d’ Elche” in 1906 was different from that published by Ibarra in his “La Basílica de Elche” that same year. Likewise, their respective plans of the building differ as well. Albertini found the remains of the apse after he uncovered the majority of the mosaic floor. As a result, he found that the apse was not connected in any way to the mosaic. The apse was enclosed by an arched wall that has 1.5 meters in its internal circumference, and 2.1 meters including the width of the semicircle.68 The accounts between the two excavators differ when it comes to the description of the apse’s plan. Albertini describes it in the following terms: A one-meter interval separates the mosaic pavement from the northern extreme of the apse; the southern part of the apse was less preserved and is found two meters from the mosaic.69 Ibarra, on the other hand, describes the apse wall’s distances as follows: The apse is no more and no less than a 3.2-meter-deep semi-circle from the border of the mosaic, with no edge supported on the mosaic floor other than from its south.70 The two accounts seem contradictory. However, as Roberto Lorenzo has indicated in 2006,71 this was probably a product of their different excavations. Albertini managed to document the upper sections of the apse (its wall), while Ibarra, who excavated the apse searching its floor, only found its foundations on its southern branch.
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67 68 69
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Roberto Lorenzo de San Román, L’Alcúdia d’Elx a l’Antiguitat Tardana: Anàlisi historiogràfica i arqueològica de l’Ilici dels segles V–VIII (Alicante: Universitat d’Alacant, 2006), 134. Lorenzo de San Román and Morcillo, “La basílica paleocristiana de Ilici (L’Alcudia, Elche),” 508. Albertini, “Fouilles d’ Elche,” 1906, 337; Albertini, “Fouilles d’Elche,” 1907, 120–121. Ibid.: Un intervalle d’ ‘un mètre sépare du pavement en mosaïque l’extrémité nord de l’abside; la partie sud de l’ abside est moins entièrement conservée et s’arrête à deux mètres de la mosaïque. Ibarra Ruiz, “Antigua basílica de Elche,” 126. El ábside consiste ni más ni menos que en un semicírculo de 3,20 m. de profundidad desde el borde del mosaico, no apoyando sus extremos en el pavimento nada más que por el lado Sur. Lorenzo de San Román, L’Alcúdia d’Elx a l’Antiguitat Tardana, 127–131.
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Accordingly, the most detailed account of Ibarra’s original excavation comes with his plan from 1905 (Fig. 7.3), available to Ramos Folqués and Helmut Schlunk since the early 1930s before Ibarra’s passing in 1934. It was first published in a modified form by Lafuente Vidal in 1948 (Fig. 7.52) and P. de Palol in 1967, before being finally published in its original form in 2014 by Lorenzo and Morcillo.72 In all of these accounts there is a general agreement that the westernmost branches of the apse are straight—and not a continuation of the curvature of the apse—as the arched plan of its eastern section could not arrive to the edge of the mosaic. This was of course based on the observations made by Ibarra, which are best explained by his photographs published in the 1906 article. The pictures provide evidence for a straight wall structure that continues the arch from its southern (right) side all the way to the mosaic floor’s edge (see Figs. 7.38, 39). The first clue to understanding the chronological placement of the apse within the wider history of the basilical building is its height. Albertini was the first to indicate that the apse “started” about ten centimeters below the mosaic floor, and that its top ten centimeters were already visible before the excavation even began.73 One of the sources for its height is a photograph of the apse in the 1905 Ibarra campaign. It shows that the supposed “southern” branch of B/006 was in fact below the mosaic floor’s level, though its position and form could imply it being part of the pavements above structure B/EM/300 and B/EM/301 (see above). The uppermost point of this structure is –0.43 meters, and it consists of attached stones, possibly belonging to a pavement associated with B/EM/302, equal to the sub-mosaic pavement B/114 and the northeastern pavement north of the apse B/NE/077, as described above in the section regarding the mosaic floor and the sub-mosaic layers (see Fig. 7.4). In other words, the “extension” of the southern arm of the apse is probably not part of the apse at all, but rather a pre-mosaic wall or feature. A second clue comes in Alejandro Ramos’ excavations in 1949. Excavating the northeastern area of the main hall, he hit upon a gravel with lime mortar pavement B/NE/077 on September 13th, 1949.74 There, Alejandro Ramos described his findings as follows:
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The plan was available for researchers since the 1930s, despite it not being published. In fact, I personally had access to said plan and its digitalization since before its final publication in 2014 by Roberto Lorenzo and Javier Morcillo. Albertini, “Fouilles d’ Elche,” 1907, 121. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 13th, 1949, n. 10, f. 10r.
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figure 7.38
Picture of excavated apse with Pere Ibarra (1905). Looking northeast from southwest fla archives (i-pir-06)
figure 7.39
Picture of excavated apse (1905). Looking northwest from southeast dai-madrid archives, i,159-1-12
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figure 7.40
Picture taken by Schlunk of the May–June 1948 excavations. Remains of apse and wall B/026, as well as B/316 and gravel floor B/NE/077. Looking east-southeast dai-madrid archives, schlunk archives: d-dai-mad-schlsch-plf-0196
figure 7.41
Picture taken by Schlunk of the May–June 1948 excavations. Northeastern corner of Area B and, in the background, southwest of Area P. Looking north-northeast dai-madrid archives, schlunk archives: d-dai-mad-schlsch-plf-0193
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In X is a floor of pebbles and lime mortar. The walls are decorated with lime (stucco), same as in the Sacristía (Area S). It must have covered the whole room of the apse and when it was made, they broke it in the necessary areas for the new structure. This reveals a previous, Roman construction which was taken advantage of in the Synagogue period (4th century), later used and adapted for the basilica. When? !!!? I judge that this confirms the fact that the wall east of the mosaic was broken until it confronted the apse. From this quote, he suggests that floor B/NE/077, like apparently the “eastern wall of the mosaic”, was broken in order to accommodate the apse structure. This aspect was detected already in 1948 and recorded in photographic evidence in the Schlunk Archives of the DAI-Madrid (Figs. 7.40, 41—I,159-1-75, 81). This raises the question, why was B/EM/016 not broken to accommodate the apse’s southern branch walls as it occurred in its northern branch? To explain this, another important source is considered: Hauschild’s plan of the site from 1971 (Fig. 7.4), which reveals to us the height of the thenpreserved structures. The first noticeable aspect is that the apse wall B/006 was gravely damaged, both in height and in width. While at first in 1905 the average height of the wall from its foundations was 0.8 meters, the heights measured by Hauschild in 1971 indicated that its foundations started from 0.75 to 0.4 meters below the Zero Point.75 In other words, only 35 centimeters were preserved, and all below the mosaic level. As for the width of the wall, the plan shows only the preservation of thirty centimeters of width in a greatly reduced circumference. This loss was apparently already visible in the 1948 excavation’s photographs, as there is no evidence in them for the apse structure as it was found in 1905— but rather the remains of what must have been the apse’s wall fieldstones lying within its inner area (Fig. 7.40). It is therefore likely that its increasing destruction was mostly the product of actions which prompted the covering of the basilica in 1907, as recorded by Ibarra’s Efemérides.76 Therefore, the structures found southwest of where the apse should have been are 20 centimeters below the mosaic floor (which itself is at –30 or –29 centimeters). This means it is below the level of B/013, which supported the mosaic floor. However, Albertini was clear that the apse wall started 10 centimeters above that, or 10 centimeters below the mosaic floor, at a level associated
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The mosaic floor level was –0.29 meters. Ibarra, Efemérides 592, September 7th, 1907.
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with a cement floor to the east of the structure. Finally, the lower section of the wall as preserved in 1971 was 45 centimeters below the mosaic floor. In short, this means that Albertini’s account and that reported in Hauschild’s plan are contradictory. Which is correct? To solve this dilemma, one must consider that Ibarra excavated deep into the apse itself, in search of an “apse pavement” that was never found. As it is, he only found fill with some architectural features inside.77 In addition, both plans by Albertini and Ibarra reveal little of the tangential wall to the east of the apse’s outer wall(B/010), and that probably supported the apse structure. The reason for this is that neither excavator dug deep into the eastern section of the basilica. Instead, they concentrated their efforts in the recovery and unveiling of the mosaic floor, considered the most important finding. As for the apse, it was most important as evidence of an eastern altar, proving either Christian or Jewish use, depending on the author. The importance of this is revealed when one notices Hauschild’s plan regarding the heights of B/010. Zero Point (–0.00m) is indeed present in an ashlar at the northeastern corner of the basilical structure, as part of the B/010 wall itself (associated with level S/052, placed on top of wall B/010—see Chapter 8, 2). But the foundations were significantly below that level. By 1971, the preserved foundations for this eastern wall were between –0.36 and –0.39 meters. According to Ramos Folqués in 1974, the lowest known level for the foundation of this wall is 70 centimeters beneath the “lower floor of pebbles with lime mortar”, or B/NE/077, which was established above as equal to floor level B/EM/302. From what is known from Hauschild’s plan, and following the established sub-mosaic pavements’ stratigraphy, this gravel floor level would have been around –0.43 and –0.50 meters, or between 14 to 21 centimeters below the mosaic floor level (or –0.29 meters). Therefore, the foundation of the wall lies between –1.14 and –1.24 meters from Zero Point. On the other hand, the lowest point recovered in Hauschild’s plan is –0.77 meters from Zero Point for wall B/010. For its part, the foundations of the apse wall would have been only –0.75 meters according to Hauschild, fifty centimeters above the foundation of wall B/010. The lowest level registered in this area includes the central section of B/EM/300 (–0.70 meters) and the northern face of B/EM/301 (–0.67 meters).78
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Ibarra Ruiz, “Antigua basílica de Elche,” 126. The lower levels of Hauschild’s plan present a complicated issue that is still not solved. Photographic evidence from 1971 and 1990 show clearly that the remains of the wall go well below Albertini’s –0.40 meters depth, so the –0.75 meters depth can be a realistic one. However, whether the depth refers to the foundation of the apse wall, or the lowest level encountered within the apse remains unclear, since photographs from the 1990
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Considering this, why would Albertini point towards the beginning of the apse at 0.10 meters below the mosaic floor, which would be roughly at –0.40 meters? A reason for this might lie in the sketch published by Albertini following the excavation (Fig. 7.1). There we find the remains of what Albertini called un fragment de sol cimenté, inférieur de 0.10m à la mosaïque, sous laquelle il semble d’ailleurs se prolonger, which is associated to B/EM/016 below lime mortar layer B/013 (the latter being 8 centimeters thick according to Ramos Folqués in 1948; see above, Figs. 7.23–24). Albertini pointed out that it was found to the left of the A–B wall B/014 described above—that is to its south. In his sketch, it is represented by horizontal lines to the north of B/014, in an area that collides directly with the supposed trajectory of the apse wall to the north of the late “A–B” wall. At the same time the more obscure 1905 publication by Ibarra indicates that the apse wall stops just before the southern straight prolongation was about to begin. In its preliminary sketch (Fig. 7.2), the continuation of the southern branch towards the mosaic was visually different from the arch of the apse itself.79 As proposed in the description of the sub-mosaic layers above, there were two cement floors found at the eastern section of the mosaic pavement, and it includes a preserved continuation to its east. B/EM/016 is the eastern continuation of B/113 detected on “Level M” under the mosaic (see 2.2.3 in this chapter), while B/EM/025 is a second cement floor associated with the “fine cement” B/117 from “Level N”, roughly twenty centimeters below the mosaic floor. This level fits well with the description of cement floors on top of gravel stones, as photographic evidence from 1971 provides evidence for the placement of this cement level on top of a gravel level B/EM/320 (Fig. 7.44). Therefore, what Albertini discovered in his excavation, and what was described in his sketch from 1906 and his article from 1907, was nothing else than B/EM/016, which would somehow have been preserved after the construction of the apse wall, along with the lower structures of sub-area B/EM. With this evidence in mind it is possible to infer that the builders of the apse took advantage of the structures available to them in this area, in order
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expedition show that the easternmost section corresponding to the apse was excavated to a lower level than the rest of the building. Regardless, from a stratigraphic point of view this level poses the same problem: the apse started on a lower point from what Albertini proposed, something already evident if we notice that the apse wall breaks the “Roman level” floor B/NE/077, which was roughly between 15 to 25 centimeters below the mosaic floor, and not merely 10 centimeters below it. Ibarra Ruiz, “El cristianismo en Ilici,” 913. Interestingly, this is the first published sketch from the excavation of the site, and the basis of Ibarra’s plan made years afterwards.
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figure 7.42 Picture of eastern structure B/EM/301 and lower B/EM/300, looking north (1971). Notice cement level on top of gravel dai madrid archives (r-214-71-12)
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figure 7.43 Picture of eastern tangential wall B/010, Area S floor attached to tangential wall S/127 and perpendicular wall S/326. On the background: structure B/EM/301 with upper levels B/EM/025. Looking west dai madrid archives (r-213-71-9)
to provide it better stability. Structure B/EM/301 (Figs. 7.42, 43) was subsequently covered by a cement pavement, pebble with lime pavement, and finally another cement pavement B/EM/016, which continued underneath the mosaic floor to support it. To the east of the mosaic, this level was preserved up to 10 centimeters above the rest of the equal floors. On the easternmost section of the apse, the builders took advantage of wall B/010 and its own foundation, implying the need to support a heavier load, perhaps a vaulted roof for the apse structure. This sequence between B/006 and B/010 is evidenced by the presence of plaster B/017 between them (Fig. 7.45, 46). The plaster was attached to B/010 during the apse’s construction. On the other hand, the apse wall did not have any evidence for plaster or covering of any kind. Furthermore, currently there is no evidence regarding what kind of foundation was used for it either. According to the mixture of what was proposed by both Albertini and Ibarra, a foundation fill of about 10 to 15 centimeters was placed below the –0.40 meter level of the starting point of B/006. This fill was considered as B/188 and would be placed directly underneath the apse wall. However, considering the evidence as presented by Hauschild’s plan, it is not clear if such a fill existed at all. To clarify this, the lower levels of the apse area are mostly associated with the levels excavated until that point within Area B. The northern branch of the apse arch and the easternmost mid-point of it are evidenced as below the –0.40
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Picture of B/010 and adjacent structures (S/326, B/006) after restoration as exposed today picture by the author, august 2011
meters level. However, there is clear evidence that, in any case, the southern section had the apse wall supported by the preserved structures found there, particularly the B/EM/025 and B/EM/016 floors. This means that in at least some sections there was a use of a foundation fill to support the difference in height, wherever such structures and floors were not preserved in the southern branch of the apse. Despite that, no positive evidence of this was found, and therefore foundation fill B/188 is mostly considered speculation. In short, we find that B/006 was built adapting itself to the structures available from previous periods. Therefore, while in its northern half the apse broke through the pavement B/NE/077, which is the same as B/EM/302, in its south-
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figure 7.45 Picture of preserved apse structure in contact with tangential north-south wall B/010 (Th. Hauschild, 1971) dai madrid archives, r-213-71-5
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figure 7.46 Detail of contact between apse and tangential wall, including stucco covering B/017 (1971) dai madrid archives (r-213-71-9)
Picture of apse features (B/006) and eastern tangential wall (B/010) as recovered and preserved in the 1990 Excavation. Top left corner: remains of B/026. Looking north fla archives. 1990 excavation pictures, n. 13.1
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Picture of remains of the apse structure by 1990. Looking southeast fla archives. 1990 excavation pictures, n. 18.1
figure 7.49 Picture of centraleastern panel of the mosaic floor, following its uncovering in April 1948 (during the IV Congress of Southeastern Spanish Archaeology held that month) by pérez aracil. fla archives
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ern branch the apse foundations did no such thing, and instead took advantage of the stones associated with B/EM/025 and B/016 on top of it, as found by Albertini in 1905. This explains why in the northern section the floors were indeed broken to accommodate apse B/006, while in its southern branch no such activity can be detected. The apse was constructed with low quality materials, explaining the poor state of preservation following the 1905 excavation of its walls and its 1948 reexcavation. According to Albertini, Il est en pierres taillées de petites dimensions, d’ appareil mediocre. Photographs of what remained from the apse in 1971 and 1990 indicate the presence of plaster mortar sustaining small-to-middle sized fieldstones, preserved at the easternmost point of the apse in contact with stucco B/017 and wall B/010, and some remains to the north as a continuation of the northern section of eastern mosaic wall B/026. The relation between the apse structure and the mosaic pavement was also left unclear in publications up to this date. When Ibarra excavated the apse, he found no remains of a pavement that he could identify. He did not even associate the cement pavement B/016 to a potential one for the apse structure, as it was probably broken as well for the construction of the abovementioned apse wall and B/026. Considering that B/006 seems to have started from the east on the North-South line of B/026, it is important to notice that B/026 has no physical contact with mosaic floor B/011 (Fig. 7.41). This is a similar case as the southern continuation of B/026, B/321. In other words, there is no direct relation between the mosaic and its eastern border. In fact, Ibarra was adamant when he indicated that: In its eastern side there is no foundation next to the mosaic, as can be appreciated by the attached photographs, according to which I had the occasion to practice the excavation within the apse. The floor of the mosaic ends in a sharp edge, without any bar or chain to close it …80 The evidence is further corroborated by photographs from both the 1905 and 1948 interventions (Figs. 7.23, 38, 39), when the noted eastern edge had a continuation that was, at some point, broken. Albertini’s sketch plan clearly shows that the mosaic had such a continuation to the east through “serrated edge”, entering the area of the apse. This implies that there was “more mosaic” to the 80
Ibarra Ruiz, “Antigua basílica de Elche,” 125. En el lado del Este no existe cimentación alguna junto al mosaico, como puede apreciarse por la adjunta fotografía, según tuve ocasión de ver al practicar la excavación interior del ábside. El piso del mosaico termina en arista viva, sin barrón alguno ó cadena que lo cierre … (sic).
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east and the pavement was, at some point, broken in antiquity. More evidence is B/EM/016, which are the remains of B/114 underneath the mosaic to its east, broken to accommodate the structure that sustained the southern arm of the apse. The size of said “lost” part of the mosaic to the east is unknown. Regardless of that, this aspect explains why the mosaic floor, and its lower levels, never reached the “mosaic eastern wall” B/026 and likewise would not reach B/006 in any case. In other words, just as the construction B/026 required the breaking of the northeastern boulder pavement B/NE/077, it also required the breaking of the upper mosaic pavement B/011 in its eastern edges for its accommodation. Consequently, the eastern apse was of a later period than the original mosaic pavement. With this data at hand it is possible to reconstruct the stratigraphic relations associated with wall B/026. Having established that the foundation of said wall (B/-030) breaks floor B/NE/077 in a similar manner that apse wall B/006 did, it is possible to assume a priori that both walls are contemporary. However, there are two problems with that assumption: 1. The first is the evidence found by Alejandro Ramos Folqués of a painted black stucco on the “eastern wall of the mosaic”, published at first in his 1974’s El cristianismo en Elche.81 Curiously, the eastern stucco had a black coloring (B/126), while the side stuccos preserved at the edge of the mosaic floor to the north (B/019), south (B/018), and west (B/313) were colored white. 2. The apse wall, as clearly described by both Albertini and Ibarra following the 1905 excavation, was devoid of any covering or decoration. That includes the lack of any remains of stucco for the lowest excavated levels on the apse. This suggests, in any case, that the apse wall was of a different date from B/026. There are no direct stratigraphic relations that suggest two separate moments for the construction of B/026 and B/006. The stucco evidence points towards a diachronic model that suggests first the use of B/026 as an eastern limit of the main hall of Area B, and a later addition to B/006. Furthermore, it confirms a diachronic relation between the earlier mosaic floor B/011 and the later apse structure B/006. This diachronic model between the mosaic pavement building and the apse explains the difference in axis between the main hall and the eastern addition. It is associated with different stages of use linked to both architectural features.
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Ramos Folqués, El cristianismo en Elche, 105.
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Picture of apse remains in 1990 excavation attached to eastern wall B/010. Top-right corner, remains of B/321 fla archives. 1990 excavation pictures, n. 6.2
The apse was constructed as part of the transformation of the spatial divisions of the main hall, and perhaps even the community that used it. No pavement was found by Ibarra when he excavated the apse in depth. What he found were architectural remains, two ashlar stones and an attic base, which he interpreted as an altar base. However, there is no further evidence for such an altar, especially since the attic column base was not associated with any
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floor level. Poveda Navarro’s suggestion in 2000 that this attic base had similar features to one found in Elda suggests its dating to the 7th century.82 This means that the location of the altar within a fill is a result of reforms and demolitions that occurred after the abandonment of the apse’s purpose, perhaps associated with the construction of wall B/014 to the south of the main hall. Apparently, the fill was excavated at two different occasions. The lower section of the apse’s fill is B/224, where Alejandro Ramos Folqués’ excavation uncovered Iberian and Campanian ceramic fragments (Late Republic pieces).83 It was in an upper level of fill B/007 where the two ashlar stones, the attic base, and a fragment of multi-lobular stone were found by the Ibarra excavation. The fact that Ibarra did not find any pavement for this apse implies that it may have been constructed out of perishable material, or at least material that is easily dismantled. Pavement B/EM/016 was associated with another level, and its preservation within the apse’s wall line suggests it was not the original pavement of the apse. Therefore, above fill B/007 we find B/002 and the modern agricultural soil B/001. Below this fill B/007 we find a less significant layer excavated by Ramos Folqués in June, 1948. In it he found Iberian and Campanian pottery, pointing to a late republican date, perhaps being a pre-basilical fill that remained after the construction of the eastern apse B/006. While the evidence for a central eastern apse was clear from the first excavation, this was not so with the walls that connected the apse to Area B’s northern and southern limiting walls, closing the mosaic area from its east. The only clearly identified structure is the wall that performed that function to the northeast, or B/026. As explained above, graphic evidence shows that there was a space between the mosaic pavement and the wall itself, a gap which suggests that this wall was not originally used to enclose the mosaic from its east (Figs. 6.11; 7.26, 27, 40, 41, 47, 48; Fig. A.1, 2, 3). The gap, following measurements in the Hauschild plan, was around 1.1 meters from the western face of wall B/026 and eastern edge of the mosaic floor.84
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See Chapter 3, 5.4. Marquez Villora and Poveda Navarro, “Espacio religioso y cultura material en Ilici (ss. IV–VII DC),” 195. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: June 3rd, 1948, n. 7, f. 7r. This detail confirms Ibarra’s original measurements when he defined the depth of the eastern apse. Since he did not find the “western extension” of B/006, which would touch the eastern border of the mosaic floor, he did not consider that the apse was in fact not 3.2 meters deep, but merely around 2.7 meters deep, including a 0.58 meter width for the apse wall, which would put it at a 2.1 meter inner depth.
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figure 7.51
Picture of southern structures as preserved in 1990. To the left are remains of B/321. Looking southwest from Area S fla archives. 1990 excavation pictures, n. 4.2
A similar gap is associated with the mirror wall B/321, evidenced in the H. Schlunk sketch (Fig. A.3). The evidence for this north-south wall B/321 runs as a continuation of B/026 to the south of the apse structure. As Folqués proposed in 1974, only half a meter of this wall was preserved.85 Furthermore, its location according to the Schlunk sketch plan was immediately to the east of structure B/301 that partially supported the southern apse wall, and which was apparently placed in a different pattern coloring in said sketch than wall B/321. In other words, the Schlunk sketch demonstrates that the north-south axis walls, which connect the apse to the lateral walls B/023 to the north and B/020 to the south, are of a later date than the structures detected underneath the mosaic floor at the southern branch of the apse. In addition, the quote of Alejandro Ramos’s excavation diaries regarding the northeastern corner suggests that this wall, along with B/006, were contemporary, and broke the gravel pavement B/NE/077. On October 11th, 1949, more stratigraphic evidence was documented by Ramos Folqués:
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Ramos Folqués, El cristianismo en Elche, 105.
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I have taken photos from H corner86 where the continuation of the eastwest wall87 is appreciated and, therefore, that the wall that goes to the apse is later than that one; also, that it was above the gravel floor, broken to place the foundation of said wall.88 This quote by Alejandro Ramos clearly shows the stratigraphic development of the northeastern corner of the basilical building, which was already proposed by other authors and to which I subscribe: – The first phase has the gravel floor B/NE/077 that probably covered the whole eastern area and includes B/EM/302, as well as eastern pre-mosaic floor (Level M) B/114. This level has a stucco covering applied to it, B/017, which was attached to tangential eastern wall B/010. – On top of this was the subsequent cement floor B/EM/016 and B/113, which included stucco B/122 described above “Level M” (see this chapter, 2.2.3), but below the mosaic floor. – Breaking locus B/NE/077 and probably later floors, if extant in this section, we find foundation B/-030 for the placement of eastern mosaic wall B/026 (with its black stucco B/126) and eastern apse wall B/006. The novelty in this interpretation is the presentation of this stratigraphy with two factors already treated above: the diachronic relation between wall B/026 (and therefore wall B/321) and probably apse wall B/006 on one hand, and the diachronic relation between the apse and the mosaic floor on the other. The apse would be of a later date to the aforementioned broken gravel floor. In this regard, the mosaic’s eastern border is broken by “demolition phase” B/-030, as preparation for the later construction of the “mosaic’s eastern wall”. To conclude the description of this apse section, there remains the foundation of wall B/010 itself. As presented in the book El cristianismo en Elche by Ramos Folqués in 1974, the foundation height of this wall is the same as that of northern wall B/023, that is –1.00 meter (70 centimeters below the mosaic pavement). Excavations in the northwestern corner of Area S (probe S/B/D) reached the bedrock level, associated with F, where he found the remains of foundation fill underneath wall B/010.89 This description revealed then
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Northeastern corner of Area B. Wall B/023. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: October 11th, 1949, n. 11, f. 2v. “Saco fotos rincón H de este croquis en el que se aprecia como sigue la pared E-O enlucida, y por tanto, que la pared que va al ábside es posterior a aquella; y también, que estaba sobre el piso de grava roto para la cimentación de dicha pared.” ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 10th, 1949, n. 10, f. 7r.
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two stratigraphic units: one is a foundation trench B/-073 and another was foundation fill B/072. The latter revealed few finds, including an undecorated vase with annular base, conical-globular body, medium neck, and everted rim (BAE/1949/B/072/cer/1), and a decorated Iberian vase with geometric motifs including bands of waves, concentric semi-circles, and horizontal lines (BAE/ 1949/B/072/cer/2). Finally, two pieces of lead that are associated with a previous architectural element found around the wall’s construction (BAE/1949/B/ 072/Pb/1 and 2). As described in Chapter 8, the Zero Point ashlar stone belongs to unit S/052, which continues eastwards on top of wall S/055, itself a continuation of northern wall B/023. Unit S/052, belonging to Area S, as well as floor S/056 which is associated with the last phase of use of Area S, reutilizes the foundations of wall B/010. The level to which wall S/052 belongs was of a later date than stucco B/017 underneath it, which is contemporary to stucco S/127 on the northern face of the tangential wall. In other words, floor S/056 and wall S/052 were placed after the original foundation of wall B/010. However, this does not mean that the apse wall was built after wall S/052. The evidence of construction activity breaking pre-mosaic floors suggests that the apse wall was constructed on top of remains of past remnants of wall B/010. As can be seen in the Chapter 8 on Area S, wall S/052 was dated to a “Phase II” probably before the apse’s construction. In any case, materials from Area S suggest that it was not built before the late 4th century. 2.2.5 The Southern Walls (Sub-areas B/SE, B/SE/A’ and B/S) Unlike central Area B and the eastern apse area, the southern edge of the mosaic remained untouched until 1948 when Alejandro Ramos Folqués first excavated it. This explains why neither Albertini nor Ibarra described the southern wall of the structure, as they focused their attention on the central mosaic floor. As a result, the areas south of the mosaic have always presented a complex matter of interpretation regarding their inclusion in the structure and its history. The first publication that attempted to interpret the southern walls and structures of the basilical building was by Lafuente Vidal in 1948 (Fig. 7.52). Unlike other authors, he proposed that this building was actually a secular Roman basilica, associated with a commercial purpose. It would have had an expanded southern aisle that would reach beyond the limits of the mosaic floor, which was limited to the southern mosaic inscription to its north, for the common people when they assisted ceremonies or events in this basilica.90 90
Lafuente Vidal, “La supuesta sinagoga de Elche,” 396. Curiously, Vidal proposes that this
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In addition Vidal proposed that the original buildings had a southern, and not western entrance, accessible then from a road or a way to the south of the structure. Vidal’s thesis, which was proven to be erroneous soon after with Ramos Folqués’ excavations between 1948 and 1955, is a testimony to the complex nature of the southern section of the mosaic. The first excavations by Alejandro Ramos in April–May 1948 unveiled that the eastern Area S had walls stretching south, beyond the limits of the mosaic floor—concretely, 1.5 meters more to the south of what was originally considered the width of the main basilical hall. Part of this width is certainly confirmed with the existence of Area T, which has compartments open to the southern street. Unlike the 1905 excavations done in trenches by both Albertini and Ibarra, Alejandro Ramos’ 1948 and 1949 excavations to the south were more systematic and better documented. Photographic evidence from the 1948 uncovering of the mosaic by April of that year (as the 4th Congress of Southeastern Spanish Archaeology was being held) reveals three interesting facts (Fig. 7.51): first, that at no point were the southern walls uncovered; second, that the excavator made a small probe into the fill to the south of the mosaic floor, which was at an upper level (probably B/SE/A’/241); third, that an important fill can be found to the southeast of the mosaic floor—a fill that would not be excavated until late in 1948 or in 1949, after the removal of the mosaic and after having excavated the Sacristía (Area S) to the east. In the 1955 published report on the 1948 excavations, Ramos Folqués classified this area with the number “4” in his produced sketch (Fig. A.4).91 However, the bulk of his published findings are mainly or only ones from Area T, to the south of the basilical structure.92 Elsewhere, in the excavation diaries, Ramos Folqués proposes a series of probes that were done on repeated occasions until 1949. The first was in an area classified in the first sketches of the site as A’, located to the southeast of the mosaic floor (Fig. A.1).93 There he found the remains of a “Christian lamp” and a fragment of a large roof tile. This phase
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“wider” southern aisle is from a second period, and not from the first basilical building which would have been built before the 3rd century. However, in essence Vidal proposes that the later, “reduced” form of the basilical building—limited only to the mosaic area and the eastern apse—was applied only when the building was used for local Christian communities. Ramos Folqués, “Elche (Alicante). La Alcudia [campañas 1940–1948],” 131. Ramos Folqués, 133. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental, entry for May 31st, 1948, n. 7, f. 6r.
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Plan and legend of the Ilici basilica according to Lafuente Vidal in lafuente vidal, j. (1948): “la supuesta sinagoga de elche”, archivo español de arqueología 73, p. 397
would be associated with the ruin fill B/002 and was classified as B/SE/A’/241. A second fill (B/046) was excavated in the 1949 season, placed on top of the first discovered wall to the south of the mosaic (B/021),94 amongst which remains 94
ARF, AMRF Corpus documental: April 26th, 1949, n. 7, ff. 1v–2r. “En la tierra sobre el muro sur de la sinagoga, encontré …”.
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of “roman ceramics” and painted ware were found, as well as a lead flat object “similar to the other ones found in the apse”. All point toward a late dating for this upper layer. Underneath this fill are the southern wall features. Or, as is the consensus amongst researchers on this site, southern walls (in plural). Regarding the southern edge of the mosaic, this is what Ramos Folqués had to say in 1974: On the southern wall, having the same structure and characteristics as the northern wall, we only found ten centimeters in its visible part. Above the remains of this wall is found another, whose dimensions go beyond both the east and west limits of the mosaic, noting that about the central part of that one mounts the other, leaving twenty centimeters of the lower wall uncovered,95 but later the upper wall would make a diagonal turn northward, covering it completely. Above this second wall is found another one forming a step. These last wall constructions prolong west, and correspond to another, later building to the mosaic, a construction that later closes to the west. The only difference that I observe between these walls is that the inferior one, that is, the one that corresponds with the mosaic, used more stone than the upper ones where mud predominates.96 The above quote interprets the findings done by Alejandro Ramos between 1948 and 1954, as exposed in the “Loose Notes” recovered from the archives in the Alcudia (Fig. 7.22). The recovered sketch indicates the existence of these three walls. The inferior one, bordering the mosaic, was classified initially as B/028 in the current book. The second, above this, was classified as B/020, and already presents the “northwards turn” as Ramos Folqués presented it. Finally, the upper late wall was classified as B/021 in the current study and appears to follow the irregular line of the wall under it. The specific measurements were never published, probably due to the complexity of the southern wall’s interpretation. However, two sketches from the excavation diaries allow us to have a picture regarding the width of each of these walls. The first sketch was from May 10th, 1950 (Fig. 9.1).97 The sketch
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This measurement, having not been found in an X-Y axis (in any plan or sketch from the excavation diaries or from any publication), it should be interpreted as 20 centimeters in height (or Z axis). Ramos Folqués, El cristianismo en Elche, 105–106. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: May 10th, 1950, n. 11, ff. 35v–36r.
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Picture of southern panel of the mosaic floor, following its uncovering in April 1948 (during the IV Congress of Southeastern Spanish Archaeology held that month) by pérez aracil. fuia archives
is mostly descriptive of the structures found in the eastern section of Area T. However, this includes the measurements of the southeastern corner of the mosaic floor. In it one finds first the presence of a bordering white stucco B/018. The width of the stucco is unknown. To the mosaic’s south is a 0.6 meter wall (B/028) which was mentioned by Ramos Folqués in the above quote, as adjacent to the mosaic. To that wall’s south is a 0.35 wide surface that Ramos Folqués interpreted as another wall (B/020), or the middle wall. Finally, on top of that middle wall is the upper wall B/021 with a 0.7 meter width, continuing westwards. While this will be treated in length in the chapter dedicated to Area T (Chapter 9), it is of note that south of B/021 is another east-west wall with a 0.4 meters width of visible surface, called here “Wall A” (Fig. 7.1). South of that wall is yet another wall of 0.4 meters, called “E”.
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The other relevant sketch for its measurements is from April 15th, 1954, during the excavation of sub-area B/OM. The sketch described the southwestern corner of the basilical structure (Fig. 7.62).98 The measurement of the northernmost of the three abovementioned walls is only 0.4 meters wide—a 0.2 meters reduction from the southeastern corner. Apparently, as exposed by Ramos Folqués twenty years later, the wall stops at the western edge of the mosaic floor. Beyond that is what seems like a pebble floor, not unlike B/NE/077 and B/114 (see section 2.2.3: B/185, and 2.1.1: B/314). However, there is neither photographic documentation nor recording of this pavement’s height other than what seems to be a few remains in the B/OM sub-area. The “northwards turn” described by Folqués has already begun before the western edge of the mosaic (Fig. 7.59). The photographic evidence of that area is fragmentary at best. The first photographs are from 1971, after several interventions in that section which apparently caused the disappearance of several features. With more information are the 1990 excavation pictures that clearly show that both walls B/020 and B/021 follow the same path, one on top of the other. The “northward turn” occurs immediately west of the “central part” described by Folqués in his quote. This “central part” protrudes above the mosaic pavement as shown in another 1948 photograph (Fig. 7.54), and was classified as section B/138, which mounts on top of the north-south wall B/125 detected in sub-mosaic “Level N” (see section 2.2.3). It is noteworthy that when the excavators in 1990 dug west of this B/138 section, they found there no foundation for any wall such as B/028 (Figs. 7.28, 54, 55, 56)—therefore, the described 0.4 meter wide “wall” was no wall at all, but a space between the remains of the upper two walls with a slight diagonal direction, and the southwestern corner of the mosaic pavement. This raises two dilemmas: first, what is the southern wall associated with the mosaic? This is relevant considering that B/028 did not reach the southwestern corner as a “wall”, but instead there is an open space between the mosaic and the upper wall B/020 where the B/028 should have been. Second, what is the relation between section B/138 and apparent wall B/028? On the first question, one notices that the “northward turn” did not occur until evidence for the so-called wall B/028 was no longer present. The irregular “turn” supposes a necessary aesthetic and functional continuity between the areas west of the mosaic floor and the areas east of it. This implies that there was a contemporary use of both structure B/028—and its protruding section B/138—and B/020, as it would make no sense that the latter would only cover
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ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: April 15th, 1954, n. 19, ff. 51r, 54r.
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figure 7.54 Picture from 1948 excavation, prior to the removal of the mosaic. Southern wall and structure B/138. Looking east fla archives
figure 7.56
figure 7.55 Detail picture of southeastern corner of the mosaic, wall, and stucco B/018 during the 1948 excavation. Looking east fla archives
Picture of central southern walls and “structure B/138” as they were found before the 1990 excavation rafael ramos fernández. fla archives
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figure 7.57 Southern part of Area B or basilical building, as found in 1990 n. 4.2. Detail of southern structures B/138 and B/028 fla archives
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Picture of southwestern corner of mosaic area during the 1990 excavation fla archives. 1990 excavation pictures, n. 50.1
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figure 7.59 Picture of southern walls west of B/138 (in the center) excavated 1990 fla archives. 1990 excavation pictures, n. 9.1
the area “reserved” for B/028 when it was not present to its west. This suggests then the possibility that B/028 and B/138 are not part of a wall at all. The new reading of the “inferior southern wall” requires further evidence which was provided by the 1990 excavation, where the archaeological team dug below the foundation levels west of B/028 (Figs. 7.28, 56). They found that B/028 indeed rested on the remains of wall B/125, which is located roughly 2.5 meters east of the western edge of the mosaic. After that there is a sudden stop for the “inferior wall” to the west. This would confirm that unit B/028 was never a southern wall for the mosaic, which forces us to review the relation between the protruding section B/138 and “wall” B/028. This “protruding” feature was 2.5 meters east of the western edge of the mosaic, following the excavation diaries Level N sketch (Fig. 7.27), where B/125 is located two meters east of the western limit of the sub-mosaic excavation
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area.99 It is the only section immediately south of the mosaic that is found significantly above it, and was probably the wall section that inspired the quote by Ramos Folqués above. The architectural “anomaly” is in fact divided into two elements. The first is a series of stones that appear as if they were a collapse. In fact, it is the section supported by B/125. Therefore, what is visible today from that structure was in fact partially covered by the mosaic floor until 1948. East of it is a series of large stones that inspired the description for wall B/020 and were clearly covered by the late wall B/021. Section B/138 also has a peculiarity, as the northern edge of it is limited by straight stones which were found, by 1971, to be four centimeters above the mosaic level (that is, –0.25 meters—see Fig. 7.4). The 1948 photograph shows a stucco line covering this very section, before continuing towards the east. From the photographic evidence one reaches a different conclusion to that of Ramos Folqués: that B/020 does not necessarily cover section B/138 and unit B/028. Instead, stones from B/138 cover the larger stones B/020. The sudden “end” of this structure to its west indicates it was not a random collapse. As for the relationship between B/138 and B/028, the stucco covering and continuity between this section and the “inferior wall” suggests they were both part of the same feature. The conclusion is that B/028 and B/138 are probably a bench attached to the southern wall of the basilical structure, instead of a wall. Therefore B/028 would be the “foundation” of it, and B/138 are the remains of the bench superstructure that was almost completely demolished. Another revelation from the 1990 excavation was that the Iberian structure underneath Area B seemed to have had a similar width as the late antique edifice (8 meters). The excavation of the ground underneath the remains of wall B/020, west of B/138, shows that indeed there was a “pre-basilical” wall sustaining not B/028, but rather “middle wall” B/020. This is evident from the photographic evidence of the 1990 excavation (Fig. 7.58). A note should be given about Ramos Folqués’ account on the similarities between B/028 and northern wall B/023. While similar materials could have been used in both cases, the fact is that the similarities stop there. Chronologically, B/028 and B/020 come after B/023, for the following reasons: 1. Northern wall B/023 limits all sub-mosaic levels, including the northsouth trench B/115 and B/116 mentioned above, the latter of which continues beyond the southern limit of the mosaic. 2. The foundations for wall B/023 were excavated in 1948 and were found to be 70 centimeters below the mosaic floor—that is, approximately one
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See Note 34.
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meter below Zero Point. Regardless of the use of B/125 for the foundation of section B/138, which was part of B/028, neither reach that depth. The foundations for all southern structures were relatively superficial, something that does not happen in B/023 or its north-south wall continuation for that matter, also classified as B/010. On the foundation of the subsequent southern walls, it is important to notice that in the 1948 photograph from the southwestern corner of the mosaic, the area occupied by B/020, which by that section followed the continuation of the southern line of the mosaic floor, was of similar height as the so-called B/028 wall next to the mosaic itself. Regarding the “middle wall” B/020, one notices in the sketch from April 15th, 1954, that this structure connects to its west with other sets of walls. Specifically B/OM/027, which would only be fully excavated in 1990. The concrete connection between the two walls was not truly found, as by 1971 the remains of both B/020 and B/021 walls were apparently dismantled, something visible in several photographs at the time.100 The facts presented by photographic evidence and by published and archival documents give us a more complete and realistic picture of the southern edge of the mosaic structure. At first the urban block included Areas B and T, and was limited to its south with what would become Area C—an east-west road associated with adjacent pre-Roman Iberian ceremonial burials (see Chapter 9, 2 and 3.2). At a certain point, northern wall B/023 was built, and later a series of sub-mosaic phases covered it partially, providing a relative chronology. Still, there was continuity between what was classified as “Area B” and “Area T” to its south—a similar situation that was visible on the area to the south of Area S as well. It was only with the building of the mosaic pavement that we find the first delimitation of Area B to its south, with the contemporary use of B/028 as the foundation of the superstructure B/138. For the construction of the latter, architectural features under the mosaic such as B/125 were taken advantage of. Possibly the materials used for the superstructure of B/028 were not as solid as those in section B/138, and thus were not as well preserved. White stucco B/018 limited this element to its north (Fig. 7.45, 46), and established the southern limit of the mosaic floor. At the same time, wall B/020 was built
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Evidence for the existence of said continuation is clear from all sketches of the southwestern corner of the basilical structure, west of the mosaic floor. However, despite this clear continuation westwards for B/020 and B/021, there is no clear evidence for the contact with B/OM/027. The closest evidence we have of this is the sketch from the “Loose Notes” (Fig. 7.17) by Alejandro Ramos Folqués, describing sub-area B/OM to the west of the mosaic.
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following the east-west axis of the mosaic floor, up to section B/138 when the wall turns north and covers the area that was reserved to its east for the southern bench. This proposes that “middle wall” B/020 was in effect the southern wall of the basilical edifice during the use of the mosaic floor, and probably in later periods. Wall B/020 continues eastwards and westwards, dividing the northern areas from the southern ones in our site, and including in the synagogue/basilica structure both sub-area B/OM and the apse area to the east of the mosaic itself. After the basilical structure fell into disrepair, wall B/020 was reused as the foundation for wall B/021, which is associated with “Level O” in Area T—a level linked to a late cemetery after the abandonment of the basilical building, or its disuse (Chapter 9, 3.1.1). Possibly this wall was associated with “A–B” wall of Albertini B/014. With time even this wall was ruined and fills B/046 and B/SE/A’/241 covered it.
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Peripheral Sub-areas of B
The area considered as “periphery” of Area B are sub-areas mostly to the west and north of the mosaic floor area. These areas were never fully published, or published partially, as they were by convention considered as findings outside the original basilical structure. However, as we shall see in this section, these sub-areas have a clear relation with the development of the building as a whole. There are two main general sub-areas that were associated with the “periphery”: the first is the western sections, or two sub-areas B/OM and B/OB. They include the sub-area west of the mosaic floor, including structures and fills detected through the 1949 and 1954 excavations, as well as documented partially in the 1971 Deutesches Archaeologisches Institut intervention, and another beyond it to the west, with features that were not fully excavated. These areas are associated with the entrance for the mosaic pavement hall and will be analyzed accordingly. The other sub-areas lie to the north and should be considered outside the basilical building, though they are associated with it. The reason they are linked to Area B is due to their importance for the understanding of the building’s chronology. In fact, fills N/E/240 and N/F/249, and the probe B/F, have important data that document the use of the area before the construction of the Area B buildings, including the phases following its abandonment.
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3.1 Stratigraphy and Architecture West of the Mosaic As presented above, west of the mosaic floor was wall B/024, which was documented in the 1905 and 1948 excavations. However, the best sketches of the structures west of the mosaic floor come from 1954, providing a more complete picture that sub-area of the basilica. These were found in the Corpus documental, whether in the excavation diaries or in the loose notes by Ramos Folqués (Fig. 7.22) from that year. The first photographs of that area appear from the 1971 intervention, though it was only in 1990 when photographs were taken of the areas of the structures found west of the mosaic floor. They allow us to include in the reconstruction of the basilical building structures that were previously not considered, and never published alongside the main mosaic pavement. 3.1.1 West of the Mosaic: Sub-area B/OM The western limit of the mosaic floor was catalogued as B/024. However, while one finds accounts from the 1905 and 1948 excavations of that western wall, a recapitulation of the relevant excavations must be presented here in order to understand the features and materials recovered from this sector. The first intervention on the area west of wall B/024 was in November, 1950.101 The excavations included interventions first at a “prolongation of the sacred street”, which, if we follow the intervention from that year in the excavation diaries, would have been to the west of the mosaic floor area, in areas C or T.102 However, on November 24th the author indicates that the fill “to the west of the mosaic” was “dismounted”.103 The next news about the area to the west of the mosaic, which is not in Area T between the basilical structure and the “sacred street” (Area C), was in early 1952 when Alejandro Ramos did a first sketch for the area west and southwest of the mosaic floor. A first description of several architectural features that dotted the area immediately west of the mosaic, or what is classified in this project as B/OM, was drawn in a sketch on January 28th (Fig. 7.61).104 However, the description goes beyond B/OM, to a much less defined area that was called here B/OB. Regardless, the sketch from January 28th shows an excavation in early 1952, which allowed for the description of findings from a “Level C” to the
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ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental, notebook number 13, from the entries dated November 16th, 1950. Ibid., entry for November 16th, 1950, n. 13, f. 1r–32v. Ibid., entry for November 24th, 1950, n. 13, f. 31v. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: January 28th, 1952, n. 15, f. 9r.
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“W of the basilica” on February 1st,105 with other findings described in ascribed levels, but without an indication of the area to which they belonged. Subsequently, the 1954 and 1955 campaigns were the last where Ramos Folqués intervened in that area. Starting from April 12th, 1954, due to the rains that made his excavation of Iberian period wells impossible, Alejandro Ramos continued his excavation of the area west of the mosaic floor.106 In the entries for April 15th we find the best sketches made of this area, with relatively detailed information, but without any height recorded for any of the levels detected by Folqués (Figs. 7.59, 60). The first sketch includes the description of a large water installation that reached the street (Areas T and C) to the west of the basilical structure. Later interventions were made in October 1954 onwards, particularly with the arrival of a “team of Iberists on April 1955” (a year after the last sketch) where several new features, to the west of those detected on April 1954, were uncovered. This led to the drawing of new sketches for the 1955 intervention (Figs. 7.61, 62). All of them were somehow associated with the southern street, and were mostly present between areas B/OB and T. Following the 1971 intervention Ramos Folqués lost sight of the scant remnants of B/024, probably due to its decay after many repeated interventions. However, the remains of walls B/OM/033 and B/OM/178 were already visible by then, being documented in “Loose Notes” from the 1950s (Fig. 7.22). This led Ramos Folqués to elaborate a plan of the basilical structure with the mosaic in 1975, including an interpretation of the western entrance area. In it he revealed the existence of an entrance to area B/OM, which is interestingly similar to what was later reconstructed after the 1990 intervention (Figs. 7.5, 60).107 I believe this suggests the existence of an entrance at the central area of wall B/OM/027 that gave access to the introductory area, the structure having no detected entrances from the street to the main Area B. The above history of excavations for these sub-areas makes it hard to reconstruct the stratigraphical sequence of the site. It was clear from April 1954 that the area west and southwest of the mosaic floor had its upper levels (B/001 and B/002) uncovered.108 However, it seems that the first excavation in extenso of archaeological fill occurred only in October 1954, four years after the first intervention on the site.109
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Ibid., entry for February 1st, 1952, p. 12.7b. Ibid., entry for April 12th, 1954, p. 16.22b. Alejandro Ramos Folqués, “Excavaciones de la Alcudia,” Noticiario Arqueológico Hispánico V (1962): 93. Alejandro Ramos Folqués, Guia de la Alcudia de Elche y de su museo (Elche, 1975), 51. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: April 15th, 1955, n. 19, ff. 51r, 54r. Ibid., entries for October 12th, 1954, n. 20, f. 28r; October 13th, 1954, n. 20, f. 29r.
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The first catalogued fill of this area, B/OM/303, was uncovered in 1950. The specific quote regarding this first intervention west of the mosaic is as follows: “Dismounting the earth to the W of the mosaic, we found …” (sic). This means that the ground uncovered was most probably equivalent to B/002, explaining of course the series of findings done in that fill. These include chancel screen fragments BAE/1950/B/OM/303/bis/1… and others. Other objects of note included a big stone with a semicircular feature identified by Ramos Folqués as the base for one of the abovementioned screens, BAE/1950/B/OM/303/pet/II/1 … The excavator did not explain why this object was found so far to the west, outside the mosaic area. More architectural remains were found (circular arch BAE/1950/B/OM/303/pet/I/1 amongst others) in this fill, which were identified as the remains of a structural collapse in this sub-area. Further explorations into this fill were done on October 12th, 1954, where even more “chancel screen” remains were found.110 These include the following objects (see catalogue entry for B/OM/303): – Quadruped figure made with bevel. BAE/1954/B/OM/303/pet/I/2 – Head of a bird. BAE/1954/B/OM/303/pet/I/3 – Frame for a figure with legs. BAE/1954/B/OM/303/pet/I/4 – Two united frames. BAE1954/B/OM/303/pet/I/5 – Marble column base, seemingly attic, with a straight step above which are two rounded ones. BAE1954/B/OM/303/pet/I/6 – On October 14th, 1954, further architectural features, including “chancel screen” remains, decorative stones and column remains, were found. Their original location was lost during the excavation.111 These architectural findings demonstrate that sub-area B/OM was part of the wider basilical complex described here. The unusual concentration of “chancel screen” fragments to the west of the mosaic points towards an alternative use for these objects. Furthermore, these features were not used within a wall or reused for other constructions. Instead they must have been in use during the site’s abandonment. One detail that should be highlighted is the discovery, at this level, of a coin (1:100 fraction), a duponius (BAE/1954/B/OM/303/num/1) made by Antoninus Pius dated between 138 and 161 ce and catalogued by Abascal and Alberola after examination of the excavation diaries.112 This archaeological demolition fill must have covered the walls and other elements found and slowly uncovered during these interventions, as revealed
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Ibid., entry for October 12th, 1954, n. 20, f. 28r. Ibid., entry for October 12th, 1954, n. 20, f. 29r. Abascal Palazón and Alberola, Monedas antiguas de los museos de Elche, 126, number 622.
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by the sketches from 1950, 1952, 1954, and 1955, as well as the Loose Notes by Alejandro Ramos Folqués. In 1950, the dig to the west of the mosaic reached a level below that of the mosaic floor (–0.30m) (B/OM/304). Logically this could only be seen had the excavator dug near the mosaic itself, to the west of wall B/024. Amongst the remains was a lamp with a yellow slip (BAE/1950/B/OM/304/cer/ 1), and the fragments of a marble inscription with no further description (BAE/ 1950/B/OM/304/pet/1). Another excavation to the “west of the mosaic” was done mostly in 1955, with two distinct probes. The two are the most complete sequencing of material from the area west of the mosaic. These include the sequence from the entries in the excavation diaries dated to December 31st, 1954, to January 4th, 1955, where the excavator detected levels B (B/OM/174), C (B/OM/175), D (B/OM/ 176) and E (B/OM/177). The area was clearly described as being to the “west of the mosaic”, and therefore should be classified clearly in sub-area B/OM. The second probe was described in the entry for the excavation diaries for April 15th, 1955. The location of this probe, however, is unclear, as the author clearly indicates that the findings were done “to the west of the Basilica”. It is unclear whether by that he meant the area to the west of the mosaic (B/OM) enclosed to the west by B/OM/027, or to the west of the main building (B/OB). The sketch from April 14th, 1955, marks an area to the west of B/OM/027 that might indicate its location. However, the description of the April 15th excavation presents the idea that Ramos Folqués is “continuing” the intervention previously done—that is, the probes from sub-area B/OM—in January. The confusing situation cannot be solved due to fact that Ramos Folqués never fully described the areas and structures found to the west of the mosaic floor. Instead the current scholar must work with the partial evidence available. The second probe is parallel to the first one. Ramos Folqués describes in his Diaries the findings levels “A” (B/OM/221), “B” (B/OM/309), “C” (B/OM/310), “E” (B/OM/312), and “F” (B/OM/183). As one can see there is no reference for “Level D” (B/OM/311), mostly due to the lack of findings described by Ramos Folqués. However, considering the existence of a “Level E” below a “Level C”, there must have been a “Level D” with no archaeological findings—something that fits with the description of sequencing presented by the authors of the 1990 excavation, whereas there are 14 centimeters of “archaeologically barren fill”.113 Another difference is that the excavator found a “Level F”, which raises the question whether he reached, in this probe, the bedrock level (B/090). The excavator did not describe it.
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Ramos Fernández, “Los templos ibéricos de la Alcuida de Elche,” 87.
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Similarities between the first and second probes are not only present in their sequencing, but also in their archaeological findings. As was observed above, B/OM/221 and B/OM/303 were associated with post-abandonment or collapse phases. Below them is either B/OM/304 with fill elements that would have been present below the mosaic floor level, and below the previous B/OM/303 phase. “Level B” from January 1955 (B/OM/174) is a mixture of material from early imperial periods and late Iberian pottery (BAE/1954/B/OM/174/cer/3). The early imperial fragments are represented by a 1st century bce Conspectus Formarum 23 (Goudineau 40c) or Ritterling 5A Terra Sigillata form (BAE/1954/B/ OM/174/cer/1),114 that included a potter’s mark within a circular epigraphic area with the words HFEA (1st line) and CLATO (2nd line). The description of the slip suggests a Gallic Ritterling 5A form rather than an Italic Goudineau 40c form. These were also represented in other sites such as Saguntum and Valentia.115 This is a mixture of ground from a moment when the upper levels were prepared, and therefore do not indicate clear chronological development. Material from the April probe’s “Level B” (B/OM/309) indicate a level from a later period, considering the decorative motif of a lamp with a stepped triangle that might have been a “Mount Golgotha” motif (BAE/1955/B/OM/309/cer/2) or a sigillata pottery fragment with braided decoration (BAE/1955/B/OM/309/cer/1). This points to a 4th century ce dating, associated with the period when the mosaic was laid (late 4th century/early 5th century ce). “Level C” from the January probe (B/OM/175) presented a larger amount of material clearly placed in the 1st century bce. These include the pottery fragments with marks such as “HERYO” (BAE1954/B/OM/175/cer/1) or ΔION and YΣIOY (BAE1954/B/OM/175/cer/2), while having other fragments from sigillata 114
115
ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: entry for December 31st, 1954, n. 20, f. 37r. The description of the piece reveals it to be a “small sigillata cup with almost lost, little adherent slip”, and therefore would probably point towards a local imitation of the form. The question is whether this is a Terra Sigillata Italica production, associated with Conspectus Formarum 23 (Goudineau 40c), which was fairly common in late 1st century bce and early 1st century ce Ilici, or whether it is indeed a Terra Sigillata Gallica Ritterling 5A which in Ilici are represented on a few occasions. Josep Montesinos i Martínez, Comercialización de terra sigillata en Ilici (Elche. Comunidad Valenciana. España), Serie Arqueológica 16 (Valencia: Academia de Cultura Valenciana, 1998), 39–40, 129–130. Figure 9.51–55 for TSI “Consceptus Formarum 23” and Figure 35.184–185 for TSG “Ritterling 5” forms. On the possibility for its Hispanic (Betic) production given the failing “adherent” slip typical of the peñaflor type immitations, see: Macarena Bustamante Álvarez, “La terra sigillata gálica e hispánica. Evidencias de algo más que una relación comercial,” Romvla 12–13 (2012–2013): 565–568. Josep Montesinos i Martínez, Terra sigillata en Sagvntvm y tierras valencianas (Sagunto: Caja de Ahorros de Sagunto, 1991), 33 Fig. 11.65–69.
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pottery that could not have been produced before the very late republican or early imperial periods. The fragment of a stone icon (fragment of a face— BAE1954/B/OM/175/pet/1) points towards the use of ground from previous periods. Further findings from this probe were recovered in the 1962 publication of the excavation reports.116 In it Ramos Folqués gives us an account of several findings in this phase’s “April probe” counterpart (B/OM/310) which also has important fragments of sigillata pottery. These fragments include a plate with the decoration of a wolf (BAE/1955/B/OM/310/cer/1) amongst other sigillata pottery fragments. In addition, several fragments of “thin wall” pottery (BAE/1955/B/OM/310/cer/6) were found, as well as an amphora with a potter’s mark “C•FOVRI” (BAE/1955/B/OM/310/cer/3) and a coin. The presence of a “thin wall” ceramic fragment points towards a later period for B/OM/310 than B/OM/175. However, considering that this ground is not a closed stratum, and instead should be interpreted as a removal of previous phases, absolute chronology for “Level C” is as difficult as “Level B”. Continuing deeper, the excavator found only a “Level D” in the January probe (B/OM/176), but, as indicated above, the apparent “Level D” fill for the April probe (B/OM/311) was barren of archaeological finds. It was therefore not registered in the excavation diaries. However, as indicated before, its existence is evident due to the registration of a “Level E”. The first probe’s B/OM/176 has a series of late Iberian pottery fragments, including a decorated plate with Iberian letters painted on it (BAE/1955/B/OM/176/cer/2). There are pieces of iron objects, including what seems like an Iberian fibula (BAE/1955/B/OM/176/Fe/1). The January probe’s “Level E” (B/OM/177) also has early material similar in chronology to that of “Level D” (B/OM/176). This includes imported Campanian and Attic pottery (BAE1955/B/OM/177/cer/1 and 2), painted Iberian “cup hat” pottery (BAE1955/B/OM/177/cer/6 and 7), a painted weight (BAE1955/B/ OM/177/cer/I/8), and overall painted pottery shards with vegetable and geometric motifs (BAE1955/B/OM/177/cer/3 and 4). Its April probe counterpart (B/OM/312) had only one notable find of a large cooking pot (BAE/1955/B/ OM/312/cer/1) with different objects inserted inside. These include an Iberian painted plate (BAE/1955/B/OM/312/cer/2), as well as remains of bones, a snail shell, and six stones. Both “Levels E” from either probe demonstrate the use of ritual materials in this area west of the mosaic floor and/or the basilical structure on this stage. “Level D”, with fewer materials, points towards an abandonment stage following the previous, ritual one.
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Ramos Folqués, “Excavaciones de la Alcudia.,” 93.
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Reconstruction plan for Area B according to a. ramos folqués (1975): guía de la alcudia de elche y de su museo, p. 51
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figure 7.61
Sketch of areas south and west of the mosaic floor in its center (1952) in the Alejandro Ramos Folqués excavation diaries entry in arf, amrf, corpus documental, for january 28th, 1952, n. 15, f. 9 r
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Sketch of southwest of the basilical structure and of installation with “bordillo” B/OB/316 in the Alejandro Ramos Folqués Excavation Diaries entry in arf, amrf, corpus documental: april 15th, 1954, n. 19, f. 51 r . fla archives
Only in the April probe was a “Level F” identified (B/OM/183). This “Level F” includes only two material findings: a closed vase with high neck and everted rim with incised lines in “S” form decorated on it (BAE/1955/B/OM/183/cer/1), and the remains of bone from a large animal (BAE/1955/B/OM/183/os/1). Material remains show a sequencing that was later confirmed in the 1990 excavation, as well as elsewhere on the Alcudia site: a first stage of ritual material covered by fills with 1st century bce and 1st century ce objects, which is also the suggested date for the foundation of northern wall B/023. Using relative stratigraphy, the wall was identified as the oldest wall of the site. A final fill was laid in preparation for the mosaic floor, including Roman architectural remains like the stone inscription found in B/OM/174. Apart from the above sequencing, we find there the presence of structural elements identified to the west of the mosaic floor. It is nearly impossible to find
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a described relation between these structural units and the horizontal fill units that supported them. Ramos Folqués who first found these structures gave little importance to them, as he understood them to be outside the “Basilica” itself. However, the features found by him in the 1950s, registered in several documents, especially in the 1954 “Loose Notes” sketch (Fig. 7.22), in photographs from the 1971 expedition (Figs. 7.63), and later uncovered by Ramos Fernández in 1990, are crucial for the understanding of the site’s history. The most important element found to the west of the mosaic floor is a northsouth wall (B/OM/027) parallel to B/OM/024, and therefore parallel to the western edge of the mosaic floor. According to Ramos Folqués’ “Loose Notes” sketch, the wall was located at 5.18 centimeters from the mosaic edge. According to that same document, an ashlar stone that was located on top of the wall line itself had 0.63 meters width. However, the 1990 excavation photograph reveals a more complex picture of this singular wall (Fig. 7.67). Namely, the 63 centimeters wide ashlar stone was not directly on top of the original wall, but rather moved to the west during its collapse or was not on the same axis as the lower wall structure. Another ashlar stone was found near this western wall, placed on the North-South axis. Its measurements are 0.9 meters long and 0.48 meters wide. It is located 0.4 meters east of the original wall line and 0.3 meters south of wall B/OM/033, therefore suggesting that this ashlar was actually placed on a higher row of said wall. A “lower line” of stone was preserved underneath what was classified as B/OM/027 in the current project, with a north-south direction. This “lower level” structure was subsequently identified as B/OM/034. This second, “lower step” structure was further detected as the 1990 excavation of the Iberian building underneath the basilical building. The structure, while partially detected on the southern area of wall B/OM/027, was better preserved north of the eastwest wall structure B/OM/033 (see Figs. 7.68–77). Fig. 7.53 is probably the best photographic evidence available for this western wall. The line for B/OM/027 is apparently located slightly to the west of the line for another fieldstone structure identified as B/OM/034. Lesser fieldstones are found around the central “entrance area” (B/OM/029) of B/OM, to its west, suggesting that the “lower step” of this western wall was attached to the original wall line for B/OM/027 (Figs. 7.68, 69; post-restoration of the structure: Figs. 7.72–77). In other words, there is apparent evidence for a stepped structure in a similar arrangement as that to the south of the mosaic floor pavement (see above on the southern walls B/028, B/138, and B/020). Later structure B/OM/034 was built on top of two walls identified in 1990. The first followed an east-west axis (B/OM/194), with a square-plan boulder at its western section (B/OM/035) of unclear purpose (Figs. 7.69, 71, 72). The
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Sketch of southwest of the basilical structure including southern walls of Area B; Area B/OM, and B/OB in the Ramos Folques’ Excavation Diaries entry in arf, amrf, corpus documental: april 16th, 1954, n. 19, f. 54 r . fla archives
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figure 7.64
Sketch of southwest of the basilical structure including southern walls of Area B; Area B/OM, and B/OB in the Ramos Folques’ Excavation Diaries entry of april 14th, 1955 p. 17.24b (upside is east). fla archives (classification in archive as of 2014)
other is underneath the line for B/OM/034, using fieldstones and detected only on a section of the north-western quadrant of B/OM, therefore not covering the entire foundation for B/OM/034. It was classified as B/OM/193 (Fig. 7.72) and goes below the foundation level of B/OM/027. While there is no clear measurement of this structure before the restoration of the building after 1990, current
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Sketch of southwest of the basilical structure including southern walls of Area B; Area B/OM, and B/OB in the Ramos Folques’ Excavation Diaries entry in arf, amrf, corpus documental: april 14th, 1955 n. 20, f. 45 r . fla archives
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figure 7.66 Panoramic view of Area B as uncovered in 1971. At the bottom: remains of wall B/OM/033 and area B/OM. Looking east dai-madrid archives (r-214-71-9)
restored remains that used the original structures present a rough height of 0.3m. compared to the current floor of the area. Considering the similarities between B/OM/034 and southern bench B/028 and B/138,117 it is possible to assume there was in this sub-area yet another bench attached to the western wall of the area. If this is the case, we are finding an area here associated with the main hall and its mosaic pavement. Despite this, floor levels for this phase were never found in this sector. This would indeed explain two facts. The first is the similarity between the western-most wall of sub-area B/OM with the walls south of the mosaic treated above. The second is the fact that the western mosaic wall B/024 left such little impact on the site that it was hard to identify after merely a few interventions. Evidence for the later western wall had nearly vanished by 1971, save for a few possible remains photographed by the German team led by Helmut Schlunk and Theodor Hauschild to the southwest of the mosaic area (see again Fig. 7.66). Most probably B/024 had superficial foundations, and was used as a median wall, not an exterior wall for the building. That wall was covered to its interior by white stucco B/313. The exterior wall of the building western wall B/OM/027.
117
This includes two factors: the first is the use of lower structures to support the upper “bench” to the south, which is found also to the west of the basilical building. The second is the association between this “lower level” structure and the one above it (B/OM/027), which was identified as the western wall of this sub-area, instead of just another wall phase.
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figure 7.67
Panoramic picture of western excavated area from 1990 fla archives. 1990 excavation pictures, n. 54.2
figure 7.68
General picture of Area B/OM. Looking south-southwest. Bottom: B/OM/033. Center: B/OM/027 fla archives. 1990 excavation pictures, n. 15.1. within black ellipse, attached remains of b/om/178
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figure 7.69
Picture of “western apse” B/OB/039 and wall B/OM/027 as were found in the 1990 excavation, n. 18.2. Looking north fla archives. 1990 excavation pictures, n. 18.2
figure 7.70
“Western Apse” B/OB/039 and “canal” B/OB/195, looking south fla archives. 1990 excavation pictures, n. 16.1
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figure 7.71
Picture of Iberian structure at advanced stages of the 1990 excavation with western walls of B/OM in the background fla archives. 1990 excavation pictures, n. 36.2
figure 7.72
Detail of Fig. 7.71 (Excavation of 1990), north of wall B/OM/033. In green: line that separates “lower line” B/OM/034 and foundation structure B/OM/193. Within red ellipse: ashlar stone used for western wall B/OM/027, behind B/OM/034
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figure 7.73
Picture of Iberian structure at advanced stages of the 1990 excavation north of B/OM/033. To the center-right in the background: remains of B/OM/034. At the center: remains of square-plan boulder B/OM/035 on top of east-west axis structure B/OM/194 fla archives. 1990 excavation pictures, n. 41.2
figure 7.74
Picture of walls B/OM/194 and stone B/OM/035 to the north of wall B/OM/033 (right). Looking east-southeast fla archives. 1990 excavation pictures, n. 39.1
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figure 7.75
Ashlar stone of western wall B/OM/027, and marked in Fig. 7.72 after restoration. Looking west picture taken by the author, february 2014
figure 7.76
Picture of “lower line” B/OM/034 attached to B/OM/027 after restoration, north of wall B/OM/033. Looking west taken by the author, february 2014
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figure 7.77
Profile of northern branch of B/OM/034 north of wall B/OM/033, attached to B/OM/027 (to the right). Looking south taken by the author, february 2014
figure 7.78
Picture of “lower line” B/OM/034 and wall B/OM/027 after restoration. Ashlar stone found in 1990 was put on top of the remains of the western wall. Looking west taken by the author, february 2014
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figure 7.79
Remains of “lower line” B/OM/034 south of the “restored entrance” of wall B/OM/027, following restoration. Looking west taken by the author, february 2014
figure 7.80
Picture of B/OM/034 north of B/OM/033 after restoration with measurement. Looking west taken by the author, february 2014
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figure 7.81
Picture of Iberian structure underneath the basilical edifice and excavated area in 1990 (advanced stages). Left: remains of east-west wall structure B/OM/033. Looking north fla archives. 1990 excavation pictures, n. 36.1
figure 7.82
Panoramic view of excavated area (western section of mosaic area) in 1990. Looking east. In the center: B/OM/033 fla archives. 1990 excavation pictures, n. 38.1
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figure 7.83
Picture of wall B/OM/033 (southern face). Early stages of the 1990 excavation. Looking North fla archives. 1990 excavation pictures, n. 9.2
figure 7.84
Picture of wall B/OM/033 (southern face). Advances states of the 1990 excavation. Looking north fla archives. 1990 excavation pictures, n. 49.1
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figure 7.85 Detail of wall B/OM/033; reused pre-Roman capital. Looking north fla archives. 1990 excavation pictures, n. 49.1
It seems then that Area B was divided in two general spaces: the first, main hall with the bulk of its decorations—including the mosaic floor and stucco; the second, the western access area that would apparently be either a vestibule or an exonarthex. Evidence of the “chancel screens” in that sector to the west are currently assumed to be window screens, as proposed by more recent research,118 and against Ramos Folqués’ earlier theory where the chancel screens were attached to the two ashlar stones limiting the central nave of the mosaic.119 However, despite Lorenzo’s and Morcillo’s reconstruction, placing all decorative chancels in the apse area, in my opinion it is more plausible
118 119
Lorenzo de San Román and Morcillo, “La basílica paleocristiana de Ilici (L’Alcudia, Elche),” 550. Ramos Folqués, “Un cancel visigodo en La Alcudia de Elche.”
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that these were placed both at the entrance and apse area in the main hall— thus explaining why these fragments were found either at the west (B/OM) and east (S) edges of Area B. By 1954 several more structures were identified in the B/OM area. These include two east-west walls apparently attached to B/OM/027 and B/OM/034. Loose notes by Ramos Folqués following the initial interventions to the west of the mosaic, as well as photographs from 1971, show their visibility by then. Photographs from 1990 clearly show that the northern wall B/OM/033 was attached to western wall B/OM/027 (Loose Notes: Fig. 7.22; Pictures: Figs. 7.68, 70, 73, 74, 80–84), thus being from a later date. This wall was built of reused local sandstone ashlars and one noticeable sandstone Attic-Iberian heart shaped capital (Fig. 7.84, 85). The fabric of this construction is similar to the “ashlar covering” found in Area S. According to the Loose Notes sketch, the wall’s eastern edge stopped 1.8 meters from the western mosaic edge. The trajectory from said eastern wall edge to its attachment on B/OM/027 was 3.38 meters. However, it was clear the wall’s trajectory was placed slightly on top of the remains of B/OM/027, suggesting that this structure was built after western wall B/027’s building and, probably, demolished. A parallel wall to B/OM/034 to its south is B/OM/178. It consists of a series of stones placed in a rather loose fashion, as shown by the 1971 photographs of the DAI-Madrid intervention (Fig. 7.86). However, by 1990 no remains of it were preserved, other than an attached boulder already detected in his sketch of Loose Notes (see picture: Fig. 7.22). In said sketch Ramos Folqués identified this structure as attached to the outer face of B/024. It had an irregular width, however on its western preserved edge the width was recorded as 0.42 meters. A larger squared stone presided this western edge, and was 0.43 meters long. The rest of the wall was 1.6 meters long, thus making this wall’s length 2.03 meters. Folqués had also drawn remains of the wall attached to the inner face of B/OM/027; however, he did not further describe that feature. These features seem to be the result of a partial abandonment of the site. Being associated with the mosaic level, it is possible that these structures were linked to the “A–B wall” detected by Albertini (B/014) on top of the mosaic and continuing beyond it to the east. However, it is clear that the latter is a wider feature, and it is more likely another, separate wall altogether. As a final note, another floor was found to the southeast of sub-area B/OM, limited by the southern walls of the basilical building, and having a rectangular plan (B/OM/314).120 This pavement covered an area that includes the 120
ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: for April 15th, 1955, n. 19, ff. 51r, 54r. This “floor” is only detected through the two sketches of that entry. It is not described in written records.
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figure 7.86 Picture of western edge of the mosaic floor. Including loose stones associated with B/026 and feature B/012 (basin) dai-madrid archive: r-213a-71-11
space where B/028 would occupy had it continued westwards (Figs. 7.59, 60). It is 1.2 meters wide and 2.2 meters long in an east-west axis. It is detected one meter to the south of wall B/OM/178 and is twelve meters east of wall B/OB/306 (see below). Since there is no clear description of what this pavement was made from, we must rely on the available evidence of the sketches. The first sketches found in the excavation diaries (Documental Corpus, notebook number 19, f. 51r) show a representation of it that is similar to Ramos Folqués’ description of B/NE/077, namely, what seems like a pebble or gravel pavement. Similar features found in this area must be considered, particularly B/185, which is placed nine centimeters under the mosaic floor. This level below the mosaic floor could indicate it being a continuation of floor B/112 associated with “Level M” (see this chapter, 2.2.3). Could these two pavements be related, considering their proximity to one another? The lack of data of height and other features for B/OM/314 other than the ones found on the sketches for the 15th of April, 1954, make such a relation only speculative. Later photographs from 1971 and 1990 did not reveal this feature to be extant at the time of these archaeological interventions. 3.1.2 West of the Basilica: Sub-area B/OB Sub-area B/OB is a series of features detected through excavations from 1950 onward. These structures and stratigraphic units are found east of B/OM/027. Little is known of their function or their stratigraphic relations other than those attached to the western face of the mentioned wall. Of these features the most important ones are a series of walls immediately west of B/OM/207. These were identified first in 1990, as the excavators removed the upper modern soil that apparently covered them (Figs. 7.84, 85). These walls include what seems to be a segmented semi-circular western “apse”,
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accessed through the central area of B/OM/027. The “apse” is built with field stones in similar fashion to wall 027: two lines of irregular stones with no space between them. The southern section of the arch plan has been demolished or has disappeared, if it was ever present, thus suggesting the possibility of an access to the building through that opening. However, that remains unclear.121 The purpose of this semicircular structure is unknown. One curious fact is that late wall B/OM/033 extends from the point where the northern section of the apsidal feature touches wall B/OM/027, thus suggesting that by the time of its construction wall B/OM/038 was still in use. In similar fashion to the eastern apse B/006, this western apsidal structure has a tangential wall to its west (B/OB/039). The structure consists of two north-south parallel walls built with large rubble or field stones (compared to the ones from B/OM/038). The stones of these walls look “inwards” towards an empty 40cm space between them, which was preserved after restoration in the 1990s—that is, the stones were carved or laid in such a way that the inner “channel” had a flat surface. The extension of this feature is unclear. However, the reconstruction of the basilical building after 1990 indicates it continues northwards beyond the line established by east-west northern wall B/023 (see Fig. 7.87). The “space” between these two north-south walls is roughly 35–40 centimeters. To its south the space is blocked by a series of smaller stones (B/OB/195), suggesting that the area south of this structure and of “apse” B/OM/038 was a passageway to access space B/OM of the basilical building. Photographs of the 1990 excavation show that the western wall of structure B/OB/039 had smaller support stones to its west. Considering the arrangement for the east face of the eastern wall of said structure (attached to the “western apse”), there is a clear use of the inner 40 centimeter “passage”. In my opinion, this was probably a channel for the collection of rainwater, or for some other water installation whose purpose is lost to us. This made any use of the space to the west of B/OM restricted mostly to the southern half, where most excavations by Ramos Folqués were conducted between 1950 and 1955. Evidence for water installations were further found in publications on Area T to the south of B/OB,122 thus suggesting that these features were a part of the entrance for the building from its west. More features were found further west. At 14.2 meters from the western edge of the mosaic floor is wall B/OB/306, which continued to the south all the way to the street (Area C). It was 50 centimeters wide at its northern edge 121 122
Interestingly, this process is similar to that which was detected in the eastern apse. However, despite this similarity there is no reason to assume it is related. Ramos Folqués, “Excavaciones de la Alcudia.,” 94, plate LXXXI, 27.
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and 0.6 meters wide at its southern edge. It had a basically north-south axis being slightly skewed towards a northeast-southwest direction. The foundation is seemingly associated to a “Level E” in the sketch from 1954 (Fig. 7.63);123 however, there is no clear evidence for this association, since all that is visible today is the upper part of the preserved foundation.124 Finally, there is a 3 meter structure (B/OB/316) to the west of wall B/OB/306. This structure was apparently identified as a pool that occupied parts of Area T and sub-area B/OB—as was sketched in Fig. 7.62. The rectangular structure, with what seems to be a smaller rectangular container, was mostly destroyed with later construction activity in Area T, specifically of walls B/021 and T/105, the latter attached to the former on its southern face. From April 1954 onwards, the pool was present in all the sketches made of the western area to the mosaic floor.125 The outer rectangle is not fully preserved, therefore making full measurements of it impossible. It had a 5 meter side to its west. To its east it was 5.4 meters, but the eastern edge is probably irregular in shape and therefore increased the measurement. Its northern edge is preserved at about 1.25 meters, while its southern edge at as much as 1.6 meters. The outer edge itself has a 0.1 meters width, and thus was made to contain liquid within it. Furthermore, 0.9 meters south of the northern edge and 0.7 meters east of the eastern edge is a smaller rectangular receptacle that was also partially preserved. Its detected measurements are: 0.55 meters in its western edge and 0.6 meters in its northern edge. The oblique nature of wall B/OB/306 marks different distances depending on the position of measurement: to the north, structure B/OB/316 was 3 meters west from the mentioned wall, while to the south it was an only 1.6 meters distance westwards. Further west is a rectangular building with rooms that were apparently not fully excavated (Fig. 7.65). Beyond that is a north-south street that closed the urban block to its west, where sub-area C/W was excavated (in the intersection between that street and the east-west “Statue street”—Area C—to the south of the basilical complex).
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ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: April 15th, 1954, n. 19, f. 54r. This is unclear, as the current view of such a wall (at an approximate 14 meters distance west from the mosaic floor, and 50 centimeters width at its northern edge) is skewed to a northwest-southeast direction, and not as is indicated through the sketch from April 15th, 1954 (p. 16.26a). This contradiction will not be solved until further excavations are done in B/OB. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: April 15th, 1955, n. 19, ff. 51r, 54r; entry for April 15th, 1955, n. 20, f. 45r and Excavation Diaries p. 17.24a (old classification as of 2014).
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Currently, little information can be extracted from sub-area B/OB. A complete picture can only be achieved with further excavations in this sector. However, evidence for water installations as well as access areas from Area T in that general area show that these installations were associated with people entering the complex. 3.2 North of the Basilical Building (Sub-areas B/F and B/D) Excavations north of northern wall B/023 were sporadic, making this one of the least explored sections of the site. The decision to add this as a sub-area of “B” is made for convenience, as there are not enough stratigraphic units and archaeological interventions to study this area on its own. However, the few explorations north of “B”, while few and far between, have yielded crucial bits of information for the understanding of the building’s history. The first exploration to the north of Area B was done already in 1948, when Ramos Folqués proceeded to reveal the structures of what would be areas “S” and “P” (see Figs. A.1, 2, 3). To the north of Area B he found a few curious structures that were not well documented. These consist of two sub-areas: B/N and B/D, both of which should be interpreted with the sub-area next to Area S: N/E. Likewise, Ramos Folqués references the following description: In the continuation of the wall of the compartment N. [sic.] of the mosaic and apse, above the earth is a base and at its height a middle bronze [illegible] and a bronze nail.126 This is one of the few references of this sub-area in the excavation diaries. From the Ramos Folqués sketches from 1948 one could not assume that this was the “compartment” that described here. However, the Schlunk sketch from that same date allows us to clearly assume this compartment to be sub-area B/D. The features first uncovered by May 1948 have an unclear nature. There seems to be a kind of “apse” looking east that limits the area to the north of the basilical structure, between what he called on the May 26th, 1948 sketch “E” and “E’”. The apse structure received no description either in publications or in diaries. However, an extension of the “apse” on its north continues westwards. This apparent wall was recovered in the 1955 publication of the 1948 excavations, in a sketch that records such a wall, but without the apsidal feature.
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ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: May 27th, 1948, n. 7, f. 4r. “En continuación muro compartimentado al N. mosaico y ábside, sobre tierra una basa y a la altura de ella un mediano bronce [illegible] y un clavo de bronce.”
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figure 7.87
Picture of attached western structures and walls to B/OM/027. Early stages of the 1990 excavation. Looking north fla archives 1990 excavation pictures, n. 16.2
figure 7.88
Picture of western apse area as preserved following restoration taken by the author. february, 2014
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figure 7.89
Picture of “canal” to the west of “western apse” as preserved following restoration taken by the author. february, 2014
While in his diaries Alejandro Ramos Folqués presents a “northern apse” (B/D/317) that separates areas B/D (Folques’ “E’ ” and Schlunk’s “D”) and N/E (Folqués’ and Schlunk’s “E”) to its east,127 the more accurate sketch by Helmut Schlunk of the “May–June” excavations in 1948128 present it as a wall with a straight angle (Fig. A.3). Photographs from the DAI Madrid Archives from that excavation further demonstrate the straight angle, rather than the circular plan, of this wall. The extension wall continues all the way towards what the
127 128
ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: May 25th, 1948, n. 7, f. 2r; May 26th, 1948, n. 7, f. 3r. DAI Madrid Archives, I,159-4.
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excavator found to be a basa de columna (“column base”) of circular plan.129 However the sketch plan of the excavated area by late May 1948 is deceiving. Photographs from that intervention in the DAI Madrid Archives (Fig. 7.90) show that B/D/317 is in a noticeably lower level than the “column base”, the latter having been found in situ. Without further description of the fills excavated in B/D, it is nearly impossible to know what findings Folqués recorded in this northern area. Despite the problems in reading the level associated with B/D/317, it is possible to assume several conclusions: first, that this layer is of a later date from B/023 as it was attached to it. It is also apparently prior to B/187, as this “convex stucco” was found up to the point this structure is present (Figs. 7. 90–92, includes I,159-179); therefore the “convex stucco” was built after B/D/317. Second, it seems that in later dates B/D/317 suffered a reform in its northern branch, as the remains of the wall were of lower height than the southern branch which was preserved in higher altitudes than wall B/023. The northern branch had the remains of an attic base, B/040, which was sustained by a stone support, B/041, revealing the reuse of this wall as a stylobate. This is also possible considering that continuing the line of “wall” B/D/317 to the west we find a cubic feature B/F/042. However, no continuity of the wall was found between B/040 and B/042 (Figs. 7.90, 91). Finally, unit B/D/317 was built before the compartment fill N/E/227 was created. In other words, it was built after the creation of the compartment that holds Area P. Sometime between these levels we can date the creation of this constructed compartment to the north of the basilical building. Further west, there are a couple of features without a clear description. They seem to be an ashlar stone and, to its north, a small rectangular element. It is impossible to interpret them without a more extensive archaeological intervention. However, there is reason to believe they are part of the wider complex that included the main hall from Area B. Photographs from the DAI Madrid Archives show that the southern stone, which follows the “wall line” established by the east-west arm of B/D/317 had a small rectangular hole with an unclear purpose, though it might have been used to support a pillar (Figs. 7.90–92). Importantly, this area B/F was not excavated in 1948.130 The pictures show that an unexcavated area was left between B/F and B/D. The first excavated level corresponds with that of the “Attic base”, associated with “area F” to the west of this general sub-area according to the sketch from May 26th, 1948. It was catalogued here as B/F/234. Probably it corresponds
129 130
ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: May 25th, 1948, n. 7, f. 2r. DAI Madrid Archives, I,159-1 (Photographs).
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with upper level B/002. Barely any findings were recovered; however, they include a medium bronze coin and a bronze nail (BAE/1948/B/E’/234/num/1, BAE/1948/B/E’/234/met/2), both probably from removal and mixing with other fills. This fill covered the registered northern structures. In fact, B/F/234 covered an extensive area, which includes structure B/D/317. Under this initial fill, to the east (“Compartment X”),131 was N/E/227, which included a large number of archaeological findings. These artifacts excavated first on September 30th, 1948, suggest the area was used as a “rubbish dump” according to the excavator. It was the only fill from this area published extensively by Alejandro Ramos in his excavation report. Despite not having a good idea of the layers excavated in this compartment to the north of area “S” and south of “P”, this section was described as a “2nd Level” in the diary entry (the “1st Level” being B/F/234). Therefore, this fill existed before the final collapse of the buildings that surrounded it. More on this layer in the northern sector of Area S will be discussed in Chapter 8. On May 9th, 1950132 Ramos Folqués presents to us a stratigraphic sketch (Fig. 7.92) representing a series of layers excavated “north of the mosaic, between it and the ‘column base’”, which clearly points towards “Area F” as documented in the sketches from May 26th, 1948 (B/F—which was left unexcavated in the first May 1948 intervention). Crucially, he associates these levels to the mosaic floor, thus allowing us to recover the height of each fill with relation to the Zero Point. The first fill layer is B/F/215, where Folqués found the fragmented Late Roman lamp with a Christian imperial monogram on its discus (BAE/1950/B/ F/215/cer/1). The Greek Rho or “Ρ” has decorative squares on it. Surrounding the discus are more incised decorations of similar nature. The fragment is preserved on its back and part of its middle section. The fill ends at the “mosaic floor”, which means it is roughly 0.29 meters below Zero Point. No mosaic floor was found between wall B/023 and the “column base”. Therefore, it should be interpreted not as the mosaic floor itself, but as floor B/F/235 of undescribed material. The upper level B/F/215 is associated with a “Level B”, therefore implying that the “Level A” would have been B/F/234. Under B/F/215 is a “Level C”, which is 20 centimeters deep from B/F/216 and B/216. Therefore, it would have been between –0.29 or –0.30 and –0.50 meters. The excavator records only two findings from it: a lead plate and a spindle weight. This layer was considered contemporary to the under-layers of the
131 132
ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 30th, 1948, n. 7, f. annex 6r. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: May 9th, 1950, n. 11, f. 30r.
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mosaic floor, at the very least B/013, but also possibly the levels associated with “M” and “N” (see this chapter, 2.2.3). Further down is B/F/147, described as “empedrado”, or stone pavement. The type of drawing to describe this “Type I” stratigraphic unit is of a gravel floor. However, further description is not given. According to what was indicated above, this layer was –0.50 meters in depth. Further down is fill for “Level D” B/F/148. According to the descriptive sketch this is the level with the most findings. These include pieces of Campanian pottery (BAE/1950/B/F/148/cer/2), fragments of a statue (BAE/1950/B/F/148/pet/1—similar to those found in Area C’s “Level D” stratum C/204), a loom weight (BAE/1950/B/F/148/cer/4), painted pottery (BAE/1950/B/F/148/cer/1) and a glass vase (BAE/1950/B/F/ 148/vit/1). These objects are associated with a previous, late Iberian phase (3rd to 2nd century bce) that ended up in a fill of reused ground to sustain a later structure or floor, similar to what we can perceive in fill locus C/204. Under this level is one of “gravel and sand” B/F/149, which was interpreted as the floor for this probe’s “Level E” (B/F/150). It is present 30 centimeters below B/F/216, which means it is at a depth of 0.80 meters below Zero Point. In fill B/F/150 the excavator described no findings. The fill was 20 centimeters deep (and therefore ends at –1.00 meters depth). The “Type H” locus was associated with a “Type I” ash level B/F/217, again with no materials found within it. The ash level with an archaeologically barren loose earth on top of it suggests that the Iberian building found in the 1990 excavation was perhaps demolished or destroyed in a fire. This is true also for the ash level found in a probe of Area S to its southwest (see Chapter 8, 3.2.2). The lowest layer is unit B/F/151, associated with “Level F” directly above the bedrock (B/090). This layer is fourteen centimeters deep, therefore putting the bedrock level at –1.14 meters from Zero Point. There are few findings here, with only three pottery fragments: a piece of Campanian pottery with its outer wall being concave and inner, straight walls (BAE/1950/B/F/151/cer/1); a slate stone slab (BAE/1950/B/F/151/pet/1) with vegetal decorations; and a red-slip “cup hat” pottery fragment (BAE/1950/B/F/151/cer/2), which curiously point towards a similar level to the shards and elements found at Level D (B/F/149). This can be explained for two reasons. The first is that “Level D” B/F/149 was in fact a preparatory fill for later construction using materials from a building in use associated with “Level F” B/F/151. Second, this can also be an invasion of material associated with the construction of wall B/023, explained below. Of all the architectural features found from this basilical structure, two walls are significant for their antiquity and continuity compared to the original mosaic floor: walls B/023 and B/010, which have similar construction methods, and are clearly built before either “Level M” or “Level N” under the mosaic. On
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May 25th, 1948, during the excavation the probe to find the foundations of wall B/023, Ramos Folqués wrote in the entry: Within the wall, forming part of it, (is) Iberian ceramic with carnacier133 and bird, (as well as an) undecorated vase.134 Further findings were done in a probe to the north of the wall on June 10th, 1948. In this probe, “between the stones” of the collapsed wall to the north, the following objects were recovered:135 a pottery shard with painted animal figures (BAE/1948/N/F/023/cer/1), sigillata pottery (BAE/1948/N/F/023/cer/2) and a glass shard (BAE/1948/N/F/023/vid/1). While not found in the foundations of said wall, there is a clear indication the structure was built using materials associated with “Level F” B/F/151 as well as elements from “Level C” (B/F/147) and “Level D” (B/F/149), which include Iberian ceramics with animal decorations, sigillata pottery, and later Iberian fragments. According to what Ramos Folqués tells us in 1974, this wall was built with foundations 70 centimeters below the mosaic level, which is –1.00 from Zero Point. In other words, this is the height for level B/F/217, or the ash level from the northern probe B/F described above. Therefore, we cannot assume that these kinds of ceramics found on May 25th, 1948, are anything but an ante quem chronological indicator, pointing towards a roughly 1st century ce construction. The foundation fill found under the wall B/023 presents us with similarly dated material, associated with the 1st century bce. On June 10th, 1948 he presents the following: I have the impression that when doing the foundations of the wall that surround the synagogue-basilica [sic.], they extracted these fragments from a lower level and used them for construction material. If that is the case, it is logical to suppose that it is not that deep and that in this case, these ceramics must have been from the Iberian-Romanimperial level: 1st century bce. 133
134
135
According to Mercedes Tendero and Ana Ronda, archaeologists of the L’Alcudia d’Elx Foundation, it is kind of mythical, carnivorous animal common in Iberian pottery from the Alcudia. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: May 25th, 1948, n. 7, f. 2r. “Dentro de la pared y formando parte de ella, cerámica ibérica con carnacier y ave y vasija sin decorar”. The “carnacier” is a mythical carnivorous creature that is present in many ceramic vases from the pre-Roman Iberian culture. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: June 10th, 1948, n. 6, f. 14r.
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Indeed, the foundation level for wall B/023 was classified here as B/228. The materials recovered from this level, according to Ramos Folqués’ entry, are few and strictly from the 1st century bce: a serpent form handle (BAE/1948/N/F/ 228/cer/1), and with figurative representation of a jar and a ship’s bow, which point towards the production of local, late republican or early imperial coinage (BAE/1948/N/F/228/num/1), and glass shards from a “good period” (BAE/1948/ N/F/228/vid/1), which is the way to say the early imperial period. Finally, the excavator found remains of a broken floor used in this foundation fill, and evidence that the levels for said foundation were removed and changed for the construction of said wall.136 This last detail leads us to the following question regarding the northern limits of the basilica: if floors were mixed in the foundation fill, together with construction material from early imperial 1st century bce elements, then is the northern limit of levels “M” and “N” under the mosaic, including the canal B/115, merely a broken layer that would have continued northwards had B/023 not been built? The answer to this cannot be fully given without a probe in depth and excavation in extenso south and north of the wall, respectively. However, the probe we do have from B/F points towards a different stratification compared to the Area B’s mosaic floor itself. Simply put: there is no evidence for an “ash floor” akin to B/F/150 south of B/023. Likewise, there is no evidence that a “canal” like B/115 continued north of it. Nor is there any continuation of the sub-mosaic levels found in Area B to the north of B/023. In other words, the wall B/023 and wall B/010 appear to be an original Roman construction as the area was first urbanized with the Colonia Iulia Augusta Ilici in the late 1st century bce.
4
Features of the Basilical Building
The picture of the stratigraphic development of Area B is incomplete without considering the architectural and artistic features that defined the basilical building. These include mainly the mosaic floor and its subsequent phases, which could not be studied from a strictly stratigraphic point of view. Through the analysis of the mosaic floor, we can better understand the phases of use of this basilical building, including the placement of the basin and the possibility of use of water installations in use in this complex.
136
Ibid.
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Detail picture of attic base B/040 on top of B/041. Note at the background cubic boulder B/042. Made by H. Schlunk, May–June 1948. Looking west dai-madrid archive, schlunk archive: d-dai-mad-schl-sch-plf0195
Another important aspect to study is the metrological measurements of the building, which need to be considered when analyzing the building’s use. These metrological considerations can give details regarding the method for its construction, as well as providing a window to the spatial perception of the attendants to the synagogue and basilical building. 4.1 The Mosaic: Inscriptions, Decorations, and Characteristics The most studied and well published item of the basilical building is the mosaic floor. Considering the number of publications regarding its decorative and formal features, the following pages will avoid an exhaustive description. This section will focus on the registered changes in the mosaic floor which reflect an extended period of usage. The first representation of the mosaic floor was rather crude, without giving its decorative details, but with a good proportional representation of its panels. It was done by P. Ibarra in 1905 (Fig. 7.4). The lack of decorative detail was compensated with the photographs taken in the 1905 excavation where the mosaic floor was revealed in full. One must jump to 1965 when the first detailed recording of the mosaic floor was done, including its decorative details, by C. Zornoza. He registered the Alexander Bar-Magen Numhauser - 978-90-04-41992-6 Downloaded from Brill.com 03/03/2024 09:27:00PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison
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Picture of northern areas B/D and B/F, including southwestern corner of Area P and in the forefront remains of wall B/317. Made by H. Schlunk, May– June 1948. Looking west dai-madrid archive, schlunk archive: d-dai-mad-schl-sch-plf0197
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figure 7.92
Stratigraphic sketch from the excavation diaries by Alejandro Ramos Folqués of area B/F entry in arf, amrf, corpus documental: may 9th, 1950, n. 11, f. 30 r
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damaged areas of the floor. It was subsequently published in 1978 by H. Schlunk and Th. Hauschild, in 1982 again by Schlunk, in 1998 by Rachel Hachlili, in 2004 and 2005 publications by Roberto Lorenzo, and in 2014 by Roberto Lorenzo and Javier Morcillo (Fig. 7.92). Despite this, there are two important problems with this drawing. The C. Zornoza image was done after the removal of the mosaic floor following its uncovering in 1948. It is also devoid of a scale, even though the detailed nature of the drawing reflects that it was well elaborated, with data coming from photographic evidence and measurements from the remains of the mosaic as exposed in the Archaeological Museum of Elche under the direction of Alejandro Ramos Folqués. Another drawing was done by the DAI-Madrid 1971 expedition which included a plan of the mosaic’s summarized panels by Laureano de Frutos, this time with a scale. Both plans reveal the positioning of features such as the western basin and the central floor flagstones B/008 and B/009. 4.1.1 Description of the Mosaic Floor The mosaic floor’s first metric measurements in 1905 reveal it was 10.9 × 7.55 meters in area, according to Albertini137 and Ibarra,138 thus being reflected in Ibarra’s plan (Fig. 7.3). A review of the sketches from under the mosaic floor would point towards a wider basilical area, although not necessarily a wider mosaic. While Lorenzo and Morcillo, in 2014, suggested the mosaic was 20 centimeters wider, totaling 7.75 meters, in truth no plan or sketch associated with the basilical building confirms that value. The mosaic is arranged in three aisles following the east-west axis of the building, each holding a series of panels. Considering the flagstones B/008 and B/009 flanking the central nave, I added the distance between the two “central” cavities of each stone (which would hold posts) to the width of the central nave between them, which was 1.7 meters. In total the preliminary values for each aisle’s width is as follows: – Northern aisle: 2.72 meters – Central aisle: 2.12 meters – Southern aisle: 2.76 meters139 As explained above regarding mosaic floor B/011, its eastern edge was apparently lost. Therefore, the 10.9 meters length proposed by Ibarra is only what was preserved. However, a review of basilical and mosaic plans by Th. Hauschild and L. de Frutos from 1971, and a review of Ibarra’s 1905 plan, reveal that
137 138 139
Albertini, “Fouilles d’ Elche,” 1907, 120. Ibarra Ruiz, “Antigua basílica de Elche,” 121. See below, Metrological Considerations.
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Color plate image of the Ilici mosaic floor (B/011) by c. zornoza (1965)
the length should be reduced to only 10.5 meters, with an extra 1.1 meters to the east between floor B/011 and eastern wall B/026. The quality of this mosaic’s original layout was spectacular. However, there was clear evidence of repair on later stages, with varying production quality being detected in different stages. The original layout was made with 14 squared millimeter tesserae, laid with a density of 48 tesserae per squared decimeters, and square tesserae of approximately 1.5 square centimeters.140 One of the tesserae was a murrinum glass fragment (BAE/1949/B/011/vit/1), identified by Ana Ronda as item LA-4358 and dated originally to the Augustan period.141 The 140
141
Enrique Ruiz Roig, Los mosaicos de Illici y del Portus Illicitanus (Valencia: Generalitat Valenciana, Consell Valencià de Cultura, 2001), 40; Lorenzo de San Román, L’Alcúdia d’Elx a l’Antiguitat Tardana, 139. Ronda Femenia, L’Alcudia de Alejandro Ramos Folqués, 158. See also ARF, AMRF, Excavation Diaries: April 26th, 1949, n. 9, f. 1r; AMRF notes 2 and 3. While having the proposed date by Ana Ronda, this does not change the late 4th to early 5th century date of the mosaic floor.
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figure 7.94
Plan of the C. Zornoza mosaic plan from 1965
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motifs were laid on a white background, with predominantly black and blue lines defining the forms and panel divisions, and a polychromatic layout made with the same blue, black, as well as light and dark yellow, rose, reddish sienna, and grey. Almost all the layout had a geometric carpet motif with different panels. However, one panel, to the southeast of the mosaic, presents a figurative scene of sea fare. To the northeast of the mosaic floor are remains of repairs which break the pattern of the mosaic. These were done with tesserae of similar fabric and size, but of much lower layout quality. It had the predominance of simple black lines on a white background. This includes a southern panel of cut-off Greek doublemeander motif with a southwestern rhomboid within a hexagon form, placed within another square, at the center of which is what seems a rosette. North of that is a sequence of interconnected squares with alternating rhomboids and squares. Most of it was lost by the time of discovery. However, at the northeastern limit of what was preserved from this mosaic panel are the remains of two identified menoroth or seven-branched candelabra which were partially destroyed.142 The quality of this northeastern panel is lower than the rest of the original mosaic. Remains of repairs can also be seen in the northern meander band that limits the central nave, south of the northern mosaic inscription. A final phase of mosaic use would naturally be the placement of the marble slabs surrounding the western basin, which points to the lack of availability of mosaicists by the time it was placed. Most importantly, in the mosaic floor, or stratigraphic unit B/011, which led to it becoming the centerpiece of all excavations done in Area B, are the remains of the three inscriptions that inspired the divergent interpretations of this building’s usage. As a result, these inscriptions help the researcher analyse the pavement, particularly their placement in such a manner that readable primarily from the center of the room, following Gómez Pallarès’ study in 2000. 4.1.2 The Mosaic Inscriptions When the mosaic floor was uncovered in 1905, the most striking feature was the presence of three Greek inscriptions, one for each aisle of the floor. These inscriptions were made at the same time as the rest of the first layout of the mosaic, and therefore should be associated with the first usage of the pavement.
142
Walsh, “A Reconsideration of the So-Called Synagogue-Basilica of Elche, Spain,” 115–116.
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4.1.2.1 The Central Inscription (Inscription 1) The first mosaic floor inscription presides over the arrangement in the center. It is a two-line inscription placed within a tabula ansata. Its placement differs according to different accounts. For Albertini it is placed 3.35 meters from the eastern limit of the mosaic floor,143 while Ibarra indicates it is placed at a 3.25 meters distance “from the apse’s start”.144 Considering the problems of calculation in P. Ibarra’s idealization of the building’s plan, it is assumed that Albertini’s account is the most accurate, especially since Albertini was the first excavator on the scene, and that he presents the distance “from the eastern edge” of the mosaic, and not from “the apse’s start”. Despite this, Ibarra was the one who gave measurements for the inscription itself. It was laid with white tesserae as background, with dark-blue tesserae for the lettering and black for the limits of the tabula ansata. The tabula ansata was published by Ibarra as being 1.8 wide and 0.25 meters long (following the eastwest axis).145 The epigraphic area, or the central rectangle, was according to Albertini 1.03 meters long, therefore leaving the “handles” of the tabula ansata being approximately 0.72 meters wide together, or 0.36 meters wide each. Yet this would make the inscription as wide as the panel Cer/1, an impossibility according to the mosaic plans produced after the excavation. In truth, it was calculated that the southern “handle” was just 0.13 meters wide using the plans created by past authors like Ibarra (Fig. 7.3) and Zornoza (Figs. 7.93, 94). This makes the two put together 26 centimeters, and the tabula ansata as 1.29 meters wide. The epigraphic area had two lines, of which eight letters survived, all on the upper line. The lower line was almost completely lost, although remains of some blue tesserae indicate the existence of letters at the bottom-right corner of the epigraphic area. The inscription is as follows (Figs. 7.14, 95, 96):
figure 7.95
143 144 145
Drawing of the central mosaic floor inscription (Inscription 1) according to ibarra (1906): “antigua basílica de elche”, p. 125
Albertini, “Fouilles d’ Elche,” 1907, 122. Ibarra Ruiz, “Antigua basílica de Elche,” 125. Ibarra Ruiz, 125.
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figure 7.96
Drawing of the central mosaic inscription (Inscription 1) according to albertini (1907): “fouillés d’ elche”, p. 122
Transcription: ΠΡ … EYXHΛΑΟ [– –] Development: Πρ[οσ]ευχή λαο (¿?) Translation: Place of prayer of the people. The interpretation of this inscription was made as proseuché lao, and it reveals several interesting facts. It was probably an indication for the purpose of the building and the community it belonged to. For both Albertini and Ibarra, this inscription demonstrated the congregational nature of the building as a prayer house. In this case the interpretation varied little when it comes to its reading. Its historiography is well recovered in the 1993 publication by D. Noy of these inscriptions. The word προσευχή in this central inscription was the reason why Albertini concluded that this building was a Jewish synagogue, following the recommendations for interpretations by Seymour de Ricci in 1907,146 and reviewing the available Thessaurus Graecae Linguae by Henri Estienne. The term was first used extensively to describe prayer or religious buildings in Ptolemaic Egypt in the 2nd century bce. It was used chiefly to describe a temple-like building more than a “synagogue”, which was based on the Greek βουλή as a community hall. Outside of Egypt the primary usage of the term is in religious contexts for inscriptions recovered in Delos, Ostia, and Amastris.147 In Delos there is an association between the term and the cult to a Θεὸν τὸν Ὕψιστουν (Theos
146 147
Albertini, “Fouilles d’ Elche,” 1907, 124. Roth-Gerson, The Greek Inscriptions from the Synagogues in Eretz-Israel, 42, note 2.
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Hypsistos) in the 1st century ce.148 Authors such as Levine associate it with a Jewish synagogue, or at least Jewish influence.149 In three 1st century inscriptions From Pantikápaion/Panticapaeum in the Bosphorous Kingdom, dated to the 1st century ce,150 we find a series of the manumissions of slaves in the synagogue building (ἐπὶ τῆς προσευχῆς), an act guaranteed by the Jewish community itself (συναγωγῆς τῶν Ἰουδαίων).151 It is clear from these sources that there was a differentiation between the prayer house itself (proseuché) and the Jewish community (synagogé). The use of the term for a building also appears in Flavius Josephus, although only in his Vita.152 The word λαος appears as a genitive associated with a people or congregation who used this building when the mosaic floor was first laid, thus being the logical continuation to the word προσευχή. We find the word λαος used in 3rd and 4th century contexts in the Aegean, particularly Thessaly.153 The usage of these terms in Aegean contexts is also relevant due to the fact that the language used for the mosaic floor’s inscriptions is Greek, a rarity in the region of the Carthaginensis province. Parallels in the Christian and Jewish world for the usage of this term are numerous in Late Antiquity. The term proseuché and laos appear mostly in the works of St. Basilius of Caesarea and Eusebius of Caesarea. Two inscriptions from Rome reveal that this term was used in 3rd or 4th century western Mediterranean Jewish communities. The first is an epitaph for an archon from the Monteverde catacomb.154 The inscription, apparently elaborated by the
148 149 150 151
152 153
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Jörg Lanckau, “Hypsistos: Cultural Translation of Jewish Monotheism in the Hellenistic Period,” Asiatische Studien/Études Asiatiques LXV, no. 4 (2011): 871–872. Lee I. Levine, The Ancient Synagogue: The First Thousand Years, 2nd ed. (New Haven, Conn.: Yale Univ. Press, 2005), 109–110. CIRB 70, 71, 73. Emil Schürer, “Die Juden im bosporanischen Reiche und die Genossenschaften der σεβόμενοι θεὸν ὕψιστον ebendaselbst,” Sitzungsberichte der Königlich Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin XXXII, no. 1 (June 1897): 200–225; Erwin R. Goodenough, “The Bosporous Inscriptions to the Most High God,” Jewish Quarterly Review 47, no. 4 (1957): 221–244; E. Leigh Gibson, The Jewish Manumission Inscriptions of the Bosporus Kingdom, Texts and Studies in Ancient Judaism 75 (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1999), 124– 152. F. Josephus, Vita: paragraphs 53–54. William Horbury and David Noy, Jewish Inscriptions of Graeco-Roman Egypt: With an Index of the Jewish Inscriptions of Egypt and Cyrenaica (Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1992), 237–238. David Noy, Jewish Inscriptions of Western Europe, vol. 2 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), paragraph 240.
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Jewish community in Rome to which he belonged, indicates that the man was φιλόλαος, “beloved of the people”, followed by φιλέντολος, or “beloved of the law”. Given the association of these two terms in one person, and considering the Jewish context of the inscription, it can be assumed that the term λαός should be translated to the term קהלor עדה. Another inscription of unknown origin surfaced in the early 18th century and is today placed in the Vatican.155 It was identified by early researchers as being found in the “Lateran” area (ex-Lateranense), where late antique tombs were discovered. The inscription is another epitaph, this time dedicated to a πατὲρ συναγογῆς Ἐλαίας, or “pater of the synagogue of Elea”, referring to a Jewish Roman community associated with the Aegean city. Like the other inscription, this person is too a φιλόλαος and φιλέντολος. The terminology found in these two inscriptions point towards the usage of the term λαος as one associated with the organization of Jewish communities in Rome, which according to the epigraphic evidence found in the Jewish Catacombs (late 2nd to 3rd centuries) were predominantly Greek-speaking in earlier generations, with a permanence of Greek influence through the whole of Late Antiquity.156 The terminology used by the Jewish inscriptions parallel the usage of laos in the patristic Christian texts, pointing towards a similar attitude when it comes to the congregated masses for ritual and descriptive purposes. Unlike the Roman inscriptions, the ones in Ilici were not from a funerary context and therefore should not be read as epitaphs. The prefix philo- would make no sense for its inclusion in the tabula ansata inscription. It was naturally associated with a Judeo-Christian congregation. However, it is in the east where one finds a wider use of λαος. One of the most important parallels is the Huldah synagogue inscription in central Palestine. On the mosaic floor at its entrance area is a panel with the representation of a menorah and other accompanying ritual objects, with the phrase Ευλογια λαω.157 This is the only other known case to date where the word λαως was used in a synagogue setting. According to Noy, the second line of the first Mosaic inscription would have the name of the congregation itself.158 In light of the presented parallels from Rome, another possibility is that the inscription would simply have the fol-
155 156 157 158
Noy, vol. 2, para. 576. Leon, The Jews of Ancient Rome, 75–78; Rutgers, The Jews in Late Ancient Rome, 176–184. Michael Avi-Yonah, “Various Synagogal Remains. Huldah,” Bulletin of the Rabinowitz Fund for the Exploration of Ancient Synagogues III (1960): 57–60. Noy, Jewish Inscriptions of Western Europe, 1993, 1: 243–244.
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lowing letters: υ κε ἐντώλή, as in Πρ[οσ]ευχη λαο/[ῦ κε ἐντώλή], which would be translated as “Place of prayer for the people and the commandments”. Yet more plausible would be the reconstruction as ῦ κε συνοδος, following the parallel of the inscription mentioning the term λαῶι from Nice in Lydia, to be read as “Place of prayer of the people and the thíasos”.159 Reconstructions such as these of the second line of the Ilici central inscription are speculative. However, they would partially explain the reason for its disappearance through active defacement of the text, as can be detected with the intentional removal of tesserae to avoid reading the last letter of the inscription (Fig. 7.15). To conclude the description of this inscription, there were few decorated elements in the epigraphic field. However, “handles” of the tabula ansata had what seem to be either an ivy leaf (hedera), or rather the representation of an etrog. Only the southern handle and its decoration was preserved, while the northern handle was lost. 4.1.2.2 The Northern Inscription (Inscription 2) The second inscription is found near the southern limit guilloche band for the northern aisle of the mosaic. It is found 2.25 meters to the south of the northern mosaic limit and starts around 6.5 meters to the east of the western limit. Physically it is 2.95 meters long, placed on an east-west direction. Written in one line, its epigraphic area is 0.18 meters high, with its letters being 0.12 meters high. This inscription has lost its first letters, complicating its reading. The preserved letters and its proposed reading are as follows:
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Louis Robert, “Inscriptions d’ Asie Mineure au musée de Leyde,” Hellenica XI–XII (1960): 261, n. 4; Baruch Lifshitz, Donateurs et fondateurs dans les synagogues juives: répertoire des dédicaces greques relatives à la construction et à la réfection des synagogues, vol. 7, Cahiers de la Revue Biblique (Paris: Gabalda, 1967), 33, n. 31. The mention of a σὺνοδωι in the Nice inscription was translated by Lifshitz as Thiasé, stemming from the parallel of θίασως in a Bosphoran Jewish manumission inscription from the year 81 ce. The topic of Jewish thíasos was covered in by Goodenough, “The Bosporous Inscriptions to the Most High God,” 221–222, based on the inscriptions studied by Schürer (op. cit.). Goodenough considers that the συναγωγή τῶν Ἰουδαίων mentioned in the above-mentioned inscription was a “counterpart” for θίασος, in effect assuming that “synagogue” was considered the congregation itself and not the building where it congregated. Logically, Lifshitz followed Robert who agreed with Goodenough. However, it would be more convenient to translate the term σὺνοδωι to “synod”, as a counterpoint to the previous mention of the word λαός.
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figure 7.97
Drawing of the northern mosaic floor inscription (Inscription 2) according to ibarra (1906): “antigua basílica de elche”, p. 124
figure 7.98
Drawing of the northern mosaic inscription (Inscription 2) according to albertini (1907): “fouillés d’ elche”, p. 123
Transcription: …˶ ̗ XHOXONTШN KE ΠPEBYTEPωN (hedera leaf ) Proposed development: [… ηυ]χή οχοντων κε πρε(σ)βυτερ˹ο˺ν (hedera leaf ) Translation: … offering of the potentates and the presbyters. The inscription has been subjected to several interpretations according to different readers. These often had much to do with an a priori commitment to a Christian or Jewish adscription of the basilical building. The first reading was proposed by Pere Ibarra in his 1906 publication, simply as “shrine of the presbyters”.160 Albertini, for his part, could read the first part of the inscription (developed as a badly written χοντον), limiting his reading of κε πρεβυτερων. He proposed that it was a “deformed” writing of και πρεσβυτερων, “and the presbyters”. A tentative reading presented by Albertini was χηοχοντων for the first word, although he only read positively χοντων as an unreadable grouping. Most importantly is the fact that Albertini noticed a morphological anomaly for the first omega, where the right branch of the letter was made in a straight vertical line with a central branch that comes out of a lower corner of the letter, unlike the latter omega which had a curved profile with a central straight line coming out of a curve (see Figs. 7.97, 98).161 Despite the problematic reading of the first word, Albertini was the first to propose it as ἀρχόντων και
160 161
Ibarra Ruiz, “Antigua basílica de Elche,” 124. Albertini, “Fouilles d’ Elche,” 1907, 123.
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πρεσβυτέρων, following the Jewish interpretation of the inscriptions.162 Ibarra for his part did not present a complete Greek text, but concluded that the correct reading is Adoratorio de los presbíteros, or “shrine/prayer house of the Presbyters”, taking into account the first central inscription in tabula ansata.163 Schlunk’s first reading of the structure as a synagogue led him to conclude that Albertini’s reading is the correct one, and that this inscription denotes the existence of furniture such as the elder’s lectus placed in front of the rest of the congregation, “according to tradition” in synagogues.164 This was presented as a way to explain the reason why the mosaic’s disposition has a “non-centered” central axis, 1 meter to the south, following Ibarra’s description.165 In other words, the furniture of the presbyters would occupy “extra” space for the north aisle of the mosaic, explaining the fact that the northern aisle was wider than the rest. The same position was taken by Hauschild and Schlunk in 1978 regarding the existence of “benches” behind (lit. hinter), evidenced by the fact that the northeastern section of the mosaic (or at least what was preserved of it) required restoration in antiquity.166 While it was in 1952 that Schlunk first proposed that the basilical building was a church, it was in 1978 that he suggested an interpretation of this second inscription as ΙΧΗΟΧΟΝΤωΝ ΚΕ ΠΡΒΥΤΕΡωΝ. This was a new interpretation of the reading of the first letters, considering that there are two vertical lines at the beginning. In his publication Lafuente Vidal reads this inscription as ΕΝ Η ΗΧΗ ΟΧΟΝΤωΝ ΚΕ ΠΡΕΒΥΤΕΡωΝ or “Here is the voice of the conductors (captains or directors of ships) and the elders”, following his theory that the original mosaic corresponded with a secular, or merchant basilica.167 The first lettering was based on a “vulgar” pronunciation of the word ΕΝΘΑ, while the word ηχη would derive from Homeric wording of “sound”. Furthermore, it is the first case for the interpretation of the word οχοντων as valid for someone in authority, a reading taken by Corell in 1999.168 162 163 164 165 166 167
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Albertini, 124. Ibarra Ruiz, “Antigua basílica de Elche,” 124. Schlunk, “El arte en época paleocristiana,” 340. Schlunk did not have the chance to review Ibarra’s account, since the mosaic floor was not re-excavated until April 1948, a year after the writing of his 1948 article. Schlunk and Hauschild, Die Denkmäler der frühchristlichen und westgotischen Zeit, 146. Lafuente Vidal, “La supuesta sinagoga de Elche,” 393; Noy, Jewish Inscriptions of Western Europe, 1993, 1: 245, considered that this was first Ramos Folqués’ interpretation. The dating points to Lafuente Vidal being the first scholar to propose the use of the word ηχη for the interpretation of the first lettering of this inscription. Corell, Inscripcions romanes d’Ilici, Lucentum, Allon, Dianium i els seus respectius territoris, 100–101.
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Noy, in 1993, followed Albertini’s reading of the inscription, most probably as αρχόντων κὲ πρεβυτέρων. However, he followed Schlunk’s understanding that the first word read by Albertini cannot be conclusive, especially considering the available evidence for the few lost letters before the first legible ones. Noy concludes that these letters can only be Π, Μ, ΡΙ, or ΓΙ.169 It is probable that his view of the inscriptions was indirect, possibly from photographs of the original excavation from 1905. The main objection to this interpretation would be that there are more possibilities, especially considering the changes in the correct spelling of Greek words seen in this very inscription. Other possibilities are the presence of Η and a mixture of that letter with others like Ι and Π. Despite this, for Noy the reading of the first readable word as a perverted αρχοντων is valid. Corell was the last scholar to propose an alternative reading to the above. He read the phrase as εὐχὴ(ν) ὀχόντων κὲ πρεβύτερω(ν), or “Those who have the vote and presbyters”.170 The first word is presented as an accusative, though followed by genitive plural forms, which Corell explained as a common feature in late antique vulgar Greek. He argues that Albertini’s reading is unsatisfactory, and that the terminology used is derived from the New Testament, specifically the term εὐχήν ἔχειν. A second reading could be a genitive declension that depended on the first, central inscription of the mosaic, particularly, the word προσευχή, thus being a continuation to the second phrase of the central inscription that was assumed to mention the “People of God”. This latest reading was taken up in 2009 by Corell and Xavier Gómez, proposing a repetition of the word [… προσευ]χή as the first for this inscription.171 Therefore, this second reading would be [Προχ(?)]ευχή ὀχόντων (= ἑχόντων) κὲ πρεβύτερων, or “Prayer of the potentates and presbyters”, following in part the reading made by Lafuente in 1948 but explaining it in a Christian setting, rather than a pre-Christian secular one. The readings by Corell are hypothetical, and do not suppose a definite solution for the inscription. This is the case of his first reading, which suggests that the adscription of these inscriptions as “Christian” is based on parallels for certain terminologies found there in the New Testament. However, while parallels with those texts should be considered, they would not necessarily point to a Christian identification of the building, as they might just as well point towards a Jewish adscription—even more than the Christian interpretation.172 Thus, 169 170 171 172
Noy, Jewish Inscriptions of Western Europe, 1993, 1: 245. Corell, Inscripcions romanes d’Ilici, Lucentum, Allon, Dianium i els seus respectius territoris, 100. Corell and Gómez Font, “Las inscripciones griegas del País Valenciano (IGPV),” 28–29. VV.AA., HEp 1999 (9), 13–14.
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Corell’s interpretation is dependent on the a priori adscription of the building as a church. In addition, regarding the reading of this specific inscription, the authors of Hispania Epigraphica point to the fact that the genitive plural form ὀχόντων (= ἑχόντων) does not have epigraphic parallels to justify such a reading beyond mere speculation, unlike Albertini’s original reading of the wording. Likewise, the word εὐχὴ(ν) seems “implausible” for the critics, although not impossible.173 Considering the historiography of this inscription, it is Corell’s which is the most plausible of them all, as it requires the least amount of modifications in order to fit his interpretation. However, such reading is not enough to conclude that the mosaic contained a Christian message, as there are epigraphic parallels of these words in Jewish contexts as well. This includes the term presbyteroi in Roman catacombs such as that of Monteverde, and even the evidence for Hebrew transliteration of the term in later funerary inscriptions of the late antique catacomb of Venosa (particularly in the 5th and 6th centuries, contemporary to the inscriptions of the Elche basilical building). It is appropriate in these cases to search for parallels for the text in Jewish synagogal environments. The word εὐχὴ(ν) in a Jewish synagogue settings primarily a “vote” cast by the phrase’s subject(s). A more precise translation would be “offering”. Such cases were recovered from synagogues such as the Hammath Gader in the southern Golan, where the word eyche was prevalent, and would suggests an offering by the potentates and presbyters mentioned in this inscription. Likewise, these are the kinds of leaders typically mentioned in synagogue inscriptions across the Mediterranean. Donations for the construction and sustenance of synagogues is found in the Diaspora since early Roman Cyrenaica (1st century bce) and the Second Temple period (particularly the Theodotos inscription in Jerusalem).174 Practices and epigraphic mentions of such donors were common through classical Roman Judaism and were particularly prevalent in synagogal inscriptions. However, this interpretation finds actual epigraphic problems. The most evident is the fact that the letter before the first Χ cannot be an ypsilon, as the line immediately to the left of the X is separated by a column one white tessera wide, while further to the left of this latter line we find an average of 5 to 6 white tesserae (see Fig. 7.99). If we can discard Corell’s reading on that argument, we can point towards the sole possibility that this letter is either an iota, the right branch of a wide pi, part of a mu, or a deformed eta. The latter would
173 174
Ibid., 14. “Dating Theodotos (CIJ II 1404),” 243–245.
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figure 7.99
Picture of the initial section of Northern Inscription taken in 1948 by alejandro ramos folqués. fla archives
be reconstructed as the Homeric word for “sound” suggested by both Lafuente Vidal and, later, Ramos Folqués. However, there is a lack of clear contemporary epigraphic evidence that would point towards the use of this archaic wording. Furthermore, the absence of a central horizontal line between the two vertical ones makes an eta implausible, and therefore the suggestion is discarded. To the left of this vertical line are two smaller ones, at the bottom of what would be the epigraphic area. One is near the other, separated by one or two tesserae. This makes the proposed lettering before the XH as “TI” an impossibility, since the space occupied by T would have had too much volume to the right, and too little to the left, making a T seem more like a Γ. The solution is limited to four possibilities, as indicated by Noy above: Μ, Π, ΓΙ or ΡΙ.175 Of all the available possibilities, only ΡΙ has epigraphic parallels that can fit into this inscription: – Πυρρίχη—which can be interpreted as “red” or “soldier”, and which should be discarded due to the lack of sense in its context. – Μητρίχη—the name “Metrice”, the best fit for the inscription.176
175 176
Noy, Jewish Inscriptions of Western Europe, 1993, 1: 245. While a common name in pre-Roman Greece (5th–2nd centuries bce), particularly in Attica, there are cases such as IG II² 2358 where we find this name in the 2nd century ce.
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– Βοσπορίχη—“Bosphoran”, which fits the use of wording in other inscriptions like προσευχη and ευπλοίας in the other two inscriptions of the Elche basilica.177 These three cases do not solve the inscription’s complicated reading. Neither does Corell’s whose, like Albertini’s, requires the twisting of the positive epigraphic evidence available to us. So far, the lack of parallels in Western Roman Greek inscriptions from Christian and Jewish backgrounds does not allow for a satisfactory reading. One final mention should be given regarding the letters used in this inscription. Albertini already pointed out the anomaly of the first omega placed at the end of the word ὀχόντων.178 The first omega is written with a curved left branch touching a vertical, right branch, and a middle branch of the letter stemming from the corner created by the previous two branches. The letter has a rightto-left direction. This omega differs from the more conventional omega at the end of the word πρε[σ]βύτερων, made by an upwards semicircular line with a straight central branch in the middle of the letter. There is no clear explanation why there is an intentional divergence for the two omegas in the same inscription. No evidence for a repair can be found in the inscription following its original layout. Nor is there a problem with space, as is evident by the exaggerated width of the second omega. The main explanation for this strange feature is that the first omega is not only functioning as an omega, but also as a Hebrew shin. The letter’s morphology reproduces other epigraphic remains from the east, particularly in Aramaic or Hebrew inscriptions from the Roman province of Syria, as it is distinguished by the presence of a pointed corner at the bottom (right) of the letter. It is something that rarely occurs in epigraphic representations of the Greek omega. The creators of the inscription mosaic used a formal game between an omega and a shin to connote a Jewish message, that could be interpreted as the words שלוםor ( שדיthe first being a message of peace, and the second a divine name). The only parallel I am aware of for the use of a singular shin in an otherwise Greek inscription can be seen in the synagogue of Andriake
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178
The main problem is that this name is not found in Late Roman periods such as the one associated to Ilici, nor is it found at all in Western Roman environments. The only available parallel for this interpretation is the inscription CIRB 473 from Pantikápaion/Panticapaeum (Kerch), possibly form the 1st century ce. Considering the case of προσευχη in that same site, found in the central inscription of Ilici, it is not impossible to imagine the mentioning of this city within the inscription. Albertini, “Fouilles d’ Elche,” 1907, 123.
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in Asia Minor.179 The inscription was catalogued as “Inscription 2”, from three epigraphs found in the site. The inscription has the following interpretation: Εὐχὴ Μακεδονίου Ῥωμα[νο]ῦ καὶ τῆς τ[ὐτ]οῦ γαμετῆς Πρόκλης καὶ Ῥωμανοῦ [καὶ] Θεοδότης τῶν αὐτῶν γονῶν. Εὐλογία καὶ ἰρή[νη] παντὶ τῷ Ἰσραὴλ ἀμήν. ש Translation: Offering of Makedonios, son of Romanos, and his (Makedonios’) wife Prokle and their parents Romanos and Theodote. (May there be) peace onto all Israel! Amen! Shalom. Photographs of the inscription reveal the existence of the shin in a space that allowed for more letters. The use of this single letter probably had a symbolic reason, as many words are associated with it, including the divine names shadai and shekhinah. In the case of Andriake the shin is a stand-alone, while in the Ilici mosaic it is introduced within the rest of the inscription. This was probably due to lack of space, or perhaps due to the intentional play with the letters’ form so that the careful reader could notice it. The presence of this kind of feature, associated with the original mosaic pavement or Phase IIe (see this chapter, 4.2), suggests the use of this area as a Jewish synagogue since the first laying of this mosaic. It should be interpreted as positive evidence for the Jewish character of the basilical building, or synagogue, from the late 4th century onwards. 4.1.2.3 The Southern Inscription of the “Good Voyage” (Inscription 3) The third inscription found in the mosaic floor is located in its southern aisle. The inscription itself is part of a wider decorated, rectangular panel with maritime motifs placed below the text. The epigraph is found 6.73 meters south of the northern edge of the mosaic and starts at 2.10 meters west from its eastern edge.180 It is also found one meter north of the southern edge of the mosaic.181 It is read from east to west, therefore is to be looked on from the center, like the second inscription. Only fifteen letters are preserved from the inscription in a rectangular epigraphic area that occupies one line, 1.78 meters long and 0.12 meters high with letters being 0.09 meters high. Its letters are black on a white
179 180 181
Nevzat Çevik et al., “A Unique Discovery in Lycia: The Ancient Synagogue at Andriake, Port of Myra,” Adalya XIII (2010): 246. Ibarra Ruiz, “Antigua basílica de Elche,” 124. Noy, Jewish Inscriptions of Western Europe, 1993, 1: 246.
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background, with yellow tesserae within them.182 Moreover, it is noticeable that the pattern which this inscription interrupts is 33 centimeters wide. The first publications of the inscription provide sketches where we can find its readable letters. These have been interpreted as follows:
figure 7.100 Drawing of the southern mosaic floor inscription (Inscription 3) according to ibarra (1906): “antigua basílica de elche”, p. 124
figure 7.101
Drawing of the northern mosaic inscription (Inscription 2) according to albertini (1907): “fouillés d’ elche”, p. 123
Transcription: EYΠΛΟUIA ΣYΣΥΤ[Υ …]YXA Development: εὔπλοιά συ Συτ[υ … εὐτ]υχα Translation: Good voyage to you Syg … The fortunate. The inscription provides a glimpse into another feature of the mosaic floor that is not strictly associated with the community that used it. The inscription’s discoverers, Ibarra and Albertini, each provided a similar proposal for the first term, euploias, which was to be read as “good voyage to …” Neither Albertini nor Ibarra managed to read more from this inscription due to the “deplorable state of the mosaic”.183 Albertini suggested that after εὔπλοία were the letters συ followed by πυ. Between his interpretation of πυ and υχη there is only room for six letters.184
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Ibid. Quote in Ibarra Ruiz, “Antigua basílica de Elche,” 125. Albertini, “Fouilles d’ Elche,” 1906.
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Schlunk and Hauschild in 1978 interpret this inscription as being Εὔπλοία συευτυ [… σ]χα.185 For them the inscription and the figurative panel with the maritime motif were part of the same (Christian) message. The message was the ship as an allegory of the Church, and the “good voyage”, reaching a good destination, as an allegory of the spiritual travels of the faithful in the Church. In other words, for Schlunk and Hauschild this was a figurative representation of the salvation in Christ. Schlunk would reiterate this idea in his 1982 publication.186 Noy for his part rejected the allegorical reading of the inscription, pointing to the natural predisposition for having this kind of iconography and epigraphic terminology in a coastal community such as that of Ilici.187 As such his reading of this inscription is Εὔπλοία συ Συγ[… ευτ]υχα. In this reading Noy points towards interpreting the letters following euploía as a degeneration of “soi Sy …” or “to you, Sy …”, “Sy” being the beginning of a person’s name. He further indicated that εὐτυχᾷ was a degeneration of εὐτυχῇ, something expected in the inscriptions of this period.188 Corell reads this inscription as Εὔπλοιά συ (!) [εὐτῡχής (?) …]υχα, read as “May you have a happy voyage …”189 In this case Corell’s reading from 1999 and 2009 does not differ too much from the reading of other authors, particularly that of Hauschild and Schlunk in 1978. He follows Schlunk’s proposal that the term euploia refers to the ship represented in the panel below it, which represents an allegory of the Church and of salvation. Furthermore, he follows Noy’s position where the article συ is a replacement for σου, something similar also occurring in the northern inscription between και and κε. Corell suggests several possibilities for the last part of the inscription, probably being a suffix for a wider word. This implies the possibility of this being the final part of a name like Καλλιτύχη or Συντύχη. Another option is the proposal that it is the suffix associated with being the defender or protector of some aspect associated to the community (i.e. πολιοῦχος, δημοῦχος, etc.). However this requires assuming a further anomaly, which is not to be dismissed considering the other anomalies in this series of inscriptions.190 In 2009 Corell and Gómez proposed the read-
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Schlunk and Hauschild, Die Denkmäler der frühchristlichen und westgotischen Zeit, 145– 146. Schlunk, “Conexiones históricas del cristianismo hispánico a través de la arqueología”, 62. Noy, Jewish Inscriptions of Western Europe, 1993, 1: 246–247. Noy, 1: 246–247. Corell, Inscripcions romanes d’Ilici, Lucentum, Allon, Dianium i els seus respectius territoris, 100–101. Corell, 101–102.
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ing as Εὔπλοιά συ (!) εὐτυ[χής (?) … ο]ὐχα or … ε]ὐχή, with a similar reading to Corell’s in 1999.191 It is important to note from these interpretations the inevitability that this phrase would have a personal name of sorts or must refer to a specific person even if that person is mentioned through a description. In this sense it seems that Noy’s reading is the most accurate one, as it assumes that immediately after the word σοι is the name of the person in question—starting with “Sy”. In my opinion, following these letters are the remains of a Γ or, more likely, a Τ. After that, we find the start of the upper left branch of a Υ. In other words, this name would have started Syg or Syt. The latter is the more likely possibility, as there are more parallels for a name such as Συτέσιος (Sytesios)192 or Συτυλίας (Sytylias).193 The first is of Bosphoran origin and the second more likely from Ephesus. The probability of it being either of these names is no more than speculation, despite the clear association with these letters to some name. The association of the word euploia to the naval motif was long confirmed. But the question is whether it should be taken literally or if it has some allegorical meaning that is associated with Jewish or Christian iconography. When studying the image below the inscription (see Figs. 7.102, 103), Schlunk and Hauschild proposed that there was a parallel to a similar ship with Latin mast in the late Roman church of Khalde, Lebanon.194 There the ship is accompanied with the Greek words ΠΛωΙΝ ΗΡΗΝΗς, pointing to a clear association between the ship and the Church as a vessel for salvation. But considering Schlunk’s interpretation of this scene as part of Jonah’s story, which has a clear Christological allegorical message, the closest parallel to such a scene would have been the Aquileia basilica mosaic. Amongst the different scenes it includes a full representation of Jonah’s voyages. In this sense, Schlunk saw at the bottom of the panel the body of a large fish and its tail, which would be a representation of the Leviathan from the biblical story. However, this presents a series of problems, chiefly that similar motifs were clearly found in synagogue environments in the Galilee. The most noticeable of them is the “Kyrios Leontis” synagogue-house in Beth Shean, next to Syn-
191 192 193
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Corell and Gómez Font, “Las inscripciones griegas del País Valenciano (IGPV),” 29. CIRB 655. PHI Ephesus 2627; IEph 2311. See Packard Humanities Institute, Searchable Greek Inscriptions (Los Altos, California: Cornell University; Ohio University, Last Update: July 13, 2020). Last accessed: September 2020. https://inscriptions.packhum.org/. Schlunk and Hauschild, Die Denkmäler der frühchristlichen und westgotischen Zeit, 145; Schlunk repeats this argument in Schlunk, “Conexiones históricas del cristianismo hispánico a través de la arqueología,” 64.
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agogue A, both of which have a richly decorated mosaic floor.195 The “Kyrios Leontis” synagogue mosaic is displayed today in the Israel Museum. It presents a tri-partite panel with a main theme being scenes with figurative naval and nilotic motifs. Specifically, one scene is clearly taken from the Odyssey, which at first would seem odd when considering the environment in which this floor is found. However, this motif points towards a syncretism between Judaism and Hellenic culture in this period, particularly in the fact that figures stemming from non-Jewish sources could be used for the promotion of Jewish messages. In this case, the predominant message is faith through tribulations—an overwhelming feature in Jewish heritage—and final salvation in the time to come. Furthermore, the finding of one parallel of this sort in a site like a 4th century mosaic in Aquileia does not solve the interpretation of the maritime panel in Ilici. The Aquileia mosaic is filled with richly decorated figurative motifs, while the Ilici basilical mosaic predominantly has geometric designs, making this panel a unique case. Regardless of the interpretation of the figure below the euploia inscription, this term has been found in other parts of the Mediterranean. Corell points to the finding of parallels to this word in the Aegean, particularly in pagan and some Christian environments.196 What he fails to mention is the presence of this wording associated also to the Judaizing Theos Hypsistos cult in the SEG, XLV, no. 1482 epigraph from Torre dell’Orso, found in the Grotta di S. Cristoforo, Italy.197 This inscription from Magna Graecia could have been associated with a pagan ritual, although the use of the term Theo Hypsistos as late as the Severan period, and the fact that someone vandalized this inscription in antiquity with a cross, points towards a more nuanced reading of this epigraph. Other inscriptions from imperial periods, particularly in Rome, mention other eastern divinities such as Serapis,198 the Theois Katachtoniois,199 and 195
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198 199
Zori, “The House of Kyrios Leontis at Beth Shean,” 123–134; Roth-Gerson, The Greek Inscriptions from the Synagogues in Eretz-Israel, 33–43; Zvi Ilan, Ancient Synagogues in the Land of Israel (Jerusalem: Ministry of Interior, 1991), 182–183 (Hebrew). Corell, Inscripcions romanes d’Ilici, Lucentum, Allon, Dianium i els seus respectius territoris, 100–102; Corell and Gómez Font, “Las inscripciones griegas del País Valenciano (IGPV),” 29–30. Henri W. Pleket et al., eds., Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum, Vol. XLV (1995) (Leiden, Netherlands: Brill, 1998), no. 1482. I would like to add that this mention of Theo Hypsitos was perhaps a reference to Zeus Hypsistos, and would not be necessarily Judaizing. This inscription was made by what seems to be a freedman Πούπλιος Ἁνίκιως Νικηφόρος, who would give a dedication to the “God most High” who has “lent his ear”. The carving of a cross would later be put on top of this inscription. It is dated to the 2nd or 3rd century ce. IGUR II, no. 542. IGUR II, no. 541, 542.
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Asklepios200 using the term euploia. However, as pointed out by Corell, there are also Christian dedications with euploia, such as a 2nd century ad inscription from Portus (Ostia)201 that exhorts the dedicator to “have a good voyage” with his/her equipment, and with a Chi-Rho symbol in the middle, indicating a voyage “to Christ”. It is of course of note that this inscription is from the 2nd century ce, and not from a later period reflecting 4th century Christianity. From the eastern provinces, the predominant usage of euploia in religious contexts are dedicated to Aphrodite in the Aegean.202 Cases are detected in the cult of Aphrodite in Mylasa, Asia Minor, and the Cycladic Delos, although euploia dedicatory inscriptions are also abundant in Cycladic contexts with more personalized usages.203 However, there are also a few instances of Christian usage of the term, such as a badly-preserved Messenian inscription identifiable as Christian only through an incised cross at the beginning of the text.204 What seems to be a Christianized text, that is, with an incised cross at the beginning of what is almost surely a pagan inscription (dedicated to Poseidon and Asklepios), was found in Thasos.205 It is possible to note two aspects to the religious inscriptions where the term euploia are associated with a cultic dedication. The first is that the term and these dedications were used mostly as appreciation to a divinity and as an urging for further protection (a wish for a “happy voyage”). These were predominantly done by people who sought divine insurance to reach their destination safely before embarking on a sea voyage. Second, and most importantly, is that while some inscriptions had a clear Christian usage, particularly playing with the notion of salvation through a “good voyage”, in truth there is no evidence for a widespread use of this terminology in Christian contexts. The clearest usage of euploia in a Christian inscription to the west is attested in the 2nd century ce.
200 201 202 203
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IGUR II, no. 543. Giulia Sacco, Iscrizioni greche d’Italia. Porto, (Rome: Edizioni di storia e letteratura, 1984), 67. Noy, Jewish Inscriptions of Western Europe, 1993, 1: 247. See Elena Miranda, “Osservazioni sul culto di Euploia,” Miscellanea Greca e Romana 14 (1989): 123–144. Here the author proposes the possible association also of the Goddess Tyche with the seas, as is demonstrated in the Tyche of Tomis (Romania). The cult of the Cnidian Aphrodite, associated with the epithet Euploea (Ευπλοια) only expanded in Hellenistic and early Roman periods in the Aegean, Egypt, and possibly (with no certainty) Southern Italy. IG V,1, no. 1554. IG XII,8, no. 582
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figure 7.102 Panel for the Euploia southern inscription ibarra (1906): “antigua basílica de elche”, brah, 49, plates
figure 7.103 Reproduction of the decorated figure according to h. schlunk (1982): “conexiones históricas del cristianismo hispánico a través de la arqueología”, iv reunió d’arqueologia cristian hispánica
Going back to our inscription in Ilici, it is my opinion that the correct reading of it would be devoid of allegorical considerations. This was possibly a dedication by a wealthy merchant who requested the protection of a divinity in an important late Roman port.206 The absence of a funerary context suggests that
206
A stance proposed by Noy, Jewish Inscriptions of Western Europe, 1993, 1: 247.
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the allegorical representation of the Church, as was suggested by Schlunk in 1982 and repeated by Poveda Navarro in 2004, should be discarded. The destruction of the figurative panel below the southern inscription is of high importance. Roberto Lorenzo and Javier Morcillo proposed recently that since “a-b wall”, catalogued here as B/014, was placed on top of the southern isle, the mosaic floor placed below it was better preserved than in other sectors of the main hall. However, this means that the level of destruction of the maritime panel was done intentionally.207 As these authors assumed that the building, including the mosaic, was a Christian church, they concluded that this was a product of a Christian iconoclastic reaction to the figures present in the mosaic. These authors do not associate this destruction of the mosaic to anywhere else in the mosaic floor. 4.1.2.4 Review of the Data from the Inscriptions What is most striking from the above notes regarding the epigraphical data from the mosaic floor is the fact that none of the inscriptions can clearly point towards the denomination of the building as belonging to a Jewish or Christian community. Past scholars, starting from Albertini and Ibarra following the 1905 excavations, through Ramos Folqués, Schlunk, Lafuente Vidal, Hauschild, and ending with Corell, Poveda, Marquez, Lorenzo San Román, and Morcillo, all attempted to define the denomination of the building based on the abovementioned inscriptions. However, it is evident such endeavors have been rather distracting for the more pertinent question deriving from the positive evidence available to us: why are these inscriptions, or the remainder of them, neutral when it comes to their denomination? Surely, had these inscriptions been of a Christian character, their explicit symbols would have been preserved better. Had this been a Jewish synagogue mosaic, and their use had been permanent through the centuries, then that data would have been preserved. Both interpretations depended on the assumption that mosaic floor B/011 was damaged during the process of demolition, and not before. If we consider the evidence that the figurative panel below the southern inscription (that is, to its north) was intentionally destroyed, then we ought to assume the possibility that the other inscriptions were affected. Indeed, the picture from the mosaic floor after its consolidation and removal from the site (its placement, in 1948, in the Museo Arqueológico de Elche under the super-
207
Lorenzo de San Román and Morcillo, “La basílica paleocristiana de Ilici (L’Alcudia, Elche),” 530–531.
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vision of Alejandro Ramos Folqués) shows how the last letter of the central inscription in the tabula ansata was destroyed up to the point of keeping its silhouette. In other words, it shows an intentional defacement of the mosaic. Furthermore, the defacement of the naval panel would point towards a partial destruction of the southern mosaic inscription. In summary, the erasure of the name written within this inscription, eliminated the mention of an important person who belonged to the community that used this building prior to the mosaic’s changes. This, together with the evidence for the defacement of the two menoroth to the northeast of the mosaic floor, as well as the “convenient” destruction of the entire central area of the mosaic, where presumably a medallion would have been placed (in a mosaic floor that clearly points towards the central area, and not towards the eastern wall as is common in churches at the time), suggest what was already considered by Schlunk in 1948: that the building was first a Jewish synagogue when the mosaic floor was laid, and that at a later date it was converted into a Christian church. This would explain the “neutrality” of the mosaic’s inscriptions. The epigraphs, as with the rest of the mosaic floor, point towards a Judeo-Christian milieu that avoided offending religious sensibilities of, mostly, the new Christian occupants of the building after the synagogue had been converted. In this sense, the process of conversion was evidently quick, but with little mercy towards the Jewish history of the building. A parallel for such a process of Christian conversion of a synagogue can be found in late antique sites such as the synagogue of Gerasa (Jordan). In it, the previous mosaic associated with the synagogue was completely demolished, save for a section at the introductory narthex with a partial iconography of the animals of Noah’s ark and of the scene of the arrival on land, including the names of Noah’s sons.208 The reading of the mosaic inscriptions was only possible from the center. Therefore, it is evident that there was an orientation towards the center of the mosaic, with an entrance that would direct the guest towards this point. This fact would make the eastern apse B/006 a rather anomalous feature had it been planned at the same moment as the mosaic floor, especially considering that
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John W. Crowfoot and R.W. Hamilton, “The Discovery of a Synagogue at Jerash,” Palestine Exploration Fund Quarterly Statement 61 (1929): 211–219. On a more recent description and interpretation of the synagogue, see Estēe Dvorjetski, “The Synagogue-Church at Gerasa in Jordan. A Contribution to the Study of Ancient Synagogues,” Zeitschrift Des Deutschen Palästina-Vereins 121, no. 2 (2005): 151–152. She indicates that there seems to be a use of Rabbinic literature. While the Jews used Greek and Aramaic, using the former for the transcription of the entire Hebrew formula placed in the 6th century inscription.
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the inscriptions seem to ignore the existence of such a conspicuous feature as an apse that presided over the basilica to the east. Probably the central mosaic inscription (Inscription 1) was placed just before some large furniture that would dominate the inner arrangement of the building, limited naturally by the eastern panel of the central mosaic nave. Perhaps the term προσευχή had a triple meaning in this context: The first being the traditional usage of it as a prayer house, or the building into which a guest would enter. The second meaning might be an indication of the presence of furniture, perhaps even an aron hakodesh or kibotos, which would be placed behind this inscription. And the third meaning might be of prayer, associated with the furniture and books stored in this building allowing for religious and community rituals within it. The latter two possibilities are speculation, although considering the placement of this inscription it would not be surprising. Jewish parallels to the other two inscriptions would point, most probably, to euergetic texts. The presbyteron and probably the echonton (from ochonton) in the northern epigraph (Inscription 2) were probably the main potentates of the Jewish community, who donated their share for the sustenance of the community. This includes the construction and maintenance of the synagogue building. Likewise, the southern euploia inscription mentions a particularly important patron of the mosaic and/or building, and is therefore found in a place of honor, that is, above the only figurative panel of the entire floor. Reference to economic activities, and their protection, in synagogue contexts is not a rarity. The same is found in ʿEn Gedi, associated with a curse regarding the revelation of certain “secrets” from the Jewish community that inhabited that town in Late Antiquity.209 Talmudic texts treating agricultural activities were found inscribed in the mosaic floor of the Rehov synagogue, in the lower Galilee.210 209
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The interpretation of the synagogue’s mosaic has been in dispute since its discovery. For its initial discussion, see Binyamin Mazar, “The Inscription on the Floor of the Synagogue in En-Gedi—Preliminary Survey,” Tarbiz 40, no. 1 (January 1970): 18–23 (Hebrew); Saul Lieberman, “A Preliminary Remark to the Inscription of En-Gedi,” Tarbiz 40, no. 1 (1970): 24–26 (Hebrew); Ephraim E. Urbach, “The Secret of the En-Gedi Inscription and its Formula,” Tarbiz 40, no. 1 (1970): 27–30 (Hebrew). Lieberman suggests the “secret” mentioned in the inscription is somehow associated with the production of local perfume based on balsam. Mazar and Urbach, on the other hand, tend to see it more as a political/community warning to avoid inner conflicts. Another interesting take is by Foerster in Gidon Foerster, “Inscriptions from Ancient Synagogues and their Link to Blessings and Prayer Formulas,” Cathedra 19 (1981): 12–40 (Hebrew). Here the author suggests that the origin of such a text lies in ritual formulas used in synagogues for different purposes, which include the blessings of specific individuals mentioned in the ʿEn Gedi inscription. Much has been written about this important inscription. Basic bibliography includes:
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To conclude, the evidence for the Christian denomination of these inscriptions and, by extension, of the mosaic and of the basilical building is compelling only if we ignore the wider late antique context of Ilici. The exclusively Christian reading of these texts, based for instance on the New Testament use of certain words, is insufficient considering the available evidence. In fact, the lack of any reference to Christianity or its tenets, as well as the general absence of its symbols, is compelling evidence to question a Christian denomination of the first basilical building as a church. Furthermore, the neutral language found in this mosaic merely points towards a Judeo-Christian environment, where both communities shared a common language, although imbued with differing and nuanced messages between them. 4.1.3 Decorative and Motifs of the Mosaic Floor With this description of the three preserved inscriptions of the mosaic floor, I will proceed to contextualize them within the mosaic floor panels. The overwhelming decorative motif of this floor is essentially geometric. It was well designed and planned out, judging by its use through different phases, reflected in the placement of the stones B/008 and B/009 to the north and south of the central panel. The analysis will start at the center of the mosaic, followed by its northern and later southern aisles. The analyses moves from the order of the mosaic panels as they would be encountered by a visitor who entered the main hall: reading the central mosaic first, and then the remaining two from east to west. 4.1.3.1 Central Mosaic Nave The central nave of the mosaic floor was a quintessential social section of the synagogue during its first phases, and probably even during its use in the Christian church. The preserved central nave was framed within a wide band (Fig. 7.94: M/I) with alternating connected meanders and square frame within which are geometric motifs. These include alternating simple Solomonic knots (in “diagonal” position within a circle surrounded by decorated corners; in vertical position within a circle and no further decorations, and one tetra-foil knot Yaakov Sussman, “A Halakhic Inscription from the Beth-Shean Valley,” Tarbiz 43, no. 1 (1973): 88–158 (Hebrew); Saul Lieberman, “The Halakhic Inscription from the Bet-Shean Valley,” Tarbiz 45, no. 1 (1974): 54–63 (Hebrew); Zeʾev Safrai, “The Rehov Inscription,” Immanuel. A Semi-Annual Bulletin of Religious Thought and Research in Israel Jérusalem 8 (1978): 48–57; Chaim Ben David, “The Rehov Inscription. A Galilean Halakhic Text Formula?,” in Halakhah in Light of Epigraphy, ed. Albert I. Baumgarten, Journal of Ancient Judaism Supplement, v. 3 (Göttingen; Oakville, CT: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2011), 231– 240.
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figure 7.104 Picture of the second westernmost square at the southern branch of the central nave meander frame taken by the author, looking south, on february 2014
in one of these metopes at the eastern edge of the frame), and rosettes within circles which are surrounded (in the square’s four corners) with what seem to be leaves and concentric rhomboids. A repair is detected in the placement of the only meander in the second westernmost southern metope of this frame (Fig. 7.104). According to the original plan by Ibarra, who documented the panels in 1905 following the building’s first excavation (Fig. 7.3), this frame is approximately 0.5 meters wide. Within this interconnected meander frame, we find the first band in a four stranded guilloche pattern (M/II) of approximately 17 centimeters in width. Each strand has its own color, serving the purpose of limiting the panels of the central nave, and particularly of dividing the easternmost panel of this nave from the other panels to the west. The easternmost (Cen/I) is the best preserved, and probably the best decorated. Its measurements are approximately 2.35× 1.46 meters. It was richly decorated with a geometric design, the most significant being a series of equilateral crosses in a chessboard pattern between them, within which was a closed twostranded guilloche node pattern. Between these crosses are most notable in the three tiers of octagons. The northern tier (two and a half octagons, the latter
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cut by the end of the panel to the west) had within those octagons a quadruple Solomonic knot; the central tier (two octagons) had within them a composite Solomonic knot made up of a straight, square strand and another, curved strand around it, creating a perspective effect. The southern tier (like the northern one) has a rosette motif, with varied numbers of petals, placed as follows: – Westernmost octagon: 9 petals – Central octagon: 12 petals – Easternmost octagon: 16 petals There is reason to believe that these numbers are not random. In fact, the first being a multiple of 3 and the third of 4, the second number is a multiple of both. It is important to note that the westernmost octagon is cut in the middle, like the northern tier of octagons, which did not prevent the artist from giving this mathematical harmonization of petals for this panel. Finally, the space between the octagons and crosses is decorated by hexagons with inner concentric hexagonal shapes, with a pointed decoration at their center. By flanking the crosses at their inner corners with colorful doublebands, they create a series of symmetrical trapezoids with inner decoration of what seems to be interconnected arrowheads. Therefore, the entire panel commits to the principle of horror vacui, using geometric forms to fill it with figures. Moving west we find the tabula ansata inscription, or “Inscription 1”. West of that the main panel of the central nave is completely lost, with part of its destruction affecting, as we have seen above, the central and northern mosaic inscription. Finally, 2.58 meters to the west of the central inscription, a preserved, rectangular panel (Cen/II) is found. It is framed with a counterclockwise wave motif, within which is an eternal knot motif, forming a rug pattern. The panel is approximately 1.12×1.46 meters. Finally, to the west of that is the final motif of the central nave panels, although it could be classified as one with the previous element, as it is not separated from it by a guilloche pattern (Cen/III). It is approximately 2.44 × 1.46 meters. The main motif is a series of square frames within which were elaborate quadruple Solomonic knots, flanked by its four sides by peltes shields. These forms are arranged in a chessboard pattern. Within the space left between the shields is a series of circles with simple Solomonic knots within them. The westernmost section of this panel and of the nave did not survive and was partially destroyed by the placement of basin B/022 and the marble slabs B/012. 4.1.3.2 Northern Mosaic Aisle The northern mosaic aisle was the widest of the three, being a total of 2.4 meters across while naturally occupying the entire length of the mosaic (10.5 meters). The northern panel is actually divided into two main sections which
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have different dating. The first is to the east of this aisle, which was mostly laid as a repair of the original mosaic floor as a result of that section’s damage. The second are the three large square rug panels in the western half of the aisle. First it is important to indicate that the northern mosaic aisle seems to be framed, or limited to the south at least, by a three-stranded guilloche continuous band from east to west (M/VII). The band is approximately 0.22 meters wide. It is at this point where the two halves of the northern aisle diverge. At the eastern half, north of the guilloche pattern that frames the northern aisle, is the northern inscription (Inscription 2) that seems to interrupt the series of band guilloche patterns. Continuing to the north of the mosaic floor is again a three-stranded guilloche pattern (M/IV) that frames the main eastern panel of this aisle from the south, turns northwards between the two main series of panels, and again turns westwards to flank the western series of panels to its north. It seems that the function of this guilloche band is to separate the features of this northern aisle. The eastern panels (Nor/I) are clearly a later repair of the original mosaic floor. Unlike the predominantly multi-colored floor with wide, lively lines that allowed for elaborate forms with visual effects denoting a perspective. In this particular section only simple patterns can be found, with one-tessera wide lines and in black and white only. The panel is surrounded by a band of asymmetrical meanders, some of which are interlinking swastikas but others without any distinct geometric form. This band flanks the central motif, which consists of a series of interlinked rectangles. Each of these hold within them rhomboids, within which is another rectangle, and within that rectangle another rhomboid. These rectangles are detected in two tiers, one northern and another southern. At the easternmost edge of the southern tier of rectangles two curved figures with a central mast, which look like Jewish menoroth (Fig. 7.16), were uncovered and documented. These two menoroth deserve a special mention. While surely excavated in 1905, these were first mentioned clearly and documented by C. Zornoza in 1965, and later published first by Schlunk and Hauschild in 1978. However, the first scholar who gave attention to this feature was Poveda Navarro in 2004, indicating that these figures are not to be taken as Jewish menoroth, but a mere geometric addition to the mosaic floor which was lost. A closer look at the preserved remains of the mosaic indicate a necessity to review this position. First is the publication by R. Walsh in 2016 dismissing the arguments against the potential classification of this feature as menoroth. However, it is important to understand the stratigraphic reading of the mosaic. This detail is placed amongst panels of the mosaic’s second phase. In other words, it is placed within a repair. Therefore, these figures belong to a later
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stage than that of the original pavement, belonging to a later date than its three inscriptions. Secondly, there are interesting details that should not be overlooked: particularly the fact that at the top section of the lower menorah there is an upper bar, common in representation of menoroth around the Mediterranean, especially in Israel.211 Thirdly, and most importantly is the fact that these figures’ defacement does not appear entirely accidental. A close look at the southern series of semi-circles points towards a careful removal of tesserae, as if there was an intention to demolish these forms but preserve a silhouette. The destruction of the outermost branches of this menorah would suggest that this was indeed the case, much like the destruction of the central mosaic inscription’s second line and the destruction of the figurative maritime panel in the southern aisle. Accepting the intentional defacement of these figures, I propose that these are indeed menoroth, which were subjected to defacement at a moment of change of usage in this basilical building. In other words, alongside the use of the shin in Inscription 2, these menoroth are evidence for the usage of this building as a synagogue at this second stage of the mosaic floor, and almost certainly of the original mosaic pavement. The conversion of the building into a Christian church led this new community to the defacement of any reference to its previous Jewish usage in the mosaic—but maintaining remains of that history as a reminder of the fate of the rival faith. To the west we find a geometric pattern that predominates in frameworks to the far north and far south of the mosaic. Part of the original mosaic, this panel is divided in three sections. Two lateral scenes, to the east and west (Nor/II, IV), are made of a labyrinth or meander pattern of two-stranded guilloche bands that form linked four-swastikas in square formation, mirrored between each other (that is, the direction of one swastika would be contrary to the ones next to it), and forming interwoven T-shaped meanders.212 Above and below the central section these two lateral sections are connected by the same guilloche band that connect the meanders. The central section is a framed carpet (Nor/III) composed by framed rhomboids, within which is a central rhomboid surrounded by oblique parallelograms forming the rhomboid figures themselves. Remains of a frame for the northern aisle were found at the far west and north of the mosaic floor (M/III). Considering the parallel meander pattern found at the south of the mosaic, probably this is an alternating interlinked
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Hachlili, The Menorah, the Ancient Seven-Armed Candelabrum, 160–161. Hachlili, AJAAD, 205.
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four-swastika meander pattern, although there is no evidence for square panels in between the meander itself, as is found in the southern meander pattern band. 4.1.3.3 Southern Mosaic Aisle The southern aisle is narrower than the northern one, only 2.25 meters across. It is also the best preserved. The reasons for this are varied, although the possibility that wall B/014’s placement on top of the main southern aisle facilitated its preservation should be considered.213 South of the central aisle meander pattern band frame is a 0.33-meter-wide looped guilloche pattern band (M/V) that frames the main southern aisle. It is interrupted on its southeast, just south of the figurative maritime scene, by the third inscription of the mosaic. Following the pictures published by Ibarra in 1906 (Fig. 7.104), one notices the inscription’s interruption of said linkedchain, which was probably made at the same time as the rest of the original decorative elements of the mosaic, since the chains immediately east and west of the inscription are not broken. Rather, they apparently fit well into the overall arrangement. The easternmost panel is richly decorated with a carpet of four cardinal hexagons surrounding small central squares (Sud/I). The motif of this panel reproduces that of the eastern panel of the central nave, although it is badly preserved. In between the hexagons, four-sided stars are formed. The squares are decorated with equilateral crosses, and one (to the west of the panel) with a central small cross framed by a small square with merlons on its corners and the center of its sides. The predominant hexagons form a geometrical rosette pattern. Within it is another hexagon with outer crenellation, within which is a rhomboid surrounded, on its four corners, by a half-circle form between the inner sides and corners of the hexagon and the rhomboid. Within the stars, on their part, is another concentric inner star, within which is an equilateral cross. East of this carpet is the maritime scene below (to the north of) the southern inscription (Inscription 3, Sud/II). Approximately one meter wide (as with the rest of this tier of the southern mosaic aisle), and 1.8 meters long, this panel fits perfectly within the arrangement of the aisle, as it was produced when the mosaic was first laid. While mostly destroyed, the motif itself is schematic, with figures which were not accentuated by the tesserae surrounding them. The upper ship’s mast is relatively small, indicating that it was not the main object of the scene. The low (northern) section preserves the body of a fish, which
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See note 183.
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Schlunk and Hauschild in 1978, and later Schlunk in 1982, interpreted as the Leviathan preparing to swallow the prophet Jonah. As was seen before (Chapter 6) this hypothesis has no basis beyond the speculation that the first users of the mosaic were Christian. The central section of the southern aisle presents a singular tripartite panel made with octagons, each with its own inner design (Sud/III). Like the rest of this mosaic east-west tier, the panel is approximately one meter across and 4.24 meters long. It is not separated from the other panels by a guilloche pattern that occurs in certain places of the northern and central aisles. The panel is framed by a simple two-tier guilloche band around the rectangular perimeter of the panel, which also forms the perimeter of the three octagons within it. The first eastern octagon is centered by two intersecting perpendicular Solomonic knots with looped corners. Furthermore, the central section is decorated with small rectangles giving the intersection visual accentuation. This feature is placed within a circle, surrounded by the octagonal perimeter. The second central octagon of this panel has a central square with interwoven thread, the latter being polychromatic, making another eternal knot. This element is placed within a circle. Finally, the western octagon has a grid quadruple Solomonic knot within a circle. Between the circle and octagon perimeter are a series of decorative vegetal branches that surround the former. To the west there is another carpet panel with two circular and one polygonal motifs (Sud/IV). The easternmost and central patterns have an octagonal frame, although not in an equilateral fashion. That is, the octagon’s “diagonal” sides are significantly shorter than the lateral sides, giving an effect of a frame rather than an octagon. The easternmost section is circular, with inner and repetitive rosette motifs made by secant circles. The rosette’s petals are framed within intersected diagonal bands, giving a greater effect of an eternal pattern. Likewise, the central section consists of a wide circumferential frame with a central geometric pattern which includes intersecting bands. The bands form hexagons, triangles, and rhomboids between them, giving the image of repetitive and intersecting six-pointed stars. Around the central space, forming a circular area, are a series of accentuated hexagons. Finally, the westernmost motif is an anomaly amongst the others predominant in the southern aisle. It consists of two looped squares forming an 8-pointed star shape, within which is a circle whose perimeter is touched from within by the form of a bull-skin. In the semi-circular shapes formed by these two forms are single lines, while at the center is an irregular rectangle. The framing squares are made from three lines of tesserae. Around them, in the space between the panel’s diameter and these two squares, are four L-shaped bands.
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To the far south, as well as to the west and far east of the southern aisle, is a Tshaped meander pattern similar to the northwestern carpet but extended and in miniature (M/VI). The meander is made of interconnected sets of four connected mirrored swastikas. In the southern band, every two sets of T-shaped meanders are a square frame with a geometric pattern, with only three preserved ones. The easternmost has, within the frame, a circle with a Solomonic knot at its center. More to the west, the square harbors an octagonal frame and, within it, a spoked wheel shaped circle with six equilateral triangles forming the spaces between the spokes. Further to the west the square frame harbors an elaborate division of the space in squares (5 squares for each side), all divided in two by diagonal lines going from northeast to southwest. Finally, the westernmost square holds a quadruple Solomonic knot grid. The regularity of the pattern is broken to the southwest of the mosaic, as three consecutive sets of T-shaped meanders were found. 4.1.3.4 Theme and Typological Associations The mosaic is defined by a series of repetitive motifs. The T-shaped and swastika meanders are predominant in the northern, central, and southern aisles of the mosaic. Different types of Solomonic knots are also notably scattered across the floor pattern. Both motifs are based on eternal loops and have a close association with the concept of eternity in different ancient and later cultures. The geometric patterns seem to be more than decorative. The different carpets point towards interwoven geometric forms that would repeat ad aeternum. This is especially true in the eastern panel of the central nave, the southwestern circular panel sections, the western carpet panel, the central section of the northwestern panel, and the southeastern panel next to the figurative maritime scene. The northeastern panel is indeed an anomaly, mostly because it was a later repair following the loss of the original mosaic crafts school that elaborated it in the first place. However, this loss does not imply the abandonment of the motif. The panel also presents repetitive geometric patterns in a carpet panel. In the southern branch of the meander frame for the central nave, the presence of a “repair” meander points towards the attempt to keep this motif in use. Minor motifs are also found in this mosaic. The most evident is the usage of numerological calculations to present a mathematical harmony to the figures. This is especially evident when counting the petals for the rosettes in the central eastern carpet panel. Furthermore, the two opposing seven branched candelabra in the northeastern carpet panel are interesting. It would be farfetched to suggest that these menoroth were intended to present a denomination for the building which the floor is found, as it was probably clear by the original occupants that the building would be a Jewish synagogue. The motif
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should be associated with the usage of the menorah’s geometric form to accentuate the message of salvation through the reconstruction of the lost Temple and the return of the Messiah. A mosaic of this sort was of high quality, and the craftsmen probably worked for important clientele in the Ilici area. The most evident parallel are the nearby mosaics from the Late Roman Elche villa described by Aureliano Ibarra in 1879. The villa found is in the village of Algorós about a kilometer northwest of the site of the Alcudia d’Elx. It was excavated in the early 1860s and documented by the above-mentioned scholar, indicating it had rich mosaic decoration in many of its rooms. The mosaics were extensively studied both by Aureliano Ibarra and republished by Rita Mondelo. They were divided best by Rita Mondelo, and their parallels analyzed extensively from a chronological, technical, and geographical standpoint.214 A complete review of this analysis is beyond the scope of this study. The accounts by Aureliano Ibarra should be noted, as they give certain details that reflect the similar history of use and repair that characterizes both the Ilici basilical mosaic and the Algorós villa mosaics. These polychrome pavements were all made with around one tessera per square centimeter. The original usage of the pavements led to disrepair, which can be detected in reparations done with white tesserae in mosaic floors for rooms A, B, and F, before their final abandonment. Significantly, Room F’s pavement (Mondelo’s “mosaic number 6”) suffered intentional defacement in its central figurative motifs.215 However, such destruction was not general, as the mosaic from Room C’s central medallion was, apparently, destroyed due to the growth of a palm tree precisely on top of it. Furthermore, decorative elements had survived in mosaics number 1 (the “GALATEA” panel)216 and number 9 (the dancing women)217 which were relatively untouched by the time of their first discovery.218 The predominance of swastika-based meanders in the aisle frames, be they simple meanders of interconnecting swastikas or the more elaborate T-shaped four-swastika square-forming meanders, is also detected in the Algorós mosaics. This is clearly the case with “Mosaic A” of Ibarra/Mosaic 1 by Mondelo, which is also known as the “GALATEA” mosaic. Most important about this floor is the use of the four-thread guilloche as a general frame of the main decorative 214 215 216 217 218
Rita Mondelo, “Los mosáicos de la villa romana de Algorós (Elche),” Boletín del Seminario de Estudios de Arte y Arqueología: BSAA 51 (1985): 107–142. Mondelo, 125–126. Mondelo, 107–108. Mondelo, 135–136. The “dancing women” mosaic, amongst others, was lost by the time of Mondelo’s 1985 publication.
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area. Within it there are two preserved panels that flank the main design of GALATEA, which has a maritime motif. Both flanking carpet panels are identical: a central four-swastika T-shaped meander made of a two-strand guilloche, with extensions forming rectangular or square spaces, within which is the main decorated space. Within those was a carpet of node motifs. These panels are identical to our basilical mosaic panel Nor/II, with the only difference being two T-shaped four-swastika meanders flanking one central squared space with a node motif carpet. Chronologically the earliest mosaics of this motif can be found in Mérida, although the closest parallel will be the mosaics found in the villa of Prado (Madrid), Quesada (Jaén, Andalusia), and nearby Jumilla (Alicante, Valencia), where they used the guilloche to create this motif. When it comes to the finding of swastika meanders in frame bands we find this motif too in the abovementioned mosaics, be they made in simple lines with one line of swastika meanders, or with multiple sequences between each decorated square.219 The predominance of the swastika is a typical feature of the artisans who elaborated both the Ilici basilical mosaic as well as the Algorós villa mosaics. In the latter they were found in mosaics 1, 3, 6, and 9 as part of a major meander motif, and as part of these mosaics’ composition scheme. In mosaic numbers 3 and 8 the swastika appears as a framing meander, while in number 8 it was introduced within the central decoration of a squared octagonal sequenced carpet. Another feature of the basilical mosaic is the predominance of octagonal form in mosaics 5, 6, 7 and intercolumns in mosaic number 9, or the “Room F” mosaic of the villa.220 There is also a preference for the use of Solomonic knots and variants of interlinked nodes as decorative fills. Also, one finds a comfortable use of maritime scenes for the in-between figurative elements of the Algorós mosaic, which includes dolphins in mosaic number 3, and fish and a sea horse in the GALATEA mosaic.221 However, chronologically speaking the most important feature must be the panel Cer/I, also classified as “Kreuzschema” by Salies as a variation of the Rautensternsysteme IV,b of her classification.222 Geographically and chronologically it finds its closest parallel in the “Room F” mosaic number 6 from 219 220 221 222
Mondelo, “Los mosáicos de la villa romana de Algorós (Elche),” 111. Mondelo, 140. Mondelo, 141. Gisela Salies, “Untersuchungen zu den geometrischen Gliederungsschemata Römischer Mosaiken,” Bonner Jahrbucher 174 (1974): 8, Pl. II, 29. The scheme was also classified by Mirabella-Roberti as “Schema I”. See Mario Mirabella-Roberti, “Motivi aquileiesi nei pavimenti musivi dell’arco adriatico e della val Padana,” in La mosaïque Gréco-Romaine, vol. 2, ed. Henri Stern and Marcel Le Glay (Paris: A. & J. Picard; CNRS, 1975), 197.
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Algorós. The pattern is first detected in late 3rd century or early 4th century ce in Diocletian’s palace in Split, as well as in Salona,223 though a possible 2nd century version of it can already be detected in Itálica.224 Mondelo indicates this pattern is seen in other sites of the late 4th century such as Milan,225 the church in the Piazza della Vittoria in Grado,226 the Grand Basilica of Hippo Regius,227 vestibule Q of the villa in La Lonquette (Bourdeaux),228 the Roman villa of Frampton (England),229 Piazza Armerina (Sicily),230 the Yakto Complex in Antioch,231 and Apamea.232 Dated to the 5th century are cases like the villa of Loupian (Hérault, France),233 and the House of the Phoenix and the Constan223
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Frane Bulić, Kaiser Diokletians Palast in Split (Zagreb: Matica Hrvatska, 1929), 164, fig. 69; Doro Levi, Antioch Mosaic Pavements, vol. 1 (Antioch, Turkey: Princeton University Press; Oxford University Press; Martinus Nijhoff, 1947), 412–413, fig. 156. Irene Mañas Romero, Mosaicos romanos de Itálica, vol. 2, Corpus de mosaicos romanos de España, fasc. 13 (Madrid: Instituto Español de Arqueología “Rodrigo Caro” del Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, 2011), 39–40. It is of note that the “crosses” are not presented as such. Rather, one finds them composed of several squares and rectangles creating a cross feature between hexagons and octagons. The overall scheme reminds us of the “Kreuzschema” of Salies and “Schema I” of Mirabella-Roberti, but the variations make it plausible this was a unique production playing with the basic original scheme. Even so, the date given is to the third quarter of the second century given other polychromatic mosaics from Itálica. If so, this would be a very ancient version of the scheme. Furthermore, Mondelo and Balil doubt its 2nd century date, rather placing it at the beginning of the 3rd century as a developing period of these types of schematic patterns. See Rita Mondelo and Alberto Balil, “Mosaico con representación de la Gorgona hallado en Palencia,” Publicaciones del Instituto Tello Téllez de Meneses 49 (1983): 273. Mirabella-Roberti, “Motivi aquileiesi nei pavimenti musivi dell’arco adriatico e della val Padana” 196, LXVII: 1. Mirabella-Roberti, “Motivi aquileiesi nei pavimenti musivi dell’arco adriatico e della val Padana” Pl. LXVII: 2. Erwan Marec, Monuments chrétiens d’Hippone. Ville épiscopale de Saint Augustin (Paris: Arts et Métiers Graphiques, 1958), 39, 45–46. The author also gives an interesting understanding that these types of decorations, found easily in Syria and places like Salonica, are however rare in North Africa (see Ibid., p. 46, note 1). Jacques Coupry, “Circonscription de Bourdeaux,” Gallia 23, no. 2 (1965): 441, fig. 47. Samuel Lysons, Reliquiae Britannico-Romanae: Containing Figures of Roman Antiquities Discovered in Various Parts of England, vol. 1, 4 vols. (London: T. Bensley, 1813), part III, Pl. VII; D.J. Smith, “The Mosaic Pavements,” in The Roman Villa in Britain, ed. Albert Lionel Frederick Rivet (London: Frederick A. Praeger, 1969), 71–125 + Plates, Pl. 3.28. Salies, “Untersuchungen zu den geometrischen Gliederungsschemata Römischer Mosaiken,” 89, fig. 30. Doro Levi, Antioch Mosaic Pavements, vol. 2, 2 vols. (Antioch (Turkey): Princeton University Press; Oxford University Press; Martinus Nijhoff, 1947), Pl. CXII. Salies, “Untersuchungen zu den geometrischen Gliederungsschemata Römischer Mosaiken,” 77, fig. 21. Henri Lavagne, Richard Prudhomme, and Daniel Rouquette, “La villa gallo-romaine des
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tinian Villa at Antioch.234 In Hispania the pattern was found in sites such as Palencia,235 Pared Delgada (Tarragona),236 the villa of Rielves (Toledo),237 and the villas of Sasamón and Almenara amongst others.238 All of them were polychrome, which is a distinctive late feature in Hispanian geometric motifs. It is this feature that allows us to point towards a potential late 4th century dating for this mosaic. Another local parallel to this floor is the Santa Pola port mosaic, which was at the time called Portus Ilicitanus. The mosaic was found in the El Palmeral park a few hundred meters from the modern port area, also known as Casa de La Sénia.239 The Portus mosaic was found in a private domus organized around a central courtyard, around which were the triclinum, oecus, and cubiculae, distributed in long hallways. The domus was richly decorated with a polychrome mosaic of 49 tesserae per square decimeter and was of the highest available quality in the area.240 It had a predominance of linked swastika meanders, particularly T-shaped four swastika meanders with interruptions for decorated squares with simple and three-tier Solomonic knots and rosettes. These arrangements are found surrounding a central medallion like the one found in mosaic number 3 (Room C) of the Algorós villa, or in a whole carpet panel with this motif. In another room is a polychromatic mosaic with decorative carpet panels of secant circles forming four-petal tangential rosettes and another with adjacent octagons in diagonal arrangements between which are
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Prés-Bas, à Loupian (Hérault),” Gallia 34, no. 1 (1976): 224, fig. 8. This pattern is found in a more elaborate and decoratively charged production, as the borders that define the different forms give way to guilloche patterns that dominate the mosaic. Levi, Antioch Mosaic Pavements, 1947, Pl. CXXIII: b, c. Juan de Dios de la Rada y Delgado, “Inscripciones romanas que se conservan en el Museo Arqueológico Nacional,”Museo Español de Antigüedades 6 (1875): 509–510; Antonio García y Bellido, “Contribución al plano arqueológico de la Palencia romana,” Archivo Español de Arqueología 39 (1966): 148–149, figs. 2 and 3; Mondelo and Balil, “Mosaico con representación de la Gorgona hallado en Palencia.” Joaquim Guitert, “Descobriments romans a Paret Delgada,”Butlletí Arqueològic. Reial Societat Arqueològica Tarraconense III, 5, no. 5 (1936): 138, Mosaic IV. María Cruz Fernández Castro, “Las llamadas ‘termas’ de Rielves (Toledo),” Archivo Español de Arqueología 50–51 (1977): 221. See Mercedes Torres Carro, “Los mosáicos de la Meseta Norte,” Boletín del Seminario de Estudios de Arte y Arqueología 56 (1990): 226; fig. 6 (1). José María Blázquez Martinez et al., “Hallazgos de mosaicos romanos en Hispania (1977– 1987),” in Espacio, tiempo y forma, vol. 6, Historia Antigua, II (Madrid: Facultad de Geografía e Historia, UNED, 1993), 239–241; Ruiz Roig, Los mosaicos de Illici y del Portus Illicitanus, 75–84. Ruiz Roig, Los mosaicos de Illici y del Portus Illicitanus, 76–78.
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decorated squares. Within the octagons are rosettes with petals made of secant circles and simple Solomonic knots.241 One can easily appreciate that the craftsmen who laid the Algorós villa and the Ilici basilical floors also laid this mosaic in this private domus. The modern excavation of the Santa Pola domus gives a chronological lay of the mosaic floor to the second half of the 4th century ce. This should be extrapolated to the other mosaic floors laid in the Ilici area, suggesting a late 4th century chronology for the Ilici basilical mosaic. However, this presents another interesting aspect: the mosaics were all laid in buildings associated with somewhat luxurious or wealthy private housing, be they a monumental villa on the outskirts of the city of Ilici or a private domus in the Portus Ilicitanus. In the case of the basilical building studied here, one finds its association with a previous Roman domus within which it was built to be too noticeable to ignore. The craftsmen who laid these mosaics were mostly placing them for private contexts, albeit the spaces like triclinia were social. There is a valid possibility that when mosaic B/011 was laid, the synagogue in which the building was constructed was not abandoned but had a continued use for private citizens or inhabitants of the city. This makes sense if we consider the phases in Areas P and T during the period associated with the basilical building’s construction (Chapters 9 and 10). 4.1.4 Mosaic Phases The original mosaic pavement has an elaborate polychromal geometric motif and was probably accompanied with stucco decoration on the walls. The three inscriptions are dated to this first mosaic phase. This includes the presence of the shin in Inscription 2 of the northern aisle, giving evidence to the Jewish character of the building. This would be confirmed with the presence of the menorah in the northeastern “repair” panel. Therefore, the floor presents a series of stages of use that correspond with the building itself. Through time the original mosaic fell into disrepair, which forced the users to fix it at different occasions. We find two evident phases of repair on the mosaic: – The northeastern panel, that is panel Nor/I, north of Inscription 2. The lack of polychromal tesserae and the simple geometric designs are a significant contrast to the rest of the mosaic floor, with elaborate geometric baroque designs with interlaced forms.
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Ruiz Roig, 82.
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– The added swastika in the frame for the central panel, M/I. It follows the black and white simple designs of the northeastern panel. It is assumed these two features are from the same stage of reparations. The reparations from this stage reflect the continued use of the mosaic floor decades after its first layout. The reason for the northeastern panel requiring the greatest amount of repair is unknown, although Schlunk suggested that it was due to the increased use of this area for furniture associated with the presbyters mentioned in Inscription 2. However, the disrepair of their mosaics seems to have been common for the Ilici late antique mosaic shop. Similar reparations are mentioned by Aureliano Ibarra in the Algorós villa mosaics, particularly in rooms A, B, and F, although the repairs were done with only white tesserae, with no wish to replace the design. This last detail indicates that when it came to the basilical mosaic floor, there seems to have been a need to refill the area with geometric shapes for aesthetic stability. A third phase is clearly detected with the placement of the stone slabs B/008 and B/009, which were placed roughly in the space dedicated for the frame design M/I that surrounds the central nave panels. This means that these slabs did not follow the building’s central axis, which would be later adopted by the stage associated with the eastern apse. The eastern basin B/022 is placed on the central mosaic axis, which means that the mosaic was still the main definer of the internal space of the building. Most importantly is the placement of the white marble slabs B/012 at this phase, reflecting the clear evidence for a phase where the original workshop was unavailable to repair the mosaic floor of the main hall. By then the use of marble slabs, placed in irregular manner, supposed a repair that ensured the use of this section of the floor even with the loss of part of the mosaic for the placement of the basin. It is unknown whether the basin and the stone slabs were placed at the same or different times. What is clear, however, is that these were placed at a moment after the repair, when any artistic symbolism stemming from the mosaic was secondary to the more important architectural features on top of it. In other words, the original furniture that was placed within the building associated with the mosaic floor, or even the wall decorations associated with it, were insufficient to supply the needs of the local community. The logic for the slabs’ and basin’s placement is contrary to that of the mosaic’s previous repairs, which attempted to maintain the use of the mosaic as-is despite the loss of quality. Therefore, this is identified as a usage phase for the mosaic floor. It is also the last phase when the mosaic defined the main distribution of space within the building. A fourth phase is clearly identified by the construction of the eastern apse B/006. This apse presents a fundamental change in the distribution of the inner
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space of the main basilical hall. In it, the central axis of the building shifts 1 meter northwards. It is from this phase that entrance slab B/003 is associated. The easternmost sections of the mosaic seem to have been partially affected by the placement of wall B/026, which had a black stucco that would fundamentally change the original artistic design of the building, and in particular the artistic context of the mosaic. There is no evidence that the previous features of the mosaic, or the mosaic floor itself, were unused or demolished. In fact, the change in the building’s “center” reflects that the main axis was occupied by features that were in the way for the construction of the mosaic apse. In other words, there is no evidence to eliminate the central mosaic axis, but only to replace it as the main one by the apse axis. A fifth phase is the defacement of the mosaic floor, particularly in the southern figurative scene, the central nave, and the northeastern section of the pavement. The defacement is evident in the removal with precision of tesserae in the northeastern menoroth, as well as the loss of the second line in the central inscription (Inscription 1). This was the last stage in which the mosaic’s use was still prevalent. By then it had lost all symbolic value relevant to its original use as a synagogue pavement. This marks the conversion of the building into a Christian church. A final stage was represented by the placement of wall B/014 on top of the mosaic floor, reflecting its abandonment. This phase was also reflected by the partial demolition of the southern half of the apse to allow the construction of wall B/014 and adjacent feature B/015. This reflects a probable abandonment of the building altogether for the usage of this space for other, unrelated purposes. This stage is associated with “Level O” in Areas T and P. The mosaic floor was probably partially covered by debris, a process that was completed following the final demolition of the structural features from this area in the 8th century ce. Despite the evidence for these stages, there are problems that are yet to be solved. The chief one is the lack of knowledge regarding the contemporaneity of certain phases. The defacement of the mosaic, for example, could very well have happened when the apse was built. If that is the case, they should be seen as part of one phase, before the final abandonment of the mosaic’s use with the construction of wall B/014. As was explained above, the defacement of the mosaic was not complete. It left silhouettes of the defaced figures that the educated observer could easily identify, including the northeastern menoroth. As such it is necessary to identify the two distinct motif types subject to destruction: One is the iconoclastic destruction of figures, as was presented by Roberto Lorenzo and Javier Morcillo in 2014. The other is the conversion of the building, which required the
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neutralization of symbols that the new owners of the building considered cultically unsuitable. Iconoclastic destruction of mosaics was detected elsewhere in Ilici, especially in the Algorós villa mosaic, as in the case of “Room F” albeit in an incomplete fashion. The destruction affected only sections of the mosaic’s figurative scenes, leaving figures unaffected such as the “Galatea” or the “dancing women” panels from the villa. Comparable iconoclastic destruction of late antique synagogues can be seen in Naʾaran, where the images of the central zodiac wheel were vandalized with significant care.242 Despite this, it is probable that this was not necessarily a generalized trend, but rather was a practice associated with specific Jewish communities. Only in the latest synagogues such as the synagogue of Jericho243 from the 7th to 8th centuries is it possible to find an abandonment of figurative decoration of mosaic floors and, probably, of the accompanying murals. The reasons are not clear as of today, but a possibility comes from changes in the treatment of figures from an Islamic perspective. Another possibility for a mosaic’s defacement is that of conversion of the synagogue into a Church, which required a destructive or reformative action. Few cases for this phenomenon have survived. The account of the Jewish community’s conversion in Mahón (Balearic Islands) dated to 415 ce suggests the existence of a large synagogue building that converted into a Christian church supposedly in the course of a day.244 This account could imply that extensive reforms were not necessary, due to the inherent similarities between a church and a synagogue. Even so the synagogue was specifically described as a converted building. The Mahón account points towards a quick, miraculous conversion of the Jewish elites, followed quickly by the lower Jewish classes, and therefore an extrapolation from this source should be careful. However, a parallel to this kind of conversion can be seen in the synagogue of Gerasa, where only the narthex’s mosaic floor survived.245 In the Jordanian synagogue, placed in a central area of the ancient city, the building was transformed into a church through the construction of an altar to the east, whereas the synagogue’s direction beforehand was looking westwards. The elimination of the
242 243 244
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Pierre Louis-Hugues Vincent, “Un sanctuaire dans la région de Jéricho. La synagogue de Naʾarah,” Revue Biblique 68, no. 2 (1961): 167–170. Hachlili, AJAALI, 355, 338–339, fig. XI.13. Josep Amengual i Batle, La Circular del bisbe Sever de Menorca sobre la conversió dels jueus (418–2018): una crònica mediterrània abans de lócupació dels vàndals, Cova de pala 34 (Maó (Menorca): Institut Menorquí dÉstudis, 2018), 37, 157. John W. Crowfoot y R.W. Hamilton, “The Discovery of a Synagogue at Jerash”, 124–127.
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figurative mosaic led to the survival only of a panel describing the biblical saga of Noah’s ark. The few surviving scenes include the animals abandoning the ark and the sons of Noah, and perhaps Noah himself, awaiting the news of humanity’s salvation through the return of the sent pigeon. The object of the Ilici defacement was merely to eliminate symbols that could be problematic for the new occupants of the building. While the defacement might have an iconoclastic reasoning behind it, the remnants of these images and the preservation of other features reflect the use of this building by another community, which would use the act itself for ideological purposes. Otherwise no other element in the mosaic floor itself was destroyed or defaced. The question then becomes: when did the conversion actually occur? No direct evidence can be associated with the mosaic’s phases directly, which encompass a period from the late 4th to the 8th century ce—four hundred years. The evidence for their chronological placement can only be achieved from parallels in the Ilici region, contextualizing the finding as best as we can. The layout of the Ilici mosaics, including that of the Algorós villa and the domus in the Portus Ilicitanus, reflected a prosperous late antique development of the city, which became a hub for commerce and a crucial access point to cross the Iberian mountain range into the peninsula’s interior. The Visigothic Arian Christian presence in the late 5th century and the Byzantine invasion of the 6th century apparently did not affect the material development of these sites, nor the Jewish communities. While there was pressure to convert to Christianity in the early 5th century, the quick loss of imperial authority under the Valentinians and the presence of heretical movements such as the Priscillianists of Mérida meant that Jewish communities seem to prosper in relative ease from potential Christian harassment, as the Orthodox authorities were more focused on greater perceived threats. The late 6th century conquest of Ilici by Leovigild and the Visigothic conversion to Catholicism in the 3rd Council of Toledo changed all that. Starting from the 4th Council of Toledo, the Visigothic crown applied increasingly draconian measures to convert Jews living within their domains. Receswinth’s policies in the mid-7th century were particularly punitive, as the Jewish communities were forced to conversion or expulsion according to his decrees. Whether or not such policy was effectively applied depended much on the local authorities, many of which had fleeting loyalties to the Toledan crown, a case in point are the Jews from Septimania (Narbonne) who were still not forced into conversion by the rule of Egica (687–703ce). Fleeting loyalties were mostly prevalent where Visigothic rule had a long history, unlike Ilici which was under Byzantine rule until the early 7th century.
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My theory is that the most logical context to pinpoint such conversion would be the 7th century, perhaps in its early periods during Sisebut’s forceful conversions (612–621), during which the issue of property confiscation became a prevalent incitement to convert such buildings, later ratified in the 4th Council of Toledo (633). It is precisely under his rule that Ilici was conquered by the Visigoths, thus allowing Sisebut to impose his legal decrees without the intervention of still weak local leaders. However, it is important to note that this date is no more than speculation, as changes in property might have occurred merely through its sale during the 6th or 7th centuries, suggesting then a nonviolent incident that would lead to the defacement of the mosaic floor. The historical context and the fact that the defacement could not have occurred before the construction of the eastern apse suggest that this stage could not have occurred before the 6th century, thus giving more support to the possibility of a late 6th or early 7th century conversion of the synagogue into a church, following the fall of Ilici to Visigothic rule. Therefore, the phase associated with the mosaic’s use was Phase II, that is before the abandonment of the building’s Judeo-Christian use in Phase I. In summary, the numbering of the phases detected in the mosaic floor are as follows: Post-basilical phases (Phase I): – Phase Ia: demolition and abandonment of the basilical building. The mosaic floor covered by debris—mid 8th century onwards. – Phase Ib: building of wall B/014 on top of the already defaced mosaic floor. This level was associated with a post-basilical use of the area, particularly detected with the partial demolition of the southern edge of the eastern apse B/006—perhaps during the first half of the 8th century. Christian basilica phase (Phase II): – Phase IIa: use of the mosaic following its defacement, indicating its Christian conversion and continued use—perhaps early 7th century. Jewish synagogue phase (Phase II—continued): – Phase IIb: contemporary use of the mosaic floor with the construction of the eastern apse B/006, as well as wall B/026 that connects the apse to the northern wall B/023. The construction of these features led to the partial demolition of the easternmost edge of the mosaic floor, although it was kept in use. The eastern wall presents a black stucco unlike the stuccos from the north, south, and western adjacent walls to the mosaic—Probably the 6th century.
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– Phase IIc: construction of the central nave features including stones B/008 and B/009, and the placement of the floor basin B/022 with white marble slabs B/012—second half of the 5th century. – Phase IId: Use of the mosaic floor following its repair in panel Nor/I and the meander in the southern branch of band M/I—5th century. – Phase IIe: original use of the first mosaic floor, hiring craftsmen of high standing in the city—late 4th century or early 5th century. 4.1.5 Conclusions The detailed review of the mosaic floor’s feature gives us information regarding the usage, denomination, and the periodization of the basilical building. However, it alone cannot give the full account of the building’s history. Other features, and contextualization in other areas of the sites like “P”, “S”, “T”, and “C” lead to the urgent need for a review of this specific feature, beyond its strictly stylistic analysis. The mosaic floor reveals that the original users of it were probably a Jewish community, as indicated by the figurative remains of menoroth found in the northeastern panel Nor/I. The panel was constructed during a repair stage, meaning that any conversion of the building could not have happened early in the 5th century, as some have suggested with the parallel of the Mahón conversion during that period. Regardless, the building’s phase as a Christian church is beyond doubt, as evidenced by the defacement of different panels within the mosaic, such as Sud/II, Inscription 1, Inscription 3, and the menoroth from Nor/I. The failed preservation of the central area of the central nave, where mosaic medallions typically appear, might have been the result of that same stage. The defacement of the mosaic is probably the result of the dramatic changes classical Jewish communities in Hispania faced, and suggests an end to the Jewish presence in this Ilicitan building. However, between the laying of the original mosaic and its defacement we find different features that were the product of internal changes in ritual and practice within the synagogue. From an elaborate, yet conventional assembly hall from the late 4th century, the construction of structures in the central nave reflected the permanence of religious rituals, detected in the archaeological record of the building. The proseuché was furnished in a similar way as other synagogues, such as Ostia and ‘En Gedi. It was further expanded by the construction of the eastern apse, built in a second axis compared to that of the original mosaic, and probably originally a complementary feature to the rest of the present structures, not a replacement. However, during the Christian use of the building, the apse probably took a foremost role in the inner arrangement of the basilical building.
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To conclude, the mosaic floor itself presents a series of distinctive phases that allow for a more detailed interpretation of the building’s use. Its archaeological review has given much more information than had been available in previous publications. However, the mosaic should not be taken as a singular feature within a wider site: it must be studied within its context to reveal the full picture of the synagogue and its history. 4.2 Metrological Considerations 4.2.1 The Previous Metrological Study The 2014 publication by Roberto Lorenzo and Javier Morcillo’s study on the Elche basilical building proposed, for the first time, a metrological analysis of the building, based on the available information in archives and sketches.246 A crucial part of their study is captured in a convenient chart presenting all the measurements,247 where they suggest the overall use of the Roman foot (0.296 meters) as a basic unit. The method used for such measurements was based on calculations of different features present in the basilical building, particularly the general measurements of the building’s interiors, the building’s perimeter, including the exterior walls, the apse, the mosaic, and the inner decorations of the mosaic. A simple look at the chart reveals a problem when it comes to this metrological study: primarily, its lack of precision. In that regard, Lorenzo and Morcillo correctly state that measurements will always escape precision in conversion from meters to feet due to the lack of proper conservation of all architectural features. However, the question is whether these imprecisions permit a valid conclusion for the original measurements of the site. For their study Lorenzo and Morcillo employed a methodology already applied to other Spanish late antique sites.248 The first and most influential one is the study by Casanovas on the 6th century basilical and baptisterial complex on the Tolmo de Minateda (Hellín, Albacete),249 which itself was attempting to apply the methodology proposed by R. Vila Rodríguez’s follow-up metrological study on late antique churches.250 But other studies included the Francolí
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Lorenzo de San Román and Morcillo, “La basílica paleocristiana de Ilici (L’Alcudia, Elche),” 539–543. Lorenzo de San Román and Morcillo, 542, Tab. 2. Lorenzo de San Román and Morcillo, 539–540. Pablo Casanovas Guillén, Material cerámico de construcción de la Antigüedad y la Alta Edad Media. La basílica del Tolmo de Minateda. (Albacete: Instituto de Estudios Albacetenses “Don Juan Manuel”, Diputación de Albacete, 2005), 47–81. Jordi López Vilar, Les basíliques paleocristianes del suburbi occidental de Tarraco: el temple
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chapter 7 Measurements for metrological study and reconstruction of the Ilici basilica, including conversions into Roman foot (29.6 centimeters) according to Roberto Lorenzo and Javier Morcillo (2014). Republished Roberto Lorenzo (2016): llici en la antigüedad tardía, p. 511
Medidas propocionadas por los excavadores:
En metros
En pies
Redon- Equivalencia deadas en pies
Propoción rectángulo
Diámetro interno del ábside Longitud del mosaico conservado Anchura del mosaico Longitud aula rectangular incluyendo paredes Anchura basílica incluyendo paredes Longitud basílica incluyendo paredes Distancia desde el centro del ábside a la puerta Longitud del rectángulo preexistente sin las paredes Del centro de los espigones al final oriental del mosaico
3 10,90 7,75* 12,10 8,95 15,30 12,60 14,70
10,13 36,80 26,18 40,80 30,23 51,69 42,56 49,6
10 37 26 40 30 52 42 50
4 perticae 3 perticae
4×3 perticae 1,33
5 perticae
5×3 perticae 1,66
4,50
15,20
15
1,5 perticae
1 pertica
* La anchura del mosaico conservado era d e 7,55; pero gracias a un croquis de A. Ramos sabemos que de muro norte a estuco sur había 7,75 m (Fig. II.25b), medida que aquí seguimos.
basilica from the 5th century from Tarraco (Tarragona, Cataluña),251 although this study admitted the possibility of usage of multiple measures in the same region.252 A secondary influence on their method came from the study of Arias’ metrological analysis of Asturian pre-Romanic Early Middle Ages architecture.253 The measurements taken for the metrological analysis are in Table 7.1. The main argument from this study is as follows: in order to erect the basilical building the architects used the Roman foot as the basis for the basic measuring unit: the pertica decempeda, or ten Roman feet (2.96 meters, or roughly 3 meters). Based on that assumption, the authors proceeded in calculating the different measurements recovered from the bibliographic and archival evidence. Naturally, this included their reading of the “Level N” sketch
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septentrional i el complex martirial de Sant Fructuós. Vol. 1, Sèrie Documenta 4 (Tarragona: Univ. Rovira i Virgili, Institut Català d’Arqueologia Clàssica, 2006). López Vilar, 126–134. Paolo Barresi, “L’unita di misura usata nelle fortificazioni bizantine in Africa,” L’Africa Romana 15 (2004): 757–776. Lorenzo Arias, Geometría y proporción en la arquitectura prerrománica asturiana, Anejos de Archivo Español de Arqueología 49 (Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Instituto de Historia, 2008), 61–78.
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from notebook number 11, f. 4r in Folqués’ excavation diaries (Corpus documental), where the width of the southern aisle would give a measurement of 20 extra centimeters than the original 7.55 meters width of the mosaic presented by Ibarra and Albertini. As we have seen above (see 2.2.3 above) the measurement gives a 70 centimeter width for the stone slabs B/008 and B/009, despite the fact that the Hauschild plan gave them no more than 60 centimeters across, thus reducing the original measurement for the mosaic’s width back to 7.55 meters. However, despite the important advances made by Lorenzo and Morcillo in making this first metrological study on the site, in my opinion the main methodological problem from this study is the conversion from meters to Roman feet. In other words, the establishment of the correlation between the absolute metric measurements to their associated measurement in Roman feet is problematic. Simply put, since these measurements have noticeable imprecisions for the conversion to the desired number of feet, the authors proceeded in “rounding” the numbers to make the calculations cohere. An example for Lorenzo and Morcillo’s application of the method is as follows: 1) Internal (longitudinal) diameter of the eastern apse = 3 meters254 2) 3 meters / 0.296 centimeters (one Roman foot) = 10.13 feet 3) Final value: 10 Roman feet = 1 pertica The process of “rounding” the absolute number into a proposed, idealized one led to a loss of 3.848 centimeters in the original measurement. This seems a small, and perhaps even acceptable “imprecision”, considering that the building itself is not precise even by accounts of whole centimeters, and that the mosaic’s measurements may vary up to 2 or 3 centimeters per panel depending on the place from which they are measured. Furthermore, human errors in measurements should be accounted for. All of this was considered when the authors did their calculations. However, certain “rounding” of numbers led to more grave situations. For instance:
254
The 3-meter diameter is based on an idealistic notion of the apse. Curiously, the authors assume that the apse reaches up to the mosaic and disregard the possibility for a space between the apse and the mosaic floor, based on a face-value reading of Ibarra’s account and plan from 1905. We have seen above how Ibarra provided an idealized reconstruction of the apse, including features neither he nor Albertini ever really found during the excavations. On the other hand, they ignore Ibarra’s proposal of a 3.2-meter apse, which is clearly used for his own plan. This is probably due to the more detailed account of distances recovered from the Hauschild plan of 1971, as well as a preferred reading of Albertini’s 1907 publication, although this is far from plain even in those sources.
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Feet distance from the center of the apse to the door entrance: 1) Distance from center of the apse to entrance door to the west = Radius of the apse + length of the mosaic floor = 1.5 + 10.9 meters255 = 12.4 meters. However, the authors put 12.6 meters.256 2) Conversion to feet: 12.6 meters / 0.296 meters = 42.56 feet ~ 42.6 feet 3) Final measurement: 42 feet In this case, the final measurement was achieved by rounding the final number not to the closest whole number, which would be 43 feet, but to the closest lower one, or 42. The total loss in this rounded number is of 17.76 centimeters, an important distortion that is beyond acceptable measurement failures. Another example: Complete length of the rectangular basilical building, including outer walls: 1) Length of the mosaic floor + length of adjacent eastern and western mosaic walls257 = 10.9 meters + 1.2 meters = 12.1 meters 2) Conversion into feet: 12.1 / 0.296 = 40.87 feet ~ 40.8 feet 3) Final measurement: 40 feet = 4 perticae As one can see above, this is the most problematic of measurements. Even ignoring the first “rounding” of the number 40.87 feet into 40.8 feet instead of 40.9 feet, the loss of 0.8 feet is the equivalent of no less than 26 centimeters(!). This leads to a serious distortion of the measurements themselves, as this is the equivalent of the entire frame panel M/I of the mosaic floor. Surely, even by the so-called imprecise measurement methods of antiquity, or even allowing for the loss of precision through excavations lacking in proper methodology or analysis, this distortion is too large to go unnoticed. The fact that the above measurements were used to derive the calculations for the architectural harmony of the building is crucial. This is particularly true with the second calculation, that gave 42 feet, that was divided with the width of the mosaic according to the 7.75 centimeters measurement (rounded to 26 feet), arriving at the number 1.615, just three thousandths less than Golden Ratio, 1.618. The 4 perticae measurement, on the other hand, was used to calculate the ratio of the mosaic including the rectangular wall without the apse, arriving at 4/3, or the number 1.333, which is the Pythagorean square ratio.
255 256 257
Without the review of the length to 10.5. This must be considered a simple mistake in typing. In their reconstruction, the space between the mosaic floor and the eastern wall B/026 does not exist. Therefore, the wall is immediately attached to that floor.
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The problem is that the given numbers are different if the metric measurements are considered. When it comes to the Golden Ratio, we find that the division between the proposed metric measurements is as follows: – 12.6m / 7.75m = 1.6258 As for the Pythagorean ratio: – 12.1m / 8.95m = 1.35 As one can see, the ratio is significantly modified. In the golden ratio case, the distortion is more than +0.01, considering the calculation mistake which disregards extant distances. If the correct sum for the larger distance is included, the sum (12.4m) would give a ratio of 1.6: a distortion of –0.15. Distortions such as these are too large to render validity to the proposed calculations, since ratios should not be treated as distances. In other words, there is no option of rounding the number beyond 0.01 in the ratio. Furthermore, had the authors used a correct methodology for rounding the numbers, that is rounding them up to the closest whole number, it would lead to the ratio of 1.653, with an even greater distortion of the ratio, this time by +0.038. The same occurs in the case of the Pythagorean ratio, which presents a distortion of roughly +0.02, beyond the acceptable limits to render these calculations valid. Correctly rounding the feet into the closest whole number would give a ratio of 1.3666, or roughly a +0.0333 distortion. As such, it is unsurprising that when the final proposal is made to apply the pertica decempeda using a Roman foot, as these would rarely fit, if at all, within the mosaic’s measurements. To conclude, the necessity of rounding numbers to such an extent in the application of this method yields unsatisfactory results for the metrological analysis of this building. To measure the building’s metrological features, a new approach is required. 4.2.2 An Alternative Measurement It is on rare occasions when, in antiquity, only one unit of measurement was used in a certain region. In North Africa one finds as late as the 5th or 6th centuries ce the use of Punic feet, Roman feet, and Byzantine feet in the province of Mauritania Tingitania. In Palestina Secunda the usage of multiple measurement units is noted, particularly in the lower Galilee in the 4th century as both traditional Roman and Byzantine feet were applied to synagogal and ecclesiastical buildings. The possibility of an alternative measurement unit that is not the Roman foot of 29.6 centimeters, or roughly 30 centimeters, should be assumed. As a matter of fact, the absence of these other measurement units in measuring metrological features of these late antique buildings in Hispania appear
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in the publications that inspired the 2014 study on the Ilici structure. The first mentioned study is that of López Vilar about the metrology of the Sant Fructós church in Tarraco. Based on the calculation of the distance between the colonnades that separate the main hall’s central nave and the side aisle, as well as the width of the longitudinal transept before the eastern apse, the author proposed that the distances are based on several available measurements of the time. From the possibilities he enumerated to be applied on the metrological module for that basilica, he listed the Roman foot (29.6 centimeters), the Roman elbow (44.4 centimeters), the Greek/Ptolemaic foot (30.8 centimeters), the Byzantine foot (31.23 centimeters), the Egyptian elbow (52.6 cm), the Ptolemaic elbow (56.36cm), the Punic elbow (51.6 cm), and the Attic elbow (46.42cm), the latter ones being rarer possibilities. The method applied to derive the main unit of measurement was through calculation and experimentation through all those mentioned units, concluding that the one that fit best was, apparently, the Roman foot (or pes capitolinus) of 29.6 centimeters. Consequently, he proposed that the module was a pertica, or 10 Roman feet. However, here too there is a use of “rounding” of numbers to justify their metrological statistics, particularly when analyzing the transept of the building, which was applied to justify the proposed squared module. Arias’ publication on measurement units from Early Middle Ages Pre-Romanic basilicas in Asturias reveals the modification of traditional measurement units from the Roman period. For example, the pes capitolinus, traditionally being between 29.57 and 29.64 centimeters, had other values in different Early Middle Ages sites, such as the Church of Santullano (30.02cm), the Church of Santa María del Rey Casto (30cm), and the church of San Pedro de Nora (30.9cm).258 These measurements were naturally a result of regionalization of distance values from 8th and 9th centuries ce settings, which would also be influenced by measurements associated with the values of the materials themselves.259 Other feet are recognized as having a practical application during the Early Middle Ages, from the English foot (30.5cm), the Carolingian “Royal foot” (32.48cm), and the occurrence of the pes Drusianus (33.33 or 33.35 cm), applied by the 3rd century ce.260 Despite the recognition of the different available measurement units, the author does not consider the possibility of the Byzantine foot as does Vilar. When it comes to the model for the metrological analysis of the Ilici basilical building, the most important publication is Canovas’ work about ceramics from 258 259 260
Arias, Geometría y proporción en la arquitectura prerrománica asturiana, 61. Francisco Javier Roldán Medina, “Principios de metrología en la arquitectura del pasado” (PhD diss., Universidad de Granada, 2014), 34–35. Arias, Geometría y proporción en la arquitectura prerrománica asturiana, 62.
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the Tolmo de Minateda site in Hellín, Albacete. The basilical complex from Tolmo de Minateda includes the presence of the apsed basilica itself which has an east-west direction, accompanied with two southern separate rooms and a western “counter-chorus” next to an added baptistery which has a slight 5 percent shift in direction to the south-west.261 The building was attributed to have been built in the 7th century and used until the early 9th, with a heterogeneity of building techniques based on spolia.262 For calculating the measurement unit, the author took fifty measurement samples from the main building and divided them by the Roman foot of 29.54 (rounded normally to 29.6) centimeters. While some measures gave round numbers by default (such as the division of the length of the third inter-column space at the southern colonnade of the three-aisle building, that is 2.96 meters, giving almost precisely 10 Roman feet), many other calculations gave numbers with fractions such as a 21.64 Roman feet measurement for the maximum width of the apse, or 13.84 meters for the length of the first baptistery building.263 Following that the author proceeded to round the numbers to the closest whole foot number available, which would subsequently be divided by its raw original metric value to reach for the “real value of the foot in meters”. The result is a variable of a Roman foot of 29.57, generally of higher value.264 Accordingly, the author suggests these values “must have been the real ones applied during the construction of the building.” Applying a series of calculations based on the root of the median metric measurements division and the resulting feet, the author reached the conclusion that the used foot is of approximately 0.3001 meters with a deviation of plus-minus 0.009544 meters. What is most interesting is that despite these calculations, the author missed crucial evidence in his measurements, which is seen in his table. Noticing the divergence of direction by the building’s baptistery, the measurements of it are particularly important when it comes to defining the chronological development of the building. The table indicates that the entrances to the baptistery give a specific width of 0.64 meters, which amounts to a “Roman” foot of 0.32 meters. The same measurement is found in the access stairs for “Room B” to the south of the main basilical hall and the access lintel from the sanctuarium
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Pablo Cánovas Guillén, El material cerámico de construcción en la antigüedad y la alta Edad Media: el Tolmo de Minateda (Hellín, Albacete), Series I—Estudios, no. 155 (Albacete: Instituto de Estudios Albacetenses “Don Juan Manuel” de la Diputación de Albacete, 2005), 70. Cánovas Guillén, 58–60. Cánovas Guillén, 66–69. Cánovas Guillén, 69.
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to the eastern apse. Furthermore, application of this measurement is found in values like the width of the eastern apse (6.4 meters), which divides perfectly to 20 feet. Of importance is the division of the northern lateral aisle of the baptistry’s length (6.56 meters) with this 32 centimeter foot, giving a value of 20.5 feet. Finally, the measurement of the intercolumn spaces placed for the baptistry’s cancel screens (1.92 meters) were precisely 6 feet. This value suggests the coexistence of two distinct measurement units applied to this edifice: the first, closer to the Roman foot value of 29.57, or perhaps merely 30 centimeters, which was predominant in the main hall’s original construction (barring the eastern apse); the second, associated with the baptistry, which is a foot of 0.32 meters. The suggestion by authors like Sonia Gutiérrez Lloret and Cánovas Guillén to place the construction of the whole building in the 7th century clashes with these values, especially when Cánovas proposed that the baptistery was constructed at the same time as the rest of the basilical complex, and that its change in direction was a mere adaptation to the available terrain. In fact, the presence of two measurement units implies the existence of two distinct construction periods: one for the original basilical building, and another for the baptisterial annex to the west. In time the building would be modified to adapt to the necessities of the community living in the site of the Tolmo de Minateda, which includes the predominance of an ad sanctos necropolis placed next to the outer eastern face of the building. This finding is important to understand the construction history of sacral architecture in the Vinalopó valley region. Here are the facts: the 32 centimeter foot is a variation of the Byzantine foot as was identified in ecclesiastical and synagogal buildings in 4th, 5th, and 6th century Palestine. According to Chen, while there are cases of the application of a Byzantine foot of 31.5 centimeters in sites such as the synagogue of Capernaum, the standard foot was of 32 centimeters in sites such as the Church of the Nativity and in sites at Mampsis and Sobota, Palestina Tertia.265 On the other hand, other authors suggest the use of other measurements for the Byzantine foot in Justinian times, such as a 30.89-centimeter foot used for the Jerusalem aqueduct during the Byzantine period.266 Evidence from North Africa suggests that there was an inherent diversity during Late Antiquity when it comes to the application of measurement units. Barresi proposed that there was a conventional use of the Byzantine foot of 31.23 centimeters for the planning of North African fortifications, since while 265 266
Doron Chen, “On the Chronology of the Ancient Synagogue at Capernaum,”Zeitschrift Des Deutschen Palästina-Vereins 102 (1986): 135, 138. Barresi, “L’unita di misura usata nelle fortificazioni bizantine in Africa,” 758.
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they were constructed in North Africa, these fortifications were planned in the capital Constantinople. However, there are cases, such as the fortifications of Madauros and Ain Zana (Diana Veteranorum), where instead of the Byzantine foot, the Byzantine elbow (46.8 centimeters) was used as a base measurement unit. Furthermore, we find the use of different measurement units in the same building, such as the Basilica II from Haïdra (Ammaedara). In it the usage of the mensural fabrilis elbow of 50.9 centimeters is evident for the production of the ashlar stones done in a quadratum populi ratio (9:4 rectangle), and for measurements such as the distance between columns. However, the overall plan was made using the Roman pes capitolinus of 29.6 centimeters, reproducing the same 9:4 ratio for the ashlar stones.267 The same phenomenon is found in cities like Leptis Magna or Sufetula, with the permanence of the Punic elbow of 51.6 centimeters, coexisting with the pes capitolinus and the Pompeian foot of 27.5 centimeters.268 It is important to remember that the basis of the present metrological study does not rely exclusively on the available, physical evidence that was distorted due to different restorations and interventions through the last century, but primarily uses the available evidence from plans in bibliographical and archival sources. These were used for the stratigraphic description of Area B in this chapter. In theory the method applied in these metrological studies is derived from the studies published by D. Chen in the 1980s and by D. Milson in 2007.269 The basis is a series of calculations to first derive the basic measurement in the following order: 1) division of the longest measurement by its widest to get the ratio; 2) division of the two measurements by the ratio numbers to get the module (the longest length common to both dimensions); 3) division of the module by whole numbers to get the basic measurement unit. From there the analysis of the building can be applied. Milson indicates that these studies are particularly valid in cases where the object of study is measurable. In other words, the measurements should be recorded in situ. However, as explained before in extenso, this is an impossibility due to the partial destruction of the available evidence from original materials in the basilical building. Only the mosaic floor can be measured in part, but it was divided and reconstructed, thus possibly causing measurement distortions 267
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Paolo Barresi, “Unita di misura nell’architettura dell’ Africa tardorornana e bizantina,” in L’Africa romana. Atti del IX Convegno di studio, Nuoro 13–15 dicembre 1991 (Roma: Deutsches Archaeologisches Institut—Rom, 1992), 836–838. Barresi, 831. Milson, Art and Architecture of the Synagogue, 243–258, Appendix A.
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at the site. What remains as the most reliable set of values for the present study are preserved in past documents. With this handicap, a trial-and-error method was applied for the following calculations. 4.2.2.1 Measurements of the Original Mosaic The above metrological considerations lead to the conclusion that it is necessary to apply alternative measurements to the pes capitolinus of 29.6 centimeters, or even the derivation of it, according to Lorenzo and Morcillo, of a 30centimeter Roman foot. Following Vilar’s methodology, different measurement units were applied to our basilical building in Ilici, giving interesting results. The original measurement for the mosaic floor was 10.5 × 7.55 (or rather 7.56) meters. We have noticed that the originally proposed 10.9 meters length measurement is problematic for two reasons. The first, the easternmost section of the mosaic was broken when wall B/026 and apse B/006 were laid to the east after the original paving. Therefore, the mosaic floor’s most accurate full measurement is that of its width, as well as that of its respective aisles, which accordingly were: 2.4 meters for the northern one; 3.1 meters for the central one; 2.05 meters for the southern one, based on the distances of the stones B/008 and B/009 from the northern border according to Ibarra and the full summation of the mosaic across. However, as we have seen above, the original mosaic phase (Phase IIe) is from a previous period from the central stones phase (Phase IIc). Therefore, we must assume that the stones themselves have modified the original architectural plan for the inner division of the space, since the stones themselves break the mosaic floor in the places they were located. As a second reason, a comparison between the plan made by Ibarra in 1905 and those made by L. de Frutos and Th. Hauschild in 1971 reveals a need to review the original measurement given by Ibarra. There are two factors that define this review of the mosaic’s preserved length: 1. Distance between stones B/008 and B/009 from the edge of the mosaic floor. According to C. Zornoza’s plan from 1965, but especially the superposition of Hauschild’s and de Frutos’ plans from 1971, it was revealed that rather than a 4.1 meter distance indicated by Ibarra in his 1906 publication, the distance is 3.8 meters, in other words, a 0.3 meters reduction in the preserved length of the mosaic. 2. The entrance space. Reviewing the space as revealed by Ibarra, we find that the mosaic floor’s western edge was placed slightly below the entrance ashlar stone. Calculating it based on the available scale, we detect that the mosaic is 0.1 meters shorter than what should be its originally perceived western limit.
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Calculating the length in Hauschild’s plan, the space available for the mosaic floor is 0.4 meters less than what was originally proposed, particularly if we consider the distance between the central stones and the preserved and documented western stucco. In other words, the preserved mosaic’s length is 10.5 meters, and not 10.9 meters. This value would give us the following measurement in feet: – 10.5 meters/0.32 = 32.8125 feet The number apparently does not fit well what one expects from an overall measurement of the mosaic floor. However, despite the disappearance of the original mosaic’s eastern edge, through metrological considerations we can find its probable original length. Considering the 1.1 meter space between the mosaic and wall B/026, we discover the following measurement in Byzantine feet: – 10.5 meters + 1.1 meters = 11.6 meters – 11.6 meters/0.32 = 36.25 feet This value, through the revision of the preserved mosaic’s length, as well as the space available up to the start of the basilica, points to a probable value for the inner length of the main hall and is relevant for the calculation of the original ratio used here. Returning to the width, in order to find the original mosaic’s measurements the key is to notice the mosaic’s framing of the aisle. This was achieved as follows: the central nave would have the width of carpets like Cer/I, the surrounding guilloche band, and its surrounding swastika meander band M/I. The width to the north is the northern aisle, and to the south of the meander is the southern aisle. The measurements of these mosaic aisles based on proportional calculation of the plans from L. de Frutos (1971) and C. Zornoza (1965) are as follows: – Central nave: 2.76 meters – Northern aisle: 2.72 meters – Southern aisle: 2.125 meters Total width: 7.605 meters. The final result gives a wider mosaic than first proposed by the original excavators or later publications. This is due to different factors, particularly the imprecision when measuring the mosaic and the imprecision when recovering the data from the available mosaic plans. One notices that there are 5.5 “extra” centimeters from the original measurement of the mosaic floor. But more relevant is the fact that the southern aisle should not be seen only as the space marked by the mosaic floor. The width of the southern bench (B/028) which, as indicated above, was 60 centimeters wide, should be added to the total width of the main hall. Adding the southern aisle with the space left by the southern bench, the aisle becomes 2.725 meters across, which can be rounded to 2.72 meters by taking away half a centimeter. Alexander Bar-Magen Numhauser - 978-90-04-41992-6 Downloaded from Brill.com 03/03/2024 09:27:00PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison
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From all the aforementioned available measurement units, the one that fits best in the aisle width measurements is the following: – Central and southern aisles: 2.72 meters / 0.32 = 8.5 Byzantine feet – Northern aisle: 2.76 meters / 0.32 = 8.5125 Byzantine feet Like other authors before me, we ought to assume errors in calculation when it comes to the central aisle. These include mistakes in measuring in situ, during the elaboration of the plans, their printing, and the calculations from them. In short, we can assume that the central aisle may very well be 2.72 meters wide, therefore rounding the central nave to a width of 8.5 byzantine feet of 32 centimeters. The original mosaic was, then, divided in three equal aisles of 8.5 byzantine feet, which fit well into the late 4th century chronology of the site. As in the case of the Tolmo de Minateda basilica seen above, the use of the 0.32 meter byzantine foot is apparent in different points of the southeastern region of the Iberian Peninsula.270 The predominance of geometric motifs facilitates finding the measurement units applied to the mosaic floor. The best preserved, southern aisle reflects this fact. Here is the data associated with it: – Width of the central carpet motifs (central southern aisle panel), Sud/I, II, III, IV: According to Schlunk, it was 0.96271 or 0.98272 meters – Length of Eastern panels: – Sud/I: 1.2 meters – Sud/II (Naval panel): 2 meters – Total: 3.2 meters
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An interesting association should be noted between Tolmo de Minateda and Ilici. Scholars debate what is the nature of the Tolmo de Minateda basilica, some of whom assuming this is the site of the Visigothic Latin bishopric of Elo that competed with the Ilici bishopric in Byzantine territory until 587ce. The conquest of Ilici by Suinthila, and above all the conversion of the kingdom to Nicean-Calcedonian Christianity in 589 under Recared, allowed for the restoration of the Latin bishopric of Ilici by the early 7th century ce. The relationship between the area of what is today Albacete and Alicante was maintained following the Muslim conquest after 711 ce, as is evident from the Pact of Theodomirus, establishing the Qora of Tudmir spanning the southeastern Iberian Peninsula. The area includes other regions such as what is today Murcia and Valencia, mentioning a large concentration of important urban centers surrounding Carthago Nova, modern Cartagena. Considering the association of these territories from an administrative point of view, there is no reason to believe there is a cultural, economic, or administrative separation of these regions. DAI-Madrid Archives, Archivos Schlunk, I,159-2. Ibid., I,159-3.
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– Length of central carpet Sud/III: 2.58 meters – Length of western carpet Sud/IV: 2.88 meters – Width of the central panels and lateral guilloche patterns: 0.22 meters + 0.96 meters + 0.24 meters = 1.42 meters Applying the measurement unit of the Byzantine foot, we get the following measurements: – Width of central carpet motifs (Southern Aisle): 0.96 meters/0.32 = 3 feet – Length of eastern motifs Sud/I, II: 3.2 meters/0.32 = 10 feet = 1 pertica decempeda (Byzantine) – Length of central carpet Sud/III: 2.58 meters/0.32 = 8.0625 feet ~ 8 feet273 – Length of western carpet Sud/IV: 2.88 meters/0.32 = 9 feet – Width of the aisle including central motif and lateral guilloche patterns: 1.42 meters /0.32 = 4.4375 feet ~ 4.5 feet274 We find here the application of the Byzantine foot of 32 centimeters as a basic measurement unit to define the first mosaic floor of the building. We must bear in mind that these are the best-preserved panels in the mosaic floor. The application of the same measurement unit can also be found in the central eastern panel, with the following values: Width of panel Cer/I: 1.44 meters – 1.44 meters/0.32 = 4.5 feet Length of panel Cer/I: 2.2 meters – 2.2 meters/0.32 = 6.875 feet275 Width of Inscription I Tabula Ansata: 1.03 meters + (0.13 m*2)276 = 1.29 meters – 1.29 meters/0.32 = 4.03125 feet ~ 4 feet277
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The rounding meant the loss of 2 centimeters in this calculation, well within the margin of error elaborated above. Another rounding of 2 centimeters. The –0.125 feet should not be considered as necessary to be rounded up. Unlike the general aisle of the building, we must consider the possibility of the usage of fractions of the Byzantine feet. 0.125 Byzantine feet is 1/8th of 1, or 4 centimeters, which should be seen as 2 Byzantine inches of 2 centimeters. The length of the epigraphic space for the Central Inscription (Inscription 1) is 1.03 meters, as indicated above. However, the question was the width of the ansas that accompanied them. Calculating the width of the southern ansa, which was the only preserved one, the result was 0.13 meters. Assuming the symmetry of the tabula ansata, the procedure was to merely multiply the result in two. Rounding of 1 centimeter.
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Finally, the only carpet panel in the northern aisle which could be measured was Nor/II, or the northwestern panel, with the following results: – General measurements: – Length: 5.24 meters – 5.24 meters/0.32 = 16.375 feet – Width: 1.795 meters ~ 1.8 meters – 1.8 meters/0.32 = 5.625 feet – Inner decorative rectangle: – Length: 1.628 meters – 1.628 meters/0.32 = 5.075 feet ~ 5 feet – Width: 1.43 meters – 1.43 meters/0.32 = 4.46875 feet ~ 4.5 feet – Flanking double T swastika meander squares: – Side: 1.79 meters ~ 1.8 meters – 1.8 meters/0.32 = 5.625 feet – Including flanking guilloche bands: – Length: 5.7 meters – 5.7 meters/0.32 = 17.8125 feet – Width: 2.262 meters – 2.262 meters/0.32 = 7.06875 feet ~ 7 feet Here it is evident that the northern panel presents less “rational” results in the division of the 32 centimeters Byzantine feet. The application of the alternative, pes capitolinus of 0.296 meters presents a more “rational” number for the length of the central decorative rectangle (5.5 feet), although it fails in its width (4.8301 feet). If we apply a Roman foot of 0.3 meters, the general width of the carpet panel as well as the side of the meander double-T sub-panel would fit well (6 feet), but other measurements would not. It seems to be that, as with the length of panel Cer/I to the east of the central nave, the main measurement unit was not necessarily an alternative foot, but a fraction of the Byzantine foot itself. This foot was used well for the length and width of the inner decorative rectangle. In other measurements, most fractions have a common divisor of 4 centimeters, which are two 2 centimeters Byzantine inches. This includes the fraction 0.625 found twice, which is equal to 20 centimeters, 5/8 of a Byzantine foot. The other fraction was 0.325 feet, or 12 centimeters, which is 3/5 of a Byzantine foot. The final calculations, that of the panel length and width with the guilloche bands, reveal no whole number except the, in my opinion, fortuitous width of 7 Byzantine feet, as can be seen above. The length can only be “rationalized” by assuming the use of individual inches of 2 centimeters (1/16 of a Byzantine foot) for the elaboration of the gilloche bands and the length of Nor/II as a
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whole. While a possibility, we should assume that the repair of the northeastern panel Nor/I caused dramatic alteration in the geometrical harmony of the aisle. Therefore, the southern and central panels, which are better preserved, reveal a clearer association with the Byzantine foot than the northern panel where such fitting is hard to find. Later repairs to the mosaic that defined Phase IId, or specifically panel Nor/I to the northeast, could not be measured since its features were defaced, and the panel itself lost its width and length. From the width of the aisles and from carpet panel Sud/IV to the southwest of the mosaic, the module might well be a 3:1 harmony, which fits well with the equilateral tripartite division of the mosaic floor’s aisles (1:1:1). However, a modular pattern can be derived from the revised length of the mosaic floor, as proposed above. In this case, we find the following calculation: – 11.6 meters/8.16 meters = 36.25 feet/25.5 feet = 1.4215 The approximately 1.4215 ratio is extremely close to the √2 ratio, or approximately 1.4142, with a difference of 0.0073, well within the bounds of rounding (not above 0.01). It is also close to the module for Phase IIc of 1.428, by 0.0065, also within acceptable “rounding” bounds. 1.428 is the mosaic building’s original ratio, similar to what was found in the Chorazin synagogue.278 The question is whether this module should be applied to a hypothetical original mosaic Phase IIe, or if it was an addition for Phase IIb when the apse was added to the east, including the eastern wall B/026. Assuming the presence of previous structures from pre-mosaic times, such as B/318, it is indeed probable the eastern limits of the mosaic floor, or at least of the general mosaic area, included the “extra” 1.1 meter area to the east. 4.2.2.2
Measurements for Sub-area B/OM and the Original Basilical Structure Before continuing to the next mosaic phases, it is important to note that the construction of the mosaic floor included the separation between the main hall (Area B) and the western introductory area, or sub-area B/OM. This area presented a series of metric values that defined this space. These are as follows: – Length (east-west axis): 5.86 meters – 5.86m./0.32 = 17.75 feet – Width (north-south axis): 8.16 meters – 0.6 meters279 = 7.56 meters
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Doron Chen, “The Design of the Ancient Synagogues in Galilee,” Liber Annus 28 (1978): 198–199. Accounting for the “northward turn” that wall B/020 made to the west of the mosaic floor.
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– 7.56 meters/0.32 = 23.625 feet280 – Ratio: – 7.56 meters/5.68 meters = 1.331 – 23.625 feet/17.75 feet = 1.331 – Application of ratio: – 7.56 meters/4 = 1.89 meters – 5.68 meters/3 = 1.893333 ~ 1.89 meters – 7.56 meters/4 = 5.68 meters/3 As noted above, the applied ratio is that of the Pythagorean Triangle (4:3), with a value of 1.331, rounded to 1.333. It is important to note that the wall built between main Area B and sub-area B/OM, or wall B/024, is between 0.33 and 0.35 meters wide. More likely the real value is 0.33 meters, as was presented for the recovered stone near B/178. This measurement is confirmed by the calculation of the width of the entrance ashlar stone (B/003) in Ibarra’s 1905 plan. A division of 0.33 meters/0.32 gives 1.03125 feet, rounded to 1 foot. If that is the case, it is evidence that this wall was constructed as the main hall’s mosaic was placed, and not before, as suggested by Ramos Folqués in 1974. The presence of two coexisting ratios relates to the complex nature of this basilical building. Indeed, there was a preoccupation to give geometrical harmony to the main hall and the entrance to it. Most likely the walls of these halls would have been richly decorated, following the same geometric and artistic criteria of harmonization. The reforms in later stages, as we shall see, will be as careful to maintain such geometrical considerations as in the first stages of the mosaic floor. The inclusion of the hall’s introductory area as part of the structure encourage us to consider the measurement of the entire complex. It was achieved with an inclusive calculation of measurements of wall B/OM/027, sub-area B/OM, B/024, B/011, sub-area B/EM, B/006, and B/010 to derive the real length of the building. The sum of these values is as follows: – Length of the building: 0.63m. + 5.68m. + 0.33 m. + 10.5 m. + 1.1 m. + 2.7 m. + 0.5m. = 21.44 meters – 21.44m./0.32 = 67 feet From the above calculation we find that the length of main Area B and introductory sub-area B/OM was probably accounted as one unit. B/OM would have been an introductory exonarthex for the original building, as it used the same
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While this is a somewhat “composite” number, the “length” value had only the Byzantine foot for 0.32 fitting well. The usage of multiple measurements for one calculation process is a mathematical error.
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measurement unit as the rest of the building. The enclosure limit was probably B/OM/027, while its counterpart to the east B/010 was built earlier during the domus period, what is probably Phase III, together with wall B/023. As for the length, it is possible to calculate the width of the building (inner width plus width of the outer walls), which are both probably 0.6 meters: – 8.16m + 1.2m. = 9.36 meters. – 9.36m./0.32 = 29.25 feet (Byzantine) – 9.36m./0.312 = 30 feet (traditional Byzantine) – 9.36m./0.468 = 20 elbows (Byzantine) The variability of possible applied values tempts one to propose an alternative basic measurement unit to the 0.32 meters Byzantine foot. However, should we accept the traditional Byzantine foot or the Byzantine elbow, then it is necessary to apply the same measurement for the length of the building, which is where the replacement cannot fit. There is no proportion associated to the greatest length and greatest width. The reason is probably because this building was reformed from a previous one in order to build the synagogue, thus eliminating the previous structures as evidenced with walls such as B/126. 4.2.2.3 Measurements of Phase IIc The architectural additions that change the inner division of space were also subject to metrological measurements. Since the pre-apse mosaic length (Phase IIc) was lost, only the measurements of that phase’s width can be gathered, based on slabs B/008 and B/009. The distances between the central mosaic stones and the northern edge were published by Pere Ibarra in 1906 and confirmed in their placement in the plans of Zornoza from 1965, and de Frutos and Hauschild from 1971, although the latter indicated one important detail already mentioned above: the width of the stones was not 0.7 meters, but around 0.6 meters. – Northern aisle: 2.4 meters (distance from northern edge of mosaic to the stone) + 0.3 meters (to the center of the stone) = 2.7 meters. Probably 2.72 meters = 8.5 feet – Central aisle: 1.7 meters (distance between stones) + (0.3 meters × 2) = 2.3 meters. 2.3m. – 0.02m.281 = 2.28m – 2.28 meters/0.32 = 7,125 feet
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Probably, assuming the northern aisle did not change its size following this reform. The 2 centimeters given to the northern aisle were taken out of the central aisle.
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– Southern aisle: 2.26 meters + 0.3 meters = 2.56 meters – Full southern aisle: 2.56 meters + 0.6 meters = 3.16 meters – 3.16 meters = 9,875 feet We notice here a dramatic change in the inner order of the mosaic’s space. The central nave was emphasized by placing the center of the axis between the two stones, which sustained a kind of arched structure, perhaps the front of an aedicula (see Chapter 11). The southern aisle was greatly expanded by 40 centimeters at the cost of the central aisle. The northern aisle remained roughly the same as with previous phases. This also reflects a necessary change in the geometric harmony of the space. The division of the space is no longer equilateral tripartite (1:1:1). Given that the northern aisle preserved its width, the only perceivable ratio is 2:1 (the sum of the central and southern aisles’ width divided by that of the northern).282 Yet this ratio does not give us more than the confirmation of the previous space division. The apparent “irrationality” in the ratio from this phase reflects the introduction of another measurement unit, this time applied to the central stones. These were adapted to the original space regardless of the original spatial organization. The two stones probably used a Roman foot of 0.3 meters (perhaps 0.296 meters). The location of the two stones reflects the attempt to respect the original division to the north. But for some reason it was unable to reach the division space between the southern and northern aisles. The use of an alternative measurement unit for the stones themselves reflects the contemporaneity of different measurement units in the same urban landscape. However, the review of Phase IIb reflects that the Byzantine unit foot, used in the original mosaic layout, was still being applied after the placement of these stones. 4.2.2.4 Measurements of Phase IIb Phase IIb is mostly defined by the addition of the eastern apse to the east. As indicated above, Ibarra proposed that the central axis of the eastern apse is 1 meter to the north of the central axis of the mosaic floor. However, a review of 282
The original manuscript upon which this book is based had an error that was corrected for this publication. The calculation error was the addition of 0.4 meters, instead of 0.6 meters to the central aisle’s distance between the stones. As a result, the central aisle seemed to have 6.5 Byzantine feet, and the southern aisle 10.5 Byzantine feet. Only in the review of the original Thesis text, handed to the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid in June 2017, did I perceive this error, changing the interpretation of Phase IIc’s metrology. The interpretation was based on a mistaken ratio for this phase of √2, which was the same ratio for the width and length of the building. Naturally this error was corrected, and the interpretation discarded.
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Hauschild’s 1971 plan and Ibarra’s own 1905 plan reveals the apse axis was only between 0.56 and 0.58 meters to the north of the central axis between the two stones.283 This change in the building’s axis reveals a change in its inner space organization. However, the question remains whether the measurement units and/or the inner ratio of their values was kept. As revealed above regarding the apse area, the apse’s depth was preserved thanks to the reconstruction of its walls according to what the restorers found in situ, and not according to what was revealed by past plans. This includes the width of wall B/026 (0.6 meters) and the depth of what remained between such wall and the western face of tangential wall B/010 (2.1 meters), giving a total of 3.28 meters. As such, if we reduce the width of the apse wall (0.6 meters according to Albertini; 0.58 meters according to Ibarra), we get 2.7 meters for the inner apse width. Therefore, we find that the 2.7 meters are only two centimeters from the 2.72 that defined the original aisles of the mosaic floor. Applying our Byzantine foot of 0.32 meters, we get the following results: – Total length of the space from B/026 to B/010: 3.28 meters/0.32 = 10.25 feet – Inner length of the apse: 2.7 meters/0.32 = 8.4375 feet ~ 8.5 feet As for the width of the apse, its calculation is problematic to say the least. According to the description of wall B/026 mentioned above, only 1.5 meters was preserved from this wall. That is, that the beginning of the apse was 1.5 meters to the south of the northern wall B/023. Taking this into account, the central axis of the apse was 2.275 meters to the south of this point, according to calculations from Hauschild’s 1971 plan. Therefore, the width of a symmetrical structure would have been 4.55 meters. Ibarra’s 1905 plan of the apse might be the most accurate description of its width, although not its length. According to said plan, the inner width is 3.36 meters. However, its outer width is 4.56 meters, which confirms the calculations were made from the remains of the apse as recovered in the 1971 Hauschild plan. This reveals that the preserved remains of B/026 reaches the outer face of the apse wall, and not necessarily its inner one. Therefore, it is possible to calculate as follows: – Full apse width: 4.56 meters/0.32 = 14.25 feet. – Inner apse width: 3.36 meters/0.32 = 10.5 feet.
283
Rather, Ibarra’s plan reveals that the central axis between the stones B/008 and B/009 is placed 10 centimeters to the north of the original central axis of the mosaic floor. I assume this is due to the errors in calculation of the width of the stones themselves, and their misplacement in his plan.
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While the length measurements provide only the possible reproduction of the preserved width of the original mosaic aisles, which by Phase IIb was only present in the northern aisle, the width of the apse fits mostly through using the previously-applied Byzantine foot of 0.32 meters. The partial dismantlement of the mosaic’s eastern edge did not make this space irrelevant. As indicated above, the length of the structure from wall B/026 to B/024 fits the ratio for the √2. However, there is no evidence that the eastern wall B/026 was broken or affected by the construction of the eastern apse wall B/006 through its foundation trench B/-031. Even so, a change in ratio seems to be the case when it comes to the inner organization of the mosaic floor. Considering the 0.56 to 0.58 meters change north of the original mosaic axis, and taking into account the width of aisles based on the new prevalent eastern apse structure, the following are the measurements for the aisles (associated to the apse): – North of the apse width: 1.5 meters (B/026) + 0.6 meters (width of apse wall) = 2.1 meters – 2.1 meters/0.32 = 6.5625 feet. ~ 6.5 feet284 – Central apse width: 3.36 meters – 3.36 meters/0.32 = 10.5 feet – South of the apse: 2.72 meters – 2.72 meters/0.32 = 8.5 feet Fascinatingly, we find a recovery of the original width of the southern aisle, 2.72 meters or 8.5 Byzantine feet, following the apparent change in Phase IIc. From widest to narrowest the aisle width is as follows: central, southern, northern. The difference between them is always 2 Byzantine feet. Most importantly, the division of the widest and narrowest aisles gives us the following ratio: – 10.5ft./6.5ft. = 1.615 – 3.36m./2.1m = 1.6285 The above ratio suggests the application of the golden ratio for the definition of the three parallel mosaic aisles and, therefore, the placement of the central axis. It seems that once the central axis was defined with the new width ratio, it was constructed to the east of the mosaic. Therefore, the difference between the original mosaic axis and the later apse axis was intentional and previously planned.
284
285
It is important to note that had the measurement been taken using the 0.58 meters width of the apse wall, the result would be precisely 6.5 feet, which in my opinion makes the rounding of the value valid in this case. The more probable ratio is that of 1.615. See previous footnote.
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The addition of the apse to the east apparently breaks the harmony of the original rectangle. Adding it gives an inner space length of 14.3 meters, which is 44.6875 Byzantine feet. However, note that the division between the inner length and the inner width of the main hall gives a curious value: – 14.3 meters / 8.16 meters = 1.752 The value is close to the √3 (or 1.732). If we round up the feet value of 44.6875 to 44.5 feet, and we divide it by 25.5 feet which is the inner width of the main hall, we find that the value is 1.745, closer still to 1.732. The √3 is used for trigonometric calculation for the height of equilateral triangles with a side value of 2 and the length of parallel sides of a hexagon with a side length of 1. Most importantly, however, is its use to calculate the triagonal of a cube. This would point towards a three-dimensional consideration for the building’s calculations, much in line with the calculations done in the San Fructuoso basilica in Tarraco. However, this ratio should not be taken at face value, since the real ratio and the ideal ratio a difference higher than 0.01. The western entrance ashlar should be associated with this phase, as it is centered with the eastern apse’s central axis. Yet the measurements are not related to the Byzantine foot of 0.32 meters except in width. The reason is probably due to the restrictions imposed by the existence of wall B/024’s width, which is probably 0.33 or 0.32, and the usage of alternative measurement units for the ashlar’s stonemasons who fabricated this piece in the first place. If we take this value for the western wall, a ratio can be clearly detected from this phase. That is the ratio of the main hall’s rectangle area including its outer walls, something that was uncertain from previous phases before the construction of the eastern apse. As such, we find the following values: – Length: 14.3 meters + 0.5 meters (B/010) + 0.35 (maximum for B/024) = 15.15 meters – 15.15m./0.32 = 47.34325 feet ~ 47.25 feet – Width: 8.16 meters + 1.2 meters (B/020+B/023) = 9.36 meters – 9.36m./0.32 = 29.25 feet The calculation for the ratio would be as follows: – With metric values: 1.618 – With Byzantine feet values: 1.615 The absolute metric value clearly points towards the use of a Golden Ratio of 1.618 for the main hall from B/010 to B/024. This is the same ratio that becomes predominant following the construction of the eastern apse, which is another indication for the construction of the eastern apse as a later reform of the main hall.
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4.2.2.5 Later Phases—IIa and Ib The last phases present the defacement of the mosaic and the subsequent abandonment of its importance as a criterion for the building’s inner spatial organization. Phase IIa is characterized by the destruction of the mosaic’s figures, and probably did not have any change in the inner organization of the mosaic. On the other hand, Phase Ib implied the probable construction of new structures associated with “Level O” from other areas of the site (Areas T and P). The latter Phase Ib includes walls and structures such as B/014, B/015, and wall B/021, the latter being built on top of the previous walls. In this stage, the inner divisions of the building lose the original geometric harmonization of previous stages. For example, the southern arm of apse B/006 was demolished. Likewise, wall B/020 was replaced by wall B/021, which was 10 centimeters wider and 35 centimeters to the south. Wall B/014 lies 1.1 meters to the north of the southern edge of the mosaic according to Albertini. Measuring 1.7 meters, this implies that the mosaic’s remaining width was 5.86 meters. As such the following possible measurement units were used in the calculations below: Byzantine foot of 0.32 meters: – 5.86 meters/0.32 = 18.3125 feet Roman foot (0.296 meters): – 5.86 meters/0.296 = 19.7972973 feet Roman elbow (0.444 meters): – 5.86 meters/0.444 = 13.198 elbows Byzantine elbow (0.468 meters): – 5.86 meters/0.468 = 12.521 elbows It seems the only possible measurement used in this space was the Byzantine elbow. Even then, if one applies the same measurement to the supposed width of the southern “aisle” left outside the mosaic space by wall B/014, be it 1.7 (up to wall B/020) or 2.05 (up to wall B/021), the use of the Byzantine elbow does not fit at all, giving values such as 3.6324 elbows and 4.38034 elbows respectively. These are “irrational” numbers that almost certainly implied that this measurement unit was not used. It seems that by Phase Ib not only was the mosaic floor’s inner organization changed by wall B/014, but possibly the building’s original, cultic, and con-
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gregational use was abandoned. This late wall did not follow geometric and mathematic patterns because there was no longer a need to do so. Possibly the main hall area was partially demolished for a new structure that included parts of Area S, as it continues its trajectory to the east. The length of wall B/014 is unknown. However, the wall’s height, just on top of the mosaic floor, reflects the probable continued usage of the pavement as a floor. As indicated above, the definite abandonment and demolition of the building occurred in Phase Ia. Consequently, the architectural features of the building were demolished with it. 4.2.2.6 Summary The metrological analysis of the building suggests the prevalence of one measurement unit found elsewhere in the Iberian Peninsula: the 0.32-meter Byzantine foot, slightly larger than the Constantinopolitan Byzantine foot of 0.312 meters. This is evident from the recovered and analyzed metric measurements of the building. This Byzantine foot seems to be certainly in use until Phase IId of the building’s and mosaic floor’s usage. By Phase IIb this foot seems to be still in use, although there is a possibility the eastern apse’s area was a mere copy of the main mosaic aisle’s width, particularly the northern and southern aisles. The predominant ratio of the mosaic area seems to be the square root of 2, used in other late antique synagogues in Israel and the Diaspora. This ratio seems to have been present already in Phase IIe, as the ratio between length and width of the mosaic rectangle (considering the “eastern space” between the mosaic B/011 and eastern wall B/026). Despite this, the mosaic’s inner geometric ratio was that of 1:1:1 for the aisle’s width and a predominant 3:1 for some panels. In Phase IIc we find a dramatic change in the main hall’s organization, where the width of the aisles caused a disruption of the original harmony. The central axis is slightly pushed north (+0.1 meters), although it is fair to say that the mosaic’s central nave is still the main central axis of the building. However, evidence for continued usage of the Byzantine foot of 0.32 meters from Phase IIb suggests that the stones’ disruption of the original spatial organization was due to practical reasons, rather than a change in measurement units. Phase IIb maintains the ratio, but the axis of the building changes further, to a parallel line as the original central axis (+0.56 to +0.58 meters north), creating a predominance of the Golden Ratio (1.615) for the mosaic aisles. We also find from here on the use of the Golden Ratio (1.618) through the division of the rectangular area of main hall, including the eastern apse and tangential
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Measurement units, ratios, and position of central axis according to subsequent phases
Phase Measurement unit
Ratio (inner Ratio (aisles length and width and mosaic) of main hall)
IIe
0.32 meter Byzantine foot 0.32 meter Byzantine foot 0.32 meter Byzantine foot 0.32 meter Byzantine foot 0.32 meter Byzantine foot
√2
None
None
IId IIc IIb IIa
√2 √2 √3? √3?
Ib Ia
1:1:1 & 3:1
Central longitudinal axis (north + south)
4.08m. × 2 (+0 to the north) 1:1:1 & 3:1 4.08m. × 2 (+0 to the north) Unknown 3.98m. + 4.18m. (perhaps 2:1) (+0.1 to the north) Golden Ratio 3.52m. + 4.64m. (+0.56 to the north) Golden Ratio 3.52m. + 4.64m. (+0.56 to the north) – 2.93m. × 2 (+1.69 to the north) – –
Ratio including outer walls 4:3? 4:3? 4:3? Golden Ratio Golden Ratio
–
wall B/010 up to the western wall of the mosaic, B/024 (inclusive). Therefore, a change is found in the general plan of the building, as well as in the inner ratio which is close to the square root of 3, used extensively in trigonometric calculations. The same modules are supposedly maintained in Phase IIa, defined by the destruction of part of the mosaic following its conversion to a Christian church. Phases Ib and Ia are clearly defined by the abandonment of the original or developed module of the building. This is reflected by the lack of clear registry of either measurement units or modules from these phases, the latter being an abandonment or demolition phase. The above is summarized in Table 7.2. The application of a Golden Ratio for the later phases of the building’s use as opposed to the predominance of the √2 or a simple 1:1:1 ratio required taking advantage of the building’s pre-basilical structures. In any case, it meant the continued use of walls such as B/020 even after significant reforms by Phase IIa, during which the building was most probably a Christian basilica. The predominance of this Golden Ratio should be somewhat discarded from earlier phases due to the aisles’ pre-apse ratios that do not encourage such an association. However, considering the existence of this hall through its different
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phases, there is a strong possibility that this ratio was in the architects’ minds as early as Phase IIe, or was already present as part of a pre-basilical Phase III structure. As for the western sub-area B/OM, it seems to have been incorporated as part of the complex as early as Phase IIe, that is, the original laying of the mosaic floor, as is evidenced by the application of the 0.32-meter Byzantine foot and the 4:3 Pythagorean ratio that gave this introductory area its modular pattern. However, no more geometric ratios could be associated with this rectangle, despite its association with the larger rectangular basilical building in this area. To conclude, an alternative proposition is found for this building’s metrological study. Joining metrological and stratigraphic reviews reveal a diachronic development of the basilical building’s architecture that otherwise would have been nearly impossible to document. The modular pattern’s changes reveal different phases in the building’s plans and, most of all, its reforms. The eastern apse was not constructed at the same time as the mosaic floor, causing a dramatic reform of the inner organization of the main hall, probably impacting its use. In many respects, it is only through the caprice of luck that the above data could be recovered. Sadly, this implies that there is not enough evidence to reconstruct the height of the building beyond its foundations or even to determine if we can apply the detected modules for its recovery. This sad limitation to our study is, as seen above, prevalent in too many aspects of the Ilici basilical building.
5
Phases of Area B
Stratigraphic sequencing, analysis of the extant mosaic floor, and metrological analysis of the main Area B building gives us a series of identified phases for the development of this structure. The following are the phases associated with it, and their features. Since sub-area B/OB was mostly not excavated, it will be left aside from the consideration of these phases. 5.1 Phase I This phase is defined by the abandonment of the mosaic’s original use. Its first sub-phase found was Phase Ia, whose findings were completely lost, save for the materials of B/001 and B/002 during the 1905 excavation, or B/OM/221 from the excavation of the eastern compartment of the building. This stage is that of the building’s demolition following the abandonment of the site, which appar-
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ently occurred in the mid-8th century ce with the construction of the current city of Elche following the Arab conquest. More was recovered from the western sub-area B/OM, particularly in levels such as B/OM/221 and B/OM/303. The remains of “chancel screen” fragments, small columns, and other architectural remains reveal that much of the decorative features of the building were not reused for later construction, being left behind where they fell. It is important that these features were found to the west of the mosaic floor, which points towards the permanence of such decorative elements up to the latest stage of the building’s use, despite the construction of inner walls in Phase Ib. Phase Ib is clearly defined by features such as B/021 and especially wall B/014. Following the metrological and mosaic analysis, it is safe to assume that this wall’s physical association with the mosaic should not be considered as part of the basilical building’s or the mosaic’s original use. Rather this wall is an intrusion that breaks features of the previous building, particularly the eastern apse B/006 (Plate VI). The construction of the stepped feature B/015 to the south of the wall in its eastern edge might point towards the permanence of certain elements such as a second storey, associated with the space between Area B and Area S. Another aspect from Phase Ib is wall B/021. In the study of Area T it was associated with a “Level O”. It was built on top of the remains of wall B/020, following its direction, including the northwards “turn” that defined the transition from areas B/OM to B. Therefore, in both walls the features of the previous building were still visible and taken advantage of, be it the mosaic floor in the case of B/014 or the southern wall B/020 in the case of wall B/021. Probably during Phase Ib there were still extant structures associated with the basilical building. However, there is no evidence for the continued use of the space north of wall B/014, nor of the apse structure. There is a possibility that this space was used as a private dwelling following the abandonment of the sacral space. In that case this phase is associated to wall B/OM/033 to the north of sub-area B/OM, which basically served as a separation of spaces and not to sustain an extant roof. Similar interpretation is given to the southern parallel walls B/OM/033 and B/OM/178 and feature B/OM/180. These features seemed to be accompanied by the necropolis area that Area T became in “Level O”, to the south of B/021. The absence of evidence for burial to the north of B/021 suggests the continued use of this space until its final abandonment with Phase Ia (Plate VII).
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5.2 Phase II: The Basilical Building and the Mosaic Phases A summary description of each phase has already been given in the sections dedicated to the mosaic floor and metrology. 5.2.1 Phase IIa This phase is defined by the planned defacement of features from the mosaic floor. Structurally the building is kept the same as Phase IIb, that is the mosaic floor and the eastern apse area. This phase reflects the Christianization of the basilical building, whether the previous phases were of a Christian church or a Jewish synagogue. The destruction of the mosaic’s figures is the main evidence of its “Christianization”. The defacement of the mosaic was accompanied with evidence from other sections of Area B. Particularly to the north of the building, in probe B/F, where Ramos Folqués found a Roman lamp with a Christian monogram (BAE/1950/B/ F/215/cer/1) “above Level B” floor, or layer B/F/215. Another lamp with a possible Christian iconography was also found in 1948, although that lamp’s origin within the site is unknown. Its drawing was preserved in the Schlunk Archives placed in the Deutsches Archaeologisches Institut in Madrid (Figs. 7.105, 106). As stated above, fill B/F/215 was identified as a later layer from the “Level B” floor associated with the mosaic, built during its use as a synagogue. Consequently, the layer should be placed as part of Phase IIa, and not before. The “altar base” found in the apse area would probably be from this period, although as stated in the section dedicated to inner apse fill B/007, this feature was found at the bottom of the altar; therefore it could have been used as part of such fill in a later period, perhaps by Phase Ib. The architectural remains from fills such as B/002, B/OM/303, and B/007 indicate the existence of certain features that were extant by at least the last use phase of the original mosaic main hall. In other words, we find elements such as the “chancel screens”, which in fact were probably window screens following the more logical interpretation by Lorenzo and Morcillo.286 5.2.2 Phase IIb This phase is defined by the eastern apse B/006 (Plates V and VIII). The apse’s inclusion into Area B meant the increase of the size of the main hall. Considering there was an intermediary phase that included a wall at the location where
286
Lorenzo de San Román and Morcillo, “La basílica paleocristiana de Ilici (L’Alcudia, Elche),” 547–548.
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figure 7.105
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Documented “Saint Abdon” lamp according to h. schlunk in 1948. deutsches archaeologisches institut— madrid archive, schlunk archive: d-dai-mad-i-159-1001
figure 7.106 Picture of the lamp made by A. Ramos Folqués from a. ronda (2018): l’alcúdia de alejandro ramos folqués, p. 180, fig. 222
B/026 was found, it is probable that the apse was a later addition to it. Another option is that Phase IIb began with the construction of B/026 before the later addition of eastern apse B/006. It was built later but as part of the same, overall construction activity. Be that as it may, the most significant change can be seen in the spatial organization of the main hall, as noted in the analysis of the mosaic floor and above all in the section dedicated to metrology. The predominant module of this phase is the 1.618 Golden Ratio, calculated by dividing the length with the preserved width of the main hall, and by dividing the width of the new central aisle (the width of the apse nave) by the shortest aisle to the north. From this period new features are found, such as the registered eastern entrance B/003, built into wall B/024, with a 33 to 35 centimeters width. However, one cannot identify many findings from this phase, as the mosaic floor was kept in use up to Phase Ib, and all vestiges of use from this period in Area B were either cleaned out through the extended use of the building, or were thrown away by the excavators in 1905.
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What is clear from Phase IIb is that features such as the eastern wall B/010’s stucco B/017, probably placed as early as Phase IIe (see below), were still visible. The apse wall would not be extant as proposed by Lorenzo and Morcillo, as the wall itself was of low quality and unable to sustain by itself a domed or any other roof. Instead it was supported by the eastern wall, which was the limit of Area S also in later periods. This meant that features such as the Area S wall S/326 extension to the east, whose remains were registered in Hauschild’s plan from 1971 (Fig. 7.4), are evidence that this western extension, that went westwards beyond the limit of wall B/010, was extant within subarea B/EM, or the area later occupied by the eastern apse. In other words, the foundation trench B/-031 required the demolition of these remains for the construction of the apse and its inclusion within the main hall. Likewise, we find that foundation trench for B/026, or B/-030, breaks the easternmost edge of the mosaic floor, thus reflected by the discovery of a gap between the mosaic floor and its eastern wall during its discovery in 1905 and re-discovery in 1948. Materials recovered from probes in B/F reveal little regarding this sub-phase from Phase II, as the first excavated fills in either probes already found remains from before the construction of the mosaic, or below the mosaic level. An exception is the western fill excavated in January and April 1955, B/OM/221, where remains of a small amphora base were found (without possibility of further description), and sigillata pottery. Small amphorae are typically of late dating, which explains the association of this layer with a “Level A” in the site’s traditional stratigraphy. The presence of such a layer is probably explained with the reforms done in B/OM to accommodate new structures like entrance stone B/003 within western wall B/024. 5.2.3 Phase IIc This intermediate phase is strictly limited to the reforms within the mosaic floor (Plate IV). Overall, one can notice that the changes are a continuation of the original use of the basilical building. In other words, there is a continuity from previous phases IId and IIe. The change in ratio for the mosaic floor is noted, reflecting perhaps a development of liturgical needs by the community using the main hall. Luckily the foundation hole for the placement of stones B/008 and B/009 preserved a sealed fill B/212 within it. There, the remains of a probable Keay 35B amphora was found, which would point towards a mid-late 5th century chronology for this reform. The other, less likely alternative is a variation of a Keay 68 or Keay 91 amphora. Neither form was produced before the 5th century ce, with some specimens from the mid-5th century. Considering this it
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is possible to assume foundation layer B/212 was dated to the mid-to-late 5th century ce. When studying this phase, we must consider the western units B/022 and B/012, which reflect the absence of available mosaicists in the Ilici region. There was no possibility for further repair of the mosaic following the placement of the western basin B/022, although there was a continued will by the community to use the floor. Marble slabs were then employed in that section of the mosaic (B/012) as well as in the southern aisle (B/298), as is evident from the description made in Albertini’s plan (Fig. 7.1). It is safe to assume that this third mosaic phase should be dated to the second half of the 5th century. With the possible Keay 35B amphora, the date could be late 5th century, thus indicating that later Phase IIb could date to the 6th century. 5.2.4 Phases IId and IIe The earliest sub-phases for Phase II correspond with the original mosaic floor without the additions dated to Phase IIc and IIb. The mosaic is the most studied feature of the building, and its chronological placement is the most evident. Not so with the latter of the two sub-phases, or Phase IId, defined by the repair done to the original mosaic in its northeastern panel and at one square of the main swastika meander frame of the central nave. There is no extant stratigraphic evidence that can give us a positive chronology for this repair but the repair itself. It is evident that by the time it was done, the original mosaicist workshop was unavailable for the occupants of this building. Consequently, they used whatever mosaicist workshop was available for them. This absence could be explained by two reasons: lack of economic capability to acquire such services or lack of availability of the workshop in the city of Ilici itself. The lack of elaborate geometric patterns or colors despite the placement of similarly-sized tesserae might point towards the first possibility, although the two cases could also be complementary rather than exclusive of each other. Outside of Area B the remains of simple mosaics were found, with white tesserae such as in “Room T” from Area T, specifically the very deteriorated mosaic floor T/E/T’/145. According to Ramos Folqués, this floor was associated with a “Level A” in the traditional stratigraphy. In other words, it followed the original floor of the synagogue. Even so, any association between this mosaic floor and that of Area B is no more than speculation. The repair in the northeastern panel of the mosaic presents the depiction of two menoroth shapes, suggesting that during this phase the building was a synagogue. By extension, Phase IIe, or the original sub-phase for the use of the basilical building, was a Jewish synagogue as well.
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Phase IIe is the original sub-phase defined by the placement of the mosaic floor B/011 and its mortar base B/013. As stated in the mosaic’s analysis, the dating of this feature is based on type and comparisons with mosaics such as those of the nearby Late Roman villa of Algorós and the house mosaic in Santa Pola (Portus Ilicitanus). Both are from the late 4th and early 5th centuries. The most important feature is the carpet motif in the central nave to the east (Cer/I), which was dated to the second half of the 4th century. However, there are still some elements that suggest the permanence of earlier artistic solutions for the mosaic, which meant discarding an early 5th century date for the floor. Other features define this original mosaic phase. These include the original planning of the main hall, such as walls B/020 and B/024, as well as the southern bench B/138 and B/028, below B/020, which defined the main hall area and particularly the mosaic’s limits. This original hall would have had white stuccos at its bottom, covered slightly by the mosaic floor, and preserved to the north (B/019), south (B/018), and west (B/313). To the east are remains of a similar stucco B/017, pointing towards the use of stuccos in the whole building complex and not only in the main hall. Of course, the main hall almost surely would have had decorative murals accompanying the mosaic floor. To the west is sub-area B/OM, which was included as part of the synagogue complex as an introductory area. Wall B/OM/027 was probably already extant as a wall together with B/023 and B/010. From the probes done in B/OM we can review the fills placed at a slightly lower level than that of the mosaic floor, in other words, B/OM/304 and B/OM/174. There is no evidence for the use of this area immediately before the placement of the mosaic floor B/011. One of the recovered objects include the remains of an undecorated Riterling 5A bowl of Gallic production from the late 1st century bce or 1st century ce, and the remains of a yellow-slip lamp possibly imitating an African production, although without further description. As a result, it is necessary to assume that fills B/OM/304 and 174 are earthen platforms made to prepare for a floor that was not preserved, and that was probably used after laying the mosaic floor in the late 4th century ce. As for the probe to the north of the basilical building, there is little evidence pointing towards the preparatory phase for the placement of the mosaic floor. 5.3 Phase III: The Roman Domus Pre-mosaic levels are more problematic for interpretation. Only a handful of stratigraphic units have an absolute chronology with certainty. The most evident of them are the levels associated with structures, specifically the 1st century bce dating for wall B/023 and, by extension, B/010, and probably B/OM/ 027. The evidence for northern wall B/023’s antiquity can be seen through
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the excavation of “Level M” and “Level N” from under the mosaic floor, along with its clear photographic evidence, as described by Ramos Folqués. However, the first evident and positive dating for a horizontal sub-mosaic stratum is for B/SE/136, found in the southeast corner of the mosaic area. It is probably dated to the second quarter of the 2nd century, as the materials there were found sealed between cobble stones used as a floor, below a mortar layer B/SE/137. It is safe to assume the existence of two distinct sub-phases detected from these stratigraphic units. The first is a late 1st century bce or very early 1st century ce construction of the earliest foundation walls of a Roman domus or some other Augustan period building. From a later period are the remains of an Antonine reform of the building, a placement of a floor which, being associated with a “Level E” in the southeastern corner of the mosaic area, is then placed below “Level N” according to Ramos Folqués. Moreover, the fills between southeastern gravel and mortar floor B/114 and B/SE/137 are materials associated mostly with the 1st century bce foundation of the Roman building, identified partially with the sandstone horse statue in fill B/SE/135. The explanation, as stated above, would lay in the usage of this “Level D” fill for the preparation of the upper “Level N” floor—the latter associated with “Level C” from the traditional stratigraphy of the site. This placed the structures associated with “Level N” as post-mid 2nd century features. Therefore, there was an intentional addition of this floor that sealed the previous, Antonine pavement. Figs. 7.23 and 24 show a superposition of subsequent floors associated with levels “N” and “M”. It is possible to divide the Phase III into pre-mosaic subphases. “Level M”, with its noticeable characteristics described above (see this chapter, 2.2.3), would probably belong to a Phase IIIa where the remains of walls found in “Level N” were covered. The space dedicated later to the basilical building was a large hall unit without inner architectural features. Phase IIIb, then, was associated with “Level N” having distinctive walls such as B/123 and B/125, reflecting the use of this space for different purposes defined by an unknown number of rooms (Plate II). Figs. 7.26 shows the remains of a solid floor that covered the whole area. Remains of “Level M”, or Phase IIIa, suggest the continued use of the northern wall B/023, but the southern, eastern, and western walls are a mystery. As expressed above, floors B/112, B/113, and B/114 seem contemporary with each other, though structurally B/114 was probably laid first to later have the cement layer B/113 being placed on top of it on the eastern area of the mosaic space. This was a clear division of purpose, considering that the rest of the mosaic area had a battered earth and lime layer B/112 covering it all. The division of this seemingly unified space was probably done through inner wooden structures
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or some other perishable material, which therefore left no remains after their removal and the laying of the mosaic floor. Other pavements associated with this layer include B/EM/016, which is an extension to the east of floor B/113, and the northeastern cobble and gravel floor B/NE/077. Despite the stratigraphic units associated with “Level M”, with its distinctive gravel and cement floor, few findings can be associated with this layer. Fill layers from probes around the site offer more information. In B/F “Level C”, associated with a “Level M” in Area B, is B/F/216, are a couple of objects with no clear dating. On the other hand, in B/OM we find much more material associated with phases after the foundation of the domus. Curiously enough, stratigraphic units such as B/OM/174, associated with “Level B”, reveal an early 1st century ce date for the Ritteling 5A Hispanic imitation. In the other probe furniture remains were discovered, including a fragmented “tombstone” inscription (perhaps funerary), and a lamp with yellow slip in B/OM/304 that pointed towards the use of Terra Sigillata Africana imitation. However, this is uncertain considering the lack of a proper description of the lamp. This fill, as indicated above, covered B/OM/309 which is filled with material probably originating from the late 1st century ce, going beyond the scope of the first “Level M” subphase associated with a post-Hadrianic period. With the little evidence regarding the chronology of this Phase IIIa, it is only possible to assume this phase was replaced by the structures of Phase IIe with the placement of the mosaic floor. As a result, the latter sealed the previous levels by the second half of the 4th century. Tentatively, an early-mid 4th century chronology is given to this sub-phase. Below this phase are “Level N” structures, belonging to Phase IIIb. This phase is characterized with the presence of another cement floor found to the east of the mosaic area, covering another layer of gravel. To the west is an earthen and lime floor layer covering most of the mosaic area. However, the distinctive feature of this phase is the presence of a series of walls following an orthogonal set of directions, including B/123, B/125, and B/318. These walls were eventually sealed, first by the features from Phase IIIa, and later by the mosaic floor and structures from Phase IIe. This phase includes the presence of a canal that was probably used for drainage coming from the central courtyard space to the north of this domus area. Similar “drainage” canals were found elsewhere in the site, including in T/HR and B/OB. The canal seems to stop in B/023 to its north, but its penetration through the wall may not be discarded. This canal would be sealed in Phase IIIa. The drainage canal continued towards the street area to the south of the basilical building. Associated with this phase are floors B/EM/025, B/120, B/117, and the structures below it, B/EM/300 and 301.
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“Level D” layers discovered in other areas of the site were better preserved than the “Level M” or “Level C” phases. These include preparatory fills such as B/SE/135, where remains of horse statues were found associated with previous layers, giving a possible 1st century bce date. The absence of material that could be identified with later dates is telling, considering that below this layer was B/SE/136 with early-mid 2nd century ce chronology. In the rest of the eastern fill “between stones” (B/318) and wall B/026 the presence of largely mixed objects from a “Level D–E” or B/E/129 were found. The objects, including an oenochoe with decorative eyes, bronzes, lead sheets, and painted Campanian and Iberian pottery, could point towards a 1st century bce (late republican) date. Considering the chronology of the inferior layer to “Level N”, it is safe to conclude that this was a preparatory layer for the placement of floors, including one of fine cement B/117 and another of stones B/118, that make up “Level N” in its eastern area. The building of walls such as B/318 and B/125 would suggest further removal and mixture of archaeological strata in antiquity, causing amongst other things the presence of 1st century bce material in this layer of later relative chronology to previous layers. Such layers as B/SE/137 made of lime mortar and B/SE/136 made of gravel, mentioned by Ramos Folqués as below the already mentioned “Level E” in the B/SE probe, reveal the 2nd century chronology for yet another, third floor used in this building. This places Phase IIIb at a stage between the mid-2nd century and the early 4th century ce (perhaps the 3rd century ce) where we have dated Phase IIIa. These two stages are representative of activity in a mid-imperial period. The layer associated with B/SE/137 and B/SE/136 is Phase IIIc, with an already mentioned date of mid-2nd century. The presence of materials from late 1st century, or Flavian origin in areas such as the north of Area S (N/E) and in Area T (see Chapter 9, 3.1.2) reveals occupational activity in this domus during this period, found best in materials from “Level C” in sub-area B/OM. A case in point the late-1st century ce potter’s mark on sigillata from B/OM/175. Furthermore, the remains of a statuette face, “Acco pottery”, and what seems to be an urn with top incised with diagonal and perpendicular lines and identified as a catinus pedalis of early Italian sigillata production suggest materials from the foundational, 1st century bce period of this structure. The fill from the “April probe” B/OM/309, associated with a “Level B”, has an early sigillata and the description of an unidentified amphora rim fragment, an “Akko pottery” fragment, and other earlier objects. This too suggests a 1st century bce chronology. The fill B/OM/310 includes a sigillata fragment decorated with a wolf’s figure (a face, perhaps?) and other sigillata pieces that suggest a continuation of the previous fill. This implies the presence of a 1st century ce reform in the site. However, as can be seen in Area
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P (Chapter 10) there are two possible moments of this reform: a Flavian one and a Julio-Claudian one. I suggest there are two 1st century ce sub-phases, which include Phase IIId (Flavian) and Phase IIIe (Julio-Claudian). The specific actions of this activity during the 1st century in Area B are unknown. The evidence for an Augustan foundation of this domus or Roman building is certain in units such as the wall B/023, as already revealed by Reynolds mentioned above. This includes walls B/010 and probably B/OM/027 (Plate I). Southern tabernae are associated with this phase as well, as seen in Chapter 9. This reveals that the area associated with the basilical building in Phase II was first constructed in the late 1st century bce, around the time when Augustus proclaimed the town of Ilici to be a colonia, and therefore increased its status and, of course, its public works and investments. 5.4 Phase IV and V Some units described here are associated with pre-domus structures, which were naturally excavated in 1990. As revealed better in Chapter 8 dedicated to Area S, I have defined Phase IV as a pre-domus late republican phase, while Phase V is associated with Iberian cultic practices that continued here even after the original settlement of the town during late Iberian periods (3rd–2nd centuries). The study of the pre-domus structure goes beyond the scope of this research. However, the material found in probes reveal the presence of such phases in the lower layers of them, for example, layers B/OM/176, 177, 183, 311, 312 in the western exonarthex area B/OM. Material from the “January probe” B/OM/176 is clearly of late Iberian periods, particularly with naturalistic decoration of vines on pottery and a pottery fragment with “Iberian” writing on it. This includes the “Estilo Ilicitano II” production represented in item BAE/1955/B/OM/176/cer/1 (or LA-1992), and the Campanian B pottery BAE/1955/B/OM/176/cer/2, or item LA-2272, which reflect a late 2nd to first half of the 1st century bce date.287 However, the most important evidence for the transition towards the domus construction of Phase III is found in sub-area B/F, particularly with the ash layer B/F/217. Below this “ash layer” is a 20-centimeter layer B/F/150 associated with “Level E”. Both layers are archaeologically sterile. The reduced amount of material associated with the transition from “Level E” to “Level D”, in the above-mentioned “January probe”, suggests that the late Iberian or late republican construction was probably intentionally demolished prior to the building of the Roman imperial domus, as found in probe S/B” in
287
Ronda Femenia, L’Alcudia de Alejandro Ramos Folqués, 183.
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the southwest of Area S (see Chapter 8, 3.2.2). This becomes evident with the reuse of pre-domus features like B/OM/194 for the construction of structures associated with B/OM/027, such as B/OM/193, that sustained the attached western “bench” B/OM/034. The demolition of the previous B/OM/194 Iberian building did not mean changing the overall urban grid present in this area, as the 8 meters width of the “pre-Roman” building was reused for the later construction of the imperial building above it. In summary, there is a continuity that demonstrates that the pre-domus building was demolished just before the construction of the domus in Phase IIIe. This means that this building was in use in the Late Republic period, while the street in Area C was already possibly present from the late 3rd century bce (see Chapter 9, 4.1.3). 5.5 Chronological Aspects of Surrounding Areas What about sub-area B/OB and sub-area B/F? These sub-areas belong to the surrounding of the main hall Area B, but they were not excavated fully or documented well enough to be given a certain association with any of the phases presented here. Only a few features can be given a general relative chronology. It seems that there was a continuation of use in the western area of the basilical building for the “counter-apse” B/OM/038. The height of the feature reveals that it would probably be visible during the building’s use through Phase II mentioned above. However, it also seems to have been cut at its southern section and a continuation of the feature was possibly destroyed to the east of wall B/OM/027. Attachment B/OB/039 is probably contemporary and was in use for the outer face of the wall B/OM/027 through its history. Noticeably, however, the southern area of B/OB was free of structures, as the “canal” blocked by wall B/OB/195 suggests such an open space in this section. In my opinion “counterapse” B/OM/038 is probably a kind of outer exedra used during the domus Phase III, with water installations probably used in the later Phase II. This area was an introductory sector of the domus and gave access to Area B in phases III and, above all, II. Further evidence of water installations in Phase III there includes feature B/OB/316 (also T/316), revealing a kind of water pool or open fountain at the entrance area of the domus. Its partial destruction and the construction, at a later moment, of the extension for wall B/020 to the west, a wall built when the mosaic B/011 was laid in Phase IIe, suggest that this installation probably belonged to the domus phase and its partial demolition was made in antiquity. Late basilical or post-basilical structures found between areas “P” and “B” include northern wall B/D/317, whose use is inconclusive in its association with
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any phase. Its height suggests that it might be identified with an advanced stage of Phase II, due to the attachment between this wall and the northern face of B/023, and the fact that in order to accommodate this wall, part of convex wall covering B/187 was either possibly demolished or could not be further expanded. Considering the mid-late 4th century dating for wall S/052 associated with this covering, it is then assumed that this U-shaped structure is from a Phase II date—that is, from the 4th to 8th centuries. Possibly in a later stage it was used as a kind of outer stylobate for a colonnade that flanked the basilical structure from the north, revealing the existence of a courtyard space still in use during Phase II of the building. 5.6 Summary of the Phases The stratigraphic sequence, mosaic, and metrological analysis give us a clear picture of subsequent phases that defined this building through its roughly 800–900 years history. Major reforms were those that defined the major phases described above. Sub-phases reveal inner and/or smaller reforms that might have modified the use of the general structure already in place. As such, Table 7.3 below reflects the summary of the phases reviewed in this chapter. Evidence for similar phases was partially found in other areas of the site, confirming the above chronological classification. However, there are phases, particularly IIIc-a, for which there are few identified findings, if any at all. In areas such as “S”, “T”, “C”, and “P”, there is an important jump from IIId (Flavian reform) to a 4th century Phase II level (see Chapters 8–10). As is common in archaeological sites, evidence for the last form of the building is the most abundant and clear. Later recycling of constructive material and corrosive natural action caused the loss of much information from the earlier stages. These phases reveal to us an interesting aspect of the late antique basilical building that has been overlooked in the past. Here we find part of a private extant domus in the urban landscape of ancient Ilici that, in the late 4th century, was converted to a Jewish synagogue, followed by additional architectural reforms, all while maintaining the overall use of the urban square as a domus. It was late in the history of the building, perhaps in Phase IIb, but certainly in Phase IIa, that the building became a Christian church taking advantage of the previous Jewish building without much need for reform beyond the defacement of the previous synagogue’s mosaic. In other words, here we have a domus Synagoga from the late 4th century, which marks the earliest Jewish structure yet detected in the Iberian Peninsula.
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chapter 7 Stratigraphic phases for the building in Area 10b of the Alcudia d’Elx site (basilical building)
Phases Chronology
Characteristics
Ia Ib
Demolition and abandonment Unclear chronology. Absence of 8th century material in the site
9th–15th centuries ce 7th–8th century?
Basilical building: IIa 7th century IIb 6th century IIc Late 5th century IId Early 5th century? IIe Late 4th century
Pre-basilical domus: IIIa Early 4th century IIIb Mid 2nd–Early 4th century IIIc Mid-2nd century (Antonine) IIId Mid-late 1st century (Flavian) IIIe Late 1st century bce–1st century ce (Augustan) Pre-domus phases: IV Late republican
V
Late Iberian
Christian Church Addition of the apse Central stones and western basin Repair of the mosaic floor. Original mosaic pavement. Synagogue
“Level M” cement floor “Level N” floor and walls Antonine “Level E” floor. Material from B/OM Foundation of Domus
Demolition of previous structure. Large amount of materials in a preparatory construction phase Presence of pre-domus building
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Description and Stratigraphic Sequencing of Area S (“Sacristía”) 1
Introduction
This area was first excavated in 1948 under the supervision of Alejandro Ramos Folqués (Figs. 8.1, 2). As such, it is the first area excavated beyond the main hall of the synagogue. The development in archaeological methods allowed for a better description of findings from the 1948 and 1949 excavations, compared to the 1905 excavation of Area B. Originally this Area S, named by Folqués “Sacristía” or “sacristy”, was associated with the basilical building’s main hall. Its Christian title denotes the complexity of the building’s interpretation for archaeologists like Folqués and Helmut Schlunk. Findings such as “chancel screen” fragments, as well as roof tiles at the northeastern corner of the area confirmed that the remains cannot be disassociated from the main area of the basilical building. Recent studies, however, have questioned the contemporaneity of this part of the building with the mosaic hall. The objective of this chapter is the clarification of this area’s phases and stratigraphic units, and the placement of Area S as an inherent part of the wider site. The method adopted is the same as in other areas: the delimitation of the area, of its stratigraphic units, the chronological relations of said loci or units, and finally their archaeological interpretation.
2
Delimitation of Area S
While Area B was easily defined within the compound of the basilical structure, which included the main mosaic and apse area, eastern sub-areas and the northern area, Area S does not have a clear delimitation. First, the excavators were never able to identify the access of this area at any point. Second, the area’s measurements do not fit with the general measurement of Area B. Third, the inner walls that divided the space do not seem to be properly documented, and even its stratigraphic sequencing is unclear, unlike an area such as “P” which provides many more measurements. As indicated in Annex A, the limits of Area S are set by three walls that define a rectangular area to the east of Area B. To the north is “N/E”, a sub-area of © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2021 | doi:10.1163/9789004419926_010 Alexander Bar-Magen
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“S” where a series of fills were found between Areas “S” and “P”. It seems to be material that accumulated in a kind of alley or intermediate space between two rooms. To the east was a seemingly north-south street that connected with the southern “Statue/Sacred Street” that is defined here as Area C. This northsouth street is theoretical, primarily being identified but not excavated. To the west was wall B/010, discovered already in 1905, excavated thoroughly in 1948, and registered in 1971. It has the same construction material as northern wall B/023 in Area B, and therefore is associated with the original basilical rectangle of Area B. As indicated in the previous chapter, the wall belongs to the earliest period of the domus building. The northern wall is catalogued here as S/052 and S/055, and is a continuation of the B/023 northern wall registered in Area B. Much like wall B/023 (see Chapter 7), this wall has a series of phases that belonged to a similar chronological development. The two levels of stucco defined floor levels impossible to detect in Area B. The construction of this northern wall divides Area S from sub-area N/E, which in turn is an intermediary area between “S” and “P”—in similar fashion that sub-areas “B/F” and “B/D” to the north of the main hall is separated from Area B by northern wall B/023. The east wall of “S” was discovered in 1949 and described in a sketch from August 29th, 1949, in Ramos Folqués’ excavation diaries.1 It was catalogued as S/199, and was in fact the foundation of another, later wall, S/052. The first wall was covered with stucco, much like S/055, seemingly having a similar stratigraphic history to the northern wall. The southern limit was defined with certainty. The only limit we can ascribe to the south is from a reference from Ramos Folqués’ publication of the 1948 excavation report (in 1955): With continued excavations to the east (of area B), we discovered a compartment of approximately 4×9 meters […], with ashlar walls on its northern and eastern sides, and in its northeastern corner several tiles and a sandstone piece with four holes.2 The author references the published sketch seen in Annex A (Fig. A.4), which was the basis of the more elaborate Helmut Schlunk sketch of the 1948 excavation (Fig. A.3). The first sketch is the only one thatdemonstrates how Area S was significantly wider than Area B’s limit, partially covering what was sup-
1 ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: August 29th, 1949, n. 10, f. 1r. 2 Ramos Folqués, “Elche (Alicante). La Alcudia [campañas 1940–1948],” 131.
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figure 8.1 Panoramic picture of Area S, from the southeast corner looking northwest. Taken in the 1948 excavations by H. Schlunk dai-madrid schlunk archives. d-dai-mad-schl-sch-plf-1129-repro
posed to be an extension east of what we have called here Area T. The 1948 Schlunk sketch presents the existence of a wall line that continues the southern one, including two square structural features on an east-west axis (S/322 to the west and S/323 to the east). Attached to S/322 are the remains of a northsouth wall S/325 also recorded in the Schlunk plan, and that presumably is the defining factor to divide the area between sub-areas S/B’ and S/B” to the south and north, respectively. That said, apparently it is more plausible that the Ramos Folqués sketch is more accurate in this part than the Schlunk plan, as apparently Schlunk assumed the existence of said continuation from Area B and Area S. However as was found following the restoration of the building, the structures found to the south of the current wall of Area S demonstrate that the Area B southern wall line was not the same as that of Area S (Figs. A.3, A.2). To the south of this line is evidence for another structure (S/324) whose description is unclear. We know from the panoramic photographs looking south that the wall was apparently built from fieldstones and was probably one of the walls that divided the tabernae in the “T/E” sub-area (see Chapter 9, 3.3.4). The 1948 excavation revealed these remains of a wall as it was registered
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figure 8.2 Panoramic picture of Area S, from the northeast corner looking southwest. Taken in the 1948 excavations by H. Schlunk dai-madrid schlunk archives. d-dai-mad-schl-sch-plf-1135
in photographs recovered from the Helmut Schlunk Archives of the Deutsches Archaeologisches Institut in Madrid. This is evidence for the extension southward of Area S, which confirms that the urban block that housed the mosaic’s basilical building continued several meters south and ended with the southern street (Area C). Considering the continuity of the northern walls in both Areas “B” and “S”, as well as the use of wall B/010 as a common border between these two areas, it is possible to conclude that this was an integral area for the architectural history of the building. However, its inclusion in such a holistic view requires the review of its stratigraphic units. Inner divisions of the area are mostly defined by probes done in Area S. However, an east-west wall (S/053) seems to divide the area between north and south sections. It was detected in 1949 and registered again in the 1971 DAIMadrid expedition. South of this area, we find that the limits of this area are less preserved, as there are no remains of B/010 south of this wall. Sub areas “S/B/D” (west) and “S/B/D’” (east) are found to the north—following the classification of the 1948 Ramos Folqués sketches (Figs. A.2, 3). In the central area of “S” is sub-area “S/B”, which also includes several stratigraphic units from the northern and southern probes, as there was no clear distinction from the northern
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areas. To the south we find loci associated with two sub-areas “S/B’ ” and “S/B” ”. These sub-areas are defined by two probes made between 1948 and 1949 and published mostly in the 1948 excavation report.
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Stratigraphic Relations of Area S
The excavations in Area S were done with a series of probes at different subareas of the site. The inner divisions are defined mostly by wall B/053 and the sections given to these probes. This is unlike Area B, where the different subareas were studied differently due to the existence of the mosaic floor and the 1905 intervention that affected large parts of the area. The fewer number of interventions and the better documentation of findings is, in fact, a benefit for the study of Area S. In 1971, several features were partially documented through photography and the drawing of the Hauschild Plan (Fig. 7.4) particularly in areas adjacent to eastern wall B/010 (tangential to the basilical apse B/006). A final intervention was done in 1990, where all structures extant to that date were revealed again, and a key finding was discovered at the northeastern corner of the room (sub-area S/B/D’). The depth of this area’s horizontal loci is somewhat of a mystery. None of the stratigraphic sketches made by Ramos Folqués include the height for the subsequent levels underneath the upper, modern soil. A few clues can be derived from the 1971 Hauschild plan, as well as photographic evidence from the excavation. S/001 is, as expected, modern soil or what Ramos Folqués called as “terreno agrícola”. Its removal is evidenced in sketches such as the S/B” stratigraphic sketch from the June 7th, 1948, entry in excavation diaries (notebook number 7, f. 8r).3 Fortunately, other levels do not require the height of the modern soil level, as floor S/127 to the east of wall B/010 has its height registered in the Hauschild plan. Unlike most levels in Area B, in this area almost all probes with horizontal stratigraphic units were registered with their heights. 3.1 Northern Area S: S/B The northern half of the area is the section with the largest amount of information. This is largely because most strata can be associated in one form or another to the walls found to the north, east, and west of the room—features that are mostly missing to the south of the area.
3 ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: June 7th, 1948, n. 7, f. 8r.
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figure 8.3 Picture of northern ashlar stone of wall B/010 and (to the right) lime and gravel floor B/056. Taken in 1971. Looking northeast dai-madrid archives, r-231-71-7
Therefore, the main features that define this area are walls B/010, S/055 to the north, S/199 to the east (supporting S/052), and wall S/053 (described in the 1948 Ramos Folqués sketch as “c c wall”—Fig. A.4). Its modern restoration preserved these walls as they were, and attempted to avoid their collapse. In doing so, the restorations preserved the remains of stucco that are found under the latest constructions. Today, the wall is made mostly of reused sandstone ashlars, similar in type to western wall of the basilical area B/OM/033—which suggests that this wall is contemporary to the latter, as they used the same buildings as spolia. The most complete registries are from the northern wall probes S/B/D and S/B/D’, which are attached to the northern wall S/055 as presented above. The excavated areas were thoroughly re-excavated in depth in 1990 as evidenced from that campaign’s excavation pictures (Figs. 8.9–11).
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figure 8.4 Picture of northern ashlar stone of wall B/010 and (to the right) lime and gravel floor B/056. Taken in 1971. Looking northwest dai-madrid archives, r-231-71-8
3.1.1 Area S/B/D The first reference for the area’s excavation comes on May 27th, 1948, where Ramos Folqués indicated the existence of a fill on top of the walls in “Area D” from a May 26th, 1948 sketch (Fig. A.2). This fill, classified as S/B/D/237, should be considered as equivalent to rubble fill S/002. Ramos Folqués in the excavation diaries mentions this locus: When uncovering the wall between D and E, on the D side, a small bronze [coin] at the height of the upper level of the wall (found by Pascual) and, on a higher level, almost on the agricultural level, an octagonal bronze ring [were found].4 In short, we find that this level is associated with an abandonment phase after walls S/052 and S/055 (referenced in the quote) were demolished or had col4 ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: May 27th, 1948, n. 7, f. 4r.
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lapsed. Two objects were found by the laborer Pascual (who would be responsible for many findings during the Ramos Folqués digs) during the 1948 excavation campaign. One is a small bronze object “at the height of the top of the wall” (BAE/1948/S/B/D/237/met/1), and the other was an octagonal bronze ring at a higher level than the bronze object (BAE/1948/S/B/D/237/met/2), identified as LA-4344 in the Alcudia d’Elx storage by Ana Ronda.5 These two bronze objects do not give a specific date for the layer. It is uncertain where the separation between this layer and S/001 is, therefore raising the question as to whether these are merely random findings from a removed fill, or two findings from a post-abandonment phase. On the other hand, to the northeast is fill S/B/D/238, considered as contemporary to S/B/D’/237. Even so, in this northeastern corner there are many more findings than to the southwestern area S/B/D. Under fill S/B/D/237 is wall S/052 (with an east-west direction), associated with S/203 (which is the continuation of this wall to the east, with a north-south direction). This latter wall was on top of wall S/055 to the north. Similarly, wall S/203 is placed on top of S/199 that was equivalent to S/055. Wall S/052 is associated with the latest phase of the room, when the walls that sustain its borders were used as the base for a new wall using reused sandstone masonry (Figs. 8.7, 8). The first reference for this wall was described at an advanced stage of this area’s excavation, specifically in a sketch on the diary entry for August 29th, 1949. Foqués specifically points to a “wall on top of the previous stuccoed one” at the eastern border of “Sacristía”.6 This wall is the most important feature preserved to the north of the room, recorded in photographs from all archaeological campaigns since 1948 (Figs. 8.1, 10–17). Wall S/052 was associated with the Zero Point ashlar that was found at the northeastern corner of Area B, as evidenced from the 1948, 1971, and 1990 photographs (Fig. 8.3, 4, 14). A picture from the 1990 expedition shows that it was built at the same height as wall S/052, though it is significantly different from the other masonry. From a first look, this Zero Point stone is not sandstone as the rest of the wall S/052. The height of Zero Point indicates that wall S/052 was built roughly at the height of –0.36 meters relative to Zero Point. This wall was covered to its north with the continuation of “convex covering” or stucco B/187 detected to the east of Area B in a 1948 photograph (Fig. 7.40, 41, 92; VI.14). It was still preserved by the 1990 excavation (Fig. 8.12) with similar features. The continuation of this B/187 to the east of Area B shows that by the 5 Ibid. AMRF note 8. 6 ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: August 29th, 1949, n. 10, f. 1r—“Pared sacristía sobre anterior estucada”.
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time the wall was constructed, the whole rectangular building was considered as a unit rather than separate entities. However, despite the evident continuation between the northeastern corner of Area B and the northwestern corner of Area S, it is unknown up to what point the northern stucco B/187 covered wall S/052. Photographs looking west of the northern section of Area S (Figs. 8.9, 11, 12, 13, 14) reveal that, at a certain point, the wall’s northern face suddenly has a northern slope. This change at the outer face of the wall is not seen at all on the southern face according to the same photographs. Wall S/052 is in fact a composition of three distinct features, with their own classification as a stratigraphic unit. They were recorded, of course, by photographs from the 1949 excavation (Figs. 8.7, 8) and 1990 excavation (Figs. 8.9, 10) campaigns: first the builders laid a nucleus that made the main body of the wall, mostly of fieldstone and mortar (S/052 proper; also, S/203), though at its northwestern half it was made of reused ashlar nucleus. In its outer face was a convex wall cover B/187, which apparently is made of similar material as the fieldstone mortar up to a certain mid-point of the wall where it ceases to have the ashlar nucleus. Finally, mostly on its northeastern corner, there is an ashlar sandstone covering of its inner wall, which in turn was sustained by the remains of the nucleus of fieldstone and mortar (S/124). These three features are summarized as unit S/052, which is contemporary with units B/187 and S/124: S/052 = S/203 = S/124 = B/187 The “convex covering” B/187 was also found at the northeast corner of Area B, sustaining a vanished wall superstructure B/023 in that section. It was concluded that at the late stage when S/052 was constructed, it included this subarea B/NE. This fits with the evidence on wall B/010 and its relations with apse wall B/006.7 The inner “ashlar covering” S/124 was placed with a series of objects found in 1990 by Ramos Fernández, and published in 1993.8 Within the mortar between two ashlar stones on the northeastern corner of Area S, a curious discovery of foundation objects was made. The first are several pigeon bones (BAE/1990/ S/124/os/1), which suggests a ritualistic activity during the placement of the wall. Most importantly are two coins, one follis of Constantine I (BAE/1990/ S/124/num/1) dated to 318–319ce, and another follis of Constantine II (BAE/ 7 Detailed extensively in Chapter 7. 8 Rafael Ramos Fernández, “Noticia sobre la basílica paleocristiana de Ílici,” in Actas del XXI Congreso Nacional de Arqueología, vol. 3 (XXI Congreso Nacional de Arqueología, Zaragoza: Diputación General de Aragón, Departamento de Educación y Cultura, 1995), 1231.
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1990/S/124/num/2), which would presumably date this wall to the early 4th century. However as correctly indicated by Roberto Lorenzo, these coins are only post quem dating, and not absolute concrete dating, due to the long-term use of late Roman coins for centuries.9 In other words, based on that dating alone, we know that this wall was not built before the 4th century but it might have been built in the 5th or 6th centuries. From here on, the main source for the stratigraphy in this area is mostly found in Ramos Folqués’ excavation diaries entry for August 29th, 1949 (Fig. 8.4), where he presents a stratigraphic sketch describing the specific phases in what he called “Area N of Sacristía”. The lettering of these phases is especially interesting, as it starts with a “Level A”, clearly disassociated from the agricultural level or the abandonment level described above. It was found under the level for S/052. This first stratigraphic layer associated with the “Level A” is S/B/D/056.10 The fill was actually first identified in 1905, and can be seen drawn in the Albertini plan of 1906 (Fig. 7.1). It was associated with the “cement floor” found 10 centimeters under the mosaic in Area B/EM. However, since 1948 this floor was clearly visible in photographic evidence from that campaign. In 1971 it was clearly visible again and was registered in the Hauschild Plan from the DAIMadrid expedition (Fig. 7.4), as well as photography from it (Fig. 8.3, 4). Finally, the best photographic evidence is from the 1990 excavation that recorded the preserved floor before its later restoration (Fig. 8.9, 10, 11). Floor S/056 was made of a mix of gravel and lime, following the description in the stratigraphic sketch from August 29th, 1949 (Fig. 8.6). This floor level was identified as a kind of “standard” paving for the whole of Area S, as Ramos Folqués interpreted when he published the results of his excavation. In it he proposes that the floor in this area is a “stone (gravel) pavement covered in a lime mortar, lost in most of the surface (of the room)”.11 The reason for this conclusion was perhaps due to hindsight, considering that he found similar levels in other probes that will be described below. Below this floor level, the walls under S/052 are found, including S/055 (equivalent to the eastern wall S/199). This level is described in the referenced
9 10
11
Lorenzo de San Román and Morcillo, “La basílica paleocristiana de Ilici (L’Alcudia, Elche),” 537–538. For convenience and visual ease, often after the first reference of the stratigraphic unit, these will merely have a simplified classification only with the general area. In other words, S/B/D/056 would be named subsequently S/056. Likewise for other units. Ramos Folqués, “Elche (Alicante). La Alcudia [campañas 1940–1948],” 131.
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figure 8.5 Plan sketch in Ramos Folqués’ excavation diaries entry in arf, amrf, corpus documental: august 29th, 1949, n. 10, f. 1 r
figure 8.6 Stratigraphic levels sketch in Ramos Folqués’ excavation diaries entry in arf, amrf, corpus documental: august 29th, 1949, n. 10, f. 2 r
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figure 8.7 Picture of northeastern corner of Area S (S/B/D’) following its excavation by 1949. Includes S/052, S/203, and wall S/053 on the right. Looking northeast fla archives
stratigraphic sketch (Fig. 8.6) as “estuco 2º” or “2nd stucco”, which was classified here as S/057. The first reference for it is on August 29th, 1949: Under the Sacristía floor are fragments of white stucco, remains of the walls that still preserve the stucco.12 This stucco level is clearly visible in photographs from the 1949 excavation (Fig. 8.7) and the 1990 excavation (Fig. 8.9, 10), and is immediately beneath the level associated with walls S/052 and S/203. This stucco is preserved at its lower point, approximately at the floor level associated with the “Level B” and described in the stratigraphic sketch: S/B/D/060. Evidence for stucco S/057 can be seen in the 1971 photographs of wall B/010 (Fig. 8.3), presumably classified here as S/127. This white plaster, found to the west of this room, is covered by the same S/056 floor that apparently covered
12
ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: August 29th, 1949, n. 10, f. 1r—“Bajo paredes sacristía fragmento estuco blanco, restos de las paredes que todavía conservan el estuco.”
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figure 8.8 Picture of Area S’s central wall S/053, in 1949 campaign. Looking southeast fla archives
figure 8.9 General picture of northern area (S/B). Looking northeast fla archives. 1990 excavation pictures, n. 40.1
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figure 8.10 Detail of northeastern corner (Area S/B/D’). Looking northeast fla archives. 1990 excavation pictures, n. 40.2
the rest of the northern half of the room. Therefore, we can assume that S/127, S/057, and eastern stucco S/200 (which covers S/199) are all one and the same, which was covered by floor S/056. Similarly, it was classified as “Level A” floor. This suggests that floor S/056 was the final layer of the site and was associated with the final wall S/052 as one phase of the structure. Apparently, this “stucco” does not break the previous one, but rather covers it. There are presumably two possible interpretations for this feature. The first is the original interpretation by Ramos Folqués, in which this level was merely stucco associated with S/055 that covered the first, previous stucco as repair work. However, another possible interpretation is that this level is in fact contemporary with later wall S/052, and is a plaster covering that boxes wall S/052 in similar fashion as northern convex plaster B/187. This is plausible considering the existence of wall S/053 boxed by plaster S/054 (“Wall H”), which is apparently placed on stucco S/201 (equal to S/061) but before plaster S/200.
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figure 8.11
Picture of northern half of Area S. In the background: preparation for restoration of the structure. At the center: Rafael Ramos Fernández taking a picture of northeastern corner. Looking west-northwest fla archives. 1990 excavation pictures, n. 60.1. at the background one can notice the presence of piece bae/1948/s/b/d’/ 238/pet/1
The latter was associated in this case with S/203 (just like S/057 is associated with S/052). The existence of this wall presented the notion that this “second plaster” is in fact representative of one phase associated with the latest, ashlar stones that are represented by S/124 and S/052. In other words, this plaster is a mere extension of floor S/056 preserved in its juncture with the foundation for wall S/052, therefore explaining its covering of stuccos S/061, S/127, and S/327. The problem with this explanation comes from the stratigraphic sketch from August 29th, 1949 (Fig. 8.6). It clearly states the existence of a floor S/B/D/060 (treated below) made of small gravels and cement. This floor, limited by the lower level of stucco S/057, indicates the use of this plaster to cover wall S/055 rather than a preparation for S/052. Of course, it assumes that both levels S/056 and S/060 are distinct layers as proposed by Ramos Folqués. I am inclined to conclude that this “2nd Stucco” is, indeed, a stucco and not a vertical part of floor S/056 that covers “1st stucco” S/061. Between the lower point for S/B/D/056 and the lower level of stucco S/057, was an earthen fill classified two-fold: S/B/D/059 for the northwestern corner
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figure 8.12 Picture of outer (northern) face of wall S/052, during the 1990 campaign. Looking east-southeast foundation of the fla archives. 1990 excavation pictures, n. 27.1
figure 8.13
Picture of outer (northeastern) corner of walls S/052 and S/203 during the 1990 campaign. Looking southwest fla archives. 1990 excavation pictures, n. 60.1
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of Area S,13 and S/B/D’/058 for its northeastern corner (to be treated below).14 Both levels are equivalent, though S/059 was revealed to not have any material findings registered to it except that it was loose earth. Under it is, as indicated above, level S/B/D/060, which is a “Type I” or “Interface” level associated with stucco S/057. The stratigraphic sketch for S/B/D is hard to read when it comes to this floor, as it is described as “gravillas y cco.” Presumably it should be translated to “gravel and cement”.15 This level is then associated with “Level B” of the site, which the excavator linked to the mosaic floor. However, this is considered here as a mere hypothesis. Under this floor is yet another earthen fill for “B” classified as S/B/D/062. Both 060 and 062 cover the first stucco level S/061, which was immediately applied on the naked inner face of wall S/055. This fill represents a second phase for the room’s use, with its own stucco wall decoration: S/057. This fill between “C” and “B” in the stratigraphic sketch (S/B/D/062) was richer in archaeological material than the upper level S/B/D/059. It was associated to the “Ibero-Roman Level” described in the August 29th and 30th, 1949, entries in the excavation diaries.16 Findings include mostly objects from the 1st century bce, such as terracotta statuette fragments (BAE/1949/S/B/D/062/ ter/1) perhaps of Bacchus or Tanit, and a bronze coin (BAE/1949/S/B/D/062/ num/1)17 with unspecific description. It is clear that on the reverse are GrecoIberian characters. Other findings include two lead fragments and a common black-ware pottery fragment with moldings to sustain it (BAE/1949/S/B/D/ 062/cer/1), associated with the “1st century level” (ce) by Ramos Folqués. However, this last finding was identified by Ana Ronda as belonging to a 6th–7th century local production.18 It is specifically a type 7 of Reynold’s classification, number HW10 5B.19 This raises the question of the nature of this material, as it is the only one found at this layer in Area S that can be associated with such use.
13 14 15 16 17
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ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: August 29th, 1949, n. 10, f. 2r. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: August 29th, 1949, n. 10, f. 1r. Considering that the letters “cco.” is a short writing of cemento—similar to other floors from the site. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: August 29th, 1949, n. 10, ff. 2r–3r; August 30th, 1949, n. 10, f. 3r. The excavation diaries present two coins in notebook number 10, f. 3r. The first is a “Hispanic Coin”, which is associated with level S/B/D/064 being “inferior” to the 1st century “Ibero-Roman” level. The second is on an attached paper with the description of a coin associated with S/B/D/062, since it is clearly associated with being “above Level C”, which means it is above S/B/D/063. Ronda Femenia, L’Alcudia de Alejandro Ramos Folqués, 162. Reynolds, Settlement and Pottery in the Vinalopó Valley (Alicante, Spain), 154–155, fig. 7.
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Most likely, as pointed out by Ana Ronda in 2018,20 it belongs to a ritual deposition that would invade this level, and thus be undetected to Ramos Folqués’ eye during his 1949 excavation of the S/B/D probe. Occam’s razor points to that conclusion, but it should not be seen as definite. Another possibility is simply that this material was mixed after the abandonment of the building in the 8th century, during its demolition. The northeastern tiles found during the first stages of the 1948 excavation point towards an active process of removal of architectural materials, something evident in other spots of Area S. The acts of demolition meant the mixing of materials, and their invasion into lower strata. In either case, this object is to be seen as of a later stage of the building, and not belonging originally to fill S/B/D/062, even though it was recovered in this level. This earthen fill covered the earlier S/061 stucco, therefore pointing to a post quem dating of the covering and, therefore, wall S/055 itself. It seemed to be a continuation for northern wall B/023. Considering the similar dates for both S/055 and B/023, it is probable that both walls were constructed at the same time, including in this chronology, wall B/010. Going deeper into this S/B/D probe, we find floor level S/B/D/063, which was associated and apparently covered by stucco S/061. This “Type I” unit 063 was made of lime mortar and limited this probe’s “Level C” according to Ramos Folqués. Under this floor was fill for “Level C” S/B/D/064, both preparatory levels to sustain the structure associated with “1st stucco” S/061. This “Level C” had only two findings: a “base or pedestal of a Tanit (statue)” (BAE/1949/S/B/D/064/ter/1) and a “Hispanic coin” (BAE/1949/S/B/D/064/ num/1) without further details, recorded immediately after Ramos Folqués presents the drawing of BAE/1949/S/B/D/062/num/1. This raises the question whether these two, found on the same probe, are in fact the same coin. From a first look that does not seem the case, since the statuette from S/B/D/064 clearly belongs to the findings from the level above statuette BAE/1949/S/B/D/ 062/ter/1 (both representing Tanit or Bacchus). This presents the possibility of mixing between the two fills during the digging or in antiquity. The latter is more likely, considering the “invasion” of late antique material into earlier layers such as S/B/D/062. There is strong suggestion that these two layers were affected by activity that caused such mixing between levels, thus resulting in a similar date between them. Underneath this layer is “Level D”, associated with a gravel and sand floor S/B/D/065.21 The floor was supported by fill S/B/D/066 excavated on August
20 21
Ronda Femenia, L’Alcudia de Alejandro Ramos Folqués, 162. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: August 30th, 1949, n. 10, f. 4r. Curiously it must be said
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30th, and presents a larger amount of material than the levels above it.22 This includes decorated ware (probably Iberian) with animal figures of a hare and owl (BAE/1949/S/B/D/066/cer/1),23 and another with rabbits and a hippopotamus (BAE/1949/S/B/D/066/cer/8). Also Folqués found Campanian ware (BAE/1949/S/B/D/066/cer/3), and black pottery with fine walls (BAE/1949/S/ B/D/066/cer/5)24 having an ovoid body with high short neck and everted rim. Other objects found by the excavator include25 a “Roman black pottery” piece (BAE/1949/S/B/D/066/cer/12), common pottery ware made in reductive cooking (BAE/1949/S/B/D/066/cer/9), another, painted pottery (BAE/1949/S/B/D/ 066/cer/10), and unpainted ware (BAE/1949/S/B/D/066/cer/11). Other nonceramic objects include an iron object, possibly a knife (BAE/1949/S/B/D/066/ fer/1), a glass button (BAE/1949/S/B/D/066/vit/1), and two stone statue fragments: the first a neck of a horse (BAE/1949/S/B/D/066/pet/1) and the second another Tanit statue fragment (BAE/1949/S/B/D/066/pet/2). The description of this phase points towards a closed fill by the upper gravel and sand floor S/B/D/065. Its findings allow us to date the level with relative certainty. The existence of Campanian ware and pottery with painted animals, as well as black “fine walls” pottery and “black Roman pottery” points towards a late republican period, possibly a 2nd century bce date. There is no presence of sigillata, but there are Iberian statue fragments, indicating it is associated with the “Level C” from the southern street, specifically, fills C/080 and especially C/091 (see Chapter 9, 3.2.1).
22 23
24 25
that in this case Ramos Folqués presents “Level D” as a level that “termina con nivel de grava y arena”—which is marked as “d” in the stratigraphic sketch. In other words, the description of the levels following the stratigraphic sketch (Fig. 8.4) is coherent with the graphic information. Ibid. According to Ana Ronda, it is apparently an “Estilo Ilicitano I” type late Iberian pottery, of late republican date. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: August 30th, 1949, n. 10, f. 4r. AMRF note 6. Ana Ronda suggests it to be a Mayet I or II pottery, from the late 2nd to late 1st century bce. See Ibid. AMRF note 7. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: August 31st, 1949, n. 10, f. 6r. The findings here were originally thought to be associated with “Level E” S/B/D/068, due to the description of being “underneath floor D” (“En nivel inferior al piso de la d”). However, had this been indeed a “Level E”, the excavator would have described it as “E” as he did elsewhere in the diaries (Corpus documental: September 9th, 1949, n. 10, f. 5r). This means that he is describing findings associated with fill 066, and not 068. This is made especially evident through the continuation between the findings from August 30th, and the findings done the very next day, August 31st.
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Under this layer we find another identified floor, described as “piso cantos rodados” (sic.) or “boulder floor” S/B/D/067.26 This is a “Type I” floor layer for “Level E”, under which was fill unit S/B/D/068.27 Like “Level D”, this fill includes a large amount of recovered material. This phase was excavated on September 9th perhaps with the objective of reaching “Level F” underneath it. The findings of the “Level E” fill S/B/D/068 are modest compared to “Level D” layer S/B/D/066. While some are described in detail, many of the findings were not described at all, thus making chronological or typological interpretation problematic. Predominant are unpainted, undecorated ware (plate: BAE/1949/ S/B/D/068/cer/1; vase with everted, horizontal rim and convex base: BAE/ 1949/S/B/D/068/cer/2). However, some painted pottery fragments were found (BAE/1949/S/B/D/068/cer/3), as well as black-grey polished ware, probably from reductive cooking (BAE/1949/S/B/D/068/cer/4). Ramos Folqués completes the description of his findings with the fact that he had two whole buckets full of “fragments”, which he placed in a “trunk”. He did not describe them further, though they would be relevant for the following interpretation by the excavator.28 Probe S/B/D’s “Level F” from the stratigraphic sketch was reached and dug on September 10th, 1949.29 The sketch from August 29th (Fig. 8.6) presents “Level F” as “tierra firme”, or simply bedrock. Therefore, this level S/B/D/069 is supposed to be an original, natural floor used at the site. Even so, findings were still made at this probe despite it not being described as an archaeological phase. The answer to this dilemma came when Ramos Folqués described that the “Level F” objects were found “En hoyo nivel F”, or “at a hole at level F”. Therefore, there are two levels that come after 069: hole S/B/D/-071 that cuts the bedrock level and S/B/D/070 that fills the hole. It is in 070 where he found the following objects: – “Punic mask” (mascarilla), identified by Ana Ronda as item LA-469. BAE/ 1949/S/B/D/070/ter/130 – An incomplete small painted pot: BAE/1949/S/B/D/070/cer/1 26
27 28 29 30
ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: August 29th, 1949, n. 10, f. 2r. The act of scratching the word “cantos” perhaps should be associated with a personal typo, as the word “rodados” was not changed. The phrase makes no sense with one word and without the other, so we assume he did not intend to erase the word “cantos” but to correct it. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 9th, 1949, n. 10, f. 5r. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 10th, 1949, n. 10, f. 8r. Ibid., n. 10, f. 7r. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 10th, 1949, n. 10, f. 7r. AMRF note 15.
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– Campanian plate with circles in its base: BAE/1949/S/B/D/070/cer2 – Pottery in “white tone”: BAE/1949/S/B/D/070/cer/3 These objects were not described further. Despite having a “Punic mask”, which is interpreted as the remains of a statuette of sorts that would point towards a 3rd century bce date, this might merely be part of a mixture of fills that include 3rd and 2nd century pottery, including the Campanian ware found at this level. It is important this fill is associated with a “Level F”, which suggests that the excavator reached the natural soil. On the northwestern corner of Area S that is described in probe S/B/D, on “Level F”, we find that Ramos Folqués proceeded to investigate the foundations of wall B/010 which include foundation cut B/-073 and foundation fill B/072 described in Chapter 7. What is important for this area is that if “Level F” is associated with the foundation of wall B/010, then foundation cut B/-073 was at the height of the “bedrock” level F, or at least partially under it. Fill B/072 would likewise be at that level. Considering that the foundation of wall B/010 was the same as B/023, and that the latter was 70 centimeters below the mosaic floor (that is, –1.00 meters from Zero Point), we can assume that the approximate depth of “Level F” is the same. Remembering that the Hauschild Plan (Fig. 7.4) has floor S/B/D/056 at around –0.36 meters height, we then find that between “Level A” and “bedrock” there is roughly a depth of 64 centimeters in total. This depth is lower than the stratigraphic sketch found in sub-area B/F and is higher than what was recorded underneath the mosaic until then (see Chapter 7, 2.2.3). 3.1.2 Area S/B/D’: The Northeastern Corner Unlike sub-area S/B/D, sub-area S/B/D’ has no stratigraphic sketch that describes its findings, though some fills were indeed mentioned in Ramos Folqués’ excavation diaries. The stratigraphic differences seem to be null, as Ramos Folqués differentiated between these sub-areas only due to them being different probes. The first level associated with this probe is S/B/D’/238 (parallel to S/B/D/ 237) and is apparently one of the richest archaeological fills in the site. The most important feature of this layer is the found fragments of the building’s architectural features, specifically piled roof tiles and a stone with four holes. These are recovered in photographs from the 1948 excavation (Figs. 8.14, 15, 16). The first reference for the discovery was noted in an early entry by Ramos Folqués in the excavation diaries (May 27th, 1948).31 Even so, some tiles were reportedly found
31
ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: May 27th, 1948, n. 7, f. 4r.
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by Folqués in the Basilica area, though probably they were decontextualized. As such, Ana Ronda does not differentiate between the tiles and imbrices found in the northeastern corner of Area S and those photographed in Area B on top of the mosaic floor in 1948.32 There he described the findings of several archaeological objects in between or amongst the roof tiles. These include the roof tiles themselves (BAE/1948/S/B/D’/238/cer/1–15*),33 as well as the white stone piece with four holes (BAE/1948/S/B/D’/238/pet/1), which is also preserved and recorded in the 1990 excavation (Fig. 8.9), several glass fragments (of an unknown number, BAE/1948/S/B/D’/238/vit/I/1…), two identified fragments of a green glass cup with golden finishes (BAE/1948/S/B/D’/238/vit/II/1, 2— identified as items LA-3663 and 3664 in the Alcudia d’Elx catalogue),34 two borders of a pot (BAE/1948/S/B/D’/238/cer/16, 17), a handle (BAE/1948/S/B/D’/ 238/cer/18), the base or foot of a cup (BAE/1948/S/B/D’/238/cer/19), a “Visigothic piece” (BAE/1948/S/B/D’/238/cer/20), a piece of “Campanian pottery” with a stamp (BAE/1948/S/B/D’/238/cer/21), and “other ceramics of ‘lower periods’” (BAE/1948/S/B/D’/238/cer/22). The latter points towards a Late Roman or post-Roman date. Also from that level are a “bronze object with several holes” without further description (BAE/1948/S/B/D’/238/met/1), and what seems to be two plaques of Egyptian red porphyry, recovered by Alejandro Ramos Folqués in the Alcudia de Elche archive pictures. Interestingly, Ana Ronda associated the latter to wall decorations in 4th century villae such as room 6 of Baños de la Reina at Calp (Alicante).35 The presence of these plaques indicates the probable monumentality of this section of the building in the 4th century. However, it is also true that this is the latest floor level with demolished materials from other parts of the complex. Thus, it is impossible to know if these plaques belonged originally to Area S or elsewhere. Figs. 8.14–16 are especially revealing of the fact that this fill was laid after the construction of the walls in place there. Or rather, the fill is a demolition/ 32 33
34 35
Ronda Femenia, L’Alcudia de Alejandro Ramos Folqués, 144. Identified as imbrices LA-3741, 3742, 3743 and tegulae LA-3744 and 3745. However, despite her identification, Ana Ronda does not give positive evidence for the association between these roof tiles and those found in the northeastern corner of Area S. Furthermore, these are only five of the minimum of fifteen pieces found by Alejandro Ramos Folqués. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documentales: May 27th, 1948, n. 7, f. 4r. AMRF note 10. Ronda Femenia, L’Alcudia de Alejandro Ramos Folqués, 175, note 212. Fig. 157 (left). Ana María Ronda Femenia et al., “Sectile. Trabajos de conservación y restauración en Baños de La Reina (Calp, Alicante),” Verdolay: Revista del Museo Arqueológico de Murcia 12 (2009): 242, plate 5. In 2018 Ronda suggests these pieces might have originated from the apse, as they were found to “the east” of the complex (pp. 175–176). However, there is no positive evidence for that, especially as there has been no presence of similar marble pieces in or around the apse in order to make such a conclusion.
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figure 8.14
Northeastern corner and northern wall S/052 of Area S during the 1948 excavations. Includes roof tiles for levels S/B/D’/238. Looking west. In the circle, roof tiles supported by the northern wall. Notice the mosaic from Area B in the background dai-madrid archives. d-dai-mad-schl-schplf-1130
figure 8.15
Picture of northeastern corner of Area S, with roof tiles from S/B/D’/238 supported on small ashlar wall S/052. Looking northwest dai-madrid schlunk archives. d-dai-mad-schl-sch-plf-1133
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Detail picture of northeastern corner during the 1948 excavations in the Alcudia d’Elx Area S, including roof tiles and holed stone. Looking north dai-madrid schlunk archives. d-dai-mad-schl-sch-plf-194
abandonment level similar or equal to generic S/002. As these figures testify (particularly Fig. 8.14), some of the roof tiles are supporting the inner face of wall S/052, while some of the trios of tiles are supported by wall S/203. According to Ramos Folqués the tiles are divided in two groups: the first are those which are laying in groups of three, and the second are those which are placed isolated from the rest. It is revealing that most tiles in the latter group are “face up”, while the trios are all paced “facing down”. But most importantly is that the isolated tiles are found in all directions, their placement being defined more by their collapse than their original setting. In any case, these roof tiles were placed after the walls S/052 and S/203. The findings that accompanied them clarify the date for this level. While there is some material from the 1st century bce (Campanian pottery), the most important piece is the “Visigothic” and “Low Period” pottery that points towards a 7th century, or perhaps even 8th century abandonment of the site. This fits well with the evidence of the grouped tiles, which were laid there on purpose probably after the demolition of the building. In other words, these roof tiles were part of a larger group that was sold away as construction materials, following the dismantlement of the site by the early-to-mid 8th century. There is also reason to associate these tiles to their funerary use
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in the local burials detected around the Alcudia de Elche. The fact that these tiles were placed in such a position on the S/052 and S/203 walls is evidence that they were clearly visible by the time the site was abandoned and being demolished—hence Area S was contemporary with Area B in use and visibility. As described above, wall S/052 in this area was covered in its inner face by sandstone ashlars S/124, and behind it a nucleus of mortar and fieldstones. Under this phase we presumably find extensions of unit S/B/D/056 and other levels detected in probe for S/B/D (see above). Both S/B/D and S/B/D’ are probably parts of the same room, which was defined by Ramos Folqués in his 1948 sketches as “B”, as opposed to two rooms to the south of this one, S/B” and S/B’. The separation between these two spaces is defined by east-west central wall S/053. 3.1.3 Central Area S/B—“Separation Walls” To the south of the areas where we found probes S/B/D and S/B/D’ is the central area for “S”, which according to the sketch presented by Ramos Folqués in 1948 (Figs. A.1, 2) is classified as Area S/B. This area corresponds with a central section associated with a median wall S/053, cutting “S” in two sides. Despite initial considerations in this research, review of the available material regarding this area indicates that there are two important walls that define this section of Area S. The first identified wall in this section was already detected in May 1948, particularly in the sketch of notebook number 7, f. 1v from the diaries found in the Corpus documental (Fig. A.1). This east-west central wall, classified as S/326, was attached to tangential north-south wall B/010. Further crucial information was available with the 1971 expedition, with both the Hauschild Plan (Fig. 7.4) and a photograph taken by Hauschild and present in the DAI-Madrid Archives (Fig. 7.43). They give important data regarding the stratigraphical position of wall S/326, its stucco covering S/327, and its relations with wall B/010. Wall S/326 was made of small-to-medium sized fieldstones and a large amount of mortar, as well as some reutilized carved stone placed inside the wall. It was around 0.45 meters wide and had an east-west direction. With B/010 it made a southern corner that apparently limited the continuation of it to the south. It has 1.7 meters of preserved wall including the width of B/010. In other words, it is 1.2 meters long starting from the eastern face of B/010. Its preserved height only follows its highest point according to Hauschild’s plan, which is -0.27 meters from Zero Point. It was preserved at a higher level than B/010 or floor S/056. Finally, the wall was located 4.75 meters to the south of northern walls S/052 and S/055.
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Stratigraphically, we can notice the development of this wall according to the picture from 1971 of the structures east of B/010 (Fig. 7.43). This photograph shows that floor S/056 used the corner between S/326 and B/010 for its pavement. Furthermore, between the floor and the wall are remains, on its northern face, of what seems to be white stucco S/327. It should be considered as an equivalent to stucco S/127 attached to the eastern face of B/010, and “second” stucco S/057 attached to S/055 in a second phase. Despite being of a later date, the lime and gravel floor’s placement did not mean the end of this wall S/326’s use, since the wall was preserved at a higher height than the floor itself, which at this corner was –0.36 meters from Zero Point. The above places wall S/326 and stucco S/327 at the same level as what we detected as S/B/D/060 and the structures used before the placement of final floor S/056. However, stones were described as protruding to the west of the wall into Area B, slightly beyond wall B/010. It seems as if this wall was constructed with a continuation into Area B and, therefore, these protruding stones are the remains of this phase. At a certain point the wall was broken to accommodate another structure—which in all probability is B/006, although a previous reform (particularly the inclusion of the mosaic in Phase IIe) should not be discarded. Furthermore, there is no evidence that this wall was built at the same time as wall B/010. There seems to be a possibility it was built at a later date than B/010, meaning breaking part of tangential wall B/010 to the south of where this wall was placed, thus creating an open space between areas S and B. Later the area west of B/010 was cleared up from previous structures to place the eastern apse. This act required breaking the wall up to the point of the north-south line of wall B/010. The wall was, however, preserved to the east, where it became part of the northern room of Area S when floor S/056 was placed. The second east-west wall found at this central section was first documented in the August 29th, 1949, sketch from the excavation diaries.36 It was described as “Wall H” and is classified here as S/053. According to this sketch (Fig. 8.5) the wall was attached to the western wall of Area S. The excavation diaries described this wall as follows: Wall H is made of boxed adobe and is covered by lime.37 Figs. 8.5 records it at the central section of the area. While there is no preserved document that records its height, the wall was clearly attached not to 36 37
ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: August 29th, 1949, n. 10, f. 1r. La pared H está hecha de adobe encajonado, y revestida de cal.
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the upper, final wall of the room (with ashlar sandstone) S/203, but rather to the lower, final stucco of the lower S/199 wall (or S/200). The straight nature of the lower preserved stucco points towards it covering not S/200 associated with “2nd Stucco” S/057, but rather “1st stucco” S/201, equal to S/061 mentioned above. In other words, the stratigraphic position of this wall seems to be an intermediate level associated more with the “2nd Stucco” phase, between the floor S/B/D/063 and floor S/B/D/060, which was not preserved attached to this wall. Stratigraphically the last layer S/056 must have been of a later date, and probably covered this wall like it did S/326. The above quotation of Ramos Folqués indicates the wall S/053 was covered by stucco S/054. It has no further description, though it is visible in Fig. 8.5. Most important are the specific measurements of the wall as recorded in this excavation diaries sketch. The wall is found at 3.03 meters to the south of the northern limit of Area S. The width of the wall is 0.3 meters, which places this wall line 1.42 meters to the north of wall S/326’s projection east. The wall is made of adobe, a rare finding in this site, and that indicates its use as a median separation wall that would not sustain a weighty roof. Its preserved length is 2.77 meters. Since we know the whole Area S is four meters long (from east to west), then the calculation places the ending of wall S/053 61 centimeters to the east of the easternmost limit of wall S/326. In other words, it is 1.81 meters east from wall B/010. The stratigraphic description of the second wall puts it later than S/326. However, the use of S/056, itself of a later date than both walls, implies that at a certain period the two were being used at the same time. This points towards the reconstruction of the northern room of about 4 × 3 meters (using a Pythagorean ratio of 4:3 or 1.333) having an introductory hallway or vestibule of sorts about 1.42 meters across. The outer wall of the room was probably S/326 and not S/053 due to the small width of the latter and its weaker construction material. In all probability, the wall was made to separate two spaces within this space and was not an outer wall. Therefore, the whole northern half of the room was 4×4.75 meters. Importantly, there were more structures found in this central area associated with S/B, and visible in the 1990 excavation. These include the central square wall mass S/B/328, which can be seen in Fig. 8.2.38 This square “wall mass” continues the wall line of S/326. However, it is clear from the easternmost limit of 38
The excavation from 1971 did not record this mass as it remained uncovered until 1990. There is no clear evidence for this mass in 1948 or 1949; however some of it can be seen in a sketch describing area S/B’ from the Ramos Folqués excavation diary entry for August 11th, 1949 (Fig. 8.18).
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wall S/326 that it was the wall’s end. There was an open space between S/326 and S/328, and that both walls supported a kind of structure that allowed a way through in between. These two features, together with wall S/053, point towards a hallway and, perhaps, the support system of a wooden staircase that gave access to a second storey. This would materialize with wooden platforms or architectural features that were lost to us. It would explain the 1.2 meters long wall protruding into Area S, and the support system of square wall mass S/328, “north-south” wall S/325, as well as median wall S/053 whose purpose was to separate spaces rather than support a heavy roof structure. There is no positive evidence for such a staircase in S/B. However, given the irregular plan for this area in its latest phase as well as the apparent steps found in the direction of this area in later periods (feature B/015), the possibility of such a wooden staircase should not be discarded. However, this cannot be considered more than speculation given the limited evidence available for such furnishings. 3.2 Southern Area S South of wall S/326 and S/053 is a section defined by two sub-areas, S/B’ and S/B”. The two were already studied with probes in 1948 with some continuation in 1949, which, according to Ramos Folqués, placed the area as one unit together with the northern room S/B. However, despite being linked stratigraphically, south of these walls were certain features not found to their north. The most significant is the absence of clear vertical structures like the ones found to the northwest, north, and east of Area S. The second is the presence of spoliation activity detected in these two areas. The spoliation hole was immediately found south of wall S/326, and first recorded on June 9th, 1948, by Ramos Folqués.39 It was a large cavity dug south of the easternmost corner of wall S/326, 1 meter in diameter and 2.5 meters deep, with no covering—just fill. The hole was classified as S/B/-248. Ramos Folqués indicated that in this hole’s fill, S/B/265, he found “only pottery”, amongst them a decorated pottery fragment with Iberian geometric motifs. It is described on its two sides. One side has a decoration with triangles, on top of a horizontal strip with parallel lines. Below there are remains of concentric quarter-circles. On the other side, one finds that underneath a strip of horizontal lines, there are vertical parallel lines and an unclear central figure (BAE/1949/S/B/265/cer/1). The other fragments were not described. However, from the nature of this fragment and the description of this large hole feature,
39
ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: June 9th, 1948, n. 7, f. 14r.
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figure 8.17
Picture of northern area of S (S/B), including remains of S/326, S/053, and northeastern corners with their walls and stucco levels. To the right, remains of S/328 fla archives. 1990 excavation pictures, n. 25.2
one can conclude this hole was made after the abandonment of the site for the spoliation of construction materials, including remains of wall S/326. 3.2.1 Area S/B’—Southeastern Area of S The first intervention in Area S/B’ was in early June 1948, north of the seldom described wall S/325. After removing “agricultural soil” (S/001) Ramos Folqués found an earthen fill classified as S/B’/242, excavated on June 2nd, 1948.40 This level is mostly known for its findings, which include an apparent iron handle for an unidentified tool (BAE/1948/N/E/242/Fe/1), and most importantly small bronze coins, one of Constance I (BAE/1948/N/E/242/num/1) and another of Constantine I (BAE/1948/N/E/242/num/2), pointing to a post quem dating for this fill at the earliest from the second quarter of the 4th century ce.41 Importantly, these two coins were found, according to the excavator, “above the floor”. 40 41
ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: June 2nd, 1948, n. 7, f. 6r. It is important to remember the longevity of use for these late antique coins, which could have lasted for centuries. We can only have, with this data, an earliest dating for the fill, but not its absolute date.
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What floor is he mentioning? The follow-up excavation in Area S/B’ on August 10th, 1949, proposes the existence of the “floor of the Sacristía” in this area (classified as S/B’/243).42 Such a description is applied by Ramos Folqués to describe the main discovered floor of the site, S/056, made of gravel and stone. Therefore, it should be associated with the latest level of this edifice, and points towards the covering of the entire area with this same floor level. Furthermore, this layer was above an “Iberian-Roman-imperial” floor (S/B’/047). No findings were done in this floor level, further suggesting it being aptly described as an extension of S/056. Following these two upper layers, the order of the horizontal stratigraphic units Ramos Folqués describes becomes complicated. In the entry from August 10th, 1949, associated with S/B’ (or just B’ as Ramos Folqués describes it) one finds the above-mentioned “Iberian-Roman-imperial” level classified here as S/B’/047. However, three days later, in an entry for August 12th, 1949, regarding the same Area B’, Ramos Folqués presents an “imperial level” with its own findings.43 He writes that section after describing findings from an “inferior level” from fills of holes S/B’/-197 and S/B’/-198, described on August 11th, 1949 (see Fig. 8.18). The logical conclusion is that the probe done in Area S/B’ was irregular. It was expanded for the identification of findings rather than stratigraphic layers, as evidenced by the fact that no stratigraphic sketch of a profile was preserved from this area. We find two distinct phases from “below the floor of Sacristía” (or below S/B’/243). First is S/B’/050, or “imperial level”, obviously associated to a later date from “Iberian-Roman-imperial” level with material of pre-Roman or republican periods. In this level Ramos Folqués describes the finding of a pilgrim’s flask or plate made of “well cooked” and darkened clay (BAE/1949/S/B’/ 050/cer/1), two lead disks of different size (BAE/1949/S/B’/050/Pb/1 and 2), and the head of an iron nail (BAE/1949/S/B’/050/Fe/1) of apparent “Iberianimperial” periods.44 For its part level S/B’/047, considered below S/B’/050, has other sets of objects, seemingly from previous periods, including: a small earthen jar without decoration (BAE/1949/S/B’/047/cer/1), a small lid “perhaps of a toy” (BAE/ 1949/S/B’/047/cer/2), and a loom weight (BAE/1949/S/B’/047/cer/3). These two levels are similar in that there are not many findings associated with either loci. However, S/B’/050 has clearly late forms, particularly the pilgrim’s 42 43 44
ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: August 10th, 1949, n. 9, f. 16r. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: August 12th, 1949, n. 9, f. 17v. Ibid.
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figure 8.18
Sketch from Alejandro Ramos Folqués’ excavation diaries of Area S/B’ entry of arf, amrf, corpus documental: august 11th, 1949, n. 9, f. 17 r
flask that would point towards a quite late imperial period, perhaps even late antique. The lead disks also point towards levels seen in apse fill B/007 and upper fills on top of the southern walls of Area B. On the other hand, S/B’/047 has no such characteristics, probably explaining why Ramos Folqués chose to give an ambiguous definition of said layer. Underneath these levels were peculiar features without a clearly identified function. Two holes were discovered in the “nivel inferior” or, in this context, “most inferior level” (or strictly “inferior level”). They were described in a sketch of Area S/B’ on August 11th, 1949 (Fig. 8.18). The objects are evidently found under the floor associated with S/B’/243, which is why we cannot assume that they are spoliation holes like S/-248. There are two distinct holes described in the previous sketch, marked as “hole X” (S/B’/-198) and “hole XX” (S/B’/-197). The latter was the first described hole and has a greater diameter than “hole X”. It is located at the southeastern corner of S/B’, near what would seem to be the architectural features detected in 1948, S/322 and S/323 (see above). “Hole X” would have been near other architectural features, particularly the eastern stone block that limits S/326 to the east, and stone mass S/328 that continues that wall’s line. Furthermore, both walls seem to be relatively shallow, according to the sketch presented by Ramos Folqués. “Hole XX” (S/B’/-197) was the first described in Ramos Folqués’ diaries.45 While having a relatively shallow depth, it was filled with S/048 that pre45
ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental, August 11th, 1949, n. 9, f. 17r.
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sented important findings. They include a complete “spindle-formed” amphora with straight, thick border, handles with oval profile and careened shoulder (BAE/1949/S/B’/048/cer/1), identified here with late Dressel 1C or early Dressel 12 forms, and dated to the third quarter or second half of the 1st century bce. Ana Ronda suggests this amphora to be of a Dressel 12 type, belonging to a post-Sertorian (late republican) period.46 Other findings are associated with earlier periods, such as a “semi-restored large vase with painted bird” (BAE/1949/S/B’/048/cer/4) and a large vase (identified as item in the Alcudia’s catalogue LA-6324) holding another black plate within it (BAE/1949/S/B’/048/ cer/2, 3 respectively).47 The latter was identified to a late republican period. The excavator also found a lead disk (BAE/1949/S/B’/048/Pb/1). Even though Folqués mentions the existence of a large amount of unidentified pottery fragments (BAE/1949/S/B’/048/cer/5…), it seems that from the data of identifiable pottery this fill does not go beyond the mid-late 1st century, by account of the whole amphora discovered there. As such, it was suggested all these materials belong to a period between the end of the rebellion under Sertorius, where some signs of destruction can be detected like the Ilici domus in sector 10D, and its Augustan foundation.48 The fill S/B’/049 within “hole X” S/B’/-198 was never described. However, considering that the hole must have been excavated, there are three possible options for its correct interpretation: the first is that the hole’s findings were mixed with those of S/B’/048 which is contemporary to S/B’/049. The second is that nothing was found, and this is merely earth without archaeological material. The last option is that this fill was interpreted by Ramos Folqués as “republican” and included it within the “republican level” S/B’/051, which is cut by both holes S/B’/-197 and S/B’/-198.49 The aforementioned “republican level” S/B’/051 was described as being the “inferior level”. It is uncertain whether there are more stratigraphic units underneath this one. The findings of this layer include materials associated mostly with cultic rituals, amongst them two lead pieces (a disk, BAE/1949/S/B’/ 051/Pb/1 and a lead sheet, BAE/1949/S/B’/051/Pb/2) as well as a nearly complete quartzite plate (BAE/1949/S/B’/051/pet/1) decorated with a white dot.
46 47
48 49
Ronda Femenia, L’Alcudia de Alejandro Ramos Folqués, 161–162. Ronda Femenia, 161, fig. 181. Here, the confusion regarding Ronda’s mixing of Area S and Area P (or “Sacristía” and “Palacio” in Folqués’ excavation diaries) leads to a consideration that these items belong to the latter and not the former as indicated here. However, Folqués’ accounts are clear, placing this item in Area S. Ibid. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: August 12th, 1949, n. 9, ff. 17r–17v.
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Amongst pottery from this fill is a fragment of painted pottery (BAE/1949/S/B’/ 051/cer/1) and what apparently might be sigillata pottery (BAE/1949/S/B’/051/ cer/2), though this latest finding is extremely difficult to read, therefore complicating a definite interpretation of S/051.50 Regardless, the findings here are associated mostly with a pre-basilical period, perhaps confirming the republican date given to it by Ramos Folqués. He did not excavate below S/B’/051. However, a more complete stratigraphic sequencing was recovered in the excavation of sub-area S/B”. 3.2.2 Area S/B”—Southwestern Probe From a stratigraphic point of view, the probe in sub-area S/B” is perhaps the most complete when it comes to the materials recovered from it. However, unlike S/B/D there is no association between these levels with the vertical stratigraphic units that limit Area S. Instead we find a series of levels described by Ramos Folqués from the 1948 excavation and the 1952 report publication of that same dig. From these two accounts we can reconstruct the levels associated with this probe, as it is one of the few instances where the findings described in the diaries can be identified in the excavation report. As a result, the probe is extremely important to understand the chronological development of the site. The first reference regarding the levels uncovered in S/B” comes from the June 7th, 1948’s stratigraphic sketch (Fig. 8.19).51 The sketch describes the horizontal units and heights of the upper layers detected in S/B”, starting with the “agricultural level” S/001. Under this is a “Level A”, parallel to the one detected in probe S/B/D. This floor, catalogued as S/B”/245, was made of gravel and perhaps was similar or equal to S/B/D/056 detected to the north of Area S. This points towards an approximate height of this level at –0.34 meters from Zero Point.52 S/B”/245 was the interface of earthen fill for Level A S/B”/236 which was 20 centimeters deep (between –0.34 and –0.54 meters from Zero Point). The first description of its findings was made on June 7th, 1948, below the sketch for the S/B” stratigraphy. In it a series of important discoveries points towards 50
51 52
Ibid. This last piece is read at the end of the n. 9, f. 17r, where one can only identify the letters “Sigi”, though the description can also be “Giji”, being a word somehow associated with BAE/1949/S/B’/051/pet/1, and not with a sigillata ceramic fragment. With this uncertainty, a definitive interpretation of this fill eludes us. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: June 7th, 1948, n. 7, f. 8r. For convenience I have taken the highest point for floor S/056 detected next to wall S/236 and recovered on Hauschild’s 1971 Plan (Fig. 7.4). This is not only done for convenience, but also because this point is the closest detected for floor S/056 to Area S/B”.
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Stratigraphic sketch from Alejandro Ramos Folqués’ excavation diaries of Area S/B” entry in arf, amrf, corpus documental for june 7th, 1948, n. 7, f. 8 r
the chronology of this level, including three coins: a small bronze coin of “Constantine I Magnus” (BAE/1948/S/B”/236/num/1) and another, very deteriorated small bronze with unidentifiable figures (BAE/1948/S/B”/236/num/2). A third, small bronze coin (BAE/1948/S/B”/236/num/3) was found with relatively readable obverse: CONSTANTINVS MAX AUG, and reverse, in big lettering: CONS B (two remaining letters are illegible). Belonging to Constantine I’s rule, it is dated to between 314–337 ce.53 These three coins point towards a similar chronology to level S/B’/243 detected north of this probe. However, we again are faced only with a post quem dating for the mid-4th century and not a definitive absolute chronology. The description of ceramics found in S/B”/236 are frustratingly ambiguous. In the same page Ramos Folqués describes “Roman pottery” (in plural) catalogued as (BAE/1948/S/B”/236/cer/I/1…) and “some simple Iberian pottery” (BAE/1948/S/B”/236/cer/II/2…). More specific pieces include a “Roman lamp handle” (BAE/1948/S/B”/236/cer/III/1) and a small fragment of sigillata pottery (BAE/1948/S/B”/236/cer/III/2) with uncertain dating. In this situation the only reliable factor for this layer’s dating are the coins, which clearly point towards a late antique period. The lack of further description of the lamp han-
53
ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: June 7th, 1948, n. 7, f. 8r. AMRF note 21.
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dle and the sigillata pottery does not allow for a more specific date, as it could vary from the 4th to the 6th centuries. Under this level is S/B”/246, or a Type I locus for “Level B”, made of what Ramos Folqués calls “empedrado (de) cantos rodados” (or “stone pavement [made of] boulders”) and placed at –0.54 meters height. It was supported by another earthen fill, 12 centimeters deep and mentioned in Ramos Folqués’ 1952 publication of the 1948 excavation report, describing the first levels detected in S/B”: In the southern part of this room (Area S) we excavated up to the sterile or bedrock level, observing through the excavation two Roman levels: the superior, corresponding with the abovementioned construction level, and the inferior, 12 centimeters below the previous one, where I found a small bronze of Gallienus, a perforated lead disk, and painted and plain pottery.54 This quote demonstrates that Ramos Folqués specifically had this probe in mind when describing the excavation on the “southern part of the room”. The placement of these findings in their stratigraphic level is problematic, as the author did not clarify whether these materials were found on this level or underneath the lower floor S/B”/247 (that is fill S/B”/223). In my opinion, the second case is more plausible, as Ramos Folqués, when publishing these levels, understood that the “floor” mostly includes the Type I locus and its Type H locus directly underneath it. Therefore, when he describes findings associated with the lower floor, Ramos Folqués intends to describe the fill underneath the upper interface floor. In other words, he is describing a 12 centimeter floor underneath S/B”/246, or a “Level C” associated with a “Ibero-Roman-imperial” period akin to S/B’/047 in the other nearby probe. Considering the above calculations, it is –0.66 meters below Zero Point. This stratum is described as an ash level (“cenizas”) in the stratigraphic sketch from June 7th, 1948. Underneath this level is an earthen fill, S/B”/223, 20 centimeters deep, with materials associated with the 3rd or early 4th century ce, including (as stated in the quote) a coin by Gallienus
54
Ramos Folqués, “Elche (Alicante). La Alcudia [campañas 1940–1948],” 132. “En la parte sur de esta habitación o departamento hemos excavado hasta el piso firme o estéril, observando en el curso de la excavación dos niveles romanos: el superior, correspondiente al nivel de la construcción antes idescrita, y el inferior, doce centímetros más abajo, en el que mallé un pequeño bronce de Galieno, un disco de plomo, perforado, y cerámica pintada y lisa.”
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(BAE/1948/S/B”/223/num/1) and a perforated lead disk (BAE/1948/S/B”/223/ Pb/1). Having been closed by an upper level with early-mid 4th century coinage, while its chronology is uncertain, we detect here a sudden demolition phase associated with the ash level. In my opinion this coin by Gallienus gives us an absolute dating for this level, sealed off eventually by the upper floor S/B”/246 made of stone boulders. As for found pottery, they are described only as painted or undecorated—which gives little information regarding the chronology of the fill. Below this level is Type H fill S/B”/224, with no clear floor between the two levels. It is curiously only described in the published excavation report on the 1948 intervention by Ramos Folqués.55 In the stratigraphic sketch it is described as “Ibero-Roman-republican” and starts 20 centimeters below S/B”/247 (that is –0.86 meters from Zero Point). According to the 1955 publication it is 25 centimeters deep. The fill has few findings, including a group of shards or “Iberian pottery” (BAE1948/S/B”/224/cer/I/1…) and a single amphora without neck (BAE1948/S/B”/224/cer/II/1). These pottery pieces are not well enough described to indicate a clear dating. However, the amphora without neck is typical of types used in the Iberian Peninsula before the appearance of Italic forms and their imitations, such as Dressel 1 and 12, by the late 2nd and 1st centuries bce. We might have here a “Ramon T” or “Pellicer” type amphora that has no defined neck and is derived from Phoenician/Punic forms dominant in the Iberian and pre-Roman colonial periods.56 The abovementioned layers have a clear association with those described in northern Area S, particularly probe S/B/D. It seems that level S/B”/222 is similar in composition and materials to level S/B/D/062. The same is true of S/B”/223 and S/B/D/064, and finally S/B”/224 and S/B/D/066. This association was first described by Ramos Folqués himself, who had a more general vision of Area S and disregarded differences between its northern and southern halves. This made sense, considering the important similarities between S/B”, S/B’, and with the layers found between the northern half of S. Also, the division between north and south made by wall S/053 was also considered, but it was a median wall without the width to separate the two spaces completely as two
55 56
Ramos Folqués, 132. In cases such as republican and early imperial Gades (Cádiz) these forms, which stem from local imitations of Italian productions, seem to be associated with the economic transformation of the countryside during the 1st century bce. See Enrique García Vargas, “La producción anfórica en la bahía de Cádiz durante la República como índice de romanización,” Habis 27 (1996): 54–58.
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rooms. Rather the spaces were probably considered part of the same room, or one and the same architectural unit. A similar wall S/325 would separate the two southern sub-areas, clearly seen in the panoramic photograph from 1948 looking south (Fig. 8.2). However, we do not know what its relations with other, horizontal strata were. We can only assume it was from a late phase, as it was visible above the last floor level. If the sketch by Schlunk from 1948 is followed (Fig. A.3), it is possible to suggest that this wall was around two meters to the west of the eastern limit of Area S. Continuing with the southwestern probe from Area S, below locus S/B”/224 was a divergence from the rest of the site. Fill S/B”/225 underneath 224 starts at –1.11 meters from Zero Point. Significantly, this level is rich in archaeological material. It was described by Ramos Folqués in the following terms: At a depth of 25 centimeters below the previously mentioned stratum a floor appeared, paved with large stones and mudbricks, and on top of it are fragments of painted ceramics (BAE1948/S/225/cer/I/1…);57 other [ceramics] with white slip (BAE1948/S/225/cer/II/1…); a lead disk (BAE1948/S/225/Pb/1); an awl or a bone style (BAE/1948/S/B”/225/os/1) and a small undecorated vase (BAE/1948/S/B”/225/cer/III/1). The painted pottery is of a bulged form.58 The findings on top of the stone and mudbrick floor were classified as an intermediate “D” Level, below the conventional “D” level which had an apparent different composition. The “demolition” associated with “Level D” seems to be present elsewhere in the site, including in “Level C” from Area T and the street of Area C. The amount of material above this layer is perhaps a level of debris that fell or accumulated above the fallen mudbrick and stone walls that define what Ramos Folqués, in this quote, thought of as a “floor”. With that in mind the “mudbrick and stone floor” below S/B”/225 is classified S/B”/226, being a demolition or abandonment phase of a building before the original Augustan construction. The 1952 publication indicates that amongst the fill a series of findings were uncovered, including a coarse iron cup 57 58
Possibly “Estilo Ilicitano I” according to Ana Ronda. See ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: n. 7, f. 9r. AMRF note 23. It places the date of this material to the late republican period. Ramos Folqués, “Elche (Alicante). La Alcudia [campañas 1940–1948],” 132. Catalogue numeration added by me. “A una profundidad de 25 centímetros bajo del estrato antes mencionado apareció un piso empedrado con piedras grandes y adobes, y sobre él fragmentos de cerámica pintada; otros con engobe blanco; un disco de plomo, un punzón o estilo de hueso y una pequeña vasija sin decorar. La cerámica pintada es de formas abombadas.”
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(BAE/1948/S/B”/226/Fe/1) and an iron knife (BAE/1948/S/B”/226/Fe/2). Two ceramic findings confirm a fill with ritualistic use, such as a slipped ware with painted geometric motifs (BAE/1948/S/B”/226/cer/I/1) and a pottery fragment with the decoration of a bird (BAE/1948/S/B”/226/cer/I/2). Below this level is, apparently, bedrock, as Ramos Folqués does not describe further findings. Therefore, here we find, as in probe in S/B/D, the full chronological development of Area S, enough to contribute to the interpretation of the whole site. 3.3 Area N/E: North of Area S One final area should be presented here, to the north of walls S/052 and S/055, in other words a compartment to the north of Area S (Fig. 8.20). Much of it is uncertain, as it was excavated intermittently in 1948 and 1949. This area to the north of Area S is ambiguous in its description at best, considering that it consists mostly of a series of fills that were being discovered in different excavations. As stated in Chapter 7, the first fill discovered in this general area north of the basilical structure (Area B) and its eastern appendix (Area S) was B/F/234, which in turn covered the section between those areas and room “P”. On September 30th, 1948, Ramos Folqués describes a series of findings to the north of wall S/052 and to the east of structure S/317, an area called “Compartment X” (Area N/E—Fig. 8.14). There he finds a horizontal fill “of the second level” which would be identified as N/E/227.59 The fact that it was described as a “second level” is evidence of this fill being covered by a “first level” which is evidently B/234, excavated by May 27th, 1948. Even if the bulk of its findings were described in the September 30th entry, the first description of the fill was made on September 25th, 1948,60 when Ramos Folqués described a series of findings made “in the second level, that is one palm beneath the floor of lime” (that is, about 21 centimeters below the level of S/056). This places the fill at about – 0.57 meters from Zero Point, considering the height of the northern edge of floor S/056. The fill was probably associated with a period after the construction of walls B/317 and S/052, which limit this area. However, since there is no clear division between the areas, there is no certainty regarding the relation between this fill, or this entire area N/E, with Area P. While it is evident from the excavation that there is a compartment placed between areas S, P, and B/F that defines this
59 60
ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 30th, 1948, n. 7, f. 24v. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 25th, 1948, n. 7, f. 24r.
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figure 8.20
Plan sketch from Ramos Folqués’ excavation diaries entry in arf, amrf, corpus documental: september 30th, 1948, n. 7, f. annex 6 r
locus, the ambiguity that was detected when it was first discovered on September 25th, 1948 (when it was placed as part of Area P or “Palacio”) complicates its stratigraphic interpretation. Its findings are numerous, and a comprehensive list was published in the 1952 publication of the excavation report for 1948.61 Most important are pottery fragments from the second half of the 1st century bce and 1st century ce, including an incomplete Acco piece with small rhomboidal decoration (BAE/ 1948/N/E/227/cer/2), an incomplete “plain sigillata” with “central awl” (BAE/ 1948/N/E/227/cer/3), a piece of sigillata painted with dove decorations and surrounding circles (BAE/1948/N/E/227/cer/10), an incomplete ointment container, yellowish clay, with the shape of an alabastron (BAE/1948/N/E/227/ cer/6), a lamp filled with remains of snails (BAE/1948/N/E/227/cer/2), and the base of a lamp with part of its disk, which was decorated with a flower (BAE/1948/N/E/227/cer/7). There were also remains of marble (BAE/1948/N/
61
Ramos Folqués, “Elche (Alicante). La Alcudia [campañas 1940–1948],” 132.
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E/227/pet/1), glass (BAE/1948/N/E/227/vit/1), a silver awl (BAE/1948/N/E/227/ Arg/1), and bone objects such as two bone awls (BAE/1948/N/E/227/os/1, 2), a bone needle (BAE/1948/N/E/227/os/3) and perhaps a bone button (BAE/1948/ N/E/227/obj/1). Other objects found in this fill do not offer a clear date, including a red plate with a flat base and groove made of spirals, decorated with concentric circles in its interior (BAE/1948/N/E/227/cer/11), a bronze fragment (BAE/1948/N/E/227/met/1), and a lead piece (BAE/1948/N/E/227/Pb/1), the latter two being mentioned only in the published excavation report. An important finding in this fill is that of a great bronze coin of Vespasian (BAE/1948/N/E/227/num/1), which points towards a Flavian dating for the fill at the earliest. Together with the other 1st century bce and 1st century ce materials, we can date this unit to an imperial, probably Flavian period. This was confirmed by other authors, particularly P. Reynolds.62 We have no data regarding levels under this layer. The area identified as “corner of Palacio” or probe P/D is associated with this sector, but probably closer to the limits of Area P than this specific compartment (see Chapter 10, 3.5). However, one specific locus was associated with being “under the wall of Sacristía”, or under S/055, which is S/P/282, a boulder floor described on October 12th, 1948.63 This boulder includes material from early imperial periods (“Roman ceramics of the ‘good period’”) and Iberian pottery, without further description. Another unit found on August 9th, 1949 is seemingly an equivalent to the S/P/282.64 It is also associated with “corner of Palacio” (“rincón de Palacio”) and “under the wall of Sacristía” (“bajo la pared de la sacristía”), or under S/055. This equivalent fill was classified as S/P/196 and was made of stones that possibly projected from the boulders that made up P/D/282. This level includes only one pottery finding “in between the stones”, a handle with a “button” with the shape of an ear (BAE/1949/S/P/196/cer/1). Most other objects were either stone statue fragments (decorated head of a horse:65 BAE/1949/S/P/196/pet/1; decorated fragment, perhaps architectural: BAE/1949/S/P/196/pet/2), bronze objects (possible necklace: BAE/1949/S/P/196/met/1; solid bronze ring: BAE/ 1949/S/P/196/met/2) or lead objects (led disk or button: BAE/1949/S/P/196/ Pb/1; small lead tube: BAE/1949/S/P/196/Pb/2). The findings from this fill are associated mostly with pre-Roman or early Roman presence, at a period where the Alcudia was a sort of Iberian ritual center with ceremonial burials.66 However, its equivalent fill, P/D/282, is asso62 63 64 65 66
Reynolds, Settlement and Pottery in the Vinalopó Valley (Alicante, Spain), 6. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: October 12th, 1948, n. 7, f. annex 10r. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: August 9th, 1949, n. 9, f. 15r. Ronda Femenia, L’Alcudia de Alejandro Ramos Folqués, 162. Identified as item LA-683. The cultic nature of the site during its Pre-Roman Iberian period is widely documented.
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ciated with a somewhat later period, perhaps early imperial. Either way, no material was found here that could be dated to after the late 1st century bce, unlike the fill of the “second level” N/E/227. In conclusion, this sub-area to the north of S and south of P is an ambiguous area. Ramos Folqués already interpreted this “compartment” as a vertedero (a rubbish dump), which would fit the fact that it has a large amount of material and that this sector apparently never had a built-in floor. The fills underneath wall S/055 are also important in this reading, since they suggest that the construction of the wall was no later than the 1st century ce. Considering the findings of wall B/023 and B/010, as well as levels in probes S/B/D and S/B” described in this chapter, this dating fits well with the building’s history.
4
Chronology of Area S
The findings in Area S were less numerous, but give more information than Area B, due to the more coherent archaeological interventions in the area. The stratigraphic grid presented here allowed for the establishment of different phases associated with the findings recovered in this section. 4.1 Phase I: Latest Phase and Abandonment Chronologically speaking, the latest level is that of the abandonment of the site, associated best with stratigraphic units S/B/239, S/B/D’/238, S/B/D/237, and S/B’/242. This late level was considered as Phase Ia of Area S. All these loci are either found on top of architectural features such as the walls that limited the area and sub-areas (such as northern wall S/052 and S/055, or median wall S/053), or were placed after the abandonment of the site like S/B/D’/238, which included the finding of a series of roof tiles put in an orderly fashion and supported on the ashlar sandstone used for wall S/052. Evidently, it is possible to see from the abandonment of the site that the northern and eastern walls S/052 and S/203, respectively, were visible and usable (Plate VII). This also implied the sale of construction material for its reutilization. While there is no positive evidence for the abandonment of this
So far little has been found that was actually inhabited as a conventional town before the Roman colonial foundation. See Mercedes Tendero Porras, “Ilici. L’Alcúdia d’Elx,” La Rella 28 (2015): 118–120; Carmen Aranegui, “La dama de Guardamar y el conjunto de damas ibéricas,”Baluard. Anuari de l’Institut d’Estudis Guardamarencs, 2014, 17; Rafael Ramos Fernández, “Áreas de culto en la Alcudia ibérica,” Anales de Prehistoria y Arqueología 17–18 (2001): 117–126.
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site within the Alcudia specifically, there is reason to believe this sale scheme of spolia from such an abandoned building was done through the 8th century ce, when the ancient urban area of Ilici was abandoned and the new city of Elche was built several kilometers north (where the Palace of Altamira lies today, at the city center) as occurred in other cities following the Islamic conquest of the Iberian Peninsula. Further spoliation activity can be clearly seen with the hole S/B/-248 and its fill S/B/265. Therefore, Area S was in use at least until a short period before the 8th century abandonment of the site. This is a stark contradiction with the theory presented by Lorenzo Roberto and Javier Morcillo in 2014, where they interpreted this area as being abandoned as early as the late 4th century ce, by the time the main basilical hall (Area B) was built.67 Had this been the case, it would mean that for more than 300 years that wall remained visible but without use until the city was finally abandoned. A simpler explanation is that the area was abandoned and demolished at the same time as the rest of the building. In theory a Phase Ib should be represented by the presence of a “Level O” stage like that found in areas “P” and “T”, perhaps represented by late “A–B” wall B/014 in Area B, as well as the last south wall of the basilical building, B/021. However, there is no evidence for such a “Level O” layer, as the latest mortar floor is associated with a Phase II for Area P and levels “B” and “A” in the traditional stratigraphy of the site. Even so, the presence of structures, such as B/014 and B/015 in Area B, suggests the continued, partial use of this area through the presence of a staircase that could have reached the eastern room. This is particularly true with the evidence of the staircase’s initial direction towards Area S in the three steps classified as B/015, which was attached to the already mentioned “A–B” wall from Phase Ib (see Chapter 7). No doubt this area to the east of the main hall of the basilical building was still in use during this last use phase. 4.2 Phases II and III The apparent last use phase of the site is Phase II. This apparent latest phase of use is associated with wall S/052 and its continuation in the east as S/203. In between the ashlars S/124 (which is part of wall S/052) there were materials from the early 4th century, along with pigeon bones placed in a ritualistic manner (see above). The phase defined by the construction of these walls was classified as Phase II, associated with the construction from the same phase in
67
Lorenzo de San Román and Morcillo, “La basílica paleocristiana de Ilici (L’Alcudia, Elche),” 521; Lorenzo de San Román, “Ilici en la Antigüedad Tardía,” 220–222.
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Area B, that is the laying of the mosaic floor B/011. Considering it is placed on top of wall B/010, it is therefore plausible that it surrounded the entire northern half of the area. The northern room was 3 meters wide and 4 meters long until S/053. It was covered by a gravel and lime floor S/056, which has the appearance of plaster or a coarse opus signinum. The phase’s fills at this northern half, S/B/D’/058 and S/B/D/059, do not have a clear chronological indicator, as no findings were associated with these fills. On the southern half of Area S, we find stratigraphic units S/B’/243 and S/B”/236, the first being on top of a fill of rather late ceramic forms in S/B’/050, and the second being clearly associated with material that is not earlier than the 4th century ce. Interestingly, the “second stucco” S/057, which is of unknown dating, is placed just below S/052. It certainly covers the “first stucco” S/061. However, it does not cover the latter vertically and therefore it did not strictly cover wall S/055, but rather a preparative supportive foundation section of wall S/052. This foundation was found as deep as the lime plaster floor S/060. In other words, S/057 was the vertical limit on top of the foundation for wall S/052. This means that S/057 was contemporary with S/B/D’/058 and S/B/D/059, and of course S/056 as well, which would not be visible during its use. In this phase, only the reused ashlar sandstones S/124 were visible. This phase was extant at the same time as the latest level of the Area B structure, as evidenced by the fact that the outer plaster covering B/187 continued eastwards starting from the section north of northern wall B/023. Perhaps the feature is associated with Phase IIb (apsed basilical building) seen in Area B. Considering this, as well as the evidence from walls 052, levels 056, fills 059 and 058, and especially S/B’/243 and S/B”/236, this Phase II can be dated to a certain moment between the second quarter of the 4th century and its abandonment in the early or mid-8th century ce. In this area there is no direct architectural evidence for a Phase Ib as in other areas; therefore, this phase is included as part of Phase II in Area S. In other words, Phase II in Area S is contemporary to Phases II and Ib from areas B and P. A more specific date is impossible considering the lack of sealed strata. However, there can be sub-periods for this Phase II from Area S that would allow for a better understanding of a relative chronological development of this area. Evidence for such reforms, most likely on the wall mounts and probably wooden or other kinds of furniture, was completely obliterated. The key to understand these phases is central wall S/326. Hauschild’s 1971 plan, as well as images recovered from the eastern section of Area B, reveals that the wall was broken on its western edge, on the line of the western face of B/010. Two boulders that were part of the wall stand out of the B/010 face, indicating that at some moment there was a continuation westward. Consider-
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ing the construction activity associated with this eastern section of Area B, we can assume that before the construction of the eastern apse B/006 there were a series of rooms or a room to the east of the mosaic floor. It was at that time when stuccos S/127, B/017, and S/327 were placed. The moment when this room was demolished cannot be defined with certainty. There are two possible periods when it could have occurred: 1) When gravel and lime mortar floor B/NE/077 and B/EM/302 were laid to the east of what would be the mosaic area. Being equal to sub-mosaic floor B/114, they were then placed before synagogue’s construction, or before the late 4th century ce. This floor covered remains of stucco B/017, associated with the original building of B/010 and wall B/236. 2) When the eastern apse B/006 was constructed, breaking whatever structures were preserved to the east of the mosaic. For that purpose, it was necessary to demolish walls that would have been placed in the way of the apse structure. Considering the construction of the eastern apse, particularly in using the lower and tangential structures like B/EM/301 and eastern wall B/010 itself, I am inclined to conclude that such demolition took place in the second scenario, and not the first. This position is further supported by metrological analysis of the main hall, where the predominant ratio module was modified to include the expansion of the hall eastwards, beyond the line defined later by wall B/026. It is true that wall S/326 was partially in line with structure B/EM/301 and floor B/EM/025 found under what would have been the southern branch of the apse according to the Hauschild plan (Fig. 7.4). Also, those features were later partially covered with cobble stones as in other parts of the eastern section of Area B. However, there is the possibility that these walls suffered several reforms through their useful lives, including a previous partial demolition and reforms when the original main hall was constructed. The visible demolition of the western part of wall S/326 is the latest one it suffered. Furthermore, had there been a demolition before the construction of the eastern apse, we would have found stucco covering at the juncture between B/010 and S/316, and not the remains of two stones protruding from it. This reveals that such a structure was visible to the builders of the eastern apse. It is probable to assume then that demolition of the western part of wall S/326 must have first taken place in a pre-mosaic period, and a complete removal of the wall in Phase IIb must have occurred to accommodate the construction of the eastern apse. When the mosaic floor was laid, the area had a basilical, rectangular plan, adequate for the placement of a synagogue or a church. This reform, then, would have occurred during the 6th century.
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Chronologically it is possible to see the original building of wall S/326 as having occurred at the same time as walls B/010 and B/023—in the late first century bce. This would have been a Phase IIIe, which would be associated with the original Roman (Augustan) construction. This period is the one which is associated with levels S/B/D/063 and S/B/D/064, the latter with evidence of mixed material with layer S/B/D/062, itself present with apparent 6th to 7th century pottery (BAE/1949/S/B/D/062/cer/1) as a result of a kind of intentional deposition in this probe. Lime mortar floor 063 is the level from which “1st stucco” S/061 starts, which as was explained above is equivalent to S/127 and S/317. Below is fill 064 with material associated with the finding of two cultic statuettes of what seem to be Tanit and another of Bacchus—therefore, associated with a pre-Roman or republican use of the site as a cultic center, though an imperial date for these features cannot be discarded either. Considering the dating and, especially, the relative chronology of the site, it is plausible that this level is associated with the first Roman urbanization of this sector of the Alcudia. It belonged to the foundation phase of walls S/326, S/010, and S/055, as well as first stucco covering S/061 and its equivalent in the northern half of this site’s area. Equivalent to this level in the southwestern probe S/B” is loci S/B”/247 and S/B”/223. We find in S/B”/247 an “ash level” associated with the “lower Roman” floor. Under this is fill S/B”/223 which has material dated to a middle imperial period, particularly a coin by Gallienus which cannot have been laid before 260ce. In other words, this level would have a tentative chronology of the last third of the 3rd century. The presence of ashes that seal it points towards a transition between Phase IIIb (perhaps late 3rd century), which had the full preservation of wall S/326’s extension to the west, and IIIa, where we detect “Level M” from Area B, possibly early 4th century ce. To the southeast of the area we find levels associated with early Roman and imperial materials. This is the case of “imperial level” S/B’/050 with a rather late pilgrim’s flask (though the dating of it is unclear), and S/B’/047 placed “below” the “floor of Sacristía”, that is, S/056. The material recovered from the “imperial” level is associated with Late Antiquity without more details, though it was placed before stratum S/B’/243 associated with Phase II. Therefore, the logical conclusion is that S/B’/050 should be read as a late 3rd century ce level of that probe, while S/B’/047 is of a previous period. In other words, Phase IIIa, IIIb (050), and IIIe (047) are represented here. The evidence for a coin of Vespasian in the northern fill N/E suggests that reforms were done during the Flavian or early Antonine period (Phase IIId or late 1st to early 2nd centuries ce), which fits with detected reforms in Area B and Area T, as well as elsewhere on the Alcudia site.
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Having identified all the main phases represented in the wall constructions of the site, we can summarize as follows: the area’s history starts with Phase IIIe, with subsequent major or minor reforms in Phase IIId (Flavian) and IIIba (late 3rd–early 4th centuries) along with the pre-basilical Roman building. It is followed by important reforms in Phase II, linked to the mid-late 4th century, most probably to the moment when the site was converted into a synagogue for cultic and congregational purposes. In fact, following the story of wall S/326 the transition from Phase III and II can be identified in this area (Plates II and III). As indicated above in a later, pre-mosaic period, or Phase IIIa, the westernmost branch of wall S/326 was demolished and covered with a gravel and lime mortar floor around the eastern section of Area B, while the eastern Area S was covered with fill S/B/D/062 and lime mortar floor S/B/D/060, equal to S/B”/222 and S/B”/246. This is detected from units B/EM/301 and B/EM/025. In a later period, in the reforms for the construction of the eastern apse in Phase IIb, we find the demolition of what remained of the western extension of wall S/326. Possibly the floors associated with “Level B” had been originally placed after the first partial demolition of S/326. In fact, the material remains for the fill and floor associated with “Level B” have been consistently linked with Ibero-Roman and perhaps early imperial objects. Considering that this is not a sealed stratum, its dating is questionable. The lack of late antique materials points clearly to a pre-mosaic dating, using earthen fills with objects from the previous, Early Roman use of the area. In other words, this phase is associated with Phase IIIa. We can assume that this Phase IIIa was still in use as the mosaic floor was laid in Area B in the late 4th century. However, it is only with an advanced Phase II that the final construction phase that defined this area is found. The foundations of the ashlar sandstone wall S/052 and S/203 were laid by placing a rubble fill boxed within lime mortar, detected in S/057, B/187, and S/054. This includes the addition of wall S/053 at the center of Area S. On top of that, we find the “ashlar covering” S/124 that is part of wall S/052 itself. The ashlar strakes S/124 covered other walls that form the eastern rooms of the complex, including B/010 which was apparently partially demolished and reconstructed as a result. On top of the foundation, covering it, were abandonment fills S/B/D/059 and S/B/D’/058. This level was associated with the construction of median wall B/OM/034 in the sub-area B/OM, west of the mosaic floor. This median wall was not in the original plan of the room. However, the ashlar sandstone used for this construction must have come from the same place where the builders got the ashlars for the Area S building, although almost surely from a different date (see Chapters 7 and 2.5). Therefore, the construction of walls S/052, S/053, and S/203 was
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of a later date than the mosaic floor, perhaps relatively late in the building’s history. Considering the construction of the apse structure to the east, which changed the organization of the complex, including its axis, it is perhaps associated to Phase IIb. The 4th century materials in these phases do not limit Phase II’s dating enough to give certainty for the area’s dates. However, considering the stratigraphic development of the area, this sector could not have been linked to Area B, under any circumstance, before the mid-4th century ce. Considering the material remains associated with reutilization of architectural features elsewhere on the site, there is reason to believe this construction activity was done during a later date, between the 5th and 6th centuries ce, when other similar architectural activities were detected in the Alcudia. By the mid-late 8th century, as expressed above, the Phase II structure was abandoned and demolished (Phase Ia). 4.3 Earlier Phases: IV and V Under the level associated with “1st stucco” S/061 and wall S/055 are the “Level D” stratigraphic units, most notably S/B/D/065, 066, and S/B”/224. Layer S/B/D/065 is made of sand and gravel and seems to be a preparatory level for upper strata S/B/D/062 and 060. This interface must have been placed just before the laying of the upper fill of “Level C”, explaining the use of sand and gravel to support whatever floor was used associated with stucco S/061. This “Level D” has many findings which include late republican pottery and other objects. The same is confirmed with stratum S/B”/224, placed 20 centimeters under S/B”/223 in the southwestern sector of Area S. However, unlike 066, this level 224 has a dramatically low number of findings, despite being 25 centimeters thick. The difference between 066 and 224 probably lies in the planning of this area as early as the 1st century bce, when the Roman domus was first constructed, dividing Area S into two. Stratum 066 was a fill used to prepare for the inner floor of the area, unlike stratum 224. Perhaps much of that fill included local pottery findings. The case of S/066 is similar to the quantity of findings in “Level D” from Area C, thus pointing to Phase IV in this level— that is, a pre-Augustan phase. Stratum S/B”/224 was not associated with a delicate floor, probably being less durable or having none. The findings point towards the use of this area for religious or ritual purposes, as was the case in most of the Alcudia in pre-Roman and republican times. The most important finding in this level is a neck-less amphora of pre-Roman or very early Roman times, a “Ramon T” or “Pellicer” type that still used Punic, rather than Italian forms. This points towards a fill with late 3rd or 2nd century bce material, without possibility of specify-
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ing further. The material in S/B”/224 is of a significantly earlier date than fill S/B/D/066, even if the fills were both probably laid in a late republican period. Evidence for such earlier materials suggests the occupation of this sector of the site in periods before the late republican and early imperial presence. Below those two levels are more loci supposedly associated with preAugustan periods, in other words before this area of the Alcudia was urbanized and built. Therefore, in the northern probe we find “Level E” associated with S/B/D/067 and S/B/D/068. Both are the first level of fill above the bedrock associated with Folqués’ “Level F”. All material recovered were apparently under a floor (067) of boulder stones that separates “E” from “D” above it. The objects seem to be predominantly simply-made, with non-decorated ceramics and with reductive firing. Their use is unknown, while their dating remains uncertain, as this was another unsealed stratum. In this lower level there is a clear disassociation from probe S/B” since there is no evidence to equate S/B/D/068 to S/B”/225. Unit S/B”/225 in the southwestern probe has material that, curiously, would equate it with S/B/D/066 rather than S/B/D/068. However, considering the existence of locus 224 above it, which has material of a previous period from 066, such an association is discarded. Most importantly it is a demolition phase identified with a pre-Roman building. Materials found in this level have no presence of sigillata, therefore pointing to a 2nd or early 1st century bce (preAugustan) level before its demolition. Therefore, this level is the final moment of Phase IV, or is a phase of pre-Roman buildings that were demolished to make way for the construction of the Phase III Augustan/early imperial building. At this moment it is important to note the representation of these earlier phases in probe S/B’ at the southeastern corner of Area S. There has been little evidence for sealed strata in this probe, instead detecting a succession of fills without clear pavements, with the exception of a Phase II floor S/B’/243 and the abandonment (Phase I) fill S/B’/242 (associated with the 4th and 8th centuries ce respectively). However, as we have seen above, earlier phases are still represented here, with S/B’/050 and S/B’/047 of Phases IIId and IIIe respectively. The lowest detected strata were loci linked with a “republican” period S/B’/051, on which two holes (–197 and –198) were done with respective fills (048 and 049; see above). In one of those fills (048) there was the important finding of a late 1st century bce amphora pointing towards the covering of these holes during the construction of the Roman building (Phase IIIe). Ramos Folqués did not identify further levels below the “republican” one (051), which should be associated with a Phase IV fill. It is important to indicate that a similar hole to the ones found in probe S/B’ was found in northern probe S/B/D with hole –071 and its fill 070, dug into the
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bedrock (069). There one finds a “Punic mask”, which is to be dated towards the late 3rd century bce (Phase V). However, the Campanian ware found here leads us to conclude that this would probably be a later fill, used for the construction or preparation of the Phase IIIe building which would be dated to the late 1st century bce, despite having a post quem dating going as back to the 2nd century bce. The only evidence we have of a pre-Roman layer is found in the southeastern probe S/B”. In the lowest locus of this probe, S/B”/226, without clear depth, the material found includes an iron cup and knife, and geometrically decorated pottery that would suggest Iberian ritual objects. There is no evidence for clearly Roman or transitional Ibero-Roman production from Folqués’ description. While chronology cannot be conclusive here, I suggest that the lack of Roman material in this lowest level, which is placed directly on top of the bedrock, might well be evidence for a Phase V associated with the Iberian period on the site. 4.4 Conclusions The model presented here for the chronological development of Area S is not as rigorous as one should expect from a modern excavation. However, valuable information can be derived from Area S which is wholly unavailable in Area B. Most notable is the fact that the area’s most important constructive activity, besides that of the original building, should be dated between the 3rd and early 5th centuries ce, a period represented in construction activity in Area B. There are barely sealed loci, requiring chronological conclusions to be made with utmost care. Most material is not available for study, as it was mixed and decontextualized, lost after excavation, and/or lacking in sufficient description. Strata with a general bundle of “Roman pottery” might have material from any Roman period without a clear identification by the author. However, as we have seen in these pages, there is a certain pattern of constructive activity and chronological identification that can be recovered from such data. Firstly, there are two major moments of activity in the site: the late 1st century bce (Phase IIIe), and the mid-late 4th century ce (Phase IIe). These two moments correspond with the construction of the Roman domus which occupied this urban area of Ilici for centuries in the first case, and the construction of the mosaic hall in the second. Area S space was built probably following the Augustan “refoundation” of the city, although a possibility of it being from the Lepidan “foundation” exists.68 Apparently, there is evidence for continuity
68
Mercedes Tendero Porras and Ana Ronda Femenia, “La ciudad romana de Ilici (L’Alcú-
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between the areas “B” and “S” in usage after the conversion of the main hall area into a synagogue. Therefore, there is no reason to suppose that Area S was abandoned after the 4th century, but rather was part and parcel of the site. Evidence recovered from the abandonment Phase Ia level suggests a 7th or 8th century date. In this period the site was sacked for its construction material and sold off, using the northeastern corner of Area S as a support for several roof tiles ready to be reused. While in Area B we find evidence for sub-phases of II, that is sub-phases of the basilical building’s usage, this is not the case in Area S. There can be many reasons for this, from the use of wooden or other perishable material that were periodically replaced and, therefore, left no mark in today’s ruins, to the absence of any renovation or repair in this area. What is certain is that for around 300 years the walls of room “S” were visible and, finally, used at the abandonment of the site, assuming that the coinage detected and associated with the construction of Phase II was laid there less than a century after their first minting (which is not necessarily the case). With all the above in mind, in Area S one can suggest the following chronological phases: – Phases V and IV: Pre-domus late Iberian and republican periods respectively, associated with cultic Iberian or Ibero-Roman practices and structures. Namely, it covers the period contemporaneous to the “Iberian Temple”, excavated in 1990 by Ramos Fernández and discovered under the western section of Area B. Phase IV could be associated with an abandonment phase through the 2nd century bce, and includes most materials found in layers associated with “Level D” and “E”. – Phases IIIe and IIId: first Roman construction, a domus that required copious amounts of fill material. Area S included rooms to the west of what is tangential wall B/010, which is represented by a western extension of eastwest wall S/326 at the center of Area S. This phase included the sealing of holes dug on bedrock or the earlier levels in this site’s sector. Area S is divided in two halves by S/326 and its eastern extension S/328: a northern half, that was an “interior” roofed space, and a southern half with no clear identified use or even a southern limitation. – Phase IIIa: Roman domus following significant internal reforms. Loci from probes S/B’ and S/B” reveal what seems like a demolition of constructed dia de Elche, Alicante),” in Ciudades romanas valencianas. Actas de las Jornadas sobre Ciudades Romanas Valencianas. Actualidad de la investigación históricoarqueológica, ed. Manuel H. Olcina Domènech (Alicante: Museo Arqueológico de Alicante, 2014), 231; Tendero Porras, “Ilici. L’Alcúdia d’Elx,” 124.
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material, an ash level, linked to the last third of the 3rd century ce through coinage and some ceramic evidence. This phase could possibly remain even after the first construction of the mosaic in Area B, up to a Phase IIb. – Phase II: Basilical phase (synagogue), late 4th century. Identified through complete reforms of Area S walls, as well as the construction of a new wall S/053 with an east-west direction in its center. Possible use of wooden structures for a second floor, including a staircase associated with preserved S/326 to the east of tangential wall B/010. Unlike areas “B” and “T”, in Area S there are no detected changes in any of the building’s sub-phases. Therefore, there is no definition of sub-phases of this room’s history. We find, associated to the earlier stage of this construction, the small ashlar wall S/052 and S/124, perhaps from Phase IIe (late 4th century). Furthermore, the definite demolition of wall S/326 within the limits of Area B were tentatively associated to Phase IIb (6th century) without definite evidence. – Phase Ib: tentative phase following the presence of B/015 as a staircase with the direction to Area S. – Phase Ia: abandonment phase, 8th or 9th century. Spoliation of the site, including its roof tiles and with spoliation hole dug to the south of S/326.
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South of the “Basilica”: Areas T and C 1
Introduction
The areas south of the main hall were first excavated in 1948, along with areas S and P. Curiously enough, these areas were richest in archaeological findings, but interpretation was consistently lacking. One of the main reasons was the evident problem of separating the areas themselves in interventions defined by the homogeneous viewpoint of the excavators. While this sector of the complex was defined by a “street” (Area C) that established its public character, it is also defined by another area that was identified here. Previous researchers consistently missed the existence of an area in between, which is located south of Area B and north of what was deemed Area C: Area T, named as such due to its association with tabernae looking towards the street. This area is significant for having several compartments, which makes the identification of its stratigraphic units a complicated matter. Instead, a considerable level of trust is placed on the main testimony for these features: the descriptions given by the archaeologist Alejandro Ramos Folqués. Measurements and descriptions primarily depend on the material recovered from the Folqués’ excavation diaries, photographs from the expedition south of the basilical building, and recovered “Loose Notes” that described findings in this area. There are only few publications of findings from these areas, but these have also been also used for the reconstruction of this site’s excavation and relevant phases.1 Despite these limitations, this area allowed for the identification of strata associated with periods previous and subsequent to the mosaic floor.
2
Definition of Areas T and C
The areas south of Area B were loosely defined as corresponding to the eastwest street that runs parallel to the basilical building’s axis. Up until 1948, when Ramos Folqués re-excavated the basilical building, there was no information on the southern limit of the structure, nor on the structures beyond it. 1 Alejandro Ramos Folqués, “Hallazgos escultóricos en La Alcudia de Elche,” Archivo Español de Arqueología 23 (1950): 353–359; Ramos Fernández, “Los templos ibéricos de la Alcuida de Elche,” 112.
© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2021 | doi:10.1163/9789004419926_011 Alexander Bar-Magen
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The results led to certain interpretations that helped later researchers to define the building as a Christian basilica, particularly the early finding of a few burials in the area between the street and the basilical building itself. However, due to the lack of consideration for the stratigraphic position of these burials and, particularly, their height, such an interpretation became increasingly problematic. Most crucial is the fact that up until now there was no clear publication of the evident structures found between the street and the main building, or Area T. Perhaps the reason is that these structures were not properly studied, were hard to interpret, or were thought to lack findings of sufficient import to merit particular care for study and interpretation by scholars. Simply put, this “inbetween” area was not considered part of the basilical building, nor part of the street that defined the archaeological site. Area T is divided by north-south walls that were attached to the southern face of the southern basilical building walls. These north-south walls were, for the most part, parallel to each other, and they defined a series of rooms attached to the rest of the structure from its south, accessed from the street. With these north-south wall the area presents a series of sub-areas defined by a sequence of compartments. The most important set of rooms are to the south of the southwestern corner of the basilical building, which include a north-south axis structure classified as “room 1”, “room 2”, and “room 3” in Ramos Folqués’ excavation diaries entry for September 7th, 1948 (Figs. 9.1, 2, 3).2 These rooms had a double classification according to the sketch where they are mentioned. Rooms “2” and “3” were classified also as “A” and “B” respectively. Accordingly, those sub-areas were classified here as T/A2 and T/B3. “Room 1” was associated with “Room H” of a later, 1949 sketch, that also described a burial detected there. It was then classified as T/H1. It is important to note that this set of rooms were first discovered ten centimeters beneath the “agricultural level”, or under modern soil, specifically in compartment T/H1. These structures were found south of B/021, which is the uppermost southern wall of the basilical structure, as was described in Chapter 7. In other words, these structures were above the compartments described later in Area T. It is also this condition that leads us to not precisely know the width of the north-south axis of these series of structures, as being above the other levels of areas C and T we cannot define the measurements of said compartments. For all we know, these “rooms” probably were not only on top of Area T, but also of Area C, albeit probably partially. Chronologi-
2 ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 7th, 1948, n. 7, ff. 16v–18r, 20r.
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figure 9.1 Sketch of stratigraphy and plan of “Rooms” T/H1, T/A2, T/B3, on the basilical building’s southeastern corner arf, amrf, corpus documental: september 7th, 1948, n. 7, f. 16 v
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figure 9.2 Sketch of stratigraphy and plan of “Rooms” T/H1, T/A2, T/B3, on the basilical building’s southeastern corner arf, amrf, corpus documental, entry for september 7th, 1948, n. 7, f. 17 r
cally this places these structures after the abandonment of the basilical structure (see below). Under these specific rooms we find the compartments that divided the area. These include, in the same southeastern corner of the mosaic floor building, rooms T/I and T/H, which generate the greatest amount of stratigraphic information, while being parallel rooms with similar levels for the north-south walls that defined them. The compartment’s names were based on the lettering Ramos Folqués gave them through their description in the excavation diaries. The first sketch that described these two rooms is from September 20th, 1949 (Fig. 9.4), describing the structures linked to both areas C and T, and associated with a stratigraphic sketch of that area (Fig. 9.1). Despite their lack of details, it seems that room T/I had been excavated with more depth than room T/H. In order to describe the area, the sketch from the excavation diaries entry of May 10th, 1950, is the most useful (Fig. 9.6). Another important source is the “Loose Notes” sketch by Alejandro Ramos Folqués (Fig. 9.5). Both describe the compartments from Area T as well as sectors of the southern street (or Area C) excavated to the east of what was described above as rooms T/I and T/H. The May 10th, 1950 sketch provides several measurements of the discovered compartments. First, as described in the May 1950 sketch (Fig. 9.6), the width of Area T is around 3.1 meters including wall T/106’s width. This measurement fits with the
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figure 9.3 Second sketch of “Rooms” T/H1, T/A2, T/B3, on the basilical building’s southeastern corner from Alejandro Ramos Folqués’ excavation diaries in arf, amrf, corpus documental: september 7th, 1948, n. 7, f. 20 r
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figure 9.4 Sketch of compartments found to the southwest of “basilica building”, including “rooms” T/I and T/H in Alejandro Ramos Folqués’ excavation diaries in arf, amrf, corpus documental: september 20th, 1949, n. 10, f. 24 r
one given in the plan sketch from September 20th, 1949, (Fig. 9.18) and the account from that same entry in Ramos Folqués’ diaries, where the distance from the street and the “mosaic wall” (that is, inner bench B/028) is 4.5 meters.3 The width of these two points (outer face of the northern Area C limit T/106 and the southern face of B/028), with the measurements given in the sketch from May 10th, 1950, reveals the distance to be 4.55 meters excluding a wall from said “Level E” T/343 sketch. This is confirmed in the “Loose Notes” account (Fig. 9.5), which gives the width of wall T/106 to the south of Area T. In the latter drawing the inner width of Area T is consistently 2.7 meters, as is the case of the sketch from May 10th, 1950.
3 ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 20th, 1949, n. 10, r. 17r.
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figure 9.5 “Loose Notes” sketch by Alejandro Ramos Folqués. Rooms T/I and T/H, and “Statue Street” Area C fla archives
figure 9.6 Sketch of Area T as excavated in its eastern and central area May, 1950. Ramos Folques’ excavation diaries in arf, amrf, corpus documental: may 10th, 1950, n. 10, ff. 35 v –36 r . fla archives
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The length of its compartments (following the east-west axis) changes according to the specific room described. With their length and width, we list their measurements as follows, from west to east: – T/I: 2.6 meters long × 2.7 meters wide – T/H: 3.9×2.7 meters – T/E/P: 5.2×2.7 meters – T/E/Q: 1.6×2.7 meters – T/E/R: ??? × 2.65 meters – T/E/S: ??? × 2.65 meters – T/E/T’: ??? × 2.65 meters As can be seen in the list above, the easternmost rooms have no information regarding their actual length (east-west axis). The width changes slightly (by 5 centimeters), considering that in this area the street was measured to be 5 centimeters wider than the more eastern section of areas T/I and T/H. The lack of such information in the easternmost compartments for Area T reflects the limits of the excavation in the southeastern area of the complex—something that is confirmed in the southern section of Area S. From these measurements, what certain is that Area T extended beyond the eastern limit of Area B, reaching into the sector south of Area S, and thus confirming the continuity of this area in that direction regardless of the uses of the building in its interior. Sub-areas to the west of rooms T/I and T/H present a seeming relationship of continuity with sub-areas B/OM and B/OB to their north. The first reference for it is in the sketch in excavation diaries from October 9th, 1951 (Fig. 7.7), marked with an “X” to indicate where probe T/OB was conducted.4 Ramos Folqués later revisited the room on January 28th, 1952 (Fig. 7.61), in which he marked it with “XX” to indicate where his findings were recovered.5 The sketch reflects the existence of a room marked with “XX” that gave entrance to the basilical area (Area B). This room was further described in the same diaries, with entries on April 15th and 16th, 1954, having two sketches (Figs. 5.62, 63). “Room XX” was described as a compartment between two walls, one being T/306, continuation of T/OB/306, and another being T/341, to the east of the latter wall. Between this compartment and T/I, was probe T/W, described as a “Roman room” to the south of what is classified in Chapter 7, 2.1 as B/OB and, perhaps, B/OM.6 The loci found there give information about the chronological
4 ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: October 9th, 1951, n. 14, f. 8r. 5 ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: January 28th, 1952, n. 15, f. 9r. 6 ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: April 15th, 1955, n. 19, f. 54r.
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figure 9.7 Plan sketch of excavations in subarea T/OB arf, amrf, corpus documental: october 9th, 1951, n. 14, f. 8 r
development of Area T specifically, as both findings and a stratigraphic sketch were given in the diaries. All those sections of Area T show a quite complex picture of structures present to the south of the Roman structure encompassing areas B, S, and P. However, this area was better described by the southern street’s layers, from which all strata of the two areas were defined. This street was classified as Area C, following the Spanish word for “street” or “calle”. It was discovered early on in 1949, and not before, since by 1948 only the upper structures (T/H1, A2, B3) were excavated. The first reference for this area is on September 14th, 1948,7 where Ramos Folqués indicated the finding of a gravel floor 15 centimeters below the modern, agricultural level (see below). Apparently, this area started underneath what was considered room T/A2, as proposed in the aforementioned excavation diaries entry. Therefore, it was to the south of what was recovered as compartment T/H1. It was only on an intervention to the south of Area B, starting on September 12th, 1949, when Ramos Folqués clearly described this area as “calle”, or “street” that runs parallel to the main axis of Area B, that is in an east-west direction. As stated above, this area was classified as Area C. For all purposes, Ramos Folqués described the whole area south of the mosaic floor as “Street”. Therefore, it was difficult to differentiate between levels
7 ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 14th, 1948, n. 7, f. 21r.
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discovered in Area T, and those discovered in Area C. The stratigraphic levels associated with either structure are seen as one and the same, though in this study much effort has been made to differentiate between the levels in C and those in T, identifying the horizontal loci according to their precedence, and not only their depth. Since pre-Roman times Area C was an important street, as Iberian ceremonial burials were placed around it, including the famous Dama de Elche bust around 130 meters to the east. However, by Roman times it seems to have been used as an important axis in the urban development of Ilici. This street sets the direction and connects the buildings around it, starting from west of the basilical building, and ending hundreds of meters to the east. In this study, Area C is limited to the urban block upon which the “basilica” was built. Unlike Area T, there are no identified compartments on this area, indicating a continuity and a homogeneity of identified loci. The main, central area for the street, south of the main synagogue hall, is classified simply as “main Area C”. It is described as a series of horizontal strata from September 19th, 1949.8 Further description can be seen in the sketches from September 20th, 1949, and May 10th, 1950 (Figs. 9.4, 6), as well as the “Loose Notes” sketch from around the same period (Fig. 9.5). The May 10th, 1950, sketch provides the measurements of Area C’s width. South of room T/I, the width of the street is 3.2 to 3.45 meters depending on the phase of use (see 3.1 below), starting from a wall that separates Area T from Area C (wall T/106). However, further to the east, another rubble wall was built more to the south, located inside what would be street’s width and reducing it by 35 centimeters—that is, only 2.85 meters—south of T/H. Further east, south of the eastern rooms of T (that is, T/E), the width is increased again by 55 centimeters, to 3.4 meters. South of rooms T/E/S and T/E/T’, the easternmost recorded compartments, the width is increased 5 more centimeters to 3.45 meters. The changing width of this area of C is evidence for the inherent changes in a site occupied for centuries. To the south, a wall described as “From A to F” (C/110) was found. It cuts through all levels of the street and separates this area from the structures excavated to the south, in 1952, and which fall beyond the scope of this study. While the main area of C is relatively well defined, the sub-area to its west, with excavated structures built in what was a westward projection of main Area C, has a much more limited description. This sub-area C/W is described as
8 ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 19th, 1949, n. 10, f. 14r.
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a series of “houses from levels B, C and D”, described in the excavation diaries entry for December 23rd, 1954.9 These houses were apparently located at the southwestern corner of the whole complex, that is, to the southwest of sub-area B/OB, at a point of intersection between this street and another, north-south one that closes the urban block to the west. These structures were apparently covered eventually by a level associated with “A” (C/W/220), though that is unclear (see below). The structures were comprised of three compartments that occupied the whole width of the street: one to the south, attached to the southern edge of the street, and two to the north, also attached to the northern edge of Area C. Other described sub-areas associated with Area C have been mentioned in the excavation diaries, but without much certainty as to where they were located. This is the case with sub-area C/E, that is merely the eastern extension of Area C where T/E is placed. That is, it is south of sub-area T/E. Another sub-area detected is C/N, also described on May 10th, 1950,10 though without specific mention in that entry’s sketch (Fig. 9.6). One final note on these two areas of the site. The fact is that they are interrelated in terms of their historic development. Area T seems to have merely been a northern extension of what was considered a “street”, and therefore Ramos Folqués’ view of the site was, to an extent, correct. However, from a stratigraphic point of view it was decided to separate the two areas, considering that despite their relations, they had different functions. Areas C and T are important for this building for containing its access points. One of these compartments detected in Area T is possibly the entrance to Area B from Area C.
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Stratigraphic Sequencing of Areas T and C
There was a good case to propose a treatment of these areas differently from the others, which were divided according to sub-areas which were broadly defined by probes and internal architectural division of the more general area. For starters, the stratigraphic development considered for Area C is the same as for Area T, as the excavator considered them the same area. Therefore, the description below could be done in a “horizontal” fashion, describing the features and discoveries one stratum at a time. It would start with stratum “O”,
9 10
ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: December 23rd, 1954, n. 20, f. 34r. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: May 10th, 1950, n. 11, ff. 35v–36r.
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followed by “A”, “B”, “C”, “D”, “E”, and finally “F”, the latter here considered here as bedrock or a layer immediately above bedrock level. There are several problems with this premise. First is the fact that each “stratum” has probably several stratigraphic units or loci. These are hard to identify from an excavation done before modern archaeological methods. Therefore, describing stratigraphy in such a manner could potentially give the current reader a deceptive view of the site’s historical development. Second, and perhaps the most important reason, is that the purpose of this chapter is the identification of stratigraphic sequencing that would allow for a better understanding of the chronological development of the site. Therefore, it became imperative to treat each sub-area in its own stratigraphic sequencing of loci. Only then can one propose the reconstruction of chronological sequencing in phases, as was done in the cases of Areas B, S, and P. The description of these sub-areas will be done in the following order: first will be the uppermost structures considered as sub-areas T/H1, T/A2, and T/B3 described above. These will probably be related in some respects to lower levels in sub-areas T/I and T/H. After this description it was considered easier for the reader, to describe the “blueprint” of these areas’ stratigraphic description, which was Area C. Following that is the description of the rest of Area T. 3.1 The “Area T” Compartments (T/H1; T/A2; T/B3) As Ramos Folqués excavated southward, towards what was considered the street, he encountered a series of structures recovered on September 7th, 1948.11 Several sketches were drawn during the excavation, providing a rather complete picture of the structures recovered in this area. From the ones dated September 7th, 1948 (Figs. 9. 1, 2), the three structures are (from north to south): – Compartment H, also numbered as “room 1”. Classified as T/H1. Using the excavation diaries the main visible element is a rectangular structure on its western edge that denotes the location of a tomb. – Compartment A, also numbered as “room 2” (T/A2), which is probably a room or compartment with unknown use. It is strictly placed in Area T. – Compartment B, also numbered as “room 3” (T/B3), which is probably placed on top or at the upper strata of the street. These compartments are placed in a general area that includes areas T/I and T/H. The stratification shown above the sketch from n. 7, f. 16v of the excavation diaries (Fig. 9.1) complicates its reading by presenting, in theory, a series of layers that reach points detected in 1949 as structures around and below these ones. 11
ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 7th, 1948, n. 7, f. 16v–17r and following.
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While they seemed initially unconnected, common architectural features in sketches from September 7th, 1948, and those from 1949 (Figs. 9.4, 5) reveal that the first structures found in 1948 were built on the areas that were more clearly defined in 1949. In other words, the rooms described in “B3”, “A2”, and “H1” were partially demolished to reveal rooms T/I and T/H in their entirety. Common features between the 1948 and 1949 sketches are mostly the remains of “sepultures” (U-shaped cist tombs found in T/H1, classified as T/H1/264), and a long east-west direction wall at the south of compartment T/A2, best seen in Fig. 9.3. It was first identified as a wall T/274 that limits this compartment, but it was later considered an east-west wall that separates Area C from Area T, or wall T/106. This clearly places T/B3 within the limits of Area C. However, due to convenience it was decided to classify this later compartment within Area T, given that these two areas have a difference in use. Importantly, the walls detected in this section of Area T allow for their association with different stratigraphic levels and floors that were documented here. Therefore, we can roughly follow the construction history of these compartments and their association with the latest levels of this area’s use. 3.1.1 Level O: The Sepulture Level in Area T The two sepultures reported by Folqués in 1948 were not the first discovered structures in Area T. Or rather, they were discovered by September 7th, 1948, according to the diaries entry, but they were not identified as “sepultures” until human remains were found some days later. Therefore, the original stratigraphic sketches describing the upper levels in the treated area did not include a “Level O” corresponding with the sepultures level. However, this “Level O” was clearly included in the later stratigraphic sketches from 1949 onwards. A “U-shaped sepulture” was already detected in the first, earliest sketch—that is, the one associated with the September 14th, 1948—that reveals the first walls excavated and uncovered in Area T (Fig. 9.7).12 Chronologically speaking, the first, uppermost level is T/A2/268, found within the area of the T/A2 compartment. It was described on September 14th, 1948, in the following quote from the excavation diaries: To the south of the Synagogue and construction (crematory?) one finds a gravel floor in a superior level to that of sand and gravel. The current one is 15 centimeters below the patch and is 25 centimeters thick, with fragments of sigillata and oil lamps mixed within it. As it is found between
12
ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 14th, 1948, n. 7, f. 21v.
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the Department 2 east-west walls, parallel to the mosaic, it leads me to think that it would be a kind of street or hallway.13 The mentioning of the “sand and gravel floor” in the above quote corresponds with what was considered beforehand as “Level A” floor from the first stratigraphic sketches from this area (Figs. 9.1, 2). Therefore, it took the excavator a week to identify this upper floor level that was associated with “Level O”. The sketch for the excavation in this area can be seen in Fig. 9.7, where he already identified some of the walls associated with rooms T/I and T/H. This includes the longer east-west wall T/106 mentioned above. The fact that this floor was mainly found in T/A2 implies that this level was not found elsewhere, or rather that this floor corresponds with a hallway associated with this compartment. Even so, there is a clear association of this upper level with other findings just 10 to 20 centimeters below the “patch”, or the agricultural modern level. It also indicates that the so-called “Level A” mentioned in this quote, made of sand and gravel, is at a –40 centimeters depth compared with the modern soil at the time, which still cannot be given a definite relation with Zero Point from Area B, due to an uncertain connection between the heights of the different areas. As the aforementioned quote indicates, this level presents several findings that places it in imperial periods, but without further specification: fragments of sigillata pottery (BAE/1948/T/A2/268/cer/I/1), and oil lamp fragments (BAE/1948/T/A2/268/cer/II/1), which I assume are of a late date due to parallels in “Level O” fill T/083. This layer is found above “sand and gravel” floor T/A2/250. Considering it is explicitly limited to compartment T/A2, it was assumed such a floor was not found beyond the limits of walls T/271, T/274, and T/106, which would have still been in use in this period. “Level O” is best represented by the findings of burials at an upper level, near the modern soil. From a lower level, there seems to be the presence of a cist-burial, built with fieldstones and revealed early in this area’s excavation (Fig. 9.8). For convenience it was called “Burial 2”, classified as T/H1/264. While the remains provide an evident parallel to feature T/H/S/374 (see 2.3.2) where human remains were found, here there is no evidence for human remains. Rather, the only “Level O” human remains found here were first mentioned on September 24th, 1948, in what was classified as “Burial 1”: In sepulture [with] skeleton, a fragment of sigillata, glass, fragment of red pottery of low periods. 13
ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 14th, 1948, n. 7, f. 21r.
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figure 9.8 Sketch of walls from T/H1, T/A2, and T/B3 as revealed in the first stages of excavation, from Alejandro Ramos Folqués’ excavation diaries in arf, amrf, corpus documental: september 14th, 1948, n. 7, f. 21 v
The sepulture (?): the cranium’s ear is on the floor. It is surrounded by a small mud wall with the rest of bones on top of it. To the north, a circle of burnt earth. In the supposed sepulture14 the circle of burnt earth is to its east. Could it have been a ritual of partial cremation, a later gathering of bone, or could it be that being in such a superficial placement these remains were destroyed? Couldn’t they have been remains of the dead from battles or fights who were buried where they fell?15 This last quote reveals a series of features associated with the burial. The first is the evidence for the two “sepultures” mentioned above, represented in the sketch from September 14th, 1948 (see again Fig. 9.8). The second are features surrounding these sepultures detected during those excavations. The first “sepulture” or “Burial 1” included a placement of a cranium with its left side on the ground, within a circular hole, the latter catalogued as T/-092. The cranium was catalogued as T/207, documented in a series of photographs from the moment of its discovery (Figs. 9.8, 9, 10). Surrounding it was a socalled “small clay wall”, or clay parapet to hold the cranium in place (T/296). Both were placed within the excavated hole that cut “Level O”, as was made
14 15
Here Ramos Folqués clearly means the first mentioned “sepulture”, that is, T/H1/264. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 24th, 1948, n. 7, f. 22r.
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clear in the stratigraphic sketch from September 19th, 1949, (Fig. 9.12) and the following quote from the next day (September 20th): As the earth on top of Level A was removed, several fragments of mosaic appeared, on the same level of the sepultures.16 The above quote reveals that the “sepultures” mentioned and discovered in 1948, were clearly associated with “Level O”, above “Level A”, and that the preparation for these, particularly “Burial 1” with human remains, was placed once the fill for “Level O” (T/083) was already laid. In other words, “Level O” was of an earlier date or stratigraphic period than the burial, including fill T/094 that covered “Burial 1”. The positioning of the cranium and the bones, according to the pictures, corresponds to long bones of the extremities placed on top of them. This indicates that it is a secondary burial. The skeletal remains were placed with care, thus casting doubt on the arrangement being the result of either agricultural or animal activities. The remains of the femur probably were put next to the individual’s face, while the bones placed on top of the cranium may be remains of tibia or the individual’s humerus. This account is complemented with the description, from November 23rd, 1950, of the cranium having a “sacral bone” on top of it.17 Removing these bones, Ramos Folqués found a “stirred up” ground level (T/045), which is physical evidence for the presence of a burial ditch or hole made for these human remains at a stage following “Level O”. Next to “Burial 1” was a circular area with ashes and burnt earth (see Fig. 9.8b; catalogued as T/269). This feature was the main reason why Ramos Folqués, in his September 24th, 1948 quote, said these burials were possibly secondary burials after a cremation. While this cannot be discarded, the positioning of the cranium indicates a possible medieval burial, perhaps of an Islamized community. In other words, it suggests an early medieval dating. Furthermore, there is no certainty that the cranium, or the other remains, were burnt or received any treatment beyond being reburied. With the data available to us today, it is hard to describe any concrete rite associated with this kind of burial. The individual was laid with fill associated with the following material: a fragment of sigillata (BAE/1948/T/094/cer/1), a fragment of glass (BAE/1948/ T/094/vit/1), and a fragment of “red slip” pottery from a “low (Roman) period”
16 17
ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 20th, 1949, n. 10, f. 17r. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: November 23rd, 1950, n. 13, f. 32v.
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figure 9.9 Picture from the 1948 Excavation, “Burial 1”. Looking south fla archives
figure 9.10
Picture from the 1948 Excavation, “Burial 1”. Detail, looking north fla archives
(BAE/1948/T/094/cer/2). Apparently, all this is associated with a late Roman period as a terminus post quem chronology. However, it is impossible to give a definite date to this fill. The “U-shaped” construction T/H1/264 was interpreted as another burial. However, it was associated with a “Level B” of “gravel and sand” under T/083.
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Picture from the 1948 Excavation of “Burial 1” fla archives
To this structure’s east yet another circular burnt earthen feature was found, slightly larger to the one positioned to the northwest of “Burial 1”. This second circle (T/342) is probably contemporaneous to burnt circle T/269, though there is no evidence that they were made at the same time. What is clear, however, is that this circle was made at a stage when the U-shaped structure T/H1/264 was partially demolished to the east, as is evident from the sketch from September 14th, 1948 (Fig. 9.8). Again, the remains of a burnt circle can be found next to what was interpreted as a “sepulture” or “Burial 2”. However, despite the terminology of these features as “sepultures”, and Ramos Folqués mixing them together in his excavation diaries descriptions, there is no evidence these two “sepultures” were contemporaneous. “Burial 2” seems to be of a previous period from the fills detected in compartment T/H1, as is evidenced by the fact that under a fill “gravel and sand” layer (T/H1/262), was another fill where an oil lamp was found (T/H1/263) followed by an ash level within and around the structure (T/H1/267) and a flagstone floor (T/H1/266), before finally one reaches stratigraphically the U-shaped cist structure itself (T/H1/264). This feature is from a previous period from the “Level O” that was detected associated with “Burial 1”. Therefore, there is no reason to accept that feature T/H1/264 was either contemporaneous to the “Level O” burial, probably being from a period prior to the laying of the Area B mosaic floor. The fill associated with “Level O” was excavated on several occasions, and therefore was catalogued with different codes, including: the already mentioned T/H1/268, T/H1/270, and especially T/083, which includes fills from
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“Level O” from other parts of Area T, particularly area T/H, to the east of the structures analyzed here. While T/H1/268 was already described above, on September 30th, 1948, another fill from “Level O” (or “on the level of the sepultures”) was excavated with a descriptions of its findings, catalogued as T/270.18 Considering it at the height of the sepultures, it was assumed to be a fill above “Level O” fill T/083, although this might be just the result of the excavation process, as T/083 was excavated in September 1949 while fill T/270 was excavated a year before. Regardless, the findings recovered here are illustrative of the chronological development of the site, including: – Marble column: BAE/1948/T/I/270/pet/1 – Fragment of an ordinary bowl: BAE/1948/T/I/270/cer/1 – Big bronze coin (no further description): BAE/1948/T/I/270/num/1 – Red ceramics without shine: BAE/1948/T/I/270/cer/2 – Glass handle: BAE/1948/T/I/270/vit/1 – Fragment of mosaic, “coetaneous with the Palace on its 1st and 2nd levels”: BAE/1948/T/I/270/misc/1 After describing them, Ramos Folqués indeed proposed that the mosaic floor fragment, “probably from the synagogue” is evidence that this level is from a later period than that of the Area B pavement.19 Therefore, the “sepultures” described here should also be seen as from a later period than that of the laying of the mosaic floor. On September 19th, 1949, Ramos Folqués presents “Level O” in his stratigraphic sketch of Area C, which was extrapolated by the archaeologist to Area T (Fig. 9.10).20 Here, “Level O” is called “lime floor, sepulture level”. Throughout the excavation diaries for the 1949 campaign there are several mentions of this “Level O”. These include not only the obvious extrapolation the excavator was doing between areas T and C from the above stratigraphic sketch, but also a mention in the entry for September 19th, 1949 (already referenced above), another two on September 20th, or pages 21r and 25r of notebook 9 from the Corpus documental. 18 19
20
ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 30th, 1948, n. 7, f. annex 6r. Ibid. “Al S. Sinagoga o sea al nivel 1º tumba (?) una columna de mármol [dibujo]; fragmento de cuenco ordinario; un G. B. [Gran Bronce]; cerámica roja sin brillo; vidrio de asa; fragmento de mosaico, probablemente de la Sinagoga (lo que prueba que ésta fue destruida antes de las sepulturas, o del nivel que he excavado hoy, que, por los hallazgos de cerámica sobre todo, parecen indicar época más avanzada, en la que se emplearon objetos de época anterior que debe ser coetánea con la de la columna y el Palacio en su 1º y 2º nivel).”— Gramatical corrections by the author. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 19th, 1949, n. 10, f. 14r.
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Stratigraphic sketch as found in Areas C and T from Ramos Folqués’ excavation diaries arf, amrf, corpus documental: september 19th, 1949, n. 10, f. 14 r
The full quote from page 21r reveals a series of findings which will be included in said level: On top of floor A ( fill T/083), fragment of mosaic floor (BAE/1949/T/083/ tes/1), and on top of B more fragments of the same mosaic, in the area between Synagogue (Area B) and statues (Area C). Above A is found the sepulture with the cranium (T/207) and sepultures to the south of the synagogue, but with a hole made afterwards. Above A is a copper little lid (BAE/1949/T/083/Cu/1), vertebra bones of a fish (BAE/1949/T/083/os/1) [and] pale red ceramic (BAE/1949/T/083/ cer/I/1).21 21
ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 20th, 1949, n. 10, f. 21r. “Encima piso A, frag. mosaico Sinagoga y sobre el piso B otros frag. del mismo mosaico, en la zona entre sinagoga y estatuas. Sobre A se hallaba el cráneo y sepulturas al S. Sinagoga, pero en hoyo hecho después. Sobre A una tapaderita [sic] de cobre y huesos, vertebra pescado y cer. rojo palido.”
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Other findings associated with this unit T/083 include a large ordinary vessel, with long neck, globular body and wide mouth (BAE/1949/T/083/cer/I/2) as was sketched in profile in the same Diary entry,22 a handle (BAE/1949/T/083/ cer/I/3), and a big yellowish vessel with what seems to be the start of a handle attached to its everted rim (BAE/1949/T/083/cer/I/4). Further findings “above A” followed in the excavation diaries’ notebook number 13, f. 21r. This includes half a plate of red paste and decorated with stamps with vegetal motifs (BAE/1949/T/083/cer/I/5). The motifs include a central circle from which four leaves sprout from in a cross form, with concentric circles decorating the space between the leaves. The description points towards sigillata pottery with heraldic stamp. Other findings include two sigillata pottery fragments (BAE/1949/T/083/cer/I/6, 9). Cer/6 seems to be decorated with a four-legged creature within a frame, which in itself is a series of frames. The creature is a carnivore, probably a dog. There is an Iberian pottery fragment with the decoration of a sprout (BAE/1949/T/083/cer/7)— possibly Campanian; a series of fragments of a cup with cylindrical body and flat base (BAE/1949/T/083/cer/II/1), and a handle made of “ordinary mud” (BAE/1949/T/083/cer/8). The material suggests a 1st century bce date. However, we must consider that these are found at a moment of abandonment, or at least covering surrounding the late burials. In other words, these objects were removed from their original context and are placed in secondary ones. Finally, the last mention of a level “on top of A” on September 20th, 1949, page 25r of notebook 9 in the Corpus documental is associated not with a “Level O”, but a “type I” stratigraphic unit in Area H (T/H/093).23 The discovery of two coins belonging to emperor Constantine’s reign was mentioned in Ramos Folqués’ excavation diaries and later confirmed in a recently published stratigraphic sketch by Ana Ronda associated to this interface level (BAE/1949/T/H/093/num/1, 2).24 Therefore, we assume these coins were associated to the last floor level of “Room H”. The coins strongly suggest an early-mid 4th century date, though the insufficient details given about them does not allow us to be more specific. While not dating “Level O” specifically, the coins do give a terminus post quem date for the fill above “Level A”. However, the lower levels were best defined in their remains from Area C, and not so much Area T. A final mention should be given to the finding of a “medium bronze” coin of Vespasian which, according to the description of findings from September 7th, 22 23 24
ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 21st, 1949, n. 10, f. 21r. For more on the coins, see below, section 2.3.1. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 20th, 1949, n. 10, ff. 17r, 24r (sketch and plan), 25r (for materials); Ronda Femenia, L’Alcudia de Alejandro Ramos Folqués, 159, fig. 177.
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1948, was “10 centimeters from the agricultural level”.25 This means it was found 5 centimeters above the supposed upper limit of “Level O”. This finding clearly corresponds with T/001 (BAE/1948/T/001/num/1) and should treated as an object removed from its original context, probably due to the very agricultural activity that defined this site before its first 1905 excavation. This coin’s location was apparently described in the plan sketch from September 7th, 1948 (Fig. 9.1). The other sketch from September 14th, 1948, mentions another “coin of Vespasian”, but it was apparently found in context and slightly to the south (Fig. 9.3, BAE/1948/T/A2/251/num/1). There are brief mentions of this coin in a few publications, but its full description is not available yet.26 3.1.2 Main Upper Compartments The main compartments from what was classified as Area T were found below the level classified as “O”. The stratigraphic sketch from September 19th, 1949, was the main indicator for the development of the lower levels, as these were chiefly defined following the 1948 excavation of the compartments T/H1, T/A2, and T/B3. Much like the described excavation of what was classified here as probe C/W, on the western sections of the “street” (see 2.2), the structures are associated with levels defined with more certainty the following year, but which were already being excavated in the first intervention by Ramos Folqués. These structures were discovered at a moment when Ramos Folqués was unaware of the structures found to the south of the basilical building (Area B). Therefore, the first structures found in Area T between areas B and C followed the “A” to “F” levels in his conception of stratigraphic levels, which would be finally identified more clearly in 1949 (see sketch Fig. 9.10). Photographs from the 1948 excavation reveal these structures were hard to miss (Figs. 9.13, 14, 15, 16). Sadly, these pictures reveal little more than a mere superficial depiction of these structures’ existence. Under “Level O” described above, was a series of “Level A” layers associated with each of the compartments identified there. For the sake of simplicity, the descriptions here will adopt the terminology for levels used at the moment they were described, and not adapt them to other redefinitions following the uncovering of “Level O” on September 14th, 1948.27
25 26 27
ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 7th, 1948, n. 7, f. 18r. “En departamento 1 a 10 cm nivel agrícola, un M. B. de Vespasiano.” Ramos Folqués, “Elche (Alicante). La Alcudia [campañas 1940–1948],” 133; Abascal Palazón and Alberola, Monedas antiguas de los museos de Elche, 122. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 14th, 1948, n. 7, f. 21r.
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figure 9.13
Picture from the 1948 excavation, “between street and mosaic” (or Area T) fla archives
Following the discovery of the upper level “O”, made of gravel, which was placed 15 centimeters below the upper modern level of excavations and was 25 centimeters deep, it was found that the uppermost level associated with this initial probe—“Level B” from the sketch of the excavation diaries, n. 7, f. 16v (see Fig. 9.1) from September 7th, 1948—is 40 centimeters below the thenagricultural level. This first “gravel and sand” floor (“Type I” stratigraphic units) was first mentioned in the sketch, as well as the one from n. 7, f. 17r from the excavation diaries (Fig. 9.2, below the plan sketch). It is found in rooms A2 as T/A2/250, B3 as T/B3/254, and H1 as T/H1/261. The first plan sketch of the area (Fig. 9.1) also provides another interesting fact: a north-south wall that limited the room to its east, with the letter “B” written on it. The letter presents the level upon which this wall was constructed, and therefore it would have been built on top of T/B3/254: this wall was T/272. Therefore T/272 was on top of level T/B3/254. When it comes to T/H1, this first upper level under “Level O” has a “Level B” fill T/H1/263 which is under “Type I” level T/H1/262. It had materials recov-
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figure 9.14
Picture of “wall north of ‘street’ next to the sepulture” (T/H1, T/A2, T/B3) fla archives
ered and described on September 7th, 1948.28 There are two sets of findings in this level of this room. The first being outside the inner construction T/H1/264, where the excavator found a base of a glass object (BAE/1948/T/I/263/vit/1), a blackened pottery shard (BAE/1948/T/I/263/cer/1), and a fragment of red stucco (BAE/1948/T/I/263/misc/I/1…). Within T/H1/264 only a “Roman lamp” (BAE/1948/T/I/263/cer/2) was mentioned. This “Level B” gravel and sand floor and fill partially covered the U-shaped structure of T/H1. Parallel to T/H1/263 is sand and gravel fill T/A2/251, which has a larger amount of material recovered from excavations done only on September 14th, 1948.29 Ramos Folqués included a series of objects associated closely with fill T/H1/263, (“Nivel de gravas y arenas”). These include a kind of landmark (BAE/1948/T/A2/251/misc/1) to the east of the main “room 2” that defines
28 29
ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 7th, 1948, n. 7, f. 18r. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 14th, 1948, n. 7, f. 21r.
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figure 9.15
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Picture of the “street” structures (T/H1, T/A2, T/B3) looking southwest from the basilical area, with alternative perspective to Fig. 9.14 fla archives
this compartment (see Fig. 9.3), near the finding of another Vespasian coin (BAE/1948/T/A2/251/num/1).30 Amongst the identifiable objects there was a fragment of a lamp (BAE/1948/T/A2/251/cer/4), a bi-conical spindle which was broken on its two sides (BAE/1948/T/A2/251/os/1), a crumbled lead disk (BAE/1948/T/A2/251/Pb/2), a “low period” (Late Roman, 4th century or later) red pottery fragment (BAE/1948/T/A2/251/cer/5),31 and a 41 millimeter spatula or spoon (BAE/1948/T/A2/251/cer/8). There were also remains of grey coarse 30
31
Ibid. There was the question whether this coin of Vespasian is the same one found seven days before, “10 centimeters from the agricultural level”. However, this cannot be the case due to two factors. The first is that the coin is associated with the “sand and gravel” floor or “Level B” from stratigraphic sketch Fig. 9.1. The second reason is that the location is clearly to the east of room 2 (T/A2, see sketch Fig. 9.3). This means that either the first plan was gravely mistaken over the location of the coin of Vespasian found on September 7th, or that simply there is a second coin found nearby, this time on a level that is found 40 centimeters below the agricultural level at the moment of his excavation. Ibid. AMRF note 52.
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figure 9.16
Picture of detail for Fig. 9.14 (sub-areas T/H1 and T/A2). Looking southwest fla archives
ware (BAE/1948/T/A2/251/cer/6) that according to Ana Ronda could confirm the late date of this fill,32 as well as “ordinary” Roman ware (BAE/1948/T/A2/ 251/cer/7). Finally, the third room T/B3 would have the same type of fill associated with the “level of gravel and sand” T/B3/255 underneath the agricultural level. This “Level B” floor was first excavated on September 7th, 1948, and again a week later on September 14th, as described in the excavation diaries.33 Amongst the findings it is significant that Ramos Folqués provided accounts of “broken up” remains of a mortar floor which probably were associated with the upper gravel floor identified as “Level O”. These were found on September 7th (BAE/1948/T/B3/255/misc/III/1…) and again on September 14th (BAE/1948/T/ B3/255/misc/IV/1…). Other important architectural remains include painted stucco found on September 7th (BAE/1948/T/B3/255/misc/II/1…) with colors
32 33
Ibid. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 7th, 1948, n. 7, f. 17r.
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“red, black, green, etc.” (sic.),34 and more stucco with decorated incised leaves and flowers “without brightness” and presumably without colors.35 These stuccos should be considered as evidence that this layer is a continuation of T/H1/ 263 to its south. More finds from this T/B3 upper level include painted Ibero-Roman pottery (BAE/1948/T/B3/255/cer/I/1), an “8 shaped” lead sheet with a hole (BAE/1948/ T/B3/255/Pb/1), and two bone styli (BAE/1948/T/B3/255/os/1, 2). To the east of the main room structure, an as coin from Carthago Nova (BAE/1948/T/B3/255/ num) was found, as well as the upper body fragment of a small amphora (BAE/1948/T/B3/255/cer/II/1) with “nerve” handles.36 The amphora is of special importance, because thanks to its relatively crude but crucially detailed sketch in Fig. 9.3, we can approximate the type of amphora used. However, it is impossible to pin-point the precise classification. It was described as a small amphora with “nerve” (rigged) handles. The drawing suggests the handles were arched or ear-shaped, beginning from a rounded, slightly everted rim to the shoulders. The shoulders were noticeable, though these were crudely drawn (suggesting they were not extant). The neck of the amphora was cylindrical. This form is not found in any Hispanic production, especially due to the handles beginning on the rim.37 However this amphora form can be found extensively in Late Roman or Byzantine periods of the eastern Mediterranean, particularly the Agora M334 form, that best fits the description presented here, and is dated to between the late 4th and early 7th centuries ce. The description of a more rounded, less pronounced shoulder in the sketch might suggest a late variation of this form, more in line with the Cripta Balbi 1 type from the 7th century. Its small size and a more arched and not-so-pronounced handles would confirm such classification, though it can be suggested that it could be an intermediate form between these two. The presence of this piece is highly suggestive of a Late Roman or Byzantine dating of this fill. However, the presence of material from a mortar floor, which
34 35 36
37
ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 14th, 1948, n. 7, f. 21r. Ibid. “… frag. estuco sin brillo y con dibujos incisos”. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 14th, 1948, n. 7, f. 16v. Fig. 9.3. It is important to indicate that there is no direct mention of this amphora amongst the findings of the “gravel and sand” level T/B3/255. It was associated with this level due to the open mention of the nearby as from nearby Carthago Nova (today Cartagena). The mentioning of the nearby coin and the fact that by then the excavation was at best in its early stages suggest this association to the higher, “gravel and sand” or “Level B” for T/B3. The closest reference are Betican Dressel 2 productions, though the handles are less arched and the size is much larger.
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might be associated with the “Level O” detected in T/A2/268, could imply that these objects might be an intrusion of later material to this layer. Below this “sand and gravel” layer there is an increased divergence in the material of these compartments. Particularly between T/H1 and the two southern compartments T/A2 and T/B3. 3.1.2.1 Inner Structure of T/H1 The inner U-shaped compartment for T/H1 was partially covered with fill T/H1/263. Under this fill was a series of deeper layers and features that defined the structure. The first was an ash layer (T/H1/267) right above a stone slab that was interpreted as the structure’s floor (T/H1/266). The ash layer was found within and “surrounding” structure T/H1/264.38 Within it was an oil lamp with circular discus but devoid of decoration, and what seems to be a broken nozzle (BAE/1948/T/H1/267/cer/1). The lamp, while having a simply drawn description, seems to have had a round body with an attached oval or heart-shaped nozzle. The oil lamp is clearly of a Loeschke Type VIII form with Type VIIIa shoulder. The piece was catalogued by Bailey as a late “Group O” or “Group P” lamp from the mid-to-late 2nd century ce.39 Structure T/H1/264 was originally interpreted as a possible burial similar to “Burial 1” mentioned above (Figs. 9.16, 17). Alejandro Ramos Folqués apparently measured it, as indicated in the excavation diaries’ description. However, the measurements were never put in the diaries and were probably lost forever.40 Photographs of this feature’s excavation were preserved in the FLA archives. The structure is made of small ashlars, fieldstones, stucco and rubble. As presented in the discussion about “Level O”, it was interpreted originally as a burial structure. However, it is clear from the stratigraphic unit map, following the expressed description of the site’s findings and ground levels, that this feature is from a previous period to burial T/094. The form and apparent
38 39
40
ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 7th, 1948, n. 7, f. 18r. Donald M. Bailey, A Catalogue of the Lamps in the British Museum, 2: Roman Lamps Made in Italy, ed. M.O. Miller, vol. 2 (London: British Museum Publications, 1980), pts. Q1255, Q1258; from Africa Proconsularis, Donald M. Bailey, A Catalogue of the Lamps in the British Museum, 3: Roman Provincial Lamps, vol. 3 (London: British Museum Publications, 1988), pts. Q1696, Q1701. The two cases are associated with the second half of the 2nd century ce. For typology associated to Hispania, Amaré Tafalla points to it is a Group III variation. See María Teresa Amaré Tafalla, Lucernas romanas de La Rioja, Historia 6 (Logroño: Gobierno de La Rioja, Instituto de Estudios Riojanos, 1987), 30, 32 (fig. 2); and María Teresa Amaré Tafalla, Lucernas romanas de Aragón (Madrid: CSIC, 1988), 44. Ibid. The text literally says: “Esta pared es de una construcción de ____ cm de ala y -------cm de gruesa.”
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figure 9.17
U-shaped structure T/H1/264. View from the southwest, 1948 excavation fla archives
figure 9.18
U-shaped structure T/H1/264. View from the northwest, 1948 excavation fla archives
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size of the structure from photographic, drawn, and written evidence may suggest its use as a tomb, similar to that of T/H/S/374 excavated in 1951. While there is no clear date for the placement of this feature, the parallel with the 1951 burial place with a similar rectangular plan suggests it should be placed in a “Level D” setting, which in Area T is associated with a late republican, preAugustan period. 3.1.2.2 Compartment T/A2 Below the “Level B” for the T/A2 compartment is a “Level C” which includes walls T/A2/274 and T/A2/271. These walls were associated with a “Level C”, T/252 (see stratigraphic sketches from Figs. 9.1, 2) and were therefore built on top of it. Wall T/A2/274 lies to the south of room A2. There is a divergence in the description of this wall between the different sketches. The first and third sketches from this area (Figs. 9.1, 3)41 have this wall start from the westernmost part of these structures, stopping around the line that would continue from the eastern T/B3 wall to the east in a straight line. However, the second sketch (Fig. 9.2)42 from September 7th, 1948, has this wall turn southwards, closing the western area of compartment T/B3. On its part, wall T/A2/271 is to the north of sub-area T/A2, separating it from compartment T/H1. All sketches agree that this wall has an east-north direction up to a point where it reaches the southwestern limit of the “mosaic”, where it makes a southward turn partially closing compartment T/A2 to the west. These two walls have the letter “c” on them, implying that they were built on top of Level C T/A2/252 as presented above. This floor has a complicated description in the first stratigraphic sketch from September 7th, 1948 (Fig. 9.1). Folqués wrote: “Roman pavement, ashlar wall, Roman ceramics and sigillata (BAE/1948/T/A2/252/cer/I/1…)”.43 The second stratigraphic sketch from that entry expresses another feature: “pavement floor with remains of lime mortar over the stones”.44 Both agree that this floor is made of stone pavement, possibly like the aforementioned T/H1/266. Under this seemingly closed floor level was fill T/A2/253, with no description of findings other than an 8-shaped bead (BAE/1948/T/A2/253/vit/1) and a glass flowershaped piece (BAE/1948/T/A2/253/vit/2), probably of Augustan period.45
41 42 43 44 45
ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 7th, 1948, n. 4, ff. 16v, 20r. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 7th, 1948, n. 4, f. 16r. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 7th, 1948, n. 7, f. 16v. “Empedrado romano, pared sillares, cer (sic.) romana y sigillata”. Ibid., n. 7, f. 17r. “piso empedrado con restos de cal sobre las piedras.” Ibid., n. 7, f. 17r. AMRF note 44.
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Finally, the lowest detected level from compartment T/A2 is a “Level D” that in this first September 1948 excavation was barely excavated. By then “Level D” was associated with the T/I room where these structures were found. The upper floor for this level is T/A2/258, which is described as “Iberian pavement— wall—painted pottery” (Fig. 9.1).46 Under this was the fill below the “pavement”, excavated and described on September 7th, 1948, without further description of its findings. The lack of materials registered from the lower levels of compartment T/A2 might indicate that these levels are fictional. The other option is that these are merely an extrapolation of levels found in T/B3 following Alejandro Ramos Folqués’ sketch, clearly indicating he has done probes on both compartments T/A2 and T/B3 (Fig. 9.2). 3.1.2.3 Compartment T/B3 The southernmost compartment of the upper structures of Area T is room T/B3. This room was also covered by the upper “gravel and sand” fill mentioned in room T/A2. Unlike the T/A2 compartment, however, the walls that define this room are from an older level to “Level C” as described in a sketch from notebook number 7, f. 16v of the excavation diaries (Fig. 9.1). Under the upper “sand and gravel” unit T/B3/255 is “Level C” floor T/B3/256, which presumably has the same characteristics as T/A2/252. The same can be considered on the “Level C” fill from B3, which is T/B3/253. This fill was described as having two findings,47 including a glass paste bead with the form of an “8” (BAE/1948/T/A2/253/vit/1) and a piece of flat plain glass paste with flower decorations (BAE/1948/T/A2/253/vit/2). Beneath was “Level D” from T/B3, upon which the main walls of this compartment were built. These include T/273, an east-west wall to the south of walls T/111 and T/106 (and of course T/274) that marks the separation of this compartment to T/A2. Another wall, T/295, close to the compartment from its east, is placed between walls T/274 and T/295 (see Figs. 9.1, 3). However, in the second sketch from notebook number 7, f. 17r in the excavation diaries (Fig. 9.2), the north-south wall is connected to wall T/273, but it does not reach wall T/274. The letter “D” is placed on both walls from the first sketch of September 7th, 1948, indicating its construction on top of “floor D” T/B3/259. This floor would have the same characteristics as T/A2/258. Under this floor is fill for “Level D”
46 47
Ibid., n. 7, f. 16v. “empedrado ibérico—pared—cer. pintada.” Ibid., n. 7, f. 17r.
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chart 9.1 Stratigraphic scheme for rooms T/H1, T/A2, T/B3. Below: legend for scheme See Plate X.
T/B3/261 where the excavator found a bone spindle, seemingly in the form of an animal’s tarsus (BAE/1948/T/A2/261/os/1). The above description of the stratigraphic unit’s chronological development can be seen in Chart 9.1, which describes the units from the “Level D” in T/A2 and T/B3 to the most recent, “Level O” of this area.
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3.2 Stratigraphy of Area C 3.2.1 Main Area C The identification of Area C has been described above. But its stratigraphic development gives this area great important value. The stratigraphic sketch from notebook 10, f. 14r of the Corpus documental (dated September 14th, 1949) of the excavation diaries, presents to us a series of levels that are both from areas T and C, as the excavator did not differentiate either area. However, through the diaries the findings that were indeed made “between the Basilica and the Street” were described as such, and therefore were included in what was described in this study as Area T. However, it is Area C that provided the whole southern sector with a useful stratigraphic sequence. From a first glance, one notices that there is no mention of a “Level O” in Area C. “Level O” was associated exclusively, it seems, to the fills and placement of the abovementioned “sepultures”. Therefore, Area C’s stratigraphic sequence should start with a “Level A”. The uppermost levels in Area C were described in the following quote from the excavation diaries entry of September 12th, 1949: In what was named street (Area C), a floor made of rubble material from previous constructions and gravel, stucco, oil lamp fragments, sigillata, etc. Twenty centimeters below, another floor (B) made of gravel and lime. Between those two floors is a middle bronze (coin). Obv) AVGVSTVS; Rev) IR(?)AAI.48 In this quote we find then the mention of three stratigraphic units. The first is a floor fill associated with “Level A”, classified as C/074 in the catalogue. In truth this fill would be topped by an interface level made of lime and gravel, classified as C/202 and described in the stratigraphy sketch as made of lime mortar with small boulders. As stated in the quote, the floor includes rubble from another building, which seem to be from a Roman period. However, it is impossible to say to which phase of the building this rubble belongs: whether it is associated with the original early imperial construction of the 1st century bce; or with a late reform of the already extant basilical building in the 5th or 6th centuries ce; or perhaps even with the abandonment period of the building, before the 48
ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 12th, 1949, n. 10, f. 9r. “En lo que denominaba calle, un piso hecho con los materiales de derribo de construcciones anteriores y grava, estucos, fragmento de lucernas, sigillata, etc. Veinte centímetros más bajo, otro piso (B) de grava con cal. Entre estos dos pisos, un M.B. A) AVGVSTVS; R) IR ¿signo? AAI.”
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use of the area as a burial site, about the 8th century ce. The lack of further details makes it impossible to know. Furthermore, we find the presence of a coin in this fill associated with an “Augustus” (BAE/1949/C/074/num/1) with an imperial Roman date. Due to the nature of “Augustus” as an extended title through the imperial period, a more precise dating is impossible with the available information the diaries provides. The third stratigraphic unit mentioned here is the “Level B” interface (C/075) which is 20 centimeters below C/202. This measurement of depth was likewise recorded in the stratigraphic sketch of Area C (Fig. 9.10). The “Level B” floor is made of gravel and lime mortar. Therefore, it is safe to associate these described levels on September 12th, 1949, with the stratigraphic sketch described in the entry for two days later. Underneath the interface is the “Level B” fill underneath “floor B” C/075. It was classified as C/085 in the stratigraphic units catalogue. But before continuing with the description of this layer, it is imperative to explain the reading done for the description of the levels below “A”. The chief problem faced when reading the excavation diaries is the fact that they were made for personal use, and not for the comprehension of an outside reader. Therefore, when facing the stratigraphic development of Area C, Ramos Folqués would often use the phrase “below Floor X”, or “above Level Y” to describe different layers within his stratigraphic sketch. This would not be a problem had he used said wording consistently. In this sense, the term “below Floor B” was used clearly in the excavation diaries entry from September 12th, 1949, when describing that day’s findings. However, in the entry for September 16th of that year, when describing the findings of lower levels from that excavation probe, he describes the levels as such: Above this earth [Level E] and below floor C, that is Level D, fragment of sandstone statues …49 In this case, “below Floor C” meant “Level D”, and not simply the earthen fill of C. The same goes for the term “above Level E”. This contradicts the reading of “below floor B” in the entry for September 12th, 1949. However, despite the apparent contradiction, it is important to notice that in the September 16th entry there is a clarification for “Level D”, classified here as C/091, C/080, and C/204. It was concluded that the reading of “below” and “above” floors are almost always descriptive of the fills above or below interfaces. These terms
49
ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 16th, 1949, n. 10, f. 13r.
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applied to stratigraphy change their meaning only when the excavator clarified the findings or the description of the strata. With the reading of the excavation diaries references clarified, we find that when in the entry for September 12th, 1949, the author describes the numerous findings “below Floor B”, he is clearly referring to the fill below C/075, that is fill C/085, and not to a fill associated with “Level C” (C/076) that was mentioned on a later date. As presented above, the first mention for the “Level B” fill is on September 12th, 1949.50 The findings from this fill C/085 are numerous for a first probe into this level. Importantly, the objects presented there are of a late date, which include a fibula (BAE/1949/C/085/met/1) and fragment of yellowpaste sigillata (BAE/1949/C/085/cer/I/1). However, there is evidence that this layer was a mixture of different earthen strata, including the presence a round lead piece, with the form of a bull skin (BAE/1949/C/085/Pb/1), and Iberian pottery (BAE/1949/C/085/cer/I/2). Two bone objects, including a bone needle (BAE/1949/C/085/os/1) and an elaborated ring made by lathe according to the marks detected on it (BAE/1949/C/085/os/2) are also possibly from this early period. From a later probe in that same level dated November 25th, 1949,51 are the remains of two further objects that were mentioned in the later report from the 1949 excavation alongside other objects found in a “Level B”.52 These are fragments of sigillata pottery (BAE/1949/C/075/cer/II/1…) and fragments of an ostrich’s egg (BAE/1949/C/075/os/1). Unlike the previous objects found in fill (Type H) stratum C/085, Ramos Folqués clearly indicates these objects were recovered from the top edge of the layer, or in other words, the Type I stratum C/075. According to Ramos Folqués this layer was 35 centimeters thick (Fig. 9.10). However, the account by Ramos Fernández in 1995 reveals it to be merely 20 centimeters thick. The thickness probably varied according to the place in the street it was excavated.53 In the same manner one finds differences in the street’s width according to Ramos Fernández. As a result, he concludes that the width of this street at this level was approximately 4 meters. However, there is another account that suggests its width to be probably 3.4 to 3.45 meters, the widest recorded measurement for the street, as detected in plan sketches from “Loose Notes” (Fig. 9.5) and from the excavation diaries (Fig. 9.6).
50 51 52 53
ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 12th, 1949, n. 10, ff. 9r–9v. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: November 25th, 1949, n. 11, f. 19r. Ramos Folqués, “Memoria de las excavaciones practicadas en la Alcudia,” 102. Ramos Fernández, El templo ibérico de La Alcudia, 115.
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Following “Level B” is the floor for an intermediate layer identified as C/043 and C/044, described at the end of this section. Important from this is the alternative thickness given to these layers to fit this C/044 between C/085 and C/081. This layer was 26 centimeters thick, according to Ramos Fernández.54 Below C/044 is “Level C”, which is one of the foundational levels for the later Roman or late antique phases. The interface or floor level is catalogued as C/088, being rather than a clear floor, a use phase made of earth and gravel that toped the “Level C” fill underneath it. The fill was catalogued thrice, for two reasons: the first is the process of cataloguing itself led to the initial impression that this phase is three different stratigraphic units, when in the end it was reduced to one. The second reason is that these layers provided a large number of materials from distinct interventions in the same area. As a result, it was deemed preferable to classify these materials based on the “Level C” layers found during their respective probes. Therefore, the fill for “Level C” is defined as C/081, C/087, and C/E/076. The latter, present in the eastern excavated sub-area of Area C, produced the largest amount of discovered materials, as detected in late November 1949. According to the Ramos Folqués account this level has 35 centimeters of potency, therefore being one of the thickest in the whole area. On the other hand, according to Ramos Fernández in 1995 this layer was only 24 centimeters thick, considering the existence of fill C/044. The first reference to this “Level C” is in the September 12th, 1949, entry of the excavation diaries.55 After describing the “Level B” C/085 findings, there were two objects associated with a letter “C” found to the right side. These include a terracotta statuette fragment of a feminine face (BAE/1949/C/081/ter/1) and a large plate with painted decoration of what seems to be scales (BAE/1949/C/ 081/cer/2). However, the most striking and important find is that this fill, as expressed in the stratigraphic sketch (Fig. 9.12, “Nivel C”), includes a copious amount of broken statue fragments. The first mention of these statues is set under the stratigraphic sketch itself, on the September 19th, 1949, entry.56 The excavator indicates that on that day, at “the last moment in the evening”, the following pieces were found: – Head of a griffin: BAE/1949/C/081/pet/I/1 – Torso of a warrior or perhaps Minerva: BAE/1949/C/081/pet/I/2
54 55 56
Ramos Fernández, 115. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 12th, 1949, n. 10, 9v. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 19th, 1949, n. 10, f. 14r.
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– Torso of a woman, polychromed, with ochre coloration on its whole body and covered with red on top of it: BAE/1949/C/081/pet/I/3 – A hand: BAE/1949/C/081/pet/I/4 – “Other sculpture fragments”: BAE/1949/C/081/pet/II/1… The excavator describes other findings alongside the sculpture remains: a copper sheet fragment with four holes placed in a rectangular arrangement (BAE/ 1949/C/081/Cu/1), the base of a cup (BAE/1949/C/081/cer/3), and a painted pottery fragment, of Iberian motifs (concentric semi-circles, dark horizontal bands, zig-zag lines, and other geometric patterns—BAE/1949/C/081/cer/4).57 Further excavations on “Level C” were done the next day, September 20th, 1949. Findings in that interventions are perhaps associated with a “Level D” coin found in the southern section of Area C (Fig. 9.19).58 This “Level C” includes a series of discoveries of importance when defining the dating of this level: a copper ring (BAE/1949/C/087/Cu/1) and a bent copper needle with a flat head (BAE/1949/C/087/Cu/2); a very dark and fine ceramic piece with barbotine point decoration (BAE/1949/C/087/cer/1); a pilgrim’s small amphora flask (BAE/1949/C/087/cer/2); and a cylindrical bone whistle with a hole (BAE/1949/C/087/os/1). The most significant layer associated with “Level C” is C/E/076. It was excavated in a probe to the east of the original excavation area for Area C, or what was called sub-area C/E, to the south of what was classified here as Area S. This was primarily excavated in late November 1949, two months after the original probe, providing a large number of findings. The first reference for this area is in the following quote from November 22nd, 1949: I continue the trench, starting where the statues were found and following the road. Under the strong gravel floor: An amphora mouth with mark (BAE/1949/C/E/076/cer/I/1). Fragment of Campanian ceramic’s mouth with handle (BAE/1949/C/E/ 076/cer/I/2). Fragment of vase with a helmet’s form (BAE/1949/C/E/076/cer/I/3). Painted pottery with animals, etc. (BAE/1949/C/E/076/cer/II/1…). 2 lead fragments (BAE/1949/C/E/076/Pb/1 and 2).59
57 58 59
ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 19th, 1949, n. 10, ff. 14r–15r. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 20th, 1949, n. 10, f. 19r. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: November 22nd, 1949, n. 11, f. 16r.
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figure 9.19 Sketch of areas T and C as excavated by September 20th, 1949, in Ramos Folqués’ excavation diaries arf, amrf, corpus documental: september 20th, 1949, n. 10, f. 17 r
From this quote it is possible to notice that the excavation method from this late stage of the 1949 campaign proceeded to follow and uncover the findings from the street area, following the road’s direction eastward. Therefore, on November 23rd, 1949, the excavator described more findings on the “level of statues” or, rather, “slightly above it”, which could mean slightly above level C/091 which in turn was placed just above the “Level D” floor C/080. The objects total 16 catalogue entries, one of them corresponding with many fragments. Amongst found pottery fragments are materials of variable dates. These include an acorn-formed Punic amphora (BAE/1949/C/E/076/cer/I/4), “cuphat” pottery fragment (BAE/1949/C/E/076/cer/I/7), Campanian pottery fragment (BAE/1949/C/E/076/cer/I/9), black burnished pottery (BAE/1949/C/E/ 076/cer/I/8), ceramics with geometric painting (BAE/1949/C/E/076/cer/I/10), and a yellow ceramic top (BAE/1949/C/E/076/cer/I/11). Other pottery findings do not give chronological hints, but are an indicator to the variability of the objects recovered from this probe: a table pottery “mat” (BAE/1949/C/E/076/ cer/I/5), painted pottery (BAE/1949/C/E/076/cer/I/6), and a series of ceramic “vases” (BAE/1949/C/E/076/cer/III/1 …). Other objects found in this probe are mostly metal products. These include two stylized bow-shaped fibulae or brooches, associated perhaps with the
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aucissa type of the late republican/early imperial period (BAE/1949/C/E/076/ met/2, 3),60 an iron nail (BAE/1949/C/E/076/fer/1), a bronze piece in the shape of a small bell (BAE/1949/C/E/076/met/1), and a rolled lead sheet (BAE/1949/ C/E/076/Pb/3). Amongst these there was also a bone style (BAE/1949/C/E/ 076/os/1). While Ramos Folqués reports more findings, these were not catalogued or described by him. The width of the street at this level, according Ramos Fernández,61 was 30 centimeters less than the greatest width of the street. The only measurement of this sort found in the documents by Ramos Folqués (Figs. 9.4, 5) indicate a width of 3.2 meters (–20 centimeters than the “Level B” street) south of rooms T/I and T/H (see “Definition of Areas T and C”). This width is defined to the north by “wall” T/354, which was first detected on May 1950, but only excavated on November 23rd, 1950. The structure, found between T/111 and T/106, was made of hewn ashlar stones laid in an east-west direction, probably being a street sidewalk like T/106. It was placed almost at bedrock level. However, when describing the ground around this, Ramos Folqués writes:62 Next to bedrock, E-W ashlar wall of ---63 centimeters wide. [Below this] Fragment of painted red and black pottery of various epochs. Below this quote is a plan sketch from the excavation diaries (Fig. 9.20). Its measurements are 40 centimeters of width, while having 2 meters preserved between T/I and further 0.5 meters to the east of that compartment. Right under this level with the numerous findings associated with Level C, 24 centimeters below C/088, is “statue level” C/091. This level is unique since it was found stuck just above the floor level associated with “D” C/080, but is distinctly identified from fills C/E/076, C/081 and C/087. “Statue Level” C/091 is described in the stratigraphic sketch (Fig. 9.12, “Level D”), just on top of the floor level. The first description of this layer is found from September 16th, 1949, mentioned above (“above level C” and “below Level D”). However, the first reference
60
61 62 63
Ana Ronda suggests it to be a possible Nauheim 1.11 type fibula, dated to between 125 to 25 bce. See ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: November 23rd, 1949, n. 11, f. 17r. AMRF, note 33. Ramos Fernández, El templo ibérico de La Alcudia, 115. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: November 23rd, 1950, n. 13, f. 32v. According to the sketch below this quote, it is 40 centimeters.
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figure 9.20 Sketch of wall C/354 with its measurements, from Ramos Folqués’ excavation diaries arf, amrf, corpus documental: november 23rd, 1950, n. 13, f. 32 v
to this layer comes earlier in the excavation diaries notebook number 10, f. 13r from the Corpus documental, when describing the findings from “Level E”: On level E, under the floors and of an earthen level that preserves evidence that water passed through a loom weight …64 Under the description of the findings associated with “Level E” is the quote mentioned above, of an earthen level “under C” and “above E”, from the same page. These references, together with the description of said level in the stratigraphic sketch of Area C indicate that fill and floor D are indeed the level where “water passed through”. This “Level D” is 30 centimeters thick. With the evidence of water passing through in this level, what relation did it have with the statue level C/091? From the description of the findings in the sketch, it seems as if this fill with statue fragments C/091 was found in a kind of channel that cut through
64
ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 16th, 1949, n. 10, f. 13r.
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the floor interface of “Level D”, C/080. This channel was classified as C/-089. According to the sketch from September 20th, 1949 (Fig. 9.4), the channel was located to the south of Area C. Parallel to that is C/-377, found to the north of Area C and described in probes C/P and T/H/S (see below; Fig. 9.27). There were many statues found on fill C/091. A complete list of the fragments found in this fill are as follows:65 – Fragments found already on September 16th, 1949: BAE/1949/C/091/pet/ II/1….66 – Fragment of seated feminine figure with collar: BAE/1949/C/091/pet/I/1 – Fragment of a shield: BAE/1949/C/091/pet/I/2 – Polychrome bust of a man wearing a chlamys: BAE/1949/C/091/pet/I/3 – Torso fragment including waist and hand: BAE/1949/C/091/pet/I/4 – Fragment with folds and thighs: BAE/1949/C/091/pet/I/5 – Foot: BAE/1949/C/091/pet/I/6 – Hand and arm: BAE/1949/C/091/pet/I/7 – Arm: BAE/1949/C/091/pet/I/8 These fragments, found on September 20th, 1949, were described in the this quote following the previously mentioned: The sculptures, extraordinarily fragmented, were broken and thrown to the ground in order to serve as foundation of floor C, made of gravel and battered sand on top of the remains of the statues, thus making their belonging to level D visible, and that the inhabitants of D also respected them and that they proceeded from a previous period, that is, from the period of Greek white figures pottery. That is, the inhabitants of Level D could have kept the customs and beliefs of Level E and therefore they respected these sculptures. Otherwise they would be from Level D.67
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66
67
Most findings are described in ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 20th, 1949, n. 10, f. 20r. They are clearly defined as “Level D”, without a doubt the level above interface C/080, that is, C/091. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 16th, 1949, n. 10, f. 13r. Here it is possible that the reference for “fragmentos escultóricos de arenisca” (sculpted sandstone fragments) was merely described fully in the later date descriptions of September 19th, 1949. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 20th, 1949, n. 10, f. 18r. “Las esculturas, extraordinariamente fragmentadas, fueron rotas y echadas al suelo para servir de cimentación al piso C, formado por grava y arena apisonadas encima de los restos escultóricos, pudiendo ver que pertenezcan al nivel D y también que los pobladores del D las respetaran y procedieran de nivel más autígeno, o sea el de la cerámica griega con figuras blancas, es decir, que el pueblo D pudo proseguir las costumbres y creencias del E y por eso respetó las esculturas o bien son estas del D.”
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This rather convoluted quote has a clear message: the statues are associated with levels “D” and “E”. When Level C was laid down on the street, the statues were intentionally broken down and placed at the bottom under fill C/085. The quote suggests that these statues were used by an “original people”, which created the objects found in “Level E” and “Level D”, and have settled in this section of the Alcudia on “Level F” which here is represented by bedrock. A general description of the statues is found in what Ramos Folqués called “Sector C”. Describing the excavation of the street or Area C, he enumerates a series of statue fragments that are clearly associated with layer C/091. Amongst the statues was a Hispanic-Punic coin with Tanit and a relief of a horse, dated to the year 221bce (see below).68 This specific detail gives a dating to the entire layer, which was documented years later by Ramos Fernandez.69 The presence of this coin gives us a positive dating of late 3rd century bce, at which point we encounter a phase when the city’s dominating power changed hands from the Carthaginians to the Romans. These are funerary statues of Iberian origin, belonging to a heroic cult associated with an Iberian mounted aristocracy of pre-Roman and proto-Roman periods.70 The fact that they were broken into pieces imply a violent or proactive intervention by the locals during the transformation of this space under the early Roman presence. Regardless of the reason, the destruction of the statues recovered in fill C/081 and C/091 reflects a deep change in the urban landscape of the site. In that sense, the only possible event detected in this area of Ilici that could reflect this profound urban change is the construction of the late 1st century bce–1st century ce Roman domus which, centuries later, would harbor the Ilici basilical building.
68 69 70
Ramos Folqués, “Memoria de las excavaciones practicadas en la Alcudia,” 104. Ramos Fernández, “Los templos ibéricos de la Alcuida de Elche,” 114. There have been thorough studies on these sculptures since their discovery, including: Ramos Folqués, “Hallazgos escultóricos en La Alcudia de Elche”; Alejandro Ramos Folqués, “La escultura ibérica en Elche,” in Internationalen Kongress für Vor- und Frügeschichte. Hamburg 1958, ed. Rafael Ramos Fernández, 1961, 691–694; Alejandro Ramos Molina, La escultura ibérica en el bajo Vinalopó y en el bajo Segura (Elche: Institut Municipal de Cultura, Ajuntament d’Elx, 2000); Rafael Ramos Fernández and Alejandro Ramos Molina, “La escultura ibérica de La Alcudia,” in Iberia, Hispania, Spania. Una Mirada Desde Ilici, ed. Lorenzo Abad Casal and Mauro S. Hernández Pérez (Alicante: Caja de Ahorros del Mediterráneo, 2004), 133–144. In 2007, Feliciana Sala Sellés suggested the l’Alcudia sculptures belong to a heroic cult, probably in the late 3rd century bce. Feliciana Sala Sellés, “Algunas reflexiones a propósito de la escultura ibérica de la Contestania y su entorno,” in Actas del congreso de Arte Ibérico en la España Mediterránea. Alicante, 24–27 de octubre de 2005 (Alicante: Instituto Alicantino de Cultura Juán Gil-Albert, 2007), 69, 74.
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Alongside these statue fragments are two interesting finds. The first is a coin (BAE/1949/C/091/num/1) placed at the southern section of Area C, according to the sketch from September 20th, 1949, in the Ramos Folqués’ excavation diaries (Fig. 9.19). The coin is described on a figure attached to notebook number 10, f. 19r from the diaries, having a bust of the goddess Tanit on its obverse, and the head of a horse on its reverse. This is an “Hispano-Carthaginian” coin dated to 228–221 bce according to Abascal and Alberola.71 The second object was found at the same level, but in sub-area C/E. It was a “worked fragment”, probably pottery by the shape of the object’s sketch (BAE/1949/C/E/091/cer/1). The “earth and water” “Level D” from this probe provides a series of findings associated with the channel C/-089 mentioned above. The channel cuts through an earthen floor level C/080, which in turn is supported by fill C/204. It seems the channel would run through an east-west direction following that of the street. This could be interpreted as a gutter, which was clogged by fill C/091 before building the Roman street associated with “Level C”. It seems there is no difference between the “Level D” Interface C/080 and fill C/204. By contrast, Ramos Fernández describes this layer as being made of hardened mud.72 The latter is 30 centimeters thick. The first findings from “Level D” fill C/204 are from September 16th, 1949, indicated below the already mentioned quote from notebook number 10, f. 13r of the excavation diaries, where a pottery shard is described. This painted pottery shard (BAE/1949/C/204/cer/I/1) includes a central stem with four long leaves that sprout from it, two volutes on its left and a dark band on its right.73 Further findings are described on September 19th, 1949,74 where the excavator found several pottery pieces. These include a fragment of a sigillata pottery with “egg and tomato” color (BAE/1949/C/204/cer/I/3), identified as a Terra Sigillata Gallica (TSG) marmorata-type pottery produced in the La Grafusenque production center during the third quarter of the 1st century ce.75 Furthermore, the excavator found a bronze belt buckle (BAE/1949/C/204/ met/1) with a rounded triangular polylobate profile.76
71 72 73 74 75
76
Abascal Palazón and Alberola, Monedas antiguas de los museos de Elche, 91, number 377. Ramos Fernández, El templo ibérico de La Alcudia, 115. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 16th, 1949, n. 10, f. 13r. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 20th, 1949, n. 10, f. 15r. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 20th, 1949, n. 10, f. 15r. The reference mentions “huevo con tomate” (egg with tomato), certainly referring to the piece’s paste color, as indicated by AMRF in her note 31. See also Ronda Femenia, L’Alcudia de Alejandro Ramos Folqués, 167, note 269. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 20th, 1949, n. 10, f. 16r.
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On the entry for November 25th, 1949, Ramos Folqués proceeded in his description of important findings such as nine amphora bases (BAE/1949/C/ 204/cer/I/4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13), a lead wheel (BAE/1949/C/204/Pb/1), an incomplete top (BAE/1949/C/204/cer/I/14), and “varied” painted pottery (BAE/1949/C/204/cer/II/1…). Of all these findings, the pottery bases would be important, though it is not possible to identify the specific typology of these ceramic amphora and, therefore, their date. Most important is the evidence, as described by Ramos Fernández in 1995, that at this low fill layer we find the reduction of the street’s width by 70 centimeters compared to the level immediately on top of it (that is, “Level C” or C/081), which is 1 meter less than the “Level B” (C/078) street, associated to the pre-late 3rd century bce level (or “Level D”).77 This points towards the presence of northern street wall T/111, which was described in the stratigraphic sketch from May 10th, 1950 (Fig. 9.6), and the “Loose Notes” sketch made by Ramos Folqués (Fig. 9.4). While 2.85 meters is only 60 centimeters less than the widest measurement of the southern street (3.45 meters), it is still the closest thing we can detect from the excavation diaries and graphic sources of the northern limit of the street in the “Iberian” or 3rd century bce level. Below this phase is a final “Level E” that was placed directly above the bedrock. This layer, as stated in the quote from September 20th, 1949 (notebook 10, f. 20r of the Corpus documental), seems to have a continuity in “Level D”. Even so the excavator apparently detected, and described in the stratigraphic sketch, a small boulder floor that would act as an interface (C/079). Underneath it was fill C/078, which was described over several days during the excavation. First is the already mentioned quote from the Corpus documental entry for September 16th, 1949, notebook 10, f. 13r. The findings described in this page include a terracotta loom weight (BAE/1949/C/078/ter/1), a lead sheet (BAE/1949/C/078/Pb/1), and the handle of a “Punic” amphora described in a sketch (BAE/1949/C/078/cer/1). The amphora has a rounded handle with a cylindrical upper body and a lower body that becomes wider before closing in a convex base. The excavator correctly assumed it to be part of a “Punic” amphoric repertoire. However, the sketch is not enough to pinpoint its specific type. From the looks of the rounded large handle and the widening lower body, as well as its reduced size, it could be best associated with T-9111 amphora of possible origin from Baetica and associated with mid-3rd to 2nd century bce production.78 Another finding from this layer is an Attic pottery fragment with white and yellow figures (BAE/1949/C/204/cer/2), mentioned in the entry from 77 78
Ramos Fernández, El templo ibérico de la Alcudia, 115. Antonio M. Sáez Romero, “Ramon T-9111 (Baetica Ulterior coast)”, Amphorae ex Hispania.
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September 20th, 1949.79 Identified as item LA-1335 by Ana Ronda80 and published as early as 2004 by Carmen Sánchez,81 this fragment is dated to the second quarter of the 4th century and belonged to a bell-shaped crater of redfigures type. Days later, when the excavator probed the ground in the area “beneath the statues” in “Level E” on October 4th, 1949,82 Ramos Folqués found a black pottery piece with intertwining lines (BAE/1949/C/078/cer/2), and near this fragment three pottery pieces with painted geometric designs (zig-zags, rhomboids, and volutes, mostly) (BAE/1949/C/078/cer/3, 4, 5). It is unclear whether these materials belong to “Level E” or “Level D”, considering that the “statue level” could very well point to C/091 as described above. However, it is probable that Ramos Folqués referred to a layer where statues could no longer be found, meaning “Level E”. Finally, one interface or very thin Type H stratigraphic unit was identified on September 20th, 1949 (C/357). This “Level F” includes only two main findings: a fine paste and compact grey pottery fragment with irregular excise square decorations (BAE/1949/C/357/cer/1) identified by Ana Ronda as item LA-544,83 and a Campanian-type pottery fragment with green-grey (“mate” color) decorative circles (BAE/1949/C/357/cer/2). There is no specification of the type of Campanian pottery described here; therefore, the date could range from the late 3rd to the mid-1st centuries bce. Significant is the fact that both levels “E” and “D” have similar types of material, pointing towards the mixture of the upper layer with elements found in the
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Landscapes of production and consumption (http://amphorae.icac.cat/amphora/ramon ‑t‑9111‑baetica‑ulterior‑coast), 20 July, 2016. AMF, AMRF, Corpus documental, September 19th, 1949, f. 10, f. 15r. AMRF notes 29, 30. The identification of this fragment to a “Level E” was apparently done a posteriori, and it could very well have belonged to “Level D” C/204. The problems with the excavation method could have caused problems with correct registry of said object. In either case, the date of this fragment does not contradict the stratigraphic history of this probe in Area C. Ronda Femenia, L’Alcudia de Alejandro Ramos Folqués, 167. Here is a small editing mistake, in which the author intended to write “a.n.e” (before of our era) rather than “d.n.e.” as it appears. Carmen Sánchez, “La cerámica ática del yacimiento ilicitano,” in El yacimiento de La Alcudia (Elche, Alicante): pasado y presente de un enclave ibérico, Anejos of AEspA, vol. XXX (CSIC, 2004), 44, catalogue number 15. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: October 5th, 1949, n. 10, f. 32r. Mentioned in Ramos Folqués, “Memoria de las excavaciones practicadas en la Alcudia,” 106–107, as having its decorations done by knife; Ronda Femenia, L’Alcudia de Alejandro Ramos Folqués, 168.
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lower ones. Given that “Level E” fill C/078 is the first phase of this street Area C, we can assume that the first urban activity of this area, even though not necessarily as intense as in the early imperial Roman urbanization, was possibly from the 2nd century bce. This is according to the chronological evidence given by the amphora, and the lack of ceramic or other evidence pointing towards a later period. Likewise, “Level D” is “sealed” by the “statue level” C/091 and “Level C” fill C/081, C/E/076, and C/087. These point towards a clear urban reform in the mid-1st century bce to early 1st century ce. Underneath “Level E” fill C/078 is the bedrock “Level F” or C/090 and T/090. Associated with this “Level F” is an east-west wall that limits Area C to its south. In the plan sketch from September 20th, 1949 (Fig. 9.4), the wall is preserved “from F to A”, that is, up until the height of level A, probably finally being covered by the agricultural layer C/001. Meanwhile on the “Loose Notes” sketch (Fig. 9.5), the wall has a clear series of distances from the northern limits of the street, having one measurement being 2.85 meters south of the northern limit, and the other two measurements being 3.40 and 3.45 meters. The same measurements were recovered on the May 9th, 1950, sketch (Fig. 9.6) though associated with the “acera” or “sidewalk” C/218. The preservation of wall C/110 up to “Level A” C/202 or fill C/074 supposes that this wall is of a later date than most levels described in the September 19th, 1949, sketch (Fig. 9.12). But the question is what level is this wall associated with? If indeed the wall reaches “Level A”, and it was the southern limit of the street, then a good proposition, based on the measurements of each level in this sketch, would suggest that the wall was constructed when the “Level B” layers were laid (that is, after the placement of “Level C” C/088 and before “Level B” fill C/085). An answer to this dilemma is perhaps found in the structures to the west of the main Area C, or probe C/W. The structures found there, associated with levels “B, C, D”,84 are actually attached to both walls C/106 which was associated with a “Level C” (see 2.2.2) and C/110 (Fig. 9.12). Even so, both walls were clearly placed in a supposed “Levels E–F”, implying that these were placed on top of the bedrock level. The question becomes more complicated if we consider that the first reference for northern street limit wall C/106 was associated with a “Level C” in the sketches from 1948 (Figs. 9.1, 2, 3). Furthermore, there are two walls associated with this wall C/110, both mentioned in the plan sketch of Areas C and T to the east, from May 9th, 1950 (Fig. 9.6). The first occurs in a mention of a “sidewalk” attached to a large
84
ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: December 23rd, 1954, n. 20, f. 34r.
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section of wall C/110, mostly through its extension to the east. This wall was catalogued as C/218 and is considered of a later date than C/110. Possibly, it is associated with “Level A” C/202, but this is unclear. Likewise, another attached wall is C/159 that turns to the south and is also attached to C/110. Wall C/159 could be, however, considered an extension of C/110. Therefore, the former is probably contemporary to the latter. The existence of supposed “sidewalk” wall C/218 seems to be evident considering the ongoing use of the same street and its reconstructions. The street’s original walled limits, that is the original sidewalks, were placed there at the first occupation of the site in Iberian times. This is wall C/110. At a certain point, most probably the “Level C” 1st century bce reforms, the “sidewalk” C/218 and C/106 were placed. From sketch of Fig. 9.6 it is possible to notice that on the western edges of the main Area C excavation this “sidewalk” C/218 disappeared. Likewise, one finds other alternative walls to the northern limits of the street, including T/111, which was of a previous level than T/106 associated with a “level D”. This information will be key in the interpretation of stratigraphic development for probe C/W, to the west of the street itself (see below). The account for “Level B” layer C/085 is contradicted somewhat by the account published in 1995 by Ramos Fernández relating to the southern street.85 As can be seen from Fig. 9.12, the distance between “Level B” floor C/075 and “Level D” or “statue” floor C/091 and C/080 is roughly 70 centimeters. This is later confirmed by Ramos Fernández’s publication, though the layers described there are different. The publications give the accounts that the first layer “from that of the Basilica”, that is, the cement mortar floor associated with “Level B” in Area C, or what we have described here as C/085, is 20 centimeters thick. Below this is a new layer of “hardened mud”, including a floor (C/043) and a fill layer (C/044). No materials are registered from it, but it is linked to a 1st century bce–3rd century ce chronology from what the author could derive. This layer is 26 centimeters thick. Below it is another hardened mud layer, this one being here associated with C/088, which is reduced to a thickness of 24 centimeters. It was given the chronology of roughly 40bce for its placement. Below the latter fill, in C/091, the “statue” layer is found which was associated with a late 3rd century bce date.86 Since there were no materials described from these layers, it is better to describe them after the account in Ramos Folqués’ excavation diaries. Regard-
85 86
Ramos Fernández, El templo ibérico de La Alcudia, 115. Ramos Fernández, 115.
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less of the two accounts, both coincide in the thickness of overall layers between the “basilical layer” and the “Statue level”. Therefore, it is assumed that this account is merely a more precise one regarding the layers between the late 3rd century bce and the 4th century ce. As such, between C/088 and C/085 the layers C/043 and C/044 were added. The Area C levels described here were thus extrapolated to Area T by Ramos Folqués through his excavation campaign in to the south of the basilical building. With the Area C stratigraphy defined, the stratigraphical scheme would look like Chart 9.2 below. 3.2.2 Probe C/P In November 1950, Alejandro Ramos Folqués seems to have taken an interest on a prolongation of the street westwards. The probe to the west (lit. poniente in the excavation diaries) suggests it was a prolongation from the previous first excavation of Area C in 1949. As such, it does not reach the structures later described in probe C/W, but it does indicate Ramos Folqués’ desire to uncover the entrance area to the main basilical building (Area B) from the street itself. The first described layer in this probe is a “Level C” in November 16th, 1950, followed by description of findings from November 17th and 20th.87 Identified as C/P/355, the layer was made of gravel as in other similar “Level C” layers in Area C. As in other “Level C” fills, there are numerous findings. Most significant are the lead objects, including a 3-centimeter lead disk (BAE/1950/C/P/355/ Pb/1),88 and a lead top (BAE/1950/C/P/355/Pb/2), along with an unidentified coin of a 1:100 fraction (BAE/1950/C/P/355/num/1). There are further findings mentioned in the November 20th entry, such as a fragment of dark glass vase, of globular body, flat base and everted rim (BAE/1950/C/P/355/vit/1),89 a small jar or amphora fragment, identified by AMRF as a possible Greek jug (BAE/1950/C/P/355/cer/1),90 a coarse sigillata fragment with wreath decoration that identified it as a late Terra Sigillata Hispanica or TSHT (BAE/1950/C/ P/355/cer/3),91 a fragment of an oil lamp with light ochre-color paste (BAE/ 1950/C/P/355/cer/2), a cylindrical sigillata vase (BAE/1950/C/P/355/cer/4), and most importantly a decorated mold (BAE/1950/C/P/355/cer/5).
87 88 89 90 91
ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: November 16th, 1950, n. 13, f. 1r; November 17th, 1950, n. 13, f. 3r; November 20th, 1950, n. 13, f. 4v. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: n. 13, f. 1r. AMRF note 22. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: n. 13, f. 4v, note 31, identified as of late date according to Ana Ronda based on its dark paste. Ibid., note. 32. Ibid., note 33.
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chart 9.2 Stratigraphic scheme for rooms main Area C and sub-areas C/W and C/N. Below: legend for scheme See Plate X.
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The last object is of particular interest. Identified as mold item LA-3554 by Ana Ronda,92 it was probably used for giving shapes on baked bread or pastries.93 However, unlike the more widely published Ilici mold found in eastern thermae excavated by Ramos Folqués in 1963,94 associated with a scene from a circus,95 this mold has characters of an entirely different scenery and symbolism. It depicts a pastoral scene, of sheep, the figure of a dog, and fragments of what would be the shepherd. At the back there is a depiction of a series of building façades, probably three. The two well preserved buildings, at the center and on its left, each have three doors, one larger central one and two flanking smaller ones. The left building is clearly depicted with a cupula and a tower. Each door is depicted with a square front window on top of its lintel. The date of this mold was assigned to the 3rd century by previous scholars, based on the type of paste and production parallels.96 Thus, should this interpretation of the object’s symbology be confirmed, it would place the association of this building with a congregational community, be it Jewish or Christian, earlier than the placement of the mosaic floor in the late 4th century ce. However, one should be cautious with this reading, considering that the object was
92 93
94
95 96
Ibid., note 34. Ronda Femenia, L’Alcudia de Alejandro Ramos Folqués, 175–176, fig. 209. Mercedes Tendero Porras and Ana María Ronda Femenia, “Nuevos datos sobre la Colonia Iulia Ilici Augusta (s. II–IV d.C.),” in Las ciudades de la Tarraconense oriental entre los s. II– IV d.C. Evolución urbanística y contextos materiales, ed. Sebastián F. Ramallo Asensio and Alejandro Quevedo Sánchez (Murcia: Universidad de Murcia, 2014), 283–284, note 17; Ana María Ronda Femenia and Mercedes Tendero Porras, “Unam diem in circus. Iconografía circense en la Colonia Iulia Ilici Augusta,” in Tarraco Biennal: Actes 3r Congrés Internacional d’Arqueologia i Món Antic: La glòria del circ, curses de carros i competicions circenses. In Memoriam Xavier Dupré i Raventós, Tarragona, 16–19 de novembre de 2016. (Tarragona: Fundació Privada Mútua Catalana, 2017), 107–112; Ronda Femenia, L’Alcudia de Alejandro Ramos Folqués, 176. While the basis of interpretation is associated with the Satyricon 40, 60 by Petronius, it seems that only paragraph 60 should be taken into account. This is not to the detriment of the argument for its use for bakeries, against the proposal by Ramos Folqués that it is a potter’s mold. See Alejandro Ramos Folqués, “Molde romano hallado en La Alcudia de Elche,”Zephyrus 4, Homenaje a César Morán Bardón (1953): 143– 144. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: November 28th, 1963: n. 25, f. 5r. Ramos Fernández, La ciudad romana de Ilici, 236; Tendero Porras and Ronda Femenia, “Nuevos datos sobre la Colonia”, fig. 2.1. Possibly of local production according to Ana Ronda and Mercedes Tendero. See Ronda Femenia and Tendero Porras, “Unam Diem in Circus,” 110. Ramos Folqués, “Molde romano hallado en La Alcudia de Elche,” 144; Michel Bonifay, Etudes sur la céramique romaine tardive d’Afrique, BAR International Series 1301 (Oxford, England: Archaeopress, 2004), 83–84; Tendero Porras and Ronda Femenia, “Nuevos datos sobre la Colonia,” 283.
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Sketch drawing of mold BAE/1950/C/P/355/cer/5 (item LA-3554) arf, amrf, corpus documental: november 20th, 1950, n. 13, f. 4 r
decontextualized and the 3rd century date is based on the parallel of the 1963 quadriga mold found elsewhere in the Alcudia. Another date and reading can be presented upon reviewing the figures. The scene depicts a Christian scene of the “good shepherd”, where one can clearly see two canines—the shepherd’s dog and a fleeing wolf, probably representative of New Testament text of John 10:11–13. Most interesting is the depiction of the buildings, which are three basilicas, a larger one at the center and two flanking smaller ones. The left one has a circular pool, accessed through a staircase. The basilica with cupula is also depicted with a tower. Considering the architectural history of important sites in late antique Christianity, there is little doubt this is the depiction of Jerusalem, with the left basilica representing the Holy Sepulcher; the right basilica the Church of the Pool of Bethesda; and the central building being the Nea Basilica completed in the mid-6th century. Such a depiction is crucial, as it dates the object to the mid-6th to early 7th century ce.97 This places “Level C” at a chronological point after the placement of the mosaic floor. Likewise, it is likely that the dark glass vase (BAE/1950/C/P/355/
97
I would like to thank Dr. Ángel Fuentes for his aid in reading this mold and reviewing its date. This object will be the subject of a future publication.
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figure 9.22 Drawing and images of bi-valve mold LA-3554 courtesy of m. tendero and e. moreno. published in from a. ronda (2018): l’alcúdia de alejandro ramos folqués, p. 175, fig. 209
vit/1) could be of a late imperial date, though that cannot be confirmed without a better description. In all likelihood, “Level C” in probe C/P seems to have had mixed material with upper layers. Below “Level C” fill C/355 is “Level D” fill C/356. Apparently, according to a sketch from September 25th, 1951 (Fig. 9.25), “Level C” would have presumably covered a channel 25 centimeters across and preserved up to at least 5 meters. The channel, C/-377, would have covered parts of Area T as detected in probe T/H/S (see below) and the northern part of Area C or the street, being parallel to C/-089 on top of which the “street statues” were found. The channel is 20–25 centimeters across, and kept a regular width in between areas. The findings of “Level D” were first described on November 18th, 1950. They included a collection of five lead disks (BAE/1950/C/P/356/Pb/1, 2, 3, 4), all between 2 and 3.5 centimeters in diameter,98 and two copper coins of 1.6 centimeters (BAE/1950/C/P/356/num/1) and 2 centimeters (BAE/1950/C/P/356/ num/2) in diameter. The latter had a protuberance adhered to it, without further description. Other findings that day included a notable painted vase fragment with bird, carnivore, and “other small animals” (BAE/1950/C/P/356/cer/ I/1), and two copper objects, including a copper bracelet (BAE/1950/C/P/356/ Cu/1). Ramos Folqués returned on November 20th to the same layer, this time uncovering other diverse objects. One of them is a weight (BAE/1950/C/P/356/ misc/1) and another a bone fish-looking handle, possibly to hold a ritual knife (BAE/1950/C/P/356/os/I/1), identified as item LA-2120.99 A black pottery fragment, possibly an imitation production of Campanian style pottery (BAE/1950/ C/P/356/cer/I/2), and an “indigenous” black pottery fragment (BAE/1950/C/P/ 356/cer/I/3) suggest this layer to be of a late republican period (late 2nd to
98 99
ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: November 18th, 1950, n. 13, f. 3r. AMRF, note 29. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: November 20th, 1950, n. 13, f. 5r. AMRF note 35.
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mid-1st century bce), though the apparent “large amount of pottery fragments” could contest this suggested chronology (BAE/1950/C/P/356/cer/II/1…). The “fine small plate” (BAE/1950/C/P/356/cer/I/4) found on November 22nd in that layer cast further doubt on the late republican date, despite it not having been described properly. The final intervention in this layer was apparently undertaken on October 2nd, 1951,100 nearly a year after the last intervention in this probe. According to Ramos Folqués, he found two fragments of painted pottery with vegetal motifs and possible Iberian letters (BAE/1951/C/P/356/cer/I/5, 6), a sharpener (BAE/1951/C/P/356/pet/1), remains of fish spines (BAE/1951/C/P/356/os/ II/1…), “small animal bones” (BAE/1951/C/P/356/os/III/1…), and a small basin made of piled up earthen discs (BAE/1951/C/P/356/ter/I/1…). The objects point towards elements associated with ritual activities, though the lack of proper description makes it difficult to present a complete interpretation and date. Below is “Level E” layer C/P/358. Unlike other “Level E” layers in other sectors of Area C, this unit is significant for its large quantity of findings described by Ramos Folqués, discovered during different interventions in November 1950 and, again, in September 29th, 1951.101 The first intervention in this layer was on November 16th, 1950.102 Curiously, Ramos Folqués apparently reached this layer before excavating “Level D” C/P/356, suggesting a high possibility of mixture of materials between floor levels. A first finding includes a restored painted Iberian pottery fragment identified as LA-1135 by Ana Ronda (BAE/1950/C/P/ 358/cer/I/1),103 with vegetal motifs and waving zig-zagging vertical lines (“tejadillos”),104 as well as another fragment of a large vase with zig-zagging curved vertical lines and concentric semi-circles (BAE/1950/C/P/358/cer/I/2). Alongside these items, Ramos Folqués found four glass collar beads, two smaller double-conical ones (BAE/1950/C/P/358/vit/1, 2), and two larger trapezoidal ones (BAE/1950/C/P/358/vit/3, 4); a bone stylus (BAE/1950/C/P/358/os/1); a lead disk (BAE/1950/C/P/358/Pb/1); and a small copper sheet (BAE/1950/C/P/ 358/Cu/1). A more concrete date is given by the discovery of three pottery fragments on November 21st: an Italic amphora’s top (BAE/1950/C/P/358/cer/I/3) of Vegas
100 101
102 103 104
ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: October 2nd, 1951, n. 14, f. 4r. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: November 16th, 1950, n. 13, f. 2r; November 20th, 1950, n. 13, f. 5r; November 21st, 1950, n. 13, f. 6r; November 22nd, 1950, n. 13, f. 7r–8r; September 29th, 1951, n. 14, ff. 5r–6r. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: November 16th, 1950, n. 13, f. 2r. Ibid.: note 24. Ibid.: note 25.
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16b type,105 and two “Estilo Ilicitano I” painted Iberian pottery fragments (BAE/ 1950/C/P/358/cer/I/4, 5) with figurative and geometrical motifs. More findings were described in the November 21st, 1950 entry,106 including a republican period coin (3.5 centimeters in diameter) with the image of Janus and a ship’s prow (BAE/1950/C/P/358/num/1), a series of copper objects (BAE/1950/C/P/ 358/Cu/3, 4, 5), a lead sheet and an undescribed object (BAE/1950/C/P/358/ Pb/2, 3), and another bone awl (BAE/1950/C/P/358/os/2). In the November 21st and 22nd entries a series of Iberian pottery decorated fragments were described, such as a “top hat” Conde D-1.2 type with vegetal motifs (BAE/1950/C/ P/358/cer/I/6),107 a small plate with painted and undecorated sections (BAE/ 1950/C/P/358/cer/I/8), and a small black vase in two fragments, one found on November 21st and another on November 22nd (BAE/1950/C/P/358/cer/I/7, 10). Between the “top hat” and black vase in two fragments was a series of objects found in November 22nd, including a small carbonized almond (BAE/ 1950/C/P/358/misc/1), a fragment of a blue and red pottery identified as item LA-941 in the Alcudia’s storage and belonging to a Megaric type pottery,108 a fine conch valve (BAE/1950/C/P/358/os/3), and a lead disk (BAE/1950/C/P/358/ Pb/4). Other pottery fragments of interest include a series of Campanian productions, including a Lamboglia 3 (possibly the “B” variation)109 type inkpot (BAE/1950/C/P/358/cer/I/11), and the bases of two Campanian vases (BAE/ 1950/C/P/358/cer/I/12, 13). Ramos Folqués also found indigenous pottery, such as a fine black vase (BAE/1950/C/P/358/cer/I/14) identified as a production from Emporion (COT CAT Gb7) according to Ana Ronda,110 and a “top hat” Iberian kalathos with painted birds and wings (BAE/1950/C/P/358/cer/I/15) and identified as another Conde D-1 type.111 105
106 107 108
109 110 111
ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: November 20th, 1950, n. 13, f. 5r. AMRF note 37. While the produced plates from this type could indicate a relatively concrete date for its production, the tops from this production type are not a good indicator, as their form remains unchanged from the late 3rd to the 1st century bce. See Mercedes Vegas, Cerámica común romana del Mediterráneo occidental, Universidad de Barcelona. Instituto de Arqueología y Prehistoria. Publicaciones Eventuales, no. 22 (Barcelona, 1973), 49–53. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: November 21st, 1950, n. 13, f. 6r. Ibid.: AMRF note 40. Identified as item LA-1145 by Ana Ronda. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: November 22nd, 1950, n. 13, f. 7r. AMRF note 41. Item published in Gabriel Lara Vives, “Cerámica helenísticas de relieves en La Alcudia (Elche, Alicante),” Lucentum XXIII–XXIV (2005 2004): 106, fig. 1.2. According to Lara, it is a bowl seemingly produced in a Menémakhos shop, dated to the last quarter of the 2nd century bce. The item presents a series of decorative rosettes with 8 petals. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: November 22nd, 1950, n. 13, f. 8r. AMRF note 42. Ibid.: AMRF note 43. Ibid.: AMRF note 44.
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One final intervention in this level, on September 29th, 1950,112 gives further information on the type of materials recovered from this layer. Amongst them are three red-figure Greek pottery fragments (BAE/1950/C/P/358/cer/I/16, 17, 18),113 one with a Dionysian motif (number 16, identified as LA-1334),114 a second with a labyrinthian geometric motif (number 17, identified as LA-1324),115 and a third is presumably a vase’s base (number 18, identified as LA-1332).116 Another seemingly Campanian production (BAE/1950/C/P/358/cer/I/19) with decorative mark of a palm branch is suggested by Ana Ronda to be the possible base of an Attic vase.117 Other than these pottery fragments there is one black pottery, indigenous production (BAE/1951/C/P/358/cer/I/21) with decorative incisions made with a cord, and another base fragment made with white paintings and horizontal waved lines (BAE/1951/C/P/358/cer/I/22). Alongside the pottery fragments, other findings of note from that layer include a bronze hook (BAE/1950/C/P/358/met/1) and a 10-centimeter awl (BAE/1950/C/P/358/cer/met/2). But most interesting are the architectural fragments, including the remains of a Corinthian type capital (BAE/1951/C/P/ 358/pet/2) made of a similar sandstone as that of the sculptures. Only one central acanthus leaf and one volute is preserved, the fragment is 16 centimeters high, 18 centimeters across, and 4.5 centimeters thick. The fragment seems to have not been identified, but Ana Ronda indicates it might have been painted.118 Other fragments found at this level include a rhomboid stone slab (7×7cm) described on November 22nd, 1950 (BAE/1951/C/P/358/pet/1),119 and a sandstone quasi-cube (10×10×6 centimeters) identified as item LA6390.120 The objects associated with “Level E” clearly point towards a late republican period and are associated with the period when the statues were produced or, at least, demolished. They provide an indication that this sector in the Alcudia had a ritual use, as was confirmed in other probes such as probes T/H/S and T/W.
112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120
ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental, November 29th, 1951, n. 14, ff. 5r–6r. Ronda Femenia, L’Alcudia de Alejandro Ramos Folqués, 176–177, fig. 212. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental, November 29th, 1951, n. 14, ff. 5r–6r. AMRF note 12. Ibid. Ibid.: AMRF note 14. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 29th, 1951, n. 14, f. 6r. AMRF note 13. Ibid.: n. 14, f. 5r. AMRF note 11. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: November 22nd, 1950, n. 13, f. 7r–8r. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 29th, 1951, n. 14, f. 6r. AMRF note 15.
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A final layer below is “Level F” (C/P/359) described only on November 16th, 1950.121 Only three findings were described at this level: a fragment of a great vase decorated with parallel horizontal lines (BAE/1950/C/P/359/cer/1), what seems to be the lower half of a weight (BAE/1950/C/P/359/misc/1),122 and the “fragment of Greek pottery”, unrecognizable due to the document’s deterioration on its lower edge (BAE/1950/C/P/359/cer/2).123 3.2.3 Probe C/W and C/N To the west of the main excavation of Area C were the excavated remains of what Ramos Folqués called “houses”. These compartments were found in the middle of the street area, and therefore were included in Area C itself, as a sub-area C/W. The first reference to these structures is found in an entry for December 23rd, 1954: Due to rains and irrigation, we cannot excavate next to the walls and therefore excavated south of the Basilica to the west. At the end of the street several walls appeared belonging to houses from levels D, C and B. This reference is followed by a sketch of the structures (Fig. 9.23). The sketch clearly demonstrates a series of walls associated with several levels and attached to the western extensions of C/110 to the south and C/106 to the north. In this sketch both walls are somehow associated with “Level E” and “F”. These walls are extensions of C/106 and C/110 to the west. Therefore, the walls associated with these structures are of a later date, as they are attached to both C/110 and C/106. As indicated in the excavation diary quote above, there was a “Level B” associated with these structures. This “Level B”, catalogued as C/W/220, was only mentioned in the quote, as no concrete evidence for findings were described. Considering the modus operandi of Ramos Folqués’ excavation, there were probably no findings at all. Rather it is a fill phase that covered the lower structures associated with “Level C” and “Level D”. Below fill C/W/220 were the walls associated with “Level C”, as represented in the sketch from that same excavation diary entry (Fig. 9.18). These include C/W/166 and C/W/167, two north-south walls attached to the northern limit of the street C/106. To the south of these two walls is an east-west wall C/168, which limited this compartment to its south. 121 122 123
ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: November 16th, 1950, n. 13, f. 2r. Ibid.: AMRF note 27. Ibid.: AMRF note 28.
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Sketch from the “houses” found at the western edge of street of Area C in Ramos Folqués’ excavation diaries arf, amrf, corpus documental: december 23rd, 1954, n. 20, f. 34 r
The southern structure is associated with C/169, a north-south wall apparently built on “Level C”, which is attached to its south with the western extension of the southern limit wall of the street, or C/110. Therefore, it is contemporary with the walls of the northern structures. These walls were built on “Level C” in the western section of the street, or fill C/W/219 which, like “Level B” fill C/220, is not associated with any materials. Perpendicular to wall C/169, parallel to C/168, is an east-west wall C/170 which was associated with a “Level D”. “Level D” is represented by fill C/W/171 and it is the first in this sub-area to have associated objects described in the excavation diaries. These include crater with decoration in its interior and the border of its exterior (BAE/1954/
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C/W/171/cer/1). This crater’s decorations include a “central relief of a serpent, two big hares and a big flower boquet”.124 Another discovery was a stylized vase drawn in profile (BAE/1954/C/W/171/cer/3). The vase included a straight neck and mouth in an everted inclination, and a rounded handle going out from the rim to the shoulder of the piece. The body was globular and the base was convex, sustained by a narrow ring for a foot. It had mostly geometric decoration with vertical lines, a volute and what seems like the letter P, as well as painted horns on a dark band.125 Most importantly, however, is the finding of an amphora at the corner where wall C/W/110 and C/W/169 met (BAE/1954/C/W/171/cer/2). Ramos Folqués clearly points out this amphora is “from the level D” as well as the location of said finding within those structures.126 There is no further description of the amphora. However, its straight profile with slightly everted mouth proposes an early Punic type amphora— definitely discarding its Greek or Italic origin. Under stratigraphic unit C/W/171 is “Level E” fill C/W/172, where more findings were described in the same entry from September 23rd, 1954.127 These include a painted pottery shard with “rose-cream” leaf on a white background (BAE/1954/C/W/172/cer/1). A second painted pottery shard included anthropomorphic figures (a leg) next to other unidentified forms on top of dark bands at the base (BAE/1954/C/W/172/cer/2). It was without a doubt a painted scene, though the information is limited. A third and final shard described by Ramos Folqués is a grey paste pottery with painted decoration of red lines (BAE/1954/C/W/172/cer/3). This shard preserves an everted rim. Finally, under this stratigraphic unit is a “Level F” fill, above the bedrock (C/W/173) that includes only one described finding,128 a painted pottery shard with curved vertical red bands and a red area on a white background (BAE/ 1954/C/W/173/cer/1). It is clear from the description of this finding that probably “Level E” C/W/172 was a mere continuation fill of lower “Level F” C/W/173, and thus they represent one and the same phase. The two, of course, are associated with the “Levels E and F” walls C/110 and C/106 to which these “houses” are attached. What is the purpose of these compartments? While a wall (C/W/170) apparently existed in contact with “Level D”, that is, before the “statue fills” from “Level C” C/091 and C/081, there is nothing to indicate that this wall was built 124 125 126 127 128
ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: December 23rd, 1954, n. 20, f. 34r. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: December 23rd, 1954, n. 20, f. 35r. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: December 23rd, 1954, n. 20, f. 34r. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: December 23rd, 1954, n. 20, ff. 35r–36r. Ibid.
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on top of this level. It is possible that it was merely built after digging a foundation trench, thus explaining why it would merge so well with “Level C” wall C/169. The building of such a structure would break urban rules established by Roman planners in cities “founded” by the emperor, such as Colonia Iulia Augusta Ilici. On a section of the street that intersected with another, northsouth street, only a narrow pass was left in to allow people to pass. Finally, this structure must have had the same height of associated “street walls” C/106 and C/110. In my opinion these structures were public buildings associated with the functioning of the street. They must have been of low height, at least not high enough to bother the movement of people, carts, or animals. Another possibility is that these structures are late buildings, from a time when the Roman public authorities could not control the private takeover of public spaces, or when these public spaces were taken over with agreement from the local authorities, as happened in other cities through the Iberian Peninsula starting from the 5th century ce.129 However, this possibility is questioned when we find the presence of a Punic-type amphora carefuly placed at the corner of the southern room, thus pointing to an early date for the use for these structures. Despite all that evidence, a concrete use for these compartments is, for now, speculation. The fact is that this far west in Area C the modern researcher has little to no evidence concerning the buildings found there. Instead we can assume that the process of urbanization existed at an early stage in Ilici, and was not planned according to an urban orthodoxy stated by the Roman authorities. Different, “decontextualized” findings include stratigraphic units whose placement is unclear within Area C. One of these is C/E/161, which is clearly placed in the street, associated with “Level A” from this area. This stratigraphic unit is probably from the eastern section of Area C, and is a series of human bone remains found within the fill. According to the plan skech from May 10th, 1950, it included the remains of a “leg”. Another mention of these remains other than the sketch in the excavation diaries are an indication of a “leg” of one indi-
129
Urban changes are detectable since the 2nd and 3rd century in Hispania too, though they accelerated starting with the 5th century. For general review of late antique urban transformations, see Josep M. Gurt, “Transformaciones en el tejido de las ciudades hispanas durante la Antigüedad Tardía: dinámicas urbanas,”Zephyrus 53–54 (2000–2001): 444–450; Isabel Sánchez Ramos and Jorge Morín de Campos, “Los paisajes urbanos de la Antigüedad tardía en Hispania,” Espacio Tiempo y Forma, Prehistoria y Arqueología, 7 (2015): 104–105; María-José Bravo-Bosch, “Urbanismo y territorio en la antigüedad tardía en Hispania,” Revista General de Derecho Romano 27 (2016): 145–191.
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vidual published in the 1950 excavation report (in 1956) by Ramos Folqués.130 This is probably from a “Level O”, and is an intrusion made of a later period. It would be the second set of evidence of human burials apart from unit T/207 to the south of the basilical building in late antique periods. Documented on May 10th, 1950, are three stratigraphic units made in a probe “at the north of the street”, although the precise location is unknown.131 The first is C/N/152, a small cobble stone floor without material findings. Below it is fill C/N/153, which includes interesting findings, such as a kalathos (BAE/1950/C/ N/153/cer/I/3), a Campanian type plate (BAE/1950/C/N/153/cer/I/1), and plates and vases with geometric motifs amongst other findings. Finally, below this is a “big cobble stone” floor, C/N/154, which includes a series of findings in between the stones and therefore sealed. These are a painted pottery piece with geometric motifs with concentric semi-circles of Iberian period (BAE/1950/C/N/154/cer/1), and a black, coarse and hand-made pottery piece (BAE/1950/C/N/154/cer/2). These decontextualized findings are, however, associated with the wider stratigraphic sequencing of Area C and Area T, the latter’s sequencing being based on the first (See Chart 9.2; Plate XI). 3.3 Area T: Stratigraphy and Compartments 3.3.1 Main Area T: Rooms I and H The description of the first excavation from 1948, where “Level O” and the upper compartments of Area T were first excavated, and the identification of the levels as described during the excavation of Area C, were a prerequisite to understand the stratigraphic sequence of the main Area T, including rooms T/I and T/H. The findings in this area “between the street and the mosaic”, as Alejandro Ramos Folqués would put it in one of his excavation pictures (Fig. 9.13), are an important factor to understanding the development of the main basilical building as a whole. Curiously, this area was the most ignored sector of the site, perhaps due to the lack of clarity about the identity of these structures and to the lack of specific findings that could support the positions researchers were predisposed to hold on the building itself. As can be seen from Figs. 9.4, 5, 6, and especially 7, this area was subdivided in different compartments which made up the “upper compartments” described above (T/H1, T/A2, and T/B3). At first glance it looks like an urban anomaly. These compartments were attached to the southern side of the urban
130 131
Ramos Folqués, “Memoria de las excavaciones practicadas en la Alcudia,” 107. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: May 10th, 1950, n. 11, ff. 35v–36r.
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block which housed the basilical building and the Area S rooms. However, these had direct access from the street, or from the south, and therefore were integrated into the spatial organization of Area T. The stratigraphic development of these compartments is hard to ascertain. It is probable that the levels described by Ramos Folqués in his excavation diaries are just an extrapolation of those found in Area C. However, this is not as problematic as one could expect, as it is logical to assume that any change in the street’s use meant a change in the structures adjacent to it. In that sense, Ramos Folqués’ treatment of this area as a unit should not be a reason to discard the evidence described in his diaries. However, it is a warning to avoid overreaching interpretations. The above description of “Level O” placed it above the lower levels in Area T. The first mentions of “Level A” corresponding with this area are linked to rooms T/I (where the “upper structures” were found) and T/H, excavated and described first superficially in September 1948 (Figs. 9.2, 3) and later in September 1949 (Figs. 9.4–6). The first reference to the elements underneath “Level O” occurs on September 20th, 1949, with the following description: In this zone, next to the Synagogue (Area T), floors A and B are almost together in most of the zone.132 Indeed, the excavator was apparently unable to tell these two floors apart. This explains Ramos Folqués’ description of the north-south walls that separate rooms T/I and T/H which closes room T/H from the east (see Fig. 9.6).133 These two walls include T/103, which was classified in the plan sketch as “wall P” and was described, in its ledger, as “wall associated to A”. This wall separates room T/I from T/H, being attached on its north edge to the east-west wall T/105 to the south of the synagogue wall. Wall T/103 was built on top of “Floor A”, even though it is almost the same level as “Floor B”. Wall T/103 is particularly important due to the evidence for a foundation fill underneath it (T/209), described on September 20th, 1949.134 This fill includes findings such as a reused “piece of stone, like that of the statues” (BAE/1949/T/209/pet/1). Considering the finding in this foundation for a “Level A” wall of material associated with a “Level C” fill such as C/081 and C/091, it is not surprising that other findings include the 132 133 134
ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 20th, 1949, n. 10, f. 23r. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 20th, 1949, n. 10, f. 24r. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 20th, 1949, n. 10, f. 29r. “Bajo la pared entre H e I …” (“under the wall between H and I”) or T/H and T/I, referring explicitly to wall T/103.
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rim of a “Punic amphora” (BAE/1949/T/209/cer/1) and an amphora fragment without neck and no decoration (BAE/1949/T/209/cer/2). They also include a “plate” (BAE/1949/T/209/cer/3), a cup fragment (BAE/1949/T/209/cer/4), fragment of a painted “S” profile pottery (BAE/1949/T/209/cer/5) with dark horizontal lines, and the lower part of a high vase with a hole in the middle on both sides, perhaps to have a stick or a small rope to pass through it (BAE/1949/T/209/cer/6). These findings suggest the reuse of ground from or nearby a “Level C” stage, to prepare the foundation of this “Level A” wall T/103. In “Room H”, the main identified floor for “Level A” is T/H/093 (which in the sketch plan in Fig. 9.6 is marked with “xxx”). In the excavation diaries we find this description: Above floor A in the xxx place of the plan, [is a] good floor, [with] two coins.135 The description should not be confused with other findings “above floor A” which were associated with T/083, as Ramos Folqués is clearly describing a finding directly associated with the “Type I” stratigraphic unit associated with “good floor” A in room T/H. The two coins include the following descriptions: – BAE/1949/T/H/093/num/1 had on its obverse the mention of Constantinvs, and on its reverse the image of a castle. Dated to 326–328 ce. – BAE/1949/T/H/093/num/2 is only described on its reverse as having the inscription FELTEM REPARAT. Both coins were interpreted as early Constantinian. According to Abascal and Alberola in 2007, Folqués committed a mistake when identifying one of the coins, associating the “falling horseman” type (num/2) to Constantine and not some other emperor. Only one of these two coins (num/1) was catalogued by these authors (number 795), with the museum reference number A0243. Either way, the date of these two pieces is clearly from the first half of the 4th century, with a more precise date for the first coin.136 These 4th century coins point towards the main period when “floor A” T/H/093 was used, perhaps even its placement at a certain period after the minting of these pieces. Regardless, it cannot be dated before the 4th century ce.
135 136
ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 20th, 1949, n. 10, f. 25r. “Sobre piso A en la parte xxx (del) plano piso bueno, dos monedas”. Abascal Palazón and Alberola, Monedas antiguas de los museos de Elche, 28, 149–150, number 795.
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Floor T/H/093 found, by necessity, its parallel in T/084. This “generic” “Level A” floor should be seen as a necessary link between “Level O” and “Level B” T/I/096, detected in room T/I, and which was clearly mentioned in different occasions from the diaries. Underneath this “floor A” is the fill T/206, for which, no findings are descripted in any part of Area T. The existence of this fill is implicit the layers above and below it, as is the case of floor T/084. This apparent fill for “Level A” T/206 was a placed above “Level B”, on which “wall P1” was built. The wall was classified as T/104, presenting a width of 0.4 meters and a length of 2.7 meters. Wall T/104, associated to “Level B”, is comparable in its description to most north-south walls that divide the compartments detected by May, 1950 (Fig. 9.8).137 Most importantly it was also attached to wall T/105. Furthermore, wall T/104 was 3.9 meters distance west from wall T/103, as indicated in the May, 1950, sketch. Wall T/105 first appears in the September 20th, 1949, entry as “walls of the floors A and B”. Logically, this floor would have been built on the “floor B” stage, which as indicated above, was considered indistinguishable from “floor A”. All north-south walls, including T/103, T/104, T/155, and others from Area T, were apparently attached to this wall. Therefore, wall T/105 was evidently built before the construction of walls T/103 and T/104. However, the depth of this wall’s foundation discounts its placement in a previous period associated with “Level C” or below. In other words, it was built at the same time as the construction of the southern compartments themselves, and certainly before the construction of “Level O” walls like B/021. Referring to this wall which forms a part of the wall complex that divides Area B from T is the following quote from the excavation diaries dated September 20th, 1949: I think: that next to the side of the wall south of the Basilica and behind it, the wall present was raised; that when the wall was done part of the mosaic was broken and thrown to the other side.138 The “constructed wall” in this quote clearly refers to the last wall still present when the excavation was under way. In other words, wall B/021 was built after the abandonment of the mosaic floor’s original use, thus breaking part of it. However, an important detail is the reference to the “wall south of the Basilica”, and the fact that above this wall another was raised. While the reference
137 138
ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: May 10th, 1950, n. 11, ff. 35v–36r. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 20th, 1949, n. 10, f. 23r.
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is clearly to wall B/020, which was classified as the southern wall of Area B’s mosaic structure (see Chapter 7, 2.2.5), this can also be related to the southernmost wall of this series of walls, in other words, to wall T/105, which is parallel to wall B/020. Two other sketches reveal valuable information regarding this wall T/105. The first is a “Loose Notes” sketch by Ramos Folqués (Fig. 9.5) which reveals that the northernmost wall of Area T is separated by a space from the southernmost wall of Area B (or “mosaic” building). This reveals that the wall that limited Area T to the north was not the same wall that limited Area B to the south. However, a more revealing sketch is that from May 10th, 1950 (Fig. 9.6). There, Folqués describes not just one wall, but two to the south of “Level O” wall B/021. The first is, of course, wall T/105. This wall is associated with a “level A”, and fits the descriptions given before regarding its construction for “Levels A and B”, at an area where these two were indistinguishable by the author of these sketches. The measurements at the upper section of the sketch also reveal that this wall was 0.4 meters wide, as opposed to the 0.7-meter width of B/021. It seems evident that this wall is merely placed under wall B/021, the latter being supported by T/105 and B/020 which were reused as a foundation. The second wall was classified as T/343, and was associated, as the sketch clearly indicates, with “Level E”, by an “E” on the wall itself. It was 0.4 meters wide, or possibly partially covered by T/105 thus revealing only part of its full width. The wall, like T/105, had an east-west direction and was continuous both to the west and east of main Area T (rooms “I” and “H”). However, there is no reference to this wall anywhere else in the excavation diaries, nor in any publication. In fact, in the plan sketch of sub-area S/OB, one finds that one of the north-south walls are attached to what was more likely T/105, associated with the upper levels of the excavation, rather than T/086, which was associated with the lower levels. The sketch from May 10th, 1949, indicates that the north-south walls, such as T/103, T/104, T/155 and others, were attached to the “wall E” (T/343) and not “wall A” (T/105). In my opinion this cannot represent more than a graphic convenience for Ramos Folqués, intending to give a better representation of wall T/343’s measurements, thus explaining the contradictions between this sketch and all others from this intervention. Accompanying T/104 is the western limit wall of room T/I, which is T/I/155. The wall is significantly narrower, only 0.3 meters wide, and while attached to the east-west wall T/105, it did not arrive to the street limit defined by wall T/106 and T/274 mentioned above. Therefore, it is not clear if it is contemporary to other walls of similar nature like T/105. Nevertheless, it is more likely that it is contemporary to wall T/104. The lack of further information concerning this
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specific wall impedes further knowledge of its stratigraphic positioning. The placement of wall T/155 should be therefore treated as possibly contemporary to wall T/104. Walls T/104, T/105, and possibly T/I/155 were built on top of “Level B” classified in three codes: T/086, T/I/096, and T/H/208. The first mention of the “Level B” in Area T is a generic “B” from notebook number 10, f. 23r dated September 20th, 1949, in the excavation diaries, just below the mention of the little difference between “levels” A (T/206) and B. Since Alejandro Ramos Folqués does not describe where the finds of this fill were done, it was assumed that this level should be classified as a “generic Level B” T/086. This stratigraphic unit has few findings, including fragments of pale red pottery (BAE/1949/T/086/cer/I/1…) and two bowls, one of red paste with grooved base (BAE/1949/T/086/cer/II/1) and another bowl with inverted rim (BAE/1949/T/086/cer/II/2). It is however in “Room H” where “Level B” is best described. According to Ramos Folqués, “Floor B” T/H/208 was made from good cement which was placed above and covered 30 centimeters of small boulder fill (T/H/108).139 The description of the “Level B” findings from this room was accompanied with a small sketch (Fig. 9.24), revealing the limits of “Room H” and “Room I” when excavating this level. Amongst the findings from fill T/H/108 are a grinder made of volcanic tuff (BAE/1949/T/H/108/pet/1), a series of different handles “of different types and periods” (BAE/1949/T/H/108/cer/I/1…), and a piece of “painted pottery with hare, the tail of a fish and the torso (lit. pechugas) of two animals” (BAE/1949/T/H/108/cer/II/1). These objects are mixed and cannot provide concrete dating. For its part, “Room I” is given its own description of “Floor B” T/I/096 and “fill” for “B” T/I/095. It is described mostly on September 20th, 1949, when Ramos Folqués describes two levels: In place I in the level under sepultures, or level A Following an empty space that indicates the lack of findings, the excavator proceeds: In place I in the following level, B, two cooked clay pondus.140
139 140
ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 24th, 1949, n. 10, f. 27r. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 20th, 1949, n. 10, f. 30r. “En lugar I en nivel inferior a sepulturas, o sea nivel A”; “En lugar I nivel siguiente, B, dos pondus de barro cocido.”
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figure 9.24 Sketch of areas T and C as excavated by September 24th, 1949, in Ramos Folqués’ excavation diaries arf, amrf, corpus documental: september 24th, 1949, n. 10, f. 27 r
In truth one finds the distinction of two upper levels. The first, included in T/084, has no description or findings. The second, distinguishable from “Level A”, must include a Type I floor (T/I/096) and a fill (T/I/095) that includes, of course, the two mentioned clay pondus (BAE1949/T/I/095/cer/1, 2). Another object found “in (room) I, below floor B” is a piece of a bowl with an attached ceramic stud made of yellow paste (BAE/1949/T/I/095/cer/3).141 The mentioning of such “floor” in the October 5th entry demonstrates the existence of a “floor B” that is distinct to the fill underneath it. These “Level B” units are seen as contemporaneous and were as such for their stratigraphic positioning (see Plate IX). However, most important is their relation to other areas. On notebook 10, f. 26r from the excavation diaries, Ramos Folqués presents “Level B” as follows: The floor I call B on page 14 [ f. 14r of notebook 10], corresponds with that which is placed under the Synagogue and is visible from the apse.142 The reading of this quote is important when we consider that this floor’s height compared to Zero Point is unknown. Ramos Folqués probably associated the type of floors present under the mosaic (“Level M” and “Level N”—see Chapter 7, 2.2.3) with the one found here. It is important to note, however, that this
141 142
ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: October 5th, 1949, n. 10, f. 32r. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 24th, 1949, n. 10, f. 26r. “El que llamo piso B en la pag. 14, corresponde al que hay bajo la Sinagoga y que se ve desde el ábside”.
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quote was made weeks before Ramos Folqués proceeded with the description, and perhaps excavation of the floors under the mosaic. This type of floor seems to be quite common not only under the mosaic, but also in Areas S and P. As suggestive as this quote might be, it does not reveal much chronological or structural evidence beyond the physical description of this “Level B” floor. However, this does point towards the inclusion of Area T into the wider structural complex described here, which includes, as a central part of it, the basilical structure with the late 4th century mosaic floor. According to Ramos Folqués in the excavation diaries, levels “C” and “D” were also mostly indistinguishable during the excavation. The first mention of these levels is related to sub-area T/H on September 24th, 1949, as “C–D”.143 Therefore both levels in “Room H” were considered one stratigraphic unit T/H/109, with a series of objects found in its fill. These include an incomplete cylindrical vase with everted rim and painted geometric or vegetal decoration (noticeably, volutes) (BAE/1949/T/H/109/cer/1), and another painted vase with globular body, no shoulder nor neck, and simple rim, with decorations of a bird and a “carnivore” (possibly a “carnacier” typical in Iberian decoration, especially “Estilo Ilicitano II”)144 (BAE/1949/T/H/109/cer/2). The other findings give little information regarding this fill; they include “part of a black pot with handle” (BAE/1949/T/H/109/cer/3) and “part of a vase without decoration” (BAE/1949/T/H/109/cer/4), as well as “other” findings that were not described. T/H/109’s counterpart in T/I “Level D” is more detailed. Here, too, levels “C” and “D” are considered as one by Ramos Folqués according to his entry for September 20th, 1949.145 However, in a later date it is found that Ramos Folqués identifies findings in “Room I” that are exclusive to “Level D”.146 What can be the difference between the two features? There are two evident ones. The “C– D” level identified first is placed “under sepulture level”. Therefore, it is a probe of a specific section of Room H. Meanwhile, elsewhere, we find that the lev-
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ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 24th, 1949, n. 10, ff. 27r–28r. Antonio Blanco Freijeiro, “El carnassier de Elche,” in Homenaje a Alejandro Ramos Folqués: ciclo de conferencias desarrollado en Elche entre los días 25 y 29 de noviembre de 1985 (Alicante: Caja de Ahorros del Mediterráneo, 1993), 83–97. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 20th, 1949, n. 10, f. 29r. “En lugar I bajo sepultura, y piso B o sea nivel C–D” (“In place I, underneath the sepultures, and below B, that is in C–D”). ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 20th, 1949, n. 10, f. 31r. He probably decided that the findings are associated with “Level D”, ignoring “Level C” in this compartment all together as a chronologically relevant feature. This does not mean “Level C” does not exist in this compartment, as that would break the logic of Ramos Folqués’ stratigraphic scheme during his excavations.
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els are more clearly defined, and were associated with a “Level D” of “page 14” (see sketch from Fig. 9.12). We should assume that the first is an upper level that includes “C”, while the second is a lower level that is solely “D”. Therefore, the Type I units that are supposed to be supported by their respective lower fills are implied to exist, though their identification is a possibility more than a certainty. Taking this into account, the levels from T/I are as follows. First there is a “Floor C” Type I unit, which is T/I/098. This level is, as indicated above, an extrapolation of the Area C stratigraphic sketch. However, it received a more concrete description through the identification of different objects placed “in the floor” as discovered on October 6th, 1949.147 Amongst the findings is a small bronze nummus (BAE/1949/T/I/098/num/1) minted under emperor Crispus, between 320 and 324 ce.148 Below it is fill for “Level C”, which includes “C–D” below sepultures, T/I/097. The findings here include an iron and bronze button tied with what seems as a string (BAE/1949/T/I/097/met/1), an iron fragment of a sword (BAE/1949/T/I/097/Fe/1), a possible metal hinge (BAE/1949/T/I/ 097/met/2), a cast spout (BAE/1949/T/I/097/ves/1), the fragment of a painted vessel with what seems to be a human figure (BAE/1949/T/I/097/cer/1), and three fragments of a high plate with geometric and/or vegetal painted motifs (BAE/1949/T/I/097/cer/2). The objects from this level reveal a rather early chronology, associated with the pre-Roman use of this area. However, considering there is a mixture of levels “C” and “D”, they should be considered as possible intrusions from an earlier period. The “Level D” or T/I/099 from “Room I” would confirm the early dating for fill T/I/097. The findings from this little-described fill include a Greek piece of pottery with black, white, and red paint defining hard to discern figures (BAE/1949/T/I/099/cer/1), and what seems to be the fragment of a polished pottery filter with black paste (perhaps as a result of reductive cooking), having a series of holes in the lower half of the fragment and its upper half being smooth (BAE/1949/T/I/099/cer/2). There is no clear evidence for a “floor D” above T/I/099, that would separate levels “C” and “D” in “Room I”; therefore, such a unit was omitted from the stratigraphic catalogue. As indicated above, we find on “Level E” the construction of an east-west wall, T/343, next to wall T/105, which was associated to levels “A” and “B” according to Alejandro Ramos Folqués. The “Level E” in this compartment was identified through the excavation of main Area T. Below an interface level (T/101) 147 148
ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: October 6th, 1949, n. 10, f. 34r. Abascal Palazón and Alberola, Monedas antiguas de los museos de Elche, 151; Ronda Femenia, L’Alcudia de Alejandro Ramos Folqués, 168.
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there are two parallel stratigraphic units that probably belonged to the same locus. This interface unit would differentiate “Levels C–D” and “Level E”, which was more clearly defined. The first of these two fill units for “Level E” is mentioned “below C–D” from September 24th, 1949,149 and classified as T/100. A small coin was found in a lower level of the probe near the sepulture, whose features are not described and are difficult to discern (BAE/1949/T/100/num/1).150 The second fill is T/I/102, recovered from sub-area T/I as part of the excavations carried out in that room on October 5th, 1949.151 The only finding from this level is a base fragment of Campanian pottery with vegetal decoration (BAE/1949/T/I/102/cer/1). The excavation probably proceeded to dig next to this finding, as the “Level E” from Area C, or C/078, was registered immediately afterwards on that day’s entry. These are the lowest levels reached in the excavation probes for main Area T. Most probably, as in Area C, “Level F” is represented by the bedrock level, or T/090. With that in mind, the stratigraphic scheme is summarized in Chart 9.3: 3.3.2 Probe T/H/S The September–October 1951 probe made at the southern edge of room T/H is key to understand the history of the southern sector of the building. Its findings produced a series of sketches that prove to be important for the excavation process in the area southwest of the main basilical area. It also provided a series of structures associated with burial remains from before the transformation of this sector into a Roman street with tabernae structures. The first report of the levels in these probes is found in the stratigraphic and plan sketches documented on September 20th, 1951. Unlike the nearby probe C/P, that apparently was revisited for excavation during the intervention in probe T/H/S, in the latter there were far fewer items and objects recovered. However, there is a documentation of the layers’ materials and their potency, which allows for the calculation of the foundation and depth of the structures that limited the street to its north (T/106, T/111). The stratigraphic layers of this sector are documented in a sketch dated November 20th, 1951 (Fig. 9.25), a “loose note” sketch annexed to notebook 14 of the excavation diaries (Fig. 9.26), and in another sketch associated to Area C
149 150
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ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 24th, 1949, n. 10, f. 28r. According to Abascal and Alberola this coin is dated to the 2nd century bce, had a bust or head looking right on its obverse, and a ship’s bow looking right on its reverse. It is lost, but the authors of the catalogue gave it the reference A0560 nonetheless. See Abascal Palazón and Alberola, Monedas antiguas de los museos de Elche, 117, number 550. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: October 5th, 1949, n. 10, f. 32r.
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chart 9.3 Stratigraphic scheme for main Area T, sub-area T/W and T/HR, as well as a connection with T/H1. Below: legend for scheme See Plate X.
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next to this probe dated to September 25th (Fig. 9. 28). There we find that the first “Level A” layer is a gravel and lime interface (T/H/S/360) sitting on top of a 12 centimeters thick fill (T/H/S/361). No objects were identified from this layer. Under “Level A” is a “Level B”, also made with lime and gravel (interface T/H/S/362), and a 25-centimeter fill underneath (T/H/S/363) which, like the previous “Level A”, did not produce any detailed objects. Beneath “Level B” is “Level C” interface T/H/S/364 made of cobble stones, under which was a 40-centimeter thick fill T/H/S/365. In this fill a series of objects were discovered, including an Etruscan Campanian B type pottery with a mark, dated to between 150 and 100 bce (BAE/1951/T/H/S/365/cer/1),152 a fraction coin without good description (2.5 centimeters in diameter, BAE/1951/ T/H/S/365/num/1), a pottery fragment with handle and painted geometric motifs including an upside-down “V” (BAE/1951/T/H/S/365/cer/2), and a pottery fragment with a painted figure of a bird’s legs (BAE/1951/T/H/S/365/cer/3). On the September 25th entry, Ramos Folqués writes in his excavation diaries of the fact that above floor in “Level C” there were architectural remains, next to their depiction in the stratigraphic sketch (Fig. 9.28). However, as is clearly indicated by the stratigraphic sketch from September 20th, the mention of these architectural remains should be seen as being above “upper Level D” T/H/S/369 and not “Level C”, as is evident from the small solid square from said sketch. However, this confusion should be put to rest due to Ramos Folqués’ intention in mentioning these features. The architectural elements presented here are ones attached to the covered wall T/106, the top of which is limited by the “Level C” interface floor T/H/S/364. But these features are covered partially by “Level C”, therefore belonging to a previous period. These architectural elements depicted in sketch Fig. 9.27 are part of a partially destroyed rectangular funerary structure T/H/S/374, covered by ashlar T/H/S/368. The large ashlar rectangle is placed on top of interface floor for “Level D” T/H/S/369, under which a skeleton was found, identified as unit T/H/S/367.153 As a result, it is probable that this funerary structure belongs to a period that follows the placement of the floor for the “upper Level D”, and before the floor for “Level C”. The existence of two “Level D” layers could be a reason why Ramos Folqués thought the skeleton belonged to a “Level C” and not a “D” initially. Furthermore, the fact that the original rectangle was badly preserved, and that the ashlar stone T/H/S/368 was moved south, in the direction of the center of the street, suggests that by the time the funerary feature was sealed, or during
152 153
ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 20th, 1951, n. 14, f. 2r. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 25th, 1951, n. 14, f. 3r.
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At the top right corner: stratigraphic sketch of probe T/H/S. To the top left, plan sketch of the western excavated sector of Area T as of that date arf, amrf, corpus documental: september 20th, 1951, page from notebook number 14, f. 2 r
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Stratigraphic sketch from arf, amrf, corpus documental: loose note, n. 14, f. annex 1r
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figure 9.27 Plan sketch of Area C (probe C/P?) and probe T/H/S arf, amrf, corpus documental: september 25th, 1951, n. 14, f. 3 r
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figure 9.28 Stratigraphic sketch of probe C/P (?) and probe T/H/S arf, amrf, corpus documental: september 25th, 1951, n. 14, f. 4 r
the placement of fill for “Level C”, many of these architectural features were removed and placed on top of the “Level C” floor T/H/S/364. The tomb for individual T/H/S/367 reveals two facts from Area T. The first is that U-shaped feature T/H1/264 found alongside the “upper structures” of Area T was funerary in nature. Second, these kinds of structures were associated to an early period, prior to the late antique edifice, as is evident for their relations with “Level D” layers. As a result, they should not be seen as linked to the late antique, so-called Visigothic cemetery found in the Alcudia de Elche, especially not with burials found in “Level O” in Area T, such as unit T/207. The use of this area as a burial place in ancient times is not a novelty, as is evident in the infant’s burial T/W/340 in a “Level E” of the T/W probe (see below). To summarize, the burial found in T/H/S has the following suggested stratigraphic relations: unit T/H/S/-366, the burial hole, breaks interface floor for “Level D” T/H/S/369. After the placement of unit T/H/S/367 and its covering by ashlar and fill T/H/S/368, a structure surrounding and marking it was placed as
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part of the tomb structure, made of labored fieldstones: T/H/S/374. It was later sealed by fill T/H/S/365, which was 40 centimeters thick. Next to the burial, presumably at the same level (on top of “Level D” floor T/H/S/369), was channel C/377, described in the section dedicated to probe C/P (see 2.2.2 below). The street’s width, as is known through most of the excavation, is defined by wall T/106 to the south of Area T, being approximately 3.2–3.4 meters. The stratigraphic sketch Fig. 9.26 reveals that this wall’s foundation can be found at the same time as that of “Level D” fill, confirming a description of the wall in “(2)” at the plan sketch from September 20th (Fig. 9.25). However, unconventionally for Ramos Folqués, he presents two “Level D” layers that he identified and described differently in his sketches. The first “Level D” floor is made of large gravel (T/H/S/369) and is 5 centimeters thick according to the street’s stratigraphic sketch. The fill under it is 14 centimeters thick (T/H/S/370) and had a green-grey color, within which a series of objects were discovered during this probe’s excavation described on September 25th, 1951.154 These include a coin (BAE/1951/T/H/S/370/num/1) whose profile, 2.1 centimeters in diameter, was identified as being an as from Carthago Nova, minted under Tiberius and dated to 22ce.155 Alongside the coin was a broken stylus (BAE/1951/T/H/S/370/os/1). Below “upper Level D” layer T/H/S/370 was another interface unit, T/H/S/ 378, apparently marking the difference in color from a green to a reddish color of this layer.156 Interestingly, on the stratigraphic sketch from September 25th, Ramos Folqués describes it being 5 centimeters thick as well. Under it is fill layer T/H/S/379, which according to two stratigraphic sketches (Figs. 9.25, 28) in the excavation diaries, was 17 centimeters thick. The stratigraphic sketch from September 20th indicates that within this “lower Level D” fill were pottery shards (“tiestos” according to Ramos Folqués), thus signaling that the findings from that day belonged to the lower layer, and not upper “Level D” T/H/S/370.157 That day Ramos Folqués found a Campanian pottery without
154
155 156
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ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 25th, 1951, n. 14, f. 3r. It is hard to identify whether these findings belonged to this “Level D” or the “lower Level D” T/H/S/379. However, considering that these findings were made next to a description of a “Level C” height, it is presumable that they belonged to the “upper Level D” layer T/H/S/370. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 25th, 1951, n. 14, f. 3r. AMRF note 10. The difference in color was explained by Ana Ronda to correspond with other similar layers to that of the green “upper Level D” in the Alcudia, specifically in sector 4C to the southwest. Apparently, it was made of decomposed adobe, which reflect an as-of-yet undated period of the site where it was submerged partially under water. Ronda Femenia, L’Alcudia de Alejandro Ramos Folqués, 176. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 20th, 1951, n. 14, ff. 2r, annex 1r.
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marks (BAE/1951/T/H/S/379/cer/1) alongside a baseless yellow-paste pottery vase (BAE/1951/T/H/S/379/cer/2). It is important to note that according to the plan sketch dated to September 20th, in the sector to the west of rooms T/H and T/I, the depth of wall T/106 is approximately 80 centimeters below the interface for “Level C” T/H/S/364, while in the stratigraphic sketch from September 25th such a measurement is confirmed with a height of 85 centimeters. This is seen when calculating the layers next to the stratigraphic sketch from the excavation diaries: Level D is summed 14+5+17 centimeters, giving a total of 36 centimeters. Level C is summed 40+5 centimeters, giving a total of 45 centimeters. The total would be 81 centimeters. However, this does not count the thickness of interface T/H/S/369, which could very well give the sum of approximately 85 centimeters for the T/106 height. According to Ramos Folqués’ stratigraphic sketch seen in Fig. 9.25, fill T/H/ S/379 seems to have covered a series of features at the base of T/106. The stratigraphic sketch from the “loose note” in notebook 14 (Fig. 9.26) reveals to us that it is in fact the lower Area T east-west wall T/111, which was associated in other sketches with “Level E”. Following the stratigraphic sketch from the “loose note” mentioned above, the foundation of this wall is represented by a solid ashlar or base catalogued as C/375. Both were laid before they were covered by “Level E” fill T/H/S/372, though chronologically both features were probably placed at the same time. “Level E” floor T/H/S/371 and fill T/H/S/372 are made of battered earth, according to the stratigraphic sketches from September 20th, 1951. The latter level is 35 centimeters thick (Fig. 9.28) according to the stratigraphic sketch from September 25th. Within the fill are remains of a limestone architectural feature “like the statues” (BAE/1951/T/H/S/372/pet/1) and a pottery fragment with geometric motifs (BAE/1951/T/H/S/372/cer/1).158 The measurements of wall T/111 are given only in the stratigraphic sketch made on September 25th, 1951. The sketch reveals this wall was apparently 30 to 36 centimeters thicker than T/106, or at least that it had a 30–36 centimeter skew south of T/106. The wall was preserved 30 centimeters in height. Underneath, was foundation feature C/375, which was 20 centimeters high. Apparently, wall T/111 was 12 centimeters thicker than the foundation. The earliest layer detected in this probe is mentioned as “Level F” in the excavation diaries.159 On the December 25th sketch, it is mentioned to be 5 centimeters thick and placed above virgin soil. In all, it indicates that the height 158 159
ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 20th, 1951, n. 14, f. 2v. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 20th, 1951, n. 14, ff. 2r–2v, annex 1r; September 25th, 1951, n. 14, f. 4r.
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of this probe is 1.66 meters in total. The only object found in this layer was a painted pottery fragment with decorative concentric semi-circles limited by an upper band (BAE/1951/T/H/S/373/cer/1). 3.3.3 Sub-area T/W From the Excavation Diary registry of the 1954 campaign, two main areas relevant to our excavation were recovered. The first was sub-area B/OB, or the westernmost section of the basilical building, representing a section of the complex that was outside it or was a kind of section before the vestibule of the central hall. However, the other main relevant sub-area excavated was to the west of compartments T/I and T/H described above, with a key probe that will be described here, and classified as sub-area or excavated probe T/W. The main source for this probe is the description Ramos Folqués made in his entry in the excavation diaries for April 15th and 16th, 1954.160 The first reference is on the excavation diaries entry from April 15th, where he indicates a “place mentioned in green, in the previous page”,161 followed by the stratigraphic sketch of this probe (Fig. 9.29). The “place in green” mentioned in this specific quote refers to the plan sketch of “southwest” sub-area B/OB present on page f. 51r of notebook 19 from the Corpus documental (Fig. 7.61). Greater detail was given in the second plan sketch from April 15th (Fig. 7.62; 9.31), where we find measurements where this probe took place. The sketch from n. 19, f. 52r (Fig. 9.29) indicates that the probe, whose most important feature was an infant’s skeleton discovered just above the bedrock level, was dug approximately 2.1 meters to the north of the northern limit of Area C (T/106), and 3.8 meters east of north-south wall T/306 (which, as described in Chapter 7, is a southern extension of wall B/OB/306). Another finding next to this probe is a conical amphora found 40 centimeters to the south of the western extension of wall T/105. The stratigraphic sketch from April 15th, 1954, presents a similar description to that of the stratigraphy of Area C (see Fig. 9.10). Each stratum had a “floor” level and a fill under; therefore, each stratum would have two stratigraphic units in our catalogue. The latest or uppermost stratum is associated with a “Level B”, therefore indicating that this sketch was done once the excavation of the probe reached the bedrock. The “Level B” floor was catalogued as T/W/329. Under this “Type I” floor level there is a description of findings from a 160 161
ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: April 15th, 1954, n. 19, ff. 50r–54r; April 16th, 1954, n. 19, f. 55r. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: April 15th, 1954, n. 19, f. 52r “En lugar señalado en verde, en la pag anterior”.
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figure 9.29
Stratigraphic sketch for probe T/W in Ramos Folqués’ excavation diaries arf, amrf, corpus documental: april 15th, 1954, n. 19, f. 52 r . fla archives
figure 9.30
Detail of stratigraphic sketch from April 15th, 1954, in Ramos Folqués’ excavation diaries, where probe T/W was conducted arf, amrf, corpus documental: n. 19, f. 51 r . fuia archives
figure 9.31 Detail of plan sketch from April 15th, 1954, in Ramos Folqués’ excavation diaries, where probe T/W was conducted arf, amrf, corpus documental: n. 19, f. 54 r . fuia archives
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fill from “Level B”,162 including three small coins (lit. “moneditas”) without further description (BAE/1954/T/W/330/num/1, 2, 3). “Level C” is represented by an “interface” level, T/W/331, under which was fill T/W/332. Again, there is no description of the floor or fill of this level, nor are there many findings registered, only a piece of sigillata pottery (BAE/1954/T/ W/332/cer/1) and a possible bronze button disk (BAE/1954/T/W/332/met/1). Following that is “Level D”, represented by an interface level (T/W/333). This floor is described in the stratigraphic sketch in a similar way to how Ramos Folqués has drawn the small boulder floor in the stratigraphic sketch from “levels N and M” under the Area B mosaic (see Fig. 7.25). Even so, a connection between the two floors is mere speculation. The fill from “Level D”, or T/W/334, is described with several findings from probes done at different moments. On April 12th, 1952, Ramos Folqués finds a shard of “Estilo Ilicitano I” type painted pottery, identified as item LA-6313 (BAE/1954/T/W/334/cer/2); a semis from Carthago Nova, dated to circa 54ce (BAE/1954/T/W/334/num/1);163 a lead fragment (BAE/1954/T/W/334/Pb/1); a fragment of an iron sword (BAE/1954/T/W/ 334/Fe/1); and another painted pottery shard with “upside down” images of the back side of a horse or carnivore and other painted figures, identified as item LA-6312 by Ana Ronda (BAE/1954/T/W/334/cer/3). On April 15th, 1954, another probe on that level uncovered an oil lamp with a round discus, whose handle and beak were broken (BAE/1954/T/W/334/cer/1),164 and a black stone piece with a decorated painted circle-eight decorated white spots within it (BAE/1954/T/W/334/pet/1), identified by Ana Ronda as a weight, item LA2089.165 This latest piece was published and clearly identified in Ramos Folqués’ excavation report for 1954 (Fig. 9.32).166 Finally, on April 17th that year a final probe was done uncovering a decorated vase and top (BAE/1954/T/W/ 334/cer/4, 5), indicated by Ana Ronda to be a foundational votive offering, catalogued as item LA-2362, and dated to around the year 0 ce.167 Within
162 163 164 165 166
167
Ibid. Abascal Palazón and Alberola, Monedas antiguas de los museos de Elche, 96, number 406. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: April 15th, 1954, n. 19, f. 52r. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: April 16th, 1954, n. 19, f. 55r. AMRF note 96. Ramos Folqués, “Memoria de las excavaciones practicadas en la Alcudia,” 93. Pl. LXXXI, 18. It is important to mention that reading from the published excavation report from 1961 of this campaign, we cannot identify the specific location or context of this object— something only possible when reviewing the excavation diaries in the Corpus documental as is being done in this study. This an example of what the state authorities at the time were demanding from the local researchers. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: April 17th, 1954, n. 19, f. 56r. AMRF note 98. Ronda Femenia, L’Alcudia de Alejandro Ramos Folqués, 181.
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figure 9.32 Picture of object BAE/1954/T/W/334/pet/1 as presented in a. ramos folqués (1961): “memoria de las excavaciones practicadas en la alcudia”, noticiario arqueológico hispánico, lám. lxxxi, 18
it were the remains of an egg, strongly suggesting the ritual interpretation of this object is correct (BAE/1954/T/W/334/os/1). Other findings from that probe include a stone ax (BAE/1954/T/W/334/pet/2), a grey earthen weight (BAE/1954/T/W/334/ter/1), and an undescribed coin (BAE/1954/T/W/334/ num/2). Perhaps the more important findings from this probe are identified in the lower levels, where the skeleton of a child was recovered. “Level E” from this probe includes the interface (T/W/335), which the drawing describes similarly to the interface for “Level D”, though as presented above there is no concrete evidence for this level’s attributes. Under T/W/335 is fill for “Level E” T/W/336 that includes three findings: a small plate decorated with geometric shapes: concentric semicircles, rhomboids, horizontal line (BAE/1954/T/W/336/ cer/1);168 a painted pottery fragment with painted face in profile and part of a wing (BAE/1954/T/W/336/cer/2); and what seems to be a pottery bucket’s fragment (BAE/1954/T/W/336/cer/3).169 Under this level is a fill associated with a “Level F”, which covered a hole next to the skeleton’s burial hole, as described on April 16th, 1954 (Next to the amphora of the child, but in a hole, an amphora …).170 This fill would then cover a hole made on the bedrock 168 169 170
ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: April 15th, 1954, n. 19, f. 52r. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: April 16th, 1954, n. 19, f. 55r. Ibid. “Frente al esqueleto del niño, pero en una fosa, un ánfora …”.
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(T/W/-038). The only objects found include an almost complete acorn-formed amphora (BAE/1954/T/W/337/cer/I/1) and “ceramic fragments” (lit. “tiestos”— BAE/1954/T/W/337/cer/II/1). Naturally the amphora was described in the second sketch from April 15th, 1954 (Fig. 7.60; 9.30), as it was located 30 centimeters north of the child’s skeleton and 40 centimeters south of the northern wall T/105, and placed in an east-west direction with the rim looking west. Sadly, there are no measurements of the amphora, however the sketch of it on April 16th, 1954, allows for an identification of the piece and its approximate width. Indeed, the amphora is associated with the earliest form of Pellicer D amphorae, perhaps their D-1 or D-2 variations, dated between the late 5th to late 2nd centuries bce and associated to “Ibero-Punic” or Turdetan production in the Gadir (Cádiz) region.171 This points to a very early finding associated to the first use of this area of the Alcudia. Most importantly, its maximum diameter is around 30 centimeters, which places the child’s skeleton from Fig. 7.60 and 9.31 at 1-meter south of T/105. The skeleton is considered part of fill T/W/340, which naturally covered a burial hole T/W/-339. According to the stratigraphic sketch from April 15th (Fig. 9.29), the individual was apparently placed above bedrock level, but below “Level E” interface T/W/336. The drawn description of this skeleton shows that the individual had a small stature. However, we do not have more data about the child, whether the individual was beyond a period of lactation or newly born. It is likely that if the skeleton was that of a newborn, Ramos Folqués would have pointed that out in his descriptions.172 The nature of this burial is unclear. A similar burial was found elsewhere in the Alcudia, published by Rafael Ramos Fernández in 1989, including a ritual burial of an infant in an “Ibero-Punic” amphora within a niche, and with two further amphorae next to it placed vertically.173 Ramos Fernández did not publish any reference to this peculiar burial, where the amphora was placed next to the child in a similar east-west direction, while the child was outside of the container.
171
172 173
Antonio M. Sáez Romero, Ana Mª Niveau de Villedary y Mariñas, “Pellicer D (Baetica Ulterior coast)”, Amphorae ex Hispania. Landscapes of production and consumption (http:// amphorae.icac.cat/amphora/pellicer‑d‑baetica‑ulterior‑coast), 20 July, 2016. Though the lack of commentary on it is strange in any case, considering that Alejandro Ramos Folqués’ specialty was, precisely, the protohistorical Iberian periods in Elche. Rafael Ramos Fernández, “Sobre cierto tipo de enterramientos infantiles ibéricos,”Diputació de Castelló: Servei d’Investigacions Arqueològiques i Prehistòriques 14 (1989): 127, 131 lám. I.
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Burial practices of similar characteristics were found underneath Iberian homes in the sites of La Escudilla and Los Cabañiles, in the interior mountain regions of Castellón, in which none of the burials were individual, nor any of the deceased were older than three years old.174 The ritual of child burials and perhaps sacrifices within sacred environments were in fact more commonplace than regularly thought in early Iberian periods in the 5th century, and in some regions of Castellón, they do not seem to have come from foreign, colonial Phoenician influence.175 The study of this burial practice goes beyond the scope of this study. Its relevance consists in the verification that this section north of the street was being used for ritual practices during pre-Roman periods. No such practices were detected after the “Level D” and “C” fills in Area T, pointing to an architectural association with the Augustan foundation of the Colonia Ilici in the late 1st century bce. 3.3.4 Sub-area T/E: Compartments to the East The Area T structures in the area to the south of Area S, that is, to the east of rooms T/I and T/H, had fewer excavations than the structures more to the west. However, their features were clearly identified by May 10th, 1950, as demonstrated by the sketch plan from that entry in the excavation diaries (Fig. 9.6). Perhaps the least known when it comes to the south of the building complex of the basilical building, most information regarding this area is limited to the data provided by the abovementioned sketch. The earliest reference to the excavation in this sector is found on December 18th, 1949: In compartment to the north, in front of the Sacristy to its south, marked as R, in level D, that is the second under the mortar floor …176 This first intervention to the east of the main excavated areas in T reveals an exploration months before the sketch’s drawing. “Room R” is described in the plan sketch from May 10th, 1950 mentioned above. Therefore, the description of the findings of the December 18th, 1949, excavation is directly related to that sketched plan. 174 175 176
Francesc Gusi i Jener, “Enterramientos infantiles ibéricos en vivienda,” Pyrenae: revista de prehistòria i antiguitat de la Mediterrània Occidental 6 (1970): 66. Francesc Gusi i Jener, “El templo ibérico y los recintos necrolátricos infantiles de La Escudilla (Castellón),” Quaderns de prehistoria i arqueologia de Castelló 16 (1994): 111–113. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: December 18th, 1949, n. 11, f. 20r.
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Two things can be derived from this quote. First, that the “Level B” floor (T/E/R/214), the first described in this room, is made of cement mortar. Second, that the “Level D” is “two levels” below this “Level B” floor. There is no description of specific fills of these levels; therefore, they were omitted from classification. However there clearly is a “Level C”, classified as T/E/R/143, and a “Level D” T/E/R/141, the latter’s findings being those described immediately after the above quote. T/E/R/141 is one of the few layers whose findings were described to the east of room T/H.177 These include a jar with two handles (preserving only one), having painted geometric and vegetal motifs, as well as a bird lacking legs (BAE/1949/T/E/R/141/cer/I/1). Other finds include a “coarse black, ordinary and stained pot” (BAE/1949/T/E/R/141/cer/I/2), an amphora base (BAE/1949/T/E/R/141/cer/I/3), and painted pottery “with leaves”, presenting a globular body and what seems as the origin of a handle from its rim (BAE/1949/ T/E/R/141/cer/I/4). There were “more pottery fragments” found, without any description (BAE/1949/T/E/R/141/cer/II/1…), amongst which the amphora base was found. None of these materials can give concrete evidence for this level’s chronology. Despite being the first room to be excavated, the latest chronological level to be detected was uncovered on December 31st, 1949: In compartment T (T/E/T’), part of a very deteriorated mosaic of big tesserae in Level A. Above it, a coin (BAE/1949/T/E/T’/146/num/1), fragment of a style with hand (BAE/1949/T/E/T’/146/os/1), different pottery fragments (BAE/ 1949/T/E/T’/146/cer/1…), lead piece, with the form of a balance arm (BAE/ 1949/T/E/T’/146/Pb/1).178 The materials found here are without a doubt associated to a late period due to their context. This T/E/T’/146 layer should be associated with a “Level O”. Sadly, there is little more to be said of the objects and materials recovered from this level, nor is there reference of the actual height of the level itself. However, luckily the sketch from May 10th, 1950, (Fig. 9.6, “T”) reveals that the mosaic mentioned in “Room T” (sub-area T/E/T’), classified as T/E/T’/145, is placed at the southeastern corner of that room. The mosaic 145 is made of large tesserae, which is then of a different quality from the main hall’s mosaic floor (B/011).
177 178
Ibid. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: December 31st, 1949, n. 11, f. 25r.
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The association of this level to “Level A” is also an indicator of Ramos Folqués’ insistence that “Level B” is related with the cement floor under the mosaic floor in Area B. On the December 28th, 1949, entry of the excavation diaries, a series of findings were registered following the excavation of the area “east of Room R”, on “Level B”.179 The most notable were found outside of the scope of sub-area T/E, to its south, in the eastern sections of Area C, or sub-area C/E. These include a series of limestones, considered by Alejandro Ramos Folqués as “small heaps” (lit. pilitas—from pila) (C/E/344), placed one next to the other on “Level B” heights and a “large basin” next to them (C/E/160). The first discovered element seems to be put in an orderly east-west direction to the south of compartment T/E/S from the eastern Area T sketch. It can be therefore associated to walls T/106 and T/274 that limit Area C or the street to the north. The “large basin’s” use is a mystery, as is the reason for its placement deep into the street south of “Room T” or T/E/T’. Without a doubt the association of this basin to Area B T/E/S/144 probably makes it of a later date than Area C’s traditional use of as a street, since it was either partially or completely abandoned. Material remains point towards the presence of architectural features in its fill, such as random limestones, a large basin (BAE/1949/T/E/S/144/pet/1), and glass fragments (BAE/1949/T/E/S/144/vit/I/1…). A small pottery fragment, a Dragendorff 25 or 27 elevated cup (BAE/1949/T/E/S/144/cer/II/1), should not be considered a reliable dating element.180 Most interesting is the presence of bone remains (leg C/E/161) found not more than 25 centimeters below the modern floor level at the time of excavation. Levels “O”, “A”, and “B” seem to be of a later date than the two walls that separate each compartment in this section of Area T and can be described as part of the stratigraphic scheme. From west to east, the first is T/E/P/155, which is parallel to T/103 and T/104 mentioned above, and limits “Room P” (T/E/P) to its west, separating it from “Room H” (T/E/H). Based on the drawn description of the wall, which is shown as identical to T/E/Q/156, its measurements are probably 2.7 meters length, and certainly 0.4 meters wide, being attached at its north edge to east-west wall T/105 that limits Area T to the north, making it almost identical to wall T/104. Considering that in compartment T/H the difference between “Level A” (T/084 and T/206) and “Level B” (T/H/208, 096, 108, 095) is almost indistinguishable, it is hard to conclude that this wall T/E/Q/155 was built on either. Even so it seems to be clear that it is probably associated
179 180
ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: December 28th, 1949, n. 11, f. 23r. Ibid. AMRF note 40.
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with “Level B”, as that level is the first discovered in “Room R” (T/E/R) and in “Room S” (T/E/S). To its east is T/E/Q/156, which like its parallel counterpart is 2.7 meters long and 0.4 meters wide. It is located 5.2 meters to the east of T/E/P/157. To its east are a couple of walls that appear in the sketch from Fig. 9.6 in similar fashion. Wall T/E/R/157 separates compartments T/E/R and T/E/Q. It is 1.6 meters east of its parallel wall T/E/Q/156. No measurement is mentioned for this wall, though it is probably similar to T/E/Q/156: 2.7 meters long and 0.4 meters across. The anomalous wall is the easternmost one detected in the sketch Fig. 9.6, which is the wall that separates compartment T/E/S and T/E/T’, or T/E/S/158. This wall has no registered measurements. Its description in the sketch suggests that while it was attached to wall T/105 to its north, it continues to the south beyond the northern limit of the “street” or Area C. This suggest perhaps a period associated with the use of the “large basin” T/160, but such a conclusion cannot be confirmed by the available limited data. All these walls were attached to east-west wall T/105, which was, as described above, erected in a stage associated with “Level B”. Therefore, it is safe to assume that these compartments, as in the case of rooms T/I and T/H, were all built in a similar, or the even the same, period, marking a larger phase in Area T. The wall T/E/S/158’s section within the limits of Area C suggests a continuous use of these walls through different periods of urbanization. 3.3.5 Probe T/HR A final room to the west of rooms T/I and T/H was excavated in October 1954. This room, first mentioned in the excavation diaries entry for October 14th, 1954, reveals the existence of a “Roman Room” (lit. Habitación romana—or T/HR) where there was a series of discoveries. The location is defined within the following: We dug the part of the Roman room that remained between the E-W street and the entrance to the Basilica.181 Considering the previous excavation in this area south of what was considered the entrance to the basilical building to the mosaic’s west, it is assumed that this “Roman room” would either be a section of Area T limited by north-south wall T/306 to its east, or, more probably, the room placed in probe T/W to the west
181
ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: October 14th, 1954, n. 20, f. 30r. “Excavamos la parte de la habitación romana que quedaba entre la calle E-O y la entrada de la basílica.”
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of room T/I in the main section of Area T, which, too, was limited by T/306 to its west. Considering the description of this section as a “room”, we can assume there is a series of walls that were not described in any of the sketches or the excavation diary, which was denominated T/HR/182. This would probably be a continuation of the north-south walls that divided Area T in compartments. Within the space defined by T/HR/182, which was considered the last phase of this room’s construction, there is a series of levels and, more importantly, a feature that is important for the interpretation of sub-areas B/OM and B/OB west of the mosaic floor. Before describing the findings from this room’s “Level D”, Ramos Folqués writes: In Floor C, underneath, a very rough and small drain channel.182 The description by Ramos Folqués of this “drainage channel” (T/HR/163) gives no more details, though it most probably drained water to the street. The only two other mentions of such drainage system seem to be found years later, on an entry for October 29th, 1959, in his excavation diaries.183 A clearer description from his 1962 publication of the 1954 excavation report, indicates he found an “amphora-looking tube” in a room to the west of where the mosaic was discovered.184 It was, as the quote indicates, made on a fill from “Level C” (T/162), which had no described findings. Under this is a series of objects described which were found in a fill from “Level D” (T/164), which include what perhaps is a glass figure of a smiling woman (BAE/1954/T/HR/164/vit/1), a painted convex bowl with painted squares (BAE/1954/T/HR/164/cer/1), a fragment of Campanian pottery (BAE/1954/T/HR/164/cer/2), and a rather small coin without description (BAE/1954/T/HR/164/num/1). Finally, under this “Level D” fill is a description of “Level E” findings in fill T/HR/165, which were associated with a series of ashes in “the corner of the room.”185 Recovered objects include a coin with drawn profile but no description (BAE/1954/T/HR/165/num/1), iron nails (BAE/1954/T/HR/165/Fe/1…), and a painted pottery fragment with geometric motifs within bands (BAE/1954/T/HR/165/cer/1). The excavations in this room would go on to October 16th, 1954, though Alejandro Ramos Folqués would write that “nothing was found”.186
182 183 184 185 186
Ibid. “En piso C, por debajo, un canalillo de desagüe muy tosco.” ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: October 29th, 1959, n. 23, f. 76r. Ramos Folqués, “Excavaciones de la Alcudia.,” 94, Plate LXXXI. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: October 14th, 1954, n. 20, f. 30v. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: October 15th and 16th, 1954, n. 20, f. 31r.
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The stratigraphic association of these levels cannot be considered more than hypothesis, due to the lack of positive description of their placement. However, the approximate position of them to the south of B/OB or B/OM is a good indicator that the levels may be contemporary to those found in probe T/W, and therefore can be associated with their respective stratigraphic counterpart. Walls T/HR/182 would have probably been built on top of a “Level B”, and therefore were attached to east-west wall T/105 like the other north-south walls that divide Area T. Sadly, we have no physical description of these walls.
4
Phases of Areas C and T
From the above we find a series of structures, features, and layers that were excavated thoroughly, as were the other areas of the site. As was seen from Chapter 7, there is the presence of a series of phases that can be associated with other areas such as Area P and Area S. However, this is not necessarily the case when it comes to the chronological development of the street area. While Area T is associated more to the development of the basilical building, as it is part of the original domus structure in its outer façade, the southern street had its own, independent development. Luckily, we can identify a series of layers and even give absolute chronology to some of them, since the laying of subsequent layers in the street area sealed streets from previous periods. Positive absolute dating was found mostly in the southern street and published first in 1995 by Ramos Fernández.187 It therefore must be considered when defining the phases of Area C. It is from these phases that we can recover the overall development that can be detected in the sections south of Area B. 4.1 Phases of Area C As indicated in the stratigraphic sequencing of the section of main Area C, this 1995 account reveals two new stratigraphic units, and an alternative thickness to that described in 1949 (Fig. 9.12) for the overall stratigraphic sequencing of Area C.188 Unlike areas such as B, S, and P, the layers detected in the street ought to be seen as one phase or sub-phase each. Reforms and paving are more easily detected and defined as their own phases considering that the street was primarily used as a space for public passage.
187 188
Ramos Fernández, El templo ibérico de La Alcudia, 115. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 19th, 1949, n. 10, f. 14r.
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4.1.1 Late Phases: I and II The detection of the latest phases of use for Area C is mostly limited to rooms T/I and T/H, next to the southwestern corner of the mosaic floor. Findings from these latest phases were done from about 10 centimeters from the modern soil, which caused a deficient preservation. However, there is a certain sequencing that is undoubted in all accounts of this area to the south of Area B. When it comes to the last phases of use, the presence of a “Level O” can be found associated with relative certainty to the latest southern wall of the basilical building, B/021. There was no mention of findings in “Level O” in Area C, though there were in Area T. Considering the direction of the wall B/021 and the use of Area T for a burial, as well as the presence of floors like T/268 mentioned above, it is logical to assume this space was in use as well. There is no evidence for the abandonment of this passageway as a public path, except perhaps for the constructions of compartment T/B3 associated with the latest phase of the area. The abandonment of areas C and T are then associated, as elsewhere in the site, to Phase Ia. This phase includes the presence of the burials, as will be detailed later. As elsewhere around the site, “Level O” structures, made after the reuse of the space of the Phase II building (see Chapter 7, 5.5 and 5.6), are associated with a Phase Ib (Plate VI). It is with “Level A”, under the “Level O” described in the sketch from the entry for September 19th, 1949 (Fig. 9.12), that we find a certain used floor for the street. As indicated when describing these layers in the main Area C probe, the street was at its widest approximately 3.45 or 3.4 meters, depending on the area where one measured. The main fill layer, C/074, reveals the remains of stuccos, sigillata pottery, gravel flooring, and other findings of a building that was probably reformed when constructed. Probably this included a reform of Area T structures, likely associated with a Phase II use of the basilical building. This is evident considering that “Level B” in Area T is not associated so much with the mosaic floor itself, but rather the cement floor “underneath”—that is B/EM/016, B/113—and other floors found about 10 centimeters below the mosaic floor height. This makes “Level A” in Area C, which is chronologically prior to “Level O” or Phase Ib, part of Phase II. In this sense both levels “A” and “B” may be regarded as a sub-phases of the site’s Phase II, considering that “Level A”, with structures like T/103, is a clear continuation of the use of this area for late antique tabernae as in previous periods. Considering that fill C/074 is 20 centimeters thick, this layer’s placement was done as a repair of the southern street and an accommodation to new structures found to either side of it. There is no evidence that the width of the street
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changed compared to previous levels. As for the “Augustan” coin found in this fill, we should consider that there is no clear dating from this piece, as the term “Augustus” could be used in late periods as well, and even so it could have originated from a fill elsewhere in the site and placed there when preparing the new southern street’s pavement. Bone remains associated to this “Level A” should be seen as evidence for burial practices that involved the removal and mixing of materials from upper layers. This is particularly the case for C/E/161, which is the second available evidence for human remains to the south of the basilical building. The presence of this C/E/161 is the only evidence for a Phase Ia activity that goes beyond the “Level O” placement associated with Phase Ib.189 Added to this is the mention of four individuals buried at a “Level O” height according to Ramos Folqués’ excavation report in 1956 regarding his activities in 1950.190 Following Ronda’s reconstruction of burial areas, they seem to have been placed at the eastern edge of the “Statue street”.191 From levels “A” and “O” we find, then, evidence for phases Ia, Ib, and II. Phase II, or the basilical building’s phase, provides few details for a better study. 4.1.2 Roman Domus: Early II and III As indicated above, “Level B” from Area C, or units C/075 and C/085, is apparently associated with the sub-mosaic cement floor B/EM/016 and B/113. This is something that cannot be proven with certainty. However, the association was probably made through its depth compared to other floors and through the materials used for this cement floor, which was probably similar.192 Nevertheless, the material recovered from the fill associated with “Level B”, C/085, reveals little when it comes to date. It evidently had some sigillata pottery. Its associated height and material with layer B/113 would place it as a Phase IIIa layer, and therefore a 3rd or early 4th century ce chronology, derived from the Phase IIIa in Area B. The layer below it, according to Ramos Fernández, is only 20 centimeters down, and as indicated was an “intermediate” layer between “Level B” and “Level C” of the stratigraphic sketch from September 19th, 1949 (Fig. 9.12). This layer, represented here as C/043 and C/044 and made out of hardened mud
189
190 191 192
Notwithstanding the human remains from previous periods, such as cranium T/207, adult skeleton T/H/S/367, or the infant’s remains T/W/340. This evidence, alongside the apparent remains from other sectors near this building, are reviewed in Chapter 11. Ramos Folqués, “Memoria de las excavaciones practicadas en la Alcudia,” 107. Ronda Femenia, L’Alcudia de Alejandro Ramos Folqués, 178, fig. 218. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 24th, 1949, n. 10, f. 18r.
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(probably battered earth), had a 1st–3rd century chronology according to the same account in 1995.193 Sadly, no more information is given regarding these layers. The fact that Ramos Fernández could find a 1st–3rd century layer beneath “Level B”, and sealed by it, indicates that this Phase IIIa was probably from the late 3rd and early 4th century ce, that is, before the placement of the mosaic floor associated here with “Level A”. This stage involved the widening of the southern street to 3.4 or 3.45 meters and the placement of northern sidewalk wall T/106 that limited Area C to the north. Below this “intermediate level” which was 26 centimeters thick, is another “Level C” layer with three excavated stratigraphic units (C/076, 081 and 087). The overall characteristic of these fills, all of which include many findings, is the complete absence of sigillata pottery. Instead one finds several fragments of statues, from the previous period, and a copious amount of Campanian pottery, as well as some fragments of “top-hat” pottery with Iberian motifs. This all points to a late republican chronology, and indeed Ramos Fernández provides the interpretation of this layer to be placed roughly at 40 bce.194 To say the least, the material described above associated with these layers does not contradict the account, although it does provide only a 24-centimeter thickness, rather than a 35-centimeter thickness for this “Level C”. Furthermore, in this period we find that the width of the street is only around 3.1 to 3.2 meters, or about 30 centimeters narrower than the “Level B” street. Some “Level C” layers, most importantly T/H/S/365, include materials from a much later, 5th to 6th century periods (such as mold BAE/1950/C/P/355/cer/5), despite the original 3rd century ce date given to the level based on the paste type of its pottery and suggested parallels in the Alcudia. The Jerusalemite iconography makes this suggestion untenable, as one of the buildings was not founded before the 5th century ce. This implies that much of the materials in Area C invaded lower layers, as reconstructions and reforms were done repeatedly over the years. It is clear from these layers that we find C/044 to be associated with the use of the site as a domus. The chronological association fits with Phase IIIb-d, probably starting from the Flavian reform to the “Level N” floor in Area B. As for “Level C”, the material points towards associating this pavement with a Phase IIIe, or to the foundation of the domus, with materials that evidence use of this area in late republican pre-domus periods, or Phase IV.
193 194
Ramos Fernández, El templo ibérico de La Alcudia, 115. Ramos Fernández, 115.
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4.1.3 Pre-Domus Phases Below this street is the “statues” layer C/091, placed on a dug space C/-089. This “statue” layer included the finding of a Hispanic-Carthagenian coin described above, and which provides a late 3rd century bce chronology. This clearly points towards a seal of a Phase V; thus the use of interface unit C/091 ought to be considered as the Phase IV or late republican floor level of the street. Below this is C/080 and C/204, which are associated with a pre-statue breaking layer, sealed in the late 3rd century bce and therefore chronologically before it. It is important to note that this “Level D” layer was placed on top of a street that would be 70 centimeters narrower than its predecessor according to Ramos Folqués. However, in truth, it was probably only 2.85 meters wide, and therefore around 35 centimeters narrower (without the inclusion of the southern border wall). The northern limit of this street was T/111, which was noticeably placed 70 centimeters below the layers associated with the sidewalk wall T/106. The phase where these layers are placed is considered a late Iberian one, or Phase V. The original street would be used from the 6th century bce and goes beyond the scope of this study. However, evidence from the fill of “Level E” (C/078) reveals the presence of a “Punic” amphora T-9111 type that would suggest this fill is dated about the mid-3rd century bce, or an earlier moment for a Phase V. The material associated with the pre-3rd century “origin” of this street should be found in a hypothetical “Level F” devoid of all materials in this area. However, this is based on the speculative existence of a Phase VI, that was not clearly proven during the excavation of this sector of the Alcudia. The western structures detected in Area C fit well into the abovementioned phases. We find a series of walls associated with levels “E” to “C” before they were abandoned when the “Level B” street was paved. Despite the possible association with the subsequent levels, there is no certain description for the pavements used in the “western houses” that defined sub-area C/W. Therefore, it is not currently possible to give more than a hypothetical association of these structures with levels detected in main Area C, south of compartments T/I and T/H. 4.2 Phases from Area T 4.2.1 Phase I: Last Use, Abandonment and Funerary Activity Area T, or the area in between the “street” and the basilical structure, is deeply influenced and affected by the development of phases detected in Area C. However, the existence of compartments and structures makes it harder to define the levels and chronological dating of each feature. The latest stratigraphic units associated with anthropic activity include the burial of individual T/207, covered by fill T/094, in “Level O”. The burial was
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also one of the first features detected in July, 1948, and appears in the excavation diaries entry for 1948. The burial, however, was considered as having been done after the placement of the “Level O” layer, which is associated with a Phase Ib for Area B. Therefore, it belongs to an early stage of Phase Ia, following the abandonment of the building. Evidence for this abandonment stage would be found in layers associated with “Level O”, particularly fill T/094 with materials from a late Roman chronology, ash layer T/269 associated with funerary activities, and above all T/270 on top of the U-shaped structure from T/H1 (Figs. 9.1–3), where remains of a “marble column” and of mosaic tesserae amongst other remains reveal a process of demolition of architectural features during this stage. Unlike the black tesserae found in Area P’s fill P/276 (see Chapter 10, 3), the tesserae were found at the uppermost layer, associated with a phase after “Level O” or Phase Ia, of unclear specific date, though probably from the 8th to 9th centuries, after the site was abandoned. Burial activities within the city’s walls are attested in other areas of the Alcudia, particularly Sector 6-F.195 The materials recovered from the so-called cemetery reveal a late 6th and 7th century date, which places it well within the city’s Visigothic period. However, our grave was removed, and is clearly associated with a secondary burial, not a primary one as in Sector 6-F. Previous authors indeed interpreted it as an ad sanctos cemetery in sectors 10A–B where the basilical building was found.196 However in my opinion this should be discarded, as there is only evidence of two sets of human remains, with clear identification of only one individual, T/207, at a height that is well above 25 centimeters from the basilical mosaic in the first place. The placement of these burials in such a superficial level, breaking the “Level O” or Phase Ib floor of Area T, outside Area B itself where the main mosaic floor is placed (where no human remains were found at all), suggests this burial to be merely a very late extension of the Sector 6-F cemetery, coming from a time when the Alcudia was being abandoned—that is, Phase Ia. This process occurred following the Arab conquest in the early 8th century. It is safe to assume that these burials are not part of an ad sanctos cemetery, but are secondary burials of a late, post-abandonment phase of the site (Plate VII). The first structural features recovered from Area T are the “Upper compartments” T/H1, T/A2, and T/B3. These features have an unclear function. 195
196
Ricardo González Villaescusa, El mundo funerario romano en el País Valenciano: Monumentos funerarios y sepulturas entre los siglos I a. de C.–VII d. de C. (Madrid: Alicante: Casa de Velázquez; Instituto Alicantino de Cultura “Juan Gil-Albert,” 2001), 401–403. González Villaescusa, 404–406.
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However, within T/A2 was the floor associated with “Level O” T/A2/268, which indicates the use of these structures at a “Level O” stage. These were located within the compartment T/I. In other compartments of Area T, the same kind of structures are not found. It is safe to propose that by Phase Ib, associated with wall B/021, vertical structures like T/106, which limit the street to the north, were still in use, but probably a wall to separate compartment T/A2 from T/B3 was also visible. Lower layers associated with these features do not go beyond a “Level D”. While the levels could be associated in theory to those found in Area C, in truth Ramos Folqués’ classification was preliminary and not conclusive. The “generic Level O” T/083 and T/082, found to the north of these “Upper Compartments”, that is T/H, reveals fragments of mosaic floor from the basilical area; further evidence for the deterioration or partial demolition of the mosaic floor by Phase Ib. However, this would also probably have occurred with Phase IIa when parts of the mosaic floor were defaced during its conversion to a Christian church. 4.2.2
Phase II and Late Phase III: Origin and Use of Upper Compartments The first loci below what was considered as “Level O” were those found through the “upper structures”. These included the gravel and sand “Level B” layer from September 7th, 1948, which as we indicated was equivalent to “Level A” in Area C. The most important fill found from this layer is T/B3/255, where we find material from the 7th century. Included here is the amphora BAE/1948/T/B3/ 255/cer/II/1, which was identified, due to its reduced size and the form of its handles, neck, and rim as drawn in the excavation diaries, to a 7th century ce Crypta Balbi 1 type. This amphora was found in the layer, 40 centimeters below agricultural level and sealed by the “Level O” found in T/A2 and presumably elsewhere in the area. This finding is accompanied with an as from Carthago Nova, probably from the 6th century (although there is no specific description of the finding), and other Late Roman objects. A contemporary “Level B” T/A2/251 fill includes a mixture of objects, from a coin of Vespasian to “red pottery fragment from a low period” (4th century or later), which points towards late sigillata pottery (TSD type, according to Ana Ronda).197 This places this “Level B” layer from the upper compartments as a 7th century fill, while “Level O” would be late- or post-7th century. “Level B” is then associated to a Phase IIa or Ib period from Area B (Plate VI).
197
ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 14th, 1948, n. 7, f. 21r. AMRF note 52.
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From equivalent “Level B” fill T/H1/263, found around and within the Ushaped structure T/H1/264, are remains of red stucco that probably belonged to the basilical building or the tabernae structures that were attached to it from the south. Likewise, from this “Level B” are scattered lamps providing an uncertain date. Be that as it may, this merely indicates that this U-shaped burial structure was placed in a previous period to the decorated basilical building with its mosaic. Parallel feature T/H/S/374 evidently belonged to a period before a “Level C” fill which covered wall T/106 that limited the street from the tabernae structures in Area T. This suggests that in early imperial periods, or slightly after the foundation of the Augustan or post-Augustan Roman edifice, there were still tombs present in its immediacies. The only wall found associated with this Phase IIa or Ib layer is T/272, which was found within Area C. By then sections of the street seem to have been privatized and compartmentalized, although not completely blocked. The process reminds us of similar features in Phase Ib in Area B such as the compartments in the northern sector of sub-area B/OM. Below this is a “Level C”, associated with a “Level B” from Area C, where most structures of the upper compartments were found. The fills associated with the “Level C” structures include the presence of an 8-shaped bead from compartment T/A2/253, apparently of Augustan period. There is also the presence of a flower-shaped flat glass piece, dated to the Augustan period.198 In compartment T/B3 the “Level C” layer reveals the presence of Roman sigillata pottery without further description. Sealed beneath a lime layer, there is no evidence for late material as opposed to the upper “Level B” layer described above. However, it is hard to clarify to what phase this layer belonged. Considering the above association with a 7th century Phase IIa, it is probable that the “Level C” layer is associated with an earlier generic Phase II, without further possibility of specifying the sub-phase. Associated to this “Level C” or Area C’s “Level B” phase is wall T/106, which separates areas T and C. This confirms the association of “Level C” to “Level B” from Area C, where the width of the street was about 3.4 meters. We find then that compartments T/A2 and T/H1 were present during the use of Area T as tabernae, and therefore should be associated with a late antique Phase II from Area C and Area B. Tomb structure T/H1/264 is certainly from an earlier phase. It had a flagstone paving and was covered in an ash layer, within which was an oil lamp of a late 2nd century date, placing it within the general stage of Phase IIIc or IIId asso-
198
ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 7th, 1948, n. 7, f. 17r. AMRF note 44.
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ciated with the “intermediate level” of Area C (C/044). Layers on top of this ash probably date later, perhaps in the late Phase III or early Phase II reforms in the 4th century. Therefore, the structure was covered by later use layers, as the flagstones and the ash layer were covered by fill T/H1/263. The U-shaped structure and its flagstones are from a 2nd century chronology, and not later. The tomb was kept in use through the “Level B” Phase II until its abandonment associated with “Level O” ashes circle T/H1/342, associated with a late Phase Ib or more probably abandonment Phase Ia. The southern compartment T/B3 was also from an earlier phase than T/A2, as its walls were built in “Level D”, to the south of T/106. The width of the walls associated with it are unknown. However, following the late plan sketches by Ramos Folqués mentioning these upper compartments (Fig. 9.3), we find that the space occupied by compartment T/B3 does not occupy much from the street or Area C. This so-called “Level D” is mostly represented in compartment T/B3, with the only finding being of a bone spindle, possibly made by an animal’s tarsus bone. The wall that closes this compartment from the south seems to be associated with T/106, although it also could have been built on top of wall T/354 or T/111. Ramos Folqués also adds that this “Level D” in T/A2 is an “Iberian level” according to the sketch from n. 7, f. 16v (Fig. 9.1), although there is no basis for that assertion . It seems that by then there was a stone pavement, probably associated with the flagstones from “U-shaped” structure T/H1/264. The chronology for the ash layer above these flagstones to the second half of the 2nd century ce fits with the Phase IIIc reform from the Antonine period, linked to a mid-2nd century date. However, it is possible this structure was laid at the 1st century at the latest, as suggested by the parallel burial in the structure to the south of Area C and burial structure T/H/S/374.199 The ash layer was associated with this burial itself, and later layers placed on top of it probably belonged to later stages of the building’s use. 4.2.3 Phases of Tabernae With the upper compartments placed in their chronological association starting from the 3rd to 7th centuries ce, it is possible to proceed with the review of
199
ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: March 28th, 1952, n. 15, f. 36r. In the stratigraphic and plan sketch of the structures south of the “Statue Street” or Area C, which were not included in this study, there is a mention of a burial associated with “Level C”. A review of these burials is found in Chapter 11. According to Ana Ronda, it is evidence of a late antique burial. However, its association with a coin from Claudius makes it hard to accept such an interpretation. Likely this burial is dated to the mid-1st century ce.
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the evidence for the rest of Area T below “Level O”. It is important to note that around compartment T/H, “Level O” reveals that this phase was from the 7th century, according to fill T/083. “Level A” tabernae wall T/103 reveals the use of Area T for shops that divided the space with perpendicular walls to the street’s direction, although the foundation trench fill for this wall provides material from Punic amphoras and other mixed material from past periods (Plates I–V). The same could be said about the “Level B” wall T/104. It is important to note, from “Level B” units such as T/086, that the difference between “Level A” and “Level B” is not as clear-cut as in the case of the street, and they were probably part of a continuous use of the structures found in Area T. The “Upper Compartments” were found within the limits of room T/I. By the time T/H was excavated, most of these structures seem to have been removed except the T/H1 U-shaped compartment T/H1/264. Therefore, there is no clear “Level A” for room T/I, as these would be covered by “Level B” of the Upper Compartments. The T/H compartment revealed two coins of Constantine, and therefore we have an ante quem dating for this level to the early-mid 4th century ce. The most significant feature from “Level A” of Area T is the presence of mosaic T/E/T’/145, found in the eastern compartments. This “deteriorated” mosaic is a feature that gives us a chronology of the mid-5th century at the latest, considering the absence of availability for mosaicists by Phase IIc according to Area B’s chronology, which was dated to the late 5th century ce. This fact places “Level A” in a Phase IIe and IId date, which fits with the coin of Constantine mentioned above in the main Area T. In other words, wall T/103 and “Level A” structures are late 4th to mid-5th centuries ce. This phase includes “Roman Room” walls T/HR/182 to the west of T/I. Materials from “Level B” in this area are much more mixed and difficult to read. There are remains of Iberian painted pottery (BAE/1949/T/H/108/cer/ II/1) and what could be early sigillata pottery with coarse yellow paste from North Africa or Southern Spain (BAE/1949/T/I/095/cer/3). Despite being very close to each other, “Level B” and “Level A” in T/H have no clear chronological indicators, as the lower layer was made of stirred-up earth. Frustratingly, the counterparts of this “Level B” to the west, T/W/330, mention three coins with no description. The exception to this rule is probe T/H/S, which apparently, following the available sketches from 1951, dug into Area C and included materials from both areas. Here, “Level A” and “Level B” are described without materials, but as distinct gravel and lime layers. Considering that “Level A” is associated with the foundation of the basilical building, or Phase IIe and IId, as well as the Phase IIIa association for “Level B”
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in the southern street, it is possible to assume that “Level B”, without clear reliable chronological indicators, is from a Phase IIIa. This fits with the description of phases from room T/H, where “Level B” and “Level A” are almost indistinguishable. Furthermore, the evidence from wall T/104, ending like T/103 with southern “sidewalk wall” T/106, reveals there was a continuity of use of this area for shops or tabernae, for which this area is named. It is then proposed that “Level B” is probably from the early 4th century ce, although this date is hypothetical in any case. In Phase IIIa we find that the street was amplified, and therefore this reduced the size of the tabernae by 20 to 30 centimeters across (Plate II). Following the Area T chronology, we find a “Level C” in units T/I/098 and T/I/097, revealing materials associated with the “Level C” from Area C (such as C/043 and C/044), linking the two probes. Furthermore, in the western probe T/W there is evidence of sigillata pottery. These descriptions fit with the chronology given by Ramos Fernández, which puts both “Level C” associated with T/097 and the “intermediate level” in the street C/044 as between the 1st century bce and the 1st century ce. Since there are no more specific details for findings at this level, this phase could be classified as a generic Phase III or Domus phase. At this stage, the street was limited by T/354, which was probably built by the mid-1st century bce (see above) and therefore Area C was 3.2 meters wide. As a result, Area T was probably 3.3 meters across, and excluding the southern limiting wall, this measurement was only 2.9 meters. This Phase IIIe-b stage was probably used for tabernae in a similar fashion as the later stages. Though the evidence of burial cists such as T/H1/264 or T/H/S/374 indicates that sections of this structure were left unconstructed, before being partially demolished and built upon. Furthermore, the presence of drainage channels found in Area T (T/HR/163 and T/H/S/377) demonstrates that this sector of the complex was a connection area between the Area B domus and the street, likely having an access entrance from this sector to sub-area B/OM or B/OB. The lower “Level D” in Area T includes material such as Greek pottery, and some terracotta statuette fragments in fill T/099. The presence of IberianCampanian pottery in fill T/HR/164 to the west of T/I reveals a possible later chronology than that of “Level D” from Area C, sealed by the “statue layer” C/091. The presence of a pondus-looking stone with eight painted white spots in the western probe fill T/W/334 might suggest the existence of removal of ground from lower layers. This could be associated with the lowest level, where the burial of a child was found. Either way, “Level D” probably belonged to Phase IV or a late republican stage, where the structures kept mounting and floors continued their natural anthropic development, unlike the “Level D” from Area C which was a public
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area with limited or no construction activity. However, it is noteworthy that the T/H/S probe provides two “Level D” layers, which certainly suggests two chronological periods for this building’s history. This includes the evidence of a green-grey layer of earth, which Ana Ronda associated with Sector 4C of the Alcudia site, belonging to a stage when the site was partially under water. The color is attributed to decomposed or demolished adobe.200 The second layer mentioned by Ramos Folqués is a reddish earth. Considering the history of the street in Area C regarding the watery earth that covered the demolished fragments of statues in C/091, it is entirely possible that Ramos Folqués is describing a demolition phase, associated to preparatory stages previous to the construction of the Roman edifice, identified as an Augustan domus. Interestingly, at lower levels we do not find much difference from the upper “Level D” stages, revealing probable mixing from earlier layers. This is the case of “Level E” fills like T/I/102, where Campanian pottery was found, therefore associated with a similar late republican period as that of “Level D”. The coin in T/100 is undescribed, but could be of this republican Phase IV as well, although this is only speculation. Most important is an ash layer T/HR/165 in “Roman Room” to the west of compartment T/I. This ash layer accompanies other ash layers from “Level E” in B/F to the north of the basilical building and probe S/B” to its east. Its discovered objects cannot provide definite dating. A fragment of painted pottery suggests a Late Iberian period. The coin found there is not described. The most important finding was in the Western Probe T/W of the burial of a child next to a Punic amphora on top of bedrock associated with “Level F”. It is unclear when this burial took place. However, the “Level E” fill on top of it is clearly associated with Iberian-style decorative pottery, and there is no evidence of mixed earth next to the burial indicating it was laid at a later period. It seems this is a burial from the Late Iberian phase of the site, Phase V, associated with the Iberian Helike, when the predominant activity was associated with ceremonial burials. The association of child burials with amphoras is seen elsewhere in the site, as indicated above,201 and is a practice detected in the Vinalopó Valley Region until early imperial Roman periods.202
200 201 202
Ronda Femenia, L’Alcudia de Alejandro Ramos Folqués, 176. Gusi i Jener, “Enterramientos infantiles ibéricos en vivienda,” 66–67. Ana Ronda suggests that the “bucket full of items” BAE/1954/T/W/336/cer/II/1… is an indication of a late republican period. However, there is no reason to assume that, as it could very well belong to an early imperial or a proto-Roman period. The date of a late republican period should be taken with caution. Ronda Femenia, L’Alcudia de Alejandro Ramos Folqués, 180.
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4.2.4 Summary of Area T Phases Despite the more complicated nature of Area T phases, stratigraphic units detected in Area T gave a relatively coherent chronological sequencing which, aided by other areas of the site, gives a clearer overall picture of the site’s history. A recapitulation of the above phases is in order as follows: – Late phase: – Phase Ia—Late burial next to T/I of cranium in secondary burial, ash circles. – Christian church: – Phase IIa and Ib (7th–8th centuries)—“Level O” layers and last use of the upper compartments in T/I. – Synagogue: – Phase IIe-d (Late 4th to 5th century)—“Level A” tabernae structures and continued use up until Phase IIa. Width of street: 3.45 meters. – Domus: – Phase IIIa (Early 4th century)—“Level B” tabernae structures. Continued use in “Level A”. – Phase IIIe-b (1st century bce–3rd century ce)—“Level C” structures. Width of street: 3.2 meters. – Pre-domus: – Phase IV (Late republican period, late 2nd–first half of the 1st centuries bce)—“Level D”, some “Level E” fills. This includes ash layer in “Roman Room” to the west of room T/I. Possible child burial in T/W. – Phase V (Late Iberian period, 3rd century bce)—Some “Level E” and “Level F” layers. We find above the summary of the Area T phases. The similarities between these and the Area C phases is natural, due to the connection between the two areas.
5
Areas C and T as Part of the Site
We find from the above then two sets of phases that are closely connected, as stratigraphic units can be detected and associated. When Area C was transformed due to some construction activity, as for example the placement of “sidewalk” walls T/111, T/354, and T/106, Area T was also transformed. The importance of these phases for the overall interpretation of the site cannot be overstated. This southern area is where the Roman domus and later the synagogue were accessed from the public street. This was also the area where the public expression of the community was probably most noticeable since
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there would have been a need to publicize the use of this building to passersby. Therefore, the outside façade would be here, although the monumental façade would probably be found on wall B/024 or B/027, looked on from the west to the east, before entering the main hall of the synagogue. The chronological phases that were described here are based on the incomplete accounts of the excavations to the south of the synagogue building. Therefore, as more information becomes available through follow-up research, a more detailed chronological sequencing can be given. However, as far as one can discern from the available information, the above reflects a coherent account of the development of the area influenced by reforms from within the building and from the street, that is, from the private area of the site and the public space with which it is associated. As a summary, Table 9.1 below provides the chronological development of both areas based on this chapter. In this study the chronological sequencing reveals an association between the southern street and the life of the Jewish synagogue and late Christian church, as revealed in Phase II. The original synagogue was built into a Roman domus structure, and its construction in the late 4th century, marked with the mosaic pavement, did not seem to affect the rest of the domus structure’s function. As in Area P, no real change can be detected in the functioning of whatever property was found in this part of the Alcudia, or of the public use of the street up until the 7th century ce. By then the synagogue was converted into a Christian church. That alone did not affect the building. Probably the clearer change in the use of the southern street and associated tabernae occurred with the construction of the Phase I building, at which point wall T/105 was demolished and its foundations used for a new wall B/021. The use of this area was kept, but the tabernae compartments seem to have been affected. Only the “Upper Compartments” T/H1 and T/A2 remained, and the latter seemed to have been used as a rudimentary passageway. With the abandonment of the site by the 8th or 9th century, the product of the building of a new urban nucleus in modern Elche, the ancient town of Ilici, including its public spaces, was abandoned. The use of the street as a burial area, as is evidenced and described here, was probably an extension of other burial spaces in a freed area that was no longer used. The lack of more individuals found, particularly within Area B, should lead us to discard the possibility of these burials being part of an ad sanctos necropolis, especially since they are associated with a late phase of the building. By this time, the church was either partially or completely abandoned and in the process of demolition. As for the interpretation of the pre-domus phases, some publications like that of Ramos Fernández already indicated these areas to be the preferential
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south of the “basilica”: areas t and c table 9.1
Compared chronological phases for Area C and Area T
Levels
Area C
Date (Area C)
Area T
Date (Area T)
Post-O
Phase Ia
Phase Ia 8th Century?
O
–
8th century? –
A
Phase II
5th–7th centuries
Phases IIa-Ib Phases IIe-b
B
Phases IIIa?—II
4th–7th centuries
Phase IIIa
InterPhase mediate IIId-a
1st–3rd centuries
Phase IIIc-IIIb
C
Phase IIIe
Mid-late 1st century bce
Phase IIIe-b
D
Phase IV
Late 3rd century bce
Phase IV Late 2nd century– first half of 1st century bce
2.85 meters
E
Phase V
Late 3rd century bce?
2.72 meters
F
Phase VI? 6th century bce?
Phase IV Late 2nd century– first half of 1st century bce Phase Late 3rd IV–V century–1st century bce
7th Century 5th Century (use to the 7th Century) Early 4th Century Second half of the 2nd Century 1st century bce–1st century ce
Street width
Main features
Abandoned 3.45 meters? 3.4–3.45 meters
Late burials
3.4–3.45 meters
Tabernae attached to domus and synagogue U-shaped structure in T/H1
3.4–3.45 meters 3.2 meters
Church and late building Tabernae attached to synagogue
Foundation of tabernae area. Coexistence with burials Demolition of Iberian building. Use of area for burials and construction Iberian building in use
Unknown Iberian building in use
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access points to the pre-Roman Iberian building. It was already in that period that the urban plan of this sector of the Alcudia was established. The Roman domus merely kept the urban landscape and grid and probably regularized it, building a renewed street of Augustan foundation with wall T/354 in the 1st century bce. This access point also included evidence for cultic practices and burial rituals such as the infant buried next to a Punic-looking amphora from “Level E” found in probe T/W. This burial should not be associated with the late burials found from “level O”.
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The Northeastern “Palace” (Area P) 1
Introduction
In 1948, the excavation of the Ilici basilical building included areas to the northeast of the main hall. The compartment excavated to the northeast is the first case of the excavation of an area that, according to previous scholars, apparently did not have a physical connection to the basilical complex. Its features are the least documented and seem to be the least described. However, it also harbors crucial information about the chronological development of the complex. “Area P” was excavated in full between May 1948 and August 1949. Strangely enough, apart from a sketch from the excavation report of the 1948 campaign as well as the identification of some levels, there were no further publications of this area. The present chapter will advance the premise that this wide room (or series of rooms) to the northeast of the main hall is an integral part of the wider basilical complex that included areas B, S, and T, with material findings associated with construction activity that affected the use and development of the wider complex.
2
Definition of Area P
The first description of this rectangular room was as a “palace”. There is no definite reason as to why Alejandro Ramos Folqués gave the area this particular name. It is possible that he considered this a kind of residence for users who worked and participated in religious rituals associated with the synagogue or church in Area B. Ramos Folqués, in his 1955 publication of the excavation report, merely mentioned this space as “room” or “building” to the north of the fill of “rubble” classified here as N/E.1 The description of this building as a “palace” led to the naming of this as Area P. As presented in Annex A, there are two sub-divisions that define this Area P, the two being identified as the excavation of Area P was progressing in late 1948 and early 1949. The main sub-division is generally named “Palace” and its
1 Ramos Folqués, “Elche (Alicante). La Alcudia [campañas 1940–1948],” 132.
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description is found in the excavation diaries entries for 1948. This sub-area is P/NO, which consists mostly of the levels identified in the north and northwestern sections of Area P.2 This section of Area P is the best known, as it was excavated in some sections up to “Level E”, possibly the first level on top of bedrock found elsewhere in this section of the excavation. The excavation of this sub-area is also documented through several photographs that show workers digging in the northwestern part of Area P, that is, P/NO. The other main sub-area of P is to the south, attached or next to the “wall of Sacristía”, or Area S. This area was classified as sub-area P/D, though its relationship with sub-areas N/E or B/D mentioned in Chapters 7 and 8 is unclear. Sketches from this area reveal the presence of a series of walls and spaces that were not clearly defined. However, in the different sections treating this area in the excavation diaries, Alejandro Ramos Folqués associates it with the term “Rincon Palacio”, which translates literally to “Palace corner”. The identification of this corner with the southern one attached or close to Area S was described in the August 9th, 1949, entry: Palace corner: Under the wall of the Sacristy, between stones, fragment of an Iberian head and other pieces of worked stone with flowers and decorations.3 There is no other reference to clarify what this “Palace corner” is. The quotation suggests that the excavator himself understood where the “Palace corner” was and that its placement next to the “Sacristy wall” (i.e. its northern wall) was a matter of fact. The identification of these two sub-areas supposes that between the northern section of Area P and the southern “Palace corner” P/D are unexplored sections of the room. However, that is not precisely the case. Several explorations were indeed conducted in the central area, as is evidenced from the excavation diaries of June 13th, 1949, where Ramos Folqués explored the entrance area to its center-west, and from July 22nd, 1949, where he described the material findings from his probe “under the almond tree”, classified here as probe P/A. The tree is clearly seen in the excavation photographs of that same campaign (Figs. 10.2, 3). The measurements for Area P are hard to recover, but there is are approximations thanks to the plan sketch of the northern section of the area. Following 2 A map of this sub-area is sketched in the Corpus documental entry for April 26th, 1949, notebook number 6, f. 6r. 3 ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: August 9th, 1949, n. 9, f. 15r.
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the northeastern “palace” (area p)
figure 10.1
Plan sketch for the north section of “Area P” arf, amrf, corpus documental, entry for april 26th, 1949, n. 9, f. 6 r
the measurements of east-west wall P/289, the area is 6.2 meters wide. The length of the northern half of the area, from the portal P/346 to the northwestern corner of the room, is 4 meters. All sketches and descriptions locate the portal in the middle of the western wall of the department, therefore indicating that the detected wall without the portal would probably be around 8
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meters long. While we can speculate on the measurement of the room’s length, as the width of the portal is unknown, it is possible to assume it was a standard, roughly 0.8 to 1-meter portal. Therefore, the length of this room would be between 8 and 9 meters.
3
Stratigraphic Data from Area P
There are two main sources of information for the stratigraphy and findings for Area P. The first is the 1955 publication of the 1948 excavation report by Alejandro Ramos Folqués, which mostly describes the upper levels of the compartment. The other source is the excavation diaries, which describe floors, sketches, and other useful information, registering the findings and the levels associated with them which were not properly published. It is important to note that even though the excavation of this area was partially conducted in the spring and summer of 1949, uncovering a significant amount of valuable information, no publication of it was ever made after the aforementioned excavation report. The main reason is that while the excavator associated this room with the wider basilical complex, it was nevertheless ignored in the study of the main mosaic finding, much like areas T and C. 3.1 The Upper Levels Chronologically, according to the excavation diaries, the first levels excavated were the upper ones in Area P. The first registry is a fill on top of a wall “between a and a’” mentioned in the sketch from May 26th, 1948, (Fig. A.2) to the west of this rectangular area (classified as P/229), therefore covering the western wall of this structure, classified as P/231.4 The description reveals it is possibly under the top soil, since there is no mention that this fill is associated with modern or agricultural activities which were detected elsewhere on the site (see T/001 in Chapter 9). Even so, the findings are not to be given a date, since it is evident that this is an abandonment phase stratigraphic unit, placed on top of a wall that was already demolished. It is thus not a sealed stratum. These recovered objects include a decorated sigillata (BAE/1948/P/231/cer/I/1) and “Italo-Greek” (BAE/1948/P/231/cer/I/2) pottery, as well as an unspecified amount of varied Iberian pottery shards (BAE/1948/P/231/cer/II/1…).5 A continuation of this fill (P/232) is found to the north, “in b, on top of the ashlar
4 ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: May 26th, 1948, n. 7, f. 3r. 5 Ibid.
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figures 10.2–3 Pictures of the excavation in Palacio area, looking east-southeast. The wall P/289 is behind the workers to the right, next to the almond tree mentioned during the excavations fla archive
stone”.6 It refers to a fill to the inside of the rectangular structure, on its northwestern corner, east of a section mentioned as “ashlar” (lit. “sillares”) that was classified as P/230.7 The only finding recovered from said fill is a fragment of red paste pottery with a semi-matt finish (BAE/1948/P/232/cer/1). Unlike the other structures of the site, it is only in Area P where the remains of an entrance were clearly defined, in the central section of the western wall P/229 (Fig. 10.4). The entrance was detected due to an ashlar base with grooves carved into it (P/346) and a pronounced edge to halt the doors from opening towards the outside, thus holding a two-sheet door and that would open towards the inside (Fig. 10.5). By the time it was discovered, portal P/346 was broken in two pieces, suggesting the possibility that it was reused when it was placed here. In fact, in the excavation diaries entry for July 22nd, 1949,8 Ramos Folqués accompanies the description of this feature with that of a shard of a kantharos base (BAE/1949/P/346/cer/1), which would have been set in place before the placement of the portal stones. Portal P/346 would be an important reference point for the excavation in this area. Stratigraphically we can observe that it was placed during the construction of the latest wall. The above two stratigraphic units (P/231 and P/232) should be considered one and the same. However, yet another “Type H” or horizontal fill stratigraphic unit was mentioned in “c” from the same plan sketch. It is clearly placed in the central section of the room at a time when, following the sketch, Area P was still not properly defined. Be that as it may, this upper fill P/233 was placed 6 Ibid. “En b, sobre la piedra sillar”. 7 Ibid., Fig. 7.2. “b” should not be confused with “B” in capital letters, which was associated with sub-areas in Area S, or to the east of the basilical building. 8 ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: July 22nd, 1949, n. 9, f. 14r.
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figure 10.4
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General picture of excavation to the east and north of Area B. In the background is wall P/229 dai-madrid schlunk archives. i-159-1-130
above a mortar floor P/278, which will be described below. This “upper fill” was likely associated with the abandonment level that includes P/231 and P/232 as well. Like these other similar stratigraphic units, P/233 also includes a few findings without definite dates, including a rectangular piece of vitric paste (BAE/1948/P/233/vit/1) and an undefined number of ceramic pieces found at the first excavation near wall P/229 to its north. On July 22nd, 1949 Ramos Folqués led an excavation, under an almond tree, found in Figs. 10.2, 3 in the background at the center of Area P, which revealed further findings of this upper level. These findings were discovered “above the [1 cm thick mortar floor, P/278]”,9 and included a fragment of “clear and grey” sigillata pottery (BAE/1948/P/233/cer/I/1) and an oil lamp made of clear yellow clay (BAE/1948/P/233/cer/I/2). Underneath this upper level, we discover the first findings associated with the building’s use. The first, is a wall between “a and a’”, mentioned in the two May 1948 sketches from the excavation diaries (Figs. A.1, 2) and the Schlunk
9 Ibid.
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the northeastern “palace” (area p)
figure 10.5
Portal stone P/346 to Area P. Taken by H. Schlunk in 1948. Looking east dai-madrid schlunk archives. i-159-1-1
“Mai-Juni” sketch found in the DAI-Madrid Archive (Fig. A.4). It is only in the May 26th, 1948 sketch that there is a clear description of the first wall, which was described in two parts. The first part was an ashlar wall located at the rooms’ northwestern corner (P/230), described as “ashlars” in the May 26th entry.10 In the sketch it is located above the section described as “b”, identified as sillares (trans. “ashlars”). Another description of this part of the wall is the quote describing fill P/232, where Ramos Folqués mentions only one sillar (ashlar, in singular). Probably, a stone collapsed to the inner part of the northwestern corner of Area P, which points towards the use of several ashlar stones detected below the fills described above. The second part consists of the southern projection of the western wall of Area P. It has no clear description, though probably it was built with fieldstones like other walls in this site. The question lies whether this wall should be linked to the construction of the northern wall in Area S, with a fieldstone foundation supporting an upper, ashlar section below an earthen elevation (see S/052 and S/055 or B/010 in Chapter 7), or perhaps whether it should be associated with another construction style, with ashlar cornerstones supporting the adjacent walls. There is no evidence for the use of the second option in any area of the
10
Ibid.
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complex. However, two photographs from the DAI-Madrid’s Schlunk archives, taken in 1948 (Fig. 10.4), reveal that there was a superstructure above the foundation level for this western north-south wall. In other words, this series of ashlars P/230 was placed when wall P/229 was constructed, therefore pointing towards the second option. Most importantly, the above-mentioned photographs reveal that this wall was built at a higher level than the other walls of the site, built at the rough preserved height of wall B/D/317 to the south of Area P. This points towards a reuse of this compartment and its reconstruction at a later date than that of areas B and S, and that it is associated with the structures of a higher elevation found in areas B/D and B/F between areas P, B, and S. One of the walls that was certainly attached to P/229 limited Area P to the south, in addition to the “Sacristy wall” S/055. This wall P/353 was mentioned on July 14th, 1949, as having a “corner” with the western “portal wall” P/229. Without a doubt it is of the same height, and probably was constructed at the same time. Unlike the northwestern corner of Area P, it had no ashlar cornerstones like P/230. Even so, this is probably the wall drawn in the sketch made by H. Schlunk in 1948, limiting what he called “G” to the north and “H” (that is, Area P) to the south (Fig. A.4). The chronological interpretation and its association with the Area S structures will be treated below. However, some evidence can help in the description of this wall’s foundation and its association with the rest of the stratigraphic units detected in Area P. Information concerning the levels below P/233 can already be seen in the May 26th, 1948, entry. After the description of the layer’s findings, Ramos Folqués writes “all this above the mortar floor”.11 A further description of this wall occurs on a later date, in the September 25th, 1948, entry describing a “second level” (that is, units P/289 and P/D/277), presenting these findings as follows: All of this in 2nd level, that is one palm below the lime floor.12 The importance of this quote lies in the comprehension of the levels excavated up to this point. The “lime floor” cannot be other than the same “mortar floor” mentioned months earlier, that is P/278. Considering Alejandro Ramos Folqués’ association of the upper “Type I” stratigraphic unit with the “Type H”
11 12
Ibid. “Todo sobre piso de argamasa”. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 25th, 1948, n. 7, f. 24r.
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fills underneath it, we can conclude that the first level mentioned in the published report as an “upper level” should be considered as the fill underneath P/278, classified as P/275. Fill P/275, in the excavation diaries entry for September 18th, 1948, is described as “Nivel Superior (primer nivel) a un palmo del portal”, or Superior Level ( first level) at one palm from the portal.13 The “portal” referred to here is P/346, so this excavation was done in the central section of Area P. The list of findings is large, as is evident from the catalogue entry for P/275. It was possible to identify this layer in the excavation report from 1948 thanks to a series of findings mentioned both there and the excavation diaries, such as a grey amphora (BAE/1948/P/275/cer/4) which was “coarse, incomplete”, two iron nails (BAE/1948/P/275/Fe/2, 3), fragments of grey pottery (cooking pot and top, BAE/1948/P/275/cer/1, BAE/1948/P/275/cer/10), red or red-matted pottery (BAE/1948/P/275/cer/2, 3; BAE/1948/P/275/cer/9) “in the form of cups and pots”, a perforated copper coin or disk (BAE/1948/P/275/num/1), and fragments of Iberian (BAE/1948/P/275/cer/11, 12) and sigillata pottery (with mark ----M: BAE/1948/P/275/cer/7; BAE/1948/P/275/cer/13). Assuming that floor P/278 covered the whole area, when Ramos Folqués excavated the fill under this floor in the central “almond tree” section of Area P (see Figs. 10.2,3), it was naturally believed to be an extension for fill P/275. The findings there include a coarse red pottery fragment with grey and greyish outer surface (BAE/1948/P/275/cer/14), three incomplete bone styli and a bone needle (BAE/1948/P/275/os/1, 2, 3, 4 respectively), fragments of oil lamps (BAE/1948/P/275/cer/II/1…), and a “middle sized” bronze coin (BAE/1948/P/ 275/num/2) without description. Finally, on July 27th, 1949, there is one final well-polished cup, according to Ramos Folqués from the 2nd or 3rd century ce (BAE/1948/P/A/275/cer/I/15), and a stylus from the same place (BAE/1948/P/ A/275/os/5).14 In short, there is a mixture of objects from different well documented periods, revealing the mixed nature of this layer.
13
14
A ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 18th, 1948, n. 7, f. 23r. The term “palm” is troublesome, as Ramos Folqués does not define the measurement. It is most plausible that he is referring to the common usage of a “palm” in Spain, or the Castillian palm, which is roughly 23 centimeters. The usage of this term implies that the stratigraphic unit P/275 will have a rough estimate of its placement within other stratigraphic units, and not an exact measurement as expected from modern excavations. ARF, Excavation Diaries: July 27th, 1949, p. 6.8 (classification as of 2014. Notebook number 9 in Corpus documental). FLA Archives.
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3.2 The Transitional Level: “Level B” Upper level P/275 was made of battered earth and a thin layer of fine sand, which covered this ground and prepared the upper layer of mortar.15 Both P/278 and P/275 should be seen as one and the same action taken for the preparation of the upper floor found in this site, made of mortar. Considering Fig. 10.4, it is noticeable that this floor would have been at a superior level than the upper floors found in areas “S” and “B”. P/275 covered structures that with all probability were demolished for the uncovering of this space. Ramos Folqués, in the publication of his 1948 intervention report, suggests that during the excavation a series of walls was discovered: We continued with the excavation, having the walls of the described department as a superficial limit, finding another east-west ashlar wall and the remains of another …16 This quote provides information that the northern wall of Area P continues the ashlar structure detected in the northwestern corner, or rather that this northern wall is the same as P/230, and second, evidence that there is another parallel wall to this one, detected as the upper levels were uncovered. This wall is, apparently, another east-west wall drawn and described in the excavation diaries and classified here as P/289. The description of this wall can be seen in the plan sketch dated April 26th, 1949, (Fig. 10.1) in said diaries.17 On this sketch, whose upper section looks west, it is possible to find a wall with the mark “b”, indicating that it was found at an upper level compared to the rest of the walls. This “b” is a mark for “Level B”, which in this context should be considered as the layer underneath the “upper one”, that is unit P/277. The wall cuts Area P in two parts. Luckily, it is possible to calculate the position of the wall itself based on the measurements available in the sketch, placed at 3.35 meters south of the northern wall of Area P. The wall itself is 0.5 meters wide and 6.2 meters long, as indicated in the description of the area above. The excavation pictures taken in 1948 reveal this wall was made of fieldstones, with some remains of cobblestones included in it, and was constructed at a lower level than the walls limiting Area P. 15 16
17
Ramos Folqués, “Elche (Alicante). La Alcudia [campañas 1940–1948],” 132. Ramos Folqués, 133. “Proseguimos la excavación, teniendo como límite superficial las paredes del departamento antes descrito, encontrando otro muro de sillares. de este a oeste y restos de otro.” ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: April 26th, 1949, n. 9, f. 6r.
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The photographic and descriptive evidence point towards the foundation of this wall during or after the placement of the “second floor”, which was found to the north and south of wall P/289. This “second floor” was excavated in late September and early October 1948, and was classified here as P/277 and P/D/277, found in conventional Area P and “Palace corner” sub-area P/D respectively. The floor, unlike the upper “sand and battered earth” layer, is made of sand and gravel, explicitly mentioned on October 1st, 1948, after the description of objects found underneath this level in that day’s entry.18 An earlier description is given on September 25th, 1948, where we find the description of a “second level” a palm (Castillian?) under the “portal”. This “second level” describes the upper part of this floor in this section. Considering the aforementioned traditional consideration of what a palm was, it is possible to assume it is about 23 centimeters under the portal level.19 This is apparently confirmed on the stratigraphic sketch for P/NO, that shows how “Level A”, associated with the portal, is 30 centimeters above “Level B” made of “small gravel and sand” (lit. “gravilla y arena”) (Fig. 10.6). Furthermore, another description of the floor is derived from the two main sources for the archaeological findings. The identification of the findings under P/277, that is fill P/276, is clear from the reference to some of them on the published report of the 1948 excavation, particularly the reference for the a black tesserae “from the mosaic floor” (B/011) found in this ground layer (BAE/1948/P/276/pet/1).20 The presence of this object, mentioned in the excavation diaries entry for October 2nd, 1948,21 was described as being “under a floor of small gravel” (lit. gravilla), which would clearly point to the stratigraphic unit P/277. The most important detail is that the excavation report tells us about the height of this floor, being “at the height of the mosaic”. On the other hand, the diaries’ entry presents the height of said floor as being in the “level of the Sacristy floor”, that is the upper gravel floor for Area S, or S/056. This evidence gives us an important detail regarding the height of these structures. First, the portal for Area P is placed at one palm above the mosaic floor level. In other words, it is roughly 20 centimeters above the mosaic floor level, therefore, about a height of –0.10 meters from Zero Point, considering the mosaic floor level is about –0.30 meters. The depth of this “Level B” is varied according to where it was excavated. As is revealed below, the excavation of this layer P/276 takes several days. The 18 19 20 21
ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: October 1st, 1948, n. 7, f. annex 6v. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 25th, 1948, n. 7, f. 24r. Ramos Folqués, “Elche (Alicante). La Alcudia [campañas 1940–1948],” 132. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: October 2nd, 1948, n. 7, f. 25r.
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lion’s share of findings is in the northern section of Area P, to the north of wall P/289. However, some excavation was carried out in the “Palace corner”, on October 6th, 1948,22 where few findings were described (see 2.5 below). While the stratigraphic sketch from April 26th, 1949, reveals that layer P/276 is 40 centimeters thick, on October 6th the layer is described as only 10 centimeters deep. Beneath this layer a stone pavement of stone pavement was found (P/D/280). Under this layer of gravel and sand is one of the most importantly rich fills in the entire excavation, catalogued here as P/276 and P/D/276. It is important to notice that Ramos Folqués dedicated several weeks to excavate it, and it would in turn be excavated further in different places on its east. A complete list can be found in the catalogue entry for unit P/276. From September 25th, 1948,23 Ramos Folqués relates to us a series of discoveries which, sadly, do not point to a concrete chronology, but do signal a possibility of mixture of many materials from different periods. These includes a “button or pendant” (BAE/1948/P/276/misc/1), two whole and one fragmented styli (BAE/1948/P/276/misc/2, 3, 4), a fragment of sigillata pottery with relief decorations (BAE/1948/P/276/cer/I/1), coarse red pottery (BAE/1948/P/276/ cer/I/2), and an oil lamp with the decoration of a child (BAE/1948/P/276/cer/ I/3), without further description. On October 1st, 1948,24 in what was considered as the “Palace corner”, that is, sub-area P/D, the excavator recovered a large number of findings, including a silver stylus (BAE/1948/P/276/Ar/1), an unidentified number of oil lamps (BAE/1948/P/276/cer/II/1…), a fragment of a glass piece (BAE/1948/P/276/ vit/1), a deformed perforated lead piece (BAE/1948/P/276/Pb/1), grey fineware pottery (BAE/1948/P/276/cer/I/5), and, significantly, a “sigillata piece corresponding to vases found on the second level” (BAE/1948/P/276/cer/I/4), probably referring to the pottery found on September 25th, 1948, particularly BAE/1948/P/276/cer/I/1 mentioned above. This indicates that this area and the area to the north of wall P/289 are continuous, rather than two different units. Finally, Roman pottery “of good Roman period” was found, suggesting pieces from an early imperial date and therefore that this fill is a mixture of different layers (BAE/1948/P/276/cer/III/1…). The largest number of objects from this level was recorded on October 2nd, 1948.25 The complete list is found in the catalogue entry. As mentioned above, 22 23 24 25
ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: October 6th, 1948, n. 7, f. 27r. Ibid. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: October 1st, 1948, n. 7, f. annex 6v. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: October 2nd, 1948, n. 7, f. 25r.
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there was the crucial finding of the mosaic black tesserae (BAE/1948/P/276/ pet/1), which indicates that this fill was clearly placed after the construction of the mosaic. Other findings point towards a late date for this layer, including a fragment of a small amphora’s mouth (BAE/1948/P/276/cer/I/9), which, according to the description recovered in the excavation diaries entry, has a ring-shaped handle on its bi-conical smooth neck, close to its slightly everted ring. The amphora’s form is closest to “Mojon I” form, mostly identified from production in nearby Carthago Spartaia (modern Cartagena, Murcia), dated to between the mid-4th and mid-5th century ce.26 The finding of a fragment of black stucco (BAE/1948/P/276/misc/8) can be associated to nearby construction, but its relation to the late east-of-the-mosaic black stucco B/126 found in Area B might suggest contemporary reforms that affected multiple areas at once. This association is speculative, as this specific stucco could have originated elsewhere in the Alcudia. Other objects recovered from the entry of October 2nd, 1948, include “late red sigillata” (BAE/1948/P/276/cer/I/6), a piece of “fine grey pottery” (BAE/ 1948/P/276/cer/I/7), an oil lamp with the decoration of a hare (BAE/1948/P/ 276/cer/I/9), a coin without preserved decoration (BAE/1948/P/276/num/1), a feminine figurine made of led, perhaps Venus (BAE/1948/P/276/Pb/2), and other objects that suggest a mixture of dates, the latest of which would be associated with a post-mosaic period. Further findings were made on October 5th, 1948,27 in what Ramos Folqués described as being at “the same level as day 2” (October 2nd), the most important being the discovery of several olive bones (BAE/1948/P/276/org/1…), three sigillata fragments (BAE/1948/P/276/cer/I/12, 13, 14) without description, a copper foothold (BAE/1948/P/276/Cu/2), a bone needle and a bone stylus (BAE/1948/P/276/os/2, 3), and most importantly a badly preserved altar piece (BAE/1948/P/276/misc/10). From October 5th and 7th, 1948,28 Folqués found fragments of plates made of red paste (BAE/1948/P/276/cer/V/1…; BAE/1948/P/276/cer/I/15), which present a continuation of excavation in the same layer and area as October 2nd. In the October 7th entry we also find the following quote after the description of several objects from that day:
26
27 28
María del Carmen Berrocal Caparrós, “Mojón I (Tarraconensis southern coastal area)”, Amphorae ex Hispania. Landscapes of production and consumption (http://amphorae.icac .cat/amphora/mojon‑i‑tarraconensis‑southern‑coastal‑area), 21 July, 2016. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: October 5th, 1948, n. 7, f. 26r. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: October 7th, 1948, n. 7, f. 26r.
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[U]nder all of this, a layer of fine sand between the northern wall of the Palace and the construction wall of a previous period.29 From this we find then the first reference of a floor found in what was classified as sub-area P/NO, or layer P/NO/279, which will be treated below. It is possible to infer that the October 2nd, 5th, and 7th findings were done in the same place, at the same level. Pointing to that excavation sequence, Ramos Folqués describes several finds next to the lead “Venus” found on October 2nd, including a “small amphora”, drawn as a one-handled jar (BAE/1948/P/276/cer/I/18). Again, in line with the mixed nature of these object’s dates, Folqués describes the finding of a Campanian pottery fragment (BAE/1948/P/276/cer/I/17). Furthermore, he found what could be classified as ritualistic material such as a bone tabled piece with carved geometric decoration (BAE/1948/P/276/os/6), a copper ring (BAE/1948/P/276/Cu/3), an iron piece that as drawn in the excavation diaries entry resembles a knife (BAE/1948/P/276/Fe/2), and what was described as a “bone sphere” (BAE/1948/P/276/os/6), perhaps made out of a femoral head of an animal.30 In what can be perceived as the P/NO sub-area, there were two further interventions associated with this “level B” P/276. The first was on October 6th, 1948, when Ramos Folqués decided to explore the “Palace corner” or sub-area P/D.31 After finding a stone paved floor “10 cm below the Sacristy floor” (or P/D/280), he ends the entry by describing several objects found above this floor. These include sigillata fragments without further description (BAE/1948/P/D/276/cer/IV/1…), a small “fineware” cup (BAE/1948/P/D/276/cer/I/10), what seems to be a copper convex object (BAE/ 1948/P/D/276/Cu/1), and an iron object (BAE/1948/P/D/276/Fe/2), which looks like a twisted needle according to the drawing by Ramos Folqués in the excavation diaries entry. One last intervention was done on the eastern section of Area P, that is east of an almond tree visible in the excavation pictures from 1948 (Figs. 10.2, 3), and described on May 7th, 1949. From that level only four objects were recovered according to the excavation diaries: a fragment of a red and gray ordinary vessel (BAE/1948/P/276/cer/I/11) and a big bronze coin datable to the Emperor Claudius, with the reverse having a barely recognizable standing figure. The 29 30 31
Ibid. “[B]ajo de todo esto, una capa de arena fina entre pared N. Palacio y pared de construcción anterior época.” Ibid. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: October 6th, 1948, n. 7, f. 27r.
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coin only presents the mention of the emperor as Pontifex Maximus, and therefore can only be given a mid-1st century date without further precision. Two further “imperial type” coins were found, for which we cannot provide a proper description (BAE/1948/P/276/num/5, 6). From the above findings from P/276, and from the extensive list of findings described by Ramos Folqués from this layer, one can easily infer that this level is an anomaly compared to other stratigraphic units from the site. The evidence for olive bones and the significant mixture of materials from different chronological origins suggest that this is not an abandonment level, where such large numbers of findings typically appear. Rather, it is a demolition level, or rather the preparation level for a new floor within this department of Area P. This is evident due to three factors: 1. First, the variety of materials. The mixture of them, and the large amount, as well as their lack of connection, would point to the use of trash and earthen fill in order to raise the usable ground level. 2. The presence of “fine sand” below (P/NO/280) and above (P/275) this fill. This would point to a need to separate the common fill from the usable floor, in this case a gravel floor associated with “Level B” wall P/289. 3. The varied thickness of “Level B” itself. The excavator clearly places the upper limit of “Level B” or P/277 to the height of the “Sacristy floor”, or S/056 (according to the excavation report on the 1948 activities, Ramos Folqués considered it the same as the “mosaic level”). On the other hand, in the P/D southern corner of Area P, the thickness is merely 10 centimeters, while the stratigraphic sketch seen in Fig. 10.6 reveals it is 40 centimeters. Simply put, there was a clear intention to level the floor of this area, in preparation for its new intended use. The presence of construction material from this building, such as the mosaic tessera and the remnants of black stucco recovered on October 2nd, 1948, points towards a “post-mosaic” chronology, or 5th century placement of this fill. Furthermore, it indicates that there was active construction activity in this area, where fragments of unused architectural features were thrown either by accident or willingly to fill the room and support a new upper floor. Below this the stratigraphic levels diverge between north and south sections of Area P, as expressed in the definition of the areas here. These probes will be treated separately, starting with the most important and best described probe, P/NO, to the north and northwest of Area P.
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3.3 Northern Area P: Sub-area P/NO Much like Area C, Ramos Folqués collected the data of the northwestern corner excavations in Area P with a stratigraphic sketch that includes a series of measurements for the different levels there. It is associated with the northern Area P plan sketch seen on Fig. 10.1, that is, the excavation diaries entry for April 26th, 1949 (Fig. 10.6).32 Under “Level B” layers there is a “Level C”, associated mostly with a wall P/290 that protrudes from wall P/289 at its middle area towards the north. This wall was associated with a “floor C”, which according to the stratigraphic sketch is described as “floor of sand above walls found at the center of the Palace”.33 In other words, this level covers the walls that were found at the middle-tonorth of Area P, which were described in the plan sketch from that same diary entry. The catalogue number given to this floor was P/NO/279. The first mention occurs already during the upper level P/276 excavation on October 7th, 1948. It was described as a “fine sand” layer. As indicated above, wall P/290 protrudes from what seems to be P/289 to the north, though the length of the wall is unknown. Considering that P/289 is clearly associated with “Level B” and P/290 with “Level C”, it is safe to assume either that P/289 is supported by a wall under it, a continuation of wall P/290, or rather that P/289 was built on top of P/290, and that the “Level C” wall described here could be cut by the upper perpendicular wall. The fact that to the south of wall P/289 there was no excavation means that a definitive description of wall P/290 eludes us. Regardless, some measurements were preserved: its width is 40 centimeters, and it is placed 1.8 meters east of the western wall P/229. It is uncertain if this “Level C” sand layer (P/NO/279) can be disassociated from its superior fill P/276. The fact that it was found only in the northern section of Area P points towards the possibility that this was part of a previous dismantled floor pavement before the laying of the upper floor. Below the “sand” level was an associated fill layer P/NO/284. It is one of the thickest detected layers in this section, though it does not have the number of findings layer P/276 had. While the first mention of this layer is in the stratigraphic sketch from April 26th, its findings were further described in the excavation diaries entry for May 7th, 1949, mentioning them being “above the level of painted pottery”.34 These findings were made, however, “to the east of 32 33 34
ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: April 26th, 1949, n. 9, f. 5r. Ibid. “Piso arenas sobre paredes que hay en el centro del Palacio”. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: May 7th, 1949, n. 9, f. 10r. “Todo ello en el nivel superior a la cerámica pintada”. The “level of painted pottery” mentioned here refers to unit P/NO/286.
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the almond tree”, as were the ones made in level P/276 from that day. The findings include a clay pondus (BAE/1949/P/284/cer/2) without further description, several big and middle-sized bronze coins, including one with the text in the obverse CLAVDIVS CAESAR AVG P·M TR P. and a standing figure on the reverse (BAE/1949/P/284/num/1), and two small bronzes, without clear description, of “imperial period” (BAE/1949/P/284/num/2, 3). Another important item found was the fragment of a pottery piece with painted decoration of birds (BAE/1949/P/284/cer/1). Following this probe, the stratigraphic sketch reveals the presence of a gravel floor for “Level D”, P/NO/285. The first registry of this floor was on October 9th, 1948, revealing its placement in a certain location of the central-northwestern section of Area P. The specific location of this floor was described in the stratigraphic sketch from April 26th, 1949 (Fig. 10.1), revealed to be to the west of “Level C” wall P/290. The plan sketch indicates this floor as “floor d”, thus indicating without a doubt the association of this level to the northwestern wall associated with “level d” and revealed in the plan sketch for P/NO, or wall P/291. The measurements of this wall are incomplete, as Ramos Folqués failed to register its width. But P/291’s preserved length is between 1.55 to 1.60 meters (recorded length of 1.15 meters plus the width of the attached perpendicular “Level E” wall P/292, to be discussed below). The wall is apparently attached to the corner of the excavation area and follows a north-south direction like P/229. However, it should be noted that it is of a lower level than that of P/229 or P/230. As for the floor P/NO/285, its measurements are also unclear as they are not provided in the plan sketch in the excavation diaries. However, it is evident that the plan places this floor surrounding wall P/290 to its west and north. It is likely that the construction of P/290 affected floor P/NO/285 to the east, though that is speculation since there is no photographic evidence or further description of the construction process in this sub-area. As for the findings and levels associated with the floor, the October 9th, 1948, entry in the excavation diaries refers to it in the following phrase: In the Roman level (below which there are still remains of floor).35
35
ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: October 9th, 1948, n. 7, f. 27r. “En nivel romano (bajo de este nivel), del que hay trozos de piso todavía.”
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As he refers to levels, he nonetheless recognizes that these “floors” did not cover the entire excavation, but rather were represented at a certain level and then assumed to cover more space than preserved. Secondly, in this “Level D” the excavators refers to a clear difference between the “fill” or what is classified in this study as “Type H” stratigraphic unit and the “floor” or the interface stratigraphic unit above it. The described findings are associated with this “Type H” stratigraphic unit, or in this case P/NO/286. This is confirmed by the sketches for the probes made near the portal of Area P, described in the July 13th, 1949, entry (Fig. 10.7).36 These materials are numerous and were found in three interventions. The first was on October 9th, 1948.37 Amongst the objects recovered that day we find a white glass fragment (BAE/1949/P/NO/286/vit/1), a “mud” or terracotta disk (BAE/1949/P/NO/286/cer/I/10), red coarse and smoked pottery (BAE/1949/P/ NO/286/cer/I/11), and an undescribed piece of an amphora (BAE/1949/P/NO/ 286/cer/I/10).38 The second probe was done on May 6th, 1949, in a “level immediately above the stone pavement floor” (that is, P/NO/288, which can only mean this “Level D” fill). The numerous findings include a large number of painted pottery (BAE/1949/P/NO/286/cer/II/1…), a plate with decorated painted birds and domed profile (BAE/1949/P/NO/286/cer/I/1), “other vessels” with painted birds and vegetables (BAE/1949/P/NO/286/cer/III/1…), a “tophat” pottery fragment (BAE/1949/P/NO/286/cer/I/2), a series of small closed black vessels with a beak (BAE/1949/P/NO/286/cer/V/6), a copper object, possibly a sickle (BAE/1949/P/NO/286/Cu/1), “in silos, two amphoras” (BAE/1949/ P/NO/286/cer/I/7, 8, without details of the point of their discovery or the nature of the so-called “silos”, catalogued as P/NO/352), and finally an identified coin (BAE/1949/P/NO/286/num/2) described as follows: – Obverse: Marching quadriga, in front of the defeated. On top: PVTURILLA VINC II VIR QVINQVEN. – Reverse: Tetrastyle temple. In the architrave: AVGUSTVS POSTVM ALDINVS II VIR QVINQITER VINC. This coin was sent to the Archaeological Museum of Elche, where it was subsequently published by Juan Manuel Abascal and Antonio Alberola in 2007 as coin number 127. It is dated to the period of Emperor Tiberius. In it, the legends have a different reading:
36 37 38
ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: July 13th, 1949, n. 9, f. 11r. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: October 9th, 1948, n. 7, f. 27r. See complete list in catalogue entry, P/NO/286.
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– Obverse: Stopped quadriga, looking to the right. On top: [p] TVRVLLI / VINK [II] / VIR QVIN. – Reverse: Tetrastyle temple. In the architrave: AVGUSTVS. In other places: V I – N [k] M POSTV ALB[inus] / II VIR Q[uinquiter].39 The final intervention for this level was on July 13th, 1949, with a stratigraphic sketch and a plan sketch made in that entry (Fig. 10.7). The entry reveals a probe done at the center-west section of Area P, only describing the findings of “Level D” and “Level E”. Apparently, it shows remarkable continuation with subarea P/NO; therefore it is considered as part of said probe in the northwestern section of Area P. Here level P/NO/285 starts “five palms” under the portal level. In other words, about 1 to 1.10 meters below said portal. The fill for “Level D” P/NO/286 in this probe includes a series of findings of importance for the dates of this fill. Firstly, and most importantly, a ceramic urn or cooking pot with geometric painted decoration. The urn is of globular body and has a top that covered it, and on top of it a stone to hold it in place (BAE/1949/P/NO/286/cer/I/9), a cubic dice piece (BAE/1949/P/NO/286/misc/1), a “blue drop of glass” (BAE/ 1949/P/NO/286/vit/1), a carbonized olive bone (BAE/1949/P/NO/286/misc/2), and a rectangular piece of lead (BAE/1949/P/NO/286/Pb/1). The urn seems to have been found in the same place it was left as part of a ritual. Ramos Folqués does not describe the inner contents of this urn. This “Level D” covered a series of structures associated with the lower level of this site, that is, “Level E” or “Level Ee” (henceforth “Level e”).40 Observing the sketch plan for sub-area P/NO (Fig. 10.1), one can notice that the largest number of walls detected there belonged to the lowest level. These walls were associated with a stone pavement floor, or P/NO/288. By the end of the intervention in the “Palace”, there were three distinct walls detected there from this lower level. The first, P/292, is an east-west wall to which perpendicular “Level D” wall P/291 was physically attached. According to the measurement from the April 26th, 1949, sketch in the excavation diaries, the wall is 40 centimeters wide and 2.4 meters long, starting to the west at 1.15 meters to the south of the northern limit of Area P, and with an eastern edge at 1.2 meters from that same northern limit. It is attached to the east with wall P/293 that limits a “Level E” room to the northwest of Area P from its east. This wall has a north-south direction, is 1.2 meters long, and 0.4 meters wide. Finally, 39 40
Abascal Palazón and Alberola, Monedas antiguas de los museos de Elche, 51, number 127. The sketch in the excavation diaries describes a “Level e E”, which appears in ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: April 26th, 1949, n. 9, f. 7r. However, to ease the reading of this chapter, this level shall be classified as “Level e”, instead of “Level eE” or “Ee”.
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ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental, entry for July 13th, 1949, n. 9, f. 11r. Includes stratigraphic and plan sketch of probe near the portal, and description of findings
a third wall P/294 has an east-west direction and is physically attached to the eastern limit of Area P according to the same sketch. It is 1.6 meters north of “Level B” wall P/289 and is 1.4 meters south of the northern limit of Area P. The wall is 2.4 meters long and 0.35 meters wide. These walls were, as is evident from the sketch in Fig. 10.1, associated to the stone paved floor P/NO/288. The plan sketch indicates that this pavement
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includes a large section to the center-northeast of Area P and is clearly located in the center and north of this area, just east of the portal and its western limit, in other words, east of P/229. Another series of structures include the “silos” mentioned on May 6th, 1949.41 These “silos” were covered by fill P/NO/286 as seen in the description of amphoras BAE/1949/P/NO/286/cer/I/7 and 8. The silos have a clear parallel with the “central probe” under the almond tree seen in Figs. 10.2, 3, from July 27th, 1949.42 Apparently they broke the stone pavement associated with “Level E”, or P/288, therefore being from a later moment to the original paving. This floor is presumably placed 50 centimeters under “Level D” P/NO/285. Its first identification can be seen in the stratigraphic sketch from April 26th, 1949, confirmed again in the stratigraphic sketch from July 13th, 1949 (Figs. 10.1, 6), with clear reference to these levels as empedrado (“stone pavement”). However its first archaeological intervention is described on the last page of the April 26th, 1949, entry, revealing the discovery of objects in-between the gravel stones of P/NO/288, or “in level e”.43 These objects include a medium-sized bronze coin without further description, a complete “top-hat” pottery piece (BAE/1949/P/288/cer/I/1), an unspecified number of plates with large tops on them (BAE/1949/P/288/cer/II/1…), a crescent-moon or “half-moon” copper piece (BAE/1949/P/288/Cu/1), and finally a medium sized bronze coin piece (BAE/1949/P/288/num/1). Another description of this level is found in the excavation diaries entry for May 6th, 1949, where Ramos Folqués indicates that: In Palace, in the north side, we reached the stone pavement level, or inferior level eE [Level e] …44 Following this quote, Ramos Folqués proceeds to describe his findings from the fill for “Level E” P/NO/287. Amongst these objects are an uncooked clay pondus (BAE/1949/P/287/cer/5), a fragment of “top-hat” pottery piece with painted geometric motifs including the image of a calyx with a reticulate pattern (BAE/1949/P/287/cer/1),45 a fragment of an ordinary bowl and another of
41 42 43 44 45
ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: May 6th, 1949, n. 9, f. 8r. ARF, Excavation Diaries: July 27th, 1949, p. 6.8 (classification as of 2014. Notebook number 9 in Corpus documental). FUIA Archives. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: April 26th, 1949, n. 9, f. 7r. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: May 6th, 1949, n. 9, f. 8r. “En Palacio, lado N., llegamos al nivel del empedrado, o sea el inferior Ee …” Ibid. AMRF note 12, indicating it is a “Estilo Ilicitano I”.
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an ordinary top (BAE/1949/P/287/cer/2, 3), a cooked clay base with a peeling yellow painting (BAE/1949/P/287/cer/4), and two lead discs (BAE/1949/P/287/ Pb/1, 2). Perhaps the most spectacular object recovered from this layer is the painted stone relief with a reclining figure, which according to Ramos Folqués is “of the matrimony Etruscan type” (BAE/1949/P/287/pet/1).46 According to the entry for April 26th, 1949, under this fill there seems to be another detected level, 20 centimeters beneath “Level e”, or 1.9 meters under the portal level, which is –2.00 meters under Zero Point.47 This level can be identified as a “Level F” and was classified here as P/297, going beyond the probe P/NO as it is probably associated with structures before “Level e” or “Level E” described above. In this layer few objects were found, suggesting the possibility that it remained relatively untouched by the excavation. These findings are a “coarse bowl plate” (BAE/1949/P/297/cer/1) and a lead disk (BAE/1949/P/297/Pb/1). While there is no clear indication of what depth this layer P/297 reaches, it is safe to assume it comes after bedrock level P/090. 3.4 “Under the Almond Tree”: Probe P/A On July 22nd and 27th, 1949, Alejandro Ramos Folqués included a series of findings associated with an excavation under what he described as an “almond tree”. This tree, as discussed elsewhere in this chapter, is visible in the middleto-east section of Area P in the background of photographs taken during the excavation (Figs. 7.2, 3). Several findings were already associated with the excavations for these dates in fills P/233 and P/275, clearly defined on July 22nd, 1949.48 Under the latter were a series of findings described on July 27th, in a series of strata clearly associated with the P/NO sub-area as well as partially with P/D. The uppermost layer found was classified as P/A/348, which is clearly associated with unit P/276. Like the latter, unit P/A/348 has the largest amount of findings, including a sigillata pottery fragment (BAE/1949/P/A/cer/I/1), an amphora with no decoration, which the excavator associated with another found in the northwest corner of “the Palace” (BAE/1949/P/A/cer/I/3), a smallsized complete amphora (BAE/1949/P/A/cer/I/4), another incomplete painted amphora of light-colored clay (BAE/1949/P/A/cer/I/5), a glass handle with fig-
46
47 48
Ibid. “matrimonio, tipo etrusco”. The “type” should not be confused with the style of the relief, but probably with the clothing with which the figure is dressed. Identified as LA1358 by Ana Ronda. See ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: May 6th, 1949, n. 9, f. 8r. AMRF note 11. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: April 26th, 1949, n. 9, f. 7r. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: July 22nd, 1949, n. 9, f. 14r.
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ures (BAE/1949/P/A/vit/1), and a pondus (BAE/1949/P/A/misc/1). An important find is the sigillata pottery fragment found with two rectangular marks (BAE/1949/P/A/cer/I/2), one with a T and what seems to be an upside-down right angle and a diagonal line from it, and the other mark a rectangle with a spot in it.49 There was no mention of the fill associated with “Level D”. Instead Ramos Folqués jumps directly to the following description: All of this (P/A/348) above the pavement of large cobbles that had a silo.50 This description of a stone pavement floor, with large cobbles or river rocks (P/A/349), included a silo (P/A/350) that must be associated with the “Level E” floor silos P/352. In this sense, it is natural that the paved cobble floor P/A/349 is connected with “Level E” floor P/288. Finally, a few objects were discovered underneath floor P/A/349, in fill P/A/351: a series of fragments of “Republican” (sic.) amphorae with “narrow neck” (BAE/1949/P/A/351/cer/I/1…) and, between these fragments, a copper needle (BAE/1949/P/A/351/Cu/1). 3.5 “Palace Corner”: Sub-area P/D The “Palace corner” is a section of Area P that is not directly described, nor is there any plan or stratigraphic sketch that can give us a coherent physical description of its findings. However, there are some clues as to where this subarea lies. The first clue as to “Palace corner’s” location comes from the mention of it on October 6th, 1948. The reference point used for the identification of the levels there is the “Sacristy’s floor”. Specifically, the “Level C” or “third level” detected in this corner, which means under P/276, was found 10 centimeters under this “Sacristy floor”. The use of this reference depth means that the “Sacristy”, or Area S, would have been at a nearby location to facilitate the comparison.51 The second clue is provided in the excavation diaries entry for October 12th, 1948, where Ramos Folqués reveals discoveries in the “Palace corner” “next to and below the wall of the Sacristy (?)” (sic.), presenting in this manner the location of the corner.52
49 50 51 52
ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: July 27nd, 1949, p. 6.8b. Ibid. “Todo ello sobre empedrado de guijarros grandes que llevaban un silo”. ARF, AMRF, Corpus Documental: October 6th, 1948, n. 7, f. 27r. ARF, AMRF, Corpus Documental: October 12th, 1948, n. 7, f. 28r.
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The third clue is the reference for an intervention on July 14th, 1949, where the excavator proceeded to intervene between the “wall of the portal and the southern wall of the Palace”.53 However, the most important clue is registered on August 9th, 1949, indicating that these “Palace corner” levels are found “under the wall of the Sacristy”.54 This indicates that the “Palace corner” mentioned during the 1948 and 1949 campaigns is located in the southern section of the Palace, and that its levels are revealed in the sector Helmut Schlunk called “Area G” in his 1948 sketch (Fig. A.4). As mentioned above, this sub-area is classified here as P/D. Immediately under “Level B” P/276 is “Level C” P/D/280. This level is located “10 centimeters” under the “Sacristy floor” (referring to stratigraphic unit S/056), according to the excavation diaries entry for October 6th, 1949.55 The description of this layer is odd, but clear: judging from the comments of “how loose the stones are” and of “the space between them”, it was evidently a stone floor placed on loose ground.56 In between the stones a single fragment of Iberian pottery was found (BAE/1948/P/D/280/cer/1). In the “loose ground” fill P/D/281 that sustained the stones there was no description of objects. Below P/D/281 is level P/D/282 excavated and described on October 12th, 1948,57 as being “next and below the Sacristy wall”, referring to S/055. This fill was made of a stone pavement of cobble or river stones that would obviously be below this wall to the north. The positioning of this kind of stone fill suggests the use of it as a foundation of northern Area S wall S/055, which would suggest it was likely contemporary to S/196, also placed “in the Palace corner” and under the “Sacristy’s wall”. In between those cobbles were fragments of “Roman ceramics of the good period” (early imperial period) (BAE/1948/P/D/282/ cer/I/1…) and Iberian pottery (BAE/1948/P/D/282/cer/II/1…). The lowest detected layer in this southern probe for Area P was P/D/283, associated with findings below the cobble fill P/D/282. The two catalogued findings are Roman pottery fragments (BAE/1948/P/D/283/cer/1…) and a complete stylus (BAE/1948/P/D/283/os/1). There is no further data for layers below this one, at least in this probe. One final source of findings can be derived from an excavation on July 14th, 1949, as described in the excavation diaries. There, Alejandro Ramos Folqués writes: 53 54 55 56 57
ARF, AMRF, Corpus Documental: May 7th, 1949, n. 9, f. 10r. ARF, AMRF, Corpus Documental: August 9th, 1949, n. 9, f. 15r. ARF, AMRF, Corpus Documental: October 6th, 1948, n. 7, f. 27r. Ibid. “[S]e deduce por lo flojas que están las piedras y los huecos que hay entre ellas.” ARF, AMRF, Corpus Documental: October 12th, 1948, n. 7, f. 28r.
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In Roman level in the corner between the portal wall [P/229] and to the south of the Palace [P/353], half a sigillata cup [BAE/1949/P/D/347/ cer/1].58 This description presents the question of what “Roman Level”, catalogued here as P/D/347, is he writing about. However, the location of the finding from this quote is absolutely clear: it is placed in the “Palace corner”, to the south of Area P, or what is called here P/D. There is no indication that the author really excavated another level that is not the “Level D” described the day before (Fig. 10.7).59 In fact, there seems to be a continuation with the findings described differently in that day’s excavation diaries entry. Therefore, we assume this layer to be a “Level D” for the southern part of Area P. It is assumed that the findings described here are all part of the same stratigraphic unit P/D/347, especially when the following findings are clearly associated with the “level of the urn and the plate”, that is, BAE/1949/P/NO/286/cer/ I/9 and probably BAE/1949/P/NO/286/cer/I/1, respectively. The findings from P/D/347 include a “piece of adobe”, perhaps a brick (BAE/1949/P/D/347/misc/1), the rim and part of the body of a cylindrical “tophat” pottery (BAE/1949/P/D/347/cer/2),60 and a fragment of a plate’s rim without decoration and made of “good and fine clay” (BAE/1949/P/D/347/cer/3).61 Associated with an “Iberian-Roman-imperial” level, perhaps slightly superior to this one, is an aucissa type fibula (BAE/1949/P/D/347/met/1), probably from the 1st century bce or ce.
4
Interpretation of Data: Phases and Use
From the above information, taken from the available sources, one can see that Area P is probably the best-defined area in terms of stratigraphic sequencing. Most importantly there are certain finds that indicate its importance within the wider interpretation of the site, particularly Area B. The phases that can be detected here should be classified in two groups: post-Mosaic and pre-Mosaic, or pre-early 5th century and post-early 5th cen-
58 59 60 61
ARF, AMRF, Corpus Documental: July 14th, 1949, n. 9, f. 12r. ARF, AMRF, Corpus Documental: July 13th, 1949, n. 9, f. 11r. Identified as a kalathos by Ana Ronda. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: July 14th, 1949, n. 9, f. 12r. AMRF note 22. Ana Ronda indicates this is a Reynolds ERW3.1 cup. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: July 14th, 1949, n. 9, f. 12r. AMRF note 23.
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tury. This “mosaic threshold” is, as seen in Area B, useful for the interpretation of the site’s chronology. In that regard, we can observe that the specific findings associated with the relatively well-defined floors present us with a construction and use history for Area P through the centuries. 4.1 Post-mosaic Phases 4.1.1 Phase I: Last Use and Abandonment As in Area S, there is an “abandonment phase” associated with level P/233, found on top of the upper mortar floor P/278. This phase includes a series of findings without clear chronological identification. However, its location— above the abandoned floor and walls—should be seen as a fill placed there after the demolition of the site by the 8th century ce. These layers, as in Area S, are associated with a Phase Ia. The latest phase of use for this compartment is that associated with floor P/278, which as evidenced in the excavation diaries was found at the height of the portal P/346. In other words, the walls that limited Area P, particularly the western wall P/229, should be considered as the walls of the latest use phase of this area. The wall itself was constructed at a higher level than the rest of the site, including wall S/052 which was on top of S/055, as well as the walls of the basilical structure itself, such as B/010 and B/023, as can be seen from the photograph of the Schlunk Archive (Fig. 10.4). This portal level would have been about 20 to 30 centimeters above the mosaic and mortar floor level for areas B and S, respectively. In any case, it cannot be said to have been at the height of the burial levels from Area T to the south of the basilical structure; therefore any association should be discarded. This was Phase Ib, associated here with “Level A” in this area (Plate VI). It is not part of the same phase as the latest floor detected for Area S, but probably belongs with “Level O” from areas T and C. The following are the reasons for reaching this conclusion: 1) The new construction follows the urban grid plan for the entire block, thus implying that the area continued to be used when the higher structure was built. It would be, however, the last detected structure before the final abandonment of the area. 2) The materials from stratigraphic units P/277 and P/276 (“Level A” layers), show it was constructed after the placement of the mosaic floor. Therefore, the fill is evidently a floor placed after the mosaic was laid. But more than that, floor P/277 was clearly associated with the height of floor S/056 and the mosaic floor B/011 itself. Considering the above, where this structure reuses the grid of the ancient Roman domus, suggesting the continued use of this area during the placement of fill P/275 and
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mortar floor P/278, we can assume that this level is placed after that of the last mortar floor of Area S. 3) Unlike areas B and S, areas T and P were probably considered as “separate” sections of the complex from the main mosaic hall. Therefore, the construction of wall B/014 on top of the mosaic floor in Area B was chronologically close to the building’s abandonment (built on the same height of the mosaic itself). On the other hand, wall B/021, which was on top of all walls to the south of the mosaic, was associated with “Level O” and was, like wall P/229, 70 centimeters wide. The former wall did not end at what should have been the eastern limit of the main basilical hall, but went beyond that, apparently even demolishing part of the apse B/006. With that in mind, the higher level for areas P and T in what was described as “Level O” should be seen as a late stage when the mosaic area was still in use, or just abandoned, while the rest of the site was partially demolished and, therefore, required a fill platform to place a new mortar floor. The Phase Ib structure was a rectangular wide hall with no inner rooms dividing it. The use of such a room is uncertain; however, it must have been contemporary with the reforms after the abandonment of large parts of the site. The reuse of construction material from around the site is clear from the described portal and ashlar stones from the northwestern corner. Therefore, these walls were not merely fences, but part of a closed room with a roof on top. The lack of staircases found near the portal stones suggest that by the time this Phase Ib structure was built, it was raised to the level of the surrounding floor. The large number of materials from a variety of periods in fill P/275 is probably the result of the mixture from the digging and placing process to create a raised platform for stratigraphic unit P/278. One of these materials is the polished cup from the second or third century ce (BAE/1948/P/A/275/cer/I/15), mentioned by Ramos Folqués’ excavation diaries entry for July 27th, 1949. This is one of the few references for a clearly dated post-1st century ce object in the site. Considering that fill P/275, which covered the entire area, was removed from elsewhere, we cannot determine the original placement of this cup. However, its presence probably indicates a kind of continuation in use of this building between the 1st and 4th centuries. 4.1.2 Phase II “Level B” for Area P is associated to floor P/277 and P/276, which are placed at the depth of the mosaic B/011 and floor S/056 from Area S. This “Phase II” is associated with the mortar floor that was placed at the same height as the foundation of wall P/289 from east to west which cuts the room in two.
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Fill for “Level B”, P/276 and P/A/348, covered different areas from the site as a kind of leveling platform to support the gravel floor P/277. This is the reason why in sub-area P/D this fill is only 10 centimeters deep as indicated in the excavation diaries entry for October 6th, 1948, while in the northwestern corner this level is approximately 40 centimeters deep. Importantly, this fill reveals a late antique date. This includes the amphora BAE/1948/P/276/cer/I/9 of the “Mojon I” type. Small amphorae such as these are from the mid-4th to mid-5th century ce. However, more crucial evidence is the black tessera which Ramos Folqués immediately associated, due to its color and size, to the mosaic floor from Area B. In other words, fill P/276 was laid after the production of the mosaic floor, which was somehow damaged or partially demolished. The earth for this fill must have been taken from near the construction site. This is also evident from the presence of the Claudian coin BAE/1948/P/ 276/num/2, which points to a 1st century origin. We must not forget that in fill S/P/196 in between areas “P” and “S” a coin of Vespasian was also recovered, pointing towards construction activity in this area by the Flavian period. In this case, the late dating of these objects found within that fill is a clear indicator that floor P/277 was probably laid in the mid or late 5th century at the earliest in the first decades of that century, mixing objects from previous periods, including remnants of the mosaic floor itself. The creation of this platform using local earth also explains why, despite the different levels for this fill, the same height is found for these floors, either associated to floor S/056 or mosaic floor B/010. With these dates considered, we find that this fill covered the few remains of a previous series of structures associated with “Level C”, therefore laying the groundwork for the structure of this phase, or Phase II. However, Area P was apparently divided into two rooms by wall P/289 (Plate IV). This wall probably continued to another section, considering that there is no evidence for a door or access between the northern and southern rooms from Area P at this Phase II. However, the evidence of a fill associated with “Level B” or P/276 suggests that the whole of Area P was conceived as a unit. The use of this compartment was probably associated with the basilical building, due to its proximity with the “basilical unit” which included areas “B” and “S”, having close parallels with Phase II from Area S. From this we find that after the placement of the mosaic floor by the late 4th or early 5th century, there was a clear use of spaces to the east of it. The evidence recovered from the excavation of Area S and that from Area P together clearly indicate that, unlike Alejandro Ramos Folqués’ reservations in the excavation diaries, and unlike the reconstruction of the “Basilica” by Roberto Lorenzo and
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Javier Morcillo in 2014, the eastern apse was not visible from the outside, and was therefore accompanied by both the spaces from these two eastern areas. The construction of Phase II in the 5th century and its association with other similarly high features like floor S/056, which was below the preserved northern Area S wall S/052, logically points towards the probable placement of Phase II in the entire site as being post-mosaic, perhaps the mid-5th century ce, and no later than the late-5th century. Lower levels reveal internal divisions that suggest a specified use for this space as part of the early imperial building. 4.2 Pre-mosaic Levels 4.2.1 Julio-Claudian Construction: Phase III Layers below Phase II did not have any evidence of material dating after the second or third century ce. The question is whether these layers existed before or after the mosaic’s placement. The stratigraphic sketch from April 26th, 1949, reveals to us that “Level C” in the northern section of Area P was made of a sand line below which was fill P/NO/279. This 50-centimeter thick layer covered the floor for “Level D” P/NO/284 and the “level D” wall P/291. The thickness of this layer and the laying of a sand floor reveals the preparation of a new floor in this area that raised the height of at least the northern half of Area P. The materials from this northern fill reveals a series of coins dated to the 1st century ce, especially a coin minted under emperor Claudius (41–53ce) (BAE/1949/P/284/num/1) as well as “imperial period” coins (BAE/1949/P/284/num/2, 3) with little description. The “red paste” pottery with decorated birds and other figures like BAE/1949/ P/D/347/cer/2, which reveal early republican Iberian ceramic decoration, accompanying sigillata pottery BAE/1949/P/D/347/cer/1, could point towards an early imperial date for this phase. That is, this level is associated with a “Phase III” of the Roman construction, with a floor found about 0.8 meters below Zero Point, which is around 20 centimeters above the foundation levels for the Augustan walls B/023 and B/010. The so-called “wall c” or the north-south wall P/291 should be considered for the analysis of the area’s phases. If indeed it was constructed associated with “Level C”, then the question arises as to its purpose, given fact that such a small wall extension remained. This is reason to believe that in fact this wall was built to accompany other still-extant walls from “Level D”, few of which were preserved. The evidence for a “Floor D” P/NO/285 clearly presents the existence of a distinct floor from the “Level C” mentioned here. The “sand layer” marked a separation from the upper fill P/276, in which the materials are clearly associated with a later date. Therefore, it is possible that this stage should be classified as a Phase IIId (1st century ce), following the phases from Area B as a compar-
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ison, a last construction and internal reform phase for the previous, Roman building that was built in the late 1st century bce. A “Level C” of sorts in the “Palace corner” to the south of Area P was defined by a floor of large loose cobblestones (P/D/280) above an un-battered earthen fill (P/D/281). The latter had no evidence of associated material remains, or perhaps Ramos Folqués was uninterested in registering the finds from that ground. Unlike the lower levels, such as P/D/282 and P/D/283, this layer was next to the northern wall of Area S, or wall S/055, and not below it. Therefore, it should be associated with one of the Phases III of Area S. The above means that the “Level D” detected in this area, associated with gravel floor P/NO/285 and its 50 centimeters thick fill P/NO/286, should be seen as from another phase of use in Area P. However, chronologically, it should be noted that “Level D” is extremely close to “Level C” above it, with remains of Iberian “top-hat” pottery, sigillata pottery fragments, and with the Tiberian coin with a quadriga image that was already mentioned above (BAE/1949/P/NO/ 286/num/2). Likewise, the presence, more to the central section of Area P, of the ritual and topped urn and a nearby cubic dice mentioned on the excavation diaries’ entry for July 13th, 1949, reveals an active reform phase of the structure, no later than the early to mid-1st century ce. According to the stratigraphic sketch mentioned above (Fig. 10.7) this fill layer is approximately 50 centimeters thick, like “Level C” one above it. Further evidence for the constructive activity in this “Level D” is found at the southwestern “extension” of this fill (P/D/347). This includes an adobe piece, or perhaps brick, that without a doubt belonged to a previous structure. The accompanying fibula, with a clear early imperial (Julio-Claudian) date, as well as the half of the sigillata cup recovered alongside the “top-hat” decorated pottery fragment, point to a similar date as the northern fill associated with P/NO/286 mentioned here. In other words, there is a distinct construction phase where structures with an adobe superstructure were at least partially demolished. These features were probably associated with the “Level E” walls covered by fill P/NO/286. “Floor D” was unmistakably detected in the sketch seen in Fig. 10.1, west of what was wall “C” P/291. However, the area immediately east of the portal, where the topped urn was found, also had a “gravel” floor level like P/NO/285, if the account of plan sketch for Area P/NO, as well as the stratigraphic and plan sketches made on July 13th, 1949, are followed (Fig. 10.7). This layer was considerably deep, around 1.3 meters below Zero Point, and 1.2 meters below the portal level (about “5 palms”, as revealed by the sketch). This gives us evidence for three aspects: First, that the floor level is below the foundations for northern Area B wall B/023. Second, that the evidence of the ritualistically
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placed urn reveals a special importance for the area of the portal as early as the 1st century ce, which possibly points towards the use of this area as an access point for the room or rooms defined by Area P. Third, that the entire Area P was considered as one unit, despite the initial divisions that could have existed. The positioning of wall P/291 reveals to us that it followed the line of the upper wall P/229. However, it was slightly to the east, and was not placed directly under the “portal wall”. This suggests that the original Area P edifice’s western wall was slightly to the east, before its eventual demolition and replacement at a later phase. This is especially clear if we notice (from Fig. 10.1) that no “level E” wall touches Area P’s western limit wall. The conclusion derived from the above data is that this “Level D” is a distinct sub-phase of the original Roman construction, or Phase IIIe. 4.2.2 The “Level E” Structures As explained above, the “Level E” structures are the most numerous in Area P (Plates I–II). If we consider the stratigraphic sketch from April 26th, 1949 (Fig. 10.6), then the earliest stone pavement floor P/288 is 50 centimeters below the “Level D” gravel floor P/NO/285. In other words, it would be around –1.8 meters from Zero Point, or 1.7 meters below the portal level. Therefore, it is possible to take into account that Ramos Folqués detected the foundation for wall B/023 at a –1 meter from Zero Point and that Rafael Ramos Fernández detected the floor level of the so-called “Iberian Temple” of Phase IV in Area B at about –1.2 meters from Zero Point.62 Other than the street, where the deepest point was reached at approximately 1.66 meters, the Area P excavation is amongst the deepest points in the site. The main feature from this phase is the presence of the large cobblestones P/288, and the walls associated with such a floor, P/292, P/293, and P/294, which were described before. It seems that these walls follow the grid of the rest of the site, and therefore we must assume that the urbanization of the area was already under way when these walls were constructed. These defined the area in a series of rooms, the smallest being the northwestern room which was 1.15 long andless than 2 meters wide. Larger rooms were found to the east, spaces flanking east-west wall P/294 to its north and south. The southern room was 62
Ramos Fernández, El templo ibérico de La Alcudia, 9. Ramos Fernández relates the stratigraphy of the site as he found it in 1990. However, he does not seem to take into account the excavations his father, Ramos Folqués, had already done below the mosaic level, reaching several dozens of centimeters below, as was evident from the 1971 Schlunk and Hauschild intervention.
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seemingly built with the “level E” cobblestone floor and was accessible from the northwest. Considering the division made by later wall P/289, it was 1.6 × 4 meters. More evidence for the “level E” floor P/288 is found west of where gravel “level D” floor P/NO/285 was found. That floor P/288 is only limited by the later division of Area P to the west, that is, by later wall P/229. Further evidence for activity associated with “Level E” is found in the center of Area P, in what was a cobblestone floor found in the probe “under the almond tree” or P/A/349, as was described above. However, most important for our chronological evidence of the area at this stage is the placement of yet another cobble or perhaps boulder fill underneath the northern Area S wall S/055, or what was indicated as P/D/282. It is unclear whether this small boulder fill was placed as a support for wall S/055, or whether it existed beforehand. The evidence for the same type of floor around Area P below the height of walls such as S/055 and B/023 points towards this cobble or boulder pavement being of “Level E”, or the same as P/288. Interestingly, below P/D/282 is fill P/D/283, which, as Ramos Folqués indicated in his excavation diaries, had “Roman ceramics” within it. Likewise, in his excavation diaries entry for this stratigraphic unit, it is indicated that, in between the small boulders, Ramos Folqués found “ordinary Roman pottery”. These two facts make the theory of an intrusion of Roman material in these layers unlikely. The excavation of the layers below “floor E” elsewhere in Area P are also revealing in chronological terms. The lowest layer reached in probe P/A, that is fill P/A/351, was found to have the remains of “republican amphorae” catalogued here BAE/1949/P/A/351/cer/I/1…. Their description of with a narrow neck puts the remains without a doubt in a republican period, at the earliest. Most important is the evidence of the fragment of stone relief found in the P/NO area, or BAE/1949/P/287/pet/1, underneath the cobblestone pavement. While Ramos Folqués revealed it to be of “Etruscan type”,63 in truth it is probably more in “Italic fashion”. The figure is looking to the left and is reclining in a triclinium. The presence of a “top-hat” pottery suggests a republican date, and not a previous protohistoric period. It is therefore likely that, despite the difference in height with other “Level E” layers found in other areas of the complex, Area P’s “Level E” should be chronologically placed as an Augustan foundation. This means that this level is a Phase IIIe, and not a pre-Roman or proto-Roman Phase IV or V, as is seen in areas B and S. The reason for this difference in altitude between areas “P” and
63
ARF, AMRF, Corpus Documental: May 6th, 1949, n. 9, f. 8r.
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“B” or “S” is merely that the latter two areas were previously occupied by the “pre-basilical” building found in 1990, which was associated with Iberian cultic practices. Other “Level E” layers found in other sections of Area P also present evidence for the use of the rooms during this period. Units P/352 and P/A/350 reveal the presence of silos, although only the silos of P/A/350 were identified in their location as being in the central area. These silos would be covered eventually by the “Level D” fill P/NO/286 and P/D/347. They are evidence for the use of these features for storage in the first domus constructed during the Augustan period. Such evidence points towards the usage of Area P as a storage area.
5
Conclusion
The small number of remains of this storage facility from “Level E” is due to the repeated constructive phases which, without a doubt, affected the preservation of the lower layers. However, the remarkable preservation of Area P compared to the rest of the areas has revealed aspects of the site that were never published or considered in past studies of areas B and S To begin with, we see here the confirmation of stages associated with Area S. The history of Area P should be seen together with Area S, which seems to have been kept in use until its final abandonment. On the other hand, Area P reveals that the main rectangular area of the mosaic’s basilical structure, as well as its eastern appendix, were treated differently architecturally from the rest of the reconverted domus. Certainly, usage of this area was maintained up to a very late date before its abandonment, as is evident from Phase Ib, associated with a “Level O” similar to the one detected in Area T (see Chapter 9). Secondly, we can see that the areas surrounding the basilical structure were still being reformed and reconstructed after the completion of the mosaic floor itself, as is evident from the fills in Phases Ib and II. To conclude, a recapitulation of the proposed phases is as follows: – Phase IIIe: foundation of “Level E” structures, used for storage, in Augustan period. It was founded like the rest of the Roman domus. – Phase IIId-c: Subsequent two stages of floors and reutilization of the area in Roman period, possibly first in Julio-Claudian times, and later in Flavian period. – Phase II: Post-mosaic fill, possibly mid-5th century, with one dividing wall that separates the northern and the southern half of Area P. – Phase Ib: last use of Area P, with one-centimeter thick mortar floor and no dividing walls. The walls of Area P are at a higher level than the basilical
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building, and the portal for access to the site was constructed with spolia, as were the corner stones of the main Area P rectangle. – Phase Ia: abandonment and demolition, 8th century ce or later. The use of this compartment as a storage area would be associated with the domus phases of the wider building. However, there is no clear evidence for the use of this room after the construction of the basilical building in the late 4th or early 5th century ce, nor is there in Phase Ib. However, the subsequent mortar (or presumed mortar) floors could indicate the continued use of this area as a storage or support facility for the rest of the building complex, as was detected in late antique synagogues and churches elsewhere in the Mediterranean, particularly in the synagogue of Bova Marina in southern Italy and Hammam Lif in Tunisia. This is an argument in absentia, given the lack of positive findings that could shed light to the use of Area P in Late Antiquity, when the synagogue and later church was active.
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Interpreting the Ilici Synagogue 1
Introduction
The Ilici synagogue, as described in the previous chapters, is part of a wider context of Jewish and Christian communities through the Mediterranean and specifically the Iberian Peninsula. The building is part of a wider cultural grid that includes both Jews and “Judaizing” congregations, which were in constant contact and influenced each other from religious, ideological, artistic, and material points of view. The construction of the Ilici synagogue within one of the domus wings did not seem to have affected the general function of the residential building, as is evident by the fact that the southern tabernae were in use from pre-synagogue times up until the 7th century, when the whole site suffers a profound transformation. Synagogues found in domus structures seemed to have been a common feature across the Mediterranean. In this chapter the synagogue building shall be compared with churches and other synagogues throughout the Iberian Peninsula and the Mediterranean world with the purpose of understanding the cultural significance of this building and the functioning of this community in a Hispanic setting.
2
The Pre-Domus Levels
A few words should be given regarding the pre-domus structure. When it was excavated in 1990, Ramos Fernández interpreted it as an Iberian Temple, and thus it is displayed to this very day following the removal of the building and its placement several meters south of the original site. In similar fashion, Ramos Fernández interpreted the proto-Aeolic capital as originating from the temple structure itself, or at least associated with it.1 While the early reconstruction of the Iberian temple included proto-Aeolic capital (Fig. 11.2), recent reconstructions reject that assumption (Fig. 11.1).2 1 Ramos Fernández, “Los templos ibéricos de la Alcuida de Elche,” 88. 2 A recent reconstruction of the Iberian Temple or structure was completed by Pedro Peña Domínguez in 2015, although he does not include the proto-Aeolic capital as the capital was found, evidently, in a late basilical phase and not in Iberian phases. Pedro Peña Domínguez,
© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2021 | doi:10.1163/9789004419926_013 Alexander Bar-Magen
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Virtual reconstruction of the Iberian Temple near quadrant 10A by and courtesy of: peña domínguez, p. (01/09/2014): “hipótesis de recreación virtual exterior del templo ibérico de la alcudia de elche”, in blog: http://ppd3d .blogspot.com.es/2014/09/hipotesis‑de ‑recreacion‑virtual.html
Other sections of the site, including quadrant 4C and the re-interpreted quadrant 10D to the east of the synagogue, reveal that in pre-Roman periods, particularly with increased activity between the 5th and 3rd century bce, there is barely any available evidence for habitational activity in the site associated with the Iberian Helike.3 The record of this site as a capital of pre-Roman Iberian Contestania should not be seen as evidence of the presence of an active city in the Alcudia site, although such a presence in the surrounding field should not be discarded. This fits well with the evidence recovered by Ramos Folqués in Area T, to the south of the synagogue or domus, including the presence of the child burial next to an amphora from the 3rd century bce in “Level E” from probe T/W (see Chapter 9). Such evidence is present in slightly more recent layers in this area, where a funerary urn with a lid was found as well. The evidence for statues in Reconstrucción virtual del Templo Ibérico de La Alcudia de Elche, MPEG4, Educational (YouTube, 2015), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBkr6jjCy3Y. 3 Tendero Porras and Ronda Femenia, “La ciudad romana de Ilici (L’Alcúdia de Elche, Alicante),” 229–230.
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figure 11.2 Section of the partial restoration (reconstruction) of the Iberian Temple near quadrant 10A, including the placement of a reconstruction of a proto-Aeolic capital picture by the author
Area C’s interface between “Level D” and “Level C” was found in the quadrant 10D interface layer, between the Iberian levels and the upper, 1st century Roman domus layer.4 From the context of the site, a clear parallel between this “quadrant 10A” should be noted, including the domus in area 10D, excavated by Ramos Folqués between 1956 and 1959, and the recently excavated baths to the northwest in quadrant 4C. It is significant that these phases do not necessarily apply to the buildings in the synagogue area. However, there also seems to be, what was read as, an “abandonment phase” between the pre-Roman “Temple” and the Roman domus phases, which was considered here as Phase IV. The reuse of the Iberian building’s foundations by the later domus, as well as the use of the pre-Roman
4 Tendero Porras and Ronda Femenia, 230–231.
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street, suggest that during the “abandonment phase” there was still some activity that was seemingly halted with the foundation of the Colonia Iulia Ilici by Lepidus between 44 and 42bce.5
3
Pre-synagogue Domus
The foundation of the Augustan period domus in the late 1st century bce was built on top of a pre-Roman Iberian “temple” structure described above. The evident use of previous walls for the planning of this domus suggests that either the so-called Iberian temple was still in use when the domus was built on it, or rather that there was a well-organized urban grid that preserved the space for occupation by a later construction. The urban space reused for the construction of a new monumental Roman structure included areas beyond that which was occupied by the “temple”. As such, the Iberian building’s width defined only one lateral aisle of the domus itself. However, there were already early imperial layers in Area S and particularly Area P, the latter seemingly having inner rooms probably used for storage, as suggested by the amphorae pieces and what seems to be dolia spaces in the area’s earliest level. Therefore, we find that Area S was the southeastern corner of the domus. The domus’ entrance was located, beyond doubt, in Area T, although the specific entrance space is uncertain. The second century construction of the U-shaped structure from sub-area T/H1 suggests that the southwestern “room T/I”, which was the center of the first excavation to the southern street, was not the entrance. On the other hand, the presence of a drainage canal associated with the “Roman Room” to the west of this “room T/I”, may point towards a kind of access area from this compartment. However, it is important to remember that this drainage canal seems to originate from a later period, between the 2nd and 3rd centuries. The access area must have been to the south of sub-area B/OM due to the presence of an exedra structure west of the main wall B/OM/027 (that is, the “counter-apse” B/OM/038). The presence of such a demolished exedra would point towards the use of it as an open, introductory space that connected the southern street with the main access and the central impluvium or courtyard to the north of Area B. In this study, that access was determined to probably be in sub-area or room T/HR, where water installations were found. These were pos-
5 Tendero Porras and Ronda Femenia, 232–233.
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sibly associated with the drainage of water to the street. However, this location is no more than a hypothesis, considering that there is no direct evidence for a door or an access. It is based on indirect evidence and observation of the structure’s history as determined by the stratigraphic units recorded in this study. To the north of Area B, or north of the area that became the Jewish synagogue, was the central courtyard that distributed access to Area P and Area B/OB in the Roman domus phase. The full extent or form of this sector is unknown, as it has not yet been excavated. However, the presence of features like the northern “wall” B/F/316, with its “attic base” B/040, suggests it probably had a portico. The presence of drainage canals with a north-south direction towards the southern street further indicates that there was probably an impluvium associated with this courtyard. The construction materials used in the first phase of the building were worked fieldstones with a somewhat earthen nucleus, a coarse opus insertum. This was detected in walls such as B/023, B/010, and B/OM/027, which seem to be from the same construction period. On the other hand, the use of opus quadratum with small sandstone ashlars was detected in other domus structures, particularly the recently excavated and researched domus from area 5-F of the Alcudia site.6 In it, there is important constructive activity from Flavian or early Antonine periods, cohering with the evidence of increased economic activity and investment found in sites like Santa Pola.7 The parallel from the domus 5-F reveals that during the 1st century, public spaces were generally paved and decorated with rich mosaics or, at least, opus sectile, as is the case of its triclinium and above all the tablinum to the southwest of the domus itself. In the case of the domus from quadrant 10-A, within which the synagogue was built, there is a clear use of opus caementicium, which, as in domus 5-F, reveals areas for private use and/or domestic services. This is consistent with the presence of dolia structures in “Level E” of Area P, which seem to be associated with a storage area which was already present in the early domus phase (1st century bce to 2nd century ce) and remained, through later centuries, with that function despite the architectural changes within the wider structure. The compartments of Area S also seem to have been used for storage. While some scholars, like Ramos Fernández, interpreted certain Roman-era structures such as the “house” from the Alcudia’s quadrant 4D as late Roman 6 Julia Sarabia Bautista and Victor Cañavate Castejón, “La arquitectura doméstica romana en la Alcudia de Elche. La domus 5-F,” Lucentum XXVIII (2009): 95–96. 7 Tendero Porras and Ronda Femenia, “La ciudad romana de Ilici (L’Alcúdia de Elche, Alicante),” 231.
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and therefore as belonging to “Level B”,8 the phenomenon of centuries of longevity for local edifices is a common feature. This is detected in 4th century levels for sectors such as edifices in quadrants 4C, 5D, domus 5-F, and the eastern termae in 7F,9 regardless of the reforms these buildings underwent. Area B’s domus phases are defined by the presence of subsequent floors built with opus caementicium on top of a layer of local gravel. The placement of these floors was clearly intentional, and reveals a service area similar to those found in domus 5F, traditionally associated with a “Level B”, in this case the 3rd century ce.10 The presence of channels that cut through these floors, found only in “Level C” layers, reveals not only the presence of an impluvium at the center of the domus, but also the probable use of this area as a kind of culina, or even the presence of some activity associated with the tabernae found to the south of this domus wing. However, the absence of furnaces inside the domus space, or of some other indicator of craftsman activity, in contrast to the culina of domus 5-F,11 may indicate the use of this area for other activities. The domus has a series of structures that divided what would become Area B with walls in east-west and north-south directions that follow the grid of the domus itself. Walls such as the east-west S/316 reveal that the area to the east of the mosaic was once a continuation of the same domus wing, only being separated when the synagogue was constructed within the household itself (see 6.2 below). The presence of a domus before the construction of the synagogue gives us interesting details about the later synagogue phase. The continuous occupation of the domus after the construction of the synagogue evidences an act of donation by the property owner of the domus to the Jewish community that used the refurnished structure. The community itself was clearly organized, considering the mention of presbyteroi in the north mosaic inscription during the synagogue’s construction. On the other hand, there was an intention to donate a section of the domus whose use can be easily replaced elsewhere in the complex, rather than a sector that was considered crucial for the social or economic life of the domus’ inhabitants or users. In other words: the aulic spaces of the domus, be it a triclinium or a tablinum, were probably still in use when the synagogue was constructed.
8 9 10 11
Ramos Fernández, La ciudad romana de Ilici, 239–240. Tendero Porras and Ronda Femenia, “Nuevos datos sobre la Colonia,” 296. Sarabia Bautista and Cañavate Castejón, “La arquictura doméstica,” 91–92; Rafael Ramos Fernández, “Estratigrafía del sector 5-F de La Alcudia de Elche,” Lucentum II (1983): 154. Sarabia Bautista and Cañavate Castejón, “La arquictura doméstica,” 106.
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The act of constructing the synagogue in the 4th century also led to other architectural reforms, specifically the use of ashlar stones in Area S, whose placement dated to the mid-late 4th century through the discovery of coins and pigeon bones sealed behind some of the used stones. Again, parallels in domus 5-F are of relevance, where a similar ashlar type was found, particularly in the construction of the southern wall of the southern tablinum and the southwestern “room 18” with a decorative mosaic (Figs. 11.3–5).12 However, there are striking differences between the placement of the walls from domus 5-F and those of Area S from the synagogue. As described in the published excavation from 1983 and the re-excavation in 2009, the domus 5-F walls are associated with opus quadratum from the late 1st century ce before being replaced with painted stucco reproduction of marble slabs. In the case of this 10-A domus, a kind of mortar “nucleus” is found. However, only the interior of the structure was covered by the sandstone ashlars, while the outer face of the wall was covered by stucco B/187. Pictures from the subsequent excavations to the north of wall S/052 reveal these stones came from multiple sources. This feature probably indicates that the only visible part of the wall was to the south, within Area S, while north of it was a sealed or inaccessible space—a kind of alley between Area S and Area P. The 4th century wall was constructed with spolia available around the site and was not an ex novo construction—unlike the 5-F domus walls to the south of “Room 18” and particularly “Room 20” (identified as a tablinum). As indicated in Chapter 7, the abandonment of this wall was clearly contemporary to the abandonment of the rest of the building by the 8th or 9th century ce. The construction of the domus or the Roman building in the late 1st century implies that this sector of the site was urbanized. However, the evidence of burials in this area in late republican and early-mid imperial periods leads to questions regarding the limits of the city of Ilici itself. The burials found in this area all surround the public road that was defined here as Area C. These burials are divided into two types. There are cists, such as structures T/H1/264 and T/H/S/374. The latter held a skeleton T/H/S/367, though the layer of ashes found in the first structure suggests that it might hold cremated remains. The other type of burial is represented in the Area T infant’s burial T/W/340, placed without any surrounding structure, although accompanied by ritual objects such as an amphora. Another case is a burial found to the
12
Ramos Fernández, “Estratigrafía del sector 5-F de la Alcudia de Elche,” 150, Fig. 2; Sarabia Bautista and Cañavate Castejón, “La arquictura doméstica,” 96, Fig. 5.
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figure 11.3
Plan for the 5-F domus in the Alcudia d’Elx site from sarabia bautista, j. and cañavate castejón, v. (2009): “la arquitectura doméstica romana en la alcudia de elche. la domus 5-f”, p. 94 (fig. 3)
south of the street, at a “Level C” in 1952, identified by Ana Ronda as a “late burial”.13 However, evidence of a nearby coin produced under Claudius, and its placement under a “Level C” layer (possibly even after), makes this burial different from others identified with a late antique date, since the coin was found 25 centimeters below the modern soil at most. Therefore, this burial seems to
13
ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: March 28th, 1952, n. 15, f. 36r. Ronda Femenia, L’Alcudia de Alejandro Ramos Folqués, 178, fig. 218.
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Lift plan of the southern wall for “Room 18” of the 5-F domus in the Alcudia d’Elx from sarabia bautista, j. and cañavate castejón, v. (2009): “la arquitectura doméstica romana en la alcudia de elche. la domus 5-f”, p. 96 (fig. 5)
have a similar date to the cist burials of the area, rather than a having a late antique chronology. The fact that Ilici was considered a “Colonia” means it included a pomerium defined by the city’s walls. While some of the entrance areas of the site were uncovered in recent years from the east, when it comes to the southern limits of the city, the walls’ location is a mystery. The burials seem to have coexisted with construction of buildings next to them, including the abovementioned domus and the structure south of the street described in 1952. Unlike the late burials, these appear to fully respect the public space dedicated to the road south of the main basilical building. The findings fit well with the description of an urban periphery of the Roman city, which would enjoy moments of expansion and increased use with the city’s prosperity and suffer retraction in periods of decline.14 As a result, the question arises regarding the use of the domus, whether for a residential building, or perhaps for some industrial purposes typically found outside city walls. 14
For a cursory review of peripheral areas of Roman urban centers: Pedro Ángel Fernández Vega, “Las áreas periurbanas de las ciudades alto imperiales romanas,” Hispania Antiqua 18 (1994): 141–158; Penelope J. Goodman, The Roman City and Its Periphery: From Rome to Gaul (London; New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2007), 39–78; Diego Romero Vera, “Las áreas suburbanas hispanas en el s. II d. C. Una lectura sincrónica,” in Oppidum— Civitas—Urbs. Städteforschung auf der Iberischen Halbinsel zwischen Rom und Al-Andalus, ed. Sabine Panzram. Geschichte und Kulturder Iberischen Welt 13, (Berlin: Lit Verlag, 2018), 709–722.
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However, given the current state of research in that sector of the Alcudia, answering this question is nearly impossible. Further, systemic excavations would reveal more information on the building’s late republican and early imperial periods.
4
The Synagogue of Ilici: Parallels and Liturgical Features
As indicated in Chapter 7, the Ilici synagogue was constructed in the late 4th century, as is evidenced by the features of Phase IIe, defined by the placement of the original synagogue mosaic. However, the Ilici synagogue was built within a wider social, cultural, and political context that ought to be considered during analysis. Parallels to this 4th century synagogue have been ignored in the past, due to the already mentioned history of research which took the building’s Christian character as a matter-of-fact (see Chapter 6). Considering the identification of the building as a Jewish synagogue up until Phase IIa, or the last phase of use for the mosaic floor, several important questions arise: why was it built within the southern wing of the domus? What was the liturgical use and/or practices of the synagogue? What parallels can be associated to the synagogue building in the western Mediterranean? And, most importantly, what was the reason for the synagogue’s fate, and what is the building’s significance for wider archaeological research into the Jewish communities in the Iberian Peninsula? It is evident that these questions can only be answered following a thorough listing of the building’s parallels as a Jewish synagogue amongst other synagogues in the Mediterranean, but also amongst Christian churches in late antique periods. 4.1 The Synagogue as Domus-Synagoga As indicated above, the construction of the synagogue within a domus in itself is an important aspect for the comprehension of the synagogue’s use and architectural history. While evidence for early synagogues is generally scarce outside the Holy Land, we find other synagogal buildings constructed within domus or oikoi. These include the synagogues of Dura Europos, Priene and, while not built into a domus, the synagogue of Sardis.15
15
On Dura, see Kraeling, The Synagogue; On Priene, Theodor Wiegand and Hans Schrader, Priene. Ergebnisse der Augsgrabungen und Untersuchungen in der Jahren (Berlin: Königliche Museen zu Berlin, 1904); Burkhardt and Wilson, “The Late Antique Synagogue in
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The first synagogue with a clear association with a dwelling area is that of Dura Europos. The state of preservation of this building, thanks to a Roman earthen embankment built during the Sassanian siege of 256–257, allowed for the better study of the synagogue, particularly its spectacular wall murals. There are two detected stages for the Dura Europos synagogue. The synagogue was built into an unassuming structure in sector L7 of the site.16 The first stage, apparently built in the last third of the 2nd century, had a main hall to the west of the domus itself, south of the main access to the dwelling from “Wall Street” that flanked it.17 The synagogue was accessed through a portico courtyard with columns on its north and east. Another entrance was through a “Room 7”, which had attached benches on three of its four walls. This southern side entrance was preserved after the monumental reforms of the later synagogue. Finally, around the courtyard were remains of three rooms interpreted by Kraeling and Hachlili as a dwelling for synagogue officials.18 The second stage synagogue was built in the mid-3rd century, probably in the 240s. The main hall was expanded and the main entrance to the building was sealed off. Now access to the synagogue hall occurred through a secondary alley from the east. The main hall retained its central western niche, indicating the preservation of the building’s use. The introductory courtyard now had six monumental columns supporting a portico, with a tetrastyle in front of the two entrances and two side columns supporting the flat ceilings on its sides. To access this courtyard, the visitor had to go through introductory hallways and rooms, including H2 (hallway), room H5, and room H4, thus allowing vetting of the visitors before giving them access to the central area of the synagogue complex. Significantly, to the east there was another courtyard (H9) that gave access to a secondary set of rooms. It included a washing basin to its northeast. Kraeling interprets it as a courtyard (forecourt) for the everyday usage of the Jewish community officials and other visitors.19 The expansion of this property also affected other dwelling units such as sectors B, C, and D, which were possibly
16 17 18 19
Priene: Its History, Architecture and Context,”; for Sardis, Seager, “The Building History of the Sardis Synagogue,” 425–435; Levine, The Ancient Synagogue, 260–266; a complete review of excavations and publications by different authors including Kraabel, to most of which I had no access, is found in: Bonz, “The Jewish Community of Ancient Sardis: A Reassessment of Its Rise to Prominence,” 343–359. Kraeling, The Synagogue, 3. Kraeling, 32–33; Hachlili, AJAAD, figs. II–8. Kraeling, The Synagogue, 32; Hachlili, AJAAD, 39–42. Kraeling, The Synagogue, 12–13.
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figure 11.5
Plan of the first synagogue of Dura Europos (late 2nd century ce) in hachlili, r. (1998): ancient jewish art and archaeology in the diaspora, p. 42 (figure ii-10)
property of the Jewish community as well.20 This would be evidence of the Jewish community’s wealth during the 3rd century ce. The above description suggests that the synagogue’s construction did not entail the abandonment of the domus itself, as it was certainly still used. The
20
Carl H. Kraeling, The Excavations at Dura-Europos: The Christian Building, vol. VIII, 2: Dura Europos Final Report (Locust Valley, New York, 1967), 10–11; Hachlili, AJAAD, 39.
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Plan of the second synagogue of Dura Europos (mid-3rd century ce, “Unit H”) in hachlili, r. (1998): ancient jewish art and archaeology in the diaspora, p. 43 (figure ii-11)
logic behind the construction of this synagogue did not intend for it to be a stand-alone feature, for the building included the annex structures like court H9 and its adjacent rooms. In this sense, it is possible to compare the synagogue with the Dura Europos domus-ecclesia built about the same time—in 232, according to a graffito indicating its construction—in sector M8 and based
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on the adaptation of a previous dwelling.21 As Kraeling himself proposed, the construction of synagogues within existing urban domestic buildings should not be classified as a hegemonic type “pre-basilical” synagogues, but merely as a solution and an adaptation of the Jewish and Christian communities to the available urban planning of the city,22 an opinion shared by Kraabel regarding other diasporic synagogues.23 Another, and perhaps more important example for the Ilici synagogue is the Priene synagogue in Asia Minor. Excavated at the end of the 19th century by T. Wiegand and M. Schrader, it was identified literally as a Hauskirche in the first publication of the excavations in 1904. By then the excavators found the plaque with a menorah and the two flanking peacocks, symbolizing paradise and salvation, in the building which was heavily affected by the excavation techniques of the time.24 Therefore, the identification of the building as a synagogue was unquestioned from the very beginning. The history of the Priene synagogue excavation parallels that of the Ilici synagogue: it was discovered and published just a few years before the Ilici basilica/synagogue. However, similarities also abound from an architectural point of view. Recent excavations from 2009 revealed details regarding the building’s history and chronology. The synagogue was built within a prostas type Hellenistic oikos, probably in early imperial times.25 The utilization of spolia from the local Temple of Athena and, particularly, the theater in the paving of the second synagogue suggests that the first synagogue was built in the late 4th century ce, while the second was built in the 5th century at the earliest. Details like the evidence of glass lamps with a spiral plan resembling Solomonic columns were found at the entrance and niche area of the synagogue and are dated to the 5th and 6th centuries.26 The nearly-squared niche measured 1.3 × 1.4 meters. It was built without detectable pavement, suggesting the use of a wooden perishable floor,27
21 22 23 24
25
26 27
Kraeling, The Excavations at Dura-Europos: The Christian Building, VIII, 2:139–155. Kraeling, VIII, 2:139–140; Kraeling, The Synagogue, 10. Kraabel, “The Diaspora Synagogue,” 500–501. Wiegand and Schrader, Priene, 480–481, Abb. 585, 586. It was not only the presence of the relief with two seven-branched candelabra and flanking peacocks that defined it as a Jewish synagogue for these authors, but also the absence of Christian crosses. This is unlike the “grossen Kirche” where the second menorah relief of Priene was found (Abb. 582). Burkhardt and Wilson, “The Late Antique Synagogue in Priene: Its History, Architecture and Context,” 167–168. According to these authors, several water channels might indicate a Hellenistic period construction below this oikos. Burkhardt and Wilson, 174–176. Burkhardt and Wilson, 170–171.
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while to the south are remains of what seems to be a circular water basin that did not reappear in the 2009 excavation.28 While the synagogue was built within an oikos, occupying the area south of the central courtyard, it seems that by the time of its construction the property was no longer used for domestic purposes. The “invasion” of the eastern quasi-squared niche for the Torah scrolls into the property east of the oikos suggests, according to White, that the Jewish community had a series of properties as their own, including the adjacent structure to the east of the main oikos.29 Therefore, we find a similar phenomenon as perceived in the Phase II synagogue of Dura Europos. An association is found between synagogue and domus or private properties even in ex novo synagogues like that of Ostia. In its early, 1st century stage, the synagogue’s main hall was accompanied with a narrow reception hall for ritual or ceremonial banquets in the form of a triclinium. The triclinium was in space “G”, which, at the time, was attached to the vestibule space “B”, all placed to the east of the main western hall.30 The association between triclinia and synagogue structures was also found in Judaea, particularly the Bar-Kochba revolt synagogue of the Herodium which occupied precisely the area previously used as a triclinium.31 Likewise, in Jericho a triclinium was added to the apparent Hasmonean-period synagogue with a clear intention of connecting the two features.32 In Horvat ʿEtri excavated in 1999–2000 the presence of a late 1st to early 2nd century ce “public structure” (building M) is attested.33 In its courtyard (M2) a miqveh structure was found.34 To its north is a wide hallway sustained
28
29 30 31
32 33 34
Wiegand and Schrader, Priene, fig. 585; Asher Ovadiah, “Ancient Synagogues in Asia Minor,” in The Proceedings of the Xth International Congress of Classical Archaelogy, vol. 2 (Xth International Congress of Classical Archaeology, Ankara-Izmir, 23–30/IX/1973: Türk Tarih Kurumu, 1978), 857–866, pl. 273–280. L. Michael White, The Social Origins of Christian Architecture, Harvard Theological Studies 42 (Valley Forge, Pa: Trinity Press, 1996), 2332. Anders Runesson, “The Synagogue at Ancient Ostia. The Building and Its History from the First to the Fifth Century,” 76–78. In first identifications, there was an association of early 1st century ce synagogues, such as the one found in the Herodium, with an odeon or a small theatre. Gideon Foerster, “The Synagogues at Masada and Herodium,” Eretz-Israel: Archaeological, Historical and Geographical Studies 11 (1973): 227–228 (Hebrew). Netzer assumed it to be a triclinium converted into a synagogue. Ehud Netzer, Herodium. An Archaeological Guide (Jerusalem, The Herodium Expedition, 1999), 9. Ehud Netzer, “A Synagogue from the Hasmonean Period Recently Exposed in the Western Plain of Jericho,” Israel Exploration Journal 49, no. 3/4 (1999): 227. Zissu and Ganor, “Ḥorvat ʾEtri,” 18–27 (Hebrew). Zissu and Ganor, 23.
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figure 11.7
First plan of the Priene synagogue in wiegand, t. and schrader, m. (1904): priene, fig. 585
by three central columns that seems to have been used as a kind of basilical hallway or gathering area. It is likely to be a synagogue within a wider domestic complex.35 Despite the association of synagogues with domus or oikos-related structures, particularly in diasporic settings, there does not seem to be any obvious association with domestic uses in the early, Second Temple synagogues. Urman and Flesher indicates that such associations between Herodian triclinia and the Masada and Herodion synagogues in the Judean Desert are the result of improvisation.36 Likewise, an inscription from Berenice dated to the year 8 or 6 bce suggests the repair of an amphiteatron of the Jewish politeuma (community) by a Decius Valerius Dionysus, which Appelbaum37 interpreted as referring to what we would call today a synagogue, as it was a gift not to the city
35 36
37
Zissu and Ganor, 25–27; Levine, The Ancient Synagogue, 74. Dan Urman and Paul Virgil McCracken Flesher, eds., Ancient Synagogues: Historical Analysis and Archaeological Discovery, Studia Post-Biblica, v. 47 (Leiden; Boston: Brill, 1998), 151. Shimʾon Applebaum, Jews and Greeks in Ancient Cyrene (Leiden: Brill, 1979), 160–161; John Barclay, Jews in the Mediterranean Diaspora: From Alexander to Trajan (323bce–117ce) (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996), 237–238.
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Plans of the subsequent structures in the Priene synagogue block in burkhardt, n. and wilson, m. (2013): “the late antique synagogue in priene: its history, architecture and context”, gephyra 10, p. 191, fig. 3
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Plan (reconstruction) of the earliest building of the Ostia synagogue, from the 1st century, according to A. Runesson from runesson, a. (2001): “the synagogue at ancient ostia”, in b. olsson, d. mitternacht and o. brandt, the synagogue at ancient ostia and the jews of rome, p. 79 (fig. 103)
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Plan of the Ostia synagogue after its first renovation, according to A. Runesson from runesson, a. (2001): “the synagogue at ancient ostia”, in b. olsson, d. mitternacht and o. brandt, the synagogue at ancient ostia and the jews of rome, p. 77 (fig. 101)
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figure 11.11
Plan of the Ostia synagogue after its second renovation, according to A. Runesson from runesson, a. (2001): “the synagogue at ancient ostia”, in b. olsson, d. mitternacht and o. brandt, the synagogue at ancient ostia and the jews of rome, p. 67 (fig. 87)
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Plan of the Ostia synagogue after the addition of its aedicula, according to A. Runesson from runesson, a. (2001): “the synagogue at ancient ostia”, in b. olsson, d. mitternacht and o. brandt, the synagogue at ancient ostia and the jews of rome, p. 68 (fig. 88)
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(polis), but the Jewish community alone.38 The term amphiteatron suggests the presence of a building with benches attached to at least three of its four sides with the attendants looking to its center, which fits the description of what would be a triclinium, such as the hall with broad benches in “Room G” from the earliest phase of the Ostia synagogue. However, this can also apply to the main hall of Ostia itself, which had a series of attached benches on three sides of the main hall before most of them were demolished in the second major reform.39 Following the Jewish rebellions, the concept of the synagogue suffered a major transformation. Third and fourth century synagogues increased their opulence, while they tended to specify their functions beyond the broad and rather ambiguous applications from the Second Temple period. During this time synagogues were either created ex novo, transformed to adapt to new demands by the Jewish community, or simply built into previously existing buildings. The transformation of the Ostia synagogue in its later stages is particularly telling. The previous triclinium with wide benches placed to the north of the vestibule hall was first converted into an entrance space divided by wooden parapets. Later, in its latest stage, it became a culina, perhaps a community kitchen, while the benched area was translated to an eastern expansion of the original building (“E”), north of what remained as the main hall and following a storage area (“F”).40 However, the most striking transformation is the evidence for placing an aedicule for holding the Torah scrolls looking east from within the main hall of the synagogue. Where before there was a tripartite doorway defined by the four-column square area of the vestibule, in this latest stage the northern door was blocked, leaving the synagogue’s main hall with only two entrances. The solution was reached because the original Ostia synagogue’s direction was to the west, and therefore opposite to Jerusalem. It is probable that preaedicula phases of this synagogue imply the use of wooden furniture that became invisible to archaeologists. However, this theory was discarded in more recent publications.41
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Barclay, Jews in the Mediterranean Diaspora, 237–238. Runesson, “The Synagogue at Ancient Ostia,” figs. 88, 101. Runesson, 93. The basis of the existence of a pre-Second Reform ark was the Mindis Faustus inscription found in the entrance sector “A”, to the east. It was reused as spolia, and therefore Runesson discarded the possibility that it was associated with a previous ark from the site. Instead he proposes the hypothesis that the inscription came from another, demolished synagogue
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The construction of domus-synagogae or oikos-synagoges in Late Antiquity was a wider phenomenon than what can be detected archaeologically. After all, synagogues merely required a few pieces of furniture, rolls of books, and the necessary quorum or minyan for their function. It is only with the construction of monumental or architectural features that they can be detected in the archaeological registry. This is what happened in sites like Dura with the conservation of its murals, and in Priene with the evidence of stone architectural features, including plaques with menoroth that allowed for the identification of the site as a synagogue. Naturally, in the case of the llici synagogue, this was achieved with the mosaic floor and later construction of architectural features that broke the mosaic itself. The domus synagogae should be naturally associated with the phenomenon of the domus-ecclesiae, like the church of Dura Europos,42 or with tituli churches like the ones found in Rome itself, including the mithraeum of the church of Santa Prisca.43 This is also the case of churches like that of St. Peter in Capernaum, which was built on top of a private home that was suggested to be home of St. Peter in the 1st century ce,44 or with basilicas built within (or on top of) rural villae like the basilica of Villa Fortunatus (Fraga, Huesca) in the Tarraconensis.45 All these buildings are good parallels for the construction history of the Ilici synagogue and its continued use from the late 4th to the 7th centuries. Considering the above, the closest parallel to the use of reconverted urban dwellings for an ecclesiastical space in the Iberian Peninsula is that of late
42 43 44
45
whose construction materials were used for the second renovation in the 4th century. It was after that renovation that the aedicula was constructed. I am inclined to accept this interpretation with many reservations, as there is no evidence for such “second synagogue” anywhere in the Ostia site, and there is no reason why the Jewish community would limit their reuse of construction material to other synagogues. Runesson, “The Synagogue at Ancient Ostia,” 87–88. Kraeling, The Excavations at Dura-Europos: The Christian Building, VIII, 2:7–30. Maarten Jozef Vermaseren and Carel Claudius Van Essen, The Excavations in the Mithraeum of the Church of Santa Prisca in Rome (Leiden: Brill, 1965), 113–115. Virgilio Canio Corbo, Cafarnao I: gli edifice della città (Jerusalem: Franciscan Printing Press, 1975), 221; Robert North, “Discoveries at Capernaum,” Biblica 58, no. 3 (1977): 426; James F. Strange, “The Capernaum and Herodium Publications,” Bulletin of the American Schools If Oriental Research 226 (April 1977): 67–68. Josep Calassanç Serra i Ràfols, “La Villa Fortunatus, de Fraga,”Empúries: revista de món clàssic i antiguitat tardana, 1943, 11–25; Pere de Palol, “La arqueología cristiana en la Hispania romana y visigoda. Descubrimientos recientes y nuevos puntos de vista,” in Actes du XIe congrès international d’archéologie chrétienne. Lyon, Vienne, Grenoble, Genève, Aoste, 21–28 septembre 1986 (Roma: École Française de Rome, 1989), 2000–2004.
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antique Barcino (Barcelona). The reutilization of one centric space with four insulae for a 4th century baptistery and a 5th century bishopric seat was excavated in the 1990s.46 In another part of the city, a northeastern corner of a property, probably another insula, was demolished for the construction of a late 6th or early 7th century “Visigothic” basilica on top of it. The walls were adapted to the available architecture, with “diagonal” walls that skew the rectangular plan of the basilica itself. Significantly, according to Bonnet and Heredia, two rooms from the pre-basilical period were preserved to the southeast of the basilica. With the transformation of these rooms into a necropolis area harboring two burials, the walls were demolished and replaced with two pillars that sustained the roof.47 The evidence from Barcelona regarding the use of private dwellings or other properties for the construction of basilicas does not necessarily entail a parallel to the presence of our domus-synagoga in the Alcudia, particularly due to their construction at a later date.48 4.2 Parallels of Architectural Features of the Original Synagogue Other than the mosaic floor, the most significant and peculiar feature of the Ilici synagogue in its Phase IIe is the construction of southern wall B/020 which limits the synagogue to its south. The description given by Ramos Folqués of the southern features would raise doubts in any modern architect when interpreting its design. The southern walls, as indicated in Chapters VII and IX, are fieldstones and are, in fact, a succession of “walls” one on top of the other. West of the visible preserved section of bench B/028, or what was called B/138, the synagogue wall (B/020) turns northwards in the narthex, or B/OM area, to occupy the space that the bench would have occupied had these features continued in a straight-line westwards (see Plate III). The latest wall of this limiting section was B/021, built in late Phase Ib—after the southern bench had been abandoned (see Plate VI). To the south we find wall T/105, associated to “Levels A and B”, which supports the north-south walls that define the tabernae to the south of the synagogue and was contemporary to the main hall itself. The width of the space from the inner face of wall B/020 all the way to the outer (southern) face of wall 46
47 48
Charles Bonnet and Julia Beltrán de Heredia Bercero, “El primer grupo episcopal de Barcelona,” Memorias de La Real Academia de Buenas Letras de Barcelona 25 (2000): 468– 470. Bonnet and Beltrán de Heredia Bercero, 471–473. Fig. 1. The church that was supposed to be next to the bishopric palace’s baptistry is still not found, and the other church in the northwestern corner of the insula was apparently built in the early 6th century at the earliest, around two hundred years after the construction of the Ilici synagogue.
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T/105, that is the width of the succession of walls that divide the two areas, is 1.45 meters. In the narthex area, this space would increase to 2.05 meters if we consider that both wall T/105 and B/020 continued westwards. The succession of southern walls suggests an architectural planning for the synagogue that was not taken into account by past scholars. The “turn” southwards from west to east of the southern wall reveals the need to increase the width of the central hall, using a wall that was not present beforehand. For that action, the space where the southern wall B/028 would probably be located was increased by demolishing and replacing the supposed wall B/028 with the later wall B/020, while a bench occupied the area between the mosaic and said wall. Regardless, this feature was not a result of an accident, but was part of an intentional construction plan. A parallel to this solution is found in two Balearic basilicas. The first was in Illeta del Rei, next to Maó, Menorca (Mahón, of special significance in late antique history of Judaism in the Balearic Islands). It was extensively excavated by the then-director of the Museum of Maó, María Luísa Serra, from 1964 to 1966. The excavation was followed by a first publication by Serra in 1967, Palol later that year,49 Schlunk and Hauschild in 1978,50 and Godoy in 1995.51 The first discovery and publication of its mosaics gives us a series of archaeological details that were lost in later interventions. Most researchers agree that the mosaic floor found in the basilica dates to the late 5th to the 6th centuries, with the more predominant opinion being that it is from the Eastern Roman period (second half of the 6th century). The mosaic floor plan, published by H. Llorente, a military engineer of the Spanish Armed Forces in 1888,52 revealed an odd arrangement for the central tri-partite aisle (Fig. 11.15). The mosaic was divided in three richly decorated panels placed in longitudinal succession. It is filled with symbolic features like a heraldic scene of two rampant lions in front of a central tree, just next to the central altar space where two compartments were placed for the martyrial relics. The significant symbolism and themes evoking eastern synagogue art did not escape observation by scholars.53 Architecturally speaking, the parallel with the Ilici synagogue should be noticed in that the mosaic floor is not placed in a straight axis line. In fact,
49 50 51 52 53
de Palol, Arqueología cristiana de la España romana. Siglos IV–VI, 23–25. Schlunk and Hauschild, Die Denkmäler der frühchristlichen und westgotischen Zeit, 184– 185. Godoy Fernández, Arqueología y Liturgia, 182–184. Hipólito Llorente, “Noticias,” Boletín de la Real Academia de la Historia 13 (1888): 478. de Palol, “En torno a la iconografía de los mosaicos cristianos de las islas Baleares,” 135.
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following the central “apse” or altar area axis, the Illeta del Rei mosaic’s central panel shifts as the north and south walls of the aisle widens. The northern wall has a “steeper” turn northwards than the southern wall southwards, in such a way that the central panel slightly shifts northwards compared to the eastern apse area. In the middle of the central panel, Llorente recorded that the southern wall needs to turn further southwards to accommodate what seems to be a carpet that signals an entrance from the south. The westernmost panel is narrower, and more in line with the central axis of the altar area, although with the central panel it provokes a comparative shift. The northern wall has a dramatic turn southwards, narrowing the central nave, while the southern wall has a slight turn northwards in two inflections—one of them in the middle of the western panel—in such a manner that it goes westwards in a slightly “diagonal” line compared to the central east-west axis of the mosaic. This irregular plan went undetected in the later excavation in the 1960s, as the later Illeta del Rei plan describes the building differently. By then most of the northern and southern walls of the central nave were gone. However, valuable information was recovered regarding a later addition of a circular baptistery in the northern aisle, and the finding of a series of unclearly defined structures to the southeast, indicating the mosaic floor, and this basilical building, was not devoid of other attached structures.54 The similar basilica of Es Fornás de Torelló, placed three hundred meters from a Bronze Age talayot structure, was probably constructed about the same time as the basilica of Illeta del Rei.55 However, only the easternmost sections of the building were preserved, including only two mosaic pavements and the eastern edge of the third pavement. Like Illeta del Rei, the central nave seems to have been divided into three panels ordered in longitudinal succession, while the eastern altar (separated with perpendicular chancel screens from the rest of the nave) had a central altar table with the negatives of four stipites found sustaining it (Fig. 11.14).56 The central cavity would probably include the church’s relics. The mosaic floor was placed in line with the central nave’s axis. However, the walls, excavated between 1956 and 1957 by María Luísa Serra (though first published by Palol in 1962 and 1967), were irregular. We find a sacrarium to the south of the apse, with irregularly built walls, particularly significant due to 54 55 56
de Palol, Arqueología cristiana de la España romana. Siglos IV–VI, 22, 166, Fig. 6. de Palol, 18; Godoy Fernández, Arqueología y Liturgia, 180. See also Jaime Vizcaíno Sánchez, La presencia bizantina en Hispania (Siglos VI–VII): la documentación arqueológica, Antigüedad y cristianismo 24 (Murcia: Universidad de Murcia, Servicio de Publicaciones, 2007), 478.
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Plan of the church of Illeta del Rei, Menorca in palol, p. de (1967): arqueología cristiana de la españa romana, p. 22, fig. 6
their width. The westernmost preserved edge of the southern wall of the central nave also appears to have widened. However, there is no evidence for a change in the nave’s width as in the case of Illeta del Rei. Despite these facts, it is important to note that the excavations in this basilica were never completed.
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figure 11.14
Plan of the church of Es Fornás de Torelló, Menorca in palol, p. de (1967): arqueología cristiana de la españa romana, p. 19, fig. 5
Returning to Ilici, we find that the two above cases are evidence that the changing direction of Phase II’s southern wall had clear parallels in regional Christian architecture, albeit from a later date.57 In Illeta del Rei, the widening and thinning of the central and unitary nave corresponds with visual and spatial effects rather than ad hoc architectural solutions. This seems to be the 57
In de Palol, “En torno a la iconografía de los mosaicos cristianos de las islas Baleares,” 140, it is suggested these mosaics date to between the late 5th and 6th century. This is followed by Godoy Fernández, Arqueología y Liturgia, 180, 185; on the other hand, Vizcaíno
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Plan of the mosaic nave for the church of Illeta de Rei according to llorente, h. (1888), in brah, 13, p. 478
case in the Ilici synagogue as well. Simply put, there was a need for a wider main room that, following the smaller narthex, would give a sense of monumentality and grandeur. It is important to remember, however, that both Illeta del Rei and Es Fornás de Torelló seem to be ex novo churches, and therefore were not built to adapt a pre-basilical building as is evident in the case of the Ilici synagogue. In the latter case, as in the case of other domus-synagogae like those of Dura and Priene, the building was forced to adapt into available features. The parallel with the Illeta del Rei basilica does not end there. Evidence for a spiral staircase to the southeast of the tripartite main hall (Fig. 11.13) can be seen in the plan from the excavated site published by Palol. The placement of an oddly-formed inner space that, for all purposes, seems useless, probably points towards the use of a wooden staircase for the access of a second story. Though considering its plan, that space’s use as a triclinium should not be discarded
Sánchez, La presencia bizantina en Hispania (Siglos VI–VII), 479–480, 520–523 proposes that all mosaics are firmly within a Byzantine dating, that is, the second half of the 6th century.
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either.58 This second story reminds us of the staircase suggested in Area S of the Ilici synagogue, although there is no evidence such a second story existed in Area B. The use of stairs for a hypothetical second story in Area S is only corroborated in Phase Ib, which is the post-basilical/post-mosaic phase, with the stairs attached to wall B/014, hypothetically reaching Area S. In case of Illeta del Rei, these staircases could probably be built for access to a second story within the basilica itself. Evidence for benches attached to the inner walls of the synagogue is found extensively in Jewish and Christian architecture from the period. The latter provides clear parallels in the Balearic basilica of Es Fornás de Torelló, particularly next to the southern and northern walls of the apse, and the preserved western edge of the northern wall of the central nave. In Son Fadrinet (Campos, Mallorca) the tripartite basilica presents benches next to the inner face of the northern and southern walls, as well as the southwestern corner, in what seems to be a longitudinal hallway to the south of the main hall.59 The benches were built in the second phase of the building dated to the late 6th century ce. The basilical complex of Es Cap des Port, Fornells, from the Balearic island of Menorca, presents a more significant use of attached benches.60 These features are found next to the raised platform west of the nave, as well as to the southeast. They are also found in rooms 9 and 12 to the north, and 4 to the south, in what are the adjacent sacral areas of the basilica. The case of benches from room 4 is particularly relevant for Godoy, who regards them as support for “shelves” for the placement of codices in the room that gave direct access to the cruciform crypt below the apse.61
58
59 60 61
The odd circular feature in Illeta del Rei might also be the remains of a dining hall or triclinium used for ritual purposes. Similar features were found in Maltese catacombs from this period, for example in the Saint Paul/Agatha catacombs 3, 4, 5, 7, 9A, 11, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 22, 23, the Saint Augustine cluster hypogea 2 and 3, the hypogea west of the Saint Agatha Church, and one hypogeum at Saint Paul’s Parish Church area. Mario Buhagiar, Late Roman and Byzantine Catacombs and Related Burial Places in the Maltese Islands, BAR International Series 302 (Oxford, England: B.A.R, 1986), 94–114, 126–138, 139–144, 152–153, 157–159. For a more general study of the Maltese catacomb triclinia, see Patricia Camilleri and Ann Gingell-Littlejohn, “The Triclinia in the Catacombs of Malta,” in Proceedings of History Week 1993, ed. Keith Scriberas (Malta: Historical Society of Malta, 1997), 39–66. Thilo Ulbert, “El yacimiento paleocristiano de Son Fadrinet (Campos, Mallorca),”Mayurqa 29 (2003): 176–177. de Palol, Arqueología cristiana de la España romana. Siglos IV–VI, 25–27; Godoy Fernández, Arqueología y Liturgia, 166–176. Godoy Fernández, Arqueología y Liturgia, 170–171.
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figure 11.16
The Bova Marina synagogue plan (First Phase) from costamagna, l. (1991): la sinagoga di bova marina nel quadro degli insediamenti tardoantichi della costa ionica méridionale della calabria, p. 620 (fig. 1)
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figure 11.17
The Bova Marina synagogue plan (Second Phase) from costamagna, l. (1991): “la sinagoga di bova marina nel quadro degli insediamenti tardoantichi della costa ionica méridionale della calabria,” p. 621 (fig. 2)
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Use of attached benches in synagogue architecture is abundant across the Mediterranean, including the Western Roman Empire. There is the evident case of the Ostia Synagogue, with attached benches used in the western and side walls of the main hall since the earliest building (1st century) (Figs. 11.9, 10).62 These benches were preserved following the second major reform in the late 3rd to early 4th century and had a depth of 1.25 meters. It is only with the construction of the eastern aedicula when most benches were demolished, and a relatively small platform was preserved at the center-left section of the curved, western wall.63 This is besides the broad benches detected in the triclinium of the earliest synagogue as well as the broad benches of the northern large hall “E” following the latest stage of the synagogue (4th century).64 The synagogue of Maʾoz Hayyim, excavated by V. Tzaferis, had a north-south direction with a southern apse from Building B and C (approximately 5th to 6th century). It has two subsequent mosaic pavements, one on top of the other. While the Building B mosaic reached all the lateral walls covering the entire space, in Building C left a 60-centimeter gap between the walls and the mosaic floor. Such space was interpreted by Tzaferis as evidence for a bench.65 The 60-centimeter wide gap is the same as is found next to the southern wall of Ilici and the gap for the benches found in the earliest Ostia synagogue building.66 Could there have been more benches in other parts of the Ilici synagogue? The most important clue comes from the southern Italian late antique synagogue of Bova Marina. This synagogue had a squared main hall (approximately 6 ×5.5 meters) and polychromatic geometrical motif mosaic floor built in its first stage (early 4th century—Fig. 11.17). Its excavator, Liliana Costamagna, indicated that there is a southeastern platform attached to the entire wall facing Jerusalem. During the early 6th century, part of the mosaic floor, which touched the Jerusalem-facing wall, was broken to add a new bench flanking a central bema placed before a central raised niche. In the east-northeast of the hall, a dolium was built into a bench that acted as a genizah, in which several fragments of conical glass lamps were found, probably to fit into a threedimensional menorah.67
62 63 64 65 66 67
Runesson, “The Synagogue at Ancient Ostia,” 78. Runesson, 74–75. Runesson, 59. Vassilios Tzaferis, “The Ancient Synagogue at Maʾoz Hayyim,”Israel Exploration Journal 32, no. 4 (1982): 221. Runesson, “The Synagogue at Ancient Ostia,” 80. Liliana Costamagna, “La sinagoga di Bova Marina nel quadro degli insediamenti tardoan-
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figure 11.18
Isometric plan for Building C (6th century) of the Maʾoz Hayim Synagogue from tzaferis, v. (1982): “the ancient synagogue at maʾoz ḥayyim”, iej, 32 (4), p. 222 (fig. 7)
We find here the use of benches in the wall facing Jerusalem, much like in Ilici where the eastern part of the mosaic floor ends abruptly, certainly affected by the Phase IIb reforms. However, the Bova Marina parallel might give another clue as to what existed to the east of the mosaic before the construction of the apse in Ilici: simply put, there were attached benches to an eastern median wall that roughly occupied the place where wall B/026 was found. Remains of such
tichi della costa Ionica meridionale della Calabria,” Mélanges de l’Ecole française de Rome. Moyen-Age, 1991, 626–627; Liliana Costamagna, “La sinagoga di Bova Marina,” in I beni culturali ebraici in Italia. Situazione attuale, problemi, prospettive e progetti per il futuro, ed. Mauro Perani (Ravenna: Longo Editore, 2003), 99–100.
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a feature are visible in the Schlunk photographs and, as indicated in Chapter 7, were catalogued as B/NE/319. The construction of the apse and of wall B/026 supposed the demolition of whatever structure had been present. The lower part of the new wall was covered with dark or black stucco. But this does not mean this space ceased to be used as a “bench” or platform to the east of the mosaic. Rather, the previous structure was replaced after its demolition with a wooden platform that was used both as bema and as a sitting area for the prominent figures of the community, in a similar fashion as found in the second Bova Marina synagogue. The presence of such a bench would explain why the place for an armarium or aron ha-kodesh was marked in such a manner that visitors would have had space to move behind it, at the eastern edge of the mosaic. It also explains the apparent abrupt interruption of the mosaic in its eastern edge. 4.3 An Aedicula in the Central Synagogue Nave? The central stones built in the second half of the 5th century (or in Phase IIc) implied a change in the architectural harmony of the synagogue’s inner space. However, this should not be considered as a suspension of the building’s use as a synagogue, as there is a sense of continuity in roughly following the central axis associated with the mosaic , and not with what would be the later eastern apse. Up until the latest publications on the Ilici basilical building, the interpretation of the two central mosaic stones was that they were used to support chancel screens. There are two problems with this interpretation. The first is the absence of any evident chancel screen, as the lattice work found in excavations from 1905 and Ramos Folqués’ interventions seem to be, rather, window filters from the 7th century. The finding of these fragments around the site, and not in one concrete sector, suggest their use for different windows that would have given light to the main hall, and not for a chancel screen supported by hypothetical columns placed on these stones (see Figs. 11. 39– 43). The second, graver problem of the chancel screen interpretation is the absence of any evidence of rails to support the screen between or next to these stones. The stones themselves were overall one or two centimeters below the mosaic floor. The support of the screen would have required a rail that should have left its mark within the floor of the mosaic, itself. For a community that had no qualms in breaking sections of the mosaic to place the supporting stones themselves (as B/008 and B/009), it seems odd that no trace of such a rail was ever found. This is particularly the case if the later Christian conversion of the building in Phase IIa is considered.
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Discarding the use of these stones as support for a chancel screen, what could they be intended for? The lack of clear, evidence apart from only two stones to support columns suggests that in the central part of the synagogue a kind of aedicula was erected, which would occupy the central-eastern space of the Phase IIc synagogue. The form of these features in synagogue architecture has been widely studied in the last century and recovered through archaeological excavations in synagogues, particularly through artistic rendition of the aediculae. While represented through the whole Mediterranean, its form, stemming from Roman architecture, made it easily identifiable and rather unitary in its rendering. It usually consists of a façade of two or three pillars that hold wooden doors between them. The pillars typically support a simple or Syrian decorated gable, in the middle of which decorative motifs are depicted such as a conch, a lamp, or both. Hanging from the pediment, in front of the doors, is a curtain or parokhet. Represented behind the parokhet were usually depictions of doubleleaf wooden doors with rich geometric decorations, which typically would have a superior pediment or the decorative conch itself. These doors, which were denominated תיבה, kibotos, or armarium, represented the façade of the Ark of the Scrolls, where the Torah scrolls were kept. Depictions of aediculae are usually found in synagogue mosaics from the 4th through the 6th centuries. However these were also found in schematized form on lintels, such as the ones from Raqit,68 Kochav ha-Yarden (Fig. 11.19),69 or Chorazin (Fig. 11.20).70 These aediculae are seldom represented alone, and are usually accompanied with flanking menoroth and, flanking the menoroth, depictions of Jewish ritual objects associated with the festivities in the month
68
69 70
Rachel Hachlili, Ancient Synagogues-Archaeology and Art: New Discoveries and Current Research, Handbook of Oriental Studies. Section 1, The Near and Middle East; Handbuch Der Orientalistik 105 (Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2013), 234, Fig. V-10; Shimʿon Dar and Baruch Arensburg, Raqit: Marinus’ Estate on the Carmel, Israel, BAR International Series 1300 (Oxford, England: Archaeopress, 2004), 185–187; similar to the schematized Torah shrine or ark in Raqit are the representations of two of them at the sides of a lamp’s discus, found in the hill of Ophel near Jerusalem, by the Palestine Exploration Fund; E.R. Goodenough, Jewish Symbols in the Greco-Roman Period, vol. 1: The Archaeological Evidence from Palestine, Bollingen Series 27 (New Haven, USA: Panthenon Books, 1953), 155; E.R. Goodenough, Jewish Symbols in the Greco-Roman Period, vol. 3: Illustrations for Volumes 1 and 2, Bollingen Series 27 (New Haven, USA: Panthenon Books, 1953), fig. 294. Hachlili, AJAALI, 175, 177, 249, Fig. VIII-26. Zeʾev Yeivin, The Synagogue at Korazim: The 1962–1964, 1980–1987 Excavations, IAA Reports 10 (Jerusalem: Israel Antiquities Authority, 2000), 53, Fig. 124.
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Lintel from Kochav HaYarden from hachlili, r. (1988): ancient jewish art and archaeology in the land of israel, p. 177 (figure viii-26)
figure 11.20 Picture of decorated lintel from the Chorazin synagogue from yeivin, z. (2000): the synagogue at korazim, p. 53 (fig. 124). courtesy of the israel antiquities authority
of Tishrei (such as an etrog, lulav, and/or shofar). The objects could also be associated with temple and probable synagogue rituals (incense shovel). The aediculae with wooden doors are clearly identified with the Torah scrolls that would usually be placed in constructed niches, apses, or within a wooden armarium on shelves.71 The first depictions of these features are found in eastern synagogues, although usually associated with the façade of the Temple as a clear inheri-
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Hachlili, AJAALI, 272–285; Hachlili, AJAAD, 67–79; Levine, The Ancient Synagogue, 351– 360.
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tance of previous iconographic tradition. The association between the Ark of the Scrolls and the Tabernacle is clearly seen in the panel of Aaron next to the Tabernacle in Dura Europos (Fig. 11.21). Here the arc’s façade is found within a temple-looking building with pediment and peristyle representing the Tabernacle structure. The Ark of the Scrolls was represented separately above the central niche of the Dura synagogue, in such a manner that it asserts a symbolic association of the Torah with a triumphal arch and the façade of the Temple itself. Late antique synagogal representation of the aedicula with Ark of the Scrolls motif is widespread in the Land of Israel. In synagogue mosaics it is found in sites such as Susiya in Judea (Fig. 11.25), Beth Sheʾan B (Fig. 11.24), Hammath Tiberias B from the 4th century (Fig. 11.23),72 Sepphoris from the 5th century (Fig. 11.25),73 and Beth Alpha from the 6th century (Fig. 11.26).74 The latter apparently presents the Ark without a surrounding altar, although the schematic separation between the Ark itself and a supposed altar is uncertain, considering the doors are flanked by a set of three columns with a presiding conch on top and other architectural features on the pediment.75 The Susiya mosaic depicts a separation between the altar and the Ark itself, in such a manner that it shows the two elements as distinct, even if associated. In Samaritan synagogues the depiction of Torah shrines is very similar to those of the Jewish synagogues, with their columns flanking a central doublesheet door under a Syrian gable with a central conch (Fig. 11.29). However, there seems to be a clearer depiction of the parokhet covering the ark, and in the case of the synagogue of Beth Sheʾan A, the ark itself is hidden behind a parokhet underneath a triumphal arch behind an aedicula decorated with a conch.76
72
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74 75 76
Moshe Dothan, Hammath Tiberias, ed. Barbara L. Johnson, vol. II, Late Synagogues, 2 vols. (Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society, 2000); Milson, Art and Architecture of the Synagogue , 177–179. Zeev Weiss and Ehud Netzer, The Sepphoris Synagogue: Deciphering an Ancient Message through Its Archaeological and Socio-Historical Contexts (Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society: Institute of Archaeology, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 2005); Zeev Weiss, “Artistic Trends and Contact between Communities in Sepphoris of Late Antiquity: Recent Research,” in Religious Diversity in Late Antiquity, ed. David Gwynn and Susanne Bangert. Late Antique Archaeology 6 (Leiden: Brill, 2010), 167–188. Sukenik, The Ancient Synagogue of Beth Alpha. Hachlili, Ancient Synagogues-Archaeology and Art, 200–201, figs. IV-53, 54. Itzhak Magen, “Samaritan Synagogues and Their Worship,” Mehkarei Yehudah Ve-Shomron 2 (1992): 229–264 (Hebrew).
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figure 11.21
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Panel WB2 depicting Aaron within the Tabernacle during holy sacrifices from the Dura Europos synagogue painted murals (mid-3rd century ce) from hachlili, r. (1998): ancient jewish art and archaeology in the diaspora, p. 117 (figure iii-12)
In the Diaspora, the Ark of the Scrolls is seldom represented with aediculae.77 Found mostly in Roman catacombs, either carved in gold-glasses (Fig. 11.30) or into their walls (Fig. 11.31), the Torah arks are typically depicted as a gabled armarium and, unlike in the Land of Israel, their doors are open so that the inner scrolls are visible. The arks are often represented as having a raised platform and a staircase for access to the scrolls. In some cases, they have a series of feet so that the armarium does not touch the floor.78 In the Diaspora, the Jewish Ark of the Scrolls has two parallels from Christian practices. One is the depiction of the practice of the placement of the Gospels on a throne behind a triumphal arch in what is known as the hetoimasia during important councils or synods. A spectacular example of this is the depiction of the enthroned Gospel in the Neonian or Orthodox baptistery of Ravenna (Fig. 11.32).79 The artistic representation of the practice is found 77
78 79
Hachlili, AJAAD, 366–370; Rachel Hachlili, “Torah Shrine and Ark in Ancient Synagogues: A Re-Evaluation,”Zeitschrift Des Deutschen Palästina-Vereins 116, no. 2 (2000): 159, Figs. 15.1, 16–17; Milson, Art and Architecture of the Synagogue, 106–140. Hachlili, Ancient Synagogues-Archaeology and Art, 204–205, Fig. IV-59. Milson, Art and Architecture of the Synagogue, 229.
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figure 11.22 Picture of the synagogue of Dura Europos’ niche. Construction from the late 2nd century, and paintings from the mid3rd century creative commons. national museum of damascus
on a mural mosaic in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, made in the 12th century ce, though perhaps adopting previous 8th century motifs (Fig. 11.33). It represents the hetoimasia from important doctrinal synods or councils from the 4th century ce: Antioch, Carthage, Laodicea, Gangra, and Sardica.80 In those scenes, the Gospels, placed on top of a cubic throne with an inscribed cross on its front, are depicted as an open codex. The enthroned Gospels are flanked by two candlesticks. The scene is placed within a triumphal arch sus-
80
Cristina Godoy Fernández, Arqueología y liturgia, 127 (Fig. 4). See also Henri Stern, “Les Représentations des conciles dans l’ église de la Nativité à Bethléem,” Byzantion 10, no. 1 (1936): pl. VII.
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figure 11.23
Jewish symbols panel from Hammath Tiberias B from hachlili, r. (1998): ancient jewish art and archaeology in the land of israel, p. 248 (figure 8-a)
figure 11.24
Jewish symbols panel from Beth Sheʾan B from hachlili, r. (2013): ancient synagogues—archaeology and art, p. 290 (figure vi-3.b)
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figure 11.25
Aedicula panel from Sepphoris (above) and Susiya (below) from hachlili, r. (2013): ancient synagogues—archaeology and art, p. 289 (figure vi-3.b,c)
tained by two or four monumental columns. Significantly, between the columns are decorated chancel screens and/or hanged curtains above them, reproducing the use of the parokhet in Jewish Ark of the Scrolls depictions. However, in the representation of the synod of Carthage, there is no chancel screen nor curtains, although the triumphal arch is flanked by colonnades on both sides.81 The features from this Christian context, although of a later date, are a clear parallel to the symbolic representation of the Ark of the Scrolls in the Diaspora. However, in the Land of Israel there is an important distinction: there is
81
Godoy Fernández, Arqueología y Liturgia, 125–126, Fig. 4.
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figure 11.26
Jewish symbols panel from Bet Alpha from hachlili, r. (2013): ancient synagogues—archaeology and art, p. 290 (figure vi-3.a)
figures 11.27–28 Jewish symbols panel from Capernaum from hachlili, r. (2013): ancient synagogues—archaeology and art, p. 203 (figure iv-57)
no “exposure” of the scrolls themselves. Given the scene was placed in the floor and could be stepped on, the closed doors prevented what would be considered a problematic action during synagogue attendance. The second parallel to Diaspora depiction of the Ark of the Scrolls is the armarium with shelfs on the southern lunette dome of the Mausoleum of Galla
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Picture of section of the mosaic from the Khirbet Samaria synagogue. Now in the Israel Museum picture by davidbena, 2018. creative commons
figure 11.30 Gold glass from the Roman catacomb of Vigna Randanini, 2nd century ce creative commons
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Placidia (mid-5th century—Fig. 11.34).82 The parietal mosaic scene, placed on the upper wall of the domed niche, has the scene of St. Vincent of Zaragoza next to a burning grill or pyre. On the other side of the pyre an open armarium is represented with the four Gospels placed as codices, and not as scrolls as in the case of the Jewish Torah arks. The placement of the Gospels just above the body of the deceased Galla Placidia, suggests the presence of a Christian practice associated with Jewish ritual, where the physical presence of the biblical Scriptures carries an element of holiness and ritual importance. This of course is a clear parallel to the Jewish catacomb representations of the open Torah arks, although the latter are made in a more coarse manner compared to the mausoleum of a member of the imperial family as was Galla Placidia. The artistic renditions of the Torah shrines and interior arks are often seen as representations of real-life features. However, this ignores the contexts where these renditions are placed. If they are found in a synagogue, was there a necessity to represent an object that was already placed before the attendant’s eyes? Indeed, in this case Milson’s suggestion should be followed, wherein the façade motif in synagogue (and church) art should not be seen as merely one set of symbols stemming from a prototypical Pagan origin,83 but rather as one whose varying representations convey different symbols that should be considered contextually.84 If the motif was in a catacomb, could it not have had an apotropaic, or at least salvific/messianic symbolism for the revival of the deceased in the days to come? The symbolism of these representations should not be underrated. However, evidence for the presence of Torah aediculae, such as the ones found in the 4th century Ostia, or the two aediculae from Sardis’ Phase 4 synagogue that flank the entrance of the main hall (just as in Caparnaum, Chorazin, and Gush Halav), suggests that the practice of placing an ark within a surrounding shrine, niche, or apse was common in the Land of Israel and the Diaspora.85 The aedicula façades found in Sardis (Fig. 11.37) and Ostia (Figs. 11.35, 36) are significantly similar to representations in the Land
82
83
84 85
Milson, Art and Architecture of the Synagogue, 139; Using Friedrich Wilhelm Deichmann and Franz Bartl, Frühchristliche Bauten und Mosaiken von Ravenna, 2nd ed. (Wiesbaden: Steiner, 1995), fig. 6. As proposed by Hachlili, AJAAD, 369; she cites E.R. Goodenough, Jewish Symbols in the Greco-Roman Period, vol. 4: The Problem of Method, Bollingen Series 27 (New Haven, USA: Panthenon Books, 1953), 120–121, although he insists on the crucial difference between the Judeo-Christian representation of the Ark of the Scrolls or the Gospels, and the preChristian representation of it by the presence of a gable or pediment on top, which makes an ordinary shelf into a shrine. Milson, Art and Architecture of the Synagogue, 136. Seager, “The Building History of the Sardis Synagogue,” 427–428.
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Representation of the Torah Ark in Diaspora wall carvings from the Monteverde and Villa Torlonia catacombs in Rome (2nd to 4th centuries ce) from hachili, r. (2000): “torah shrine and ark in ancient synagogues: a re-evaluation”, p. 180 (fig. 16)
of Israel and Syria, with two columns sustaining an architrave and a pediment presiding over it all. Although the Sardis aediculae are today a product of a later restoration, the Ostia aedicula was found in a remarkable state of preservation, giving us a notion of how similar it was to the artistic renditions of these architectural features.
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The term used for the Ostia pre-aedicula Ark, found in an inscription reused as spolia for the pavement of the late 4th century synagogue’s vestibule, was keibotos, which suggests a wooden structure that was later replaced or reused within the constructed aedicula.86 The same can be said about the term nomofulakion in Sardis and simma in Pamphylia. The term used in Talmudic literature was typically the Aramaic word ( תיבהTevah).87 Milson also insists on the use of the term theka (θήκη) found in two Galilee inscriptions (in Dalton and in Horvat ʿAmmudim).88 All these terms suggest a wooden structure that held the Sacred Texts. Remains of such wooden arks were found in the synagogue of ʿEn Gedi, along with burnt remains of ancient Torah scrolls.89 The use of a wooden Torah ark was also derived in other sites, including most significantly Hurvat Shemʾa. There the first bema where the Torah ark was placed is evidenced thanks to the presence of stone columns of approximately 22 to 26 centimeters in diameter at the northeastern corner of the building, reused when the synagogue was reconstructed in the 4th century.90 Meyers interpreted this feature as evidence for an aedicula placed in front of the wall looking to Jerusalem. The reconstruction of the bema following the destruction of Synagogue I in an earthquake in 306ce expanded the platform, so that it was placed seventy centimeters above the synagogue’s floor with an increased width. However, there is no evidence for a stone structure placed there as was found in Synagogue I. Therefore, Meyers suggests the possibility for the use of a wooden ark or structure in Synagogue II (4th century), which would replace the stone structure.91 The specific use of this bema remains unknown, as the presence of a wooden Torah ark on top of it cannot be more than speculation since it is unknown if the center of attention for this broadhouse-type synagogue was the presence of the Torah or its reading on a bema. Had it been the latter, the western stuccoed room would have been used as a repository for the higher number of scrolls of the community (a kind of synagogal library) while the bema would have a small ark that contained the Torah, and little more.92
86 87 88 89 90
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Runesson, “The Synagogue at Ancient Ostia,” 85–86; Milson, Art and Architecture of the Synagogue, 112–116, 120–122. Hachlili, AJAALI, 272–273. Milson, Art and Architecture of the Synagogue, 114–115. Ilan, Ancient Synagogues in the Land of Israel, 321. Joint Expedition to Khirbet Shemaʿ, 1970–1972 et al., eds., Ancient Synagogue Excavations at Khirbet Shemaʿ, Upper Galilee, Israel, 1970–1972, [Meiron Excavation Project, no. 1] (Durham, N.C: Published for the American Schools of Oriental Research by Duke University Press, 1976), 49–53. Joint Expedition to Khirbet Shemaʿ, 1970–1972 et al., 71–73. Joint Expedition to Khirbet Shemaʿ, 1970–1972 et al., 76–80.
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Image of hetoimasia from the Orthodox (Neonian) Baptistery in Ravenna (mid-5th century) detail of image from creative commons. author: lstorato, from the wiki loves monuments italia, 201393
Considering all this iconography and archaeological evidence regarding the use of Torah arks and shrines, it is my opinion that the two stones placed at the central nave of the Ilici synagogue mosaic are not bases to sustain chancel screen pilasters. Rather they are for columns that sustained a structure such as a triumphal arch in antis to the Torah ark and shrine. A similar solution was found with two pillars sustaining a pediment in front of the Torah shrine of Beth Alpha, although the latter was dated to the 6th century. The placement of these two pillars with an upper pediment sustained a curtain which covered the ark itself, particularly its façade. A similar solution would have been applied to Ilici, with an important difference. The stones were added after the placement of the original mosaic, by the second half of the 5th century. The placement of these stones suggests the prior existence of furniture for the Torah scrolls in the original Phase IIe of the synagogue. In my opinion, the placement of the stones, which signify an arched or roofed structure that would be placed in antis to a wooden ark, suggests the ark itself was located above the eastern panel of the central nave, or what was called here panel C/I. This feature would explain why this panel was better preserved than most other panels of the mosaic, with the exception of the southern nave panels below wall B/014 built on top of them, and of the northwestern panels of the T-shaped double swastika meanders flanking the central carpet (or Nor/II). 93
Courtesy of Ministero per i beni e le attività culturali.
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figure 11.33
Representation of the ecclesiastical council of Antioch, on the 12th century north wall mosaic from the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem author: immanuel giel. creative commons
figure 11.34
Wall mosaic from the south ciborium of the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia, Ravenna, Italy (5th century) creative commons94 author: superchilum
The use of marks to indicate the placement of furniture can also be seen in synagogues across the Mediterranean. This is particularly the case of Apamea, where the seemingly unorganized geometric carpets do not follow any overall aesthetic or symbolic motif, but were probably complemented with furniture made of perishable material and, surely, wall stucco decorations that are today lost to us.95 94 95
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Galla_Placidia_Ravenna_03.JPG. Accessed: February 2021. Hachlili, AJAAD, 200–204.
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figures 11.35–36 The aedicula from Ostia as found in its original excavation and its reconstruction respectively courtesy of the soprintendenza at ostia. the right image is taken from: steven fine, sacred realm: the emergence of the synagogue in the ancient world, new york, 1996; 42, fig. 2.17. courtesy of steven fine and yeshiva university museum
The use of mosaic floors to indicate the placement of arks, as seems to be the case in Ilici, was therefore widespread in late antique synagogues. But what did it look like? Representations of such arks in both Christian and Jewish contexts suggest a rectangular-planned closet with inner shelves. Above the closet would be a pediment with a central decoration, probably a conch. At the top of the pediment, perhaps sustained by a cornice edge, a higher lamp would be placed. The armarium, kibotos, or theka was possibly raised several feet above ground, and therefore it would be accessible through a series of stairs behind the central inscription. In Phase IIc, when the central nave stones were added, columns were probably placed with a triumphal arch, like the ones seen in the synod panels from the Church of the Nativity or found in the relief from the synagogue of Chorazin. Between them, there would probably be a bar that held a rectangular parokhet which covered the ark’s façade from sight. Luckily, there is a contemporary depiction of a nearby triumphal arch in a decontextualized mosaic from the area of Carthago Nova, today Cartagena (Murcia). It is part of the collection found in the town of Cehegín (Murcia), though its origin is unknown.96 Fragment number 6 is of similar quality and polychromatic style 96
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Plan for the Sardis synagogue within the gymnasium and bath complex (Phase 3) from seager, a.r. (1972): “the building history of the sardis synagogue”, p. 426
as the ones found in the Ilici synagogue. It depicts a scene framed in a pentagon pointing upwards, made of a guilloche band and an inner white band flanked limited by two black lines (Fig. 11.38). Within it are two smooth columns sustaining an arch. The columns’ forms are made with black tesserae, two rows of white tesserae, and three central rows of blue tesserae. The capitals are schematized and done with red tesserae. The background is dominated by red tesserae as well.97 It has a late date, though Ramallo does not specify it. Par-
97
(Murcia: Consejería de Cultura y Educación de la Comunidad Autónoma, Colegio Oficial de Aparejadores y Arquitectos Técnicos, 1985), 116. The author suggests its origin might have been from the nearby ruined Roman town of Begastri, and that it was recovered during the interventions in the early 20th century by Jesuit scholars. However, this cannot be more than speculation. Ramallo Asensio, 117.
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figure 11.38 Mosaic panel scene from Cehegín. Origin unknown from: ramallo asensio (1985): mosaicos romanos de carthago nova (hispania citerior). plate lvi (lower image)
allels are found in the Early Christian world, including the baptistery-basilica of Mariana (Corsica) and several decontextualized mosaic fragments from Barcelona. Ramallo proposed that it depicts a door or a window. However, its framing in a pentagon actually suggests this is a schematized representation of an aedicula within a wider structure with a gabled roof. The scene confirms that these kinds of structures were used, or at least considered, as part of the inner architectural repertoire of the Late Empire in southeastern Hispania. Its use in Paleochristian settings in other points of the Mediterranean confirms the plausibility of such a feature in the Ilici synagogue. Another depiction of an aedicula, this time in a Jewish setting, is the decorated brick from the town of Acinippo (Fig. 2.5), placed in the Sephardi Museum. The image depicts an aedicula made of two columns sustaining an arch, under which is a conch. The central scene is a central menorah flanked
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by a lulav and other figures associated with the festivities of the month of Tishrei and an accompanying Greek inscription with the name Micha(e)l, covered more thoroughly in Chapter 2. This is more evidence from the Peninsula that suggests these architectural features were probably used in the synagogue at Ilici as well. It is through these parallels that one can conclude that the two stones placed at the center of the mosaic formed part of the front of an aedicula, behind which was probably wooden furniture to hold the Torah scrolls and/or other important ritual objects for the Jewish community using this synagogue. The columns that held the parokhet would probably not have stood alone. They would be attached to wooden structures or to the ark itself, although no evidence of this survives. Nevertheless, following the representation of the Torah shrine and ark motif from the Beth Sheʾan A synagogue, we can imagine how the façade of this feature would be seen when the parokhet was placed. There would have been more than just one parokhet in the front. That is, the view would have been blocked with side curtains as well, as was schematized in the Church of the Nativity panels. To conclude, we find the stones to be evidence of a complex series of central structures that held the most important element of the synagogue architecture: the Torah scrolls. These would be held in a wooden armarium, standing alone in the earliest phases of the synagogue. During festivities or important events in the Jewish calendar, the Torah scrolls would be revealed to the community. The importance of this feature became more prevalent in the late 5th century, with the addition of a triumphal arch or monumental columns with pediment, to sustain a parokhet, thus giving an aura of holiness to the presence of the Sacred Texts themselves. 4.4 The Apsed Synagogue and Church The eastern apse’s addition changed the original architectural harmony of the building. However, this does not mean the search for an architectural harmonization was abandoned, as evidenced from the building’s metrology (see Chapter 7, 4.2). The addition of apses on the wall looking to Jerusalem in synagogues is mostly a feature found in the 6th century. Synagogues from the late antique period in Israel featuring apses include Beth Alpha,98 Naʾaran,99 Maʾon
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Benjamin Mazar, ed., Beth Sheʿarim; Report on the Excavations During 1936–1940, vol. 1 (New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press on behalf of the Israel Exploration Society and the Institute of Archaeology, Hebrew University, 1973). Vincent, “Un sanctuaire dans la région de Jéricho. La synagogue de Naʾarah.”
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(Nirim),100 and Gaza,101 all of which were built ex novo between the late 5th and 6th centuries. However, not all synagogues featured an apse in the 6th century, particularly the Phase II synagogue in Susiya that had a triple niche, or the last phase of the Gush Ḥalav synagogue with a reduced aedicula platform that was repurposed from the building’s previous use.102 There are a few cases where apses were added to a synagogue building. These are particularly Maʾoz Hayim,103 Hammath Tiberias B,104 and Hammath Gader.105 The Maʾoz Hayim apse, constructed in Building B (early 5th century, according to Milson)106 and maintained in later Building C, required the demolition of a rectangular bema structure attached to the southern wall of the earliest Building A (3rd–4th centuries). In Hammath Tiberias B (dated to the 6th to 8th centuries), the apse was developed from a previous room to the south of the building and was probably used as a raised niche as well in phases IIa and, particularly, IIb. Milson identifies there the first evidence of a synthronon in Phase IA, placed inside the southern apse.107 The addition of the apse was probably an influence from Eastern Roman Christian architecture. The case of the Ilici apse, built in a Phase IIb associated with a late-5th century to 6th century ce date, should not be considered as an exception.
100
101
102 103
104 105
106 107
Shai Levi, “The Ancient Synagogue at Maon (Nirim),” Eretz-Israel: Archaeological, Historical and Geographical Studies Dedicated to the Memory of Mordechai Narkiss (1897–1957) (1960): 77–82 (Hebrew); Yogev, “The Synagogue at Maʾon—New Discoveries,” 208–215. Jean Leclant, “Fouilles et travaux en Égypte et au Soudan, 1964–1965,” Orientalia, Nova Series, 35, no. 2 (1966): 135; Ovadiah, “The Synagogue at Gaza,” 129–131. While first discovered by an Egyptian team under the direction of the Service des Antiquites, by the time the Israeli team started its excavation in this site following the Six Day War in 1967, the majority of the site’s architecture had decayed or perished. Thus, Ovadiah relates the fact that only the mosaic and annexed structures were preserved in this complex when his team arrived at the site. Hachlili, AJAALI, 173, 179–182, 399; Levine, The Ancient Synagogue, 355–356. Vassilios Tzaferis, The Ancient Synagogue next to Maʾoz Hayyim (Kibbutz Maoz Hayim + Rehavia: Hamoshava HaEzorit Biqʾat Bet Sheʾan and Mediterranean Archaelogy Museum Nir David, 1981), 3–4 (Hebrew); Tzaferis, “The Ancient Synagogue at Maʾoz Hayyim,” 220– 218. Dothan, Hammath Tiberias, 2000, II-Late Synagogues: 21; Milson, Art and Architecture of the Synagogue, 177. Eleazar Lipa Sukenik, “The Ancient Synagogue of El-Hammeh,” Journal of the Palestine Oriental Society 15 (1935): 122, 148, 163–166; Marilyn Joyce Segal Chiat, Handbook of Synagogue Architecture, Brown Judaic Studies, no. 29 (Chico, California: Scholars Press, 1982), 307–313. Milson, Art and Architecture of the Synagogue, 428. Milson, 68.
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A close parallel to the case of Ilici is the synagogue of Hammath Gader. In the late synagogue there is no clear evidence for the structures prior to the construction of the apse before its southern wall. However, its placement within the rectangular room and, most importantly, the fact that the room found east of the apse itself was apparently completely sealed off (for which Sukenik gave no explanation) suggest that this was a later addition. The floor of the apse itself was 1.18 meters below the upper step of the introductory steps, or bema, to the north. Sukenik explained this feature as being a basement of sorts, below a wooden platform placed at the height of the upper step. Likewise, he proposed the existence of a wooden bema on top of the last mosaic floor level of the building.108 The Diaspora provides the significant case of the Aegina synagogue discovered by Ludwig Ross in 1825, and re-excavated in 1932 by Dr. G. Welter.109 It was published by Mazur in 1935, although Sukenik already mentioned it in 1934.110 The synagogue, about 13.5×7.6 meters, presents a semi-circular eastern apse 5.5 meters wide. The Aegina synagogue is significant as it was also accessed from the west, a trait shared with the Ilici synagogue, and has a mosaic floor defined by its geometric patterns. The Aegina synagogue was identified through its mosaic inscriptions, mentioning a donation by Theodoros the archisynagogos of the community, next to the western entrance to the hall looking outward. The apse was part of the first structure (Synagogue I), possibly built before the first half of the 4th century. The second structure (Synagogue II) was built in the first half of the 4th century according to Mazur, which would place this apsed synagogue at a relatively early date. By the Byzantine period the site was abandoned and used as a Christian cemetery.111 Whether the Ilici apse was built in the first or second half of the 6th century (that is, before or after the Eastern Roman invasion), it is impossible to know, as the original fill within the apse was removed in the 1905 excavation with no detailed description of it by either Albertini or Ibarra. The Jewish community in Ilici was evidently influenced by oriental trends, particularly clear in the use of Greek as a primary language for their mosaic pavement, rather than Latin (although this could be a sign of prevailing Jewish tradition as much as eastern 108 109 110
111
Sukenik, “The Ancient Synagogue of El-Hammeh,” 165. Elias V. Messinas, The Synagogues of Greece: A Study of Synagogues in Macedonia and Thrace, 1st ed (Jacksonville, Florida: Bloch Publishing Co., 2012), n. 42. Eleazar Lipa Sukenik, Ancient Synagogues in Palestine and Greece (London: British Academy, 1934), 44–45; Belle D. Mazur, Studies on the Jewry in Greece (Athens: Hestia, 1935), 25–31; Hachlili, AJAAD, 25–31. Mazur, Studies on the Jewry in Greece, 29; Hachlili, AJAAD, 31; Messinas, The Synagogues of Greece, 13.
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influence).112 In any case, this addition was probably made before the conversion of the synagogue into a Christian church. The fact that the apse’s axis is shifted north compared to the central axis of the mosaic floor is telling of the continued use of the mosaic floor’s features after the apse’s addition. However, it is uncertain whether the central eastern panel was still used as a place for the Torah ark or for some other use. The central nave stones were not moved, and the evidence for architectural remains associated with the columns for those central stones suggest they were still in use by the time the building was abandoned after the construction of the apse. There are two possible uses for such an apse in a synagogue setting. The first is the placement of the ark within it, which would allow for an easier covering of the ark and its scrolls with only a frontal parokhet or curtain. This would suggest that at the sides of the apse there was a structure that allowed for a curtain to be hung, in a similar fashion to the Beth Alpha apse. Consequently, the area to the east of the central mosaic nave would have been used as a bema area, with a wooden platform that did not survive. Similar arrangements were found in ‘En Gedi’s late phase. The Ilici apse probably had a raised, wooden platform underneath which was rubble—explaining why there were no pavement associated with the apse. The access to the apse would have been a few steps from the mosaic area—a feature that could be accommodated considering the 1.1-meter space between the start of the apse and the mosaic floor, itself. Another option was the use of the apse as a bema, while the central eastern area of the mosaic was still in use for a Torah ark, be it mobile or permanent. However, had this been the case, the visibility of the bema from the southern aisle would have been severely reduced, making this proposition unlikely. Furthermore, the apse was accommodated to be placed in front of the entrance to the main hall in Phase IIb. Therefore, the placement of a bema does not seem to be possible. The absence of evidence for the original use of the apse before its Christian conversion makes it difficult to pinpoint. Considering the evidence of synagogues where apses were added, and in which aediculae and niches were demolished and replaced, it is safe to assume that the apse served as a repos-
112
Rutgers, The Jews in Late Ancient Rome, 176–184. Here Rutgers correctly suggests that the prevalence of Greek in predominantly Latin environments such as the catacombs of Rome was a result of maintenance of language within the Jewish communities as much as of influence from the eastern half of the Mediterranean. He proposes this based on the comparison between the Jewish and Christian catacombs. In the latter, Latin quickly displaces the original Greek element in the 4th century, as in the upper catacomb of Domitilla.
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itory for the Torah scrolls. The area originally used for the ark was then left bare for other purposes. The monumentality of a triumphal arch or aedicula columns in the central mosaic nave implied the structure was not removed, but that the space was merely reused for other purposes. It is possible that the platform where the ark once stood remained and was used as a bema, as suggested above. Therefore, the rituals and the original sense of the central mosaic inscription was kept with its symbolism intact. These are mostly speculative interpretations, although based on parallels from around the Mediterranean world. What about the typology of the apse itself? It is clear it was constructed ad hoc for the purposes of the local community. There are few cases of such apses in the Iberian Peninsula, considering most known early churches in Spain and Portugal were built with an apse ex novo. The closest formal parallel to the Ilici apse is that from the basilica of Torre de Palma, Monforte, Portugal, with an apse apparently built in the last third of the 4th century.113 The similarity lies in its attachment to a tangential wall behind it. But the similarities end there. The placement of marks for pilasters attached to the north and south extension walls of the apse suggests its use in all three phases of the site, without changes, from its very construction. This is unlike the 6th century construction of the apse from Ilici. Furthermore, the Torre de Palma apse was built symmetrically to the central nave. Another formal similarity lies in the basilica of Empúries (Catalonia). According to Palol, it is dated to the late 5th and through to the 6th centuries, and built taking advantage of a thermal structure, specifically an apoditerium. It had a funerary use from its first phase, where the building had a rectangular plan without an apse. It was only in its second phase when the apse was added, along with a narthex. Palol identified two phases, the latter with the apse “as is seen today”, not discarding the existence of an apse or an analogous structure from before the last phase. This later phase is associated with a 7th century reform, with a church that would remain in use until the 9th century as a cella memoriae,114 with an evident funerary use. The apse itself was a rounded rectangle with its outer wall touching a previous limit of the main hall in a tangential manner. However, as in Torre de Palma, the apse is centralized and associated with funerary remains, such as a lime sarcophagus found in situ.115
113 114 115
Godoy Fernández, Arqueología y Liturgia, 297–298, Figs. 65–68. de Palol, Arqueología cristiana de la España romana. Siglos IV–VI, 32–36, Fig. 8; Godoy Fernández, Arqueología y Liturgia, 217–219, Fig. 36. de Palol, Arqueología cristiana de la España romana. Siglos IV–VI, 35.
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The apse in Ilici is an anomaly for Christian architecture in Hispania. However, it is not unparalelled in Jewish synagogues, particularly in cases where apses were added to replace features with similar use. The Ilici apse should be regarded as part of a Jewish synagogue, where its “decentralized” axis made no difference for the use of the feature. Considering the already monumental central nave of the mosaic floor from Phase IIc, the question remains as to why was this apse added? The addition of apses in synagogues, be they ex novo or ad hoc, did not seemingly reflect a significant change in the use of the synagogue’s spaces. This is the opinion of Milson, who states that this feature was probably the result of influence and pressure in areas of strong Christian presence.116 I agree to this evident fact, albeit with a caveat: the feature is similar, but the message was probably distinct from the Christian apses. This gives Phase IIb a significance not only for the Jewish history of Ilici, but also for its Christian history, as it was an expression of the wider Jewish-Christian dialogue and conflict in late antique Hispania. The conversion of the Ilici synagogue to a church in the last phase of the mosaic’s use, or Phase IIa, probably used the synagogue architectural features and furniture for its own purposes. The similarity between a Christian church and a Jewish synagogue even in the 6th century probably made the conversion of the synagogue a simple matter that did not require a large number of reforms. The apse continued its utility to the new community, now with a central altar that probably included the Attic base found during the 1905 excavation by Pere Ibarra. The altar’s date as well as findings from Area T and north of the mosaic area suggest a 7th century date. 4.5 The Menorah as a Jewish Symbol The only Jewish symbol in the mosaic, which was crucial for the identification of the building as a synagogue, are the double-seven branched menoroth in the northeastern corner (panel Nor/I) of the floor (Fig. 7.16). The menoroth found here deserves a quick description, beyond what was already given in Chapter 7. The menoroth are identifiable due to two features. The first is the seven branches created by three semicircular concentric lines with a central shaft line that both menoroth share. The two menoroth seem to be identical, but the “upper” (northern) menorah is less well preserved. The “upper line” of the southern menorah presents an extra, thickened line that is nothing other than a horizontal crossbar depicted in other menoroth from late antique Jewish art.117 116 117
Milson, Art and Architecture of the Synagogue, 226–228, 234–235. Concerning the upper crossbars in the menorah: Hachlili, The Menorah, the Ancient Seven-
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The placement of the menorah is in a secondary position and is barely visible should we consider the rest of the features of this mosaic floor. It was added in a repair of the mosaic and was not part of the original floor. A parallel to this can be seen in the mosaic floor of the synagogue of Apamea, Syria. The mosaic floor presents a series of unconnected panels which seem to have been rendered separately as they filled the floor area itself.118 In its southeastern corner is a square carpet with geometric motif and a central, circular inscription (Panel I).119 Only there, does one find the depiction of one single seven-branched candelabra in between two triangles of the geometric composite. In this case the menorah is elongated and has globular decorations in the central shaft. It is important to note that Sukenik suggested a late 4th century date for the Apamea synagogue construction, followed by its quick abandonment or replacement with a church in the early-mid 5th century, explaining the good conservation of the mosaic floor itself. The mosaic in the Hammam Lif synagogue presents two minor renditions of menoroth, flanking the central mosaic inscription. The two menoroth are placed within a stylized decorated rhomboid form inside a square. These two have seven branches and a tripod base. While placed in a central section of the mosaic, and therefore impossible to miss, it seems as if these menoroth are a secondary feature compared to the maritime and paradisal scene dominated by the figures of large fishes and peacocks, respectively. The closest formal comparison with the Ilici menoroth is in a recently excavated lintel from Raqit, in the Galilee.120 Perhaps belonging to a Samaritan synagogue, the menoroth are distinct from typical Jewish candelabra. They are placed at the preserved left edge frame and divided into two parts. The upper part depicts a menorah with twelve branches placed in concentric semi-circles and had a central shaft; the lower section of the central shaft is decorated in guilloche patterns. The lower part seems like the base of the menorah, sevenbranched candelabra. Flanking the menoroth is a rosette to the left and a series of liturgical objects to the right (perhaps a lulav and etrog). The Raqit candelabras have no upper candlestick bar. While placed in a similar pattern as the Ilici menoroth, their rendering is different. In the case of Ilici there are two seven-branched candelabra.
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Armed Candelabrum, 162. Hachlili suggests that evidence of this crossbar appears from the 3rd century ce and appears more often in synagogue than funerary environments. They are associated with glass containers which they sustained. Eleazar Lipa Sukenik, “Mosaic Inscriptions at Apamea,” Hebrew Union College Annual 23, no. 2 (1950–1951): 542–543. Sukenik, “Mosaic Inscriptions at Apamea,” Plate V; Hachlili, AJAAD, 201. Dar and Arensburg, Raqit, 185; Hachlili, The Menorah, the Ancient Seven-Armed Candelabrum, 304, number IS4.52.
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We notice from the above examples that the menoroth found in Ilici is not unique to the Hispanic city, whether in its concept or its context within the mosaic floor. In the Alcudia, Jewish symbolism apparently took secondary priority compared to the seemingly more prevalent overarching geometric carpet themes. It was so secondary, that it only appeared following a repair phase that was identified here as Phase IId. However, the symbolism is clear enough to reject previous scholarship’s dismissal of the presence of Jewish menoroth. The presence of the upper candle bar at the top of the southern menorah and the very defacement of both, makes such identification unmistakable.
5
The Church
There is no precise evidence as to when the synagogue became a church. However, as we have seen from the analysis of the mosaic’s defacement, this transformation certainly occurred. The apse and architectural features would have been preserved and reconverted for Christian usage, as in the case of Gerasa, where the floor-themed mosaic was defaced and only later covered.121 In Ilici its Christian use would be the last phase for the use of the mosaic and the apse; therefore it is fitting that the largest amount of remains would point towards the late, 7th century ce church. It has been suggested here that there were no chancel screens on the Ilici mosaic, despite Ramos Folqués’ identification of certain bezel work fragments in 1972 (Figs. 11.39, 40, 41, 42, 43). The remains of these 7th century productions, recovered in the 1905 excavation by Albertini and Ibarra, and the 1948 and 1955 excavations by Ramos Folqués, were mostly found to the south-east and west of Area B, suggesting that light would have poured into the building at dawn and evening. Even so, it is not possible to discard the placement of these window screens in other walls. The first and only published measurement of these objects was made in 2006 by Sonia Gutiérrez Lloret and Julia Sarabia Bautista, indicating them to be 90 centimeters tall and between 40 and 45 centimeters wide.122
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Crowfoot and Hamilton, “The Discovery of a Synagogue at Jerash.” This is a reminder that there is an important distinction between the cases of Gerasa and Ilici. In the former, the western apse was demolished, covered, and replaced with an eastern apse, appropriate for Christian rituals. In the latter, the apse remained in place as it was in the adequate direction for its Christian usage. Sonia Gutiérrez Lloret and Julia Sarabia Bautista, “El problema de la escultura decorativa visigoda en el sudeste a la luz del Tolmo de Minateda (Albacete),” 319.
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The tilting of the longitudinal axis of the main hall to a northwest-southeast direction by around 12 degrees from the “ideal” east-west axis allowed light to easily enter at dawn, giving an effect of utmost ritual importance. This does not negate the probability of windows elsewhere in the site from the previous synagogue phase. Nevertheless, the only window decorations preserved to us are from the 7th century Christian church. Had the church represented the last phase of the building’s use, prior to its abandonment, it would be surprising that Ibarra found the altar base at the bottom of the apse fill. However, as was indicated in Chapter 7, there are at least two use phases after the abandonment of the church—Phase Ib and Phase Ia. The former included partial demolition of the apse, and the second included the spoliation of the structure, which means that the altar base was probably placed at the bottom of the apse fill following the building’s abandonment. The attic base had a hole in its center, probably used for the placement of relics. However, there is no evidence for ad sanctos burials (see 5.2 below). Evidence for a long-standing martyrial cult is absent as well. The reason for this is probably due to a policy by the Eastern Roman emperors, or Visigothic kings in Late Antiquity, that important relics should be collected by the crown and new monasteries, and placed in newly consecrated cultic centers, preferably next to their centers of power.123 Whatever relics remained in Ilici, they might have been of more limited value for the congregation than for the Visigothic authority. Be that as it may, evidence for Christian cult in the basilica is dotted around the site. This is particularly true with the lamp found in fill B/F/215, above the mosaic layer (BAE/1950/B/F/215/cer/1). The lamp is of a late form, probably 6th or 7th century, and has a chi-rho on its discus. The small amount of detail prevents us from specifying further, but the use of these kinds of lamps should not be a surprise considering the need for lighting within the building. Furthermore, the finding of the Crypta Balbi 1 amphora (BAE/1948/T/B3/255/cer/II/1) in the tabernae’s “Level A” layer, suggests the use of imported oil for this purpose. 123
A summary of the East Roman policy of concentration of relics can be found in Holger A. Klein, “Sacred Relics and Imperial Ceremonies at the Great Palace of Constantinople,” Veröffentlichungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts Istanbul, Visualisierungen von Herrschaft. Frühmittelalterliche Residenzen, Gestalt und Zeremoniell, 5 (2006): 79–99. In Toledo such concentration could have occured at the Vega Baja sector of the late antique city; see Rafael Barroso Cabrera, Jesús Carrobles Santos, and Jorge Morín de Pablos, “Arquitectura de poder en el territorio toledano en la Antigüedad tardía y época visigoda. Los palacios de Toledo como referente en la edilicia medieval,” in La ciudad medieval: de la casa principal al palacio urbano (Actas del III Curso de Historia y Urbanismo medieval, Toledo: Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, 2011), 37–39.
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The church is remarkably devoid of adjacent structures that would suggest the presence of a baptistery. The absence of added chancel screens in place of the columns with parokhet is also a strange occurrence. However, there are few cases of converted synagogues in the Mediterranean, and the Ilici church is one of a kind in the Western Mediterranean. As a result, there are too few comparative structures for a complete interpretation of this building’s phase. The few architectural changes the building underwent should not be allowed to undermine the dramatic change that this conversion represents. The early 7th century was one of upheaval for the Jews, with draconian regulations that increased in tone until Sisebut’s first wave of forceful conversions. The fall of Ilici to the Visigothic kings meant the beginning of the end of Jewish life in the town. In theory by the mid-7th century, under the rule of Reccared, the practice of Judaism in the Visigothic Kingdom was prohibited, in a dramatic turn of Visigothic policy that up until then merely upheld already existing 5th century legislation. However, as proposed by Bachrach and Cordero Navarro, such persecutions were overwhelmingly ineffective, and did not go beyond the close circle of the Visigothic King in Toledo.124 For his part Rabello suggests that this was a result of Jewish perseverance in the face of persecution.125 Be that as it may, Jewish life remained in the Iberian Peninsula regardless of the wishes of the Gothic crown, as reflected by chronicles from the Arab conquest in the 8th century, be it openly or clandestinely as a kind of early medieval “conversos” (see Chapter 5, 1). In fact, as is evident from Chapter 2, Ins. 6.1, the apparent persecution of Iberian Jews was not enough to force them to hide their faith. Instead one finds open 7th century inscriptions explicitly mentioning Jewish names and employing Jewish symbols. So, what could have happened in the Ilici synagogue that would lead to its conversion in the late 6th or 7th century? Unlike other areas of the kingdom, Ilici was recently conquered and, therefore, had no local nobility or authority to challenge the proclaimed policies of the crown. The local Jewish communities probably had close, or at least working, relations with the Eastern Roman authorities of Spania. It seems likely the conversion of the Ilici synagogue was due to a local application of an otherwise failed policy of pressure or conversion of Jews to Christianity, rather than
124
125
Bernard S. Bachrach, “A Reassessment of Visigothic Jewish Policy,” 24–26; Bachrach, Early Medieval Jewish Policy in Western Europe 17–18, on the particular failure of king Receswinth to destroy the Jewish community. See also Catherine Cordero Navarro, “El problema judío como visión del ‘otro’ en el reino visigodo de Toledo. Revisiones historiográficas,” En La España Medieval 23 (2000): 36–38. Rabello, Ha-Yehudim (Hebrew), 84–85.
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figures 11.39–42 Window screens (formerly “chancel screens”) as published in a. ramos folqués (1972): “un cancel visigodo en la alcudia de elche”, pyrenae 8, plates ii–iv
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figure 11.43 Fragments of window screen (formerly “chancel screen”) as published in a. ramos folqués (1972): “un cancel visigodo en la alcudia de elche”, pyrenae 8, plate iv
a reflection of a general trend. The urban and socio-political transformations probably affected other communities and not only the Jewish one. A conversion is more than a mere transformation of physical space from a synagogue building into a church. It is a political and religious statement, regarding the victory of the Christian faith over other competing faiths and doctrines deemed false or heretical. However, we do not know what happened to the Jewish community after such conversion. Was the synagogue converted after a conversion of the Jewish community itself, or was the synagogue abandoned following persecutions and/or expulsions? This question remains unanswered.
6
Abandonment Levels: The “Visigothic” Cemetery
6.1 A Privatized Basilica As indicated in the previous chapters, the latest phase of use for the complex is from Phase Ib, which should be associated with “Level O” of the excavation. There is no precise dating for this phase. At a certain point after the 7th century ce the church was abandoned and partially demolished, only to be reformed internally. Houses for personal use were built at the narthex area, and a large east-west wall cuts through the apse and is built on top of the mosaic
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floor itself. The latter wall was not stable enough to sustain a heavy load such as a rooftop as it lacked a foundation. Therefore, it is likely that the original church roof tiles were still in use. The division of the inner space of ecclesiastical property for private use is an anomaly in late antique Hispania. Sadly, there is little evidence for this late phase beyond the fact that it existed. Certainly, for the construction of these new habitational units there was widespread usage of spolia, particularly in walls like B/OM/033 to the northeast of sub-area B/OM, or the former narthex. The placement of this wall on top of what remained of wall B/OM/027 suggests it was of a later date, and that by then this space would have been partially demolished—much like the southern half of the eastern apse. The usage of spolia, from a former church for the construction of post-7th century private structures, is evidence of the progressive abandonment of the urban space of Ilici that was already taking place in the 7th century. The deconsecration of the church must have occurred after the Muslim conquest of the Visigothic kingdom in the 710s, with the collapse of traditional authorities in major cities of the Iberian Peninsula. The surrounding spaces of the former domus seemed to still be in use by Phase Ib, particularly areas “S” and “P”. The building of a new southern wall for Area B (B/021) suggests that these structures were still visible in the 8th century. The Area P perimeter walls, including its door, were monumental and well-constructed, although the entrance was probably from an earlier period and therefore a spolia. However, it is noticeable that the old grid that ordered the domus’ space was still in use, even after the Christian basilica was abandoned. As is evidenced by the clear abandonment of the tabernae from Phase II, the structure ceased to be used as a domus in Phase Ib, and it is possible that the southern street was also in the process of progressive abandonment. The partial demolition of the apse did not lead to the ruin of the structure, as it was still in use after this event. This fact is evidence for what was stated above and in Chapter 7: the apse did not sustain a wall as proposed by Lorenzo and Morcillo in 2014, and by Lorenzo in his doctoral thesis from 2016. However, the northern remains of the apse might still be visible and used in Phase Ib, though this too is uncertain. 6.2 The Late Cemetery The latest use of the area is that of the burial to the south of the already abandoned basilical building. The body was found on top of what was once room T/I, in evidently a secondary burial context, having been removed from its original position and reburied. Evidence for hearths were found around the tomb
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(see Chapter 9, 3.3). However, was this a sole burial, or are there more burials present to accompany the one detected? Evidence for a wider cemetery is found in Ramos Folqués’ report on his excavations in 1950. Four individuals were found at a depth of 10 to 25 centimeters from the modern soil to the east of the basilical complex. Ramos Folqués indicates the remains were found “next to the road that goes to the property”, that is, Folqués’ country house. The full translated quote is as follows: The past year, 1950, we continued our excavations in the same place of the Alcudia as in previous campaigns, following the direction East up to the path that goes to the estate. We had just begun to dig when, 25 centimeters below the surface, entirely in the agricultural level, we observe the appearance of several bones, which uncovered with the care required in this situation, show us the presence of almost complete skeletons with an east-west direction, totaling four, in addition to the remains of leg bones of another. They are all deteriorated, certainly due to agricultural labors on the surface, no doubt being the reason for the disappearance of other skeletons from the supposed Visigothic necropolis. No remains or prints of wood, nails or other indications of coffins or boxes were found for their burial; moreover, the excavated pits to bury the bodies were of reduced dimensions. This series of observations lead us to suppose that the cadavers, possibly surrounded by a shroud, were placed on and covered with earth, in such a manner that the sepultures could be identified by sight. The modesty of these sepultures is made manifest with their trousseau, that barely existed, since only fragments of very coarse vases were found, as well as a ringed earring and a perforated decoration of vitric paste next to the place corresponding with an ear of one of the craniums. I believe that these few sepultures, preserved due to their placement between old trees, were part of a Visigothic necropolis destroyed due to agricultural work, being a necropolis that belonged to a period when the Alcudia was inhabited, corresponding with the Herrera del Pisuegra, Castilterra A, and Villel de Mesa type with a 6th–7th century ad chronology.126
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The quote goes on to relate the materials found in “Level A” and subsequent layers according to Ramos Folqués’ stratigraphy. Late publications in 1972 and 1974 complement this information. The first indicates that the bodies were found “between the Basilica and the road to the Estate”, and it provides the first indication that the bodies were found 10 centimeters below the surface, rather than 25 centimeters. A second short reference is from 1974’s El cristianismo en Elche which agrees with the first: Another finding of great interest is that of a Visigothic necropolis. It was found between the Basilica and the road to the estate, a bit more than ten centimeters below the surface. The skeletons were placed above the ground, in an east-west direction, with their head to the east. One of them preserved an earring made of a ring and a vitric paste bead.127 This quote was mentioned in a section dedicated to the “Basilica’s cemetery” in the recent thesis by Roberto Lorenzo, as evidence for the existence of an ad sanctos burial area next to, and pointing towards, the apse of the hypothetical Christian church.128 From this, Lorenzo necessarily assumes the presence of a martyrial cult in said basilica, which fits into his theory regarding the structure being an ex novo Christian church from its inception. The assumption that this cemetery represents the existence of ad sanctos burial generates a significant problem. Simply put: there is little information regarding the individual skeletons found. For example, there is no indication, in any of the quotations by Ramos Folqués, that these bodies were placed in any viable proximity to the apse east of the basilical building. No human remains are documented in Area S, which would be the natural place for an ad sanctos cemetery, let alone in Area B. The quotes by Ramos Folqués insist on the finding of these individuals in a general area between a north-south road that led from the general area of the estate (in the center-east section of the Alcudia) and the “basilica” itself (or quadrant 10-A of the Alcudia). Further buried bodies, associated with burials beneath an opus signinum within a domestic environment and dated to the 6th and 7th centuries, were found in this general area, at about a hundred meters from the place where the Dama de Elche statue was discovered (or about 50 to 60 meters east of the synagogue building). Lorenzo does not assume the quoted
127 128
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cemetery found in 1950 should be associated with these late burials, proposing that these were found near the eastern apse itself.129 The absence of any direct evidence for such burials near the apse leads us to discard the theory of the presence of an ad sanctos cemetery associated with the late antique church from the 7th century. This is supported through the analysis the sole burial from the general area of the basilical building, which, I shall argue, has similarities with the above-mentioned necropolis, but also presents important distinctions. Like the burials from Folqués’ quotes, the one from Area T (Burial 1 or T/207) was placed by breaking a “Level O” above the “Level A” associated with late antique periods. Ramos Folqués, despite giving a 7th century date to the cemetery, clearly states that the other burials found in the street area are placed in “agricultural soil”, which places them in a similar stratigraphic position as T/207. This fact points towards a similar date for the Area T burial and for the burials found in 1950. However, there are important differences: the published and preserved pictures from the excavated cemetery reveal the bodies in primary burials, all placed in an east-west direction and without much disturbance. This is due to their “protection” by trees placed nearby, that prevented disruption by later agricultural activities. On the other hand, the Area T burial was seemingly disturbed, as the body was placed in secondary burial, with its head placed tilted and bones of extremities carefully placed on top of the cranium. This evidences the fact that despite agricultural activities affecting the upper layers of the site, this individual’s position at the moment of discovery was the result of intentional reburial and not the immediate product of agricultural activity. This placement of burials affecting the last layers of the site may suggest that they come from a time when the Alcudia settlement was in full process of abandonment. However, the absence of burials within the basilical area, despite their extensiveness in the southern and southeastern area of the archaeological site, may suggest the burials began to be placed slightly before the final demolition, abandonment, and spoliation of the building’s materials, as detected in Phase Ia, dated to the 8th or 9th centuries (see chapters 7 and 9). The basilical building of quadrant 10-A of the Alcudia ultimately met the same fate as the rest of the buildings of the site, but would be amongst the last monuments demolished. The cemetery is clearly of a late date. It might have already appeared in the 7th century, but the burial south of the basilical building is not dated earlier
129
Lorenzo de San Román, 275, note 906.
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than the 8th century, after “Level O” associated with walls B/021 and B/014 (that is, Phase Ib). The complete skeleton burials were probably made after the deconsecration of the Christian church, and therefore should not be regarded as an ad sanctos cemetery, both because of their location and their chronology. Ana Ronda Femenia tried to explain their location within the site in her 2018 publication of her PhD thesis. Regarding the above quote from the 1950 Ramos Folqués’ excavation report, she points out the presence of these burials at the eastern intersection between the “statue road” (Area C) and the north-south road that limits Area S from the east, following the excavation diary sketch from March 28th, 1952.130 She identifies the cemetery based on several photographs from the 1950 excavation (Figs. 11.44, 45, 46, 47), revealing the abovementioned human remains. The identification is correct, although it is evident from the mention of the loose leg identified here as C/E/161,131 that the leg must have been placed in proximity to the other individuals. The four individuals are clearly located on what seems to be a public area and upon demolished buildings, reflecting a time when the city was partially abandoned. Furthermore, the height of these burials is equal to “Level O” found in Area T; therefore, they probably belong to the same period as burial T/207. The placement of these individuals at a public section of the site (on the street’s path), suggests that there would have been no complications in placing these individuals closer to the apse of the main basilical building. However, the evidence suggests that these individuals were a considerable number of meters from the eastern apse (about five), at a stratigraphic stage associated with the building’s abandonment as a religious structure. The burials, like that of individual T/207, are dated to a period during or after the Alcudia’s abandonment no earlier than the 8th century. According to Ana Ronda, the placement of these individuals is strictly next to what was the eastern edge of Area S. However, the available photographs, specifically Fig. 11.44, suggest the “cemetery” was placed east of the north-south modern road that connects quadrant 10-A with the modern site’s museum. This means that the apparent cemetery was placed within quadrant 10-B, tens of meters east of the main site. The position of the “leg” found in sub-area C/E implies that certain human remains were moved due to erosion and agricultural activities, which caused the destruction of other late burials in this site’s sector. This confirms, once more, the placement of such burials at a date close to the abandonment of the site.
130 131
Ronda Femenia, L’Alcudia de Alejandro Ramos Folqués, 178, 184–185, figs. 218, 231. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: May 10th, 1950, n. 11, f. 35v–36r.
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figures 11.44–45 Two individual burials found by Ramos Folqués in 1950. Within circle (44) the general location of the burial area. To the right (45), two adults. Note: Ana Ronda suggested in her reconstruction of the “Visigothic necropolis” that the individuals were placed further back in Fig. 11.44. However, the distinction is minor, and probably a result of clarification for the material’s publication. See Ronda Femenia, L’Alcudia de Alejandro Ramos Folqués, fig. 231. ramos folqués, a. (1956): “memoria de las excavaciones practicadas en la alcudia (elche). [campañas 1949–1952]”, plate cix
figures 11.46–47 Proximate burials in the “Visigothic cemetery”. To the left (46) their general positions. To the right (47) photograph of the individuals ramos folqués, a. (1956): “memoria de las excavaciones practicadas en la alcudia (elche). [campañas 1949–1952]”, plate cix
In any case, had this been indeed a 6th to 7th century cemetery, it is important to remember that burial grounds were found near synagogue complexes. The most significant is the synagogue of Bova Marina, with 1st and 2nd phase cemeteries seven meters away from the synagogue itself.132 This was presumably a distance sufficient to prevent the burials from causing purity problems 132
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for the synagogue. Burials associated with the 6th century synagogue were more monumental.133 In this case it would not be a burial ad synagoge, but apus synagoge, in accordance with the halakhic importance of avoiding unnecessary contact with impure objects, such as a human cadaver. However, the problems regarding this 6th to 7th century date for the present cemetery suggest that these individuals were buried, not while the main building was in use, but, after its abandonment.
7
Adjacent Structures
All stages of the synagogue and the later Christian basilica were accompanied with adjacent structures that were part of the wider building. These structures include the western narthex, the eastern Area S, the southern tabernae (Area T), and the northeastern Area P. 7.1 The Narthex: B/OM The narthex, or the introductory space before the main hall, was built at the same time as the placement of the mosaic in Phase IIe. However, as seen in the stratigraphic sequencing and different probes from Area B (Chapter 7), there is no evidence for any floor used there, before or after the construction of the site. However, the presence of a floor is undoubted at least in the latest use phase, considering the construction line of wall B/OM/033, when the north of the narthex was occupied by some dwelling or privatized spaces and the westernmost wall B/OM/027 was partially demolished. The wall B/OM/027 that limits the narthex from the west was probably built at the same time as the north wall B/023 that limits the southern wing of the domus to its north. This wall is also contemporary to B/010. They all are supported by the lower wall lines of pre-Roman structures, as was found in the 1990 excavation of the “Iberian Temple”. What is evident is that the narthex was a defined space with the construction of wall B/024, west of the mosaic floor itself, which would include the monumental central entrance and probably a window on top of it. The entrance wall to the narthex as well as that to the main wall was probably monumental, with a lintel supporting a decorated entrance or entrances that did not survive. The narthex space was narrower than the main hall. Its width was the original width of the Roman domus’ southern or southeastern wing. As in previous periods, this space having an exedra would 133
Finding within its fill a coin by Arcadius from the early 5th century, which confirms its late antique date.
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have been kept as an open space, therefore identifying it as an exonarthex to the main basilical hall. After Phase IIa, with Phase Ib, the northern third of the narthex was occupied with a privatized space after the partial demolition of the western access wall B/OM/027. By then the church was abandoned, although the structures present there were still being used, including the central and northern naves of the mosaic floor (the eastern apse was already partially demolished as well). There is no direct evidence from objects for the use of this space as a dwelling. However, the finding of ash hearths to the south of the basilical building, in Area T, and the placement of the westernmost stone of the wall B/OM/033 on top of the western wall of the narthex, suggest the use of this area for private dwellings. The presence of an introductory narthex or of a vestibule is found in all discovered western Mediterranean synagogues, to date. In Ostia, the monumental vestibule with four central columns giving access to the main hall to its west was already built from the foundation of the synagogue in the 1st century ce. It was subsequently reformed several times, including the replacement of its columns and the closing of the left access to add the Phase 4 aedicula from the 4th century. In Hammam Lif the access to the main hall is presided over by a monumental hallway with several divisions, flanked by annex rooms to support the Jewish communal building (Fig. 11.48). The hallway gives access to the main hall with a western circular niche and with the central inscription, which was readable looking east, where one would see the access to a room paved with another mosaic, interpreted as the synagogue’s apse. In Bova Marina, the access to the synagogue is achieved through an intricate series of rooms to the south-southwest of the main hall with a battered earth floor. In fact, during the first synagogue from the early-mid 4th century, there were two distinct access points to the main hall, both through a series of three hallways. The first (“Room 7”) had a small, direct access to the main quadrangular hall with its rich polychromatic mosaic decoration. It was paved apparently with flagstones. The second is found at the westernmost hallway (“Room 5”), with a preserved opus caementicium floor, which was accessed after crossing “Room 6” placed between rooms 5 and 7. “Room 5” gave access to the introductory courtyard of the synagogue, a squared space of similar measurement as the main hall itself. The lack of roof tiles found in the 1980s excavation by Costamagna suggests it was an open space.134 The access from this courtyard to the
134
Costamagna, 98–99.
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main hall had one door, although it was probably decorated with architectural features that have been lost. The presence of a narthex or vestibule in a synagogue setting was also found in structures such as that of Beth Alpha,135 ‘En Gedi,136 Sepphoris,137 and Susiya138 in the Land of Israel. Likewise, in the Diaspora, one or the other is widely found in synagogues such as Sardis,139 Priene,140 Bova Marina,141 and Ostia.142 The presence of a side entrance is further revealed in Ostia’s intermediary phase.143 This introductory space includes what seems to be a western “counter-apse”like structure that has a north-south tangential “channel”. There are two possible interpretations for this “counter-apse”. The first is the presence of a domusperiod partially demolished exedra, which was preserved in a later period. From the available archaeological evidence so far, this seems to be the more plausible explanation for this feature. However, the parallel from Hammam Lif’s “western niche” should not be discarded. It was interpreted by Goodenough as a cathedra de-moshe, or some other seat of honor.144 This western niche would have had a small platform in front of it. The person using it would have visibility towards the east, which is the position necessary to read the central mosaic of the main hall of this synagogue. A western monumental synthronon is found in the western apse of Sardis.145 In similar fashion, in the western, curved wall of Ostia’s main synagogue hall a bench was found, which was interpreted as a bema of sorts, similar to the usage of the Bova Marina southeastern bench, and what we interpreted here as the potential bench in the eastern wall of the Ilici synagogue. 135 136
137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144
145
Sukenik, The Ancient Synagogue of Beth Alpha, Plate XXVII. Dan Barag and Yosef Porat, “Synagogue at En Gedi,” Qadmoniot 11, no. 3 (1970): 97–100 (Hebrew); Dan Barag, Yosef Porat, and Ehud Netzer, “The Second Excavation Season in the En Gedi Synagogue,” Qadmoniot 18, no. 2 (1972): 52–54 (Hebrew). Weiss and Netzer, The Sepphoris Synagogue, 11. Shamrayah Gutman, Zeʾev Yeivin, and Ehud Netzer, “Excavations at the Synagogue in Khirbet Susiya,” Qadmoniot 18 (1972): 47–48 (Hebrew). Seager, “The Building History of the Sardis Synagogue” Ill. 2. Burkhardt and Wilson, “The Late Antique Synagogue in Priene: Its History, Architecture and Context,” 191 Fig. 3c. Costamagna, “La sinagoga di Bova Marina,” 1991 Figs. 1–2. White, “Synagogue and Society in Imperial Ostia: Archaeological and Epigraphic Evidence,” 29, 31; Runesson, “The Synagogue at Ancient Ostia,” 41–45, 65–71, 76–78. Runesson, “The Synagogue at Ancient Ostia,” 66. E.R. Goodenough, Jewish Symbols in the Greco-Roman Period, vol. 2: The Archaeological Evidence from the Diaspora, Bollingen Series 27 (New Haven, USA: Panthenon Books, 1953), 91. Seager, “The Building History of the Sardis Synagogue,” 434.
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Original plan of the Hammam Lif Synagogue according to e. renan (1884): “mosaïque de hammam lif. nouvelles observations”, revue archéologique, 3rd series, 3rd tome, p. 274
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The placement of a hypothetical entrance in the center of the “counter-apse”, as indicated by Ramos Folqués and the reconstruction of the basilical building after the 1990 excavation (see Chapter 7, 3.1.1), might point towards the use of this structure as part of a monumental entrance for the building following its demolition as an exedra. Sadly, this area was not fully excavated, nor was it properly documented for its definitive interpretation. This shall remain a hypothesis until further excavations and research is conducted. Before concluding this study, some considerations should be mentioned concerning the entrances. Access to the main hall was achieved from B/OM, from the west of the mosaic floor. However, the question remains to how it should be reconstructed. The presence of the exedra suggests that access to the domus was made through that space, and that it was possibly part of an open introductory space that led visitors towards the courtyard. Wall B/125, associated with Phase IIIb, may possibly be part of a division wall that limited this open space to its east. Wall B/OM/027 would define this entrance area from the west, and the access itself would be from sub-area T/HR (see Plates I, II). However, with the construction of the southern synagogue wall, the entrance was apparently sealed off. At this time sub-area B/OM was introduced as a narthex for the main synagogue hall. Evidence for the central, main entrance is present in Phase IIe, as it was constructed into the wall that limited the mosaic to the east (B/003). However, there is evidence of what seems to be a lintel stone to the south, next to the wall B/024, which was placed on top of earthen layer B/185. This ashlar stone, which is 80 centimeters wide, may be part of what seems to be the window threshold associated with the western façade of the main mosaic hall. 7.2 The “Sacristy”: Area S As was explained in Chapter 8, there is little evidence for the use of the Area S compartments. Similar to other churches and synagogues from the late antique Western Mediterranean, this space was probably used for support services and storage of items associated with the main cultic or ritual activities. In Hammam Lif the main entrance hallway is flanked to the east and west with rooms of uncertain purpose, placed south of the main mosaic hall where the maritime scene is located (see above, Fig. 11.48). The latter rooms are long adjacent hallways, with what seem to be basins and benches, indicating uses that as of today are unclear. To the west of the main hall is a long room with access from outside the complex, probably from the south. The rooms placed west of the entrance and vestibule have no evidence for their use. The closest parallel to the Ilici building is the Bova Marina synagogue. To the southeast and northwest of the synagogue’s second phase building there are
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associated structures, some of which were identified as storage facilities. The most important are rooms 13 to 17 to the southeast, built in a separate structure from the original synagogue building. Furthermore, in Room 24 to the west of the narthex, or vestibule room, was a treasure of 3070 coins, which according to Costamagna were probably associated with the savings of the Jewish community, as in the same room amphorae fragments were also found.146 The presence of multiple storage facilities should not surprise us. But was Area S used as a storage area for the synagogue such as room 24 in Bova Marina where community funds seem to have been stored? It is important to remember that Area P was associated with storage facilities as early as the first phase of the domus, or Phase IIIe, dated to the 1st century bce. By Late Antiquity, there is no indication that the use of this area has changed. If we consider the multiple storage rooms associated with the synagogue complex of Bova Marina, then we can safely assume that Ilici also had similar storage facilities in Area S, perhaps to store special products for the synagogue’s liturgy, while the Area P storage area was used for the domus community or dedicated to other products. This said, in Area S there was a possible second story that would allow for greater capacity of storage and use. The use of the gravel and mortar layer in the latest “Level A” floor indicates that the lower floor was used as an annex to the synagogue’s main hall. However, little more can be derived of their use, as in other synagogues. For example, in Hammath Tiberias B, particularly the latest synagogues, rooms adjacent to the eastern apse structure were cubicula without clear use, probably for storage.147 Similar structures were found in the Balearic churches of Es Fornás de Torelló (Fig. 11.14) and Illeta del Rei (Fig. 11.13) in Menorca. Both had adjacent rooms and buildings to the southeast. In the case of Es Fornás de Torelló, the supplementary structures are found separated from the main church structure, as was found in Bova Marina. However, in Illeta del Rei these structures are attached to the main building, with a circular-plan structure next to the main hall. While that latter feature could sustain a spiral staircase, it could also be the base for a triclinium as were found in early Christian catacombs in Malta.
146 147
Costamagna, “La sinagoga di Bova Marina,” 1991, 626. M. Dothan, Hammath Tiberias, vol. I, Ancient Synagogues Studies (Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society, 1983), 32–34. In his publication Dothan proposes that these rooms, adjacent to the southern apse and to a “cist” next to the apparent apse, included a “kalathos” which would imply its use as a domestic space. Perhaps it was used to house visitors for the community, but this theory seems speculative. It is perfectly possible this space was used for storage next to the apse area itself.
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As expected, from its first inception in Phase IIe, the synagogue was accompanied with a narthex for a monumental access as well as supplementary or complementary storage and support facilities for the different activities of the community. The examples of such, in other similar Christian and Jewish structures in the western Mediterranean, provide an indication of standard features present in late antique synagogues and ecclesiastical architectures. 7.3 Tabernae: Area T In Chapter 9, it was stated that the tabernae structures found between the southern street and the former domus wings were used not only during the domus period of the building, but also in the Phase II synagogue period as well. The continued use of this space as shops with access to the street is an indicator of the continued use of the domus for multiple (mostly residential) activities after the synagogue was built in its southeastern corner. Taking that into consideration, there are questions that still arise from these excavations: what was the nature of these shops and spaces? While Ramos Folqués described the levels to which these structures belonged, and while he suggested a theory regarding the area’s stratigraphic sequencing, there is no clear evidence for the activities within them. Their heterogeneous use can only be demonstrated through a few findings from this sector. One example is the presence of a coarse white mosaic floor in room T/E/T’ (T/E/T’/145). Such a mosaic pavement might have had many uses. However, it rules out a workshop or some other site for labor for the obvious reason that it is too great an expense to waste it in some area where it is likely to break. Therefore, this might have been an outer tablinum or office, a water installation (perhaps a water fountain), or even some altar looking to the southern street with access to passersby. Such pavements were not present elsewhere in Area T, suggesting that different activities were carried out in the other compartments. The presence of tabernae is expected from synagogues built in previouslyused buildings. The most evident are the shops attached to the southern wall of the Sardis synagogue, looking towards the main street. In the latest phase of the synagogue, one of these “shops” provided a side entrance to the colonnaded forecourt which had an eastern entrance directly from the street (two in Phase 3).148 The visible shops exposed today are from the Byzantine period and are associated with both Jewish and Christian owners, as is evident from
148
Seager, “The Building History of the Sardis Synagogue,” 425–426, Ill. 1, 2.
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the finding of crosses inside them.149 It is significant that the Sardis synagogue was placed in a prominent area of the city, north of the main east-west road. This is unlike the church which is placed, in typical fashion, at the outliers of the city, near to where martyrial cults developed. In Ilici, the continued use of the shops during Phase II of the building is evidence for the activity of the southern street during late antiquity. Even if there is the presence of early imperial burials indicate this section of the city as having been originally an urban periphery, by the time the domus had developed in the late 1st and into the 2nd century, this section of the street was apparently well urbanized and no longer available for burial use. Similarly, as explained in Chapter 9 and in this chapter, section 3.1 above, the presence of the shops is also evidence for the continued habitation of the domus until very late in Ilici’s history, certainly after the abandonment of the last, Christian phase of the building. Thus, this section of the city was still urbanized up to the phase prior to its final abandonment. Therefore, the synagogue was not placed beyond or on the outskirts of the town’s 4th century limits, nor was it a singular building in an increasingly abandoned town. Up until the 7th century, there does not seem to have been a cessation of activities in the tabernae, by which time the town was indeed entering an increasing reduction of its habitational space and activity. During that period, the synagogue was also converted into a Christian church. The Jewish synagogue was placed on a very important, and very ancient main road for the town of Ilici, and was easily recognized by passersby accessing the town from the 4th to the 6th centuries—as were the synagogues of Sardis and of Priene mentioned in this study. From an urban point of view, the Jewish community of Ilici does not appear to have been marginalized, but rather to have become an integral part of the town’s planning and habitation.
8
Reconstruction and Conclusion
From the preceding chapters, it is possible to reconstruct the development of the synagogue and church’s history. Naturally, there is a considerable amount of data that has been lost to the modern scholar, thus meaning that whatever conclusion and reconstruction is presented, gaps will remain for future research to fill. Four tentative plans for the building are derived and presented: Phase III, Phase IIc, Phase IIb-a, and Phase Ib (Plates I, II, III, IV, V, VI respectively).
149
Hachlili, AJAAD, 58.
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These are based on the data provided to us from the available sources and photographic evidence as presented in this book. It is hard to conclude an analysis that is pending further research. The significance of this synagogue building goes beyond the fact of it being the oldest known synagogue in the Iberian Peninsula. The presence of such a building allows us to contextualize the epigraphical and ergological evidence recovered elsewhere in the Peninsula from Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages (see Chapters 2 and 5), since it places the Jewish community firmly at the forefront and center of late antique Christianized societies. Indeed, it is the first case where we can identify, using archaeological methods, a Jewish synagogue in the Iberian Peninsula, in such a manner as has already been done in other regions of the late antique Mediterranean—from Italy to Israel; from France to Tunisia. The history of the synagogue building itself is peculiar, but not unprecedented. Here is a domus-synagoga, with parallels in Christian architecture. The main hall reproduces the aulic nature of the synagogue in luxuriously-paved floors similar to those found at the Algorós villa and domii from the Portus Ilicitanus (Santa Pola). Indeed, late antique Ilici was an important urban center during the 4th, 5th, and 6th centuries, and therefore the presence of such a rich Jewish community should not come as a surprise. Furthermore, one detects a Jewish community that communicates not in the predominant Latin, but in Greek. Use of Greek in Jewish inscriptions from late antiquity is an important feature of late Roman inscriptions associated with rituals and/or synagogues. Its use is a testament to the Ilici synagogue’s belonging to a wider Mediterranean network of Jewish communities from the Hispanic Mediterranean coast where Greek was more widespread than on the Atlantic coast (see Chapter 2, 8). The lack of any preserved religious symbols that would identify the building as being either Jewish or Christian in its first phase is significant. These symbols could very well have been present in the wall decorations that were completely lost after its demolition. The defacement of the mosaic in Phase IIa is indeed an indication of the building’s ultimate conversion. On the other hand, the main direct evidence for its Christian use is found in objects such as the “Saint Abdon” and the crismon lamps found in the immediacies of the structure. In other words, no religious symbol for the Christian use of the building survives in its architecture, as the conversion was done without a traceable architectural reform. The Jewish menoroth from the northeastern corner of the mosaic were also marginalized, as if not a central part of the building’s artistic decorations. There is no overt use of Jewish symbols from the first phase of the mosaic floor. Could this be an expression of a ritual or doctrinal qualm regarding such represen-
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tations? Or was the mosaic complemented by furniture and wall decorations such as the hypothetical Aron ha-Kodesh, which did not survive? These questions are beyond the current scholar’s ability to answer. The reclassification of the building as an ancient synagogue brings with it the unavoidable demand for further research to undertake its contextualization. Nevertheless, through this synagogue we have unmistakable evidence for the Jewish presence as an integral part of the town of Ilici, as part of a late antique society and of the urban landscape of a late imperial town. The extent of the building’s Eastern Roman influence should not be understated. Of course, we find the use of Greek in the synagogue’s original inscriptions. However, we also find that the construction of the synagogue followed the use of Byzantine measurements, and what seem to be oriental motifs for the mosaic floor. The model for the Ilici synagogue is closer to buildings such as the synagogue of Priene and Apamea than nearby churches such as that of Algezares in Murcia. The architectural “distortions” have a clear parallel in the church of Illeta del Rei from the 6th century in the Balearic Islands, a province heavily influenced by its control under Eastern Imperial authority. Most importantly, the East Roman influence is seen in the addition of the apse in the 6th century, a process that can be observed in eastern synagogues, be they Jewish or Samaritan. The conversion of the synagogue into a church was an easy adaptation, demonstrating, in many respects, the unavoidable proximity between Jewish and Christian architecture and rituals, as late as the late 6th or 7th centuries. However, it seems as if the Christian phase meant the consecration of the building in an ad hoc fashion. The Muslim conquest of this region in the early 8th century was followed by a quick abandonment of the building’s use as a church, being replaced by private coarse dwellings that occupied its interior. By then the decadence of the town was apparent, as these private dwelling spaces clearly reused building materials from public structures available in the town. However, even then the urban grid defined by the early domus was in use. That grid would eventually be abandoned, and these spaces would be occupied with the late burials detected on the synagogue’s quadrant. They probably followed the abandonment and demolition of the building (Plate VII). The Ilicitan Jewish community never returned to this ancient synagogue, as they moved with the rest of the town’s population to the modern location of Elche. The importance of this synagogue lies more in its historiographical implications rather than in its mere presence in Ilici. If careful archaeological review has allowed here for the rediscovery of a Jewish synagogue, might the same result follow in other sites as well? If the Ilici synagogue was an integral part of the urban landscape as being a reuse of a previous space occupied by the
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dwellers of a typical, though monumental Roman domus; if it used the available artistic workshops for the pavement of the mosaic; if it applied architectural methods and solutions available in other similar buildings of ecclesiastical and/or secular nature, then can we continue to suppose the invisibility of Judaism in the archaeological record? Can we continue to believe that Jews were “outsiders” to the overall artistic, religious, social, and economic development of the region, in such a manner that they could not be reflected in the archaeological record as readily as the Christian cult in the late antique period? The answer is resoundingly no. Modern archaeological methods for recording and codifying past archaeological excavations are an invaluable asset for the objective of recovering this lost aspect of late antique Hispanian society, as this study has shown. The Ilici synagogue does not stand alone as material evidence for Jewish culture in late antique Hispania. Objects are found across the Iberian Peninsula, including “Judaizing” objects associated with the Christian cult, allowing us to perform the crucial task of contextualizing the synagogue and the Jews who lived in Ilici during this period.
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Epilogue The characteristic continuity of Jewish history in the Iberian Peninsula is preventing us from establishing a conclusion per se, as is customary to many studies of this kind. As was seen in Chapter 5, there was no real break in the development of the Jewish communities, but rather gradual changes that accumulated until a Sepharadi culture was distinguishable in the High Middle Ages. However, an epilogue, a kind of recapitulation of the conclusions given for the different topics treated in this study, is warranted. At the start of this research, a set of questions was presented: Can the Jews be detected archaeologically in the Iberian Peninsula? If so, how can they be defined as a distinct cultural phenomenon within their non-Jewish surroundings? The starting point of this study was the broader material context. However, for the epilogue and recapitulation it is deemed more coherent to start from the review of the Ilici basilical building’s archaeological excavation, stratigraphic sequencing, materials, and chronology covered in Part 2, which form the chief focal point of the study as a whole. The objective has been to not merely describe the building and define its Jewish or Christian character, but to understand its significance in a wider Jewish environment to which the building belonged. In other words, the objective has been its contextualization amid a late antique Jewish presence in the Iberian Peninsula, which gave the field of “Jewish Archaeology” a more profound importance for the understanding of these past societies. These historiographical challenges required a comprehensive archaeological study of the Ilici synagogue. Past discussion regarding the denomination of the site as a Jewish synagogue or a Christian church was based almost exclusively on the stylistic interpretation and reading of the inscriptions found as part of the mosaic floor unearthed by Pere Ibarra and Eugéne Albertini in the summer of 1905. This discussion was rarely accompanied with a structural analysis and even then, barely did it go beyond the description of the eastern apse discovered by this first campaign. The lack of publications by Alejandro Ramos Folqués of the full details of his campaigns between 1948 and 1955, as well as the partial publications of the campaign in 1971 by the Deutsches Arcaheologisches Institut in Madrid (DAI-Madrid) by Helmut Schlunk and Theodor Hauschild in 1978, did not put an end to the discussion surrounding the building. Reading the authors from the turn of the 21st century, a kind of incredulity is noticeable when it comes to accepting the existence of Jewish material culture
© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2021 | doi:10.1163/9789004419926_014 Alexander Bar-Magen
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as an integral part of late antique material cultural remains. This explains some authors’ virulent rejection of Jewish presence in the southern areas of Alicante and northern Murcia, which is the area where the Roman city of Ilici found its associated territorium. Lorenzo and Morcillo, in 2014, used a basic reading of the mosaic’s inscriptions from previous scholars like J. Correll to assume the Christian character of the mosaic, regardless of the archaeological history of the building. This assumption led to an a priori conclusion that the discussion regarding the association of this building with Jewish material culture was buried and solved. However, this was far from the case. Ana Ronda’s 2018 publication of her 2016 thesis on Ramos Folqués’ documents was still ambiguous on the building’s denomination, and Robyn Walsh’s publication in 2016 revived the theory of the building’s identification as a synagogue. The present book indicates that most interpretations on the building, while sound given their available evidence, were incomplete due to the absence of one or another set of data. New available sources, as well as a new reading of the already published archaeological evidence from the field of Jewish late antique archaeology, meant that a reopening of the subject was a necessity. The archaeological data had to speak for itself, and the assumption of either/or from past scholars regarding the Ilici building resulted in a narrow, if not partial, interpretation of the findings. A thorough, complete study was needed to allow not only for a review of available archaeological interpretations, but also for later archaeological research, adding information to the interpretation of this basilical building with new suggested interpretative methods and techniques. The method used for that purpose was the accumulation of available data in published and unpublished material, its transcription and later identification of different stratigraphic units that were subsequently placed in a scheme allowing for their interpretation. The resulting stratigraphic unit map reveals a chronological order that can give an approximate picture of the building’s history through the centuries. Such a picture was possible through two basic premises. The first is the division of the site into areas based on the division made by the excavators themselves, particularly Alejandro Ramos Folqués between 1948 and 1955. The division of the site into general areas allowed for the classification of the site’s stratigraphic units without confusion or mixture between them. These areas were defined by the direct observations of the archaeologist and his colleagues, such as his friend Helmut Schlunk of the Deutsches Archaeologisches Institut. The second is the assumption that despite the lack of proper modern archaeological techniques, Alejandro Ramos Folqués’ identification of floor sequences is visible through his personal excavation diaries.
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The reading of the data reveals a building constructed as a Roman domus in the 1st century bce, being an Augustan foundation, placed in what seems to be a peripheral area of the city. The domus was not unlike other structures excavated in the Alcudia de Elche, having similar construction techniques and materials. However, as was seen in Chapters 7 to 9, the domus is only partially excavated and detected in what was the northeastern corner of Quadrant 10A of the site. This means that the building has areas waiting to be discovered and properly excavated by future researchers. The relevance of this point is the fact that this section of the site was not an abandoned area of the town, nor was it a Roman cemetery before the placement of the late 4th century mosaic floor, though evidence for burials were present in pre-domus levels. Construction activity associated with the domus continued up until the 3rd and early 4th centuries. To the south was evidence of tabernae or shops looking to the city’s street which would continue to operate after the placement of the mosaic floor. In short, had a traveler looked towards this building form the southern street (here Area C), there would have been no conspicuous elements to differentiate it from the city’s other buildings. The late 4th century revealed the construction of the mosaic floor on top of several remains of demolished walls that sub-divided what was called Area B. The conversion of this building into a synagogue reveals the use of a formerly profane space for a new, more formal, and embellished purpose. The term used for this type of building, as mentioned in Chapter 11, was the domus-sinagoga following the parallel term in Christian environments of the domus-ecclesia. Essentially, the term refers to the partial or complete conversion of a domus or a villa—in other words a large house, which was the property of a wealthy real estate owner or of a local community—into a worship center of a Jewish or Christian community. In the case of Ilici this was done through the clearing of this sub-divided, somewhat marginalized space of the domus, that is, Area B, into an open rectangular hall that emulated Christian basilicas in its architecture. New walls were added to the south, amplifying and giving prevalence to the main hall defined by the lavish geometric mosaic floor with three inscriptions in Greek—the preferred language of the local Jewish community during that period. The measurement unit employed (the Byzantine foot) and architectural planning, as well as the use of Greek for this mosaic, reveals a close contact with an eastern, probably Aegean environment that would be prevalent until the 7th century. This connection with an eastern environment suggests the existence of a Jewish community fully integrated into the society of 4th century Ilici. The mosaic floor’s geometric style is detected in other sites such as the villa of Algorós, near the site of the Alcudia de Elche itself, and the mosaic floor from the
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domus of El Palmeral in the town of Santa Pola, the old Portus Ilicitanus. The employment of both Jews and non-Jews of the same workshop should not be surprising as one considers other sites from the Roman world. In this case, we notice, yet again, the application in a Peninsular setting of the concept of Common Workshop Identity proposed by L.V. Rutgers. The mosaic floor was tripartite and defined the space based on models that were already prevalent in both Christian churches and Jewish synagogues across the Mediterranean. The lack of columns and inner monumental features is a sign that this structure was already sustained by roofing that remained unchanged or, at least, maintained through the life of the synagogue. An onlooker from the street would have had the same view of the building as it presented in the 3rd or early 4th century. Evidence for roof tiles suggests the use of double-fall roofs that were demolished together with the rest of the building at the end of its useful life. Certainly, the visitor to the synagogue in Ilici would probably be more impressed by its inner furniture than the outside features. Remains of stucco suggested a decorated space that would have included the walls and, naturally, the preserved mosaic floor. However, this is not a rare occurrence, as similar decorative solutions are found in other structures with similar geometric mosaic motifs. The life of the synagogue was defined through the definition of its construction phases. The addition of the two stone slabs at the edge of the central mosaic nave suggests the existence of furniture that would be the focal point of attention for the congregated community. Evidence of benches to the south, and probably also to the east and the west in the apparent open air exonarthex, suggests a communal use by a congregated community. The fact that the three mosaic inscriptions are readable from the center of the space is further evidence that whatever furniture existed there, it looked towards the central area, and not towards an eastern space. The central space would have had a noticeable aedicula defined by the two mentioned stones at the edges of the central nave. The mosaic did not have any Jewish symbols in its original conception. However, it was at a later stage, between the laying of the original mosaic and the placement of the stone slabs, that a Jewish symbol was added in a reparation to the northeast of the floor with the representation of two menoroth that share the same axis and look away from each other. This phase was detected as a reparation of the mosaic when the community was unable to access the original Ilicitan workshop. Two possibilities arise from this finding. The first is that this is an original church with its mosaic floor converted into the floor of a synagogue. This possibility is unlikely, considering that imperial authorities were
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keen on not only protecting Christian buildings, but especially preventing any conversions from Christianity by the end of the 4th century. More likely, this demonstrates the building’s use as a synagogue starting from the original laying of the mosaic. The focus towards the east began with the construction of the eastern apse, which was aligned not with the mosaic floor but with the western entrance of the building. This change was probably due to Eastern influence on church and synagogue architecture. It was through the late 5th and 6th centuries— the phase with which the apse was associated—that synagogues adopt a more church-like architecture. Apses replace niches and aediculae. This reform should come as no surprise, as the Jewish community that used this synagogue was Greek-speaking and was near one of the arteries of an open port-city and a commercial hub of Late Antiquity. Against the suggestions by past authors, this apse was unable to sustain the structure that held the rectangular room. Instead, as indicated in Chapter 7, the apse was added as furniture within the synagogue. The addition of the apse caused a change in the harmony of the main hall’s inner space, now shifted to its north, and ignored the mosaic floor. It also meant that part of the mosaic to its east was broken, and probably an eastern bench was demolished as well. Evidence for this defacement of the mosaic floor, specifically of the menoroth and the three inscriptions, shows that a change occurred in the community that used these structures. Moreover, window screens that were found around the site, specifically in areas associated with the back of the main hall and its entrance, were dated to the 7th century ce. Therefore, a structural reform occurred in this century, probably associated with the conversion of the synagogue into a Christian church. Lamps from the late 6th century, with Christian iconography such as the one found in probe B/F to the north of the main mosaic area, probably belong to this phase of the building’s history. It seems that a final stage is associated with permanence in the site following the Arab conquest of the area in the early 8th century. The continuation of the use of this building is defined by a series of lesser walls that divided the inner space and, amongst other things, were constructed on top of the mosaic floor. In other words, the space dedicated to worship and use by a Jewish and later Christian congregation had changed its purpose. It seems that these inner divisive walls were mostly domestic in nature. This was a preamble to the demolition and abandonment of the building by the 8th to 9th century, when buildings such as this basilical building were used as a quarry for construction materials in the new medieval city of Elche three kilometers to the north. As indicated in Chapter 7, the mosaic floor is the most studied feature of this structure, probably giving it the cultural value and fascination that many
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scholars applied to it through the last 112 years. Its triple aisle motif is common in congregational and religious architecture from the late 4th century. Previous scholars pointed out that the style dated the mosaic to between the second half of the 4th and early 5th century, which is the position adopted by this author. It is, after all, one of the few crucial features that point towards the chronology of the building’s first phase (Phase IIe). However, the Greek inscriptions provide the most interesting information regarding the building. A look at these texts suggests that there was certainly no intention of recording any prose. Furthermore, and this is perhaps the most crucial aspect, there is no indication of any funerary or martyrial text in the mosaic inscriptions. If anything, the remains of said texts point towards giving greater importance to communal or organizational titles, such as Presbyteroi in the northern inscription, or the adscription of the building as a Proseuche Lao(s) in the central inscription. The texts, using what Corell called a “New Testament” Greek, are not indicative of either a Jewish or Christian denomination for the building. Their ambiguity suggests a Greek-speaking religious environment that would be characteristic of both Jews and Christians in this area of the Iberian Peninsula. Furthermore, the tripartite division of the mosaic and the definition of spaces through its geometric motif can be seen in other buildings, such as the mosaic floors of Balearic churches like Santa María del Camí, Es Fornás del Torrelló, and Illeta del Rei in Menorca. The texts from the synagogue phase reveal an affinity of the Ilici Jewish community, or at least the community using the building, for the need to give importance to persons who hold titles within their ranks, or who probably represented it as leaders. The southern inscription was probably a dedicatory one to a man who either donated sums for its construction, was the proprietor of the domus at the time of its construction, or was simply a prominent member of the community. Either way, the “good voyage” inscription should not be seen necessarily as a funerary one, nor is the maritime scene below it necessarily a representation of the Job cycle with Christological symbolism. Maritime scenes such as the one found in the southern aisle of the mosaic floor are also found in other synagogue mosaics across the Mediterranean, such as those from Beth Sheʾan A (the Kyrios Leontis mosaic from Israel), the Hammam Lif synagogue from Tunisia, and the Saranda synagogue from Albania. In short, the motifs of the mosaic floor, despite being produced by a local workshop, are not uncommon in the late 4th century Jewish environment in which it was laid. To access the synagogue, one would have had to cross a western narthex with an entrance from its west and possibly south. This implies that this area, which was a main access for the domus in previous periods, was closed off and possibly
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roofed. However, the access to the block was still available from the southern street, which maintained its urban activities until the abandonment of the site by the Early Middle Ages. The continuity of use of other structures of the domus is evident in the areas surrounding the main basilical hall, including Area S and Area P. The first was possibly attached to the synagogue and later basilica as a kind of storage area or some other supportive structure for the activities held in the main hall. Area P kept its access from the main courtyard area until its abandonment, suggesting that it kept its original use regardless of the addition of the 4th century synagogue. From this summary the inconspicuousness of the synagogue seems evident. The same is true of the basic architectural features, or at least the plans, and the use of basic furniture such as attached benches, the aedicula in Phase IIc, and the later eastern apse in Phase IIb. Having defined the architectural and material features of the synagogue, the cultural grid that led to the building’s construction, covered in Chapters 2 to 5, becomes more comprehensive. The Ilici synagogue holds, in its features, a few elements that might point towards certain rituals shared in other parts of the Mediterranean. This is particularly true with the features from Phase IIc, which were defined by the two stones that broke the mosaic floor, and by a western basin just south of the main entrance to the building. The central stones were an architectural feature that seemed to have separated the common area from one that held a centraleastern furniture that was defined as the aedicula, where the Aron ha-Kodesh would have been held. The presence of this feature reveals that, like other late antique synagogues across the Mediterranean, the Holy Scriptures held a predominant physical role in synagogue architecture in Ilici, and probably the rest of the Iberian Peninsula. The second feature, treated in Chapter 4, was the western basin found just to the south of the main entrance to the basilical building. Noticing that the basin is centered with the mosaic floor axis, and not with the apse axis, it seems to have been placed before the apse itself, but at the same time as the presence of the western entrance, since it does not disrupt the access of visitors into the building. The use of this basin was a mystery even for recent publications. From a Christian point of view, such a feature, which was placed after the mosaic at a lower level than the floor itself, makes no known ritual sense. It is placed in the floor, and not at height for hands, and is located at the entrance, while being too small for it to be a baptistery. The inclination of the floor around the basin seems to imply its use for water, or some other liquid that was placed there. The proposal presented here is that the Ilici basin has similar applications to the late antique basin found in Tarraco from the 6th century. The latter is iden-
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tified as having a Jewish origin, with its trilingual inscriptions, including a part in Hebrew. This Tarraco basin was used for the entrance of a synagogue. Following Talmudic, Geonic, and Cairo Genizah texts, one finds the probable use of this feature: the washing of hands and feet before entering the synagogue. This seems be less a part of legal halakhah than an act of decorum for entering the house of God. In Late Antiquity, these kinds of water installations at the entrance of synagogues are found in Ostia, Hammam Lif, Sardis, ‘En Gedi, Sepphoris, Maʾon (Nirim), amongst many others. In late antique Hispania, such an installation is found with the decorated trilingual basin found in Tarraco, dated to the 6th century. In the Middle Ages, it is found in the 11th century Ibn Ezra synagogue from Fustat (Cairo), and it was found again at the vestibule of the excavated early 15th century synagogue of Lorca (Murcia). This practice was far from universal, as by the Late Middle Ages the washing of feet was replaced with the washing of hands alone. However, it still was in use by the 12th century, with the architectural features from Late Antiquity seeming to have a continuity during the Middle Ages, including in the Iberian Peninsula. The Ilici synagogue was significantly associated with the Eastern Roman world. The terminology used in the inscriptions was mostly used in Aegean settings, including the word Lao(s) for the term “people” or “congregation” in the central inscription of the mosaic. But this is also seen architecturally: the use of the Byzantine foot for its construction when Ilici was still part of the Western Roman Empire, and not under the 6th century Eastern Roman province of Spania. Later stages suggest further Eastern Roman influence with the addition of the eastern apse, which is common in synagogues from the other side of the Mediterranean. While heavily influenced by the new East Roman environment following the foundation of Constantinople in the 4th century, it would be a mistake to see the use of Greek as a mere product of some eastern influence. The Roman Jewish community here seems to have been made primarily of Greek speakers, albeit the closest known excavated synagogue to Rome, the Ostia synagogue, had inscriptions in Latin rather than Greek. Even so, the evidence available today is usually taken to indicate that Greek was a language used mostly in eastern synagogues, particularly in the Aegean, Galilee, and Syria where most synagogues were found. However, this cannot be more than an argument ex silentio, and therefore the impression could be the result of a lack of synagogues found to date in western Mediterranean settings, rather than an actual avoidance of Greek in Jewish western synagogues. The fact that Ilici is the only known Hispanojewish synagogue with studied archaeological features and pavement inscriptions makes it hard to situate as an example of Jewish architecture and language use in the Iberian Penin-
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sula. Almost all the other examples of Jewish epigraphic remains are from funerary contexts, and the rest are mostly of domestic use. However, the three inscriptions in synagogue or ritual settings are all in Greek and are dated to between the 3rd and early 5th centuries. These include the lamella found in Andalusia with angels’ incantation (Chapter 2, Ins. 2.2), the brick from Acinippo (Málaga—Chapter 2, Ins. 2.3), and the Ilici synagogue mosaic itself. The use of Greek reveals a close contact with the eastern provinces that are explicitly mentioned in the bilingual inscription from Tarraco, dated to the late 5th and early 6th centuries. The inscription reveals that these contacts went beyond merely commercial or epistolary relations, but involve actual family ties between an eastern and a western Jewish family. This places Ilici not only within a network of Jewish communities from the Iberian Peninsula, but naturally within the whole of the Roman world, particularly in contact with the Aegean area which became a crucial cultural, economic, and political center in the 4th century. In other words, the apparent East Roman influence did not Hellenize the local Jewish community. Rather it gave increased potential for a new re-Hellenization of Jewish communities in the eastern Iberian Peninsula. However, this influence was mostly limited to communities that already had a Hellenized or eastern influence before Late Antiquity. Available epigraphic evidence suggests that out of the relatively numerous Lusitanian Jewish inscriptions, which totaled six, none had a single Greek word in it. The only partial exception was the 5th century inscription of Annianus Peregrinus (Chapter 2, Ins. 4.3) which had the word Sinagoge. But as indicated, the word was clearly Latinized with a phonetic modification of the suffix –ae into –e. The lack of use of Greek is not a coincidence, especially noticing that this community used Hebrew script for the expression of Latin names, such as in the case of the Casa de Mitreo ceramic fragment from early 4th century Merida (Chapter 2, 4.2). This reveals the existence of two important linguistic areas for the Jewish communities in the Iberian Peninsula. The first is the Mediterranean coast, which includes the area from northern Morocco, the Andalusian Mediterranean coast, and northwards to modern Catalonia. This clearly Hellenized environment is the one in which the Ilici synagogue had been built. This area is defined by either the use of Greek alone or, more commonly, the presence of Greek text in multilingual inscriptions such as the tombstone of Kyra Melliosa from Tortosa (Chapter 2, Ins. 5.2), the bilingual inscription of the disascali from Tarraco (Chapter 2, Ins. 5.3), or the trilingual basin from Tarraco (Chapter 2, Ins. 5.1). Even so the use of Greek is mostly detected in earlier centuries of Late Antiquity, between the 3rd and 5th or early 6th centuries. By the 7th century, inscriptions seem to be predominantly in Latin.
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The other geographical area was marked by the absence of Greek and what seems to be the presence of a Latin-speaking Jewish community. This should be defined as a Lusitanian Hispanojewish community. It mostly includes the epigraphic evidence from Lusitania. However, one of these inscriptions originated from the western Andalusia, probably from Gadir (Cádiz), such as the abovementioned titulus pictus from the early 4th century domus of Mérida. The Latinization of the Jewish community is further evident with the use of the Latin translation of the Hebrew formula תנוח נפשה בצרור החייםin the 8th century “two Rebbis” inscription (Chapter 2, Ins. 4.6). This is seen in stark contrast to the preferred use of Hebrew for this formula in the Mediterranean Hispanojewish environments. Despite the linguistic differences, there is no evidence for liturgical, sociopolitical, or economic difference between the communities. And even in some respects pertaining to language it seems that these two areas shared a predilection for the use of Hebrew as a distinct feature of their Judaism. Overall, percentage-wise there is a greater prevalence of Hebrew in late antique Hispania than in areas such as Rome. In most cases Hebrew names do not seem to have a correlation with the language used in the inscriptions that harbor them. This is true of most provinces. However, the Balearic Islands and Mauritania Tingitana had more cases of exclusively Hebrew texts than in the Iberian Peninsula itself. The evidence from the two trilingual inscriptions from Tarraco reveals that Hebrew was certainly a ritual language in late antique periods. It was detected in synagogues in both the Castulo incised inscription (Chapter 2, Ins. 3.1) and the Tarraco basin. Funerary inscriptions use תנוח נפשה בצרור החיים, whether in a shortened form, such as the Hebrew inscriptions of Mauritania, or in the lengthened version in the trilingual Kyra Melliosa inscription from Tortosa. The use of Hebrew and Semitic names suggests that there was ready access to Hebrew texts by the local Jewish communities. The use of non-Hebrew scripts, including the translation of texts in multilingual inscriptions and the direct translation found in the 8th century “two Rebbis” inscription in Merida, indicate that alongside Hebrew texts there were Latin and Greek Targumim ( )תרגומיםor translations. The presence of these biblical translations are widely known in late antique Rabbinic texts and was possibly in use at the time of the Byzantine emperor Justinian.1 The existence of these texts, and members of the Jewish communities able to translate them in major urban centers of the 1 Michael Avi-Yonah, The Jews under Roman and Byzantine Rule: A Political History of Palestine from the Bar Kokhba War to the Arab Conquest (Jerusalem: Magnes Press, Hebrew Univ, 1984), 248–250.
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time, included the probable collaboration of Jews and Christians in the study and translation of the Holy Scriptures. Among them, one mentioned above, was the Emeritan Jewish scholar and leader Annianus Peregrinus (Chapter 2, Ins. 4.3) who we suggested to be the Peregrinus who participated in the translation to Latin of biblical texts such as the deuterocanonical book the Wisdom of Solomon. Non-epigraphical evidence gave more information that allows an understanding of the organization of late antique Jewish communities. The presence of organized Jewish communities through Hispania, both in the Citerior and Ulterior, is evidenced by 1st century late Second Temple period coins. The contact between Hispania and Iudaea is already clear with the presence of an inscription on an amphora from Baleares dated to the 1st century. However, these coins indicate that the Hispanojewish Diaspora did not only have commercial contacts but also travelers and active communication with Iudaea. This was certainly made easier with the expanded infrastructure in Iudaea, including the construction of the port city of Caesarea Maritima and the massive expansion project of the Temple in Jerusalem’s courtyards to allow easier access to pilgrims from across the Roman world. This increase of access is reflected by the sudden surge of Second Temple coins in Hispania starting from the year 12ce, and particularly 17ce. The presence of Jews who had close contact with Iudaea before the destruction of the Temple is detected in several important urban centers. The evidence includes the two half-shekels from Algeciras (Iulia Traducta) and Ilici. However, it is unknown how these coins arrived to these Hispanian sites. While they could have been brought by Jews who arrived with them and preserved them for their value (unlike the previous coins which were copper alloys, these were silver), they could also have arrived in Hispania as the result of the sack of Jerusalem in 70ce by Titus’ troops, and/or at the hand of non-Jewish travelers who passed through Judea. Either way, there is no doubt that the destruction of the Second Temple would have been felt as no less a disaster in the Iberian Peninsula than in the rest of the Jewish Diaspora. Perhaps because of the presence of these communities, many Jews who arrived at the Iberian Peninsula following the Roman repression of the Quietus revolt of 115–117ce in Egypt and Cyrenaica, and most importantly the Bar Kochba revolt of 132–135ce in Judea, seem to have preserved their Jewish identity. Epigraphic evidence from the 2nd and early 3rd centuries (Chapter 2, Ins. 2.1; 4.1) reveal the need of some Jews to insist on the Jewish (Iudaea/Iudeus) character of the deceased. The explicit mention of their Jewish identity seems to indicate an integration into Roman social structures, as is evidenced in the case of the freedman A. Lucius Roscius, who was probably a former slave of
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Lucius Roscius Aemilius, quaestor under Emperor Hadrian who ruled during the Bar-Kochba revolt. The integration of these Jews in the wider Hispanian society seems to have occurred within the backdrop of an already existing, wellestablished Jewish community to which they would have belonged. The apparent lack of Jewish symbols in the first phase of the Ilici synagogue mosaic is noteworthy. Two factors ought to be considered: The first is that the Ilici synagogue must have had lavish decorations on wall stuccos, which were lost. The other is that Jewish symbols like menoroth, lulavim and other clearly identifiably Jewish objects cannot be detected at all in Hispania before the 4th century. This is in line with other regions of the Mediterranean, where the menorah in particular became an identifiably Jewish symbol in synagogue environments only in the 3rd, and especially 4th century onwards. Early cases of its use are in the synagogue of Dura Europos’ central niche (Syria) and the Beth Sheʾarim tombs (Israel). However, in many western synagogues there were no identifiably Jewish symbols until later dates, such as the case of Ostia where the schematized menorah and sukkoth ritual objects are only found on the architrave of the added aedicula. Likewise, the addition of the menoroth into the mosaic floor occurred in the early-mid 5th century in Ilici, during a repair or reform of the mosaic itself in its northeastern corner. The use of Jewish symbols is one of the most important factors to identify Jewish inscriptions and other objects in late antique Hispania. The most prevalent symbol is the menorah, or seven-branched candelabra, which is more widespread than all other available Jewish symbols. Menoroth are generally represented with semi-circular candles cut by a central long shaft and a tripod. However, there are exceptions, such as the menoroth of the Annianus Peregrinus inscription with a triangular (solid) base. In almost all other representations of the menorah in epigraphy, with exception of the Myrtilis 5th century inscription (Chapter 2, Ins. 4.5), it is accompanied by other symbols placed in heraldic fashion. The menorah from the Michael brick (Chapter 2, Ins. 2.2) is accompanied by a shofar, lulav, and etrog, all placed within an aedicula. In the Annianus Peregrinus inscription, menoroth candles were replaced by a lulav and shofar, thus schematizing the motif into one figure. The lulav, shofar, and incense shovel appear flanking the menorah in the Tarraco basin. It is evident that the menorah accompanied with ritual objects associated with festivities from Tishrei (that is from the New Year period) was a common symbol to the Jewish communities. However, there were also specific motifs found in inscriptions made in Hispania with certain repetition. One of these was the two peacocks flanking a central menorah. This is found in the Tarraco basin and the Orihuela relief. In both cases there seems to be an association of
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the peacocks and the menorah with salvation—that is, the salvation with the coming of the Messiah and the reconstruction of the Temple. The other motif is the two menoroth flanking a central text. This motif is found in the Annianus Peregrinus inscription from Merida, and the Isidora from Pallaresos inscription near Tarragona. The latter is accompanied with lulavim that are introduced in between the first line of the text. The play between text and figure is evidence that the text itself has figurative or even symbolic significance. The menoroth are flanking the central text in the way that they would flank an aedicula or Aron ha-Kodesh in Jewish representations of synagogue furniture from Late Antiquity, such as the mosaics of Hammath Tiberias B, Beth Alpha, Susiya, and the gold glasses of Rome (see Chapter 11). This epigraphic motif possibly reproduced the inner furniture of a synagogue, which is partially evidenced in the Ilici synagogue. The menorah is not only found in inscriptions, but also incised or printed on other objects. The most common cases are the menoroth found on oil lamps, almost all produced in Africa. The importation of African oil lamps was probably a product of commercial necessity for a lamp with this type of decoration. Such lamps were found in important cities from late Roman and late antique Hispania. These findings were also homogeneous in terms of their date. Almost all of them are from the Atlante VIII type of African lamps and are dated between the 4th and 5th centuries. They were found in or near important urban Hispanian centers such as Mérida, Toledo, Castulo, and Águilas (the later near Carthago Nova or modern Cartagena). Another finding was in Sa Calatrava in the economically important Balearic island of Mallorca. The bronze lamp from Volubilis with the decoration of a lone menorah has similar decoration to the ceramic oil lamps. However, the bronze lamp, probably used in a synagogue building, had the menorah on its handle. These lamps were apparent importations and were used by local synagogal buildings, most of which have either not been found or were not preserved. This is the case in Castulo, where the incised inscription on a wine amphora was found in the immediacies of a demolished public building. The end of such production in later dates would not imply the necessary abandonment of synagogues in the Iberian Peninsula, but rather a change in lighting furniture. It is important to note that the representation of menoroth in the Iberian Peninsula featured either an upper bar or oil lamps on top. It is possible that these oil lamps were fitted on the top of the candles of the seven-branched candelabra. As such the representation of oil lamps on top of these menoroth should be considered part of the repertoire of menoroth in the Diaspora. In late antique Palestine the predominant light fittings were glass cups.
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Economic activities can also be detected through the objects left behind from Jewish material culture. Two fragments of amphora, one Titulus Pictus on a Beltrán 72 from early 4th century Merida, and the storage stamp from Puerto de Mazarrón (Almería, Andalusia) point towards some form of association between Jewish communities or individuals and the valuable production of garum in the Iberian Peninsula. In the case of Puerto de Mazarrón, the decorative menorah seems to define the property owners of the amphora, which has the same form as the decorative menorah of the Jewish lamp from Águilas. Puerto de Mazarrón lies between Águilas and the important city of Carthago Nova (Cartagena), and would be on the important Via Augustea that crossed the Mediterranean coast of the Iberian Peninsula. Could this symbol represent a specific regional Jewish community, or even a synagogue, which held properties and had production/commercial operations in the production of garum as a commercial collegium to satisfy the demands of their community? While this was a common feature of the high medieval synagogue, the application of this model to Late Antiquity is speculative at best. What is evident is that Jews were fully integrated to the economic fabric of the Late Roman Iberian Peninsula. The evidence of the intaglio from the gem producing city of Ammaia, in central Lusitania, suggests that either Jews were present in that city by the 3rd century as producers, or they participated in the economic activities of it as importers or merchants of its productions. The demand for gems with Jewish symbols like the menorah flanked by an etrog, shofar, and lulav certainly presents the fact that Jewish symbols were available in artistic repertoire in the Iberian Peninsula and were certainly not limited to North African lamp productions or potentially imported stamps. The importance of commercial communication routes cannot be overstated, as they are the key for the maintenance of a common Jewish identity through Late Antiquity despite the significant differences in linguistic and artistic practices between the provinces and even the cities. It is through these communication routes that people and ideas, and not just products, travel and move. Hispania’s Jewish communities shared experiences, ideas, and intermarried between communities (as in the case of the didascali of Cyzicus in Asia Minor, whose mother in law was buried in Tarraco, on the other side of the Mediterranean). People and ideas travelled not only between geographic areas, but also between various types of communities, including Jewish and Christian ones. Findings mostly along major commercial routes and urban areas may suggest that the existence of these Jewish communities depended mostly on commercial and industrial activities. However, this is not necessarily the case. Being minority groups, Jews were more dependent on access to the wider world to
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receive ideas and artistic trends reflective of a distinctively Jewish Mediterranean cultural reality. Communities in more rural areas with less access to the innovative artistic or architectural trends that defined late antique Judaism would probably leave behind fewer distinctive findings. In other words, a rural Jewish community did not have the same access to North African oil lamps that a major urban synagogue would have. This does not imply that these Jewish communities, or their synagogues, did not exist. These findings supply a relevant context for the Jewish community that built the Ilici synagogue. This is a community of Greek and Latin speakers, who used East Roman artistic and architectural solutions for the construction of their communal edifice, which was built with euergetic activity, including the donation of the property (part of a common Roman domus) and philanthropic donations for the construction itself. The Jewish community had an armarium or Aron ha-Kodesh within a monumental aedicula in order to hold Holy Scriptures in Hebrew and Greek. Worship activities were held looking to the center and east, the focal point being the aedicula which was monumentalized in later periods, and the eastern apse using the architectural fashion of eastern synagogues in the 6th century. This Jewish community shared common linguistic features that opened them up to others across the Mediterranean, particularly those of Mauritania Tingitana and the Tarraconensis. Even so, Ilici Jews were probably also in contact with other communities from the heavily Latinized Lusitanian Jewish world. The social makeup of these Jewish communities included people of all walks of life. However, its leaders were part of the local social elite in the places they lived. This is evident from the conversion incident of Mahón as described by bishop Severus in the Balearic Islands dated to 418 ce, as well as from documents from as late as the 7th century pointing towards the existence of Jewish landlords under Visigothic rule. Association between Jewish leaders and the local elites served to forge important political links that would protect local Jewish communities. Annianus Peregrinus Onorificus of Mérida, praised by local Jews and their Christian non-Jewish neighbors, was a prominent figure in that major capital of Lusitania. Such important Jewish locals would have access to industrial operations in Puerto de Mazarrón and other regional economic activities. This is probably the case in Ilici. Access of elite Jews to political, economic, and intellectual leadership in this city might have been a cause for the creation of the domus-sinagoga in the first place. Epigraphic evidence from the 7th century indicates the existence of public Jewish communities under Visigothic rule (particularly the inscription from Narbonne made in the year 688 or 689ce—see Chapter 2, Ins. 6.1), despite the apparent persecutions and virulent anti-Jewish legislations coming from
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the many Councils of Toledo during that century. It is significant that the conversion of the Jewish synagogue in Ilici into a church merely entailed the destruction of Jewish symbols on the mosaic floor and newly produced window screens. The addition of the eastern altar on the apse was a minor reform compared to the previous addition of the apse itself during the late synagogue phase (Phase IIb). While there is no concrete date, it is more likely that the conversion of this synagogue into a Visigothic Catholic church occurred in the early 7th century, following the conquest of Ilici under King Suinthila by 624ce. The conquest itself convulsed the city’s elites, who suddenly found themselves under a new Latin-speaking political regime. The deeply “East Roman” Ilici synagogue suggests the community’s elites were equally associated with the imperial authorities during their rule over the city. A conversion of the synagogue was seen as a social purge of elements deemed problematic for the new Visigothic authorities. The political use of already available anti-Jewish legislation is a hallmark of the 7th century Visigothic policy. The fact that Ilici was recently conquered implied there were no Hispanorroman or local Visigothic groups to protect Jews from persecution as happened elsewhere in the kingdom. In short, the fate of the Ilici synagogue is a product of the end of Eastern Roman presence, not of a hypothetical end of Jewish presence in the Iberian Peninsula. The “end” of this late antique Hispanojewish world should be seen as a transition into what scholars can identify as the classical Sepharadi civilization in the Iberian Peninsula. The transition was slow and took several generations. However, signs of this change are clearly detectable with the Islamic conquest at the beginning of the 8th century. Jews were subjected to a new political and social reality, under which the authorities brought with them a new, well tested manner to relate with Jewish communities. This is indeed reflected by the 8th century coin with Hebrew legend described in Chapter 5. However, this is also seen in the contemporary “two Rebbis” inscription from Mérida. While in Latin, the titles used by the protagonists is Rebbi, a term not used in any late antique inscription before the 8th century. Jewish communities were “orientalizing” and adopting organizational models based on the influence of the Babylonian yeshivot. This Hebraization, already detected in the last centuries of Late Antiquity, accelerated as Latin and Greek cease to be the language of politics and the intellectual elite. Arabic became increasingly prevalent. Moreover, with the rise of Hebrew grammaticists, such as Saʾadia Gaon in Iraq, the process of standardization of the Hebrew language made it possible for easier communication between Jewish communities across lands with both Persian and Roman heritage. The Arab conquest of most of the known world and particularly the protection of Muslim author-
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ities of commercial and pilgrimage routes, allowed for an easier movement of ideas and people, from Baghdad to western centers like Qayrawan in Tunisia and Cordoba in Al-Andalus. This new political and cultural reality is reflected in the epigraphic practices of early medieval Jews in the Iberian Peninsula. Of the seven inscriptions collected in this study, none is in Latin or Greek. They use no reference to date the texts with the previous Era Hispanica, but instead use Hebrew calendars.2 Hebrew becomes the sole epigraphic language of Jews, with Cordoba and Lorca being (unsurprisingly) major centers of Jewish activity. Between the 9th and 10th centuries (Chapter 5, Ins. 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, and 2.4) there is a clear mixture of both Latin and Hebrew names, suggesting the maintenance of naming practices in a Jewish community that inherited a past late antique Hispanojewish culture. Furthermore, by the late 10th and early 11th centuries the inscriptions, all funerary, have long Hebrew texts with rhetorical or lyrical reproduction of formulas associated with funerary benedictions, particularly the hashkabah prayer. Some inscriptions have notable grammatical errors, suggesting that the Hebraization process was either not complete or simply that the authors of inscriptions such as the Toledo brick (Ch. 5, Ins. 2.7) wrote Hebrew as it sounded to them, rather than according to classical or formal standards of grammatical accuracy. Be that as it may, one finds a continuity between the 8th and 10th centuries. Changes are a product of Jewish communities that adapted themselves to new social, political, and linguistic realities, which are detectable archaeologically. Likewise, in the Ilici basilica, the collapse of Visigothic rule led to a seemingly quick abandonment of the 7th century church, followed by its occupation by inner dwellings. By the late 8th century, the site was used as a quarry for the construction of the new medieval Elche, on the site where the modern city stands. Unsurprisingly, the Ilici basilical building shared the fate of the rest of the city found in the Alcudia de Elche. Through the construction, development, Christian conversion, and abandonment of the Ilici synagogue it is possible to reconstruct parts of what was the Hispanojewish world. The evidence presented in this study is primarily archaeological and the resulting interpretation stems from this kind of material, answering the question presented at the beginning of this study: “can late antique Judaism be studied archaeologically?”
2 As correctly pointed out by Hiedra Rodríguez, “Córdoba, 845 d.C.: la inscripción funeraria hebrea de Yehudah Bar Akon en el marco del corpus epigráfico hispanojudío,” 174–176.
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The building is unique from a historiographical point of view, as the oldest preserved synagogue from the Iberian Peninsula to be studied archaeologically so far. But its structure, architecture, and context are not unique nor spectacular. The building is small, and relatively humble compared to the synagogues of Ostia in Italy and Sardis in Asia Minor. Even its Christian 7th century phase was short lived and left little imprint. But this building’s history is clearly associated with that of the Jewish history in the Iberian Peninsula. It reflects the particularity of a regional Jewish community that inherited a Hellenized Jewish tradition and adopted a heavily Eastern Roman heritage for its material culture, despite the use of local craftsmen. The community is also significant for its inclusion in a wider Jewish regional communication network that exchanged people, ideas, and objects not only with other Jewish communities, but also with their Christian counterparts. And finally, the community shared in a wider Jewish identity, much as Christians belonged to a similar ecumenical communal identity. Indeed, this book has the intention of introducing the Hispanojewish material culture as an integral part of the overall Hispanian cultural landscape. This material culture is part of the archaeological registry of different sites across the Iberian Peninsula and Northern Morocco, which in turn were part of the Diocesis Hispaniarum. However, it is not sufficient to study this landscape with a bird’s-eye view which sees only the coexistence of synagogues, churches, and other features. Social tensions existed and were particularly prevalent where this kind of ethno-religious variety was present; within populations that had similar language, behavior, and social/geographical background. These settlements were doubtless rife with inner religious, ideological, and socio-economic strife, and a modern archaeologist should assume such things as much as the probability of inter-communal cooperation and mixture. Just as Jewish communities integrated to the overall Hispanian cultural environment, so did non-Jews integrate themselves with the reality of Jewish presence in Hispania. Most findings of Jewish material culture, if not all, have a shared typology and shared stratigraphic units with materials stemming from non-Jewish environments. The presence of Jews in the provinces of late antique Hispania was a given, following their arrival around the late 1st century bce or early 1st century ce. Jews were as Hispanian as their non-Jewish pagan or Christian counterparts. The Ilici synagogue was as much a Jewish synagogue as it was part of a Roman domus. There was no contradiction nor conflict between the two definitions of the building studied here. Jewish integration within Hispania, which gave way to the development of Sepharad, was characterized both by coexistence and collaboration, but also by persecution and rejection. For Christian authorities, the Jews, with their similar mannerism, clothing, language, and customs, were deemed a threat early on at
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the Council of Elvira in the first years of the 4th century. The constant attempts to separate Christians from Jews throughout Late Antiquity, while virulent in their wording, ultimately failed to succeed, if not ideologically, at least materially. But they did lay the groundwork for later, more successful attempts in the Late Middle Ages. By then, Sepharad or “Jewish Spain”, left behind centuries of evidence of their presence, which can be recovered using an archaeological method. This allows for a better understanding of the past societies whose material and immaterial legacy are inexorably and irrevocably entangled.
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annex a
Areas and Codes 1
Naming the Site: BAE (Basílica Alcudia de Elche)
Considering that the catalogue requires the greatest amount of simplification, it was decided to avoid using the term “10-A” or any other such equivalent for an adjacent quadrant of the Alcudia de Elche, in classifying the site within the Alcudia. Instead, particularly in the catalogue, the site would be called BAE, from the term Basílica de la Alcuda de Elche in Spanish. This includes all sections associated with the main hall of quadrant 10-A, including the southern street and tabernae, also in quadrant 10-A, the northern section of the site (sub-area B/F and adjacent) in quadrant 9-A, and the two already mentioned areas found in adjacent quadrants. Therefore, to avoid confusion and problems in precision of findings, all entries to the catalogue shall include the classification of the site as given here, or BAE, and not according to the quadrant of the Alcudia.
2
The Areas
The conversion of data concerning the site, found in the mid-20th century excavation diaries by Ramos Folqués,1 to a grid that allows a modern interpretation and reconstruction requires a systematization of said data. To achieve this, it was decided to adopt a terminology that would ease the inclusion of the different loci into a comprehensive database, within which they would in turn be classified. The concepts used might be different from a typical modern archaeological excavation due to the different nature of the source material. When it comes to the BAE sector, the term “area” was applied for the division in sections of the site’s geographical surface. The identification of the different areas follows the excavations undertaken between 1948 and 1949 by Alejandro Ramos Folqués. These are mostly defined by the structures found in the different sections of the excavation. The division of the site into areas affects the classification of located loci or stratigraphic units. The importance of this is to break away from the original stratigraphical classifications made by Alejandro Ramos Folqués during his excavations. For that purpose, the excavation diaries of Ramos Folqués were used as well as the unpublished
1 ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental.
© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2021 | doi:10.1163/9789004419926_015 Alexander Bar-Magen
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documents of Helmut Schlunk from the 1948 campaign. The sketches and evidence were crucial for the visual understanding of the site, as well as the reclassification of different areas according to a simpler scheme (Figs. 7.1,2,3). Moreover, it is crucial to understand that while the site of the basilical building can be classified as an area in and on itself within the wider Alcudia site, here the areas are subdivisions of the Elche basilical building alone. This was decided upon due to two factors: first, the data regarding the excavation BAE is not connected to other sites directly; the archaeologists who excavated here considered this site an isolated unit compared to the rest of the Alcudia, as the evidence of late antique material is overall scarce in the site. Second, and most importantly, the present work is an exposition of the features of the Alcudia’s basilical building and its stratigraphic details; while other parts of the site should be used for contextualization, the connection between it and other buildings is still unknown. The following areas are the ones identified based on past publications and unpublished archival materials:
2.1
Area B: The Basilica
Area B is the term applied for Elche basilical building proper, which includes the main hall and adjacent areas that are connected to it directly. This is the only area excavated in the 1905 intervention, and it would be further excavated in the 1940s and 50s by Alejandro Ramos Folqués. It was once again researched in the 1971 intervention and excavated in 1990. Area B is roughly limited to the north by the northern wall of the basilical building (B/023), to the south by its last southern wall (B/021), and to the east by the tangential wall east of the apse (B/010). To the west it was considered appropriate to limit the area with the westernmost wall of the current reconstructed basilical building (B/OM/027), rather than the western wall that enclosed the mosaic (B/024). The reason for this is the necessity to include an area to the west of the mosaic itself, which was mostly ignored in most publications on the site. Two groups of sub-areas divide Area B. The first consists of the sub-areas that are associated strictly with a location within Area B, and are as follows: – Area B: includes stratigraphic units in the mosaic and apse area, or the central area of the site. Also included are walls or pavements that are present on a considerable part of the area. – Sub-area B/OM: Area west of the mosaic, but east of western wall B/027. – Sub-area B/NE: Area northeast of the mosaic floor, associated with a few stratigraphic units found to the north of the apse structure. The limits of this sub-area are the mosaic floor to the west, wall B/023 to the north, the tangential wall B/010 to the east, and the curved apse wall B/006 to the south. Several levels were found here, and as is seen in Chapter 7, it is one of the best examples of flooring samples underneath the mosaic floor.
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– Sub-area B/EM: A series of floors and structures found to the east of the mosaic floor area, based on published accounts by Ibarra in 1905–1906, Albertini in 1907, and Lafuente Vidal in 1948, as well as accounts for floors underneath the mosaic floor excavated in October 1949 (see below, also Chapter 7, 2.2.3). These include structures seen in the general apse area and registered in the 1971 excavation. – Sub-area B/F: North of the mosaic, an area classified in 1948 as “F”. This area is strictly the area north of the wall B/023, and not associated with the northern area of Sacristía (Area S), nor to the area of Palacio (Area P). It is described on several occasions and was only partially excavated. However, information regarding findings and levels is valuable for the historical development of the basilical building and its surrounding complex. The second class of sections are those found under the upper mosaic floor pavement. These are typically sub-sections of “Level M” and “Level N” described in Alejandro Ramos Folques’ excavation diaries entries for October 11th and 12th, 1949 (see Corpus documental and Chapter 7, 2.2.3). These sub-areas are a complex series of sections that were subdivided through the description of the diaries, regardless of the similarities that could arise between them through the written sources. These are as follows: – Sub-area B/E: Described on October 12th, 1949, as “between stones and apse”, that is, the eastern section of the sub-mosaic floor of “Level N”. This was best described in the sketch drawn from that date, in n. 11, f. 1r of the Corpus documental by A. Ramos Folqués. – Sub-area B/SE: Stratigraphic unit from “Level M” and “Level N” of the abovementioned Corpus documental (described on n. 11, f. 10r, from October 14th, 1949). These are associated with sub-area B/SE/A’, though that last one is a stratigraphic unit on top of the basilical pavements, to the south of the area excavated in 1905, and only revealed in 1948 (n. 7, ff. 6r, 16v of the Corpus documental).
2.2
Area S: Sacristía
The following area was the first thoroughly excavated following the 1948 uncovering of the mosaic floor, and therefore was untouched by the 1905 excavations. Being a smaller area, and with a smaller number of probes, this area is less complex in its interpretations and, above all, the identification of its sub-areas and loci. The result is the existence of well-defined sub-areas as part of this structure to the east of Area B. The first publication of Sacristía is through the 1948 report of activities submitted by Ramos Folqués and published in 1952. In his article, the excavator presents a sketch where what is here called Area S is classified as “Area 1” in Fig. A.4.2 Area S is associated 2 Alejandro Ramos Folqués, “Elche (Alicante). La Alcudia [campañas 1940–1948]”, Noticiario Arqueológico Hispánico II, n.o 1–3 (1953) (1955): 131. The numeration in this published sketch is probably from the time of the excavation itself. Therefore, following the excavation of “Area
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with the name Ramos Folqués gave to this area from 1948 onwards: Sacristía. The oddity of giving this area a name for an appendix of a Christian church, while still considering the building as a Jewish synagogue, demonstrates the lack of clarity in interpreting the archaeological evidence at the time. Early in the excavation, it was clear that Area S had a series of inner divisions that made it easy to compartmentalize. It was divided into several sub-areas: – Sub-area S/B’: Section to the southeast of Area S. It was first described in a sketch from the Corpus documental, n. 7, f. 1v, and repeated in another sketch dated to May 26th, 1948, on n. 7, f. 3r of the same Corpus. It was limited by eastern wall S/199 to the east. To the south, the limit is unclear and despite the reconstruction of the structure by 1990. To its north it is limited by what appears to be wall S/053, and what seems to be its continuation in wall “c c” (S/326) described in the sketch from n. 7, f. 1v. – Sub-area S/B”: Sub-area to the southwest of Area S. It is limited to the north by what seems to be a continuation to the west of the east-west wall of S/053. To the west, it is limited by the continuation of the line of the tangential wall B/010. Like S/B’, this sub-area has no clear limitation to the south. As for the east, there is no clear separation between S/B’ and S/B”. It seems that in 1948 probe S/B” was excavated all through the natural rock, revealing the stratigraphic sequence, whereas in S/B’ this did not occur. – Sub-area S/B: Area to the center-north of Area S, following the sketch from May 26th, 1948 (aforementioned n. 7, f. 3r of the Corpus documental). There is no clear limit, and it seems to be merely a general area to differentiate what was found in S/B’ and S/B” from the rest of Area S. It is located mostly where wall S/053 was found, and it includes the area immediately north of that. – Area S/B/D and S/B/D’: The northernmost fill levels within Area S, and considered as part of sub-area S/B. This is the most widely studied excavation section of Area S, and therefore many of its loci are associated with a general Area S, as many of the levels found in this area are associated with levels found elsewhere in this structure. Furthermore, this is one of the few areas where there are levels associated with vertical stratigraphic units, or walls such as S/054 and its plaster cover sequence. 1” (or what is called here Area S) we find the excavation of the area to the north of S, or “Area 2”, followed by an “Area 3” (or sub-area B/F), and “Area 4” (sub-area B/SE). A final “Area 5” was mentioned in the publication on p. 133 but does not appear in the sketch. It is to be clearly associated with Area P, initially excavated by late 1948 and continued in 1949, already outside the scope of that specific publication by Ramos Folqués. The fact that Area B, or what was excavated in 1905, had no numeration in the 1948 intervention is evidence that the archaeologist was preoccupied with the rigor of his own excavation, and considered the previous uncovering of the mosaic as not being part of this intervention.
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figure a.1 Sketch by Alejandro Ramos Folqués of excavated area by May 1948 arf, amrf, corpus documental entry for may 1948, n. 7, f. 1 v
This compartmentalization leaves us with a clearer picture of this area than any other excavated from the Ramos Folqués interventions. Today, Area S is the bestpreserved section of the site following the 1990 restoration, and it gives crucial evidence regarding the site’s chronological development.
2.3
Areas C and T: Calle and Tabernae
The areas to the south of Area B were already excavated in 1948, but it was not until 1949 that a clear picture emerged of what was found. Indeed, they contained the first piece of evidence of what is considered an urban road from the Roman period that crossed the Alcudia to its south. Hence, Ramos Folqués called this area calle, or “street” in English. In other sections of the excavation diaries, this street was also called calle estatuas or “statue street” due to the uncovering of a large amount of stone statue fragments in one of the strata of the area. It was called Area C. It is important to note that the “Street” was separated from the southern limits of the basilical building by around three meters, leaving open space for features found dur-
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figure a.2 Sketch by Alejandro Ramos Folqués of excavated area by May 1948 arf, amrf, corpus documental entry for may 1948, n. 7, f. 3 r
ing the excavations of 1948 and 1949. The walls uncovered between the “street” and the “basilica” proper were associated with both areas. It was clear that the compartments, found in succession through the interventions, looked similar to tabernae or shops normally attached to a public space such as the Elche basilical building’s southern façade which looks towards the street. This is the only area that was named by the author of this study, hence it is named Area T. Unlike other areas of the site, from a stratigraphic standpoint, areas C and T were considered one area. The reason for this is mostly due to the methods applied in the late 40s. The excavator did not consider these areas separate from each other, and therefore at times concluded that the sequence in one section was equal to one from another section. This would have been damning for any hope of establishing a stratigraphic sequence of Area T had it not been sketched in the excavation diaries already in 1948, and again in 1949, establishing crucial stratigraphic relations between several walls in certain sub-areas (T/I, T/H) and the detected levels of the area.
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figure a.3 Sketch by H. Schlunk of “May–June” excavations in the Elche basilical structure and surroundings (1948) dai madrid archives, schlunk archiv, i,159-4
Furthermore, the apparent confusion between the horizontal stratigraphic units of areas C and T is itself indicative that there is a relation between the two areas when it comes to stratigraphic sequence. The tabernae must have had, from an urban standpoint, an association with the street to its south, and there would be no surprise had any change in the street area also affected the tabernae. However, as is seen in Chap-
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figure a.4 Sketch by A. Ramos Folqués of excavated areas of the basilical area in 1948 ramos folqués, 131
ter 9, those associations cannot be established with enough rigor for them to be more than theoretical assumptions. As in areas B and S, areas C and T have their own sub-sections based on their location and compartmentalization. However, most loci found in this area are associated with the units of Area C, which is relatively unified and has similar stratification sequences in its different sections. Area C has the following sub-areas: – Sub-area C/E: Easternmost section of Area C, described mostly in a sketch in the Corpus documental, on May 10th, 1950 (Fig. 9.6). – Sub-area C/N: “Northern corner of the ‘statue street’”, mentioned on May 10th, 1950, in the Corpus documental (n. 12, f. 31r) by Ramos Folqués. It is not clear where this sub-area is, and there is a possibility it is associated with Area T, therefore not belonging to Area C proper. However, since it is mentioned as in the “Street” or Area C section, it was therefore considered part of its northern corner. Unlike a more unitary Area C, Area T is significantly more compartmentalized and divided in more sub-areas, associated with the different rooms or structures found there. However, sub-areas are mentioned only when loci are identified within them. This makes the classifications of sub-areas necessary for the understanding of this general Area T. The first are stratigraphic units associated with a wider area than T, such as the uppermost “Level O” found both in C and T, or wall T/106 which marked the division between C and T. Other stratigraphic units were described by Ramos Folqués as general strata of the area, and therefore considered without a specific sub-section. In other words, these loci have no association with any sub-area in their classification, and hence would be merely considered as part of Area T.
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The supra-classification of sub-areas in “T” is based on the criteria of the excavation campaigns when they were discovered. The following sub-areas were found in 1948: – Sub-area T/A2: A sub-area with stratigraphic units associated with “Room A” or “Room 2”, hence called sub-area T/A2, described in two sketches from notebook 7, ff. 16v and 17r of the excavation diaries in the Corpus documental by Ramos Folqués. This is a central room of a three-room structure excavated at an area to the southwest of the basilical building, or Area B, on early September 1948. – Sub-area T/B3: A sub-area with stratigraphic units found at the room to the south of sub-area T/A2, described as “Room 3” or “Room B” in the same aforementioned sketches of the Corpus documental. – Sub-area T/H1: The northernmost of the three-room complex, associated directly with what was described as room T/I in 1949 (see below). The stratigraphic units are therefore associated with the uppermost phases of this section of the excavation, uncovered in 1948. It is specifically related with a U-shaped structure, looking eastwards, and known as “Room 1”. However, it also includes loci to the east of said structure, and to the north of sub-area T/A2. The “H” stands for habitación, or “room”. The following are sub-areas first found in the 1948 excavation, and later, better defined in the 1949 excavation campaigns: – Sub-area T/I: “Room I”, first described in the sketches of n. 7, ff. 16v–17r from September 7th, 1948, and in the sketches from September 19th, 1949 (Fig. 9.4), and May 10th, 1950 (Fig. 9.6). The room is the westernmost from Area T and included important findings from an architectural and chronological standpoint. It is probably the best excavated sub-area from T. This room is limited by a “wall P” (T/103) of the September 1949 sketch to the north. It was described as “Room I” in the 1949 sketches. – Sub-area T/H: “Room H” described in the sketches from September 19th, 1949 (Fig. 9.4), and May 10th, 1950 (Fig. 9.6). “Room H”, or sub-area T/H, is limited by two walls to the east and west of it (T/103, T/104), that are in turn attached to the southern wall of the basilical structure which limits Area B to the south. In late 1949 and early 1950, Ramos Folqués’ team proceeded to excavate the area to the east of these rooms, revealing more structures found between Area B and Area C. These are all classified as sub-area T/E. They are all described in the sketch from May 10th, 1950 (Fig. 9.6), and have their own sub-classifications as follows: – Sub-area T/E/P: A room to the east of sub-area T/H, described in the sketch from May 10th, 1950. The area is 5.2 meters wide and 2.7 meters deep. The room is named “P” based on the classification of the easternmost rooms found in this sub-area. – Sub-area T/E/Q: A room to the east of T/E/P. Its measurements are: 1.6 meters wide, 2.7 meters deep. Like T/E/P, this room follows the classification order of the easternmost rooms described in the above-mentioned sketch. – Sub-area T/E/R: A room to the east of T/E/Q, described as “Room R” in the sketch from May 10th, 1950. This room’s width is unknown. Its length is 2.75 meters deep.
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This, along with T/E/T’, is the only room from this sub-area that has description of horizontal loci, or horizontal fill strata. – Sub-area T/E/S: An apparent “Room” to the east of T/E/R. Measurements are unknown. There is no clear separation between T/E/R and T/E/S to the west of this sub-area, hence it is a possibility that this is not a separate room, and that both are one and the same. – Sub-area T/E/T’: A room to the east of T/E/S, with unknown measurements. The room includes findings of architectural remains and some fill (type H) stratigraphic units. One sub-area has been associated with the connection area between areas B and C, and therefore fell under the classification of Area T. This is the case of what was described as a “Roman Room” to the north of the “Statue street”, also called “habitación romana” by Ramos Folqués (sub-area T/HR). This room is to the west of the mosaic floor, but to the south of the southern wall of Area B.
2.4
Area N: North of Basilica and Sacristía
This section is strongly associated with a sub-area of Area B, namely, B/F. The differences in the description of this area, led to a reading that includes several sub-areas that are interconnected between the north of Area B and Area S, which include three juxtaposing sub-areas with their respective loci: – Sub-area B/F: It is mostly associated with the westernmost section of this area north of Area B. – Sub-area N/E: To the north of Area S, it is a section called “Rincón de Palacio”, or the southern section of Area P (see below). In fact, the strong association between the fills found there, and what Ramos Folqués numbered as “2” in his excavation report sketch (Fig. A.4—between areas P and S), indicate that it is the southernmost section between these two areas. This consists of two stratigraphic units, mostly of fill, associated with the chronological development of the northern wall of Area S, or S/055. – Sub-area B/D: Sub-area between N/E and B/F, described as E’ in the sketch from May 25th, 1948 (n. 7, f. 1v of the Corpus documental). It is described in Schlunk’s plan as “D” (see Fig. 6.3), making it easier to catalogue this sub-area. It mostly consists of one stratigraphic unit excavated and described on May 27th of that year (n. 7, f. 4r of the Corpus documental). It is a fill “at the height of the apse”, and “following a continuation of the northern wall that limits of the mosaic”.
2.5
Area P: Palacio
Revealed in the 1948 intervention, the last excavated area, which would be the final expansion of the areas around Area B, is what Ramos Folqués called Palacio, or “Palace”. It consists of a series of structures enclosed within a rectangular space, to the north of
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area N/E, which are north of Area S. This section is related to the building complex that includes all other areas, therefore making such a structure much larger than merely the basilical area itself. Area P, like Area S, was excavated in a more systematic manner than other areas affected by the 1905 excavation, or others partially excavated. This does not negate the inherent problems when interpreting the excavation diaries written by Ramos Folqués. The available photographic sources are also fragmentary when providing evidence for the location of the stratigraphic units in this section of the site. There are three main sub-sections of Area P: – General Area P: This classification is mostly applied to stratigraphic units that are present in different parts of Area P and the vertical stratigraphic units (walls), as well as to loci that were excavated at the central section of P. – Sub-area P/NO: The sub-area to the northwest of P, which was excavated through all its phases up to an identified “Level E” (n. 9, f. 8r of the excavation diaries in the Corpus documental, mentioning an “inferior level E e”, perhaps being the first level on top of the natural bedrock). This not only includes the northwest section of P, but also its northeast corner. However, the latter corner was an expansion of the excavation efforts that began at this northwestern corner in 1948. By 1949, the limits of this sub-section were made evident with an east-west wall, classified here as P/289. This section was described in a sketch from late April 1949 (n. 9, f. 6r of the excavation diaries in the Corpus documental). – Sub-area P/D: The stratigraphic units associated with several sections “at the corner of the Palace”. The association of these loci with area N/E made it apparent that Ramos Folqués described it as the southern section of P, where several features were drawn in the sketch from May 26th, 1948 (Fig. A.2), that were never properly described. These are mostly parallel stratigraphic units to the ones found in P/NO, and together they present a coherent chronological picture for the development of this structure. These are the lists of areas and sub-areas where the stratigraphic units were classified. The area classification, which appear in the unit database of this archaeological project, are, above all, guides to assist the researcher to locate them. However, the lists provide a limited description of their stratigraphy. It is important to mention that the core criteria for the classification of the loci and features are its numeric code given through the development of this archaeological project.
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Codification Each stratigraphic unit has its own numeric code. This code functions as a “name” of the locus and is not interchangeable with any other unit. The whole site has one continuous sequence of codes, starting from 001 to 379. It is through the location of each unit in different areas that one can prevent confusion from arising when interpreting these units through the study presented here. Therefore, it is important to first indicate the area where it is located, or which is referred to by the author, and later the code itself. For example: B/001 is unit 001 found in Area B. Considering the areas, stratigraphic units, and the codes associated with them, one can proceed to create a stratigraphic unit database to interpret each anthropic action as part of a wider history of the building. The following is a short and important guide for the reader of the stratigraphic units or loci catalogue, which attempts to collect all features identified since the 1905 excavation. Its codification includes the stratigraphic units themselves, an explanation of the types of entries used, and a code for the materials described in the original sources.
1
Naming the Stratigraphic Unit
The database entry model has the basic information needed to describe and comprehend the stratigraphical unit. The following is the description of this identifying information: – Date of the unit’s discovery or excavation: The stratigraphic unit is codified as follows: BAE/1948 (“Basilica of the Alcudia de Elche”, followed by the year of excavation, in this case 1948). On several occasions, there are cases where different archaeologists intervene or excavate a fill or a unit more than once, therefore requiring more than one date for the entry. For example: BAE/1948 and BAE/1954. When describing a stratigraphic unit, the first excavation campaign should become part of its standard name. An important exception is made when giving codes to the material findings of the different stratigraphic units. – Area: The area or sub-area letters where the stratigraphic unit was found (see above). It is considered as a “last name” of the unit, which can be shared by other stratigraphic units. – Code: A numerical code given as a “name” of this stratigraphic unit. This code is exclusive to this unit, and therefore not shared by any other. As an example, we can take the mosaic floor discovered in 1905. The discovery associates this floor to the excavation campaign BAE/1905. However, the complete revela© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2021 | doi:10.1163/9789004419926_016 Alexander Bar-Magen
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tion and removal of the floor makes it also part of the BAE/1948 campaign. The area it belongs to is Area B. The exclusive code number given to it is 011. The full “name” based on this codification is as follows: BAE/1905/B/011. Its short version is: B/011.
2
Description and Type
Like all entries for stratigraphic units, these are described following the name given to them. In this section we find the physical attributes recovered from the sources of the excavations. Most importantly, the description includes the type of unit. Such a type does not change the numerical sequence of the stratigraphic units, except for the case of “negative types”. All units have a type associated to them. This is added in the beginning of the description of the stratigraphic unit. This classification is as follows:
2.1
Type V
Generally given to “vertical” stratigraphic units. It is associated with construction activity such as walls, doors, columns, wall coverings, and decorative features. These stratigraphic units are important for the understanding of the architectural development of the site, as well as the definition of areas and sub-areas described through its excavations. Considering the purpose of the stratigraphic unit sequencing, which is to give a comprehensive chronological development of the site, for codification purposes there is no difference between the Type V and Type H stratigraphic units. In fact, it is crucial to keep the sequencing unitary. The reason is best seen in the Area S northern wall sequencing, where Alejandro Ramos Folqués linked “Type H” strata to “Type V” constructions.1 The sequencing between Type V stucco phases and the associated Type H fills is indicative of floor phases that are hard to detect in other interventions.
2.2
Type H
These are associated with “horizontal” units. They are generally loci described as horizontal fills, as flooring or pavements, as collapse/debris strata, or as natural layers.
1 ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental, n. 10, f. 3r. These units were described in a sketch from August 29th, 1949. These are linked to northern wall of Area S, S/055, and include the presence of a “1st stucco” S/B/053, followed by a fill, and then a level of a “2nd stucco” S/057, equal to S/200 of the eastern limit of Area S. The importance of these sections to understand the chronological development of the area cannot be underestimated, as is to be seen in chapters 7 to 10.
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“Type H” are general loci that have material finds associated with them, though there are “Type H” loci where this is not the case. “Type H” units include demolition phases detected on the site. These levels are crucial to understand the development of the building’s final stages, i.e., its abandonment. They were not classified as “Type V” stratigraphic units, despite being remains of buildings, due to them being the product of abandonment and not of construction, and because they do not provide information regarding the building’s plan. Furthermore, they are not to be classified as a “negative stratum” due to “Type H” units having a positive, voluminous nature, whereas the “Type X” units are classified as being imprints of activity, but not having a volume.
2.3
Type I
“Interface” type, generally associated with the horizontal layers, are basically units linked to used floors, and therefore do not have a volume per se. However, some interface units can be interchangeable with horizontal ones, especially since some material findings were done in them. The difference between “Type I” and “Type H” is sometimes hard to define. Like “Type X” stratigraphic units, “Type I” are devoid of volume, and therefore should be classified as merely the border of a “Type H” unit. Generally, the classification of a unit as “Type I” implies the importance of a researcher to accentuate that, for a period, this level was used as a kind of floor surface and had no fill on it. These are stratigraphic thresholds found on several sequences. However, they are not found in probes where only a sequence of “Type H” stratigraphic units are found without a use level.
2.4
Negative Type/Type X
These are stratigraphic units based on destruction or removal of another unit. The “negative type” is classified as having a minus sign before the code itself. For example: B/-001. “Type X” units are treated as loci of their own, despite not having any material finding or positive chronological markers. Such anthropic activity is crucial to understand the development of a site, particularly when following the sequencing of tombs found on “Level O” in Areas T and C. However, this type does not include demolition phases that have a clear horizontal sequencing associated with them. “Type X” phases are mostly imprints of activity, and not their fill.
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Numeration
As indicated above, the process of numeration is unitary and simple. Methodologically there are two distinct series for the numeration of stratigraphic units. The first series derives from the features found in published materials from 1905–1906 by Ibarra and Albertini, in 1955, 1962, 1972, and 1974 by Ramos Folqués, in 1978 by Schlunk and Hauschild, in 1993 by Ramos Fernández, and in 2005 and 2014 by Roberto Lorenzo and then Lorenzo and Morcillo. The architectural and archaeological features from those publications did not change significantly from the Schlunk and Hauschild publication of 1978. Unpublished units were added from personal visits done in 2011, 2014, and 2015, and through photographic evidence of the westernmost section of Area B, as was restored in 1990. The numeration in this first series tries to follow an archaeological logic. Units 001 and 002, for example, are the uppermost strata of all excavations, being the humus locus and first archaeological (abandonment) locus respectively. This series includes units 001 to 039. A second series of units is mostly based on the excavation diaries made by Alejandro Ramos Folqués, and recently published by Ana Ronda in the Corpus documental used through this monograph. Other sources include photographs, sketches, and other sources resulting from archival research between the years 2014 and 2017. These allowed for the addition of a considerable amount of information and stratigraphic units. Many are documented interventions from the Efemérides by P. Ibarra before 1905, and are considered, for the sake of this excavation, as introductory probes before the discovery of the mosaic in June of that year. Units 040 to 379, from the abovementioned sources, are enumerated based on order of reading, and not an “archaeological logic” to avoid confirmation bias.
3.1
Records and Stratigraphic Map
One important, final stage of this process of recording stratigraphic units was the development of a visual scheme that summarizes the chronological development of the building’s stages, in other words, what was defined in this study as a “stratigraphic map”. This scheme followed the schematic seriation methodology as developed by researchers such as Edward C. Harris and, especially, Martin Carver. This is the final product of the translation of past archaeological research into a modern language and allows for the systemic extraction of the largest amount of information from stratigraphic units, as well as a more precise interpretation. The process of establishing the stratigraphic map is already present in the development of the database summarized in Plates IX–XII. In each entry, there is a section dedicated to “stratigraphic relations”. These relations are strictly based on chronological development, and not merely physical relations. The basic premise is to establish
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chart a.1 Example of relations between stratigraphic units, around a “locus X/401”
a figurative table between the stratigraphic codes, and to establish through codified graphic symbols the chronological sequence based on their physical relations between loci. Above (Chart A.1) is an example of codified stratigraphic relations. The interpretation of Chart A.1 is as follows, – X/401’s chronological standing is before X/402 and X/406. – X/401 is equal to X/404, and they therefore are at the same chronological moment. – X/401 is related to X/407, and therefore is contemporary, yet not equal, to the other locus. – X/401 occurs after X/405 and X/403, and therefore its chronological standing is above them. This straightforward and simple scheme has two important and related problems that are typically avoided in stratigraphic schemes based on Harris Matrixes. The first is the fact that these schemes should be done ideally during the process of the excavation, in order to avoid the loss of information. However, this study’s raison d’etre makes such an effort impossible since all information is provided by written accounts or indirect sources of the excavation. In other words, one of this project’s objectives is the translation of already documented excavations, using the material available for the modern scholar. The second problem is associated with the first issue: on many occasions stratigraphic units are identified, but not their physical relations. With the information provided from the excavations of the site, one can find evidence that one stratigraphic unit was found “under” another one. But not how one is above the other. In most cases this is solved through the careful reading and interpretation of the site’s findings, as for example the discovery of burials at the southern exterior area of the basilical building, or the finding of “silos” on Area S/B’. In those cases, the holes necessary to dig those features would have cut strata underneath, and which later would be covered by a fill. However, this is not the case in sections of the site between areas S and P, or north of Area B, where the relations between stratigraphic units are uncertain. Alexander Bar-Magen Numhauser - 978-90-04-41992-6 Downloaded from Brill.com 03/03/2024 09:27:00PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison
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For that reason, it was decided to present the physical relations between stratigraphic units in the description and commentary sections on the database entries. This stratigraphic map has the objective of presenting a summary of the site’s chronology. The maps themselves were divided into the four main areas: Area B, Areas C+T, Area S, and Area P. The sub-areas located between areas B and P were distributed amongst these sectors in their classification, according to the units’ relations to other units of the main four sections of the site. With each area having its scheme, special emphasis was given to units that were in contact with units from other areas. In other words, if Area S units were connected through stratigraphic relations to units from Area B, this would be emphasized by an internal pattern within it, which differentiates these units from those of the area itself. The stratigraphic contact between areas can determine the contemporary use of certain areas, in relation to others, and establish the chronological development of the complex.
3.2
Codes for Materials
Most materials related to stratigraphic units were mentioned in publications and, above all, the excavation diaries produced by Alejandro Ramos Folqués during his campaigns in situ. The inclusion of found materials associated to different levels, layers, and other loci is important for their interpretation, but also for the organization of these findings in a rational, easy-to-use manner. The materials are strictly associated to the stratigraphic unit they were found in or are associated with, according to the sources. However not all entries are the same, mostly due to the way authors like Ramos Folqués described—or did not describe— recovered archaeological objects. For example, from the Corpus documental entry for May 6th, 1949,2 we find material discovered in fill P/NO/286. There, Ramos Folqués describes the finding of a “plate with painted birds”. This is a single pottery fragment that can be easily catalogued as one item. However, there is also a description of “many pieces of pottery” and “plates”. The unspecified number of these objects is problematic for their inclusion within the catalogue. The classification of these three entries within the materials list of the stratigraphic unit catalogue was done as follows: since all three entries were pottery, or ceramics, they were grouped as cer. Following that was the numeration. When there were no plural material entries such as the ones described above, all objects within the classification of cer were put numerically, according to the order of their inclusion in the catalogue (roughly based on the reading of the original sources). For example:
2 ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: May 6th, 1949, n. 9, f. 9r.
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These terminations were included after the stratigraphic unit code. For example: – Painted pottery decorated with inner squares. BAE/19543/T/HR/164/cer/1 However, when there were plural entries, sub-groups were included with a Roman numeral before the final code number of the object. For example: – “Plate with painted birds” was classified as BAE/1949/P/NO/286/cer/I/1. In this case, the Roman numeral “I” represents a group of individual finds. – “Many pieces of painted pottery” were classified as BAE/1949/P/NO/286/cer/II/1… – Here, the Roman numeral “II” is a new group of ceramic fragments. We do not know how many fragments were found in this “group”. Therefore, this is a group within the general classification of cer/II. – Following that is the catalogue number 1…. The number “1” is to indicate the first unit or fragment of this group “II”. However, this number is followed by three dots signaling an undefined continuity within this classification, thus indicating this group has an unknown number of objects. The numerical classification is done within a wider grouping of units based on their material of composition. The reason for this classification is mostly due to the availability of this description beforehand, through the sources—published or archival. Obvious cases such as roof tiles seen in the northeastern corner of Area S are classified as part of cer for ceramic. Here is a complete list of this family of materials: – cer. From cerámica. By far the most numerous group, as is expected from an Iberian, Roman, and late antique site such as the Alcudia de Elche. These are all materials made of clay or earth, including (and not limited to) pottery, terracotta statuettes, roof tiles, etc. Does not include adobe. – misc. From misceláneo. Objects without clear classification of their material of composition. The category includes objects that are rarities (for example, olive bone). – num. From numismática or numismatics. This group includes all coins and medallions, regardless of their metal composition. This is the only family not classified by the material it is made of. – os. From óseo or made of bone. These are objects made of animal bone material or variables, including horns, cartilage, and egg shells. Human remains are classified separately. – pet. From pétreo or made of stone. Includes all stoneware or architectural objects made from stone, including column fragments, bases, architectural decorations, and statue fragments. 3 The date mentioned here is that of the archaeological intervention when it was found. The date could change even within a stratigraphic unit entry depending on that. Had this been mentioned in a 1949 entry, the prefix of this entry would have been BAE/1949.
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– vit. From vítreo or made of glass. Includes all objects made of glass or any vitric paste. – Metal objects. Objects made of metal are classified based on their element in their periodic table. These include Ar (silver), Au (gold), Cu (copper), Fe (iron), and Pb (lead). Bronze, which is an alloy of copper and tin, is classified as met, or as generic metal, which includes other objects of generic metallic group. Since there are very few, if any metallic objects without specific description of the type of metal, the group met is overwhelmingly bronze objects. However, met also includes fibulae made of unspecified metals. – Example of periodic table symbol: iron object. BAE/1949/P/NO/286/Fe/1 – Example met: – Small bronze bell. BAE/1949/C/E/076/met/1 – A fibula. BAE/1949/C/085/met/1 Taking the example of the fibula, we find here the necessary information to provide a basic description. In any catalogue code, one can determine when the object was found (BAE/1949), followed by the where (C), the stratigraphic unit (085), the type of object (met), and finally the specific number unique to this object (1). In the case of pottery, these are sometimes classified in sub-groups (I, II, III, IV, and so on), and then given their unique number within the sub-group. This prevents repetition.
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Stratigraphic Unit Catalogue B/001 (Also areas S, C, T, P)—Type H. Layer of modern ground present at the moment of the 1905 excavation. It is the superficial layer of the site. At the moment of excavation, it was an agricultural level, used for the cultivation of pomegranates and, by the 1940s, of almonds in areas S and P. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 7th, 1948, n. 7, f. 8r. Efemérides by P. Ibarra, n. 481, July 13th, 1905. Ibarra (1906), Antígua Basílica de Elche BRAH. RAMOS FOLQUES, A. (1974), El cristianismo en Elche. First Discovered: 1905. Re-excavated: 1948, 1949 B/002—Type H. Fill above the mosaic, and abandonment phase above other sub-areas of Area B. This is the second stratigraphic unit detected by Albertini, in July 1905, and Ibarra, in August 1905, that revealed the mosaic. This layer’s thickness is unknown. However, it was probably around less than 1 meter deep under the modern ground from 1905, considering Ibarra’s account in 1906. Documental Sources: Albertini (1905–1906), Fouilles d’Elche. Ibarra (1906), Antígua Basílica de Elche, BRAH, p. 80. RAMOS FOLQUÉS, A. (1974): El cristianismo en Elche, pp. 79–80. Materials Found: – Two pieces of tracery work. BAE/1905/B/002/pet/1, 2. First Discovered: 1905. Re-excavated: 1948 B/003—Type V. Portal stone to the west of the mosaic floor. Apparently, it is an ashlar block placed at floor level, with its center being in line with the apse axis. According to the sources, this portal is 1.35 meters wide, indicating the width of the entrance. No depth was documented. Documental Sources: IBARRA, P. (1906): “Antigua Basílica de Elche”, BRAH, p. 121. ALBERTINI, E. (1907): “Fouillés d’Elche”, Bulletin Hispanique, n. 9, p. 120. RAMOS FOLQUES, A. (1974): El cristianismo en Elche, pp. 103–104. Graphic Sources: Fig. 7.5 First Discovered: 1905. Commentary: The unit is seen in a blurry fashion in photographs. By 1948, no remains of this portal stone were found. It was certainly depicted in the plans made by both © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2021 | doi:10.1163/9789004419926_017 Alexander Bar-Magen
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E. Albertini (published in the source above) and P. Ibarra (unpublished until 2014), indicating the entrance to the main hall of Area B to the west. B/004—Type X. Threshold structure for the entrance where ashlar B/003 was located. Documental Sources: IBARRA, P. (1906): “Antigua Basílica de Elche”, BRAH, p. 121. ALBERTINI, E. (1907): “Fouillés d’Elche”, Bulletin Hispanique, n. 9, p. 120. RAMOS FOLQUES, A. (1974): El cristianismo en Elche, pp. 103–104. Graphic Sources: Figs. 6.8; 7.3, 5, 52 First Discovered: 1905 Commentary: When re-excavated in 1948, the remains of the mosaic’s western wall B/024 had deteriorated, and portal stone B/003 had disappeared. By then, the threshold had also disappeared. B/005—Type V. Original wall frame of the basilical building. This includes a series of walls which are equivalent to different phases of the basilical structure, or Area B, though they roughly translate to the walls that border the mosaic. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: May 25th, 1948, n. 7, f. 1v; May 26th, 1948, n. 7, 3r; April 14th, 1955, n. 20, 45r. IBARRA, P. (1906): “Antigua basílica de Elche”, BRAH, pp. 119–132 + plates. LAFUENTE VIDAL, J.L. (1948): “La supuesta sinagoga de Ilici”, AespA XXI, p. 397. PALOL, P. de (1967): Arqueología cristiana de la España romana, p. 67. RAMOS FOLQUES, A. (1974): El cristianismo en Elche. First Discovered: 1905. Re-excavated: 1948 Commentary: This original “frame” includes a series of walls that require their own separate stratigraphic unit entry. Therefore, this frame must have changed over time, including median walls that defined it to the east and possibly west. It is not well preserved, with only the height of its foundation and some sections of its elevation to the south being adequately documented. Only the northern wall’s base is placed in the location of its original construction. B/006—Type V. Curved “semicircular” apse wall. According to the 1905 excavation reports published by Albertini (1907) and Ibarra (1906), this wall was around 58 centimeters wide, occupying about a three-meter depth, although Ibarra considered it 3.2 meters. It is supported by the foundations for wall B/010, which runs tangentially to this apse wall from the east. It was made of fieldstones and mud mortar. In the 1905 excavation, about 0.8 to 1 meters of its height was preserved, starting from around 0.1 meters below the mosaic according to Albertini. However, the 1971 exca-
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vation revealed its foundations run to beyond 40 centimeters below the mosaic floor. Photographs from 1948 suggest that during the site’s covering in 1907 the apse was demolished. Documental Sources: ALBERTINI, E. (1906–1907): “Fouilles d’Elche”, Bulletin Hispanique. IBARRA, P. (1906): “Antigua basílica de Elche”, BRAH 49, pp. 119–132 + plates. LAFUENTE VIDAL, J.L. (1948): “La supuesta sinagoga de Ilici”, AespA XXI. PALOL, P. de (1967): Arqueología cristiana de la España romana, p. 67. RAMOS FOLQUES, A. (1974): El cristianismo en Elche, pp. 84–85 (cita de Ibarra), 105. Image 18.1 de Ex1990_19 from the 1990 excavation, FLA Archives. Graphic Sources: Figs. 7. 38, 39, 47 First Discovered: 1905. Re-excavated: 1948, 1990 Commentary: Photographs from 1948 indicate its poor preservation during re-excavation. However, the fact that it used wall B/010 for stability and its reduced width suggests its use as furniture, rather than a support wall as originally suggested. B/007—Type H. Fill within the eastern apse B/006. According to the reports given by P. Ibarra who excavated this fill in August 1905, it apparently started at around 20 centimeters below the mosaic level, continuing upwards. However, Ibarra later revealed that his dig attempted to find the apse’s floor, which he never found. Therefore, its depth is unknown. Documental Sources: – IBARRA, P. (1906): “Antigua basílica de Elche”, BRAH, pp. 119–132 + plates. Materials Found: – BAE/1905/B/007/pet/1—Attic base. – BAE/1905/B/007/pet/2—Fragment of polilobulated stone (?) First Discovered: 1905 Commentary: A supposed “Attic base” for the altar was found as part of this fill. It was located at the bottom, and as a result it had probably been removed from its original location. B/008—Type V. Boulder or ashlar stone stuck in the central section of the mosaic. Almost square in plan, it presents an area of 0.85×0.7 meters. It also has a central hole. It is placed at the same height as the mosaic floor, to the north of the central nave of the mosaic, that is, 2.4 meters south of the northern wall and 1.4 meters north of the ashlar boulder B/009. It was located 4.1 meters west of the eastern preserved edge of the mosaic when it was discovered. Documental Sources: IBARRA, P. (1906): “Antigua basílica de Elche”, BRAH, pp. 121–122. PALOL, P. de (1967): Arqueología cristiana de la España romana, p. 67.
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Graphic Sources: Fig. 7.12 First Discovered: 1905 B/009—Type V. Second ashlar boulder stuck in the central area of the mosaic. It flanks the central nave to the south, therefore being the southern “sister” boulder of B/008. It has an area of 0.85×0.7 as well, and also has a central circular hole in its center. It is placed at the height of the mosaic, that is –0.3 meters from Zero Point. It is located 1.4 meters south of the northern ashlar boulder, and 4.1 meters west from the eastern edge as was preserved in 1905. Documental Sources: IBARRA, P. (1906): “Antigua basílica de Elche”, BRAH, pp. 121–122. PALOL, P. de (1967): Arqueología cristiana de la España romana, p. 67. Graphic Sources: Fig. 7.13 First Discovered: 1905 B/010—Type V. Eastern wall, tangential to the apse B/006. To its north, the wall presents a connection with the eastern extension of wall B/023. The wall is made of fieldstones and earthen mortar. At its northern corner, with B/023 and S/055, is an ashlar stone that is part of S/052, which represents a new wall that would be placed on top of B/010. This ashlar stone, which makes a corner and has a northsouth direction, is the reference point for Zero Point, or 0.00 height, in its upper face. Its foundation is about 70 centimeters below the mosaic floor, or –1.00 from Zero Point. According to Poveda (2006), its width is 40 centimeters. However, other sources point towards a width of 60 centimeters. Documental Sources: IBARRA, P. (1906): “Antigua basílica de Elche”, BRAH, 49, p. 126. ALBERTINI, E. (1907): “Fouillés d’Elche”, Bulletin Hispanique, tome 8, nº4, 1906, p. 337. RAMOS FOLQUES, A. (1974): El cristianismo en Elche, p. 101. Graphic Documentation: Figs. 7.43, 45, 46, 47, 48 First Discovered: 1905. Re-excavated: 1948 Commentary: Remains of white stucco are preserved to the western (B/017) and eastern faces of this wall (S/127). It has the same foundation level and fabric as northern wall B/023, which allows us to assume these walls are contemporary. B/011—Type H. Three-nave mosaic floor. The mosaic is around 10.9×7.75 meters in area. The three naves are mostly decorated with geometric motifs, with a predomination of octagonal, hexagonal, and squared forms, bands of guilloche compositions, and Greek crosses, particularly in the central-eastern main panel. The central area of the mosaic was broken, as were the northeastern and southeastern corners.
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The mosaic has three Greek inscriptions. One to the left, or to the north, readable from the south and which follows the axis of the mosaic, at the south of the northern panel. The second, within a tabula ansata, is placed to the east of the central panel, and is readable looking to the east. To the south is a third inscription, on top of the only remains of a figurative panel, readable looking from the north to the south. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: April 26th, 1949, n. 9, ff. 1r–4r. AMRF notes 2, 3, 4, 6, 7. IBARRA, P. (1906): “Antigua basílica de Elche”, BRAH, pp. 119–132 + plates. IBARRA, P.: Efemérides (manuscritos originales, Archivo de la Diputación de Elche). PALOL, P. de (1967): Arqueología cristiana de la España romana, p. 67. RAMOS FOLQUES, A. (1974): El cristianismo en Elche. REYNOLDS, P. (1993) Settlement and Pottery in the Vinalopó Valley (Alicante, Spain): A.D.400–700, p. 101, fig. 3. Graphic Sources from the Alcudia de Elche archives (see below). Materials Found: – Fragment of red coarse plate. BAE/1949/B/011/cer/1 – Fragment of grey paste pot, with an everted rim. AMRF identifies it as from a CCR Reynolds ERW.3.1 pottery type, though with grey paste. BAE/1949/B/011/cer/2 – Pottery fragment with an inner red paste, and a grey surface, probably made with reductive firing. According to AMRF, it is a CMA-type pottery. BAE/1949/B/011/cer/3 – Fragment of “murrinum glass” (“of myrth”), found when “consolidating” the mosaic on April 26th, 1949. It is blue, decorated with brown flowers and incisions. It was placed as a tessera, according to Alejandro Ramos Folqués. Identified as item LA4358 (AMRF). BAE/1949/B/011/vit/1 – AMRF associates this piece to luxury pottery, as indicated by Pliny in his “Natural History” (see note 2 of n. 9, f. 1r from the Corpus documental). First Discovered: 1905. Re-excavated: 1948 Commentary: The panel with maritime figures was broken before the abandonment of the mosaic. Evidence of the two apparent menoroth to the northeast of the preserved mosaic could also be an indication of the mosaic’s defacement. The mosaic has several stages of repairs, including the placement of a lower-quality pavement in comparison to the original, the placement of pink-white marble in the western border, and the placement of the stones B/008 and B/009. The two abovementioned stones show that the mosaic’s northern panels are wider than the central or southern ones, with the southern being the narrowest. The central mosaic axis differs from the central axis of the eastern apse B/006. B/012—Type H. Repair work on the center-western edge of the mosaic floor made by white-pink marble, around the basin B/022.
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stratigraphic unit catalogue Documental Sources: RAMOS FOLQUES (1974): El cristianismo en Elche, p. 82 IBARRA (1906): “Antigua basílica de Elche”, BRAH, p. 123. Graphic Sources: Fig. 7.20 First Discovered: 1905. Re-excavated: 1948 Commentary: This repair is contemporary with basin B/022.
B/013—Type H. Lime mortar support for the mosaic floor, under the tesserae that compose B/011. This layer is 8 centimeters thick. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 24th, 1949, n. 10, f. 26r; October 11th, 1949, n. 11, f. 2r. IBARRA, P. (1906): “Antigua basílica de Elche”, BRAH, pp. 125–126. First Discovered: 1905. Re-excavated: 1948 Materials Found: Found on September 24th, 1949: – A thin lead and silver sheet, with curls. BAE/1949/B/013/Pb/1 Commentary: First identified by P. Ibarra in 1905 following his excavation of the apse fill to the east of the mosaic, this layer of mortar was previously confused with a “Roman floor”, and would be associated by later researchers with floors such as B/NE/077 and B/EM/025. However, the Corpus documental by Alejandro Ramos Folqués clearly pointed out this layer is no more than 8 centimeters thick and is made by a lime mortar floor. Therefore, this level should be associated with “Level B”, the same as the mosaic floor itself, though stratigraphically it was placed before the B/011 tesserae, which themselves date prior to later additions and repairs to the mosaic. B/014—Type H. “A–B wall” with east-west direction described by Albertini, in the southern sector of the original basilical building. It is a poor quality wall, made of local fieldstones and earthen mortar, 60 centimeters wide. It starts 2.1 meters east of the western mosaic edge and ends 1.5 meters east of the eastern edge of the mosaic. It is placed 1.1 meters north of the southern limit of the mosaic, built on top of it; partially covering its southern panel. Documental Sources: ALBERTINI, E. (1907): Fouilles d’Elche, p. 121. Graphic Sources: Figs. 7.1, 9, 10 First Discovered: 1905 Commentary: First thought of as a mur grossier (“coarse wall”) following the Arab invasion of the 8th century, this theory was discarded by later research. Instead, it should be associated with the latest use of the building and its mosaic, perhaps Phase 1b linked to “Level O” of Area T or C. Alexander Bar-Magen Numhauser - 978-90-04-41992-6 Downloaded from Brill.com 03/03/2024 09:27:00PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison
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The wall’s extension eastwards implies the need for the partial demolition of the apse wall, particularly its southern curve. B/015—Type V. Stepped structure found south of the eastern edge of Wall “A–B” by Albertini, B/014. It consists of three steps, and has a total height of 75 centimeters. Documental Sources: ALBERTINI, E. (1907), Fouilles d’Elche, p. 121. IBARRA, P. (1906): “Antigua basílica de Elche”, BRAH 49, p. 122. Graphic Sources: Fig. 7.1 First Discovered: 1905 Commentary: Ibarra proposed in his sketch that this, as well as B/298, are part of the same arched structure at the southeastern corner. However, this is mostly speculation. The stepped structure has a height of 75 centimeters, but there is no evidence for the individual steps. Also, there is no evidence for the construction materials of the stepped structure. The explicit attachment of this feature to B/014, allows the reconstruction of clear stratigraphic relations between the two “Type V” units. B/EM/016—Type H. Cement pavement located 10 centimeters below the mosaic floor, therefore –0.4 meters below Zero Point. It is apparently placed at the same elevation as the apse structure B/006. It is the same as cement floor B/113 detected in “Level M” below the mosaic floor. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: October 11th, 1949, n. 11, ff. 2r–3r. ALBERTINI, E. (1907): “Fouilles d’Elche”, Bulletin Hispanique, 8, nº4, 1906, p. 337 p. 121. Graphic Sources: Figs. 7.1, 4, 24 First Discovered: 1905. Re-excavated: 1949 Commentary: Following Albertini’s plan, it is possible to propose that this is indeed part of a wall placed before the apse’s raising, above which the apse itself would be built. However, despite the intentions of Albertini to link this floor to the apse in his plan, in truth, the reach of the apse towards the west remained unclear, as can be seen in the description of this stratigraphic unit in catalogue entry for B/006. Even so, it is probable that it marked the floor from which the wall of the apse was raised, therefore clearly being from a previous period to that of the apse wall B/006. B/017—Type V. Stucco (covering) above eastern tangential wall B/010 on its inner (western) face. It is mostly preserved in the point of tangential contact between the apse wall B/006 and wall B/010, therefore being of a previous period. This stucco is white.
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stratigraphic unit catalogue
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Documental Sources: Graphic sources from the 1971 DAI-Madrid intervention. RAMOS FOLQUES, A. (1974): El cristianismo en Elche, p. 106. Graphic Sources: Fig. 7.46 First Discovered: 1948 Commentary: There is no preservation of the coloring of this stucco. However, it seems to be contemporary to the white stucco found in Area S and attached to wall B/010 as well, or B/127. B/018—Type V. Stucco covering for the southern edge of the mosaic floor, mentioned on several occasions and covering southern structure B/028. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: October 11th, 1949, n. 11, f. 4r (sketch). RAMOS FOLQUES, A. (1974): El cristianismo en Elche, p. 105. Graphic Sources: Figs. 7.54, 55 First Discovered: 1948 Commentary: it seems to have been contemporary to B/019. B/019—Type V. White stucco north of the mosaic floor, attached to the northern wall B/023. Documental Sources: RAMOS FOLQUES, A. (1974): El cristianismo en Elche, p. 105. First Discovered: 1948 Commentary: Ramos Folqués, as well as the photographic evidence from 1948, kept in the DAI-Madrid Schlunk Archives, present this stucco as being on top of the mosaic floor B/011, and therefore of a later date. This stucco is placed on top of B/023; however, it was placed after another stucco B/122 was removed, having been detected underneath the mosaic floor during excavations. Therefore, there is a level of destruction for the previous stucco, or B/-131, being a preparation stratigraphic unit for the placement of the mosaic floor. B/020—Wall under the late southern basilical wall B/021. Its length surpasses the limits of the original mosaic to its east and west. Apparently, it is partially covered by B/021. It is made of fieldstone foundations, though its elevations are unclear. It is “uncovered” by the upper wall between 20 and 35 centimeters. Documental Sources: RAMOS FOLQUES, A. (1974): El cristianismo en Elche, p. 105. Graphic Sources: Fig. 7.22, Pl. XIII.1 First Discovered: 1948 Commentary: The sequence of the southern wall of the basilical structure is complex. However, in all sketches and available documents, there were apparently three Alexander Bar-Magen Numhauser - 978-90-04-41992-6 Downloaded from Brill.com 03/03/2024 09:27:00PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison
868
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subsequent “walls”, one on top of the other, although it is not clear if they were successive to one another. The first wall would be B/028 (see catalogue entry). The second would be this one, B/020, which leaves the lower wall uncovered; it is 60 centimeters from the mosaic, but is 40 centimeters distant from the mosaic’s southwestern corner, thus partially covering B/028. The third is partially covered by B/021, which would be the latest southern wall of the structure. B/021—Type V. Uppermost wall found to the southern limit of the basilical area (Area B). It mostly covers wall B/020 and is associated to a later period. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: May 10th, 1950, n. 11, f. 35v–36r. RAMOS FOLQUES, A. (1974): El cristianismo en Elche, p. 105 Graphic Sources: Figs. 7.22, 59 First Discovered: 1948 Commentary: This “last” southern wall is regarded in 1950 as associated to “Level O”, that is, the uppermost level of use of the site before its abandonment, as stated in the Corpus documental entry for May 10th of that year (see Documental Sources). The abandonment phase is represented by B/046, which covers this wall. B/022—Type X. Circular basin stuck in the mosaic floor next to its western edge. The basin presents an external diameter of 0.36 meters and an internal one of 0.28 meters. Consequently, the width of the basin’s wall is 4 centimeters. The basin is 3.15 meters north of the southern edge of the mosaic and 0.16 meters west of its western edge. It is placed roughly in the central axis of the central mosaic nave. Documental Sources: RAMOS FOLQUES, A. (1974): El cristianismo en Elche, p. 104. Graphic Sources: Figs. 7.20, 21, 22 First Discovered: 1948 Commentary: The basin was placed to fill hole B/-189 made in the mosaic. Once placed, the mosaic floor was repaired around this, with pink-white marble slabs B/012, which are contemporary to this basin. B/023—Type V. Northern limit wall for the basilical area or Area B. It is 70 centimeters wide, preserved up to around 45 centimeters of height in the northeastern corner of Area B, also called “compartment C” in the 1974 publication by A. Ramos Folqués, following the plan made by Lafuente Vidal in 1948. The wall was made of fieldstones with mortar. The outer faces of the wall had a greater concentration of stones, indicating a well-produced wall of similar execution as “tangential wall” B/010. The wall would have an extension eastward of the mosaic, though little is known of its extension westwards, up to an unknown point.
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stratigraphic unit catalogue
869
The foundation level was detected to be around 70 centimeters below the mosaic floor, that is, –1.00 from Zero Point. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: May 25th, 1948, n. 6, f. 2r; June 10th, 1948, n. 6, f. 14r. IBARRA, P. (1906): “Antigua basílica de Elche”, BRAH, pp. 119–132 + plates. LAFUENTE VIDAL, J.L. (1948): “La supuesta sinagoga de Ilici”, AespA XXI, p. 397. PALOL, P. de (1967): Arqueología cristiana de la España romana, p. 67. RAMOS FOLQUES, A. (1974): El cristianismo en Elche, p. 105. Graphic Sources: Figs. 6.8; 7.5, 52 First Discovered: 1905. Re-excavated: 1948 Commentary: Wall B/023 is the northern limit of the basilical building, and probably the longest-lasting wall of the structure. This wall, preserved today at its foundation level and not more than 45 centimeters high, was probably present in all phases of the structure/structures that ultimately harbored the late antique basilica. This is evidenced by the presence of two distinct stucco coverings of this wall, one previous to the mosaic (B/122) and another following the laying of the mosaic (B/019, contemporary to B/018). The wall itself appears to have been built around the 1st century bce or early 1st century ce at the latest, that is, in early imperial times. The stucco phases represent the need to reuse this wall for the accommodation of new inner structures, even if this wall was a basic one that defined the architectural plan of this section of the city. Covering B/187 was part of a stucco or wall covering that accompanied the eastern extension of wall B/023 towards Area S, and therefore was associated with a continuing construction all the way to S/052. B/024—Type V. Western wall bordering the mosaic floor. Its characteristics are the same as those of the northern wall: fieldstones with small ashlars placed with lime mortar. Documental Sources: LAFUENTE VIDAL, J.L. (1948): “La supuesta sinagoga de Ilici”, AespA XXI, p. 397. RAMOS FOLQUES, A. (1974): El cristianismo en Elche, pp. 103–104. Graphic Sources: Figs. 7.3, 18, 19 First Discovered: 1905 Commentary: As is the case with wall B/023, there is no registry of a “starting point” for this wall. At a certain point, this wall was dismantled to place the western structures, including wall B/OM/178 that is attached to this one. The dismantlement of this western wall could be an explanation why by 1905, when it was discovered, and in 1948 when it was once more excavated, the wall was poorly preserved. However, it was preserved enough to notice the existence of a portal
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annex c
stone and a threshold in its central area, and remains of western stucco were still preserved by 1971 as was evidenced from photographic sources. B/025—Type H. Cement floor as detected by Ibarra in 1905. This cement floor was first considered the same as B/016, but eventually was classified as a different one following the discoveries made by Alejandro Ramos Folqués, as described in his diary entry from October 11th, 1949 (n. 11, f. 2r). This floor is 6 centimeters deep and is an extension of “fine cement floor” B/117, to the east. Taking into account Hauschild’s plan heights from 1971, we can conclude the following depth of this stratigraphic unit: Upper face: –0.49 meters; Lower section: –0.55 meters. Documental Sources: IBARRA, P. (1906): “Antigua basílica de Elche”, BRAH 49, p. 121 RAMOS FOLQUES, A. (1974): El cristianismo en Elche, p. 106. ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 13th, 1949, n. 10, f. 10r; October 11th, 1949, n. 11, f. 2r (sketch). Graphic Sources: Figs. 7.24, 25 First Discovered: 1949 Commentary: This level, discovered in 1905, was originally considered the same as the one found by Albertini that same year, just with another associated height. While Ibarra proposed that the “lower cement floor” was 25 centimeters below the mosaic, Albertini indicated that it was “10 centimeters”. In 1947, Schlunk erroneously considered that the two floors were the same, as they were made with the same materials and no other floors were detected. However, it is clear that they are different, as there are two cement floors underneath the mosaic at different heights: one is about 8 centimeters below the mosaic, and the other is 18 to 21 centimeters below it. This fits well with the account by Lafuente Vidal published in 1948, indicating that the floor lies “between 15 to 25 centimeters under the mosaic”, and that between this floor and the mosaic is a level of “rubble”. B/026—Type V. Wall east of the mosaic, found by Ramos Folqués in 1948. Only its foundations are found and are preserved 1.5 meters to the north of the apse’s start. It may have been partially broken when the apse wall was built, but no evidence for that was found. The construction technique is similar to that of the northern wall B/023. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 13th, 1949, n. 10, f. 10r (sketch); October 11th, 1949, n. 11, f. 2r (sketch). RAMOS FOLQUES, A. (1974): El cristianismo en Elche, pp. 105–106. Graphic Sources: Figs. 7.11, 40, 41, 47 First Discovered: 1948
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stratigraphic unit catalogue
871
Commentary: The wall that limits the mosaic to its east was built after the placing of the northeastern gravel and lime mortar floor B/NE/077. However, this wall seems to have been broken, albeit partially, by foundation hole B/-031 for the apse. Consequently, it was placed after the northeastern pavement, but before the apse itself. As for this wall’s relation with the mosaic, all that can be perceived is that this wall was covered with black stucco placed after B/011. However, despite this fact, a clear physical and chronological relation between the two features is impossible, since there is a 50–55 centimeter distance between this wall B/026 and the eastern edge of the mosaic floor. B/OM/027—Type V. Western wall of the current basilical plan frame, first excavated by Alejandro Ramos Folqués in 1954. It corresponds with the western limit of the basilical complex, including a threshold. The wall was built with fieldstones and mortar, as were other walls of this structure. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: April 15th, 1955, n. 20, f. 45r. Graphic Sources: Figs. 7.67, 68. See also Plates XIII.2, XIV.1 First Discovered: 1954. Re-excavated: 1990 Commentary: Attached to wall B/027 we find wall B/033, which is perpendicular to the north-south direction of 027. The latter wall is of a later period, as can be seen in its attachment, thus also attached to feature B/034. It is probable that feature B/034, built with similar materials to B/027, is contemporary to the latter. However, the physical relations between the two features, as well as the available photographic evidence, indicate that B/034 is placed after B/027, and is a different structure. This wall was never probed beyond its superficial discovery. Therefore, its foundation level is unknown, as are the materials found underneath it. There is only evidence that this wall preceded other structures found in the sub-area B/OM, to the west of the mosaic floor. B/028—Type V. “Original” southern wall, preserved only “10 centimeters” in its “visible part” according to Ramos Folqués’ publication of his findings in 1974. He does not present the depth of this structure’s foundations, nor does he reveal the relations between this feature and the mosaic floor. However, plans in the Corpus documental indicate that this wall was attached to the mosaic floor to its north. In its central area, slightly to the west, there are remains of its “uncovered upper face”, corresponding with the remnants of wall B/020 placed on top of this sector. This “revealed upper face” is probably B/138. West of this, wall B/020 starts a northward deviation that covers this structure, reaching the western edge of the mosaic with only a 40-centimeter wide uncovered space.
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annex c
Documental Sources: RAMOS FOLQUES, A. (1974): El cristianismo en Elche, pp. 105–106. Graphic Sources: Fig. 7.22 First Discovered: 1948 Commentary: Feature B/028 could have belonged to a wall before the placement of the mosaic, or possibly supported by one such as north-south wall B/125. Regardless, the presence of wall B/020 “on top”, as well as a regular space that reveals one between the mosaic and the latter wall, point towards the presence of a bench structure to the south of the basilical structure, looking to the center of the mosaic floor. B/OM/029—Type I. Threshold in the central western wall B/027. There is no clear indication of its current form. The only evidence are two consecutive inner steps that save the level dip when entering the structure from its west. However, it is possible that these two steps are a restoration following the clear dip detected in the 1990 excavation. Graphic Sources: see B/OM/027 First Discovered: 1954 Commentary: It is unclear if this dip is a product of previous excavations by Ramos Folqués, or a result of remains for this site. B/-030—Type X. Foundation trench to place eastern wall B/026, breaking floor B/NE/ 077. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: May 25th–26th, 1948, n. 7, ff. 1v, 2r, 3r; September 13th, 1949, n. 10, ff. 10r, 11r; October 11th, 1949, n. 11, ff. 2r, 2v, 3r. RAMOS FOLQUÉS, A. (1974): El cristianismo de Elche, p. 105. First Discovered: 1905. Re-excavated: 1948 Commentary: This stratigraphic unit is not directly documented, but is assumed from the present evidence of different testimonies, including: Sketches in the excavation diaries found in the Corpus documental show that mosaic floor B/011 does not touch eastern wall B/026. Furthermore, on September 13th, 1949 (n. 10, ff. 10r, 11r), and October 11th of that year (n. 11, ff. 2r, 2v, 3r), Alejandro Ramos Folqués points out that the placement of this eastern wall breaks the gravel/cobble and lime mortar floor B/NE/077, therefore being clearly of a later date. Since wall B/026 is placed on top of stucco B/019, it is assumed that wall B/026 is of a later period than stucco B/019, therefore making foundation trench B/-030 also from a later date to B/019. B/-031—Type X. Supposed foundation trench for the apse. This stratigraphic unit certainly cuts the northeastern pavement B/NE/077, and possibly destroyed part of the
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stratigraphic unit catalogue
873
eastern mosaic floor. It is possible that it even cut eastern wall B/026, if we consider that wall of an earlier date than that of the apse, though that is not necessarily the case. The trench broke an area to accommodate a rectangular space with an elliptic background, reaching the eastern “tangential wall” 3 meters east of the preserved mosaic floor. Documental Sources: IBARRA, P. (1906): “Antigua basílica de Elche”, BRAH 49, pp. 119–132 + plates. First Discovered: 1905 Commentary: The destruction of parts of the pavement B/NE/077, and possibly parts of the eastern edge of the mosaic floor B/011, as well as the floor B/016, suggests that apse wall B/006 should be considered similar to the trench B/-030. However, it is unclear whether this trench was made before or after trench B/-030. Even so, it is clear that these were done after the mosaic floor. B/OM/032—Type V. Small ashlar sandstone boulders in the area of the western wall B/OM/027. One of the largest ashlars has an area of 90×48 centimeters. It is placed above the preserved wall itself. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: April 15th, 1955, n. 20, f. 45r. Graphic Sources: Fig. 7.22. See Pl. XIV.1, 2 First Discovered: 1954. Re-excavated: 1990 Commentary: It is possible that this feature points towards the existence of monumental lintels on the sides of this wall, supported by such ashlars. However, they were placed in a casual manner on top of the wall following its restoration. According to graphic sources, remains of a small-sized column drum could have belonged to a threshold associated to wall B/OM/027. B/OM/033—Type V. Small ashlar sandstones boulder wall, with east-west direction. Probably made of spolia, they were held with earthen mortar. The construction technique, or at least the ashlars, are of a similar production type as the walls found in the eastern Area S, particularly S/052. This wall divides the structure’s northwestern interior, creating a small room to the northwest of sub-area B/OM with unknown use. The structure is attached to western wall B/OM/027 and interior annex B/OM/034. This wall’s conservation reaches up to the height of stone and mortar block B/035. Documental Sources: “Loose Notes” number 4 by A. Ramos Folqués, FLA Archives. ARF, Excavation Diaries: April 15th, 1955, pp. 17.24b–17.25a of old classification (the page does not appear in notebook number 20 in ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental).
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874
annex c
Graphic Sources: Figs. 7.66, 68, 72, 73, 74, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85; Pl. XV.1, 2 Materials Found: Attic-Iberian capital, removed during the 1990 excavation. First Discovered: 1954. Re-excavated: 1990 Commentary: According to sketches from pages 17.24b and 17.25a from the Excavation Diaries, we find that the northern east-west wall presented west of the mosaic is the one mentioned in this catalogue entry. This is confirmed with the available graphic evidence. The construction style and the placement as an attachment to wall B/OM/027 reveals that this wall would be of a later date than the original construction found here. The sketches by Ramos Folqués revealed this wall to probably continue up to the edge of the mosaic floor. To the west this structure would be a kind of “eastern continuation” to the northernmost point of the “counter-apse” discovered in 1990. B/OM/034—Type V. “Stepped structure” attached to western wall B/OM/027. It is divided by “steps” B/OM/029, whose division is restored today by two vertical small stones with unclear documented origin. The stones are placed to delineate the access area as restored following the 1990 excavation (B/OM/036). Graphic Sources: Excavation pictures from 1990 intervention. FLA Archives. Figs. 7.72, 73, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80 First Discovered: 1990 Commentary: An important detail is the northern extension of this structure, which should be classified as a type of western bench. The line of stones has been better preserved north of wall B/OM/033 and is made from larger stones placed in such a manner that they are visible from the “inner” (eastern) face of the wall. While it was made more visible following the restoration of the building, it is still visible in the 1990 excavation. The stepped structure consisted then of two “steps”. The “upper” or “higher” step appears to be simply the continuation of wall B/OM/027’s foundations to the north and south. It was preserved at a higher level to the north compared to the south of today’s B/OM/036. The lower one seems to be somewhat higher to its north than what was restored as steps B/OM/029. It is possible that this lower step is a series of attached stone benches. In its southern extension, that is south of threshold B/OM/036, one detects a similar structure. However, this seems to be the result of the later restoration. Originally, only few remains of this feature were found, attached to one of the reused ashlars that were detected for B/OM/027, particularly to the northern extension of this feature. B/OM/035—Type V. Stone and mortar landmark with square plan, placed to the north of wall B/OM/033.
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stratigraphic unit catalogue
875
Graphic Sources: Excavation pictures from 1990 intervention. FLA Archives. Pl. XVI.1 First Discovered: 1990 Commentary: It is suggested that this landmark was placed on top of another structure, at the height of the lowest level of B/OM/033 or highest of B/OM/193. The landmark is mostly made of a mortar nucleus with remains of stone. There is no clear definition of this feature’s usage. It is placed, apparently, on top of B/OM/194. B/OM/036—Type X. Threshold stone limits placed after the restoration of the basilical structure following the 1990 excavation, distinguishing the structure B/OM/034 from stepped threshold B/OM/029. These elements are placed to the north and south of B/OM/029 and are defined by two long and narrow small stones. Graphic Sources: Fig. 7.68 First Discovered: 1990 Commentary: In the 1990 excavation, no remains of a step structure were found. However, remains of a specific stone of that characteristic can be seen in one of the excavation pictures. There is still a strong possibility that this unit was simply the result of the post-1990 excavation restoration. B/OM/037—Type I. Possible access to the basilical building from the southeastern corner, looking towards the street or Areas T and C. Graphic Sources: Plates XVII.1, 2 First Discovered: 1954. Re-excavated: 1971? B/OM/038—Type V. “Counter-apse” wall found to the west of the central section of wall B/OM/027. The structure is attached to B/OM/027 from its western (outer) face. It presents the form of half an ellipse in plan. Only the northern branch of the ellipse has clear contact with the western wall B/OM/027, while at the south the branch of the “counter-apse” has either disappeared or never existed. To the west of the “arch”, it is in contact with a western tangential wall B/OM/039, and limits a kind of western canal with other walls from B/OB. Graphic Sources: Figs. 7.87, 88, 89, 90 First Discovered: 1990 Commentary: Because of its superficial excavation to date, it is hard to identify its function. Its position and form might indicate its use as a “counter-apse”, placed opposite to the original apse B/006. However, the lack of continuation of the arch to the south is noteworthy, presenting what seems to be more like an in antis structure for a western entrance or, what is more likely, an exedra of sorts, than a “counter-apse” in the Hispanic and African basilical tradition. Attached to B/OM/033, this physical relation might indicate a late addition to the structure. However, it is more likely is a reuse of the available arched structure for some other post-basilical building. Alexander Bar-Magen Numhauser - 978-90-04-41992-6 Downloaded from Brill.com 03/03/2024 09:27:00PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison
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B/OB/039—Type V. “Tangential” western wall next to B/OM/038. It is made of fieldstones and is of the same fabric as the curved wall B/OM/038. According to the 2000 post-restoration plan of the building, this wall makes a corner with northern wall B/023. Graphic Sources: See B/OM/038 First Discovered: 1990 Commentary: According to visible data from the 1990 excavation photographs, as well as the current remains of the preserved wall in the site, there is no registry or evidence for such a corner. In fact, this wall is not well-preserved north of the apsed feature B/OM/038, where the wall finds a kind of hiatus to the north. On the other hand, this wall is probably of the same structure as B/OB/195, closing the “canal” west of the basilical building. However, the whole length of this “canal” was not preserved, even though its preserved width was about 0.4 meters. B/D/040—Type V. Remains of attic base found to the north of the basilical area, on top of B/D/317. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: May 25th, 1948, n. 6, f. 1v; May 26th, 1948, n. 6, f. 3r. RAMOS FOLQUÉS, A. (1955): “Elche (Alicante). La Alcudia [campañas 1940–1948]”, Noticiario Arqueológico Hispánico II, n0. 1–3, p. 131 (Fig. 38). Graphic Sources: Fig. 7.4, 91, 92 First Discovered: 1948 Commentary: The presence of this feature reveals the possible use of this Attic column base, during a late phase of the basilical building’s use. Also, this may reveal the use of the “wall” B/317 as a possible stylobate for an inner courtyard structure. B/D/041—Type H/I. “Floor” for possible stylobate below column B/D/040. Placed on top of wall feature B/D/317. Documental and Graphic Sources: See B/D/040. First Discovered: 1948 B/F/042—Type V. Square boulder found to the north of the basilical Area B, specifically at the northern border of what was considered B/F. Documental and Graphic Sources: See B/D/040 First Discovered: 1948 Commentary: There is no clear evidence for the specific use of this feature. It is suggested that this was used as a continuation of the “colonnade”. with reused materials, together with the attic base B/D/040, as both were found at the same height, although the apparent “stylobate” B/137 went between these two spaces.
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stratigraphic unit catalogue
877
C/043—Type I. “Intermediate” floor level between C/085 and C/081, according to the publication in 1995 of the street’s layers by R. Ramos Fernández. Documental Sources: RAMOS FERNÁNDEZ, R. (1995): El templo ibérico de la Alcudia de Elche, p. 115. First Discovered: 1949 Commentary: This is the floor level for fill layer C/044, made of hardened mud. This layer was possibly made with battered earth. C/044—Type H. “Intermediate” floor between levels “B” and “C”. This is the fill for floor C/043, made of hardened mud. It is 26 centimeters thick. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: November 23rd, 1950, n. 14, f. 32v. RAMOS FERNÁNDEZ, R. (1995): El templo ibérico de la Alcudia de Elche, p. 115. First Discovered: 1949 Commentary: During this phase, the street was apparently reduced by 30 centimeters from the previous “4 meters width”. I believe this is a previous, clearly defined phase. It is documented by two sources. The excavation diaries (see Corpus documental) indicate that it is 25 centimeters, according to the stratigraphic sketch recovered from November 23rd, 1950. The published source indicates that this layer would be no more than 26 centimeters thick. This is a difference from the version of the street’s stratigraphy from September 19th, 1949 (Corpus Documental, n. 10, f. 14r), which suggests that the phase and the layers above and below are from a different point of the street’s excavation. C/045—Type H. “Stirred-up” earth from underneath burial T/207, as a result of making burial hole T/-092. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: November 23rd, 1950, n. 13, f. 32v. First Discovered: 1949 Commentary: This stratigraphic unit was mostly described with the mention of a “stirred-up” earth layer underneath the cranium T/207 in the Corpus documental entry. As a result, it is evidence for mixed earth as a result of the placement of a burial. B/046—Type H. Layer of “earth above the southern wall of the synagogue”. It is assumed the excavator is describing the inner section of the building, to its southeast. Therefore, it is placed in Area B, and not Area T. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: April 26th, 1949, n. 9, ff. 1r–2r.
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annex c
Materials Found: April 26th, 1949: – Nozzle of an oil lamp, red paste. BAE/1949/B/046/cer/I/1 – Two fragments of smooth sigillata. BAE/1949/B/046/cer/I/2, 3 – Glass fragment. BAE/1949/B/046/vit/1 – Roman pottery shard decorated with bands. BAE/1949/B/046/cer/I/4 – Painted pottery. BAE/1949/B/046/cer/I/5 – Pottery fragment with painted decoration of intersected diagonal lines. BAE/1949/ B/046/cer/I/6 – Long lead object, “like those found in the apse”. This detail points towards the fact that this fill might have been present within the basilical building, not on its exterior. BAE/1949/B/046/Pb1. First Discovered: 1949 S/B’/047—Type H. Layer of earth in sub-area S/B’ to the south-east of Area S, east of the apse structure, registered in the documental corpus of Alejandro Ramos Folqués, in the entry for August 10th, 1949. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: August 10th, 1949, n. 9, f. 16r. AMRF note 28. Materials Found: – Small jar without painted decoration. According to AMRF, it is item LA-3180. BAE/ 1949/S/B’/047/cer/1 – Small pottery top, perhaps a toy. BAE/1949/S/B’/047/cer/2 – Black spindle. BAE/1949/S/B’/047/cer/3 First Discovered: 1949 Commentary: It is considered a place “next to the sacristy”, which could point to a fill to the east of the building itself, beyond wall S/203. However, there is no confirmation for the specific place of this fill and the location of its findings. It is associated with the “Iberian-Roman imperial level” in Ramos Folqués’ words, which points to Augustan or Tiberian periods. S/B’/048—Type H. Fill of “silo” S/-197 mentioned on August 11th, 1949, in Sacristía B’. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: August 11th, 1949, n. 9, f. 17r. AMRF notes 29, 30, 31, 32. RAMOS FOLQUÉS, A. (1956): “Memoria de las excavaciones practicadas en La Alcudia (Elche) [Campañas 1949–1952]”, Plate XCIX (second top item to the left is BAE/1949/ S/B’/048/cer/I/1). Materials Found: – Fragmented amphora with large, long handles, Dressel 1C or 12. BAE/1949/S/B’/048/ cer/I/1
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stratigraphic unit catalogue
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– Large vessel. AMRF identified it as possibly item LA-6324. BAE/1949/S/B’/048/cer/ I/2 – Within the above-mentioned large vessel, a small black fragmented plate. BAE/ 1949/S/B’/048/cer/I/3 – Next to the amphora mentioned above, fragments of large vase (pithos) with “painted bird” half restored. AMRF identifies it as item LA-979. BAE/1949/S/B’/048/ cer/I/4 – Lead disk. BAE/1949/S/B’/048/Pb/1 – Large amount of fragmented pottery. BAE/1949/S/B’/048/cer/II/1 First Discovered: 1949 Commentary: Alejandro Ramos Folqués mentions two holes, one “X” and another “XX”, associated to certain features that limit the sub-area to its north and south. This specific fill is associated with a superficial hole S/-197 which, according to the excavator, was made on “firm ground”, which means either bedrock or probably a well-defined floor. S/B’/049—Type H. Fill of silo in sub-area S/B’, same as S/048, though in this case associated with “hole X” (S/B’/-198), instead of “XX”. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: August 11th, 1949, n. 9, f. 17r. First Discovered: 1949 Commentary: No materials were found here independently. Perhaps some of the materials mentioned in entry S/B’/048 correspond to findings in this fill. S/B’/050—Type H. “Imperial level” according to Ramos Folqués. It was suggested that it was a continuation of the excavation in this “zone of the Sacristy” S/B’. Even though it is registered as from a later date, it seems in fact to correspond to the upper layer, above the “republican level” mentioned that same entry (S/B’/051). Therefore, this is considered a fill on top of S/B’/047, which is equivalent to “ash” layer from S/B”. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: August 12th, 1949, n. 9, f. 17v. Materials Found: – Small plate/pilgrim’s flask made of paste which was more cooked and darkened. BAE/1949/S/B’/050/cer/1 – Two lead disks, of different sizes. BAE/1949/S/B’/050/Pb/1, 2 – An iron nail, with squared head. BAE/1949/S/B’/050/Fe/1 First Discovered: 1949 Commentary: It is probable that this floor is related to the layer “under the last phase of the sacristy” in S/B”, mentioned in the Corpus documental.
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S/B’/051—Type H. “Republican level” (see S/B’/050) underneath “imperial level” described in the Corpus documental. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: August 12th, 1949, n. 10, ff. 17r–17v. p. 6.10a–b. Materials Found: – Fragment of painted pottery. BAE/1949/S/B’/051/cer/1 – Lead disk. BAE/1949/S/B’/051/Pb/1 – Small lead sheet. BAE/1949/S/B’/051/Pb/2 – Quartzite edge, of a white plate (?), almost completely preserved. BAE/1949/S/B’/ 051/pet/1 – Sigillata? BAE/1949/S/B’/051/cer/2 First Discovered: 1949 S/052—Type V. “Sacristy wall above the previous one with stucco”, appearing in a Corpus documental sketch (see Documental Sources), limiting the section to the east. This is the superior wall level in this section, built on top of a previous stuccoed wall covered by a floor built later (S/056). Attached to this wall is another “wall H” or S/053. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, August 29th, 1949, n. 10, f. 1r. Graphic Documentation: Figs. 8.7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 17 First Discovered: 1948 Commentary: The reuse of sandstone ashlars is detected in this “sacristy” wall (Area S), as well as in western wall B/OM/033 beyond the mosaic floor. However, while possibly being from a similar source, they probably were used at different periods. Even so, this must have been at a time when certain public structures were available for sacking. S/053—Type V. “Wall H” from the August 29th, 1949, sketch from the Corpus documental by Alejandro Ramos Folqués, made of adobe. Its dimensions are: 2.77 meters long, starting from its attachment to the eastern wall of Area S. It is, according to the sketch, 0.3 meters wide. Furthermore, it is located 3.03 meters from the northern wall of Area S and is finally covered by lime stucco S/054. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, August 29th, 1949, n. 10, f. 1r. Graphic Sources: Figs. 8.8, 17 First Discovered: 1948 Commentary: The wall is attached to eastern wall of Area S, S/199, at the height of the “1st stucco” S/061 or S/201. However, it is placed after floor S/B/D/060 associated with that unit.
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stratigraphic unit catalogue
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S/054—Type V. Stucco covering of wall S/053. Documental Sources: See S/053 First Discovered: 1948 Commentary: Considering that wall S/053 is attached to the eastern wall S/199 in Area S, here is proposed that the placement of this stucco is later than the ones covering the northern and eastern walls of the area. S/055—Type V. Wall covered partially in its east and north by stucco S/061, in the northern and eastern zone of Area S. Probably equal to wall S/199. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, August 29th, 1949, n. 10, f. 1r. Graphic Sources: Figs. 8.7, 9, 10, 17 First Discovered: 1948. Re-excavated: 1949 S/056 or S/B/D/056—Type H. Layer of “sacristy floor” made of lime and gravel, under which are preserved remains of stuccos S/055, S/199, and S/054. It also seals wall S/053 or partially covers it. The floor corresponds to Ramos Folqués’ “Level A” in his Corpus documental entry, and was still preserved during the 1990 excavation attached to remains of wall B/010. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: August 29th, 1949, n. 10, ff. 1r–2r. Graphic Sources: Figs. 8.3, 4 Excavation and intervention photographs from the 1971 DAI-Madrid campaign by Theodor Hauschild, DAI-Madrid Archives. 1990 campaign photographs by Rafael Ramos Fernández. Alcudia d’Elx Foundation Archives. First Discovered: 1905?, 1948. Re-excavated: 1949, 1990 Commentary: S/056 should be seen more as an interface, or a floor above a horizontal fill, sealing the layer associated with stucco S/057 in the northern wall S/055 and S/199. S/057—Type V. “Stucco number 2” mentioned in the Corpus documental from August 1949, under the layer S/056. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: August 29th, 1949, n. 10, f. 1r. Graphic Sources: Figs. 8.9, 10 Excavation photographs from the 1948 campaign by Alejandro Ramos Folqués, and the 1990 campaign by Rafael Ramos Fernández. FLA Archives. First Discovered: 1948. Re-excavated: 1949
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Commentary: There is no evidence that stucco S/201 was broken to place this one, as was the case of the stuccos of the building’s northern wall B/023. It seems to be directly covering a previous stucco, as can be observed in the photographs. However as can be seen, this “level” starts on a superior height to that of stucco S/201, thus indicating that the possible floor level must have existed in a previous period before its sealing by fill S/059. S/B/D/058—Type H. Fill underneath floor layer S/058. It seems to be a layer of earth that covers stucco mortar S/057 in its northeastern sector. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: August 29th, 1949, n. 10, ff. 1r–2r. Materials Found: – Unpainted vase with wide rim. BAE/1949/S/B/D’/058/cer/1 First Discovered: 1949 Commentary: This fill is considered the same as S/B/D/059, which was excavated in another probe, to its west. While S/B/D’/058 was excavated in the northeastern corner of Area S, S/B/D/059 was excavated in the area’s central-north section. S/B/D/059—Type H. Earthen fill between “Level B” and “Level A” registered in stratigraphic sketch from the Corpus documental entry for August 29th, 1949, equal to S/B/D/058 (see above). There is no description for the composition of this earth layer. However, its thickness is apparently the same as the one associated with “2nd stucco” that would be placed above the floor for “Level B” S/060. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: August 29th, 1949, n. 10, f. 2r. First Discovered: 1949 S/B/D/060—Type I. “Floor of small gravel and cement (?)”, mentioned in the stratigraphic sketch from the August 29th, 1949, entry in the Corpus documental by Ramos Folqués. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: August 29th, 1949, n. 10, f. 2r. First Discovered: 1949 Commentary: This unit is identified as “Level B” from the stratigraphic sketch describing the northern probe of Area S, or S/B/D. Apparently, it is a small gravel floor that “seals” the “first stucco” S/061. The height of this floor is the same as the lowest point of “2nd stucco” S/057.
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stratigraphic unit catalogue
883
S/061—Type V. “1st stucco” detected in the excavation of the northern wall of Area S, or S/B/D. It covers northern wall S/055, and is in turn covered later by “2nd Stucco” S/057, under several other horizontal layers. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: August 29th, 1949, n. 10, ff. 1r–2r. Graphic Sources: see catalogue entry for S/057. First Discovered: 1949 Commentary: According to Alejandro Ramos Folqués there are two stucco layers. They are both found “under the floor of the Sacristy”, or S/056. Therefore, they are from a previous phase, reused as foundation of a later wall with “covering” of ashlars. Therefore, the stucco was sealed by floor S/056. This stucco is key for identifying “floor C” and as its relative height compared to other floor levels of probe S/B/D. S/B/D/062—Type H. Fill between the “Level C” and “Level B” floors. The thickness of this layer is marked by the discovered remains of “1st Stucco” S/061. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: August 29th, 1949, n, 10, ff. 1r–3r. AMRF note 4; August 30th, 1949, n. 10, f. 3r. REYNOLDS, P. (1993): Settlement and Pottery in the Vinalopó Valley (Alicante, Spain): A.D.400–700, pp. 154–155; fig. 71. RONDA FEMENIA, A.M. (2018): L’Alcúdia de Alejandro Ramos Folqués, p. 162. Materials Found: August 29th, 1949: – Black vase, coarse, with protuberances as handles, belonging to “the 1st century ad”. According to AMRH, it is actually of a late date, probably the 6th to 7th centuries ce. BAE/1949/S/B/D/062/cer/1 – Classification as Reynolds number 956, HW10 5B from type 7. – A lead string with squared section. BAE/1949/S/B/D/Pb/1 – A perforated lead disk. BAE/1949/S/B/D/062/Pb/2 “In Ibero-Roman-imperial level”, August 29th, 1949: – Fragment of terracotta, maybe of Tanit or Bacchus. Identified by AMRF as item LA-750. Belongs to a 3rd century bce censer from Carthage. BAE/1949/S/B/D/062/ ter/1 – “Hispanic coin”—Seemingly with Ibero-Greek characters in the reverse. BAE/1949/ S/B/D/062/num/1 First Discovered: 1949 Commentary: The coin points towards the existence of an “inferior” layer underneath this level, with which the late Iberian-Greek coin would be associated. It seems to be a fill that harbors materials of local earth fills from previous periods. In this sense, this coin serves as a terminus post quem dating. Alexander Bar-Magen Numhauser - 978-90-04-41992-6 Downloaded from Brill.com 03/03/2024 09:27:00PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison
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Following the stratigraphic sketch that appears on the Corpus documental entry from August 30th, 1949, the equivalency of this stage with “Level B” and an “early imperial” level suggests its association with the 1st century according to Ramos Folqués. S/B/D/063—Type I. Lime mortar floor, at the level from which “1st stucco” S/061 begins (“Level C” floor). Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: August 29th, 1949, n. 10, f. 2r. First Discovered: 1949 Commentary: The level of this “interface” or Type I stratigraphic unit is detected at the lower height of “1st stucco” S/061. Sadly, no measurements were taken either in 1949 or in 1990. S/B/D/064—Type H. Fill below the “Level C” floor S/063, between interfaces “floor C” and “floor D”. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: August 30th, 1949, n. 10, f. 3r. Materials Found: August 30th, 1949, “Inferior level to Iberian-Roman-imperial”: – Pedestal base of Tanit. BAE/1949/S/B/D/064/ter/1 – “Hispanic coin”. BAE/1949/S/B/D/064/num/1 First Discovered: 1949 Commentary: Only a few objects were recovered from this fill. It seems the fill’s findings are a continuation from the upper layer. This suggests the possibility that interface S/B/D/063 was in use for short time, was significantly damaged or removed, or perhaps was an invention to justify Ramos Folqués’ stratigraphy. S/B/D/065—Type I. “Floor of sand and gravel” associated to “Level D”. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: August 29th, 1949, n. 10, f. 2r. First Discovered: 1949 Commentary: Little is known of this interface stratigraphic unit. Unlike the previous ones, the association of this phase with the walls and stuccos detected to the north and east of Area S is unknown. The fact is that this is made of gravel and sand on top of a fill (S/B/D/066) with relatively large amounts of materials, possibly being a preparatory layer for the one that came afterwards. S/B/D/066—Type H. Fill layer below the “gravel and sand” floor S/065, on top of “Level E” floor S/067. That is, fill for “Level D”.
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stratigraphic unit catalogue
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Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: August 30th, 1949, n. 10, f. 4r–4v. AMRF notes 5, 6; August 31st, 1949, n. 10, f. 6r. Materials Found: September 9th, 1949: – Vase with painted birds, hare, and owl. Probable kalathos, “Estilo Ilicitano I”, according to AMRF. BAE/1949/S/B/D/066/cer/I/1 – Cup or smooth vase, without paint. BAE/1949/S/B/D/066/cer/I/2 – Lead disk. BAE/1949/S/B/D/066/Pb/1 – Campanian pottery. BAE/1949/S/B/D/066/cer/I/3 – Painted pottery. BAE/1949/S/B/D/066/cer/I/4 – Black vase with thin walls (rim with neck). Mayet I or II type according to AMRF. Dated to late republican or early imperial periods. BAE/1949/S/B/D/066/cer/I/5 – Fragment of thin vase, black with barbotine slip. BAE/1949/S/B/D/066/cer/I/6 – Two lead disks, of different size. BAE/1949/S/B/D/066/Pb/2 y 3 – Black-grey pottery (reductive cooking?) fragment, polished. BAE/1949/S/B/D/066/ cer/I/7 – Painted pottery fragment decorated with rabbits and a hippopotamus. BAE/1949/S/ B/D/066/cer/I/8 – (And two boxes with objects). BAE/1949/S/B/D/066/cer/II/1…, 2… August 31st, 1949: – Iron object, possibly a knife. BAE/1949/S/B/D/066/fer/1 – Bronze button, with white vitric paste. BAE/1949/S/B/D/066/vit/1 – Smoked black pottery (for reductive firing). BAE/1949/S/B/D/066/cer/I/9 – Painted pottery. BAE/1949/S/B/D/066/cer/I/10 – Pottery without paint. BAE/1949/S/B/D/066/cer/I/11 – Black Roman pottery, with barbotine slip. BAE/1949/S/B/D/066/cer/I/12 – Iberian horse neck statue fragment, broken. BAE/1949/S/B/D/066/pet/1 – Feminine hand fragment (Alejandro Ramos Folqués identifies it as Tanit). BAE/ 1949/S/B/D/066/pet/2 First Discovered: 1949 Commentary: Alejandro Ramos Folqués points out that this floor ends with “gravel and sand”, but the fill’s composition itself has no description. It is assumed that it has a similar gravel and sand mix to S/B/D/065, as there is no indication of stratigraphic differentiation. S/B/D/067—Type I. Gravel stone floor. “Level E” floor recovered from the stratigraphic sketch, on top of S/B/D/068. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: August 29th, 1949, n. 10, f. 2r. First Discovered: 1949 Alexander Bar-Magen Numhauser - 978-90-04-41992-6 Downloaded from Brill.com 03/03/2024 09:27:00PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison
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S/B/D/068—Type H. Earthen fill layer below “floor E” S/B/D/067 and above the bedrock floor S/069. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: August 29th, 1949, n. 10, f. 2r; September 9th, 1949, n. 10, f. 5r. Materials Found: September 9th, 1949, n. 10, f. 5r. – Unpainted plate. BAE/1949/S/B/D/068/cer/I/1 – Vase with everted-straight rim, without paint. BAE/1949/S/B/D/068/cer/I/2 – Painted pottery (no description). BAE/1949/S/B/D/068/cer/I/3 – Polished black-grey pottery (reductive cooking?). BAE/1949/S/B/D/068/cer/I/4 – Two large buckets with pottery fragments (in a trunk). BAE/1949/S/B/D/068/cer/ II/1… First Discovered: 1949 Commentary: It is possible that this earthen fill layer is placed underneath the base of tangential wall B/010. However, this stratigraphic unit must have been cut to accommodate fill B/072 and the foundation to wall B/010. Consequently, it is possible to associate this “tangential wall” B/010 to a “Level D” floor, although the foundations reached all the way to bedrock “Level F” according to the documental corpus. S/B/D/069—Type I. “Bedrock level” associated with “Level F” in stratigraphic sketch from August 29th, 1949 (Corpus documental); the layer was excavated again on September 10th, 1949. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: August 29th, 1949, n. 10, f. 2r; September 10th, 1949, n. 10, f. 7r. First Discovered: 1949 Commentary: Being an “interface” unit, below which there was no archaeological fill, the findings in this “Level F” should be associated with remains of earth found at the floor level itself (that is, fill from “Level E” which covers this floor), or merely a separate fill level from that of “Level E”, but that was directly on top of the natural bedrock. In fact, the findings from Area S in “Level F” are associated with human activities on top of said bedrock, but not found directly in so-called “Level F”, despite what the Corpus documental suggests. S/B/D/070—Type H. Earth fill covering hole S/-071, which in turn cuts bedrock floor S/069. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 10th, n. 10, f. 7r. AMRF note 15.
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stratigraphic unit catalogue
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Materials Found: – “Punic mask” (mascarilla) fragment. Possibly identified as item LA-469 by Ana Ronda. BAE/1949/S/B/D/070/ter/1 – Small incomplete globular painted pot. BAE/1949/S/B/D/070/cer/1 – Campanian plate, with decorative circles in its base. BAE/1949/S/B/D/070/cer/2 – Pottery with white tone slip. BAE/1949/S/B/D/070/cer/4 First Discovered: 1949 Commentary: It is unclear whether this earthen fill is different than S/B/D/068. However, it is important to consider that hole S/-071 was filled and sealed before its covering by “Level E” S/B/D/068 and S/B/D/067, therefore implying this covering is perhaps from a slightly earlier period to that of “Floor E”. S/B/D/-071—Type X. Hole made by cutting virgin the soil S/069. There are no measurements nor a description of this hole’s function. The excavator, Alejandro Ramos Folqués, gives it importance due to the materials found within it. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 10th, 1949, n. 10, f. 7r. First Discovered: 1949 B/072—Type H. Foundation fill covering the trench B/-073 for “tangential wall” B/010. This fill is placed at the physical height of floor S/068. However, it is “below” the mentioned tangential wall, and naturally below the apse wall B/006. It is possible this floor is from a later period than that of “Level E” fill S/068 since its foundation trench B/-073 cuts this level for its elaboration. Despite this, there is no clear evidence to sustain the possibility, as Ramos Folqués writes, that these fills are “in Level F”, therefore not indicating whether the foundation trench cuts this bedrock level or was merely on top of it. In 1974, Ramos Folqués indicates that the foundations of wall B/010, like those of B/023, started at about 70 centimeters below the mosaic floor’s height, in other words, a meter below Zero Point. They apparently reached the bedrock level, with no indication of the trench’s height itself. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 10th, 1949, n. 10, f. 7r. RAMOS FOLQUES, A. (1974): El cristianismo en Elche, pp. 84–85 (citation by Ibarra), 106. Materials Found: – Unpainted vase, almost complete. BAE/1949/B/072/cer/1 – Part of a vase with geometric decorations, including waves and semicircles. BAE/ 1949/B/072/cer/2 – Two circular pieces of lead. BAE/1949/B/072/Pb/1, 2 First Discovered: 1949
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Commentary: The materials found here, presenting a post quem date after the late Iberian period (3rd–1st centuries bce), fit with the construction date associated with B/010 and B/023—late 1st century bce, or the Augustan period, as was found with other materials recovered, particularly from the northern wall of the basilical structure. B/073—Type X. Foundation trench for eastern wall B/-073, reaching “Level F” from sub-area S/B/D/069, with a fill B/072, around the height of earthen fill for “Level E” S/B/D/068. It was covered by fill B/072. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 10th, 1949, n. 10, f. 7r. First Discovered: 1949 Commentary: The evidence for such a foundation trench that cuts through level S/B/D/068 is a fascinating indicator for when wall B/010 was built. It indicates that wall B/010 was contemporary to wall B/023, as there is no clear evidence for excavation beneath wall B/023 following the few interventions in May and June 1948 (see entry for B/023). C/074—Type H. In Corpus documental entry for September 12th, 1949, a stratum with “previous construction rubble materials with gravel, stuccos, fragments of oil lamps, sigillata, etc.” was found. It is 20 centimeters thick. Its first registered findings are documented in notebook 10, f. 9r of the Corpus documental. It is associated with “Level A” documented on September 14th, 1949 (page n. 1o, f. 14r). Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 12th, 1949, n. 10, f. 9r; September 19th, 1949, n. 10, f. 14r. Materials Found: – Remains of “previous constructions”, including gravel, stuccos, oil lamp fragments, sigillata, etc. – Coin. Obverse: AVGVSTVS; on reverse: IR (sign?) AAI. BAE/1949/C/074/num/1 First Discovered: 1949 Commentary: This level is excavated was two distinct moments, with the findings potentially belonging to two different but contemporary loci, the second being C/161. C/075—Type I. Floor associated to “Level B” in Area C. According to the stratigraphic sketch from September 14th, 1949, in the Corpus documental by Alejandro Ramos Folqués, it was made with gravel and lime mortar. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 12th, 1949, n. 10, f. 9r; September 19th, 1949, n. 10, f. 14r; September 24th, 1949, n. 10, f. 27r; November 25th, 1949, n. 11, f. 19r. Alexander Bar-Magen Numhauser - 978-90-04-41992-6 Downloaded from Brill.com 03/03/2024 09:27:00PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison
stratigraphic unit catalogue
889
RONDA FEMENIA, A.M. (2018): L’Alcúdia de Alejandro Ramos Folqués, p. 177. Materials Found: – Sigillata fragment. BAE/1949/C/075/cer/II/1 – Accompanying this fragment was a piece of ostrich egg. BAE/1949/C/075/os/1 First Discovered: 1949 Commentary: The materials were associated with a “Level B” on November 25th, 1949. However, the stratigraphic sketch from 1949 published by Ronda Femenia (see Documental Sources) suggests it was found “above” “Floor B”. In truth, it is more likely in the interface layer, and not in its fill. C/E/076—Type H. Fill for “Level C”, found in sub-area C/E of Area C. During this phase, the street was about 3.2 meters wide. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 12th, 1949, n. 10, ff. 9r–10r; September 19th, 1949, n. 10, f. 14r; November 22nd–23rd, 1949, n. 11, ff. 16r–18r. AMRF, f. 17r, note 33. RONDA FEMENIA, A.M. (2018): L’Alcúdia de Alejandro Ramos Folqués, p. 171. Materials Found: In C/E/076, in this same layer, but found in a location excavated between November 22nd and 29th, 1949 (Corpus Documental, n. 11, ff. 16r–20r). – Amphora rim with unidentified mark. BAE/1949/C/E/076/cer/I/1 – Fragment of Campanian pottery rim and part of a handle. BAE/1949/C/E/076/cer/ I/2 – Fragment of a helmet-shaped vase, not painted. BAE/1949/C/E/076/cer/I/3 – Painted pottery with figures of animals, etc. BAE/1949/C/E/076/cer/II/1… – Two fragments of lead. BAE/1949/C/E/076/Pb/1, 2 In n. 11, f. 17r (found on November 23th, 1949), slightly above “Floor D” C/E/080. – Fragment of small acorn-shaped “Punic amphora”. BAE/1949/C/E/076/cer/I/4 – Small bronze bell. Identified as item LA-3432 by AMRF. BAE/1949/C/E/076/met/1 – Rolled lead sheet. BAE/1949/C/E/076/Pb/3 – Bone stylus. BAE/1949/C/E/076/os/1 – Stylized fibula. BAE/1949/C/E/076/met/2 – Nail (Iron?). BAE/1949/C/E/076/Fe/1 – Fragment of a ceramic mat (?). BAE/1949/C/E/076/cer/I/5 – Painted pottery. BAE/1949/C/E/076/cer/I/6 – Small vases. BAE/1949/C/E/076/cer/III/1… – Top hat cup. BAE/1949/C/E/076/cer/I/7 – “Etc.” BAE/1949/C/E/076/INDEFINITE – Black burnished pottery. BAE/1949/C/E/076/cer/I/8 – Campanian pottery. BAE/1949/C/E/076/cer/I/9 – Pottery with geometric painted motifs. BAE/1949/C/E/076/cer/I/10
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890
annex c
– Yellow paste top. BAE/1949/C/E/076/cer/I/11 – Stylized Fibula. BAE/1949/C/E/076/met/3 (possibly the same as BAE/1949/C/E/ 076/met/2). First Discovered: 1949. Commentary: This is apparently the first mention of a level or layer of earth associated to “Level C”, drawn on the stratigraphic sketch of September 19th, 1949, a week after its first excavation. It was also identified as C/087, associated to the main “central” section of Area C, unlike this one which is in sub-area C/E. Ana Ronda (2018) suggests the fibula to be dated to between 125 and 25bce. B/NE/077—Type H. Gravel and lime mortar floor, occupying the space between the northern wall for B/006, eastern wall of the mosaic B/026, northern wall B/023, and eastern tangential wall B/010. Stucco B/017 covering the surrounding walls from the north and east were found underneath this floor. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 13th, 1949, n. 10, ff. 10r–11r. Materials Found: – No specific items were described at this level. – Possible elements were without any description. First Discovered: 1949 Commentary: The floor is associated with B/NM/302 found underneath the mosaic floor. According to Ramos Folqués, it was clearly laid before the apse, and must have covered a room present in the whole eastern section of the basilical space. However, with the “new feature”, this area was broken. The excavator identified the floor as belonging to a “previous Roman construction that would be reused for the synagogue (4th century), then used and adapted for the Basilica”. Two problems include: 1) It is unknown when the apse B/006 was built. This is exacerbated by the lack of clarified relations between the floors B/NE/077 and B/NM/302 and the mosaic B/011. 2) Another problem lies in the absence of such floor in any other sector of the building. C/078—Type H. Fill layer for “Level E”, below the “floors” or “Type I” stratigraphic units described in the Corpus documental by Ramos Folqués: detected “under the floors and of an earthen level that preserves evidence that water passed through a loom weight”. This means that this layer is below “Level D” (or C/080), and below C/091. This layer of earth is located 30 centimeters from “Level D” C/081. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 12th, 1949, n. 10, f. 13r; September 19th, 1949, n. 10, ff. 14r, 15r. AMRF notes 29, 30; October 5th, 1949, n. 10, f. 32r; November 25th, 1949, n. 11, f. 19r.
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stratigraphic unit catalogue
891
RONDA FEMENIA, A.M. (2018): L’Alcúdia de Alejandro Ramos Folqués, p. 167. Materials Found: – A double-cone form loom weight. BAE/1949/C/078/ter/1 – A lead sheet. BAE/1949/C/078/Pb/1 – A “Punic handle”. It seems to be an amphora with straight neck and an ellipticalround handle. BAE/1949/C/078/cer/1 September 19th, 1949: – Red-figures bell-shaped Attic crater with white and yellow human figure looking forward, with a kind of fruit on its right. Identified by AMRF as item LA-1335, dated to the late 2nd quarter of the 4th century. BAE/1949/C/078/cer/6 October 5th, 1949 (evening): – “Below statues” (C/091), black pottery with intertwining lines. BAE/1949/C/078/ cer/2 – Next to the black pottery described here, pottery with geometric figures (three fragments). BAE/1949/C/078/cer/3, 4, 5. First Discovered: 1949 Commentary: This layer of earth would seem to have a continuation of material in the upper level associated with “Level C”, or C/080. When Ramos Folqués mentioned this layer to be “below the statues” and the “level where water was going through”, he was not referring specifically to the fill of “Level D” C/204 however, as this would then make the specific reference to this layer as “Level E” impossible. C/079—Type I. Floor above “Level E”, that is, an interface unit for “E” as indicated by n. 10, f. 14r stratigraphic sketch in the Corpus documental. It is made of gravel. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 12th, 1949, n. 10, f. 14r. First Discovered: 1949 C/080—Type I. Floor for “Level D”, detected in the stratigraphic sketch from September 19th, 1949. This floor is 30 centimeters below “Level C” floor C/088. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 12th, 1949, n. 10, f. 14r. First Discovered: 1949 Commentary: It is a floor that supports unit C/091, and is cut by unit C/-089, where it seems to have had water passing through. This implies usage of this level as a floor. C/081—Type H. Fill layer of “Level C”, before an “interface” unit for “Level C”, as mentioned on the September 19th, 1949 sketch. According to the sketch, this level is 35
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892
annex c
centimeters thick. This is the main fill that had fragmented Iberian statues laid down for the later use of this street level, below a floor of earth and gravel, C/088. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 12th, 1949, n. 10, f. 13r; September 19th, 1949, n. 10, ff. 14r–15r. RONDA FEMENIA, A.M. (2018): L’Alcúdia de Alejandro Ramos Folqués, pp. 165–166, note 265. Materials Found: – Terracotta fragment decorated with painting of feminine face. BAE/1949/C/081/ ter/1 – Large sized painted plate fragment, with inner decoration of what looks like scales. BAE/1949/C/081/cer/1 – Statue: Head of a griffin. BAE/1949/C/081/pet/I/1 – Statue: Torso of a warrior or of Minerva. BAE/1949/C/081/pet/I/2 – Statue: “Id” (torso) of a woman, with polychromatic remains including ochre red on its entire body. BAE/1949/C/081/pet/I/3 – Statue: A hand. BAE/1949/C/081/pet/I/4 – Statues: “Other sculpted fragments”. BAE/1949/C/081/pet/II/1… – Next to these statue fragments was a small copper plate, with four holes in irregular fashion. BAE/1949/C/081/met/1 – The base of a Campanian-style coin, without mark. BAE/1949/C/081/cer/3 – Painted pottery with Iberian decorative features. It has geometric decorations, two of them semi-circles, and below them are dark bands. Above these semi-circles are a series of lines, some horizontal and curved, making a zig-zag pattern. BAE/1949/C/ 081/cer/4 First Discovered: 1949 Commentary: The materials in this layer reveal that this is a priori a late republican or early imperial stratum, around the 1st century bce. We should add that similar loci from the street area, C/E/076 and C/087, are part of the same “Level C” to which this fill belongs. The ergological wealth of this locus significantly contrasts with fill C/202, which lies between floors C/075 and C/088 in a 35 centimeter thick layer. It is probable that this particular fill was a product of the use of this area as a garbage dump, or simply a demolition of a previous building and the reutilization of the rubble to raise the level of the street to the south of the original Roman domus. On the identification of the statues and modern cataloguing, see C/091 Commentary and Documental Sources. T/082—Type I. Floor for “Level O”, or superior layer on top of “Level A”, which is the same as T/092, found for the first time in 1948 while excavating the “upper structures” (September 14th, 1948, n. 8, f. 21r).
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stratigraphic unit catalogue
893
Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 14th, 1948, n. 8, f. 21r; September 19th, 1949, n. 10, f. 14r; September 20th, 1949, n. 10, f. 17r. Materials Found: – Fragments of “synagogue mosaic”, placed between the southern wall of the basilical structure and the “statues” (i.e. Area T). First Discovered: 1948?, 1949 Commentary: This upper stratum is only detected in Area T. Therefore, the stratigraphic sketch from September 19th, 1949, indicates that the stratigraphic levels of Area C should be seen also as an extrapolation of levels detected in Area T as well, specifically, in the case of this “Level O” floor and fill under it. T/083—Type H. “Level O” fill underneath floor T/082. It is placed on top of floor for “Level A”, T/084. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 19th, 1949, n. 10, f. 14r; September 20th, 1949, n. 10, ff. 17r, 22r. RONDA FEMENIA, A.M. (2018): L’Alcúdia de Alejandro Ramos Folqués, p. 159. Materials Found: – Mosaic fragment. BAE/1949/T/083/tes/1 – Copper lid. BAE/1949/T/083/Cu/1 – “Thrown out” fish bones. BAE/1949/T/083/os/1 – Pale red pottery fragment(s). BAE/1949/T/083/cer/I/1 – Ordinary large sized pottery. It seems to have a long neck, globular body and straight, wide rim. BAE/1949/T/083/cer/I/2 – Handle. BAE/1949/T/083/cer/I/3 – Large yellow vase, globular body, and what seems to be the start of a handle. BAE/1949/T/083/cer/I/4 From n. 10, f. 22r, described as “Above A”: – Half a plate, clear red paste with vegetable-motif decorative stamp. It is a central circle with four buds surging in a cross formation, and between these, four groupings of six circles, including two concentric ones and four surrounding those concentric circles. BAE/1949/T/083/cer/I/5 – Two sigillata fragments with stamped decoration, including what seems to be a sitting dog. BAE/1949/T/083/cer/I/6, 9 – Iberian pottery with vegetal decoration and painted lines (Campanian type). BAE/ 1949/T/083/cer/I/7 – Red paste cups, with straight walls and flat, grooved base, one of them being restored. BAE/1949/T/083/cer/II/1 – Handle made of “ordinary mud”. BAE/1949/T/083/cer/I/8
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894
annex c
First Discovered: 1949 Commentary: This level should be associated with C/074, which mostly consisted of demolition rubble remains. The difference between this layer and the lower one is that above this layer lies the “sepultures” detected in Area T, which are associated with “Level O”, and which cut this fill and the interface level associated with it. For its part, there has been no discovery of sepultures detected in this section of Area C. T/084—Type I. “Level A” floor. Extrapolation of stratigraphic registry in the sketch from September 19th, 1949, associated with Area C. It is made of “gravel and lime”, or mortar. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 19th, 1949, n. 10, f. 14r (sketch); September 20th, 1949, n. 10, ff. 24r, 25r. First Discovered: 1948?, 1949 Commentary: This generic floor could have had a different composition to that found in “street” or Area C. Although this “Type I” stratigraphic unit can be considered similar to its counterpart in the “street”, in Area T we find more information of it than its Area C counterpart. A reason for this might be the absence of a “Level O” in Area C that would cover the street “Level A” locus C/074. Similar to this level is locus T/H/093, found specifically in the “Room H” and described separately by Alejandro Ramos Folqués as “good floor”. This floor marks the base for the construction of “Wall P” T/103. C/085—Type H. Fill associated with “Level B”. It is a fill described first on September 12th, 1949, under floor from “Level B” C/075. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 12th, 1949, n. 10, f. 9r–9v; September 19th, 1949, n. 10, f. 14r. RAMOS FERNÁNDEZ, R. (1995), El templo ibérico en la Alcudia de Elche, p. 144 RONDA FEMENIA, A.M. (2018): L’Alcúdia de Alejandro Ramos Folqués, p. 159, fig. 177. Materials Found: September 12th, 1949: – A fibula. BAE/1949/C/085/met/1 – Fragment of yellow sigillata pottery. BAE/1949/C/085/cer/I/1 – Incomplete bone needle. BAE/1949/C/085/os/1 – Iberian pottery. BAE/1949/C/085/cer/I/2 – A fragment of a bone ring cut using a wheel, according to detected grooves. BAE/ 1949/C/085/os/2 – Round loom weight. BAE/1949/C/085/ter/1 – Round lead piece, with the form of a bull’s extended skin. BAE/1949/C/085/Pb/1
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stratigraphic unit catalogue
895
First Discovered: 1949 Commentary: Its materials are placed below “the floor of Level B”, or C/075, therefore making a layer between floors “B” and “C” (C/088). According to the publication of 1995 by Ramos Fernández, El templo ibérico en la Alcudia de Elche, p. 144, there was an “intermediate” layer 26 centimeters below C/075. This would make this layer no deeper than 26 centimeters. T/086—Type H. Generic “Level B” from Area T, with findings mentioned on n. 10, f. 23r from the Corpus documental. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 20th, 1949, n. 10, f. 23r. Materials Found: “In B objects of the same type that are in A.” September 20th, 1949: – Clear red pottery. BAE/1949/T/086/cer/I/1… – Red bowl with grooved base. BAE/1949/T/086/cer/II/1 – Another bowl with inverted rim. BAE/1949/T/086/cer/II/2 First Discovered: 1949 Commentary: This locus is a “generic Level B” stratum. It is described without a clear context, only mentioned as being “to the south of the basilica” in the excavation diaries (see Corpus documental). This “Level B” is nearly indistinguishable from “Level A” above it. C/087—Type H. Fill between floors of “Level C” and “Level D”, or simply fill layer for “Level C”. It is 35 centimeters thick. Equal to C/E/076 and C/081. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 19th, 1949, n. 10, f. 19r. Materials Found: – Copper ring. BAE/1949/C/087/Cu/1 – Dark and thin-walled pottery with small dots (“barbotine” slip), painted with birds, including a wing. BAE/1949/C/087/cer/1 – Small “pilgrim’s flask” amphora. BAE/1949/C/087/cer/2 – Cylindrical bone whistle, with a hole. BAE/1949/C/087/os/1 – Copper needle with flat head. BAE/1949/C/087/Cu/2 First Discovered: 1949 Commentary: The heterogeneity of this layer’s findings provides two possible interpretations: first, it is garbage layer which was removed and mixed with the rest of the fill at the moment of its seal, or second, it reflects the remains of an industrial or commercial zone to the south, associated with areas C and T.
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annex c
C/088—Type I. Floor for “Level C” at the top of fills C/076, C/081, and C/087. It is a seal level for materials including the sandstone fragmented statues found in Area C, made of beaten earth, gravel, and lime mortar. This level was later covered by the “Level B” fill C/085. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 12th, 1949, n. 10, f. 9r; September 19th, 1949, n. 10, f. 14r. Materials Found: – Copper ring. BAE/1949/C/087/Cu/1 – Dark and thin-walled pottery with small dots (“barbotine” slip), painted with birds, including a wing. BAE/1949/C/087/cer/1 – Small “pilgrim’s flask” amphora. BAE/1949/C/087/cer/2 – Cylindrical bone whistle, with a hole. BAE/1949/C/087/os/1 – Copper needle with flat head. BAE/1949/C/087/Cu/2 First Discovered: 1949 Commentary: The break between fills of “Level C” and that of “Level B” implies that this “interface” stratigraphic unit, or “Level C” floor C/088, for the level of use by those who covered Area C with remains of statues and other rubble. C/089—Type X. Dug canal or feature excavated into the interface of “Level D”, which would be possibly used as a “passage for water” and was later covered by statue fill C/091. Its measurements in the sketch from September 25th, 1951 are: 20–25 centimeters across, and is preserved 1 meter in room T/H (NE-SW direction) and 4 meters in Area C (East-West direction). However, according to the sketch from September 20th, 1949, this unit was placed on the southern side of Area C. It should not be confused with C/377, which is the channel belonging to the northern side of the street. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 16th, 1949, n. 10, f. 13r; September 19th, 1949, n. 10, f. 14r; September 25th, 1950, n. 14, f. 3r. Materials Found: See entry for C/078. First Discovered: 1949 Commentary: Canalization through which water passed. This water pass must have been rudimentary, as according to data from the stratigraphic sketch from September 19th, 1949, of the Corpus documental, as well as other descriptions in that same source, water must have permeated to the “Level D” below during the usage stage of this apparent canalization.
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stratigraphic unit catalogue
897
C/090 (Also areas B, S, T, P)—Bedrock level for the site. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: August 29th, 1949, n. 10, f. 2r; September 19th, 1949, n. 10, f. 14r; May 9th, 1950, n. 11, f. 30r; September 20th, 1951, n. 14, f. 2r, f. annex 1r; September 25th, 1951, n. 14, f. 4r. First Discovered: 1949 Commentary: Only one constructed feature was identified as constructed directly on this bedrock level: “wall from F to A”, that is C/110. It is suggested that when planning the original street, all existing features in this area were removed. Reviewing the materials from “Level E” fill layer C/078, it is possible this happened in the late republican/Augustan period (1st century bce). C/091 (also C/E and T/H)—Type H. Earth layer of “statues” that is supported above the channel hole made on interface for “Level D” C/080 and its fill C/204. It is probably 20–30 centimeters thick, as it includes several fragments of sandstone statues detected in C/087, C/081, and C/076. A parallel channel is mentioned on September 25th, 1951 (see Documental Sources), probably reflecting the measurements of this channel. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 16th, 1949, n. 10, f. 13r; September 19th, 1949, n. 10, f. 14r; September 20th, 1949, n. 10, ff. 19r–20r; September 25th, 1950, n. 14, f. 3r. RAMOS FOLQUÉS, A. (1956): “Memoria de las excavaciones practicadas en La Alcudia (Elche) [Campañas 1949–1952]”, pp. 104–105. RAMOS FERNÁNDEZ, R. (1995): El templo de la Alcudia de Elche, p. 114. ABASCAL, J.M., ALBEROLA, A. (2007): Monedas antiguas de los museos de Elche, p. 91, number 377 (for coin). RONDA FEMENIA, A.M. (2018): L’Alcúdia de Alejandro Ramos Folqués, p. 166, notes 263 and 265. Materials Found: – Coin described on n. 10, f. 19r, with the representation of a head or bust in profile and identifiable hairstyle. It is a Hispanic-Carthaginean (Punic) semis coin with Tanit and the high relief of a horse, dated to 228–221bce. It was catalogued by Abascal and Alberola in 2007 as number 377. BAE/1949/C/091/num/1 The decorated statues are as follows (n. 10, f. 20): – Fragment of feminine figure, with collar or pendant. BAE/1949/C/091/pet/I/1 – Fragment of shield. BAE/1949/C/091/pet/I/2 – Bust with shoulder with clamor or short cape. Polychromatic. BAE/1949/C/091/pet/ I/3 – Fragment of torso with waist and hand. BAE/1949/C/091/pet/I/4 – Fragment with belt and thighs. BAE/1949/C/091/pet/I/5
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annex c
– – – – –
Hoof. BAE/1949/C/091/pet/I/6 Arm and hand. BAE/1949/C/091/pet/I/7 Arm. BAE/1949/C/091/pet/I/8 Thighs, with remains of some of its garments ( faldellín). BAE/1949/C/091/pet/I/9 “More statue fragments” (Corpus documental, n. 10, f. 13r, September 16th, 1949). Possibly the same ones mentioned on n. 10, f. 14r, for September 19th, 1949. These latter were found late in the evening of that day. BAE/1949/C/091/pet/II/1… In C/E/091: – Worked fragment. BAE/1949/C/E/091/cer/1 First Discovered: 1949 Commentary: Alejandro Ramos Folqués proposes that C/080, or “Level D” floor which supports this fill, is 30 centimeters below the mosaic floor level B/011. Therefore, it is approximately at –0.6 meters height compared to Zero Point. This is a probable indicator that the mosaic floor was built at a later stage, as there is no evidence for a staircase or any other feature to make up for the difference of height. The presence of the coin and fragments of statues, probably from late republican (late Iberian) periods, suggests a terminus ante quem for the formation of this layer of earth fill in the late republican period, supported by interface C/080. Since their discovery, the statue fragments have been catalogued, and their correspondence number was published by Ana Ronda in 2018. Remains of the earthen watermarked floor are still present in the Interpretation Center of the Alcudia de Elche site, catalogued as LA-1636 and LA-1637. T/-092—Type X. Filled hole, in a western section of area T/H, or east of T/I. It cuts “Level O” fill T/083. Probably the latest unit in Area T. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 14th, 1948, n. 7, f. 21v (sketch); September 24th, 1948, n. 7, f. 22r; September 20th, 1949, n. 10, f. 17r (sketch) and f. 21r. First Discovered: 1948. Re-excavated: 1949 Commentary: This specific “sepulture” is the hole detected in 1948, where remains of cranium T/207 were found in September 1948 and mentioned again in 1949. This level is most probably dated to the abandonment of the site, or perhaps to a phase just before its definite abandonment. Clearly, there are two holes in a superior “Level O” in the sketch from September 20th, which relate to the structure T/H1/264 that was identified as a “sepulture” on September 24th, 1948, and still considered as such a year later on September 20th, 1949 (see entry for 264). T/H/093—Type I. Floor for “Level A” of “Room H” placed in Area T. In Corpus documental entry for September 20th, 1949, Ramos Folqués describes it as a “good floor”.
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stratigraphic unit catalogue
899
Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 20th, 1949, n. 10, ff. 17r, 24r (sketch and plan), 25r (for materials); parallel of level in stratigraphic sketch, September 19th, 1949, f. 10, f. 14r. ABASCAL, J.M., ALBEROLA, A. (2007): Monedas antiguas de los museos de Elche, pp. 28, 149–150, n. 795 (for coin). RONDA FEMENIA, A.M. (2018): L’Alcúdia de Alejandro Ramos Folqués, pp. 159, 168. Materials Found: From Loose Notes stratigraphic sketch (AMRF, 2018, fig. 177): – Two coins: – Obverse: “Constantinus” (possibly not being of Constantine, but another emperor according to AMRF), Reverse: castle. BAE/1949/T/H/093/num/1 – No described obverse. Reverse: FELTEM REPARATIO (n. 10, f. 25r). BAE/1949/T/ H/093/num/2. Museum reference A0243. First Discovered: 1949 Commentary: This is an “interface” level equal to T/084 that corresponds with the last phase of use in area of tabernae, or Area T. Ronda considers this layer to be the same as T/I/098, an interface at “Level C” where an early 4th century coin was found. According to Abascal and Arbeloa in 2007, pp. 28, 149, the coins found here are providentia and falling horseman types dated 320–328ce. T/094—Type H. Fill for the “burial hole” T/-092 above the human remains T/207. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 24th, 1948, n. 7, f. 22r; September 20th, 1949, n. 10, f. 17r. Materials Found: – Fragment of sigillata pottery. BAE/1948/T/094/cer/1 – Fragment of glass. BAE/1948/T/094/vit/1 – Fragment of red slip pottery of “low period” (Late Roman). BAE/1948/T/094/cer/ 2 First Discovered: 1948. Re-excavated: 1949 Commentary: No materials were found that allowed for a date of this stratigraphic unit post quem. This is the last phase of use before the final fill T/001 which covers it. T/I/095—Type H. “Level B” of the “Room I” or sub-area T/I. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 19th, 1949, n. 10, f. 14r; September 24th, 1949, n. 10, f. 26r; September 30th, 1949, n. 10, f. 30r; October 5th, 1949, n. 10, f. 32r.
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900
annex c
Materials Found: – Two pondus of cooked mud. BAE/1949/T/I/095/cer/1, 2. From October 5th, 1949: – “Piece of small shield” made of yellow coarse paste with teat. BAE/1949/T/I/095/ cer/3 First Discovered: 1949 Commentary: According to Ramos Folqués’ excavation diaries in the Corpus documental entry for September 24th, 1949, this level was found “below the synagogue and can be seen from the apse”, associated with B/EM/016. T/I/096—Type I. Floor level for “Level B” in area T/I. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 19th, 1949, n. 10, f. 14r; September 24th, 1949, n. 10, f. 26r. First Discovered: 1949 Commentary: There is no physical description, although it probably is equivalent to other floors from “Level B” mentioned in areas T and C. This is a gravel and lime mortar floor, with areas made of cement, perhaps being 30 centimeters above the next floor level, though that detail is not clear in the sources. T/I/097—Type I. Floor unit for “Level C”, which is an extrapolated floor (an assumption by the excavator itself), from Area C to Area T/I. It is the level below “Level B” which was considered by Ramos Folqués as being “Level C–D” located “below the sepultures” (T/-092) and described as “Room I” of Area T. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 20th, 1949, n. 10, f. 24r; September 20th, 1949, n. 10, f. 29r; October 6th, 1949, n. 10, f. 34r. Materials Found: September 20th, 1949: – Below the sepulture, a copper and iron button object, joined by what seems to be a string. BAE/1949/T/I/097/met/1 – Iron sword. BAE/1949/T/I/097/Fe/1 – A metal hinge. BAE/1949/T/I/097/met/2 – Painted vase fragments, with images of possible human figure with horns, difficult to define. BAE/1949/T/I/097/cer/1 – Fragment of a plate with geometric figures and lines. BAE/1949/T/I/097/cer/2 – A cast spout. BAE/1949/T/I/097/ves/1 October 6th, 1949: – Two pondus made of cooked mud, with no mark. BAE/1949/T/I/099/cer/3, 4 – Three pondus without cooking, dismantled. BAE/1949/T/I/099/ter/1, 2, 3 – A small iron knife. BAE/1949/T/I/099/Fe/1 Alexander Bar-Magen Numhauser - 978-90-04-41992-6 Downloaded from Brill.com 03/03/2024 09:27:00PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison
stratigraphic unit catalogue
901
First Discovered: 1949 Commentary: We again find a concentration of materials found in a “floor C” and its fill underneath it (which Ramos Folqués could not differentiate), which would be associated approximately with C/088. However, a remarkable aspect is that this layer “C”, specifically the interface T/I/098, has a coin from the early 4th century. The fact that it was found at the top of this layer, and not in its fill, is significant as it entails an invasion of late Roman materials from later periods. It also suggests the presence of repeated reforms associated with Area T. T/I/098—Type I. Interface or floor level for “Level C” T/I/097. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 19th, 1949, n. 10, f. 14r, extrapolation of level from stratigraphic sketch; September 20th, 1949, n. 10, f. 29r; October 6th, 1949, n. 10, f. 34r. ABASCAL, J.M., ARBELOA, A. (2007): Monedas antiguas de los museos de Elche, pp. 28– 29, 149–151 (for coin). RAMOS FOLQUÉS, A. (1956): “Memoria de las excavaciones practicadas en La Alcudia (Elche) [Campañas 1949–1952]”, p. 103, Plate C. RONDA FEMENIA, A.M. (2018): L’Alcúdia de Alejandro Ramos Folqués, p. 168. Materials Found: On October 6th, 1949: – Stuck at the interface with a layer of lime, a filter “of water or honey”. According to Ana Ronda, it is made of volcanic tufa stone. BAE/1949/T/I/098/pet/1 “In that floor” (October 6th, 1949): – A small bronze (nummus coin according to Ana Ronda), with the term CRISPVS on it (dated to 320–324ce). BAE/1949/T/I/098/num/1. – A lead disc. BAE/1949/T/I/098/Pb/1 – Sigillata fragment. BAE/1949/T/I/098/cer/1 – Painted pottery with the wing of a bird. BAE/1949/T/I/098/cer/2 First Discovered: 1949 Commentary: The difference between this layer and the fill layer T/I/097 is ambiguous. However, the term used by Alejandro Ramos Folqués in his diaries was “en dicho piso”, relating to the interface level where the filter was found. As a result, it was decided to place the findings in that part of the diaries as part of the interface T/I/098 and not fill 097. T/I/099—Type H. Fill layer for “Level D”, directly below fill layer for “Level C” T/I/097. Parallel to layer C/204. Documental Sources: – ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 19th, 1949, n. 10, f. 14r; September 20th, 1949, n. 10, f. 31r (for materials). Alexander Bar-Magen Numhauser - 978-90-04-41992-6 Downloaded from Brill.com 03/03/2024 09:27:00PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison
902
annex c
Materials Found: Found on September 20th, 1949: – Greek pottery fragment. Black, red, and white, with figures that are difficult to define. Identified as “bell-shape” krater LA-1326 by ARMF. BAE/1949/T/I/099/cer/1 – Fragment of burnished filter, made of black mud, with small holes. BAE/1949/T/I/ 099/cer/2 Found on October 6th, 1949: – Small iron sheet. BAE/1949/T/I/099/Fe/1 – Lead thread shaped like a serpent’s tail. BAE/1949/T/I/099/Pb/1 – Iron nail. BAE/1949/T/I/099/Fe/2 – Fragment of sword. BAE/1949/T/I/099/Fe/3 First Discovered: 1949 T/100—Type H. Fill layer for “Level E”, parallel to C/078 from Area C or “street”. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 19th, 1949, n. 10, f. 14r, extrapolation of level from stratigraphic sketch; September 24th, 1949, n. 10, f. 28r (for materials). AMRF note 65. ABASCAL, J.M., ALBEROLA, A. (2007): Monedas antiguas de los museos de Elche, p. 117, number 550 (for coin). RONDA FEMENIA, A.M. (2018): L’Alcúdia de Alejandro Ramos Folqués, p. 168. Materials Found: – Close to sepulture area (probably “Room H”), a Roman coin of unknown denomination. It is currently lost. The piece is dated to the 2nd century bce. BAE/1949/T/100/ num/1 – Obverse: bust or head looking right – Reverse: ship’s bow looking right First Discovered: 1949 T/101—Type I. Interface or floor for “Level E” T/100. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 19th, 1949, n. 10, f. 14r extrapolation of level from stratigraphic sketch; September 24th, 1949, n. 10, f. 28r; September 30th, 1949, n. 10, f. 29r. First Discovered: 1949. T/I/102—Type H. Layer below T/100 that defines “Level E”. It lies on top of natural rock. Documental Sources: – ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: October 5th, 1949, n. 10, f. 32r.
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stratigraphic unit catalogue
903
Materials Found: – Campanian pottery: base of a decorated vase with vegetal figure depiction. BAE/ 1949/T/I/102/cer/1 First Discovered: 1949. T/103—Type V. “Wall P” in sketch from n. 10, f. 24r of the Corpus documental by Ramos Folqués. It is placed in the central section of Area T, between rooms “I” and “H”, and is attached to wall T/105. It corresponds, according to said sketch’s legend, to “Level A” or “Floor A” T/084. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 20th, 1949, n. 10, f. 24r. First Discovered: 1949 Commentary: Although built in a later period, the use of this wall must have been the same as “Wall P1” T/104. The wall it is attached to, T/105, and is apparently linked in this period to levels “A” and “B”. However, Ramos Folqués never described its foundation. It is possible to assume that this wall is associated with a reform of the structure in “Level B”. T/104—Type V. “P1” wall, apparently built or associated to “Level B” from Area T. It is attached to T/105. It is placed north of Room H, with a southern limit reaching T/106. Documental Sources: – ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 20th, 1949, n. 10, f. 24r (sketch); May 10th, 1950, n. 11, f. 35v–36r (sketch) First Discovered: 1949 Commentary: This wall separates the “Room H” or T/H from the rooms and spaces more to the east of Area T, or T/E. Stratigraphically speaking the wall was built after the “Level B” (T/086) fill was laid. It was apparently constructed at the same time as T/E/P/155, corresponding to the same reform of the building. T/105—Type V. East-west wall “of the A and B floors” according to the plan sketch from n. 20, f. 24r in Corpus documental. North-south walls T/103 and T/104 are attached to it. On top of this wall, T/021 was built, which followed demolition/abandonment phase T/-107. Documental Sources: – ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 20th, 1949, n. 10, f. 24r (sketch). First Discovered: 1949 Commentary: There is no clear evidence as to the depth of this wall’s foundation. However, the presence of this wall during levels “B” and “A” is a fact, as the physical relations of its attached walls demonstrate. This wall was destroyed in demoli-
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904
annex c
tion/abandonment phase T/-107, which allowed the placement of later wall B/021, which in turn marked the end of the usage of walls T/103 and T/104. It is assumed that this wall would be at least partially covered by “Level O” fill T/083. T/106—Type V. “Limit wall” between areas C and T. It is placed on the southern limit of walls P (T/103) and P1 (T/104). Its width is 0.4 meters and it is placed at about 2.7 meters south of wall T/105, to the north of Area T. It seems to be made of reused small ashlars and fieldstones, particularly where attached to wall T/103. Southwest of room T/I, the wall seems to have been placed on a “Level D”, totaling 80 centimeters in height from that point, arriving at the upper limit of “Level C” according to the annex sketch made on September 20th, 1950. It is placed on top of lower wall T/111, which has a greater width and to which it is attached at certain points. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 7th, 1948, n. 7, ff. 16v–17r; September 14th, 1948, n. 7, f. 21v; September 20th, 1949, n. 10, ff. 17r, 24r (sketches); September 20th, 1950, n. 14, f. 2r, f. annex 1r (sketches); September 25th, 1950, n. 14, f. 4r (sketch). Graphic Sources: Fig. 7.22 First Discovered: 1948. Re-excavated: 1949 Commentary: The presence of reused materials to raise this limit wall might demonstrate, at least in its late usage phases, a chronological association with walls T/103 and T/104. The problem is that the excavator never defined a clear stratigraphic relation between this wall and the layers detected in the street or Area C, much unlike the southern wall of the street that is present “from F to A”. Therefore, we know this wall was in use for levels “B” and “A” of Area T. Furthermore, it was certainly associated with the latest structures of the area, detected at the first intervention of Area T in September 1948. However, most information stems from the excavation of probe T/H/S, where it was revealed this wall was built in “Level D”, and not “C”, and therefore the other walls (T/271 and T/A2/274) were built at a later period, using this wall as a reference. T/-107—Type X. Demolition/abandonment phase to prepare the construction of wall B/021 on top of wall T/105 and B/020. This phase is implied due to the removal of structures and the appearance of this wall associated with “Level O”. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 20th, 1949, n. 10, f. 24r (sketch) Graphic Sources: Fig. 7.22 First Discovered: 1949
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stratigraphic unit catalogue
905
T/108—Type H. Fill layer under “Floor B” made from cement from “Room H” or T/H. It is 30 centimeters thick and presents several associated materials. This fill was made of available cobble stones from the area. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 24th, 1949, n. 10, f. 28r. Graphic Sources: Fig. 7.22 Materials Found: – Part of a volcanic black tufa stone handmill. BAE/1949/T/H/108/pet/1 – Handles of “different types and periods”. BAE/1949/T/H/108/cer/I/1… – Fragment of painted pottery with decorative hare, tail of a fish and the torso of two animals. BAE/1949/T/H/108/cer/II/1 First Discovered: 1948. Re-excavated: 1949 Commentary: This layer is one of the few cases where Ramos Folqués, makes a clear distinction of “floor” and “fill”. The layer is then identified as having a depth of 30 centimeters, and was made of cobble stones, gravel, and lime mortar. It was covered by a cement layer T/H/208, equivalent to T/I/096. Therefore, this layer is equivalent to fill T/I/096, which was at the same time associated to “gravel/cobble stones and lime mortar” level T/086, though the latter was initially identified as the interface of “gravel and lime mortar” floor for “Level B” in tabernae. T/109—Type H. Fill layer of “C–D levels” in “Room H”, or T/H, described as below “Level B”, T/H/108. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 24th, 1949, n. 10, ff. 27r–28r. RONDA FEMENIA, A.M. (2018): L’Alcúdia de Alejandro Ramos Folqués, p. 168. Materials Found: – Cylindrical Conde D-1 kalathos with vegetable volutes. Identified as item LA-2827 by AMRF. BAE/1949/T/H/109/cer/1 – Painted vase, which seems like a globular-body cup. It has paintings of a bird and carnivores. BAE/1949/T/H/109/cer/2 – Part of a small black pot with handle. BAE/1949/T/H/109/cer/3 – Part of an undecorated vase, with wide rim. BAE/1949/T/H/109/cer/4 – “Others” (?) First Discovered: 1949 Commentary: Unlike the parallel case of “Room I” (T/I) or Area C, these two layers are not rich in archaeological findings at this level. It is possible that this sub-area was used differently than “Room I”. Given that wall T/104, which limits T/H, was erected before T/103, it is possible that “Room H” was erected at a different stage compared to “Room I”. Therefore, there is no floor preparation for “Room H” like in “Room I” either between “levels C and D” or between level “C” and “D” in this area.
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906
annex c
C/110—Type V. “Wall from F to A”, as is exposed in the sketch from the Corpus documental, notebook number 10, f. 24tr (see Documental Sources). It is placed at about 3.4 to 3.45 meters from the north limit wall of Area C, or T/106. It corresponds with the southern limit of Area C. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 20th, 1949, n. 10, f. 24 (sketch). First Discovered: 1949 Commentary: Being the southern limit of the “street”, this wall was probably built in the early stages of use of this area of the site, as it reaches the lowest detected level in Area C. Few studies were done on these remains. From what we know, this wall would form the southern limit of the southern street for centuries, up to the abandonment of the site at around the 8th century ce. C & T/111—Type V. Wall in east-west direction, attached to the northern wall for Area C, T/106, placed to the south of what corresponds with “Room I” or sub-area T/I. It is revealed that the distance between the southern point of this wall and the southern wall of the “street” C/110 is about 2.85 meters (reflecting the width of the “street” at this point). This makes the wall 0.6 meters wide. It was made with an irregular set of materials set to create regular faces for the wall. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 20th, 1949, n. 10, ff. 17r, 24r (sketches); May 10th, 1950, n. 11, ff. 35v–36r (sketch); September 20th, 1951, n. 14, f. 2r, annex 1r (sketches); September 25th, 1951, n. 14, f. 4r (sketch). Alejandro Ramos Folqués, Loose Notes, number 11. RAMOS FERNÁNDEZ, R. (1995): El templo ibérico de la Alcudia de Elche, p. 115. Graphic Sources: Figs. 9.5, 6, 26 First Discovered: 1949 Commentary: Documental sources for this unit indicate that the wall was “sealed” 70 centimeters below Level B. Ramos Folqués suggests this wall was associated to an “Iberian level”. In any case, it was almost surely on a lower level than wall T/106, which mounts wall C/111. During C/111’s use, the street was apparently 2.85 meters wide. However, the account from 1995 by Ramos Fernández indicates that this street was just 2.45 meters wide, that is 1 meter less than recorded at the higher level described in the sketch from Corpus documental, notebook number 11, ff. 35v–36r, dated May 10th, 1950. B/112—Type H. Great layer of battered earth and lime mortar that covers most of the excavated surface below the mosaic floor B/011. According to the plan sketch from notebook 11, f. 2r of the Corpus documental, this layer is placed to the west of the narrow space to the east of the cement floor. The stratigraphic sketch indicates that
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stratigraphic unit catalogue
907
this level is associated with the 8-centimeter level B/013. However, it should be seen as below this level, having the thickness of the layers between B/120 and B/013. In other words, it is approximately 10–15 centimeters thick. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 24th, 1949, n. 10, f. 26r; October 11th, 1949, n. 11, ff. 1r–2r. RONDA FEMENIA, A.M. (2018): L’Alcúdia de Alejandro Ramos Folqués, p. 168. Graphic Sources: Fig. 7.26 Materials Found: – Altar, without mention of the page where it was described. It probably refers to the altar with horns and grooves at its base mentioned on page 26r of notebook number 10 of the Corpus Documental, dated September 24th, 1949. Identified by AMRF as item LA-3712, an arula. BAE/1949/B/112/pet/1 – “Other fragments”. BAE/1949/B/112/misc/1… First Discovered: 1949 Commentary: It supposedly corresponds with “Level C” of the site, according to the stratigraphic levels considered by Alejandro Ramos Folqués. This layer is probably a preparation fill for the lime mortar layer B/013 used to place the tesserae. However, Ramos Folqués called this “Level M”. From a simple calculation of the documented levels from the available sketches, it is probable that the “level M” was 13 centimeters thick in the central area of the mosaic rectangle, though the cobble stones or gravel floor would have been thinner. B/113—Type H. Cement mortar floor described in the sketches from notebook number 11, ff. 1r–2r in the Corpus documental. This floor is 5 centimeters thick. The sketch from f. 1r suggests that it only covered 2.3 meters of the excavated area underneath the mosaic rectangle’s length. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: October 11th, 1949, n. 11, ff. 1r–2r Graphic Sources: Fig. 7.26 First Discovered: 1949 Commentary: While this floor covers floor B/114, it stops where the excavator would later find wall B/123. In that southeastern section of the mosaic area, the gravel floor B/114 becomes visible from a bird’s eye view. It is possible to consider this to be a kind of interface layer as it was extremely thin. Most importantly, it is considered the same as cement floor B/016. B/114—Cobble stones/gravel and earthen mortar detected to the south of cement floor B/113. Like the cement floor, it presents a width of 2.3 meters in an east-west axis. The length of this floor’s visible area is unknown, but it was placed to the south of ashlar stone B/009. Alexander Bar-Magen Numhauser - 978-90-04-41992-6 Downloaded from Brill.com 03/03/2024 09:27:00PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison
908
annex c
Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: October 11th, 1949, n. 11, ff. 1r–2r. Graphic Sources: Figs. 7.4, 25, 26 Materials Found: – A slightly broken ring in part of its circumference. BAE/1949/B/114/met/1 First Discovered: 1949 Commentary: Despite its similarities in position with floor B/113, it also seems this is an inferior level according to the plan made by Hauschild in 1971, where the gravel was clearly detected between –0.39 or –0.38 to –0.5 or –0.51 meters from Zero Point. This is particularly noted with the registry of stucco B/017, preserved in the northeastern corner of B/010, associated with the height of gravel floor B/NE/077. B/115—Type X. Stratigraphic layer detected as hueco, or “hollow”, specifically referring to the trench detected to the north of wall B/123, probably 3 centimeters deep. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: October 11th, 1949, n. 11, f. 2r, 4r. Graphic Sources: Fig. 7.27 First Discovered: 1949 Commentary: While the stratigraphic sketch from notebook n. 11, f. 2r of the Corpus documental (entry for October 11th, 1949) indicates that it is placed on the border between levels “M” and “N”, it is likely that this is actually the detected trench placed to the western limit of “1 centimeter lime level” of “Level N” from the plan sketch of n. 11, f. 4r. The two levels from the stratigraphic sketch, one being in M and the other in N, probably simply refer to one being the dug trench B/115 and the other its fill, corresponding to one and the same layer. Identified as having 3 centimeters of depth, it seems inadequate for an artificial trench dug during archaeological excavations. Furthermore, this trench does not affect sub-mosaic wall B/123, which was of a later date. No such trench was detected north of wall B/023. B/116—Type X. Southwards continuation of the 3 centimeters thick “trench” from “Level N” of the sub-mosaic floors. This seems to continue beyond a “stucco” area, that is, B/018, which covered structure B/028. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: October 11th, 1949, n. 11, ff. 2r, 4r. Graphic Sources: Fig. 7.27 First Discovered: 1949 Commentary: The southwards continuation of this “trench” beyond the stucco line for B/018 suggests that this feature existed before the construction of structure B/028, and that it was covered by it when the mosaic’s basilical building was first built in this area. Alexander Bar-Magen Numhauser - 978-90-04-41992-6 Downloaded from Brill.com 03/03/2024 09:27:00PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison
stratigraphic unit catalogue
909
B/117—Type H. Fine cement floor. According to stratigraphic sketch from notebook n. 11, f. 2r of the Corpus documental, it is 6 centimeters thick. It is placed below another cement floor B/113, although it only occupies 30 centimeters of the excavated sub-mosaic rectangle in an east-west axis. On the other hand, it occupies the entire surface of the basilical building from north to south, according to the plan sketch on notebook number 11, f. 4r of the Corpus documental. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: October 11th, 1949, n. 11, ff. 2r, 4r. Graphic Sources: Fig. 7.27 First Discovered: 1949 Commentary: It remains unclear whether wall B/123 was covered by floor B/117, if it was simply built on top of it, or if the wall destroyed it. Certainly, this wall is covered by the later “Level M” floors that seal it, though there remains the possibility that the wall in question was of a later date than this cement floor. B/118—Type H. “Thin lime layer”, 1 centimeter thick, which apparently lies in the eastern section of the mosaic rectangle at “Level N”. It is placed physically in a rectangular area between B/120 and B/117, according to the plan sketch from page 4r of notebook number 11 in the Corpus documental. This rectangular area is at most 2 meters wide from an east-west axis, although it is cut by “trench” B/115 and B/116. Its length is unclear, although it seems to have covered the entire width of the mosaic’s rectangle. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: October 11th, 1949, n. 11, ff. 2r, 4r. Graphic Sources: Fig. 7.27 First Discovered: 1949 Commentary: Unless there is evidence to the contrary which was not detailed in the available sources, this “lime layer” is not placed beneath the cement layer. It is possible that it is contemporary to B/117. It is “interrupted” by wall B/123. B/119—Type H. Floor level placed below “Level N”. Its depth is unknown since it may not have been excavated completely. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: October 11th, 1949, n. 11, ff. 2r, 4r. Graphic Sources: Fig. 7.27 First Discovered: 1949 Commentary: There is barely any knowledge of this stratigraphic unit beyond its mere existence. Even by 1990, this area of the site was not excavated, and therefore there is little knowledge of it.
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910
annex c
B/120—Type H. Lime mortar and gravel floor for “Level N”. It belongs to the area occupied in “Level N” by floor B/112. In 1990, it seems that this stratigraphic layer was around 14 centimeters thick and was “archaeologically sterile”. It is placed on top of a rubble level, B/210, associated to the initial construction phase before the construction of the basilical and/or domus building proper. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: October 11th, 1949, n. 11, ff. 2r, 4r. RAMOS FERNÁNDEZ, Rafael (1991–1992): “Los Templos Ibéricos de la Alcudia de Elche”, Anales de Prehistoria y Arqueología, 7–8, p. 87. Graphic Sources: Fig. 7.27 First Discovered: 1949 B/121—Type H. Part of the “south wall” that contains a type of attached fill to it. It is marked in the excavation diaries sketches from notebook n. 11, ff. 1r–2r in Corpus docuemntal. The lowest layer detected of this is “Level M”. There is no mention of this unit in “Level N” or its sketch from n. 11, f. 4r of the excavation diaries. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 24th, 1949, n. 10, f. 26r (Some materials); October 11th, 1949, n. 11, ff. 1r–2r. Materials Found: – Fragments of loose tesserae. BAE/1949/B/212/tes/1 – Fragment of varied painted and smooth pottery. BAE/1949/B/121/cer/I/1 – Black weight that looks like a tibia’s distal end. BAE/1949/B/121/cer/I/3 – Painted fragment with animals, described in “previous block” with the altar, although Ramos Folqués could not describe it definitely. BAE/1949/B/121/cer/I/2 First Discovered: 1949. Commentary: The main question about this unit is what area it belongs to—whether it is from an area below the mosaic’s limits, or perhaps the area of the “attached bench” to the south of the basilical building. This apparently mixed fill represents the possible foundation for units B/138 and, by extension, B/028. The finding of tesserae could be a result of the removal of the mosaic rather than a mixing of material after the mosaic was originally laid. B/122—Type V. Stucco covering the southern face of northern wall B/023, detected above “Level M”, that is, below the mosaic floor. In the sketch from Corpus documental it is represented by the letter “A”. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: October 11th, 1949, n. 11, ff. 1r–2r. Graphic Sources: Fig. 7.26
Alexander Bar-Magen Numhauser - 978-90-04-41992-6 Downloaded from Brill.com 03/03/2024 09:27:00PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison
stratigraphic unit catalogue
911
First Discovered: 1949 Commentary: The placement of the stucco above “Level M”, possibly considered “Level C” of the basilical building, indicates that this stucco was sealed at the moment when the mosaic floor was laid above the lime mortar layer B/013. B/123—Type V. Wall found at the southeastern corner of the mosaic floor area, in “Level N”. It was described by Ramos Folqués as “Wall C”, in the second October 11th, 1949 sketch of the Corpus documental (see Graphic Sources). It is placed 60 centimeters south of the southern mosaic ashlar stone B/009. it is partially covered by the “cement floor” and “lime and gravel” layers from “Level N”, while limiting what in “Level M” is classified as “cement area” and “lime and earth area” to the eastern side of the mosaic rectangle. The wall has an east-west direction, is 0.45 meters wide, and starts 1.3 meters to the west of the eastern limit of the mosaic rectangle. In the “cement area” it has 1.1 meters of length, followed by 0.2 meters of length in the area of the “channel” B/115. It is followed by one more meter to the west in the “lime and earth” layer area. In total it has approximately 2.3 meters of length. It is placed 1.2 meters north of the stucco to the south of the mosaic’s rectangle. The sketch from n. 11, f. 4r describes the wall as having two lines of fieldstones with a mortar nucleus, something similar to the technique used for B/125. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: October 11th, 1949, n. 11, ff. 3r, 4r. Graphic Sources: Fig. 7.27 First Discovered: 1949 Commentary: Initially, it was considered that this wall was built before the laying of “Floor N”, although it is certainly of a previous chronological phase than “Level M”. However, the continuity of “Level N” to both sides of the wall indicates that this wall breaks the “Level N” layers and therefore is of a later phase. It is likely that this is a kind of intermediate phase before the placement of the “Level M” floors that came before laying of the mosaic. S/124—Type V. Covering of wall S/052, made of reused sandstone ashlar stones of high quality, as is clearly seen in the 1990 excavation photographs (see Graphic Sources). In them, there seems to be a wall with fieldstones and high levels of mortar, in its central nucleus. Graphic Sources: Figs. 8.9, 10, 12, 13 Materials Found: Inside the ashlars, found in 1990: – Bones of a pigeon. BAE/1990/S/124/os/1 – Follis of Constantine I (318–319). BAE/1990/S/124/num/1 – Follis of Constantine II (322). BAE/1990/S/124/num/2 Alexander Bar-Magen Numhauser - 978-90-04-41992-6 Downloaded from Brill.com 03/03/2024 09:27:00PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison
912
annex c
First Discovered: 1948. Re-excavated: 1990 Commentary: This wall’s elevation was possibly made of adobe or battered earth covered with stucco. This is one of the latest structures from the phases detected in Area S before its abandonment. The use of this part of the wall is detected through photographs from 1948, wherein it was used to support the remains of reused roof tiles, recovered from the demolished building. B/125—Type V. Wall found on “Level N” in the southeastern area of the mosaic floor, registered in sketch in the Corpus documental, October 11th, 1949. Of an east-west direction, it is placed 2 meters east of the western limit of the excavated area, which does not reach the western limit of the mosaic floor rectangle. It is 0.55 meters wide and is 0.7 meters long. Even so, there is no registry of the southern limit of this wall to the southern limit of the mosaic rectangle. Like wall B/123, it presents two lines of fieldstones with a mortar nucleus. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: October 12th, 1949, n. 11, f. 4r. Graphic Sources: Figs. 7.4, 27 First Discovered: 1949 Commentary: It is suggested that this wall is contemporaneous to wall B/123, given the similar construction technique and its placement above “Level N” which it breaks, but below “Level M” which seals it. B/126—Type V. Black stucco covering over the “eastern limit” wall of the mosaic floor B/011, probably of a later period. It is similar to stuccos B/018 and B/019, differing in color. Documental Sources: RAMOS FOLQUES, A. (1974): El cristianismo en Elche, p. 105. First Discovered: 1949 Commentary: The mention of this stucco above the level of the mosaic floor suggests a later chronology to the placement of the floor of the basilical building. However, since wall B/026 is 0.55 meters to the east of the mosaic floor, the physical relation between the two stratigraphic units (the stucco and the mosaic floor) is unclear. Even so, it should be considered of the same date as B/026, where part of the mosaic might have been affected by this eastern reform. No such stucco was detected on the eastern apse wall, likely due to the apse being built after the placement of the wall B/026. S/127—Type V. Stucco covering of eastern face of “tangential wall” B/010, contemporary to B/017.
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stratigraphic unit catalogue
913
Documental Sources: RAMOS FOLQUES, A. (1974): El cristianismo en Elche, p. 106. Graphic Sources: Figs. 7.42, 43 First Discovered: 1949 Commentary: Even though in El cristianismo en Elche this stucco is published as associated to B/017, and, therefore, contemporary to it, it is preferable to avoid this kind of association, assuming that these two stuccos belong to two different ambiences. B/017 was sealed by the construction of apse B/006. However, S/127 was covered and sealed by the lime and gravel floor S/056, the last detected floor for Area S. B/E/128—Type H. “Horizontal Level C”, corresponding with the area “between stones and apse”, that is, the eastern area of the mosaic rectangle. The precise extent of this area is unknown. Clearly, it is an eastern sector, most probably between cement floor B/113 and the apse’s western start, or wall B/026. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: October 12th, 1949, n. 11, f. 5r. RONDA FEMENIA, A.M. (2018): L’Alcúdia de Alejandro Ramos Folqués, p. 170. Materials Found: – Fragment of painted cup, with a middle-height foot, possibly hollow and not solid. It has geometric painted (reticulated) motifs, Estilo Ilicitano II of Augustan period. BAE/1949/B/E/128/cer/1 First Discovered: 1948. Re-excavated: 1949 Commentary: Being “Level C”, it originally seemed to be contemporary to “Level M”. However, the physical relations between these levels remains unclear, and the description of the fill layer as between “the stones” (that is, B/318) and the eastern apse wall (or B/026) makes it a fill from a later date than the mosaic floor and contemporary to the foundation trench B/-030. B/E/129—Type H. “Level D”, similar to “Level N” of the plan sketch from the excavation diary’s n. 10, ff. 4r, 5r, 6r–7r in Corpus documental, below B/E/128. This layer’s thickness is unknown, but apparently there is no “division line” between this stratum and “Level E” below it, according to Ramos Folqués. In fact, he describes these two levels as mixing in certain points. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: October 12th, 1949, n. 11, ff. 5r, 6r–7r. RONDA FEMENIA, A.M. (2018): L’Alcúdia de Alejandro Ramos Folqués, p. 170. Materials Found: – Bronze electron ring. BAE/1949/B/E/129/met/1 – Lead disk sheet. BAE/1949/B/E/129/Pb/1 – Small undecorated plate. BAE/1949/B/E/129/cer/I/1
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914
annex c
– Small plate with inner painted circle. BAE/1949/B/E/129/cer/I/2 – Part of an iron ring. BAE/1949/B/E/129/Fe/1 – Half a Campanian plate, without marks, Lamboglia type 68A (late 2nd century bce). BAE/1949/B/E/129/cer/I/3 – High mud foot for cup. BAE/1949/B/E/129/cer/I/4 – Big undecorated vase. BAE/1949/B/E/129/cer/I/5 – Inside the previous vase part of a large unpainted vase. Within it, a triangular piece of iron, identified by AMRF as item LA-2474. BAE/1949/B/E/129/Fe/2. – Small lead sheet with three holes. BAE/1949/B/E/129/Pb/2 – Fragment of a flint. BAE/1949/B/E/129/pet/1 – Black stone sharpener. BAE/1949/B/E/129/pet/2 – Black vase, made of fine mud and globular body, with what seems to be a flag base. BAE/1949/B/E/129/cer/I/7 – Round mud piece, without more description. BAE/1949/B/E/129/cer/I/8 – Red and black vase base. Marked. BAE/1949/B/E/129/cer/I/9 – Another Campanian pottery base, with hollow foot (“solder ring”) perhaps of a cup. BAE/1949/B/E/129/cer/I/9 – Small vase without decoration, possibly a toy. BAE/1949/B/E/129/cer/I/10 – Small complete (restored) jar. It has an ovoid body, narrow “solder’s ring” foot and everted rim. Identified by AMRF as item LA-995. BAE/1949/B/E/129/cer/I/11 – Another small and complete (restored) plate, with narrow foot, inverted rim and of low stature. It too has a “solder’s ring” base, like most pieces of that phase. BAE/1949/B/E/129/cer/I/12 – Rim of oenochoe with painted eyes, and vegetable figures. Identified as item LA-1536. BAE/1949/B/E/129/cer/I/13 – Lead disk perforated in its center. BAE/1949/B/E/129/Pb/3 – Another lead object. BAE/1949/B/E/129/Pb/4 – (Only “Level D”, n. 11, f. 7r): bone disk, perforated in its center, with elliptical and pointed profile. BAE/1949/B/E/129/os/5 – Pink mud weight, of conical form. BAE/1949/B/E/129/cer/I/6 – Small bronze sheet. BAE/1949/B/E/129/met/3 First Discovered: 1949 Commentary: The large number of materials in this stratigraphic unit might be due to a mixture from the “Level C” and “Level E” fills, and the lack of clear definition between “Level D” and the other two “levels”. This suggests it being a preparatory fill before the placement of the mosaic floor B/011, although there are also parallels from “Level D” layers in areas T and C. More materials appear from “Level E”, which are mixed according to the excavation diaries entry for October 12th, 1949. It seems that this “Level D–E” remained untouched by the construction of eastern wall B/026.
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stratigraphic unit catalogue
915
B/E/130—Type H. “Level E” for the “area between stones and apse” mentioned in stratigraphic unit entries B/E/128 and B/E/129. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: October 12th, 1949, n. 11, ff. 7r, 8r–9r. ABASCAL, J.M., ALBEROLA, A. (2007): Monedas antiguas de los museos de Elche, p. 47, number 94 (for coin). RAMOS FOLQUÉS, A. (1956): “Memoria de las excavaciones practicadas en La Alcudia (Elche) [Campañas 1949–1952]”, p. 106, Plate CII. RONDA FEMENIA, A.M. (2018): L’Alcúdia de Alejandro Ramos Folqués, p. 170, notes 279, 280. Materials Found: – Black (restored) vase. BAE/1949/B/E/130/cer/I/1 – Base of Campanian Lamboglia 28 type (late 2nd to early 1st century bce), with painting of its base made of cuatrifolia and a central square. BAE/1949/B/E/130/cer/I/2 – A second Campanian vase with convex base and with groove. BAE/1949/B/E/130/ cer/I/3 – A semis. Alejandro Ramos Folqués (n. 11, f. 8r) indicates: “It is difficult to attribute it to this level, since despite being in it, there was fallen earth from “Level D” from the previous dig”. In other words, it is possibly an intrusion from the excavation process. It presents, in its obverse, the image of a character with helmet, below which the word “SEMIS” and the number “CXXX” appear, with “I” beside it. This semis was identified as number 94 y Abascal’s and Alberola’s catalogue and was made in the year 17ce under Tiberius, in Carthago Nova (Cartagena). The figure was identified as Minerva. BAE/1949/B/E/130/num/1 – Mud votive statuette. Possible Iberian lady, made of terracotta, broken in its base and missing her arms where altars might have been placed. Possibly dated to the late 3rd, early 2nd century bce. BAE/1949/B/E/130/ter/1 – Painted pottery, with geometric and vegetal motifs. BAE/1949/B/E/130/cer/I/4 – Fragment of red paste burnished vases. BAE/1949/B/E/130/cer/II/1… – Collar bead. BAE/1949/B/E/130/pet/1 – Many undescribed objects. BAE/1949/B/E/130/misc/1… First Discovered: 1949 Commentary: Below layer B/130, there must have been more stratigraphic units that were never excavated, as demonstrated by the absence of a “Level F” according to Ramos Folqués’ account. It probably corresponds with other similar levels, associated with rubble found above what they called “Iberian temple” of the western area of what would be the basilical building.
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916
annex c
S/-131—Type X. Dismantlement phase for the removal of stucco B/122. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: October 11th, 1949, n. 11, ff. 1r–2r. RAMOS FOLQUES, A. (1974): El cristianismo en Elche, p. 105. First Discovered: 1949 B/132—Type H. Fill for the western basin B/022. Documental Sources: RAMOS FOLQUES, A. (1974): El cristianismo en Elche, p. 104. Graphic Sources: Figs. 7.20, 21, 22 Materials Found: Mosaic tesserae were found. There is no indication of how many. First Discovered: 1949 S/133—Type V. North-South wall detected as remains of a fill below the two ashlar stones B/008 and B/009, and described on n. 11, ff. 10r–11r of the Corpus documental. It is presumably marked by the channel B/115 and B/116. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: October 14th, 1949, n. 11, ff. 10r–11r Graphic Sources: Fig. 7.27 First Discovered: 1949 B/SE/134—Type H. “Level D”, placed in the “southeastern area of the mosaic”, according to the Corpus documental n. 11, f. 10r. It probably corresponds to the level below cobblestone floor B/114. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: October 14th, 1949, n. 11, f. 11r. Materials Found: – Base of a Campanian pottery plate with tetrafolia for painted decoration. BAE/1949/ B/SE/134/cer/1 First Discovered: 1949 Commentary: Being part of “Level N”, mentioned in the Corpus documental, there is no description of where this fill layer is located except for being in the southeastern corner of the mosaic floor rectangle. It is assumed to be associated with units B/120 and B/118. B/135—Type H. “Level E” for the area to the southeast of the mosaic floor rectangle. Placed below “Level D” B/SE/134. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: October 14th, 1949, n. 11, f. 10r.
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stratigraphic unit catalogue
917
Materials Found: – Fragment of a sandstone statue—horse mouth. Identified as item LA-805 by AMRF. BAE/1949/B/SE/135/pet/1 – Black vase with incised spiral motif (“roleos”). It has a profile of a high neck and globular body. Identified as item LA-568. BAE/1949/B/SE/135/cer/I/1 – Next to the black vase, a piece of rectangular stone with a hole. Probably an ax. BAE/1949/B/SE/135/pet/2 – Statue fragment: Superior part of a horse’s mouth. BAE/1949/B/SE/135/pet/3 – Small Iberian plate. BAE/1949/B/SE/135/cer/I/2 – Fragment of Campanian vase. BAE/1949/B/SE/135/cer/I/3 – Three capes of ceramic fragments. BAE/1949/B/SE/135/cer/II/1 – Lead disk. BAE/1949/B/SE/135/Pb/1 First Discovered: 1949 B/SE/136—Type H. Fill of earth and cobblestones below the “mortar floor” B/SE/137. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: October 14th, 1949, n. 11, f. 10r. Materials Found: – Stylus with the form of an “i”. BAE/1949/B/SE/136/os/1 – Convex lead sheets (two) in between the cobble stones fill. BAE/1949/B/SE/136/Pb/1 and 2 – Triangular adze. AMRF identified it as item LA-254. BAE/1949/B/SE/136/pet/1 – Great bronze of Hadrian, in between the “cobble stones of the floor”. BAE/1949/B/ SE/136/num/1 – Small red paste vase, with what appears to be a high foot. Its everted rim seems to identify it as a cup. BAE/1949/B/SE/136/cer/1 First Discovered: 1949 Commentary: Ramos Folqués did not classify this layer as either “Floor F” or “Level F”, indicating he encountered a problem during the excavation of the area below the mosaic—there are more levels than the ones from “A” to “F” assumed at the beginning of this intervention. It is proposed, at the same time, that the homogeneity of materials detected in this phase as well as that from B/SE/135 might imply that Hadrian’s coin is indeed an intrusion. There are no other 2nd century ce materials in these units, while the very presence of this coin points towards construction activity during the 2nd century. B/SE/137—Type I/H. Mortar floor mentioned on notebook 11, f. 10r of the Corpus documental. It lies possibly between fills B/SE/135 and B/SE/136. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: October 14th, 1949, n. 11, f. 10r.
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918
annex c
First Discovered: 1949 Commentary: This “interface” unit is described when mentioning fill B/SE/136 “under the mortar floor”. It is assumed that this “mortar floor” is placed under what was detected as “Level E”, although that is uncertain. Below is a fill of gravel and earth, with materials dating from the 2nd century bce to the 2nd century ce, although without Hadrian’s coin it could be not be dated beyond 1st century ce. B/138—Type V. Attached southern structure to the southern wall of the basilical building, or B/020. It seems to be an elevated extension of B/028, although some features can be attributed to be above B/028 structurally. This feature was also personally registered in visits to the Alcudia, and it is preserved through the restoration made to the building following the 1990 excavation. It is apparently registered in “Level M” while vanishing in “Level N”, although the associated B/125 wall remains are present there. B/128 covers B/125, as is evident from the 1971 Hauschild plan and photographs from 1990. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: October 11th, 1949, n. 11, f. 1r (sketch). Graphic Sources: Figs. 7.4, 54, 56, 57, 58, 59. Plates XIII.1; XVII, 2; XVIII.1, 2; XX.1, 2; XX.1, 2. First Discovered: 1948. Re-excavated: 1949, 1954, 1990. Commentary: The interpretation of this feature is complicated. First, it is not described at all in Ramos Folqués’ excavation diaries until the sketch for “Level M” from October 11th, 1949 (n. 11, f. 1r in the Corpus documental), even though from the recovered photographs this feature was clearly visible from 1948, onwards. Second, the images from the 1990 excavation clearly show the existence of a structure with a foundation that was placed in the central-western section of the southern wall of the mosaic structure. The excavation must have reached a deeper level than these, since in “Level N” Ramos Folqués does not include this feature in his sketch or the “removed ground” associated with it in this area. The images from the excavations and from more current visits to the site depict the existence of this “leveled” structure to the south, which could be interpreted in the following two ways: 1) the presence of an ample staircase that gives access to the mosaic area from the south, or 2) the existence of benches attached to the southern wall of the mosaic’s basilical structure, which in later periods would be dismantled. In the second case, such interpretation can include B/028. B/-139—Type X. Hole for the placement of the mosaic floor’s ashlar stone B/008. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: October 14th, 1949, n. 11, f. 11r. IBARRA, P. (1906): “Antigua basílica de Elche”, BRAH, pp. 121–122.
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919
stratigraphic unit catalogue PALOL, P. de (1967): Arqueología cristiana de la España romana, p. 67. First Discovered: 1905. Re-excavated: 1949
T/140—Type V. Wall from the “sepulture level”, or “Level O”, mentioned on November 29th, 1949, in the Corpus documental. These are four stones “of the monument”. They present molding and grooves, likely being reused architectural material, as well as a wall with high relief. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: November 29th, 1949, n. 11, f. 20r (text and sketch). Materials Found: In between the stones’ mortar, there are the following findings: – Painted pottery with geometric motifs. BAE/1949/T/140/cer/1 – Undecorated (not painted) vase, almost complete. BAE/1949/T/140/cer/2 First Discovered: 1949 T/E/R/141—Type H. “Level D” fill layer from the “area where the trench was continued”, east of rooms H and I in Area T, and below a “second mortar floor”. This is found in “Room R”. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: November 29th, 1949, n. 11, f. 20r. RAMOS FOLQUÉS, A. (1956): “Memoria de las excavaciones practicadas en La Alcudia (Elche) [Campañas 1949–1952]”, Plate CXIV (middle-left). RONDA FEMENIA, A.M. (2018): L’Alcúdia de Alejandro Ramos Folqués, pp. 171–172, fig. 203. Materials Found: – Two-handled jar, with one handle missing or broken. Painted with a bird with legs missing. Published by Ramos Folqués’ Excavation Report in 1956, yet mistakenly associated to the 1950 excavation as pointed out by Ana Ronda (2018, see Documental Sources). BAE/1949/T/E/R/141/cer/I/1 – Black coarse pot, ordinary and sooty. BAE/1949/T/E/R/141/cer/I/2 – Between the two pottery fragments, a piece of an amphora base. BAE/1949/T/E/R/ 141/cer/I/3 – Painted pottery with decorative leaves. Presents a globular body, narrow neck, and very everted rim. BAE/1949/T/E/R/141/cer/I/4 – More pottery fragments. BAE/1949/T/E/R/141/cer/II/1… First Discovered: 1949 Commentary: Apparently, this is the most inferior level detected in this sub-area of the site. Therefore, there is no detection of any layer below “Level D” in this sector.
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920
annex c
B/-142—Type X. Hole to place the floor ashlar stone for mosaic, B/009. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: October 14th, 1949, n. 11, f. 11r. IBARRA, P. (1906): “Antigua basílica de Elche”, BRAH, pp. 121–122. PALOL, P. de (1967): Arqueología cristiana de la España romana, p. 67. First Discovered: 1905. Re-excavated: 1905 T/E/R/143—Type H. “Level C” fill layer for room T/E/R. Since “Level D” T/E/R/141 is the second layer found below a “mortar floor”, this would be the first. It is considered a fill like “Level D” of “Room R” in Area T. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: December 18th, 1949, n. 11, f. 21r. First Discovered: 1949 Commentary: The specific commentary referring to layer T/E/R/141 indicates it is “two levels below mortar floor B”, therefore assuming the existence of this intermediary layer. However, there are no associated materials, which indicates that this may be a kind of abandonment level, or simply that materials recovered from this layer’s excavation were deemed unnecessary to be registered by Ramos Folqués. T/E/S/144—Type H. “Level B”, corresponding with the eastern area of “department R” in Area T, that is, “Room S” from sketch from notebook number 11, ff. 35v–36r of the Corpus documental. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: December 28th, 1949, n. 11, f. 23r. AMRF note 40; May 10th, 1950, n. 11, ff. 35v–36r. Materials Found: – Limestones with the form of basins. – Large basin. BAE/1949/T/E/S/144/pet/1 – Fragmented pottery. BAE/1949/T/E/S/144/cer/I/1… – A fragment of a small cup with grooved wall and slightly elevated foot (base), probably a Dragendorff 25 or 27. BAE/1949/T/E/S/144/cer/II/1 – Glass fragments. BAE/1949/T/E/S/144/vit/I/1… First Discovered: 1949 T/E/T’/145—Type H. Very deteriorated mosaic placed in “Room T” from Area T, or T/E/T’ as reflected in the sketch from notebook number 11, ff. 35v–36r of the Corpus documental. It is elaborated with “large tesserae”, probably with a coarse style from “Level A” of this area. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: December 31th, 1949, n. 11, f. 25r; May 10th, 1950, n. 11, ff. 35v–36r Alexander Bar-Magen Numhauser - 978-90-04-41992-6 Downloaded from Brill.com 03/03/2024 09:27:00PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison
stratigraphic unit catalogue
921
First Discovered: 1949. Re-excavated: 1950? T/E/T’/146—Type H. Identified fill above the “Level A” mosaic T/E/T’/145. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: December 31th, 1949, n. 11, f. 25r, AMRF note 42; May 10th, 1950, n. 11, ff. 35v–36r. RONDA FEMENIA, A.M. (2018): L’Alcúdia de Alejandro Ramos Folqués, p. 172. Materials Found: – Undescribed coin. BAE/1949/T/E/T’/146/num/1 – Fragment of style “with hand”. BAE/1949/T/E/T’/146/os/1 – Varied pottery fragments. BAE/1949/T/E/T’/146/cer/1… – Lead piece, with the shape of a balance scale arm. According to Ana Ronda (2018), it is associated with holding ceramic oil lamps. BAE/1949/T/E/T’/146/Pb/1 First Discovered: 1949. Re-excavated: 1950? Commentary: It is very likely that this area was not well excavated or explored. In actuality, this fill is detected above the “mosaic” described in T/E/T’/145, and there are no further excavations described below this level. Ramos Folqués probably searched, in short-term interventions, for the identification of basic superficial structures to the east of the main excavated area from Area T. B/F/147—Type I. “Floor” level used with a stone pavement. The stratigraphic sketch’s drawing from page n. 11, f. 30, from the Corpus documental, likely indicates the use of cobblestones in this floor. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: May 9th, 1950, n. 11, f. 30r. FOLQUES, A. (1974): El cristianismo en Elche, p. 109. First Discovered: 1950 Commentary: Unlike the strata from the “Street” area (Area C) this “Level D” interface unit is signaled as “stone pavement” while the fill for “Level C” is placed on top of the floor. Therefore, fill for “Level C” would be of a later date than “Floor C”, as is characteristic of the “levels” associated with Ramos Folqués’ stratigraphy for the Alcudia. B/F/148—Type H. Floor fill below “stone pavement” B/F/147. It must have been a preparation level for “Floor D”. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: May 9th, 1950, n. 11, f. 30r, AMRF note 52. FOLQUES, A. (1974): El cristianismo en Elche, p. 109. Materials Found: – Painted pottery. BAE/1950/B/F/148/cer/1
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annex c
– Campanian A type plate, Lamboglia 36, with ringed base and with an S-shaped horizontal profile. It had an everted rim. BAE/1950/B/F/148/cer/2 – Glass paste vase. BAE/1950/B/F/148/vit/1 – Worked stone fragment “like those of the statues”. BAE/1950/B/F/148/pet/1 – Small and cone-shaped loom weight. BAE/1950/B/F/148/cer/4 – Fragment of small plate, “like the big ones”. BAE/1950/B/F/148/cer/3 First Discovered: 1950 Commentary: As expected, this stratigraphic level is the richest one in materials from this probe. In this sense, it is part of the other “Levels C–D” from the site, with large amounts of materials, providing a good possibility that this area, north of the main hall of the building, included phases for the preparation of later structures. In other words, this general area of the Alcudia of Elche was urbanized, including a previous construction plan for this urban block. The Campanian pottery suggests a late republican date, though this is not conclusive considering it is not a closed stratum. B/F/149—Type I. “Gravel and sand floor”, or “Level E” interface unit. It is placed 50 centimeters below the mosaic B/011 height. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: May 9th, 1950, n. 11, f. 30r. FOLQUES, A. (1974): El cristianismo en Elche, p. 109. First Discovered: 1950 B/F/150—Type H. 20 centimeter fill for “Level E”. There is no description of findings here, possibly none were found. It seems that there was no floor here upon which this fill was supported. Therefore, it is necessarily associated to the “ash level” mentioned in “Level F”. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: May 9th, 1950, n. 11, f. 30r, AMRF note 52. FOLQUES, A. (1974): El cristianismo en Elche, p. 109. First Discovered: 1950 Commentary: The “ash layer”, mentioned as B/F/217 in the current catalogue, suggests this locus is probably associated with a destruction or demolition phase. The existence of an earthen layer with no archaeological findings suggests the general abandonment of the area until the arrival of what would be “Level D”, mentioned in the sketch from the May 9th, 1950, entry of the Corpus documental. B/F/151—Type H. Fill for “Level F”, above the virgin soil. This layer is 14 centimeters thick. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: May 9th, 1950, n. 11, f. 30r.
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stratigraphic unit catalogue
923
RONDA FEMENIA, A.M. (2018): L’Alcúdia de Alejandro Ramos Folqués, p. 172 (Fig. 204). Materials Found: – Campanian type pottery. It has a border of a vase with concave molding in its upper section, and with a straight wall on the inside. BAE/1950/B/F/151/cer/1 – Slate slab. Apparently, it is in two fragments with vegetal motifs. BAE/1950/B/F/151/ pet/1 – “Red paste top hat pottery fragment, with geometric decoration”. BAE/1950/B/F/151/ cer/2 – Remains of pottery fragment with red and black paint decoration and described as “top-hat pottery”. Identified as Punic pottery LA-416 in the Alcudia’s catalogue by Ana Ronda (2018). BAE/1950/B/F/151/cer/3 First Discovered: 1950 Commentary: This is the only excavated level in Area B that is identified with a bedrock level, that is, it is directly on top of it. Considering the height given to the different excavated levels in this sub-area B/F, a depth of 0.84 meters, from the mosaic to bedrock, can be identified in this section. The presence of Campanian pottery in such an ancient level points towards the possibility that the first preparatory layers and constructions sector of the Alcudia were made in a late stage of the republican period, perhaps later than previously considered. C/N/152—Type H. First detected layer in the “north corner of the statue Street” (that is, of Area C). It is a gravel floor. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: May 10th, 1950, n. 11, f. 31r. First Discovered: 1950 Commentary: The location of this probe is unclear. However, it must have occurred in the eastern area of the street, south of T/E sub-area. It is a corner corresponding with the sidewalk of the street. C/N/153—Type H. Battered earth that sustains gravel C/N/152. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: May 10th, 1950, n. 11, f. 31r. Materials Found: – Small Campanian type plate, with inverted rim and ringed base. BAE/1950/C/N/153/ cer/I/1 – Painted geometric pottery. BAE/1950/C/N/153/cer/I/2 – Kalathos. BAE/1950/C/N/153/cer/I/3 – Plates. BAE/1950/C/N/153/cer/II/1…
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– Half a roll (of lead?). BAE/1950/C/N/153/Pb/1 First Discovered: 1950 C/N/154—Type H. “Big cobble stone” floor, under C/N/153. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: May 10th, 1950, n. 11, f. 31r. Materials Found: – Painted pottery with geometric motifs, particularly concentric semi-circles. BAE /1950/C/N/154/cer/1 – Black, coarse, hand-made pottery. BAE/1950/C/N/154/cer/2 First Discovered: 1950 Commentary: This is the lowest excavated layer of the probe from the “north corner of the street”. T/I/155—Type V. Western wall for room T/I, in a north-south direction. It is 30 centimeters wide and an unknown length, although probably similar to other walls such as T/103 and T/104. It is placed 2.6 meters to the west of T/103. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: May 10th, 1950, n. 11, ff. 35v–36r. First Discovered: 1949. Re-excavated: 1950 T/E/Q/156—Type V. Wall parallel to T/I/155. It separates rooms P and Q. It is 0.4 meters wide and 2.7 meters long. It is attached to wall “E” according to the sketch from n. 10, ff. 35v–36r in the Corpus documental. However, it was more likely attached wall T/105. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 20th, 1949, n. 10, f. 17r; May 10th, 1950, n. 11, ff. 35v–36r. First Discovered: 1949. Re-excavated: 1950 T/E/R/157—Type V. Wall that separates rooms “Q” and “R” (T/E/Q and T/E/R). No measurements of this wall were taken; however, they are apparently the same as the other parallel north-south walls, reaching to the northern border of Area C or the “Street”, limited by T/106. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: May 10th, 1950, n. 11, ff. 35v–36r. First Discovered: 1950 Commentary: In this locus, it is only known that this wall is apparently attached to the area with walls “E” and “A” to the north of Area T, from the May 10th, 1950, sketch in the excavation diaries entry. There is indeed a chronological problem when it comes to its relation to the north-south walls T/103 and T/104, due to its deficient description, including a lack of measurements in the above-mentioned sketch. Alexander Bar-Magen Numhauser - 978-90-04-41992-6 Downloaded from Brill.com 03/03/2024 09:27:00PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison
stratigraphic unit catalogue
925
The location of this wall in the area “East of room R” (T/E/R), that is, “Room S” (T/E/S), would indicate that this wall is linked to “Level B” T/E/R/144, a layer that seals the foundation of this wall. In this level, apparently there is no detection of a “Level A” above the “Level B” layer; therefore this chronological association is an assumption. T/E/S/158—Type V. Wall that separates rooms “S” and “T’” (T/E/S and T/E/T’ respectively). It does not present measurements. This wall’s southern edge reaches beyond the northern wall of the “street” (Area C) area (T/106), occupying part of the street itself. Despite this, it is attached to the northern wall T/105, just as other parallel north-south walls in Area T. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: May 10th, 1950, n. 11, ff. 35v–36r. First Discovered: 1950 Commentary: Even though it is also associated to a “Level A”, or mosaic level in subarea T/E/T’, we must assume the contemporaneity of this north-south wall with T/E/R/157, that is older than the mentioned mosaic floor. This means that the foundation level of this little-described wall was covered by the “level with basins”. This means that the “Level B” from sub-area T/E/R is contemporary to this wall. Furthermore, some of the basins, as well as parts of the wall T/E/S/158, are found covering parts of Area C, thus suggesting a chronological association between the two. C/E/159—Type V. Walls or wall attached to the “sidewalk” C/218. It is probably contemporary with “wall from A to F” C/110. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: May 10th, 1950, n. 11, ff. 35v–36r. First Discovered: 1950 Commentary: Without measurements, and absent any physical description of this wall outside the sketch from notebook n. 11, ff. 35v–36r of the Corpus documental, the stratigraphic placement of this unit becomes exceedingly difficult. The “sidewalk” C/218 is attached to these walls, possibly making it contemporary to wall C/110. C/E/160—Type X. Basin found in the eastern sector of the “Statue Street” (C/E). Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: December 28th, 1949, n. 11, f. 23r; May 10th, 1950, n. 11, ff. 35v–36r. First Discovered: 1949. Re-excavated: 1950 Commentary: It is probable that this “basin” was already described on “Level B” T/E/R/ 144, in the December 28th, 1949, entry in the excavation diaries (see Corpus documental), although it could possibly be another basin altogether. Even if it is placed in the street area, or in Area C, Ramos Folqués did not provide a clear distinction
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between Area T and C that would allow for an accurate account of its placement and structural/stratigraphic associations. C/E/161—Type X. Bone remains next to what seem to be fill in the eastern section of the Street or Area C. The plan sketch points to it being the remains of a leg (“pierna”) found south of room T/S. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: May 10th, 1950, n. 10, f. 35v–36r. RONDA FEMENIA, A.M. (2018): L’Alcúdia de Alejandro Ramos Folqués, pp. 184–185. First Discovered: 1950 Commentary: The presence of human remains spread around the western section of the “street” probably corresponds with the arrival of demolished material from Area T. It was initially assumed, then, that these are contemporary to the 20-centimeter thick layer of demolition C/074. However, the position of these bones at a very late layer, not more than 25 centimeters below the agricultural modern level, suggests they are likely associated with “Level O” burials, or contemporary to T/094. T/HR/162—Type H. Fill layer that surrounds the “coarse drain canal” from “Level C”, corresponding with T/HR/163. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: October 14th, 1954, n. 20, f. 30r. First Discovered: 1954 Commentary: It is assumed this floor is different from the “drainage canal” itself, from “Level C”. It has no further description. The association of this feature to “Level C”, and being identified in Area T, points towards the possibility that it was constructed as an access point to the basilical building from a “Roman Room”. Therefore, the existence of a water installation in the building’s opening must be considered. T/HR/163—Type X. “Coarse” drainage canal, dug on “Floor C” T/HR/162. Probably the same as what is described by Ramos Folqués in 1962 as an amphora-looking tube. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: October 14th, 1954, n. 20, f. 30r; October 29th, 1959, n. 23, f. 76r. RAMOS FOLQUÉS, A. (1962): “Excavaciones en la Alcudia. Memoria de las practicadas durante 1953–1958”, Noticiario Arqueológico Hispánico V, 94, Plate LXXXI. RONDA FEMENIA, A.M. (2018): L’Alcúdia de Alejandro Ramos Folqués, p. 184. First Discovered: 1954 Commentary: Even though in his excavation diaries Alejandro Ramos Folqués describes this unit as “below Floor C”, this should be read as the canal breaking the
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stratigraphic unit catalogue
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floor for its placement. Therefore, it is of a later date. Even so, the report about this same canal on October 29th, 1959, indicates that it was placed on a “Level D” and not a “Level C”. T/HR/164—Type H. “Level D” fill layer below T/HR/162, as indicated on notebook number 20, f. 30r in the Corpus documental. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: October 14th, 1954, n. 20, f. 30r. Materials Found: – Head of smiling woman, perhaps a glass statuette. BAE/1954/T/HR/164/vit/1 – Coin, with only its profile drawn and documented. BAE/1954/T/HR/164/num/1 – Painted pottery decorated with inner squares. BAE/1954/T/HR/164/cer/1 – Iberian-Campanian pottery. BAE/1954/T/HR/164/cer/2 First Discovered: 1954. T/HR/165—Type H. Ash level layer, documented in the Corpus documental, notebook 20, f. 30v. It corresponds with a “Level E”, below T/HR/164. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: October 14th, 1954, n. 20, ff. 30r–30v. Materials Found: – Coin. Only its profile is documented. BAE/1954/T/HR/165/num/1 – Iron nails. BAE/1954/T/HR/165/Fe/1… – Painted pottery with geometric motifs. BAE/1954/T/HR/165/cer/1 First Discovered: 1954 Commentary: This is the last horizontal stratigraphic unit excavated in this probe to the south of the entrance area of the synagogue building. It is likely that there are no deeper layers below this one. Curiously, this “Level E” is similar to “ash layer” stratigraphic unit B/F/217. C/W/166—Type V. Wall attached to the northern limit of the “street”, or Area C, in a north-south direction. It approximately covers about one third of the street’s width. This is the westernmost section of Area C, described in n. 20, f. 34r the Corpus documental. It corresponds, like the entire structure, to a “Level C”. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: December 23rd, 1954, n. 20, f. 34r. First Discovered: 1954 Commentary: It was built at the same moment as C/W/167, even though the latter is parallel to this wall, to its west.
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C/W/167—Type V. Attached wall to the northern limit of the “street”, or Area C, in north-south direction. It approximately reaches to about one third of the street’s width. This is the western wall of the two in this same area, that is, parallel to C/W/166, described in the sketch from notebook number 20, f. 34r in the Corpus documental. It corresponds, like the rest of the structures it forms a part of, to a “Level C” building, found at the end of this street to its west. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: December 23rd, 1954, n. 20, f. 34r. First Discovered: 1954 C/W/168—Type V. Wall parallel to the street’s direction in Area C, that is, in east-west direction. Walls C/W/166 and C/W/167 are attached to it from its north, and they belong to the same structure. It is associated, like the other mentioned walls, to “Level C” or C/W/219. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: December 23rd, 1954, n. 20, f. 34r. First Discovered: 1954 C/W/169—Type V. Attached wall to the “street” (Area C) limit to its south, corresponding with “Level C”. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: December 23rd, 1954, n. 20, f. 34r. First Discovered: 1954 C/W/170—Type V. Wall with parallel direction to that of the “street”, or Area C, with an east-west direction and parallel to C/W/168. It corresponds, according to the excavation diaries sketch (Corpus documental), to “Level D” (C/W/171). Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: December 23rd, 1954, n. 20, f. 34r. First Discovered: 1954 C/W/171—Type H. Fill layer for “Level D” in sub-area C/W. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: December 23rd, 1954, n. 20, ff. 34r–35r. Materials Found: – Krater. Presents painted decorations on its interior and the borders of its exterior walls. It has a central serpent in relief, two big hares and a large bouquet of flowers. BAE/1954/C/W/171/cer/1 – “Level D Amphora” in the contact zone with wall C/W/169. BAE/1954/C/W/171/cer/ 2
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stratigraphic unit catalogue
– Vase with pronounced careen, shoulder, and handle. It is supported by a ringed base, or what could be a low foot. It presents incised decorations of stylized lines and a P (notebook 20, f. 35r from the Corpus documental). BAE/1954/C/W/171/cer/3 First Discovered: 1954 C/W/172—Type H. “Level E” layer from western sector of the “street” or Area C. There is no detailed distinction between the northern and southern rooms of this sector. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: December 23rd, 1954, n. 20, ff. 34r, 36r. Materials Found: – Painted pottery, with decoration in cream-pink and white. Presents geometric and vegetal motifs. BAE/1954/C/W/172/cer/1 – Painted pottery with geometric and anthropomorphic motifs, including what seems to be a mask looking to the front, and a foot in profile (n. 20, f. 36r in the Corpus documental). BAE/1954/C/W/172/cer/2 – Painted pottery made of grey paste, decorated with red lines. BAE/1954/C/W/172/ cer/3 First Discovered: 1954 Commentary: The absence of clear distinction of this lower level reflects the lack of extant walls in connection to these layers within the inner-street structure. This “Level E” appears in the sketch associated to the walls of the northern and southern edges of the street, which are supposed extensions for walls T/106 and C/110. C/W/173—Type H. Fill on top of bedrock, “Level F”. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: December 23rd, 1954, n. 20, ff. 34r–35r. Materials Found: – Painted pottery with red and white geometric motifs. BAE/1954/C/W/173/cer/1 First Discovered: 1954 B/OM/174—Type H. Documented “Level B” in sub-area B/OM, in the “January probe” of 1955. It is not clearly associated with a floor or interface locus. However, such a level is presumed to have existed. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: December 31st, 1954, n. 20, f. 37r. AMRF notes 64, 65. Materials Found: – Small sigillata cup. Covered by a lightly-adherent and almost completely lost varnish, it is noted to have a few reliefs on it. Presents signed marked in its base in two lines: HFEA (1st line) and CLATO (2nd line). The small cup presents a prominent molding starting from its neck, forming a kind of shoulder that stretches until it
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reaches its everted rim. Its body is practically straight, and its base is flat and wider than its immediately superior section of the cup. It is possibly a Ritterling 5A form of Gallic production from the late 1st century bce and perhaps early 1st century ce. AMRF identifies it as a TSI type from about 17ce. BAE/1954/B/OM/174/cer/1 – Mold or baker’s seal with roosters and fruits, identified as LA-4065. BAE/1954/B/ OM/174/cer/2 – Fragment of painted pottery, with vegetal motif and a bird. BAE/1954/B/OM/174/ cer/3 First Discovered: 1954. Re-excavated: 1955 Commentary: This layer is chiefly considered a fill, perhaps the same level as both “A” and “B”, as it was mixed with “A” B/OM/221 and B/OM/303. B/OM/175—Type H. Excavated “Level C” in probe to the west of the mosaic floor area, that is, sub-area B/OM. Done in the “January probe” from 1955. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: December 31st, 1954, n. 20, ff. 37r–38r. AMRF notes 66, 67, 68. RAMOS FOLQUÉS, A. (1962): “Excavaciones en La Alcudia (IX). Campañas de 1953– 1955”, Noticiario Arqueológico Hispánico, V, p. 93. Materials Found: – Sigillata with potter’s mark within a delimited epigraphic area: HERYO. BAE/1954/ B/OM/175/cer/1 – Another piece with potter’s mark in two lines, and within an epigraphic area as well: 1) ΔION 2) YΣIOY. BAE/1954/B/OM/175/cer/2 – Terracotta statue fragment, face. Possibly Demeter or Tanit (AMRF). BAE/1954/B/ OM/175/cer/7 – “Acco” pottery. Identified by AMRF as “catinus pedalis” LA-1961 made in Arezzo of early Italian (TSI) production BAE/1954/B/OM/175/cer/4 – “Other fragments”. According to Alejandro Ramos Folqués (1962): – Small decorated pot with crossed lines (picture in plate LXXX, 17). BAE/1954/B/OM/ 175/cer/5 – Possible pondus with decorated white points on top. Very similar to the “loom weight” from “Level E” in this sub-area B/OM. BAE/1954/B/OM/175/fus/1 – Pottery fragment, with painted decoration including the back quarter of a quadruped, a fish, and a wing (Pl. LXXX, 19; LXXXI, 19). BAE/1954/B/OM/175/cer/6 First Discovered: 1954. Re-excavated: 1955 Commentary: In the publication by Ramos Folqués from 1962, the excavations carried out in late December 1954 (included in the “January probe”) are associated with an “Ibero-Roman” level. However, the presence of these sigillatas contest this association. Alexander Bar-Magen Numhauser - 978-90-04-41992-6 Downloaded from Brill.com 03/03/2024 09:27:00PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison
stratigraphic unit catalogue
931
It is important to remember that Ramos Folqués, while giving coded letters for each level, did have a predisposition to associate these to specific chronological periods based on the predominance of certain materials over others. Therefore, his association of it to an “Ibero-Roman” level should not be taken at face value. B/OM/176—Type H. “Level D” layer in the “January probe”, to the west of the mosaic floor of the basilical building, or B/OM. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: January 3rd, 1955, n. 20, f. 39r. AMRF notes 69, 70. Materials Found: – Pottery fragment, painted in its exterior, with vegetal motifs. It is what appears to be the representation of a vine in two separated sets, each having: a leaf, fruits, and a tendril. Identified by AMRF as “Estilo Ilicitano II”, item LA-1992. BAE/1955/B/OM/ 176/cer/1 – Fragment of an iron buckle. BAE/1955/B/OM/176/Fe/1 – Fragment of what seems to be an iron nail. BAE/1955/B/OM/176/Fe/2 – Fragment of a grey paste plate with black varnish, and letters placed on top with probable Iberian letters (n. 20, f. 39r from Corpus documental). Identified by AMRF as a Campanian B type pottery, item LA-2272. BAE/1955/B/OM/176/cer/2 First Discovered: 1955 B/OM/177—Type H. “Level E” earth layer excavated in the “January probe” to the west of the mosaic floor, or sub-area B/OM. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: January 4th, 1955, n. 20, f. 40r. AMRF notes 71, 72; January 5th, 1955, n. 20, f. 41r. Materials Found: January 4th, 1955: – Campanian pottery. BAE/1955/B/OM/177/cer/I/1 – Attic pottery. BAE/1955/B/OM/177/cer/I/2 – Iron pieces, what seem to be two links of a chain. BAE/1955/B/OM/177/Fe/1 – Barbotine pottery. According to AMRF, possibly a fine-wall Italic basin, Mayet 1 type. BAE/1955/B/OM/177/cer/I/5 – Elongated copper needle. BAE/1955/B/OM/177/Cu/1 – Pottery fragment with vegetal motifs and notable painted male (bearded) figure, in profile. The figure is carrying a scutum and is mounting a horse. BAE1955/B/OM/177/ cer/I/3 – Painted pottery. BAE1955/B/OM/177/cer/I/4 January 5th, 1955: – Copper ring, drawn profile in Corpus documental. BAE/1955/B/OM/177/Cu/2
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– Bone stylus with drawing in Corpus documental. BAE/1955/B/OM/177/os/1 – Loom weight, sketched by halves. BAE/1955/B/OM/177/cer/I/8 – Large part of “top hat” pottery piece, with painting of a bird. BAE/1955/B/OM/177/ cer/I/6 – Large part of “top hat” pottery piece, painted with geometric motifs. BAE/1955/B/ OM/177/cer/I/7 – Many other pottery fragments. BAE/1955/B/OM/177/cer/II/1… First Discovered: 1955 B/OM/178—Type V. Parallel wall to B/OM/033, that is, with east-west direction. It is placed south of what seems to be a western stone mark, according to the sketch west of the basilical building’s mosaic in notebook number 20, f. 45r of the Corpus documental. Like B/OM/033, this wall starts from the western section of the mosaic, although it does not reach the western wall B/OM/027. An attached section of this wall does appear next to the north-south western wall, although this is broken just before it was restarted further on. This “break” is considered “demolition” B/OM/211. The wall presents a width of 0.42 meters and reaches a length of 2.03 meters, including a square plan landmark, 43 centimeters across, which is found at the end of the eastern section of this wall. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: April 14th, 1955, n. 20, f. 45r; ARF, Excavation Diaries: sketch from p. 17.24b in the old classification (as of 2014). Graphic Sources: Figs. 7.22, 86 First Discovered: 1955 Commentary: This wall is apparently of a later date than wall B/024, although the stratigraphic and physical relations are unclear, as the wall does not touch wall B/024 according to the “Loose Notes” number 4 by Ramos Folqués (see Graphic Sources). Apparently, there was one-meter distance between the remains of the ashlar stone found next to the wall line for B/024 and the starting point of this wall. The reused material found in this wall is similar in composition to wall B/OM/033, if we are to follow the above-mentioned sketch, and we should assume it has a similar relation to B/OM/027. B/OM/179—Type V. Described landmark in the Excavation Diaries’ sketch found in notebook number 20, f. 45r (Corpus documental), and p. 17.24b of the old classification (as of 2014). It has an almost square plan, being 43×42 centimeters in area. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: April 14th, 1955, n. 20, f. 45r; ARF, Excavation Diaries: Sketch from p. 17.24b in the old classification (as of 2014).
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stratigraphic unit catalogue
933
Graphic Sources: Fig. 7.22 First Discovered: 1955 Commentary: Although clearly mentioned as a feature distinct from the rest of the wall B/OM/178, this landmark should be associated with it, nonetheless. The reason is due to its probable discovery in April 1954, although the sketches from that period do not describe it in detail. The sketch from the “Loose Notes”, probably made after the 1971 intervention, document better the features east of the mosaic. By 1990, these features were dismantled or had disappeared. B/OM/180—Type V. Landmark associated to B/OM/033, according to sketch in the Excavation Diaries from April 14th, 1954. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: April 14th, 1955, n. 20, f. 45r; ARF, Excavation Diaries: sketch from p. 17.24b in the old classification (as of 2014). Graphic Sources: Fig. 7.22 First Discovered: 1955 Commentary: There is an evident relation between this unit and feature B/OM/033 according to the Loose Notes (see Graphic Sources). As a reutilized material, it is a contemporary feature to B/OM/179. T/W/181—Type V. Wall described in sketch from April 15th, 1955 of the Excavation Diaries, p. 17.24b, in the eastern section of “Roman Room”. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: April 14th, 1955, n. 20, f. 45r; ARF, Excavation Diaries: sketch from p. 17.24b in the old classification (as of 2014). Graphic Sources: Figs. 7.64, 65 First Discovered: 1955 Commentary: This wall seems to be a continuation for wall B/OM/027, and consequently, probably contemporary to it. It is possibly contemporaneous to B/020 with a possible ashlar landmark drawn in the above-mentioned sketch at the intersection between the two walls. Even so, this could merely be a drawn invention to mark such an intersection. It is probable that this wall is from a relatively late stage, associated with the advanced phases of the building. However, absent any description of the wall beyond its drawing in the sketch from the Excavation Diaries, this is merely conjecture. T/HR/182—Type V. Collection of walls that limit the sub-area T/HR, or “Roman Room” between east-west street (Area C), and the “entrance of the Basilica” (B/OM), mentioned in n. 20, f. 30r from the Corpus documental. It was mentioned again in sketches from pp. 17.24b and 17.25a of the Excavation Diaries, from April 15th, 1955.
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Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: October 14th, 1954, n. 20, f. 30r; April 14th, 1955, n. 20, f. 45r. ARF, Excavation Diaries: sketch from p. 17.24b in the old classification (as of 2014). Graphic Sources: Fig. 7.64 First Discovered: 1954. Re-excavated: 1955 Commentary: Even though there is no clear stratigraphic sequencing for these walls and their relation with the excavated floor layers within this “Roman Room”, it must be indicated that these walls, without description, were visible for excavation before reaching these floors, if we take into account the sketches in which they are documented. It must be added that the excavated levels can be extrapolated to the other available layers in Area T. Even so, the chronology presented here is provisional, and is based on the delimitations of the probe made from October 14th, 1954. B/OM/183—Type H. From what can be read in n. 20, f. annex 2v from the Corpus documental, this is a fill “on top” of virgin soil, from the “April probe”, or “Level F” fill layer. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: April 14th, 1955, n. 20, f. 30v; April 15th, 1955, n. 20, 48r. ARMF note 81 indicates it is the wrong date, stating it is March 15th, 1955; April 15th, 1955, n. 20, f. annex 2r, 2v. Materials Found: – Painted vase with consecutive S-shaped marks. BAE/1955/B/OM/183/cer/1 – “Skeleton of a child without sepulture”. First Discovered: 1955 Commentary: Ramos Folqués indicates (n. 20, f. annex 2v) that the skeleton of the child described here, was without a grave of any kind. Probably, whatever sepulture the skeletal remains had has disintegrated or vanished. As a result, the skeleton should be considered as belonging to “Level F” and does not seem to be associated with a burial hole. Likewise, according to AMRF (note 86), the finding has no stratigraphic relations with the painted vase. However, this is a reading by that author of Ramos Folqués’ words, which themselves do not specify anything of the sort. B/184—Type H. Fill layer of earth on cobblestones pavement B/185, according to the intervention pictures of 1971. Graphic Sources: Figs. 7.32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 First Discovered: 1971 Commentary: According to the pictures from 1971 (see Graphic Sources), this fill apparently includes construction material, although not the fallen ashlar stone placed just
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stratigraphic unit catalogue
935
next to the wall line for B/024, or next to its foundations. These foundations are signaled by three fieldstones placed in line limiting the “floor” B/185 from its west. The ashlar stone is from a later period, placed on a higher fill, and probably associated with the collapse stage for B/024, which is stratigraphic unit B/002. B/185—Type V. Western pebble structure slightly underneath the mosaic. It was first registered in photographs of the 1971 expedition. Accordingly, it has the following measurements: East-West axis: 1.57 meters. North-South axis: 0.85 meters (widest); 0.57 meters (narrowest, to the east). Highest point: –0.38 meters. An ashlar stone, which was part of rubble, allows us to describe the placement of this cobble stone pavement depicted the “Loose Notes” number 4 (see Graphic Sources). The sketch indicates that it is placed approximately 2.35 meters to the north of the southern edge of the mosaic, and approximately 1 meter to the east of the outer side of wall B/024. Graphic Sources: Figs. 7.22, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 First Discovered: 1971 Commentary: The height of this structure, 9 centimeters under the mosaic pavement level to the west, points towards its appearance at the same moment as the “battered earth and lime” floor to the west of the mosaic area B/112. In other words, it is associated to Level M under the mosaic. However, since the area underneath of the mosaic was never excavated in the westernmost edge, there is no evidence for what was beneath it. The floor was excavated and emptied in 1971. By 1990, this structure was completely dismantled. B/186—Type V. Foundation stones for wall B/024. The wall is made of slightly worked fieldstones, adapting to the floor line of unit B/185. Graphic Sources: See B/185. First Discovered: 1971 Commentary: Little is known of such foundation. However, it is clearly seen in the photographs (see B/185) of the 1971 intervention that it adapted itself to the space occupied by stratigraphic unit B/185, which is a cobblestone pavement floor. The floor must have been perceived as adequate to sustain the weight of wall B/024, which was probably not excessive. This implies that the wall was possibly made of an adobe elevation of unknown quality. B/187—Type V. Convex wall covering present in the outer face for wall B/023 and which continues to wall S/052. According to Ramos Folqués, “it could have been used to protect it from the rain”.
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Documental Sources: RAMOS FOLQUES, A. (1974): El cristianismo en Elche, pp. 103–104. Graphic Sources: Fig. 7.40; 8.12, 13, 14 First Discovered: 1948 Commentary: The covering, more than “convex”, seems to be of a diagonal straight slope, and is placed exclusively to the northeast of Area B and north of Area S. Pictures from the 1948 intervention reveal that this covering reached up to B/E’/317, when it suddenly stops. It was preserved during the post-1990 excavation restoration. B/188—Type H. Foundation fill layer for apse B/006. It starts about 20 centimeters below the mosaic floor level (–0.5 meters from Zero Point) and has 10 centimeters depth. It is below the apse that starts, at this point, 10 centimeters below the mosaic floor. Documental Sources: ALBERTINI, E. (1907): “Fouilles d’Elche”, Bulletin Hispanique. IBARRA, P. (1906): “Antigua basílica de Elche”, BRAH 49, pp. 119–132 + láms. LAFUENTE VIDAL, J.L. (1948): “La supuesta sinagoga de Ilici”, AespA XXI. PALOL, P. de (1967): Arqueología cristiana de la España romana, p. 67. RAMOS FOLQUES, A. (1974): El cristianismo en Elche, pp. 84–85 (citation by Albertini, translated), 105. Graphic Sources: Fig. 7.39 First Discovered: 1905. Re-excavated: 1948 Commentary: The materials found here by Albertini and Ibarra in their 1905 excavations are unknown. The remains of this level can be seen in the image from 1948. B/-189—Type X. Destruction or demolition phase for the placement of the basin B/022 in the mosaic floor, followed by the repair with white marble slabs B/012. Documental Sources: IBARRA (1906): “Antigua basílica de Elche”, BRAH, p. 123. RAMOS FOLQUES (1974): El cristianismo en Elche, p. 82. First Discovered: 1905. Re-excavated: 1948 B/-190—Type X. General destruction phase of the mosaic pavement, including the destruction of menoroth in the northeastern sector of the mosaic floor, the maritime figurative panel in the southern aisle, and the central inscription for mosaic B/011. Documental Sources: LORENZO, R., MORCILLO, J. (2014): “La basílica paleocristiana de Ilici (L’Alcudia). Desmontaje, contextualización, restitución desde la re-excavación bibliográfica”, Madrider Mitteilungen, 55, pp. 530–531.
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stratigraphic unit catalogue
937
For more, including Graphic Sources: See catalogue entry B/011. First Discovered: 1905. Re-excavated: 1948. Republished: 2014 Commentary: The evidence for a precise dismantling of the outer candles of the northeastern menorot indicate an intentional destruction. B/NE/191—Type H. “Level E” corresponding with the northeastern area of the basilical building (north of the apse). Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 16th, 1949, n. 10, f. 12r. Materials Found: – Grey lamp with remains of black slip. BAE/1949/B/NE/191/cer/1 – Fragment of black pottery. BAE/1949/B/NE/191/cer/2 – Fragment of fine grey pottery. BAE/1949/B/NE/191/cer/3 – Painted pottery without detected figures. BAE/1949/B/NE/191/cer/4 – Fragment of a cup without decoration. BAE/1949/B/NE/191/cer/5 First Discovered: 1949 Commentary: The excavator does not describe the floors that must have existed between the “gravel floor” B/NE/077 and this “Level E”. Despite this, it is evident that this is from a previous period than the gravel. B/NE/192—Type H. “Level F” layer in the “apse corner”, excavated on September 16th, 1949. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 16th, 1949, n. 10, f. 12r. Materials Found: – Base of a Campanian pottery, with tetrafolia decoration at the bottom. BAE/1949/B/ NE/192/cer/1 – Fragment of “top-hat” pottery. BAE/1949/B/NE/192/cer/2 First Discovered: 1949 Commentary: The levels below this layer are unknown. Identified as “Level F” in Ramos Folqués’ excavations, it is possible that this is a fill on top of the bedrock. B/NE/193—Type V. According to the picture from the 1990 excavation (see Graphic Sources), this vertical structure is found below the attached “bench” structure B/ OM/034 next to the northern extension of the north-south western wall B/OM/027. It is found some rows below what was considered the “attached benches” B/OM/ 034, considered its foundation. Graphic Sources: Figs. 7.71, 72 First Discovered: 1990 Commentary: The two rows are attached to wall B/OM/027, and therefore should be
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considered later than that wall. However, less likely but possible is that the attached structure B/OM/034 was immediately built on top of these fieldstone rows, since these could be the foundation of another structure before the latest building was erected. B/NE/194—Type V. Previous structure to the basilical building. It is Ibero-Roman, excavated in 1990. Below the landmark B/OM/035. Documental Sources: RAMOS FERNÁNDEZ, R (1991–1992): “Los templos ibéricos de la Alcudia de Elche”, Anales de Prehistoria y Arqueología, 7–8, pp. 87–95 Graphic Sources: Fig. 7.71 First Discovered: 1990 Commentary: When the structure that harbored the mosaic was built, this building had to be demolished and sealed. Had this been an Iberian temple or religious building, the space had to be reconverted for alternative use, although the sanctity of this urban space would have been recovered in Late Antiquity, marked with the placement of mosaic floor B/011. For more details of its findings, see Documental Sources. B/OB/195—Type V. Wall that “closes” the “canal” structure to the west of the “counterapse” wall B/OB/038. It has an east-west direction, in contrast to the perpendicular wall that joins this one to the east and west. It is 0.4 meters long. Graphic Sources: See catalogue entries for B/OB/038 and B/OB/039. First Discovered: 1990 Commentary: This closes the supposed “canal” to the west of the basilical structure, which is formed on the “outer face” of the so-called “counter-apse” structure B/OB/038. It is the same structure as B/OB/039. S/P/196—Type H. Layer fill for so-called “Palace corner”. It is placed “under the wall of the Sacristy”, which is assumed to be the wall S/055. It is associated to a series of stones mentioned by the author. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: August 9th, 1949, n. 9, f. 15r. AMRF note 27. Materials Found: – Fragment of “Iberian head” (statue). According to AMRF, LA-683 in official catalogue, of a horse. BAE/1949/S/P/196/pet/I/1 – Other pieces of worked stone, with decorations of flowers (with drawing in the excavation diaries). According to AMRF, they are items LA-881 of a warrior and LA-681 with flower decorations. BAE/1949/S/P/196/pet/II/1, 2 – Bronze object, perhaps a pendant. BAE/1949/S/P/196/met/1 – Lead disk or button. BAE/1949/S/P/196/Pb/1
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stratigraphic unit catalogue
939
– Painted handle of jar with button. The handle presents an “ear” profile, with a protuberance that comes out of its highest point. BAE/1949/S/P/196/cer/1 – A little lead tube. BAE/1949/S/P/196/Pb/2 – Somewhat solid bronze ring. BAE/1949/S/P/196/met/2 First Discovered: 1949 Commentary: The locus is placed south of what is called “Palace” or Area P. Curiously, there is little ceramic evidence amongst these materials. Instead, metals seem to be more predominant in this stratigraphic unit. S/B’/-197—Type X. Silo “XX” which breaks fill layer S/B’/051 in sub-area S/B’. It was filled by S/B’/048. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: August 11th, 1949, n. 9, f. 17r. First Discovered: 1949 S/B’/-198—Type X. “Silo X”, registered in sketch from n. 9, f. 17r in the Corpus documental. Filled by S/049. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: August 11th, 1949, n. 9, f. 17r. First Discovered: 1949 S/199—Type V. Eastern stuccoed wall in Area S, described in sketch from notebook number 10, f. 1r in the Corpus documental. Covered by stucco S/200. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: August 29th, 1949, n. 10, f. 1r (sketch). First Discovered: 1949 Commentary: Placed below the wall S/052 described in that same sketch. It is equivalent to S/055. S/200—Type V. Mortar “box” or stucco that allowed for the placement of S/203, covering S/199. Equal to S/057. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: August 29th, 1949, n. 10, f. 1r. First Discovered: 1949 S/201—Type V. First level of white stucco detected on S/055 and particularly S/199. Same as S/061. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: August 29th, 1949, n. 10, f. 1r. First Discovered: 1949
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annex c
C/202—Type H. Gravel and lime fill layer for “Level A” on top of floor C/074. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 12th, 1949, n. 10, f. 9r; September 19th, 1949, n. 10, f. 14r. First Discovered: 1949 S/203—Type V. Wall to the north, equal to S/052, and covered with mortar S/124. Like S/052 it has other attached structures such as B/187, placed on top of wall S/055 and its parallel S/199. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: August 29th, 1949, n. 10, f. 1r. Graphic Sources: See entries for S/052 and S/055 First Discovered: 1948. Re-excavated: 1949 C/204—Type H. Fill between “floors E” and “D”, that is a “Level D” layer, mentioned in the stratigraphic sketch by Ramos Folqués in n. 10, f. 14r–15r of the Corpus documental. The layer is 30 centimeters thick. It is cut by “Statue level” (sic: “nivel estatuas”) C/091. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 19th, 1949, n. 10, f. 14r–15r; November 25th, 1949, n. 11, f. 19r. RONDA FEMENIA, A.M. (2018): L’Alcúdia de Alejandro Ramos Folqués, p. 167, note 269. Materials Found: September 19th, 1949: – Painted pottery fragment. The decoration includes, concentric circles to its left, a dark band to the right, and to the center a grand vegetal figure with a central trunk and large leaves stemming out to its two sides, in a spiral manner. It looks similar to a palm tree. BAE/1949/C/204/cer/I/1 – Small sigillata fragment. Described in Spanish as “egg with tomato”, referring to its reddish color paste similar to the Valencian dish l’ou amb tomaca. It is a “Graufsenque” or “marmorata” TSG-type pottery, from the mid-1st century ce. BAE/1949/ C/204/cer/I/3 – Bronze belt clip and buckle. It is a rounded triangular shape. There is no description of its size. BAE/1949/C/204/met/1 November 25th, 1949: – Nine amphora fragments. BAE/1949/C/204/cer/I/4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 – Varied painted pottery. No further description. BAE/1949/C/204/cer/II/1… – Lead wheel. BAE/1949/C/204/Pb/1 – Incomplete top. BAE/1949/C/204/cer/I/2 First Discovered: 1949
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stratigraphic unit catalogue
Commentary: In this phase, we find the remains of wall C/111, which evidences a reduced street width compared to that of the later, Roman street. This phase, associated with or sealed in a republican period, probably only had a 2.85 meters-wide street. C/205—Type H. “Level A” fill layer for “Room I”. Below T/084. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 20th, 1949, n. 10, f. 21r. First Discovered: 1949 T/206—Type H. “Level A” fill layer on top of floor T/086 and below floor T/084. Identified in the Corpus documental. Extrapolated layer from sketch from n. 10, f. 14r in these diaries. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 19th, 1949, n. 10, f. 14r. First Discovered: 1949 T/207—Type X. Cranium remains. It is placed under the fill for T/094, in the “Sepulture” found to the east of “Room I” in Area T, or T/I, in “Level O”. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 24th, 1948, n. 7, ff. 21v–22r; September 20th, 1949, n. 9, f. 21r. First Discovered: 1948. Re-excavated: 1949? T/H/208—Type I. Cement floor in “Room H”, or sub-area T/H. It is similar to T/I/096, thus probably being contemporary and made at the same time. It is associated to “Level B”, or the cement floor B/016 east of the mosaic floor. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 19th, 1949, n. 10, f. 14r; September 24th, 1949, n. 10, f. 27r. First Discovered: 1949 Commentary: While probably contemporary to the equivalent stratigraphic unit in “Room I” (that is, T/I/096), the only secured equivalence is between this floor and “Level B” floor T/086 (this is an extrapolation from the excavation diaries sketch Corpus documental notebook n. 10, f. 14r). T/209—Type H. Fill layer and foundation trench below “the separation wall between H and I” (notebook number 10, f. 29r in the Corpus documental). It is probably a foundation fill for “wall P”, or T/103.
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Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 20th, 1949, n. 10, f. 29r. Materials Found: – Stone piece “like that of the statues”. BAE/1949/T/209/pet/1 – Punic amphora rim fragment. BAE/1949/T/209/cer/1 – Fragment of amphora without painting. BAE/1949/T/209/cer/2 – Small plate. BAE/1949/T/209/cer/3 – Pottery fragment, perhaps a bowl. BAE/1949/T/209/cer/4 – Painted pottery fragment. S-shaped profile. BAE/1949/T/209/cer/5 – Inferior part of a vase, with two holes in its central body, one in front of the other. BAE/1949/T/209/cer/6 First Discovered: 1949 Commentary: Chronologically, this stratigraphic unit turns out to be not as relevant to define the date of construction as expected. The foundation trench and the fill are considered one anthropic action. B/210—Type H. Floor below B/120, made of lime and gravel. Documental Sources: RAMOS FERNÁNDEZ, Rafael (1991–1992): “Los templos ibéricos de la Alcudia de Elche”, Anales de Prehistoria y Arqueología, 7–8, p. 87. First Discovered: 1949 Commentary: This unit belongs to a previous phase than that of the mosaic basilical building itself, and serves essentially as a chronological reference point. B/OM/211—Type X. Section of collapsed wall B/OM/178, creating a space near B/OM/ 027, through which it is possible to cross. Graphic Sources: See B/022. Fig. 7.22 First Discovered: 1954 Commentary: Identified as a collapse level, this is probably the same unit as B/002. However, all its evidence indicates that the access or entrance to the basilical building comes from the south, and not necessarily from the west, at least in this section of the structure. Consequently, it is suggested that an access existed from the south, passing through B/OM/178 in this specific stratigraphic unit. B/212—Type H. “Level C” fill layer, described in the Corpus documental. It is placed “below” and “around” stone slabs B/008 and B/009. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: October 15th, 1949, n. 11, f. 12r. Materials Found: – Varied fragments of black and white mosaic tesserae. BAE/1949/B/212/tes/1…
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stratigraphic unit catalogue
943
– Yellow paste top with incised marks near its outer circumference. BAE/1949/B/212/ cer/I/1 – Large foot of amphora. Cylindrical, slightly flared. BAE/1949/B/212/cer/I/2 – Fragment of large plate painted with dark lines on its rim. BAE/1949/B/212/cer/I/3 – Coarse ceramic fragment, painted. BAE/1949/B/212/cer/I/4 – Amphora handle with mark: “EΛω”. BAE/1949/B/212/cer/I/5 – Rim of handled fragment mentioned above. The rim is everted and straight. BAE/ 1949/B/212/cer/I/6 – Fragment of iron object, possible sword (?). BAE/1949/B/212/Fe/1 First Discovered: 1949 Commentary: Given that the stone boulders were placed after the mosaic, this “Level C” stratum corresponds to a mixture of earth below the mosaic floor and ground from after the 4th century. This is especially true considering the evidence of tesserae from the mosaic floor itself. B/213—Type H. Fill layer below holes for the placement of ashlar stones B/008 and B/009. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: October 15th, 1949, n. 11, f. 13r; October 17th, 1949, n. 11, ff. 14r–15r. Materials Found: October 15th, 1949: – Lead cord. BAE/1949/B/213/Pb/1 – Ochre-colored pieces. Perhaps remains of stucco. BAE/1949/B/213/misc/1… October 17th, 1949: – Small bronze top, in the form of a flower (button). BAE/1949/B/213/met/1 – Earthenware disk. BAE/1949/B/213/cer/1 – Small stone pigeon (statuette). BAE/1949/B/213/pet/1 – Two stylus fragments. BAE/1949/B/213/misc/2, 3 – Black burnished pottery fragment. BAE/1949/B/213/cer/2 – Campanian-style vessel. BAE/1949/B/213/cer/3 – Oil lamp with starred decoration. Campanian. BAE/1949/B/213/cer/4 – Fragment of vessel base. BAE/1949/B/213/cer/5 – Two incomplete small plates, without paint decoration. BAE/1949/B/213/cer/6, 7 – Small piece of ochre (stucco?). BAE/1949/B/213/misc/4 – Painted pottery with geometric motifs. One of these motifs, concentric circles, is an Iberian style. BAE/1949/B/213/cer/8 – Undecorated bottle from late republican or high imperial periods, or 1st century bce. BAE/1949/B/213/cer/9 First Discovered: 1949
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Commentary: This stratigraphic unit was originally considered a fill layer for the preparation hole of stones B/008 and B/009. However, this is more likely a fill below B/212, although it is noticeably much older. It corresponds to “Level N”, described in the sketch from n. 11, f. 4r of the Corpus documental. The materials detected here indicate a phase that is clearly associated with a mid-late 1st century bce dating. It is a late republican period, at the same time associated with the extensive use of lead in the site, which can be detected in “Levels E” in other areas of the Alcudia. This is one of the most chronologically homogeneous stratigraphic units of the Elche basilical building site, with no indication of other materials from different periods invading this layer. T/E/R/214—Type H. A mortar “floor B” level, mentioned in notebook number 11, f. 19r from the Corpus documental. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: November 25th, 1949, n. 11, f. 19r; December 18th, 1949, n. 11, f. 21r. First Discovered: 1949 B/F/215—Type H. Layer fill above “Level B” or “mosaic floor” B/F/234 in the area north of Area B. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: May 9th, 1950, n. 11, f. 30r (sketch), AMRF note 51. Materials Found: – Oil lamp with a monogram of Christ (Xi-Ro). Considered as lamp LA-4080, Atlante X type in TSD 2 and dated to the 6th century ce. BAE/1950/B/F/215/cer/1 First Discovered: 1950 Commentary: This unit is considered distinct from B/002, as it does not seem to be a demolition layer. This is the only registered evidence of a fill found above the mosaic floor, thus dated to after its original laying. Within the mosaic area, the analogous fill would have been completely removed in 1905. B/F/216—Type H. Fill layer below “Floor B” in the probe north of the basilical building, or sub-area B/F. This is a “Level C” fill, 20 centimeters thick. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: May 9th, 1950, n. 11, f. 30r (sketch). Materials Found: – Loom weight. BAE/1950/B/F/216/cer/1 – Lead sheet. BAE/1950/B/F/216/Pb/1 First Discovered: 1950
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stratigraphic unit catalogue
945
B/F/217—Type H/I. “Ash layer” and fill, corresponding with “Interface” level between “Level F” and “Level E”. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: May 9th, 1950, n. 11, f. 30r (sketch). First Discovered: 1950 Commentary: See catalogue entry for B/F/150. C/218 (also C/E)—Type V. “Sidewalk” border attached to the southern street limit wall C/110, therefore defining the width of the street. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: May 10th, 1950, n. 11, f. 35v–36r (sketch). First Discovered: 1950 C/W/219—Type H. “Level C” layer fill, mentioned in n. 20, f. 34r of the Corpus documental. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: December 23rd, 1954, n. 20, f. 34r. First Discovered: 1954 Commentary: Despite the absence of a clearer description, this “Level C” stratum is mentioned as such in the Corpus documental, therefore being associated with several structures to the west of Area C, or sub-area C/W. C/W/220—Type H. “Level B”, clearly mentioned in n. 20, f. 34r of the Corpus documental. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: December 23rd, 1954, n. 20, f. 34r. First Discovered: 1954 Commentary: This is the uppermost layer described in sub-area C/W. The only physical association pertaining to this level is that it fills (and probably seals) walls C/W/169 and associated structures C/W/168. B/OM/221—Type H. “Level A” fill layer in sub-area B/OM. It was registered in the sketch from n. 20, f. 43r in the Corpus documental. Contemporary to B/OM/303. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: January 8th, 1955, n. 20, f. 43r; April 14th, 1955, n. 20, f. annex 2r. Materials Found: – Sigillata pottery with everted, thick rim and globular body. BAE/1955/B/OM/221/ cer/1 – Red pottery with slight gloss and incised decoration with lineal marks. BAE/1955/B/ OM/221/cer/2 Alexander Bar-Magen Numhauser - 978-90-04-41992-6 Downloaded from Brill.com 03/03/2024 09:27:00PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison
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– Amphora base. BAE/1955/B/OM/221/cer/3 First Discovered: 1955 Commentary: The remains found here must be associated with B/OM/303 and B/OM/ 304. However, it is unclear to what specific level this fill corresponds with, nor the area where it was found. It is possibly in B/OB rather than B/OM, as it was considered to be “to the west of the basilica” and not “to the west of the mosaic” according to Ramos Folqués. S/B”/222—Type H. First floor level found in the southern section of Area S (catalogued as S/B”), according to the excavation report and the excavation diaries from 1948. It is “the same floor” as another described in the 1948 report, made of mortar and lime above stone. It is 12 centimeters thick. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: June 7th, 1948, n. 7, f. 8r. RAMOS FOLQUÉS, A. (1955): “Elche (Alicante)”, Noticiario Arqueológico Hispánico II, no. 1–3, 1953, p. 132. First Discovered: 1948 Commentary: It was in later periods of Ramos Folqués scholarly activities, particularly from 1949, when started applying his stratigraphic model, giving letters to the strata from upper to lower as “A” to “F” respectively. However, this “floor” deemed “first Roman level” seems to be one corresponding with an apparent fill for a “Level B” in Area S, and not a “Level A” as one might assume. S/B”/223—Type H. “Inferior” floor layer for the southern area of “Sacristía”, or S/B”. There is no description of composition. It is 20 centimeters thick, below the “superior” floor S/B”/247. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: June 7th, 1948, n. 7, f. 8r; June 8th, 1948, n. 7, f. 9r. RAMOS FOLQUÉS, A. (1955): “Elche (Alicante). La Alcudia [campañas 1940–1948]”Noticiario Arqueológico Hispánico II, no. 1–3, pp. 132. Materials Found: – Small bronze (coin) of Gallienus. BAE/1948/S/B”/223/num/1 – Perforated lead disk. BAE/1948/S/B”/223/Pb/1 – Painted pottery. BAE/1948/S/B”/223/cer/I/1… – Smooth pottery. BAE/1948/S/B”/223/cer/II/1… First Discovered: 1948 S/B”/224—Type H. Inferior layer to S/B”/223, made of floor and fill. It is 20 centimeters thick and is associated with a “Level D” in sub-area S/B”.
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stratigraphic unit catalogue
947
Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: June 7th, 1948, n. 7, f. 8r; June 8th, 1948, n. 7, f. 9r. RAMOS FOLQUÉS, A. (1955): “Elche (Alicante). La Alcudia [campañas 1940–1948]”Noticiario Arqueológico Hispánico II, no. 1–3, pp. 132. Materials Found: – “Iberian pottery”. BAE/1948/S/B”/224/cer/I/1… – Small amphora without neck. BAE/1948/S/B”/224/cer/II/1 – Campanian pottery. BAE/1948/S/B”/224/cer/II/2 First Discovered: 1948 Commentary: Despite being the thickest layer in this probe, it is still a relatively sterile sector in material for Area S. Something similar is found in the superior level to this one, S/064 (associated with S/B”/224). However, this layer is, curiously, equated to unit S/B/D/066, which is richer in material in the north-eastern probe of Area S. S/B”/225—Type H. Intermediate level, perhaps associated to “Level D”. Its composition is debris material with remains of adobe, and there is a large quantity of materials left within it, related also to a stone pavement floor. According to the excavation diaries by Ramos Folqués, it is 25 centimeters thick. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: June 7th, 1948, n. 7, f. 8r; June 8th, 1948, n. 7, f. 9r. AMRF note 23. RAMOS FOLQUÉS, A. (1955): “Elche (Alicante). La Alcudia [campañas 1940–1948]”Noticiario Arqueológico Hispánico II, no. 1–3, p. 132. Materials Found: On top of the stone floor below this layer: – Painted, dome-shaped pottery. Its decorations are of “round forms” or domed, without any zoomorphic images. According to AMRF, it is “Estilo Ilicitano I”. BAE/1948/ S/B”/225/cer/I/1… – Red slipped pottery. BAE/1948/S/B”/225/cer/II/1… – Lead disk. BAE/1948/S/B”/225/Pb/1 – Bone stylus or needle. BAE/1948/S/B”/225/os/1 – Small undecorated vessel. BAE/1948/S/B”/225/cer/III/1 First Discovered: 1948 Commentary: This layer presents higher quantity of materials, which are found inbetween remains of stones and adobe debris, signaling this is a demolition layer of a previous building. This is associated with “Levels D” from other areas of the site, including areas C and T. It demonstrates that in “Levels D”, around and inside the building, there were profound reforms, with a demolition phase and probable replacement of this ancient building with another, new one.
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948
annex c
S/B”/226—Type H. Most inferior excavated layer of the southern Area S probe in S/B”. It corresponds with a fill below that of demolition material and stone pavement, S/B”/225. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: June 7th, 1948, n. 7, f. 8r; June 8th, 1948, n. 7, f. 9r–12r; June 9th, 1948, n. 7, f. 13v. AMRF note 29. RAMOS FOLQUÉS, A. (1955): “Elche (Alicante). La Alcudia [campañas 1940–1948]”Noticiario Arqueológico Hispánico II, no. 1–3, p. 132. Materials Found: June 8th, 1948: – Coarse earthen cup, without paint. It had a button base with a canalization between the base and the conical body. BAE/1948/S/B”/226/cer/I/3 – Pottery with handle, with slip and painted geometric motifs. AMRF identifies it as from the 3rd century bce. BAE/1948/S/B”/226/cer/I/24 – Fragment of painted pottery representing a flower and leaves. BAE/1948/S/B”/226/ cer/I/4 – Border of a vase with painted volutes placed horizontally. BAE/1948/S/B”/226/cer/ I/5 – Fragment with horizontal lines and bands of concentric circles. BAE/1948/S/B”/ 226/cer/I/6 – Fragment with decorative small volutes within a horizontal band. BAE/1948/S/B”/ 226/cer/I/7 – Fragment with volutes and central flower or set of leaves. BAE/1948/S/B”/226/cer/I/ 8 – Fragment with rhomboids, semi-concentric circles. BAE/1948/S/B”/226/cer/I/1 – Fragment with decoration of a bird. BAE/1948/S/B”/226/cer/I/2 – Base fragment with geometric decoration. BAE/1948/S/B”/226/cer/I/9 – Fragment with volutes. BAE/1948/S/B”/226/cer/I/10 – Fragment with concentric circles. BAE/1948/S/B”/226/cer/I/11 – Fragment with horizontal zig-zag lines. BAE/1948/S/B”/226/cer/I/12 – Fragment with inner and outer concentric circles decoration. BAE/1948/S/B”/226/ cer/I/13 – Fragment with semi-concentric circles. BAE/1948/S/B”/226/cer/I/14 – Fragment with zig-zagging lines and horizontal lines. BAE/1948/S/B”/226/cer/I/15 – Small handle. BAE/1948/S/B”/226/cer/I/16 – Fragment of handle and circular rim. Identified as Punic. BAE/1948/S/B”/226/cer/I/ 17 – Fragment with horizontal zig-zagging lines decoration. BAE/1948/S/B”/226/cer/I/ 18 – Fragment with triangle, horizontal and vertical lines. BAE/1948/S/B”/226/cer/I/19
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stratigraphic unit catalogue
949
– Fragment with a geometric form looking like Θ. BAE/1948/S/B”/226/cer/I/20 – Fragment with big solid circle surrounded by other forms. BAE/1948/S/B”/226/cer/ I/21 – Iron knife, curved (“afacaltado”—AMRF). BAE/1948/S/B”/226/Fe/2 – Lead disk. BAE/1948/S/B”/226/Pb/1 – Oil lamp nozzle. AMRF identifies it as a Dressel 1 (1st century bce, intrusion). BAE/1948/S/B”/226/cer/I/22 June 9th, 1948: – Fragment with vertical wave lines, semi-concentric circles, dark bands, and volutes. BAE/1948/S/B”/226/cer/I/23 First Discovered: 1948 Commentary: This is an inferior archaeological level considered above “Level F”, which, as was seen elsewhere, was associated to the bedrock level in the site. Materials here clearly correspond to a period prior to imperial and republican Roman levels. This is probably a preparation fill for the later construction of the first edifice in this area. This material, associated to a “Level E”, or S/068 in the northern Sacristía or Area S probes, indicates a Roman terminus post-quem for this area due to the presence of “black Roman ceramics, with barbotine”, in the last mentioned “Level E” fill. More decorated pottery was found there, including figures of animals, as well as an iron knife (parallel to the iron objects found in this fill). It is proposed that this material come from a time when the Alcudia’s protohistoric settlement began to expand, during a period when this site had a clearly Iberian presence. N/E/227—Type H. Fill between the northern wall of Area S and southern wall of Area P, which corresponds with “Level E”. While having a large amount of material, it is a fill that accumulated in a passage area between the two structures while they were in use. It is located in a place called “Compartment X”. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 30th, 1948., n. 7, f. 24v. RAMOS FOLQUÉS, A. (1955): “Elche (Alicante). La Alcudia [campañas 1940–1948]”Noticiario Arqueológico Hispánico II, no. 1–3, p. 132. Materials Found: September 30th, 1948: – Lamp filled with remains of snails. Identified by AMRF as item LA-4088, Dressel 5C of Flavian period. BAE/1948/N/E/227/cer/1 – Incomplete “Acco” (fineware—AMRF) vase with decoration of small rhomboids. BAE/1948/N/E/227/cer/2 – Incomplete plain sigillata with central careen. Dragendorff 27 type (AMRF). BAE/ 1948/N/E/227/cer/3
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– – – – –
Two bases of pottery with signatures (see below). BAE/1948/N/E/227/cer/4 and 5 Two bone awls. BAE/1948/N/E/227/os/1 and 2 A bone needle. BAE/1948/N/E/227/os/3 A great bronze coin of Vespasian. BAE/1948/N/E/227/num/1 Incomplete ointment container, yellowish clay, with the shape of an alabastron. According to AMRF, possibly being item LA-4091. BAE/1948/N/E/227/cer/6 – Base of a lamp with part of its disk. Disk decorated with a flower. BAE/1948/N/E/ 227/cer/7 – Grey (smoked) pottery. BAE/1948/N/E/227/cer/8 – Ordinary pottery. BAE/1948/N/E/227/cer/9 – Glass. BAE/1948/N/E/227/vit/1 – Marble fragment. According to AMRF the drawing identifies it as item LA-4359 made of marmor rosso antico. BAE/1948/N/E/227/pet/1. September 25th, 1948: – Button. BAE/1948/N/E/227/obj/1 – Piece of sigillata painted with dove decorations and surrounding circles. BAE/1948/ N/E/227/cer/10 – Silver awl. BAE/1948/N/E/227/Arg/1 – Red plate with a flat base and groove made of spirals. Decorated with concentric circles in its interior. Identified by AMRF as a Style E-i Terra Sigillata (TSD) dated between 480 and 540ce. BAE/1948/N/E/227/cer/11 From publication in 1948 (1952): “Abundant, but fragmentary ceramics: ordinary, smoked grey and ‘sigillata’ pottery of Dragendorf 27 type with different sizes. From ‘sigillata’ there are many types of decorations, including one with a dove inside a circle. At the base of some of these fragments are some kiln signatures. Complete ones being OF BASSI, OF VV, OF RN. Incomplete being R CER …, ..ARCI, … FCF.., .VI.....”. More findings: – A flattened lead piece. BAE/1948/N/E/227/Pb/1 – A fragment of bronze. BAE/1948/N/E/227/met/1 First Discovered: 1948 Commentary: The objects are a product of a mixture and removal of the earth from ancient periods. However, there are interesting elements to note, indicating the presence of late antique materials from the period of the site’s abandonment. One case is the ointment container, which suggests the presence of religious pilgrims at the building. The fill, apparently, was different from the area to the north of the mosaic, divided by what seems to be a convex separation wall between the eastern edge of the mosaic and some unclear point to the north of it. N/F/228 (also B)—Type H. Fill for the foundation of wall B/023, excavated from area N/F.
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stratigraphic unit catalogue
951
Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: June 10th, 1948, n. 7, ff. 14r–15r. RAMOS FOLQUÉS, A. (1955): “Elche (Alicante). La Alcudia [campañas 1940–1948]”Noticiario Arqueológico Hispánico II, no. 1–3, p. 132. Materials Found: September 30th, 1948: – Handle in serpent form. BAE/1948/N/F/228/cer/1 – Glass shards “from a good period”. BAE/1948/N/F/228/vid/1 – An as with a jar and the bow of a ship. BAE/1948/N/F/228/num/1 – Fragments of a floor, broken and mixed up. First Discovered: 1948 Commentary: According to Ramos Folqués, the material was removed and mixed up from the 1st century bce. The mixing up of said materials was done in a “distant” past, which means it is not a result of recent archaeological activities. If that is so, we can conclude that there is a terminus post quem date for the foundation of wall B/023, being the 1st century bce. That is five hundred years before the laying of the mosaic floor B/011. P/229—Type V. Wall found between sub-areas a and a’ at the western and northern areas of the Palacio area. It has a north-south direction. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: May 26th, 1948, n. 7, f. 3r (sketch). Graphic Sources: Fig. A.2 Materials Found: September 30th, 1948: – Handle in serpent form. BAE/1948/N/F/228/cer/1 – Glass shards “from a good period”. BAE/1948/N/F/228/vid/1 – An as with a jar and the bow of a ship. BAE/1948/N/F/228/num/1 – Fragments of a floor, broken and mixed up. First Discovered: 1948 Commentary: The wall was registered in the sketch from May 26th, 1948. There, the wall is used to divide the site in two. Considering that there was a “b” wall to its north, made of ashlar stone, it can be presumed that said “b” phase was erected before the “a” phase, and thus was sustained by the stronger ashlar wall. This is speculation, as there are no clear stratigraphic relations associated with this wall. P/230—Type V. Ashlar stone coating or construction to the north of wall P/229. Possibly corner stone for said wall. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: May 26th, 1948, n. 7, f. 3r (sketch).
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952
annex c
First Discovered: 1948 Commentary: This section of the wall, detected at the beginning of the 1948 excavations at this site (April–May), should be interpreted as a cornerstone, or a kind of support for the fieldstones wall on top of it. It is not clear why this element is laid bare while in other parts of the wall there are no ashlar stones. P/231—Type H. Superior area of P, above wall a and a’ from the sketch of May 26th, 1948. It is a fill underneath the non-archaeological or agricultural level. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: May 26th, 1948, n. 7, f. 3r. RAMOS FOLQUÉS, A. (1955): “Elche (Alicante). La Alcudia [campañas 1940–1948]”Noticiario Arqueológico Hispánico II, no. 1–3, Plate CIII. Materials Found: – Decorated sigillata ceramic. BAE/1948/P/231/cer/I/1 – Italo-Greek ceramic with white speckles. BAE/1948/P/231/cer/I/2 – Varied Iberian ceramics. BAE/1948/P/231/cer/II/1… First Discovered: 1948 Commentary: This is the final level of the building, which was the first registered following the excavation of this area. The findings show the existence of ceramics with mixed chronologies, from the late Iberian all the way to the early imperial periods. While indicating that it is in a and a’ in the Corpus documental, it is more likely that this is a fill that was recovered following the abandonment of wall P/229, particularly considering that such findings were made on both sides of the wall. Regardless, it is probably the same unit as P/232. P/232—Type H. Filling on top of ashlar stone section b, or P/230. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: May 26th, 1948, n. 7, f. 3r. Materials Found: – Fragment of smooth red ceramic, with semi-matt finish. BAE/1948/P/232/cer/1 First Discovered: 1948 Commentary: Being on top of the remains of P/230, it is from a period that follows the abandonment of the wall itself. It is then associated with or equal to P/231. P/233—Type H. Fill associated with the superior level of “C” in the sketch of May 26th, 1948 in Corpus documental. It is located on top of a floor of mortar. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: May 26th, 1948, n. 7, f. 3r; July 22nd, 1949, n. 9, f. 14r. Materials Found: From May 26th, 1948:
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953
stratigraphic unit catalogue – Rectangular vitreous paste piece. BAE/1948/P/233/vit/1 – Various ceramics. BAE/1948/P/233/cer/II/1… From July 22nd, 1949: – “Clear and grey” sigillata. BAE/1948/P/233/cer/I/1 – Oil lamp made with clear yellow clay. BAE/1948/P/233/cer/I/2 First Discovered: 1948
P/234—Type H. Fill on top of B/F/215, which includes remains of a few architectural features, such as a column base. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: May 27th, 1948, n. 7, f. 4r. AMRF note 6; September 25th, 1948, n. 7, f. 24r. Materials Found: From May 26th, 1948: – Column Base. BAE/1948/B/E’/234/arq/1 – A medium-sized bronze piece (at the height of the base) by Trebonian (dated to approximately 251 to 253ce). BAE/1948/B/E’/234/num/1 – Bronze nail. BAE/1948/B/E’/234/met/2 First Discovered: 1948 Commentary: This fill was presumably on top of two sections of the area between areas B and C, and Area P to the north. This is evident due to the activities of the excavator that very same day: First he discovered the architectural remains of a column base of what was clearly areas “F” and “E’” from the sketch from n. 7, f. 1v of the Corpus documental. Later he proceeded to excavate the “area E”, which was presumably underneath the original fill described here. Later in the day, he continued his excavation in the area known as Sacristía (corner “D” in the sketch). The area “to the north of the mosaic, between that and the base”, which is called “area F”, would see further excavations in 1949, noted as levels B/F/215. While physically and, of course, chronologically 234 follows 215, they are probably the same level, just excavated at two different stages of the intervention. B/F/235—Type H. In the sketch found in the excavator’s diaries (see Documental Sources), one finds the term “piso mosáico” (Mosaic Floor), to be read as a floor of the same level as the mosaic one. Presumably, it is made of the same lime support as occurs in the mosaic area. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: May 9th, 1950, n. 11, f. 30r. First Discovered: 1950 Commentary: The diaries do not clarify exactly where this stratigraphic unit was located. The sources indicate that it is located between the north of the mosaic all
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954
annex c
the way to the “basa de columna”. The only column base where we can fit this indication is the one found in May 1948 to the north the basilical building’s mosaic floor. It is clear then that this is a stratigraphic unit parallel to and the contemporary of the mosaic floor, but not part of the mosaic B/011. S/B”/236—Type H. Fill between “floor A” and “stone floor B”, registered in the Area B” of Sacristía, on June 7th, 1948. It is 20 centimeters thick and is located underneath the interface “A” that separates this first archaeological level and the “agricultural level”. The sketch done on June 7th, 1948, indicates that this fill was of earth, underneath the gravel floor S/B”/245, and above the boulder floors S/B”/246. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: June 7th, 1948, n. 7, f. 8r. AMRF notes 20, 21, 22. Materials Found: The following findings were registered: – Little bronze coin of Constantine I. According to AMRF, dated to between 314– 337ce. BAE/1948/S/B”/236/num/1 – Small coin, very deteriorated and unreadable. BAE/1948/S/B”/236/num/2 – Roman ceramics. BAE/1948/S/B”/236/cer/I/1… = BAE/1948/S/B”/236/cer/I/1… – Some simple Iberian ceramics. BAE/1948/S/B”/236/cer/II/1… = BAE/1948/S/B”/ 236/cer/II/1… – A ceramic lamp handle. BAE/1948/S/B”/236/cer/III/1 = BAE/1948/S/B”/236/cer/ III/1 – A small fragment of sigillata. BAE/1948/S/B”/236/cer/III/2 = BAE/1948/S/B”/236/ cer/4 – A small bronze coin. Obverse: CONSTANTINVS MAX AUG. Reverse, in big lettering: CONS B (two other letters are illegible). BAE/1948/S/B”/236/num/3 First Discovered: 1948 Commentary: This is a first archaeological level detected in this southwestern area of Sacristía by Ramos Folqués, directly underneath the “agricultural level”, according to the sketch from June 7th, 1948. This implies that many of the levels above this one were lost due to subsequent agricultural activities. No architectural remains of the collapse of the building were recovered in this area or level, as were detected in other sectors of Area S. S/B/D/237—Type H. Filling found on top of wall S/055 or S/199, described as “wall that divides areas D and E” in the excavation diaries. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: May 27th, 1948, n. 7, f. 4r. AMRF note 8. Materials Found: – Small bronze object “at the height of the top of the wall”. BAE/1948/S/B/D/237/met/ 1. Alexander Bar-Magen Numhauser - 978-90-04-41992-6 Downloaded from Brill.com 03/03/2024 09:27:00PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison
stratigraphic unit catalogue
955
– An octagonal bronze ring (at a higher level than the bronze object). AMRF identified it as item LA-4344. BAE/1948/S/B/D/237/met/2 First Discovered: 1948 Commentary: The fill is at the top of this probe. However, it was found in “area D” registered in the sketch of May 26th. This means that this fill is one of the first findings done in Area S. S/B/D’/238—Type H. Fill in northeastern corner of Sacristía, in a section later excavated in 1990 where the remains of coinage and pigeon bones were found. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: May 27th, 1948, n. 7, f. 4r. AMRF notes 9, 10, 11. RAMOS FOLQUÉS, A. (1955): “Elche (Alicante). La Alcudia [campañas 1940–1948]”Noticiario Arqueológico Hispánico II, no. 1–3, pp. 130–131. RONDA FEMENIA, A. L’Alcúdia de Alejandro Ramos Folqués: contextos arqueológicos y humanos en el yacimiento de la Dama de Elche, p. 175 (note 212). Graphic Sources: Figs. 8.14, 15, 16 Materials Found: Important findings were made in this corner, including one of the few instances of evidence for the reconstruction of roofing, amongst other things. – Several tiles, probably from the roof of the building. They are found in groups of threes. They are not used for internments. AMRF indicates they include items imbrices LA-3741, 3742, 3743, and marked tegulae LA-3744 and 3745. One could be a three wave-decorated tile La-3745. BAE/1948/S/B/D’/238/cer/1–15… – Several fragments of green glass. BAE/1948/S/B/D’/238/vit/I/1… – Two borders of a pot. BAE/1948/S/B/D’/238/cer/16, 17 – An attached handle. BAE/1948/S/B/D’/238/cer/18 – A base or foot of a cup. AMRF identified it as items LA-3663, 3664 of olive-green colored glass, though it is unlikely. BAE/1948/S/B/D’/238/cer/19 – Two truncated cone bronze perforated objects with three wings. BAE/1948/S/B/D’/ 238/met/1, 2 – “An inferior part” of a “Visigothic piece”. BAE/1948/S/B/D’/238/cer/20 – Campanian ceramic fragment with stamp. BAE/1948/S/B/D’/238/cer/21 – Other fragments of “ordinary ceramics” from “lower periods”. BAE/1948/S/B/D’/238/ cer/22… – White stone with four holes. BAE/1948/S/B/D’/238/pet/1 – Several bronze coins: – Gallienus. BAE/1948/S/B/D’/238/num/I/1… – Constantine II. BAE/1948/S/B/D’/238/num/II/1… – Constans I. BAE/1948/S/B/D’/238/num/III/1… – Incomplete unidentified coin. BAE/1948/S/B/D’/238/num/IV/1
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– Ornamentation with egg-shaped forms. BAE/1948/S/B/D’/238/pet/1 – A perforated lead disc. BAE/1948/S/B/D’/238/PB/1 – A 23-millimeter glass object made of two parts, amongst it a narrow golden plate or gold dust. Badly preserved. BAE/1948/S/B/D’/238/vit/II/1, 2 (probably same as BAE/1948/S/B/D’/238/vit/I/1…). Seemingly items LA-3663, 3664 mentioned in note 10 by AMRF. – Remains of marble opus sectile, made of red Egyptian porphyry. BAE/1948/S/B/D’/ 238/pet/2, 3 First Discovered: 1948 Commentary: Fill S/B/D’/238 is similar, and probably contemporary to the one found in S/B/D/237. The location of this fill on top of the Area S features detected in the north and east of the area, including the main last floor of the area, indicate a clear chronological relation between these levels. The S/B/D’238 includes objects that were probably trapped when the building collapsed. The tiles recovered in the DAI-Madrid Schlunk Archives reveal that these tiles were supported on the latest walls of the sites, or S/052 and S/203, and not on the earlier walls S/055 and S/199. This is important to establish the chronology of the site. Also, they reveal that there is reason to believe that these tiles collapsed forwards, and not necessarily laterally. In other words, Area S was used even as late as the Visigothic period, if the findings in between the tiles can serve as a reference for the date of this level. The identification of these tile pieces as items mentioned in Ana Ronda’s commentary in Ramos Folqués’ Corpus documental is questionable, as she places the discovery of these tile pieces in the apse section of Area B, and not in Area S as clearly seems to be the case. S/B/239—Type H. Fill on top of wall S/053, or “wall H” detected in “B” from the May 26th, 1948 sketch, and the sketch from August 29th, 1949. The description of this level is complicated. It is associated with a “Floor B”, made of stone, as described by Alejandro Ramos Folqués. However, at the same time it relates to the objects found as being above “floor B”. The evidence from the excavations of this level on May 28th and May 31st, 1948, perhaps demonstrate that this “floor” consists of several stones put in an orderly fashion, in between which archaeological objects were recovered. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: May 28th, 1948, n. 7, f. 5r. AMRF notes 12, 13, 14, 15; May 31st, 1948, n. 7, f. 6r. Materials Found: “In between the stones”, on May 28th, 1948: – Fragment of green glass. BAE/1948/S/B/239/vit/I/1
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stratigraphic unit catalogue
957
– Fragments of fine green glass. According to AMRF, possibly items LA-3683, 3689, 3690, and 3691. BAE/1948/S/B/239/vit/II/1… – Five bronze coins. According to AMRF, dated to the 3rd or 4th centuries. BAE/1948/ S/B/239/num/1,2,3,4,5 “Underneath stones” found in this region (Monday May 31st, 1948): – Glass fragment. BAE/1948/S/B/239/vit/2 – Lead disk. BAE/1948/S/B/239/Pb/1 – Three small bronze coins. BAE/1948/S/B/239/num/6/7/8 – A piece of iron attached to one of the small bronze coins. BAE/1948/S/B/239/Fe/1 – “Chancel screen” piece “in between the stones”. BAE/1948/S/B/239/pet/1 First Discovered: 1948 Commentary: This level is associated with remains of a collapsed wall. While the author indicates it is a “Floor B”, in truth there is no clear indication that these remains are to be interpreted as a floor. The fill seemingly includes random archaeological materials, which are consistent with removal for expolia and/or abandonment of the building. Remains such as glass fragments and the “chancel screen” are associated with the structure of the building itself, particularly its windows and glass from before its collapse. N/E/240—Type H. Fill with materials. It is located to the north of the “supposed bad wall to the east of the apse”, which describes the wall B/010, in a tangent with the apse wall to the east. This locates the fill to the north of what is the basilica, in the “Area E” of the sketch from May 26th, 1948. It is located above a “Floor E” (not to be confused with “Level E”), but also above the tangential wall B/010. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: May 29th and 31st, 1948, n. 7, ff. 5r, 6r. Materials Found: – A fragment of “chancel screen”. According to AMRF, it corresponds with the type of window decorations found by Albertini in 1905. BAE/1948/N/E/240/pet/1 – Four pieces of opus signatum in marble. BAE/1948/N/E/240/pet/2,3,4,5 – Bronze plaque with small wings attached and decorated with incised concentric circles. BAE/1948/N/E/240/met/1 – A big, fine coin (perhaps Byzantine?). BAE/1948/N/E/240/num/1 First Discovered: 1948 Commentary: As in S/B/239, it seems this stratigraphic unit is also related to the collapse of architectural elements, making up the fill of this area. The similarity in objects, despite the complete absence of glass in this case, would point towards the contemporary creation of this level with S/B/239, as well as with B/002. When did this wall collapse? The only piece that could point towards its date is the
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possible Byzantine or East Roman coin found at this level. The problem is that it is not clearly a Byzantine coin, as it was not described properly. If this is an Eastern Roman coin as the excavator suggests, it would point towards abandonment from the 7th to 8th centuries. B/SE/A’/241—Type H. Fill on top of all floors and walls constructed in the southeastern corner of the mosaic building. It is apparently “to the south-east of the mosaic pavement”, meaning to the south of structure B/015. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: June 2nd, 1948, n. 7, f. 6r. Materials Found: – “Christian oil lamp” (Lucerna cristiana). BAE/1948/B/SE/A’/241/cer/1 – Fragments of big tiles. BAE/1948/B/SE/A’/241/cer/2… First Discovered: 1948 Commentary: This fill is associated to B/002. It reveals the southeastern corner of the structure, but it goes beyond the mosaic, and hence beyond B/014 and B/015. Elements like the remains of tiles, associated to roofs and without clear relation to burials in this section (as there is no evidence for human remains here), suggest that this is a fill present following the collapse of the building, similar to N/E/240 and S/B/239. S/B’/242—Type H. Fill excavated on June 2nd, 1948, in the area the sketch of May 26th, 1948, shows as B’, that is, the south eastern corner of Sacristía. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: June 2nd, 1948, n. 7, f. 6r. AMRF note 17. RAMOS FOLQUÉS, A. (1955): “Elche (Alicante). La Alcudia [campañas 1940–1948]”Noticiario Arqueológico Hispánico II, no. 1–3, pp. 130–131. Materials Found: – Iron object, perhaps a handle for a tool. BAE/1948/N/E/242/Fe/1 – Small bronze coin of Constans I. BAE/1948/N/E/242/num/1 – Small bronze coin of Constantine I. BAE/1948/N/E/242/num/2 First Discovered: 1948. Commentary: This fill is above the remains of what could be interpreted as a “Floor B”, which is equivalent to “Level B” from area S/B” or S/B”/246, and mentioned on page 131 of the report published by Ramos Folqués in 1952. This fill would be the first detected and therefore corresponds with a “Level A”, underneath the agricultural level. It should be highlighted that in the manuscript of the Corpus documental, Ramos Folqués writes the identification of the coins mentioned in a list of findings from “B’” in another color (blue), therefore being added a posteriori. AMRF indicates there
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stratigraphic unit catalogue
959
is no positive identification of these coins from the 1948 excavation, although they seem to be mentioned in association with S/B/D/238. S/B’/243—Type H. Floor from “Level B” of B’ sub-area of Sacristía. Made of mortar and gravel, as implicitly indicated in the registries of S/B’/242 and S/B’/047. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: June 2nd, 1948, n. 7, f. 6r; August 10th, 1949, n. 9, f. 16r. First Discovered: 1948 Commentary: This floor would be equivalent to the “mortar floor” or opus signinum associated with the rest of Area S, particularly the one detected on p. 131 of the 1952 publication of the 1948 excavations by Alejandro Ramos Folqués. B/244—Type H. Fill at the lower levels of the apse, which would be remains from the 1905 excavation of the site by Pere Ibarra. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: June 3rd, 1948, n. 7, f. 7r. Materials Found: – Iberian pottery. BAE/1948/B/244/cer/I/1… – Campanian pottery. BAE/1948/B/244/cer/II/1… First Discovered: 1948 Commentary: This level must be an inferior sub-layer of the fill that allowed for the creation of the apse. Therefore, while technically this level is to be classified as before B/007, it should be considered as contemporary. The difference is that B/007 is associated with the campaign BAE/1905, and this layer was excavated in BAE/1948. S/B”/245—Type I. Interface for “Level A” in sub-area B” of Area S. This floor is made of gravel and was found directly underneath the agricultural level S/001. Underneath is a level of earth, which is associated with fill (type H) S/B”/236. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: June 7th, 1948, n. 7, f. 8r. First Discovered: 1948 S/B”/246—Type I. Ground interface below “Level A” fill of sub-area B” of Area S. It is made of boulder stones, underneath which is another fill made of earth, recorded as S/B”/222. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: June 7th, 1948, n. 7, f. 8r. First Discovered: 1948
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S/B”/247—Type I and H. Level of ashes found underneath fill for “Level B”, S/B”/222. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: June 7th, 1948, n. 7, f. 8r. RAMOS FOLQUÉS, A. (1955): “Elche (Alicante). La Alcudia [campañas 1940–1948]”Noticiario Arqueológico Hispánico II, no. 1–3, pp. 132. First Discovered: 1948 Commentary: This level, associated with the “Ibero-Roman-imperial” level, is limited by the ash layer. The significance of this is unclear, but there are ash units in other parts of the site, including in the areas B/D and B/F. This implies that this area was already associated with a more complex set of previous “Level C” structures in this sector. The fill S/B”/223 underneath this level has material from the mid-3rd century ce, particularly a bronze coin made by Galen. While this can be clearly dated from a later period, the fact that this is an ash layer, similar to other ones around the site of the basilica itself (which are dated, at the latest, to the early 4th century), points towards a late 3rd–early 4th century date, or perhaps even mid-3rd century. Another option would be that the boulder floor, constructed above this one following a 12-centimeter fill, is associated with the construction of the boulder floors in other parts of the basilical building, such as B/NE/077 at its northeast corner. The floor B/NE/025 predates the laying of the mosaic floor B/011, which means that it would be pre-late 4th century ce. S/B/-248—Type X. Pit dug to the south of wall c-c, “in B”. Discovered on June 9th, 1949, it was documented in the initial sketch from notebook 7, f. 1v of the Corpus documental. It is 1 meter in diameter and 2.5 meters deep. It was dug directly on the earth, with no mortar on it. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: No clear date (May 1948?), n. 7, f. 1v; June 9th, 1948, n. 7, f. 14r. First Discovered: 1948 Commentary: It is unclear when or where this pit was dug. When expressing “in B”, the excavator does not clarify whether it is area B, or “Level B”. Regardless, the description of this pit implies that it was dug after the abandonment of the building when construction material was taken away from the site, including by means of digging holes to access and remove the material. Furthermore, there is no evidence such a pit would be used either for funerary purposes (due to the lack of either human remains, trousseau, or a proper size for the predominant practice of inhumation), or as a silo of some sort (as it lacks a wall covering).
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stratigraphic unit catalogue
961
N/F/249—Type H. Fill found between rocks, related to the collapse of B/023 to the north in “area F” from the sketch of May 26th, 1948. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: June 10th, 1948, n. 7, ff. 14r–15r. AMRF notes 32, 33, 34, 35. Materials Found: – Ceramic piece decorated with animal figures. BAE/1948/N/F/249/cer/1 – Two fragments of sigillata. BAE/1948/N/F/249/cer/2,3 – Glass fragment. BAE/1948/N/F/249/vit/I/1 – A serpent-looking handle. BAE/1948/N/F/249/cer/4 – Glass fragments “of the good period” (early imperial). BAE/1948/N/F/249/vit/II/1… – An as with Janus and a prow. AMRF indicates it is dated to the late 3rd and 2nd centuries bce, though it was in circulation until the 1st century bce. BAE/1948/N/F/ 249/num/1 – Punic ceramic fragment. AMRF identifies it as LA-1340, circular marks and points in radial formation. BAE/1948/N/F/249/cer/5 – Remains of “broken floor” (mixed construction material). First Discovered: 1948 Commentary: Here is yet further evidence for a collapsed wall associated with the basilical building, with remains of glass to the north. It is the third section of collapse of the building which has glass between the remains. T/A2/250—Type I. Floor made of gravel and sand, located in section A (2) of sketch from page n. 7, f. 16v, and first described in the sketch on the same page from the Corpus documental, “Level B”. That sketch indicates this level is associated with “ashlar stone”. This level was located a minimum of 40 centimeters underneath agricultural “Level A”. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 7th, 1948, n. 7, f. 16v–17r. First Discovered: 1948 Commentary: Equal to T/B3/254. Above it is a “Level A”, associated with the agricultural level. It is in this upper level that the tombs associated with “Level O” were found. “Level A” was considered by Ramos Folqués part of the top level classified here as T/002, as the excavation diaries indicate it has archaeological materials and is not part of the modern soil (001); rather it is clearly associated with an abandonment period. T/A2/251—Type H. Fill between the “gravel and sand + ashlar wall” “Level B” from the sketches in n. 7, ff. 16v–17r in Corpus documental, and the floor underneath, that is, “Level C” of stone floor with lime mortar.
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Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 7th, 1948, n. 7, f. 16v–17r; Sept. 14th, 1948, n. 7, f. 21r. AMRF notes 52, 53. RAMOS FOLQUÉS, A. (1955): “Elche (Alicante). La Alcudia [campañas 1940–1948]”Noticiario Arqueológico Hispánico II, no. 1–3, p. 133. ABASCAL, J.M., ARBELOA, A. (2007): Monedas antiguas de los museos de Elche, p. 122 (for coin). Materials Found: September 14th, 1948—to the east of room T/A2: – “Landmark” remains made of an “architectural fragment”, to the “east from where the oil lamp was found” (probably referring to where the lamp in “Room 1”, or subarea T/H1, was found). BAE/1948/T/A2/251/misc/1 – Coin of Vespasian. Catalogued by Abascal and Alberola (2007, p. 122). BAE/1948/T/ A2/251/num/1 – Biconical spindle, slightly broken. BAE/1948/T/A2/251/os/1 – Glass fragment. BAE/1948/T/A2/251/vit/1 – Fragment of a lamp. BAE/1948/T/A2/251/cer/4 – A crumbled lead disk. BAE/1948/T/A2/251/Pb/2 – Red pottery fragment “from a low period”. AMRF indicates it refers to a Terra Sigillata D (TSD) pottery, from not before the 4th century ce. BAE/1948/T/A2/251/cer/5 – Grey ceramics, coarse. BAE/1948/T/A2/251/cer/6 – Ordinary Roman pottery. BAE/1948/T/A2/251/cer/7 – Spatula or spoon, 41mm long. BAE/1948/T/A2/251/cer/8 First Discovered: 1948 Commentary: The remains of stucco are to be associated with the presence of collapsed remains from either the basilica or the tabernae areas. The coin of Vespasian has an unclear relation with that found in area H1 (T/H1/263), though they correspond to the same level, and are probably close to the surface of the agricultural level, for both are found in a “sand and gravel” fill. T/A2/252—Type I. Noted as “C” in the sketch from n. 7, f. 16v of the excavation diaries. It is described as a paved floor with a level of lime layer or mortar, and from which another “ashlar wall” starts. On sketch in n. 7, f. 17r, the pavement has a lime level immediately on top of this flooring. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 7th, 1948, n. 7, ff. 16v–17r. Materials Found: – Remains of Roman pottery, including sigillata (“Level C” from sketch of n. 7, f. 16v). BAE/1948/T/A2/252/cer/I/1… First Discovered: 1948
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stratigraphic unit catalogue
963
Commentary: The nature of the flooring described here points towards a kind of opus signinum at this stage, particularly with the description of decorated ceramic fragments within the floor. Considering that in level T/A2/251 the remains of decorated stucco were found, the implication is that this was the floor of a structure demolished before the creation of the “Level B” floor, made of gravel and sand. T/A2/253—Type H. Fill underneath floor T/A2/252. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 7th, 1948, n. 7, ff. 16v–17r. AMRF note 44. Materials Found: – Glass paste necklace bead, in the form of “8” and circular section. BAE/1948/T/A2/ 253/vit/1 – Plain (flat) piece of glass paste, decorated with flowers. According to AMRF, it is of Augustan period. BAE/1948/T/A2/253/vit/2 First Discovered: 1948 Commentary: This is the last documented level detected in the probe of this sub-area. T/B3/254—Type I. Level of gravel and sand or “Level B” in sketches from September 7th, 1948, located in “Room B (3)” from Area T or sub-area south of the basilica, S/B. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 7th, 1948, n. 7, ff. 16v–17r. RAMOS FERNÁNDEZ, R. (1995): El templo ibérico de la Alcudia de Elche, p. 115. First Discovered: 1948 Commentary: This level is equal to that of T/A2/250. According to the excavators, subareas B3 and A2 should be seen as one unit, while the subsequent layers from levels “C” to “B” are all use levels of the structure found to the south of the basilica in the tabernae areas. T/B3/255—Type H. Fill underneath T/B3/254, and identical to T/A2/251. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 7th, 1948, n. 7, ff. 16v–17r. AMRF notes 41, 42, 43; September 14th, 1948, 20r. Materials Found: From September 7th, 1948: – Painted Ibero-Roman pottery. BAE/1948/T/B3/255/cer/I/1 – Fragment of a small amphora. BAE/1948/T/B3/255/cer/II/1 – Two bone styli. BAE/1948/T/B3/255/os/1, 2 – An “8” shaped lead sheet with hole. Abundant in late republican periods (AMRF). BAE/1948/T/B3/255/Pb/1
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– Stucco remains with incised decoration of flowers and leaves. BAE/1948/T/B3/255/ misc/I/1… – Stucco remains, with the colors red, black, green, etc. BAE/1948/T/B3/255/misc/II/ 1… – “Low period mortar floor” (Late Roman). BAE/1948/T/B3/255/misc/III/3… From September 14th, 1948: – An as from Carthago Nova, found outside of the structure, to its east (Corpus documental sketch, n. 7, f. 20r). BAE/1948/T/B3/255/num/1 – Fragments of flooring made from lime mortar, mixed with ceramics from “late period”. BAE/1948/T/B3/255/misc/IV/1… First Discovered: 1948 Commentary: The remains of mortar with lime underneath layer unit T/B3/254 means that this was probably the remains of the floor equivalent to T/B3/251. However, it is important to remember that there is no clear evidence to where the objects found here and in unit T/A2/251 were located. The lack of difference between the levels in one room and the other lead to the conclusion, by Ramos Folqués, that the two rooms share the same stratigraphy and, therefore, both are part of one structure. T/B3/256—Type I. Paved floor with stone, with level of lime mortar on top. The same as T/A2/252. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 7th, 1948, n. 7, ff. 16v–17r. First Discovered: 1948 T/B3/257—Type H. Fill underneath floor level T/B3/256, associated then with “Level C”. It is identical to T/A2/253. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 7th, 1948, n. 7, ff. 16v–17r. First Discovered: 1948 Commentary: As in the case of T/B3/255 and T/A2/251, the materials found in T/A2/ 253 may also have been found in this locus. T/A2/258—Type I. Stone pavement floor associated with an “Iberian” “Level D” in sketch from n. 7, f. 16v and implied in f. 17r in the Corpus documental from the description of the findings in the sub-area south of the basilical building. A wall is presumably built from on this level. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 7th, 1948, n. 7, ff. 16v–17r. First Discovered: 1948
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stratigraphic unit catalogue T/B3/259—Type I. Interface level associated with “Level D”, equal to T/A2/258. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 7th, 1948, n. 7, ff. 16v–17r. First Discovered: 1948 T/A2/260—Type H. Fill underneath the “Iberian pavement” T/A2/258. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 7th, 1948, n. 7, ff. 16v–17r. First Discovered: 1948
T/B3/261—Type H. Fill underneath T/B3/259, equivalent to the fill of “Level D”, and equivalent to T/A2/260. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 7th, 1948, n. 7, ff. 16v–17r. Materials Found: – Bone spindle in the form of an animal tarsus. BAE/1948/T/A2/261/os/1 First Discovered: 1948 Commentary: Given that the location of the finding was unspecified, the materials found in this fill could also have been found in T/A2/260. T/H1/262—Type I. “Level B” corresponding with the general sub-area excavated by September 7th, 1948. This would have, like T/A2/250 and T/B3/254, a pavement with gravel and sand. Mostly limited to “Room 1” in the sketch from September 7th, 1948. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 7th, 1948, n. 7, ff. 16v–17r. First Discovered: 1948 T/H1/263—Type H. Fill underneath T/I/262, equal to T/A2/251 and T/B3/255. It includes archaeological materials in areas that are not associated with either room. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 7th, 1948, n. 7, ff. 17r–18r. Materials Found: – Glass (fragment of a base of a piece). BAE/1948/T/I/263/vit/1 – Blackened pottery fragment. BAE/1948/T/I/263/cer/1 – Pieces of red stucco. BAE/1948/T/I/263/misc/I/1… – Roman oil lamp (“lucerna”). AMRF indicates it is “cordiform” from the 3rd century ce. BAE/1948/T/I/263/cer/2 First Discovered: 1948 Commentary: The materials found here, associated with “department 1”, are close to
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or at the level of T/H1/262. However, it seems that this was part of the fill anyway, regardless of its proximity to the gravel and sand interface level. T/H1/264—Type V. Inner construction in “Room 1”, that is, the compartment to the north of “Room 2” or sub-area T/A2 and the southern wall of the basilica. The construction has a “U” shape and is associated with the “level of gravel and sand”. It was made with coarse ashlar stone, stucco, and reused materials from other sectors of the Alcudia, or other sites. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 7th, 1948, n. 7, ff. 16v–17r, 18r. First Discovered: 1948 Commentary: Apparently, the excavator measured the wall, but did not write down the measurements. From what was written in the excavation diaries, this wall is associated with T/H1/263, or “gravel and sand” level from department 1 (T/H1). However, the latter layer would be added after the construction of said structure. It is noteworthy that above and around it there are remains of ashes, which raise questions on the use of this construction. Its flooring was, also, made of flagstones, which would be covered by ashes and, above it, the gravel and sand layer. However, the finding in 1951 of another U-shaped feature, T/H/S/374, associated with a burial of a nearby skeleton (T/H1/267) in a “Level C” layer, suggests that this was indeed a burial as originally suggested by Alejandro Ramos Folqués. It also indicates that this structure was constructed breaking floor for “Level D” and was thus covered by “Level C–D” fill T/H/109 or perhaps “Level C” fill T/H/S/365. S/B/265—Type H. Fill for pit S/B/-248. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: No clear date (May 1948?), n. 7, f. 1r; June 9th, 1948, n. 7, f. 14r. AMRF notes 30, 31. Materials Found: – Iberian border of a plate decorated on both sides. To the right there is a decoration with triangles, on top of a horizontal strip with parallel lines. Below, there are remains of quarter-concentric circles. To the left, underneath a strip of horizontal lines, there are vertical parallel lines and an unclear central figure. BAE/1948/S/B/ 265/cer/I/1 – Amphora rim, “of imperial period”. 1st century bce. AMRF identifies it as a Dressel 1B of that period. BAE/1948/S/B/265/cer/I/2 – Painted pottery. BAE/1948/S/B/265/cer/II/1… – Lead disk. BAE/1948/S/B/265/Pb/1 First Discovered: 1948
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stratigraphic unit catalogue
967
T/H1/266—Type H. Flagstone pavement within the structure, mentioned on September 7th, 1948. This is only located within its walls. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 7th, 1948, n. 7, ff. 16v–17r, 18r. First Discovered: 1948 Commentary: This flagstone pavement is mostly located on the western edge of the structure. It should be interpreted as underneath the general gravel and sand flooring that covers the whole area in rooms 1, 2, and 3 (or H1, A2, and B3 respectively). T/H1/267—Type H. Ashes level detected on top and around the remains of flagstone flooring T/H1/266. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 7th, 1948, n. 7, ff. 16v–17r, 18r, 20r. Materials Found: – Oil lamp with circular discus, devoid of mark or decorations, and with broken nozzle. BAE/1948/T/H1/267/cer/1 First Discovered: 1948 Commentary: It is unclear to which level this unit corresponded in Ramos Folqués’ classification. There is no graphic evidence for the distribution of these ashes, whether they are linked to the circles of ashes found in this zone of the site, or whether they are just a horizontal level that covers the flagstones (T/H1/266) of this feature. T/A2/268—Type H. Gravel floor on top of T/I/250. Found between the walls that limit department 2 or A (sub-area T/A2). It was discovered above the level of gravel and sand, as described on September 14th, 1948. On the other hand, it is “15 centimeters under the level of the patch-work”, in other words, under the surface of agricultural exploitation, and is merely 25 centimeters deep. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 14th, 1948, n. 7, f. 21r. Materials Found: – Fragments of sigillata. BAE/1948/T/A2/268/cer/I/1 – Fragments of oil lamps. BAE/1948/T/A2/268/cer/II/1 First Discovered: 1948 Commentary: This level is paradoxical. It is described as mostly limited to the area of “department 2” or sub-area T/A2. Perhaps it is the remains of the removal of earth activities that occurred following the abandonment of the site, or the remains of cemetery in its latest period. The descriptions of levels given here allow us to clarify that “agricultural level A” in this section (where we find layer T/A2/150) is 40 centimeters thick.
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968
annex c
T/269—Type H. A circular sediment of ashes found northeast of sepulture T/207 found in the area. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 24th, 1948, n. 7, ff. 21v–22r. Materials Found: – Fragments of sigillata. BAE/1948/T/A2/268/cer/I/1 – Fragments of oil lamps. BAE/1948/T/A2/268/cer/II/1 First Discovered: 1948 Commentary: This level is associated with fill T/094 above sepulture T/207, and therefore is above “Level O” T/083. It seems that it is related to a ritual linked to partial cremation, or at least that it is the product of a late sepulture associated with the partial cremation or burning of the body buried nearby. T/I/270—Type H. Fill at the level of the “first tomb”, mentioned in the September 30th, 1948, entry for the Corpus documental, probably in the immediate vicinity to this sepulture. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 30th, 1948, n. 7, f. annex 6r. Materials Found: – Marble column shaped as a hammer. Identified by AMRF as item exposed in the Roman Hall in the Interpretation Center of the Alcudia de Elche. Item LA-11728. BAE/1948/T/I/270/pet/1 – Fragment of an ordinary bowl. BAE/1948/T/I/270/cer/1 – Big bronze coin (no description). BAE/1948/T/I/270/num/1 – Red pottery without shine. BAE/1948/T/I/270/cer/2 – Glass handle. BAE/1948/T/I/270/vit/1 – Fragment of mosaic, “coetaneous with the Palace on its 1st and 2nd levels”. BAE/ 1948/T/I/270/misc/1 First Discovered: 1948 Commentary: Considering the location of this locus at the “level of the first tomb”, there is a clear indication that it is a fill above “Level O”, or at least associated with it. The findings indicate that the removal of earth revealed fragments of the mosaic floor of the basilical structure to its north. In other words, there is a direct relative chronology for the tombs, as coming after the destruction of parts of the mosaic floor. Sadly, these fragments were not described beyond their mere presence. T/271—Type V. Northern wall of sub-area T/A2, marked as “c” in the sketch from n. 7, f. 16v in the excavation diaries. Its direction is east-west, with a turn at its western edge to the south, thus marking the western end of “Room 2” or “Room A”. However, on a second sketch from notebook n. 7, f. 17r (September 7th, 1948) in the Corpus
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stratigraphic unit catalogue
969
documental, the turn is to the north, flanking “Room H1” to its north, and not “Room A2”. The first version is also the one present in the sketch of n. 7, f. 19r. In sketch from f. 17, f. 20r, only the remains of the eastern part of the wall are drawn, together with what seems as the first findings of other walls of the area, such as T/103 and T/104. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 7th, 1948, n. 7, ff. 16v–17r, 20r; September 14th, 1948, n. 7, f. 21v. First Discovered: 1948 Commentary: The difference of the “turn” between the three sketches suggests that there is another wall with perpendicular direction to the main part of this wall. The fact that it was not considered a different wall, means that it was probably a continuation of the same structure. The term applied by the excavator to this wall is “c”. This is associated with the level of the sketch of strata on top of the walls sketch from n. 7, f. 16v. The wall is then built on “Level C”, and thus the gravel and sand flooring had been made after this wall of “sub-area A2”. T/272—Type V. Wall in north-south direction to the east of sub-area B3 (3 in sketch from n. 7, f. 16v, and B and 3 in n. 7, f. 17r of Corpus documental). There is a difference between the sketches. On sketch from f. 16v, the wall starts from a landmark on the ground next to the middle area of T/295, and ends on wall T/A2/274, as is the case of sketch from the excavation diaries notebook number 7, f. 21v. On sketch from notebook number 7, f. 17r (see Documental Sources), the wall starts from the corner between T/295 and T/273 and continues until it makes a corner with T/271. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 7th, 1948, n. 7, ff. 16v–17r, 20r; September 14th, 1948, n. 7, f. 21v. First Discovered: 1948 Commentary: As with T/271, there is a correlation between the naming of the wall as “b” and the “Level B” associated with T/B3/256. The difference between the sketches suggests that the sketch from n. 7, f. 17r is possibly an idealized version of the area excavated in September 1948. T/273—Type V. Wall that limits sub-area T/B3 from sketches notebook number 7, ff. 16v, 17r, 20r of the southern structures to the basilical building. This wall is associated with T/295, which would apparently limit the sub-area “B3” from the east and south. However, it is built at a lower level than T/274, which limits the room to the north. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 7th, 1948, n. 7, ff. 16v–17r, 20r; September 14th, 1948, n. 7, f. 21v.
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970
annex c
First Discovered: 1948 Commentary: As in cases of wall T/271 and T/272, the letter “D” associates this unit with the levels registered on notebook n. 7, f. 16v from the Corpus documental. Since it is at a lower level than the other walls, it is possible that this structure had been demolished by the time “Level C” (T/B3/256) was used. Therefore, we do not know the limits of sub-area T/B3, whether to the south or east. It is possible that T/B3 might be something created through the archaeological excavation, but which never existed per se as a room. T/A2/274—Type V. Southern wall that limits sub-area T/A2, or “Room A/Room 2” in sketches from n. 7, ff. 16v and 17r in the Corpus documental. The wall is in east-west direction and surpasses the supposed limits of this area to the east and west. Its limits are unclear, but on sketch from n. 7, f. 17r the wall makes a south turn, limiting T/B3 to the west. On sketch from f. 21v the wall is continuous from west to east, and to the east it surpasses the limits of this sub-area. The wall is marked on f. 16v with the letter “c”, and therefore was built in association with “Level C” or T/A2/252 First Discovered: 1948 Commentary: Unlike sub-area “B3”, sub-area “A2” seems to be a genuine room that existed, at least, since “Level C”. However, the presence of this wall suggests that the structures built, associated with T/271, are limited to the south by the wall T/274. Without knowing the measurements of said walls, especially their heights, it is extremely difficult to know the uses of these structures. P/275 (also P/A)—Type H. “Superior level” of area called “Palace” (Area P), found on September 18th, 1948. This layer was found at “a palm” (Castillian palm) distance from the “portal” of the area (that is, 21 centimeters). This is the first floor found in the area of “Palace”, which is also described on p. 132 from the excavation report published in 1952 (see Documental Sources). It is made of rammed earth with a light coating of fine sand as a preparatory level. This first level is associated with another found on the “corner” of the Palace, on September 25th and mentioned again on October 1st, 1948, which is identified as the “second level”, which is made of “gravel and sand” (P/277), under which is another fill (P/276). Considering that said level is “a palm” (approx. 20–30 centimeters) underneath the “second level”, this level P/275 is then approximately 21–25 centimeters deep. From the description of the site on May 26th, 1948, and those from the same year in late September and early October, it is clear that this is a fill underneath a floor of lime mortar, P/278. For more, see stratigraphic relations (below). This level was finally excavated, and some more materials were recovered on July 22nd, 1949.
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stratigraphic unit catalogue
971
Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 18th, 1948, n. 7, f. 23r; September 25th, 1948, n. 7, f. 24r; October 1st, 1948, f. 7, f. annex 6v. ARF, Excavation Diaries: July 27th, 1949, classification as of 2014. Notebook number 9 in Corpus documental. FLA Archives. RAMOS FOLQUÉS, A. (1953–1955): “Elche (Alicante). La Alcudia [campañas 1940– 1948]”. Noticiario Arqueológico Hispánico II, no. 1–3, p. 132. Materials Found: – Grey, smoked cooking pot. BAE/1948/P/275/cer/I/1 – Red plate. BAE/1948/P/275/cer/I/2 – Red plate, matted. BAE/1948/P/275/cer/I/3 – Grey amphora. BAE/1948/P/275/cer/I/4 – Earthenware decomposed amphora (similar to a small depot amphora). BAE/1948/ P/275/cer/I/5 – Iron sword sheet. BAE/1948/P/275/Fe/1 – Fragment of oil lamps (with) decorative grapes. BAE/1948/P/275/cer/I/6 – Fragment of sigillata with mark: ----M. BAE/1948/P/275/cer/I/7 – Perforated disk. BAE/1948/P/275/cer/I/8 – Red coarse pottery. BAE/1948/P/275/cer/I/9 – Smoked (darkened) ceramic top. BAE/1948/P/275/cer/I/10 – Two fragments of Iberian ceramics. BAE/1948/P/275/cer/I/11,12 – Sigillata fragment. BAE/1948/P/275/cer/I/13 – Two iron nails. BAE/1948/P/275/Fe/2,3 – Possible dark flint. BAE/1948/P/275/pet/1 – Perforated coin or disk. BAE/1948/P/275/num/1 From July 22nd, 1949: – Coarse red pottery with greyish-green paste and smoked green outer surface. BAE/ 1948/P/A/275/cer/I/14 – Fragments of oil lamps. BAE/1948/P/A/275/cer/II/1… – Middle sized bronze coin. BAE/1948/P/A/275/num/2 – Three incomplete bone styli. BAE/1948/P/A/275/os/1, 2, 3 – A bone needle. BAE/1948/P/A/275/os/4 From July 27th, 1949: – Middle sized cup, well smoothened, possibly from the 2nd or 3rd century ce. BAE/ 1948/P/A/275/cer/I/15 – Stylus. BAE/1948/P/A/275/os/5 First Discovered: 1948 Commentary: The materials were removed from other places of the site, probably from digging deep into pre-Roman levels and using them to pave the final floor P/278. They include Iberian era materials mixed with objects from later periods.
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972
annex c
P/276 (also P/NO and P/D)—Type H. Fill underneath the level of gravel and sand, or “second level”, which is itself located at a “palm” underneath the portal and the “lime mortar floor” levels (approx. 21 centimeters). On the other hand, in its northwestern corner of Palace (P/NO/276), this level is 40 centimeters thick, creating a difference of 19 centimeters from one area to the other. Finally, in its southern area (P/D/276), the fill is 10 centimeters thick, according to the diary entry on October 6th, 1948. P/276 was found beneath P/277, and therefore a fill to sustain the latter floor level. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 25th, 1948, n. 7, f. 24r; October 1st, 1948, n. 7, f. annex 6v; October 5th, 7th, 1948, n. 7, f. 26r; October 6th, 1948, n. 7, f. 27r; May 7th, 1949, n. 9, f. 10r. Materials Found: September 25th, 1948: – A button or pendant. BAE/1948/P/276/misc/1 – Two whole styli. BAE/1948/P/276/misc/2, 3 – Fragment of another stylus. BAE/1948/P/276/misc/4 – Fragment of plain sigillata, with reliefs. BAE/1948/P/276/cer/I/1 – Green glass collar bead. BAE/1948/P/276/vit/I/1 – Coarse red ceramic. BAE/1948/P/276/cer/I/2 – Fragment of lamp with representation of a child. BAE/1948/P/276/cer/I/3 October 1st, 1948: – Silver stylus. BAE/1948/P/276/Ar/1 – Fragment of several oil lamps. BAE/1948/P/276/cer/II/1… – Fragment of sigillata “of similar type as those found on the second level”. BAE/1948/ P/276/cer/I/4 – Ordinary ceramics “of good Roman period”. BAE/1948/P/276/cer/III/1… – Deformed lead perforated piece. BAE/1948/P/276/Pb/1 – Fragment of light grey vase, “very fine, as if made of glass” (thin-walled ceramic). BAE/1948/P/276/cer/I/5 – Glass fragment. BAE/1948/P/276/vit/I/2. October 2nd, 1948: – A collar bead. BAE/1948/P/276/misc/5 – Adornment of a collar. BAE/1948/P/276/misc/6 – Nacre adornment. BAE/1948/P/276/misc/7 – Two fragments of stylus. BAE/1948/P/276/misc/8, 9 – Small bronze (coin) with no preserved decoration. BAE/1948/P/276/num/1 – Red late sigillata. BAE/1948/P/276/cer/I/6 – Grey fine ceramic “from vase”. BAE/1948/P/276/cer/I/7 – Smoked (dark) ordinary earthenware. BAE/1948/P/276/cer/I/8
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stratigraphic unit catalogue
973
– – – – – –
Small fragments of black stucco. BAE/1948/P/276/misc/8 Fragment of spherical bone object (ostrich egg). BAE/1948/P/276/os/1 Mouth of a small amphora. BAE/1948/P/276/cer/I/9 Small ball with pink paint. BAE/1948/P/276/misc/9 A black mosaic tile. BAE/1948/P/276/pet/1 Lead feminine figure (Venus?). Identified by AMRF as item LA-3559. BAE/1948/P/ 276/Pb/2 – Copper ring. BAE/1948/P/276/met/1 – Fragment of oil lamp mold with decoration of a hare. BAE/1948/P/276/cer/I/9 October 5th, 1948: (The same layer as October 2nd): – Piece of copper, a kind of foothold object. BAE/1948/P/276/Cu/2 – A bone needle. BAE/1948/P/276/os/2 – Fragment of a bone stylus. BAE/1948/P/276/os/3 – A badly preserved altar. BAE/1948/P/276/misc/10 – Three sigillata fragments. BAE/1948/P/276/cer/I/12, 13, 14 – Several fragments of coarse red plates. Possibly a TSD or TSC4 sigillata, 4th–5th century ce. BAE/1948/P/276/cer/V/1… – Several fragments of smoked pottery. BAE/1948/P/276/cer/VI/1… – Several fragments of glass. BAE/1948/P/276/vit/II/1… – Several burnt olive seeds or bone. BAE/1948/P/276/org/1… October 6th, 1948: – Copper object that has a profile of a cup. BAE/1948/P/D/276/Cu/1 – Iron object. BAE/1948/P/D/276/Fe/1 – Small fineware cup. BAE/1948/P/D/276/cer/I/10 – Sigillata. BAE/1948/P/D/276/cer/IV/1… October 7th, 1948: – A stylus without head. BAE/1948/P/276/os/4 – A copper ring. BAE/1948/P/276/Cu/3 – “Coarse red pottery fragment”. According to ARF, it was “being restored” when discovered. BAE/1948/P/276/cer/I/15 – Another pottery fragment, “finer”. BAE/1948/P/276/cer/I/16 – A middle bronze coin. BAE/1948/P/276/num/2 – Campanian pottery fragment. BAE/1948/P/276/cer/I/17 – Bone button. BAE/1948/P/276/os/5 – Perforated copper disk. BAE/1948/P/276/Cu/4 – A middle bronze coin, no description. BAE/1948/P/276/num/3 – Curved copper piece. BAE/1948/P/276/Cu/5 – Bone piece with carved geometric decoration. BAE/1948/P/276/os/6 – Glass with nerve markings. BAE/1948/P/276/vit/I/3 – Iron piece, perhaps a knife. BAE/1948/P/276/Fe/2
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974
annex c
– – – –
More fragments of a red cup. BAE/1948/P/276/cer/VII/1… Fragment of bone piece. Identified by AMRF as item LA-3371. BAE/1948/P/276/os/6 Painted pottery. BAE/1948/P/276/cer/I/17 “A small amphora in the place of the Venus” according to ARF (actually, a jar or olpe with round rim and side handle—AMRF). BAE/1948/P/276/cer/I/18 (“Olpe” LA-2837). – Grey “cup hat” pottery fragment. BAE/1948/P/276/cer/I/19 – “Next to it”, sigillata. BAE/1948/P/276/cer/VIII/1… – “Next to it”, mouth of amphora with white paint. BAE/1948/P/276/cer/I/20 May 7th, 1949 (eastern area of P): – Fragment of grey and red ordinary vessel. BAE/1948/P/276/cer/I/11 First Discovered: 1948 Commentary: The presence of the mosaic tile BAE/1948/P/276/pet/1 is clearly associated with the mosaic from Area B. This means that this preparatory level for the gravel and sand floor on T/277 was made after the mosaic was laid, in the late 4th century. This level is registered throughout the of the area Palacio. It includes the area to the northwest (P/NO/276) and the eastern-central area excavated by May 7th, 1979 (n. 9, f. 10r in the Corpus documental). P/277 (also P/D)—Type I. Floor level of gravel and sand, on top of P/276 and under fill P/275. This level apparently covers the whole area of the “Palace” (Area P), be it “Palace” proper or “Corner of Palace”. It also seems that this level is at the height of the level of the lime mortar Sacristía and Area B’s mosaic floors, which are around 30 centimeters under Zero Point. It is also approximately 20–25 centimeters (one palm) under the floor P/278. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 25th, 1948, n. 7, f, 24r; October 1st, 1948, n. 7, f. annex 6r. First Discovered: 1948 P/278 (also P/D)—Type I. Mortar floor, top level of Area P. The level was identified on May 26th, 1948, and later during the mentioning of the “second level” floor P/277 with its fill P/276. On July 22nd, 1949, the excavator described it further, indicating the floor is 1 centimeter thick, present “under the almond tree”, that is, at the center of Area P. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: May 26th, 1948, n. 7, f. 3r; September 25th, 1948, n. 7, f. 24r; July 22nd, 1949, n. 9, f. 14r. First Discovered: 1948
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stratigraphic unit catalogue
975
Commentary: The presence of this mortar floor in different places of the site, regardless of structures present, is evidence for the use of this floor all around Area P. P/NO/279—Type H. Floor of “fine sand”, registered on October 7th, 1948, and April 26th, 1949. It seems to cover a series of walls at the center of the structure, around its north and west area. It is also underneath walls of a later period. It is associated with “Level C” and is 40 centimeters under a gravel floor associated with a “Level B”. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: October 7th, 1948, n. 7, f. 26r; April 26th, 1949, n. 9, f. 5r. First Discovered: 1948 Commentary: This level covered the walls from levels Ee (E) and d (D), including P/291, probably being a preparation for fill P/276. Therefore, it is devoid of any registered archaeological remains. There were (probably) remains of a floor that vanished, perhaps of wood, since while this level has an associated wall, there is no evidence of it being directly stepped on. P/D/280—Type H. Stone pavement in the “corner” of the Palace, that is, the area to the south of it, next to the vertedero (or the space between Area S and Area P), which was documented north of N/E/227. This pavement is located “10 centimeters” under the “level of Sacristía”, according to the excavator. The floor was put on loose earth, which was not tamped beforehand, reflected in its irregularly and loosely placed stones. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: October 6th, 1948, n. 7, f. 27r. Materials Found: Between stones: – Fragment of Iberian pottery. BAE/1948/P/D/280/cer/1 First Discovered: 1948 Commentary: The fact that this level is “10 centimeters” underneath P/277, which covers it, implies the existence of a structure that had a floor on a different level to that of the inner areas of Palacio or Area P (that is, to its north). The pavement’s loose stones suggest that this was an area with no roof, that it was outside the main structures, a kind of outer hallway or even a portico. P/D/281—Type H. Loose earth that fills and prepares the floor underneath P/D/280. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: October 6th, 1948, n. 7, f. 27r. First Discovered: 1948
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976
annex c
P/D/282—Type H. Boulder stone pavement underneath the earthen fill P/D/281, located next to Area S, on the “corner of the Palace”, described on October 12th, 1948. The fill is put under the Sacristía wall in question, therefore indicating that P/D/282 is the same as S/P/196. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: October 12th, 1948, n. 7, f. annex 10r; August 9th, 1949, n. 9, f. 15r. Materials Found: – Roman ceramics “of good period”. BAE/1948/P/D/282/cer/I/1… – Iberian ceramics. BAE/1948/P/D/282/cer/II/2… First Discovered: 1948 Commentary: This is a unique case where the boulders are used for a base for the Area S walls to the north. The equivalence between S/P/196 and P/D/282 implies that, during this period, the area to the south of Area P was not sharply divided, making the fill that covered this area a result of construction activities from other sectors of the complex. P/D/283—Type H. Fill underneath boulder floor P/D/282. Components are unclear. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: October 12th, 1948, n. 7, f. 28r. Materials Found: – Roman ceramics. BAE/1948/P/D/283/cer/1… – A complete stylus. BAE/1948/P/D/283/os/1 First Discovered: 1948 P/284 (also P/NO)—Type H. Fill under the “level of sand” P/NO/279. It is 50 centimeters thick. It is also described as the “area above the one with many painted ceramics” (referring to P/NO/286, underneath P/NO/285), in the diary entry of May 7th, 1949. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: April 26th, 1949, n. 9, f. 5r; May 7th, 1949, n. 9, f. 10r. Materials Found: – 1 big bronze coin. BAE/1949/P/284/num/1 – Obverse: CLAVDIVS CAESAR AVG P·M TR P. – Reverse: standing figure, barely recognizable. – 2 medium-sized bronze coins, found together with the big bronze coin, “of imperial type” without classification. BAE/1949/P/284/num/2, 3 – Superior part of jar with decoration of two painted birds, red clay. BAE/1949/P/284/ cer/1 – Complete thin stylus. BAE/1949/P/284/os/1 – Pondus of baked clay. BAE/1949/P/284/cer/2
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stratigraphic unit catalogue
977
First Discovered: 1949 Commentary: This is one of the thickest fill levels of sub-area P/NO. When it comes to P/284, the reference is to the findings at the eastern section of Palacio, between an extant almond tree and the eastern wall (presumably near wall P/291); these are the only findings registered by the excavator in this level. This is in stark contrast with the numerous findings that occur in both sub-areas where unit P/276 was. P/NO/285—Type H/I. Roman pavement made of coarse gravel detected on October 9th, 1948 and registered on the stratigraphy sketch from April 26th, 1949. It is mostly concentrated on the central-northern-western section of the site. It starts 50 centimeters below P/NO/279 and is associated with “Level D” in the sketches found in notebook number 9, ff. 5r–6r. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: October 9th, 1948, n. 7, f. 27r; April 26th, 1949, n. 9, ff. 5r–6r (sketches). First Discovered: 1949 Commentary: This level seems to have a correlation with P/282, particularly due to their similar composition, while also being uncommon around the site. P/286 (also P/NO)—Type H. Fill “above” stone pavement P/NO/288, which reaches the area at the center of Area P, to the east and west (near the portal). Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: October 9th, 1948, n. 7, ff. 27r, annex 9r; April 26th, 1949, n. 9, ff. 5r–6r (sketches), 7r; May 6th, 1949, n. 9, f. 9r. AMRF notes 14, 15, 16; July 13th, 1949, n. 9, f. 11r (sketches). Materials Found: October 9th, 1948: – One medium-sized bronze (coin). BAE/1949/P/NO/286/num/2 – “Copper object.” BAE/1949/P/NO/286/Cu/2 – White glass fragment. BAE/1949/P/NO/286/vit/1 – Iron object. BAE/1949/P/NO/286/Fe/1 – Two needles/styli BAE/1949/P/NO/286/os/1, 2 – Mud (terracotta) disk. BAE/1949/P/NO/286/cer/I/10 – Red coarse and smoked pottery. BAE/1949/P/NO/286/cer/I/11 – Undescribed fragment of amphora. BAE/1949/P/NO/286/cer/I/12 May 6th, 1949: – Many pieces of painted pottery. BAE/1949/P/NO/286/cer/II/1… – Plate with painted birds. Domed profile. According to AMRF, it is an Iberian ritual philae vase. BAE/1949/P/NO/286/cer/I/1 – “Top-hat” pottery piece. BAE/1949/P/NO/286/cer/I/2
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978
annex c
– – – – – –
Plain plate. BAE/1949/P/NO/286/cer/I/3 “Other vessels” painted with birds and vegetables. BAE/1949/P/NO/286/cer/III/1… Plates. BAE/1949/P/NO/286/cer/IV/1… Medium-sized bronze coin. BAE/1949/P/NO/286/num/1 Two fragments of small sigillata. BAE/1949/P/NO/286/cer/I/4, 5 “A kind of copper sickle”, with the form of a crescent moon. Identified as BAE/1949/ P/NO/286/Cu/1 – Small smooth (plain) vessels (closed form, without firm base), black and with “beaks” on its mouth. BAE/1949/P/NO/286/cer/V/6 – “In silos, two amphorae”. BAE/1949/P/NO/286/cer/I/7, 8 – Coin. BAE/1949/P/NO/286/num/2. AMRF indicates it is a “Medium-sized Bronze” described a posteriori by ARF. – Obverse: Marching quadriga, in front of the defeated. On top: PVTURILLA VINC II VIR QVINQVEN. – Reverse: Tetrastyle temple. In the architrave: AVGUSTVS POSTVM ALDINVS II VIR QVINQITER VINC. July 13th, 1949: – Cooking pot. Painted geometric decoration (with vertical, wavy lines), with top underneath a rock. It is located directly on top of the stone pavement P/288, but to the south of wall P/289. BAE/1949/P/NO/286/cer/I/9 – Dice. BAE/1949/P/NO/286/misc/1 – Drop of blue glass. BAE/1949/P/NO/286/vit/1 – Carbonized olive bone. BAE/1949/P/NO/286/misc/2 – Lead piece. BAE/1949/P/NO/286/Pb/1 First Discovered: 1949 P/287—Type H. Fill under stone pavement P/288, which makes it “Level Ee” in sketch from April 26th, 1949 (notebook number 9, f. 5r). This level seems to be 20 centimeters thick, according to the finding of a “new level” 20 centimeters underneath P/288. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: April 26th, 1949, n. 9, ff. 5r, 7r. AMRF notes 11, 12; May 6th, 1949, n. 9, ff. 8r–8v. AMRF notes 11, 12 13. Materials Found: – Uncooked clay pondus. BAE/1949/P/287/cer/5 – Two lead discs. BAE/1949/P/287/Pb/1,2 – Relief piece, painted, with a reclined figure (according to excavator, an Etruscan married couple). Identified by AMRF as item LA-1359. BAE/1949/P/287/pet/1 – Fragment of “top-hat” piece, painted with geometric motifs. AMRF identifies it as being “Estilo Ilicitano I”, with a reticulated flower calyx. BAE/1949/P/287/cer/1
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stratigraphic unit catalogue
979
– Fragment of ordinary bowl. BAE/1949/P/287/cer/2 – Fragment of ordinary top. BAE/1949/P/287/cer/3 – Cooked clay base, with peeling yellow paint. According to AMRF, it is of African paste. BAE/1949/P/287/cer/4 First Discovered: 1949 P/288—Type H. Stone pavement, consisting of big gravel stones put on “Level Ee” or “Level E” in the Northwestern section of Area P. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: April 26th, 1949, n. 9, ff. 5r–6r (sketches), 7r.; July 13th, 1949, n. 9, f. 11r (sketches). RAMOS FOLQUÉS, A. (1956): “Memoria de las excavaciones practicadas en La Alcudia (Elche) [Campañas 1949–1952]”, Plate CX. Materials Found: In between the coarse gravel: – Medium sized bronze coin. BAE/1949/P/288/num/1 – A copper “half-moon”. AMRF indicates it is identified as a copper crescent moon excavated in 1950 according to Ramos Folqués’ Excavation Report (1956, see Documental Sources). BAE/1949/P/288/Cu/1 – Complete “cup-hat” pottery piece. BAE/1949/P/288/cer/I/1 – Unspecified number of plates with large tops above them. BAE/1949/P/288/cer/II/ 1… First Discovered: 1949 Commentary: This coarse gravel stone pavement is detected as the foundation floor or “Level Ee” for the initial structures of Area P. P/289—Type V. East-west direction “wall b” at the center of Area P. It is associated with “Level B”, P/277. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: April 26th, 1949, n. 9, f. 6r (sketch). Graphic Sources: Figs. 10.1, 2, 3 First Discovered: 1949 Commentary: This is the latest “inner” structure detected during excavations. P/290—Type V. “Wall c”, in a north-south direction. This wall protrudes from what would be later wall P/289, yet belongs to a previous period according to the sketch from notebook number 9, f. 6r Corpus documental. The wall is 0.4 meters wide, located 4 meters from the eastern wall, and 1.8 meters from the northern one. It is associated with “Level C”, or P/279 sand fill.
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980
annex c
Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: April 26th, 1949, n. 9, f. 6r (sketch). Graphic Sources: Fig. 10.1 First Discovered: 1949 Commentary: The wall P/290 is correlated to P/279, as it was probably built when the flooring was laid. P/291—Type V. Wall from “Level D”, precisely attached to the northwestern corner of Area P. It is 1.15 meters long, of unknown width. It is in a north-south direction. The wall is associated with “Level D”, or P/285. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: April 26th, 1949, n. 9, f. 6r (sketch). Graphic Sources: Fig. 10.1 First Discovered: 1949 Commentary: Considering the nature of the coarse gravel or boulder pavement of this “Level D”, it is safe to assume that the wall was built taking this base into consideration, as is the case elsewhere in the site. P/292—Type V. Wall from “Level Ee”, associated to P/288. It is of east-west direction and is attached physically to wall P/291 in the sketch from Area P (notebook number 9, f. 6r in Corpus documental). It is 0.4 meters wide, and unknown length, though it is a little less than 2.4 meters (perhaps 2 meters, according to the sketch). It is limited to the south by the “Northwestern room” of Area P’s northwestern sub-area (P/NO). To the east it is attached to the wall P/293. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: April 26th, 1949, n. 9, f. 6r (sketch). Graphic Sources: Fig. 10.1 First Discovered: 1949 Commentary: This wall corresponds to the same phase as walls P/293 and P/294. They were probably minor structures that were limited within a wider one, before they were demolished when the “Level D” and, most of all, “Level C” came along in this sub-area P/NO. The walls in levels “E”, “D”, and “C” seem to have had a default width of 0.4 meters. They are relatively narrow, indicating that these walls merely separated inner rooms, as they could not sustain either high walls for more than one floor, or a heavy roof, by themselves. The process of demolition and new constructions in this sector of P allows us to have a relative chronology that clarifies both the process for the construction of Area S, as well as the use and abandonment of the mosaic floor. The function of these structures, however, is unknown. Alexander Bar-Magen Numhauser - 978-90-04-41992-6 Downloaded from Brill.com 03/03/2024 09:27:00PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison
stratigraphic unit catalogue
981
P/293—Type V. Wall on the northwestern sector of Area P, corresponding with “level Ee”. It is 1.2 meters long, and 0.4 meters wide. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: April 26th, 1949, n. 9, f. 5r. Graphic Sources: Fig. 10.1 First Discovered: 1949 Commentary: See Commentary in P/292. P/294—Type V. Wall from “Level Ee”, along with P/292 and P/293. It limits a room from the northeast in Area P. It is 1.4 meters from the northern limit of P. It is also 0.35 meters wide and 2.4 meters long. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: April 26th, 1949, n. 9, f. 5r. Graphic Sources: Fig. 10.1 First Discovered: 1949 Commentary: The wall is only 0.35 meters wide, which makes it even less capable to sustain a structure than walls P/292 and P/293; probably it marked inner divisions or rooms. T/295—Type V. Wall associated with “Level D” to the east, at the same level as wall T/273. The wall has two registered elements that protrude to its west, into the room. On sketch in n. 7, f. 16v in the Corpus documental, the wall reaches the wall T/274. In sketch from n. 7, f. 17r, it does not reach such a wall. It seems that in both sketches there is a continuation of the wall to the south, but this is unclear. In sketch of n. 7, f. 21v, the wall does not continue at all to the south. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 7th, 1948, n. 7, ff. 16v–17r, 20r; September 14th, 1948, n. 7, f. 21v. First Discovered: 1949 T/296—Type V. Clay parapet that surrounded skull and burial T/207 in “Level O”. It is marked on the sketch n. 7, f. 21v on September 14th, 1948, in Corpus documental, almost surrounding the burial entirely, save for a small part of the circumference to its southwest. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 14th, 1948, n. 7, f. 21v; September 24th, 1948, n. 7, f. 22r. First Discovered: 1949
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982
annex c
P/297—Type H. “Inferior level” detected through the excavations in the centralnorthern sector of Area P. It is unclear where it is located, but it seems to be 20 centimeters deeper than P/288. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: April 26th, 1949, n. 9, f. 7r. Materials Found: – Coarse bowl plate. BAE/1949/P/297/cer/1 – Lead disk. BAE/1949/P/297/Pb/1 First Discovered: 1949 Commentary: Being from the lowest detected level in this area, it is to be associated with “Level F”, perhaps directly in contact with the bedrock, P/090. B/298—Type H. Albertini described this as D’ in his plan/sketch from the 1907 publication at Bulletin Hispanique. He called it mauvais dallage, or “bad pavement”, located at the southeastern corner of the mosaic. Documental Sources: ALBERTINI, E. (1907), Fouilles d’Elche, p. 121. Sketch in Fouilles d’Elche, n. 7, 1906. IBARRA, P. (1906): “Antigua basílica de Elche”, BRAH 49, p. 122 + sketch from 1905. Materials Found: – No specific items were described at this level. – Possible elements were without any description. First Discovered: 1905. Re-excavated: 1948 Commentary: Ibarra indicates that in this area there is no preserved mosaic pavement, something that follows the sketch published by Albertini of the 1905 excavation. The uncovering of the mosaic and excavation of the building in 1948 reveals the remains of this “bad pavement” in different photographs, though the number of stones used for it has been significantly reduced, probably to make the mosaic more visible, something done as early as the 1905 excavations. Ibarra proposed that this and B/015 are part of the same southeastern arched structure, which would find a parallel on the other side of the mosaic, on its northeastern corner, where there is also another area of the mosaic that was not preserved. However, there is no concrete archaeological basis for that assumption. B/299—Type X. Mud mortar put to hold basin B/022 in place. Documental Sources: RAMOS FOLQUES, A. (1974): El cristianismo en Elche, p. 104. Materials Found: – No specific items were described at this level. – Possible elements were without any description. First Discovered: 1948
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stratigraphic unit catalogue
983
B/EM/300—Type V. Structure described in 1971 at the central-eastern section of the basilical structure. The structure has an irregular rectangular plan and is attached to structure B/EM/300. It has a central cavity, with an unclear usage. The following are its measurements: width: 0.85m.; length: 0.64m–0.85m.; upper face: –0.51m. from Zero Point; lower face of central cavity: –0.77m from Zero Point. Graphic Sources: Fig. 7.4 Materials Found: – No specific items were described at this level. – Possible elements were without any description. First Discovered: 1971 Commentary: This structure has no association with any other stratigraphic element other than B/EM/300. There is no picture of it. Its height suggests it was contemporaneous with the floor structure found next to it. B/EM/301—Type V. Fieldstones and earthen mortar structure described in 1971 at the central-eastern section of the basilical structure. It has a rectangular plan and is found under the cement floor B/EM/025. Its measurements are as follows: width: 0.71m.; length: 1.28m.; height of upper face: approximately –0.55m. from Zero Point; lowest detected height: –0.67m from Zero Point. Graphic Sources: Fig. 7.4; Pl. XX.2 First Discovered: 1971 Commentary: This structure has no association with any other stratigraphic element other than B/EM/300. Its height suggests it was contemporary with the floor structure found next to it. B/EM/302—Type H. Floor of gravel and lime mortar. It is equal to B/NE/077 in its description and height. It is detected below B/EM/016 in the central part of the apse area, next to the mosaic floor. It was further documented by Ibarra in 1906, as starting 25 centimeters below the mosaic level, while Lafuente Vidal indicates it starts between 15 to 25 centimeters below the mosaic. In 1971. it was partially detected at the central-eastern sector of Area B. The block or feature has a rectangular plan and continues the trajectory of the apse archstructure. Most importantly, it was detected with the cobblestone or gravel pavement that was attached to B/EM/025 below it. If the height indicated by the ARF diaries from October 11th, 1949, n. 11, f. 2r is applied here, the depth is between 5 to 6 centimeters. Its measurements are: upper face: –0.43 meters; lower section: –0.49 meters. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 13th, 1949, n. 10, f. 10r–11r; October 11th, 1949, n. 11, f. 2r (sketch).
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984
annex c
IBARRA, P. (1906): “Antigua basílica de Elche”, BRAH 49, p. 121 RAMOS FOLQUES, A. (1974): El cristianismo en Elche, p. 106. Graphic Sources: Fig. 7.4 First Discovered: 1905. Re-excavated: 1949, 1971 Commentary: This floor was detected in Hauschild’s 1971 plan, as a rectangular structure at the central-east sector of the basilical structure. It is equal to B/114, found on October 1949, as it fits with the described height of the different floor levels. In other words, it is the cobble stone or gravel pavement associated with “Level M”, as it continued eastwards. The stratigraphy of this unit in relation to the apse is unclear. However, it is evident that it has some association with structures before the building of the apse and the mosaic floor. B/OM/303—Type H. First level to “dismount” the fill west of the mosaic floor on November 24th, 1950 (n. 13, f. 31v in Corpus documental). It would be reviewed in 1954. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: November 24th, 1950, n. 13, f. 31v. AMRF note 46; October 12th, 1954, n. 20, f. 28r; October 14th, 1954, n. 20, f. 29r. ABASCAL, J.M., ALBEROLA, A. (2007): Monedas antiguas de los museos de Elche, p. 126, n. 622 (for coin). RAMOS FOLQUÉS, A. (1962): “Excavaciones en La Alcudia (IX). Campañas de 1953– 1955”, Noticiario Arqueológico Hispánico, V, p. 93. Materials Found: November 24th, 1950: – Several fragments of “chancel screen”. BAE/1950/B/OM/303/bis/1… – “Other pieces of worked stone”. BAE/1950/B/OM/303/pet/II/1… – A big stone with a circular arch, “maybe the base for a chancel screen”. In truth, it is architectural feature LA-607 according to AMRF. BAE/1950/B/OM/303/pet/I/1 – A glass-paste necklace bead. BAE/1950/B/OM/303/vit/1 – Handle. BAE/1950/B/OM/303/cer/1 – Part of a lamp, with pearled triangular decoration on the discus’ rim. Identified as LA-4082, Atlante X type with decoration style 1A or Bonifay 54 Atlante XA type, group C2, dated to the second half of the 5th century. BAE/1950/B/OM/303/cer/2 Chancel screen fragments, described by R. Folques on October 12th, 1954. Amongst them are: – Quadruped figure made with bevel. BAE/1954/B/OM/303/pet/I/2 – Head of a bird. BAE/1954/B/OM/303/pet/I/3 – Frame for a figure with legs. BAE/1954/B/OM/303/pet/I/4 – Two united frames. BAE/1954/B/OM/303/pet/I/5
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stratigraphic unit catalogue
985
– Marble column base, seemingly Attic, with a straight step above which are two rounded ones. BAE1954/B/OM/303/pet/105 – “Other decorated remains” (described in Corpus documental, October 14th, n. 20, f. 29r) – Chancel screen remains. – Columns remains. – Decorated stones. – Coin (1:100 fraction). It is 2.6 centimeters in diameter, and apparently is a dupondius by Antoninus Pius (dated 138–161ce). Catalogue number 622 of Abascal and Alberola (2007). BAE/1954/B/OM/303/num/1 First Discovered: 1950. Re-excavated: 1954 Commentary: It seems that the remains described in November 1950 and October 1954 are the same, while contemporary to B/002. The presence of the “chancel screens”, and the explicit mention of them being found “to the west of the mosaic” implies their presence not on the southwestern area of the basilical structure, but to its west, what is known as B/OM. B/OM/304—Type H. Fill on “level underneath that of mosaic floor” mentioned on November 24th, 1950. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: November 24th, 1950, n. 13, f. 31v. Materials Found: – Lamp fragment with yellow slip. BAE/1950/B/OM/304/cer/1 – Fragment of a “marble tombstone”. BAE/1950/B/OM/304/pet/1 First Discovered: 1950 B/OB/305—Type V. Fill of reutilized materials within wall B/021. It is identified as “within wall A” on April 17th, 1954. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: April 17th, 1954, n. 19, f. 56r. Materials Found: – A column base with an eight-sided shaft. BAE/1954/B/OB/305/pet/1 – Capital fragment, with a volute (Ionic?). BAE/1954/B/OB/305/pet/2 – Another fragment of a capital. BAE/1954/B/OB/305/pet/3 – A fragment of a column base (not 8-sided). BAE/1954/B/OB/305/pet/4 First Discovered: 1954 Commentary: The materials recovered in this “wall fill” demonstrate the reuse of architectural materials from the site for the construction of this long wall that continues all the way to B/OM/027, at least. The sketch from April 15th, 1954, is not clear on the exact location of these findings, other than the “A” that appears on the place where B/021 is supposed to be found. Alexander Bar-Magen Numhauser - 978-90-04-41992-6 Downloaded from Brill.com 03/03/2024 09:27:00PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison
986
annex c
B/OB/306 (also T)—Type V. North-south wall detected on sketches from April 15th, 1954 (notebook number 19, ff. 51r, 54r) in the Corpus documental. It is located 14.2 meters west of the western edge of the mosaic floor and is 0.5 meters wide on its northern edge. It is still preserved today on the site. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: April 15th, 1954, n. 19, ff. 51r, 54r (sketches). Graphic Sources: Plates XXII.2; XXIII.1, 2 First Discovered: 1954 Commentary: The type of construction has similarities with the northern wall B/023 and tangential wall B/010 to the east: two rows of stone with their flat face looking outside, and a central nucleus of earth and rubble. This casts doubt on the relative chronology of this wall, going against the evidence presented in the sketches. However, it was certainly used in the latest stages of the site, and therefore should be considered at least contemporary to B/021. More excavation of this wall is required to understand its history. T/OB/307—Type H. Fill to the west of the basilica, corresponding with “Level C” from Alejandro Ramos Folqués’ stratigraphy. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: October 9th, 1951, n. 14, f. 8r (sketch); October 10th, 1951, n. 14, ff. 9r–10r. AMRF notes 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23; January 29th, 1952, n. 15, f. 11r; January 30th, 1952, n. 15, ff. 12r–13r; January 31st, 1952, n. 15, ff. 14r–15r; February 1st, 1952, n. 15, f. 16r. Materials Found: From January 29th, 1952: – Incomplete black jar. Handle starting from mouth and ending on shoulder. BAE/ 1952/T/OB/307/cer/I/1 – Vase with no decoration (globular body, wide mouth with narrowed neck). BAE/ 1952/T/OB/307/cer/I/2 – Little plate (looks like a small cup). BAE/1952/T/OB/307/cer/I/3 – Fragment of sigillata. BAE/1952/T/OB/307/cer/I/4 – Fragment of Iberian pottery with painted decoration, including head of a horse, geometric designs, and perhaps a labyrinth. It is part of the new Ramos Fernández Collection, CRF nº 87.11 BAE/1952/T/OB/307/cer/I/5 From January 30th, 1952: – Bronze pendant. Irregular cross form, with two holes for its thread on its vertical axis. BAE/1952/T/OB/307/met/1 – Copper nail. BAE/1952/T/OB/307/Cu/1 – Bone style. BAE/1952/T/OB/307/os/1 – Bone needle. BAE/1952/T/OB/307/os/2
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987
stratigraphic unit catalogue – Incomplete fibula. BAE/1952/T/OB/307/met/2 – Ceramic fragment with inscription, item LA-3568. BAE/1952/T/OB/307/cer/I/5
– Copper button. BAE/1952/T/OB/307/Cu/2 – Half a sigillata cup or bowl, with a scene of dogs and rabbits. BAE/1952/T/OB/307/ cer/I/6 – Sigillata with marks. BAE/1952/T/OB/307/cer/I/7,8 – Marks on vases without determined form. BAE/1952/T/OB/307/cer/I/10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17:
(Grafitto 17)
– Two iron rings attached to each other. BAE/1952/T/OB/307/Fe/1 – Iron nail. BAE/1952/T/OB/307/Fe/2 – Lamps. BAE/1952/T/OB/307/cer/II/1… – References to lead and glass in the fill. From February 1st, 1952: – Coin. Unknown figures. BAE/1952/T/OB/307/num/1 – Lamp with a decorative wraith on its disk. And a mark with II enclosed by a circle. BAE/1952/T/OB/307/cer/I/9 From October 10th, 1951: – Coin, 2.3 centimeters in diameter. BAE/1952/T/OB/307/num/2 – Large astragalus. BAE/1952/T/OB/307/os/3 – Silex tool, round shape. BAE/1952/T/OB/307/pet/1 – Small bronze bell. BAE/1952/T/OB/307/met/3 – Possible boar mandible. BAE/1952/T/OB/307/os/4 – Base of a sigillata place with four identical marks. Within an oval frame: C·SET or C·SEV. Possibly Italic sigillata production (TSI). BAE/1952/T/OB/307/cer/I/13 – Fragment of jar with red paste. It has a globular body, high neck, broken rim, and one handle. BAE/1952/T/OB/307/cer/I/10 – Coarse top. BAE/1952/T/OB/307/cer/I/11 – Incomplete small pink vase, with incised decoration, identified as item LA-3142. It is considered by AMRH as a fine-wall “May. 32” type with burin-made decoration from between 27 and 37ce. BAE/1952/T/OB/307/cer/I/12 – Small smooth sigillata pottery. Possibly profile of a late Italic sigillata production (TSIT) according to AMRH, “Cons. 21”. BAE/1952/T/OB/307/cer/I/14 – A fibula, Aucissa type. Identified probably as item LA-3448. BAE/1952/T/OB/307/ met/3 Alexander Bar-Magen Numhauser - 978-90-04-41992-6 Downloaded from Brill.com 03/03/2024 09:27:00PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison
988
annex c
First Discovered: 1952 Commentary: This apparent “Level C” fill was first excavated on the western area of the basilical building, which was marked in the sketch from October 9th, 1951, and again on January 28th, 1952. It is not clear if this is a continuation of previous levels excavated from that sub-area, or of some other sector west of the basilica, representing a continuation after a hiatus in the Ramos Folqués’ excavation diaries on February 1st, after mentioning some findings in “A” in the abovementioned sketch. This sub-area should be more associated with Area T than sub-area B/OB. However, the ambiguity of such divisions in Ramos Folqués’ research make it hard to clarify distinctions to the west of main basilical structure. T/OB/308—Type H. Fill for “Level B” described following the sketch from January 28th, 1952. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: October 9th, 1951, n. 14, f. 8r; January 28th, 1952, n. 15, f. 10r. AMRF note 11. Materials Found: October 9th, 1951: – Half a sigillata small plate, with clear paste. The profile shows an annular ring base, globular body with slight closure on its neck, and a noticeable everted rim. BAE/1951/B/OB/307/cer/2 – Fragment of vase with red paint on its outer face, and white on its inner one. BAE/1951/B/OB/307/cer/3 January 28th, 1952: – Coin. 1:100 proportion size, it measures 2.03 centimeters in diameter. BAE/1952/B/ OB/307/cer/1 First Discovered: 1951–1952 Commentary: The fill is located at an obvious entrance area to the main building, west of the main rooms (T/I and T/H) of Area T. Originally considered part of sub-area B/OB, it is evident from the sketches from October 9th, 1951, and January 28th, 1952, that this is an entrance area to the wider complex where the basilical building is located. Furthermore, this fill is located immediately under the agricultural level, based on two assumptions: First is the fact that Ramos Folqués considered it a “Level B”, therefore indicating the presence of a “Level A”. Second, this is the first report of an excavation this far west of the basilical structure, thus indicating its level is similar to B/002, B/OM/221, and B/OM/303, respectively. B/OM/309—Type H. Fill to the “west of the basilica”, associated with “Level B”, noted in the Corpus documental.
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stratigraphic unit catalogue
989
Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: April 15th, 1955, n. 20, f. annex 2r. AMRF note 83. Materials Found: April 15th, 1955, n. 20, f. annex 1r: – Sigillata fragment, with decorative marks that look like braids and vertical branches. BAE/1955/B/OM/309/cer/1 – Base of a lamp, with decorative marks resembling a schematic Mt. Golgotha. BAE/ 1955/B/OM/309/cer/2 – Coin of 3.1 centimeters in diameter (drawn profile, 1:100 fraction), with central mark of what might be a fish. No identification. BAE/1955/B/OM/309/num/1 – Acco pottery fragment. BAE/1955/B/OM/309/cer/3 – Fragment of an amphora mouth, what seems to be its neck, everted rim, and handle on the neck area. BAE/1955/B/OM/309/cer/4 – Base of a great ordinary vase, ringed base. BAE/1955/B/OM/309/cer/5 – Base of an ordinary vase, with thick rim attached to its shoulder and an apparently globular body. BAE/1955/B/OM/309/cer/6. – Stag or goat horn. BAE/1955/B/OM/309/os/1 – Glass necklace bead, with the form of a peanut. BAE/1955/B/OM/309/vit/1 First Discovered: 1955 Commentary: While originally considered to be the same as B/OM/174, unit B/OM/309 was excavated three months later, and therefore is here considered a different locus. B/OM/310—Type H. Fill excavated on April 15th, 1955, associated with “Level C”. It is the same as B/OM/175. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: April 15th, 1955, n. 20, ff. annex 2r–2v. Materials Found: – Glass paste disk. BAE/1955/B/OM/310/vit/1 – Sigillata pottery fragment with the figure of a wolf. BAE/1955/B/OM/310/cer/1 – Varied sigillata pottery fragments, plain. BAE/1955/B/OM/310/cer/4 – Pottery fragment, red on its outer face, without slip. BAE/1955/B/OM/310/cer/2 – Lamp fragments. BAE/1955/B/OM/310/cer/5 – Fragments for “thin wall” vases. BAE/1955/B/OM/310/cer/6 – Amphora with neck mark and a rectangular epigraphic area with the following inscription: C•FOVRI. BAE/1955/B/OM/310/cer/3 First Discovered: 1955. Commentary: See entry for B/OM/309. B/OM/311—Type H. “Level D” fill between a “Level C” B/OM/310 and “Level E” B/OM/ 312.
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990
annex c
Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: April 15th, 1955, n. 20, f. annex 2v. AMRF note 85. Materials Found: – Fragment of carinated vase. BAE/1955/B/OM/311/cer/1 – Coin measuring 2 centimeters in diameter, 1:100 fraction. Unidentified. BAE/1955/B/ OM/310/num/1 First Discovered: 1955 B/OM/312—Type H. “Level E” described in Ramos Folqués’ excavation diary entry for April 15th, 1955, under presumed “Level D” B/OM/311. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: April 15th, 1955, n. 20, f. annex 2v. Materials Found: – Large cooking pot, with inverted rim but everted mouth (careen on lips), careened neck and globular body. The rim’s diameter is 19 centimeters; height of the pot: 25 centimeters. BAE/1955/B/OM/312/cer/1. Inside the pot: – Six big stones. BAE/1955/B/OM/312/pet/1–6 – Snail shell. BAE/1955/B/OM/312/os/1 – Bone. BAE/1955/B/OM/312/os/2 – Fragment of an Iberian painted plate. BAE/1955/B/OM/312/cer/2 First Discovered: 1955 Commentary: According to Ana Ronda (see Documental Sources), the large vase in this layer indicates it is probably a votive deposition. B/313—Type V. Stucco remains found at the western edge of the mosaic. It was first identified or recorded in the German expedition to Elche in 1971. Graphic Sources: Fig. 7.4, 19; Plates XIV.1 First Discovered: 1971 Commentary: This unit was identified late in this research, as it has not been mentioned in any publication to date. However, there is a clear continuity between this stucco and the northern stucco B/019. Logically, it would also be contemporary to southern stucco B/018. It is also detected in Hauschild’s 1971 plan, at a height of –0.31 meters from Zero Point. This implies that the stucco must have been laid before the mosaic floor, and not after it. In other words, the mosaic floor covered at least one centimeter of stucco. B/OM/314—Type H. Rectangular area of floor pavement detected on the southeastern section of sub-area B/OM (southwest of the mosaic floor). Its measurements are: east-west axis: 2.2 meters; north-south axis: 1.2 meters.
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stratigraphic unit catalogue
991
Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: April 15th, 1954, n. 19, ff. 51r, 54r. First Discovered: 1955 Commentary: According to the sketches from the Corpus documental, it seems like a pebble or gravel floor, similar to the ones found in the eastern section, and also similar to the gravel pavement found under the mosaic to the west (B/315). However, the lack of a more thorough description makes this no more than speculation. It was found under the archaeological fill B/OM/303. B/OM/315—Type V. Remains of an ashlar stone found south of gravel level B/185. Its measurements recovered in Graphic Sources are as follows: width: 0.8m.; length: 0.33m.; distance from southern edge of the mosaic: 1.55m. Graphic Sources: see B/184 First Discovered: 1955 Commentary: Found beneath fill B/184, this level is clearly associated with a submosaic level. However, there is no certainty as to which one. There may be an incongruency between the sketch by Alejandro Ramos Folqués and photographic material from 1971, which shows that the stone was roughly on the line of B/024. B/OB/316 (also T)—Types H and V. Western structure associated with a water installation at the entrance area to the basilical building. It is a large structure, with its measurements recorded in a 1954 sketch from April 15th, in the Corpus documental (notebook number 19, f. 51r). Measurements of outer edge: west “bordillo” (edge): 5 meters; north edge: 1.25 meters; south edge: 1.6 meters; eastern preserved edge: 2.8+0.6+2 meters = 5.4 meters; width of outer edge: 0.1 meters. Measurements of inner structure: western edge: 0.55 meters; northern preserved edge: 0.6 meters; northern outer edge: 0.9 meters; distance from western outer edge: 0.7 meters. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: April 15th, 1954, n. 19, ff. 51r, 54r. First Discovered: 1954 Commentary: The structure was eventually broken when the last wall of the southern edge of the mosaic, B/021, was constructed. There is no photographic evidence, and the feature was barely described despite being conspicuous in this site since 1954. B/D/317—Type V. Feature identified north of the basilical structure (sub-area B/D). The structure is north of B/187, the “convex covering” of wall B/023. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: May 25th, 1948, n. 7, f. 1v; May 26th, 1948, n. 7, f 3r.
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992
annex c
RAMOS FOLQUÉS, A. (1955): “Elche (Alicante). La Alcudia [campañas 1940–1948]”, Noticiario Arqueológico Hispánico II, no. 1–3, p. 131 (Fig. 38). Graphic Sources: Figs. 7.92; X.4; A.1, 2, 3, 4 First Discovered: 1948 Commentary: While first detected in the May 1948 excavations, and therefore documented in the first sketches that described the area as “E’” on May 25th, 1948, and again on May 26th, 1948 (Figs. A.1, 2), little is known of this U-shaped structure. The most accurate description of it is in the plan from the DAI Madrid archives (Fig. A.3). This plan, made originally by Schlunk when he visited Elche in the spring of 1948, precisely described the wall that separates what he calls “Area D” from “Area E”, or what is called here B/D and N/E respectively. On top of it is fill B/F/234, where the column base is shown in the 1948 photograph (Fig. 7.92). The structure, however, was remarkably at a lower level than that of the column base which was found in situ—though at the same line of the wall in question (Fig. 10.4). Furthermore, the Schlunk sketch plan does not show that the structure was curved, but rather that it was a straight angled rectangle attached to B/023 to the north. It was, then, a kind of room present at lower stages to the last fill. The 1948 report shows a partial description of the wall in a sketch (Fig. A.4). However, the DAI Madrid sketch by Schlunk contradicts this description. Based on the photographs recovered from the DAI Madrid archives, the wall closed the compartment to the east (N/E) and the one within the rectangle established by this unit (B/D). B/318—Type V. Apparent small fieldstones “wall” bordering the mosaic between B/026 and the mosaic floor to its northeastern edge. It had a north-south direction, not reaching central area of the mosaic floor. It is attached at its north to wall B/023. It differs from B/026 in its more regular construction technique. Graphic Sources: Fig. 7.40, 41; X.4; A.3 First Discovered: 1948 Commentary: The “wall” was eventually covered by the mosaic floor, which means that the preparatory lime level B/013 covered it before the mosaic was laid. B/319—Type V. Structural elements underneath B/026. Made of small field stones. Graphic Sources: Figs. 7.40, 41. DAI Madrid Archives: I,159-1-119; I,159-1-80; I,159-1-130; I,159-1-89 First Discovered: 1948 Commentary: It is unknown what their function was since they were covered and partially obliterated by the construction of the wall on top of it. It is clear they did not follow the same construction line as B/026. Even so, the question remains if this is in fact an archaeological fiction. It seems this element is associated, by height and
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stratigraphic unit catalogue
993
material, to B/318. Only photographs from the Schlunk Archive evidence its existence. B/EM/320—Type H. Level of gravel floor placed underneath the cement level B/EM/ 025. It is detected in Hauschild’s sketch from 1971; however, from the photographs of this intervention, evidence of this layer seems to have disappeared. Graphic Sources: Figs. 7.4, 23, 24 First Discovered: 1971 Commentary: Apparently this unit seems to be contemporary to B/EM/025, and it points to how this level was constructed. It seems it was made by a level of gravel that was laid down at the height of –0.67 meters. On top of it, the cement level B/EM/025 was placed, up to a level of –0.49 meters. The flooring is then repeated in a later period, with what was detected as B/NE/077 and so on. In my opinion the different places, where the proportion of gravel versus cement is typically used in pre-mosaic stages, and possibly also in the eastern area of the basilical building at post-mosaic stages, suggest that these rooms had a similar, or perhaps complementary use for the inhabitants of the structure where the mosaic hall was eventually built. It is under this gravel level that we find the construction that supported B/301. B/321—Type V. Continuation of wall B/026 to the south of the apse. In 1974, it was revealed that it was found “50 centimeters” to the south of the apse. Documental Sources: FOLQUÉS, R. (1974): El cristianismo En Elche, p. 105. Graphic Sources: Figs. 7.50, 51 First Discovered: 1949 (published: 1974), 1990 Commentary: The wall appeared to be 50 centimeters from the line that defined B/028 to the south of the mosaic. However, the photograph from 1990 shows that it is attached to B/020, going beyond the northern limit of B/028. S/322—Type V. Western squared plan feature on southern “wall line” of Area S. Made of earth and fieldstones. Equal to S/323. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: May 25th, 1948, n. 7, f. 1v; August 11th, 1949, n. 9, f. 17r. RAMOS FOLQUÉS, A. (1955): “Elche (Alicante)”, Noticiario Arqueológico Hispánico II, no. 1–3, 1953, p. 131 (Sketch). Graphic Sources: Figs. 8.2; A.4 First Discovered: 1948 Commentary: The feature is described next to area S/B”, but placed outside it, as a limit. It is safe to assume that this feature limited Area S to the south together with S/323.
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994
annex c
However, there is no clear stratigraphic association with any of the levels excavated there. S/323—Type V. Square plan feature to the east of S/322, representing the southern wall of Area S. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: May 25th, 1948, n. 7, f. 1v; August 11th, 1949, n. 9, f. 17r. RAMOS FOLQUÉS, A. (1955): “Elche (Alicante)”, Noticiario Arqueológico Hispánico II, no. 1–3, 1953, p. 131 (Sketch). Graphic Sources: Figs. 8.2; A.4 First Discovered: 1948 Commentary: See Commentary for S/322. S/324—Type V. Documented remains of a north-south wall, located to the south of S/322 and S/323 east-west wall line. Probably made of fieldstones and mortar. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: May 25th, 1948, n. 7, f. 1v; August 11th, 1949, n. 9, f. 17r. RAMOS FOLQUÉS, A. (1955): “Elche (Alicante)”, Noticiario Arqueológico Hispánico II, no. 1–3, 1953, p. 131 (Sketch). Graphic Sources: Fig. 8.2; A.4 First Discovered: 1948 Commentary: This wall is documented by both Schlunk and Ramos Folqués; therefore its existence is undoubted. However, beyond that, there is barely any information available for its study. It only proves the existence of structures to the south of Area S, which were left unexplored in the 1948 and subsequent excavation campaigns. It was probably associated with other tabernae structures of Area T. S/325—Type V. North-south wall, possibly between Area S/B” and S/B’ in the southern half of Area S. Recorded by Schlunk’s sketch as well as those of Ramos Folqués in 1948. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: May 25th, 1948, n. 7, f. 1v. RAMOS FOLQUÉS, A. (1955): “Elche (Alicante)”, Noticiario Arqueológico Hispánico II, no. 1–3, 1953, p. 131 (Sketch). Graphic Sources: Fig. A.4 First Discovered: 1948 Commentary: The details of this wall are unknown. It probably divided the areas S/B’ and S/B”. Stratigraphically, one cannot determine with certainty the location where it would have been placed.
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stratigraphic unit catalogue
995
S/326—Type V. “Wall c c” described in sketch from May 1948 n. 7, f. 1v of the Corpus documental. It is made of fieldstones and a large amount of mortar. It was also rediscovered and studied in the DAI-Madrid expedition in 1971, where its height and width were registered: width: 0.45 meters; uppermost height: –0.27 meters from Zero Point; lowermost recorded point: –0.39 (attachment of lime mortar floor S/056). Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: May 1948, n. 7, f. 1v (sketch). Graphic Sources: Figs. 7.4, 43 First Discovered: 1948 Commentary: This wall was first considered a continuation of wall S/053. However, the difference in material led to the abandonment of this idea (S/053 was made of adobe, not fieldstones; furthermore, there is a discordance of the walls’ positions). Instead, one should assume it to be contemporary to wall S/053, which was placed under the level of S/203, which is associated in turn to S/056. The wall was covered by white stucco S/327. The plan made by Hauschild, in 1971, shows this wall being attached to wall B/010, despite being perpendicular. To the south of this unit, wall B/010 was broken or did not continue. The western edge of this wall was apparently broken, perhaps when the eastern apse was built. The eastern edge of this east-west wall was seemingly not broken, and it perhaps evidences the existence of an opening to enter the space between S/053 and S/326. S/327—Type V. Remains of white stucco equal to S/124 to the west of B/010. Graphic Sources: Fig. 7.43 First Discovered: 1948 Commentary: This stucco is identical to white stucco S/127, and S/057. It covered east-west wall S/326 and is best preserved in its northern face, as it was preserved between lime and gravel floor S/056 and the wall itself. Apparently, this stucco was associated with a pre-S/053 level, as was the wall to which it is attached. S/B/328—Type V. Square-planned architectural feature to the east of S/326, following the same wall line. Graphic Sources: Fig. 8.17 First Discovered: 1990 T/W/329—Type I. “Level B” layer located in the probe to the south of sub-area B/OB as described in Corpus documental. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: April 15th, 1954, n. 19, f. 52r. Alexander Bar-Magen Numhauser - 978-90-04-41992-6 Downloaded from Brill.com 03/03/2024 09:27:00PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison
996
annex c
First Discovered: 1954 Commentary: This probe T/W was documented on April 15th, in an area to the south of the general sub-area B/OB, and to the east of the structure classified as B/OB/316. T/W/330—Type H. Fill underneath “Level B” interface T/W/329. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: April 15th, 1954, n. 19, f. 52r. Materials Found: – Three small coins. No further description. BAE/1954/T/W/330/num/1, 2, 3 First Discovered: 1954 Commentary: see T/W/329. T/W/331—Type I. “Level C” interface layer on top of T/W/322. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: April 15th, 1954, n. 19, f. 52r. First Discovered: 1954 Commentary: see T/W/329. T/W/332—Type H. “Level C” fill, underneath interface for “Level C” T/W/331. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: April 12th, 1954, n. 19, f. 47r. AMRF notes 84, 85, 86; April 15th, 1954, n. 19, f. 52r, 53r. AMRF note 92; April 16th, 1954, n. 19, f. 55. AMRF note 96; April 17th, 1954, n. 19, f. 56v. Materials Found: April 12th, 1954: – Jar with two handles, without decoration. – Fragment of sigillata vase with medallions possibly depicting a small man in profile. AMRF identifies it as item LA-7636, of Hispanic production (TSH) Dragendorff 37A type from the La Rioja factories (late 1st to 2nd century ce). BAE/1954/T/W/332/cer/ I/2 – Fragment of plaque with small barbs. BAE/1954/T/W/332/misc/1 – Fragment of red vase. BAE/1954/T/W/332/cer/I/3 – Many fragments of coarse grey pottery. BAE/1954/T/W/332/cer/II/1… – Fragment of flat basin (“escudilla”). BAE/1954/T/W/332/cer/I/4 – Fragment of vase with incised lines (perpendicular intersections, diagonal). BAE/ 1954/T/W/332/cer/I/5 – Base of sigillata plate. BAE/1954/T/W/332/cer/I/6 April 15th, 1954: – Placed “within a wall” at “level D–E” is an oil lamp with handle and decorative incised dots around its discus and a palm branch with flanking leaves. AMRF identifies it as item LA-1479, of “strange typology”. BAE/1954/T/W/332/cer/I/7 Alexander Bar-Magen Numhauser - 978-90-04-41992-6 Downloaded from Brill.com 03/03/2024 09:27:00PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison
stratigraphic unit catalogue
997
– Sigillata piece. BAE/1954/T/W/332/cer/I/1 – Bronze button disk (?). BAE/1954/T/W/332/met/1 April 17th, 1954: – Small copper top, flat. BAE/1954/T/W/332/Cu/1 – Coin (1:100 fraction) in very bad shape. 3 centimeters in diameter, without identification. BAE/1954/T/W/332/num/1 – Another coin (1:100 fraction), 1.9 centimeters in diameter, without identification. BAE/1954/T/W/332/num/2 First Discovered: 1954 Commentary: see T/W/329. T/W/333—Type I. “Level D” interface level for T/W/334. Possibly made of small boulders or stones, as the layer was drawn in the sketch with circles in line rather than a straight line. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: April 15th, 1954, n. 19, f. 52r. First Discovered: 1954 Commentary: see T/W/329. T/W/334—Type H. “Level D” fill described in the T/W probe, under interface T/W/333. Perhaps, due to the sketched description, it is made of boulders and earth. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: April 15th, 1954, n. 19, f. 52r; April 16th, 1954, n. 19, f. 55r; April 17th, 1954, n. 19, f. 56r. RAMOS FOLQUÉS, A. (1962): “Excavaciones en La Alcudia: memoria de las practicadas durante 1953”, Noticiario Arqueológico Hispánico, V (1956–1961), Pl. LXXXI, 18. Materials Found: April 12th, 1954: – Shard of painted Iberian pottery. On top of a series of horizontal lines is the representation of a standing hare and behind it (to its right) two legs of a human figure in a procession. Identified by AMRF as item LA-6313, “Estilo Ilicitano I”. BAE/1954/T/W/334/cer/2 – Coin (semis) from Carthago Nova. On its obverse, the figure of a fish with the letters “T POPI”. On its reverse, the image of a palm branch with the letters below it “QVIN”. It is number 406 of the Abascal and Alberola catalogue (2007). BAE/1954/T/W/334/ num/1 – Lead fragment. BAE/1954/T/W/334/Pb/1 – Painted pottery shard, with its decorated part placed upside down and within a wall. It depicts different figures, including the posterior of a horse or carnivore. AMRF identified it as item LA-6312. BAE/1954/T/W/334/cer/3
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998
annex c
– With the previous shard, fragment of an iron sword. BAE/1954/T/W/334/Fe/1 April 15th, 1954: – Disk lamp, with central small opening, oval shape, and broken beak. BAE/1954/T/ W/334/cer/1 – Black stone piece, with a decorated circle and, within it, 8 white spots. Identified by AMRF as weight, item LA-2089. BAE/1954/T/W/334/pet/1 April 17th, 1954: – Decorated vase (4) with top (5), possibly a foundational votive offering. They have a globular body, small annular base, two small oval-profile handles on their shoulders, and a straight rim. The vase has diagonal intersecting (perpendicular) incised lines. AMRF indicates it could be item LA-2362, though today the top seems to be missing. BAE/1954/T/W/334/cer/4, 5 – Remains of an egg within decorated vase with top. BAE/1954/T/W/334/os/1 – Stone ax. BAE/1954/T/W/334/pet/2 – A grey earthen weight. BAE/1954/T/W/334/ter/1 – Coin. BAE/1954/T/W/334/num/2 First Discovered: 1954. Commentary: see T/W/329. T/W/335—Type I. “Level E” interface, below fill for “Level D” T/W/334. Perhaps of similar material as T/W/333 associated with “Level D”. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: April 15th, 1954, n. 19, f. 52r. First Discovered: 1954 Commentary: see T/W/329. T/W/336—Type H. “Level E” fill described in the T/W probe, under interface T/W/335. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: April 12th, 1954, n. 19, f. 49r; April 15th, 1954, n. 19, f. 52r; April 16th, 1954, n. 19, f. 55r; April 17th, 1954, n. 19, f. 56r. RAMOS FOLQUÉS, A. (1962): “Excavaciones en La Alcudia: memoria de las practicadas durante 1953”, Noticiario Arqueológico Hispánico, V (1956–1961), lám. LXXXI, 18. Materials Found: April 12th, 1954: – Varied pottery fragments. BAE/1954/T/W/336/cer/II/1 – Part of a decorated vase. Globular body, with zig-zagging horizontal lines on an upper band, and another middle band with waved vertical lines. BAE/1954/T/W/ 336/cer/I/4 April 15th, 1954: – Small plate decorated with geometric shapes: concentric semicircles, rhomboids, horizontal line. BAE/1954/T/W/336/cer/I/1 Alexander Bar-Magen Numhauser - 978-90-04-41992-6 Downloaded from Brill.com 03/03/2024 09:27:00PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison
999
stratigraphic unit catalogue
– Painted ceramic piece with a face in profile (possibly a deity) and part of a wing. Identified by AMRF as item LA-4809, an oenochoe. BAE/1954/T/W/336/cer/I/2 – A piece of pottery, a bucket. BAE/1954/T/W/336/cer/I/3 First Discovered: 1954 Commentary: see T/W/329. T/W/337—Type H. Fill associated with a “Level F”, directly under T/W/336 fill for “Level E”. This fill covers a hole done on bedrock (T/W/-338) next to the burial (T/W/-339, T/W/340, T/W/341). Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: April 15th, 1954, n. 19, f. 52r; April 16th, 1954, n. 19, f. 55r. Materials Found: – “Acorn” form amphora. BAE/1954/T/W/337/cer/I/1 – Small pieces of pottery. BAE/1954/T/W/337/cer/II/1 First Discovered: 1954 Commentary: see T/W/329. T/W/-338—Type X. Hole made next to burial for individual T/W/340, filled with T/W/ 337. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: April 15th, 1954, n. 19, f. 52r; April 16th, 1954, n. 19, f. 55r. First Discovered: 1954. Commentary: see T/W/329. T/W/-339—Type X. Burial hole for individual T/W/340. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: April 15th, 1954, n. 19, f. 52r. First Discovered: 1954 Commentary: Probably reached to the lowest level, that is, bedrock, and covered with “Level E” fill T/W/336 after the placing of the individual. T/W/340—Type X. Human remains of infantile individual. Covered by T/W/336. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: April 15th, 1954, n. 19, f. 52r. First Discovered: 1954 T/341—Type V. North-south wall detected in sketches from April 15th, 1954 (n. 14, ff. 51r, 54r). It is located to the east of wall T/306. It is attached to wall B/020 in its continuation to the west. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: April 15th, 1954, n. 19, ff. 51r, 54r. Alexander Bar-Magen Numhauser - 978-90-04-41992-6 Downloaded from Brill.com 03/03/2024 09:27:00PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison
1000
annex c
First Discovered: 1954 Commentary: Little is known of this wall, except that it follows the direction of, and has similarities with, other walls such as “P” T/103 or “P1” T/104. T/H1/342—Type H. Ashes circle, contemporaneous to T/269, placed to the east of Ushaped structure T/H1/264. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 14th, 1948, n. 7, ff. 21v; September 24th, 1948, n. 7, f. 22r. First Discovered: 1948 Commentary: The sketch from September 14th, 1948, reveals that this circle was placed after the partial demolition of the U-shaped structure T/H1/264. While there is no evidence this burnt circle was made at the same time as the T/269, it is safe to assume they at least correspond to the same period, and therefore they are contemporaneous, though not necessarily identical. T/343—Type V. East-west wall detected on the sketch from May 10th, 1950. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: May 10th, 1950, n. 10, ff. 35v–36r. First Discovered: 1950 Commentary: It is attached, or partially placed, underneath T/105 and was constructed at a “Level E”. Therefore, it would be covered by subsequent fills, eventually used as a foundation for the wall T/105 for “Levels A and B”. C/E/344—Type X. “Small heaps” of limestone accumulation, to the south of “Room S” or T/E/S. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: December 28th, 1949, n. 11, f. 23r; May 10th, 1950, n. 11, ff. 35v–36r. First Discovered: 1949 Commentary: These “small heaps” of limestones are, according to the sketch from May 10th, 1950, placed in an orderly east-west direction to the south of “Room S” T/E/S. In that sense they may be a continuation or a similar wall to the one found to the east, attached to T/106, or T/A2/344. T/E/P/345—Type V. Wall that limits “Room P” to the west, 5.2 meters to the west of T/E/Q/156. Its measurements are 0.4 meters wide, 2.7 meters long, and it is attached, at its north, to wall T/105. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: May 10th, 1950, n. 11, ff. 35v–36r.
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stratigraphic unit catalogue
1001
First Discovered: 1949–1950 Commentary: The measurements are almost identical to T/103, T/104, and T/E/Q/156, suggesting they might all be contemporary. However, the fact that only a “Level B” was detected associated with “Room R” in this area, and that the “Level A” mosaic T/E/T’/145 was already limited by walls that compartmentalized this sub-area T/E, we can assume that these walls to the east were more associated with a “Level B” than a “Level A”. P/346—Type V. Western portal base placed in the wall to sustain a doorway. It is made of one block of stone, possibly limestone, with two small grooves carved on it and a pronounced outer edge. No measurements were recovered. Furthermore, it was broken in two, probably due to the secondary use of this feature. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: July 22nd, 1949, n. 9, f. 14r. Graphic Sources: Fig. 10.5 Materials Found: – Base of a kantharos, in between the portal’s two stones “found at the start of the excavation of the Palace”. It is made of orange-yellow paste. According to AMRF, it is probably a Dragendorff 25 (Gallic production or TSG), of Claudio-Neronian date. BAE/1949/P/346/cer/1 First Discovered: 1948 Commentary: The portal’s grooves and promontory to the outside indicate that this portal block sustained a two-sheet door that opened to the inside. P/347—Type H. “Level D” fill associated with P/D/283 and P/D/286, excavated on July 14th, 1949. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: July 14th, 1949, n. 9, ff. 12r–13r. AMRF notes 22, 23, 24. Materials Found: – Half a sigillata cup. BAE/1949/P/D/347/cer/1 – Piece of adobe (brick?) “from the level of urn and plate” of July 14th, 1949. BAE/1949/ P/D/347/misc/1 – Fragment of “top-hat” pottery with cylindrical body and everted rim. Identified by AMRF as being a Reynolds ERW3.1 cup, of local production. BAE/1949/P/D/347/ cer/2 – Fragment of a plate rim without decoration, made of “good fine” clay. BAE/1949/P/ D/347/cer/3 In “Iberian-Roman-Imperial” level: – Arched fibula. BAE/1949/P/D/347/met/1 First Discovered: 1949
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1002
annex c
P/A/348—Type H. Fill under “Level A” P/275, and therefore associated with “Level C” fill P/276, yet found under the almond tree probe (P/A) as described on July 22nd, 1949. It is also described as “under the level of the cup”. Documental Sources: ARF, Excavation Diaries: July 27th, 1949, p. 6.8b (classification as of 2014. Notebook number 9 in Corpus documental). FLA Archives. Materials Found: July 22nd, 1949: – Sigillata pottery fragment. BAE/1949/P/A/348/cer/I/1 – Pondus. BAE/1949/P/A/348/misc/1 – Sigillata with two marks (see Excavation Diaries). BAE/1949/P/A/348/cer/I/2 – An amphora without decoration, “the same as the one found in the Northwestern angle of the Palace”. BAE/1949/P/A/348/cer/I/3 – A small complete amphora, painted. BAE/1949/P/A/348/cer/I/4 – Glass handle with figures. BAE/1949/P/A/348/vit/1 – Incomplete amphora of light-color clay. BAE/1949/P/A/348/cer/I/5 First Discovered: 1949 P/A/349—Type H/I. Large boulder or river stone pavement floor, mentioned on July 27th, 1949, in Ramos Folqués’ Excavation Diaries. Documental Sources: ARF, Excavation Diaries: July 27th, 1949, p. 6.8b (classification as of 2014. Notebook number 9 in Corpus documental). FLA Archives. First Discovered: 1949 Commentary: There is mention of a series of “silos” (P/A/350) that was apparently found on this pavement floor. P/A/350—Type X. A silo mentioned that cut the “cobble pavement” floor P/A/349. Documental Sources: ARF, Excavation Diaries: July 27th, 1949, p. 6.8b (classification as of 2014. Notebook number 9 in Corpus documental). FLA Archives. First Discovered: 1949 P/A/351—Type H. Fill underneath river-stone or boulder pavement P/A/349. Documental Sources: ARF, Excavation Diaries: July 27th, 1949, p. 6.8b (classification as of 2014. Notebook number 9 in Corpus documental). FLA Archives. Materials Found: – Fragments of “republican amphorae” with narrow necks. BAE/1949/P/A/351/cer/I/ 1…
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stratigraphic unit catalogue
1003
– A copper needle. BAE/1949/P/A/351/Cu/1 First Discovered: 1949 P/NO/352—Type X. Silos found underneath fill P/NO/286, which would be carved into stone pavement P/NO/288. Documental Sources: ARF, Excavation Diaries: July 27th, 1949, p. 6.8b (classification as of 2014. Notebook number 9 in Corpus documental). FLA Archives. First Discovered: 1949 P/353—Type V. Southern wall of Area P, explicitly mentioned in the excavation diaries by Ramos Folqués on July 14th, 1949. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: July 14th, 1949, n. 9, f. 12r. Graphic Sources: Fig. A.3 First Discovered: 1948. Re-excavated: 1949 T/354—Type V. “Inferior” wall found at the south of the Area T excavation. It is 3.2 meters to the north of C/110. It seems to be from a previous phase than T/111. About 2 meters of this wall was found to the south of compartment T/I in east-west direction, including 50 centimeters further east of the compartment. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: November 23rd, 1950, n. 13, f. 32v (+ sketch). First Discovered: 1950 Commentary: This wall is made of well-hewn ashlar stones. It is placed almost reaching bedrock level, and around it is ground with materials “from different periods”, mixed due to the construction process that included a foundation trench. It is associated to “Level C” from Area C. In his 1995 publication, Ramos Fernández mentioned this unit as being associated with the Augustan city of Ilici. C/P/355—Type H. “Level C” in “Prolongation of Sacred Street” or sub-area C/P. Probably to the west of the sector to the south of “Room H” and “Room I” in Area T. According to the description on November 13th, 1950, the floor level was made of gravel. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: November 16th, 1950, n. 13, f. 1r; November 17th, 1950, n. 13, f. 3r; November 20th, 1950, n. 13, f. 4v. AMRF notes 31, 33, 34. Materials Found: – Style without its head. BAE/1950/C/P/355/os/1 – Coin (only profile preserved). BAE/1950/C/P/355/num/1
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1004
annex c
– Lead disk. 3 centimeters in diameter. BAE/1950/C/P/355/Pb/1 – Lead top. BAE/1950/C/P/355/Pb/2 On November 20th, 1950. – Fragment of dark glass vase, of globular body, flat base, and everted rim. Probably of late chronology (according to AMRF). BAE/1950/C/P/355/vit/1 – Fragment of small jar or amphora with concentric circles decoration (possibly profile of a Greek jug according to AMRF). BAE/1950/C/P/355/cer/1 – Fragment of clay oil lamp (“lucerna”) with red ochre. BAE/1950/C/P/355/cer/2 – Fragment of coarse sigillata. According to AMRF it is Late Hispanic Terra Sigillata (TSHT) as it lacks a shine. BAE/1950/C/P/355/cer/3 – Fragment of cylindrical sigillata vase. BAE/1950/C/P/355/cer/4 – Fragment of a potter’s mold. The decoration includes a series of sheep grazing in front of buildings with three openings: two smaller ones flanking a central one. Identified as item LA-3554 by AMRF. Dated to the 6th century ce. BAE/1950/C/P/355/ cer/5 First Discovered: 1950 Commentary: It is unknown as to which direction this “prolongation” of the street was excavated. However, given the sketch from notebook 14, f. 2r of the Corpus documental, it seems to be to the west of T/I and T/H, south of which the excavation of Area C began in 1949. The mold reflects crucial aspects regarding the Christian phase. It shows a series of sheep grazing in front of buildings with deep symbolic value: two smaller doors flanking a larger central one, which is the main entrance. The buildings are a schematic reflection of a church from Late Antiquity. C/P/356—Type H. “Level D” fill below gravel layer C/P/355. It was revisited on October 2nd, a year after its initial probe. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: November 18th, 1950, n. 13, ff. 3r–3v; November 20th, 1950, n. 13, f. 5r. AMRF notes 35, 36; November 22nd, 1950, n. 13, f. 7r; October 2nd, 1951, n. 14, f. 7r. Materials Found: November 18th, 1950: – Fragments of painted vase with birds, a carnivore, and other small animals. BAE/ 1950/C/P/356/cer/I/1 – Half a collar bead. BAE/1950/C/P/356/misc/1 – Four lead disks with profiles of similar sizes: between 2 and 3.5 centimeters. BAE/ 1950/C/P/356/Pb/1, 2, 3, 4 – Copper coin, no identifiable marks, 1.6 centimeters in diameter. BAE/1950/C/P/356/ num/1
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stratigraphic unit catalogue
1005
– Another copper coin, 2 centimeters in diameter, with a protuberance adhered to it. BAE/1950/C/P/356/num/2 – Very fragmented copper object. BAE/1950/C/P/356/Cu/1 – Fragment of copper bracelet or earring. BAE/1950/C/P/356/Cu/2 November 20th, 1950: – Bone object shaped like a fish profile. According to AMRF, it is possibly a knife hold (LA-2120). BAE/1950/C/P/356/os/I/1 – A weight. BAE/1950/C/P/356/misc/2 – A lot of pottery without decoration, and varied vases. BAE/1950/C/P/356/cer/II/1… – Fragment of black indigenous pottery, Campanian form (imitation). BAE/1950/C/ P/356/cer/I/2 – Another fragment of black indigenous pottery. BAE/1950/C/P/356/cer/I/3 November 22nd, 1950: – Fine red small plate. BAE/1950/C/P/356/cer/I/4 October 6th, 1951: – Two fragments of a plate rim with painted vegetal decoration, and possibly Iberian letters, according to ARF. BAE/1951/C/P/356/cer/I/5, 6 – Sharpener. BAE/1951/C/P/356/pet/1 – Fish spines. BAE/1951/C/P/356/os/II/1… – Small animal bones. BAE/1951/C/P/356/os/III/1… – A small basin made of mud disks, i.e., a series of piled up tiles. BAE/1951/C/P/356/ ter/I/1… First Discovered: 1950 Commentary: Possibly the “revisiting” of this fill in October 1951 was the excavation of another sector of the building complex all together. Nevertheless, the fill is placed “to the west” of the excavation of probe T/H/S, but in the street. C/357—Type I or H. Interface layer below “Level E” and above bedrock. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 20th, 1949, n. 10, f. 25r. RAMOS FOLQUÉS, A. (1956): “Memoria de las excavaciones practicadas en La Alcudia (Elche) [Campañas 1949–1952]”, pp. 106–107. RONDA FEMENIA, A.M. (2018): L’Alcúdia de Alejandro Ramos Folqués, pp. 167–168. Materials Found: – Fine paste and compact grey pottery, with irregular square decorations, cut by hand (excise decorations). AMRF identifies it as item LA-544. BAE/1949/C/357/cer/1 – Campanian pottery with circular lines, matte (grey-green) color in its interior. BAE/ 1949/C/357/cer/2 First Discovered: 1949 Commentary: According to Ana Ronda (2018), the pottery was probably of a 3rd century bce date. The absence of sigillata pottery would confirm this. Alexander Bar-Magen Numhauser - 978-90-04-41992-6 Downloaded from Brill.com 03/03/2024 09:27:00PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison
1006
annex c
C/P/358—Type H. “Level E” fill below layer C/P/356. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: November 16th, 1950, n. 13, f. 2r. AMRF notes 24, 25; November 20th, 1950, n. 13, f. 5r. AMRF notes 37, 38; November 21st, 1950, n. 13, f. 6r. AMRF notes 39, 40; November 22nd, 1950, n. 13, f. 7r–8r. AMRF notes 41, 42, 43, 44; September 29th, 1951, n. 14, ff. 5r–6r. AMRF notes 11, 12, 13, 14, 15. Materials Found: November 16th, 1950: – Fragment of “top-hat” pottery. Decorated with vegetal volutes, what appears to be vine leaves, and a semi-concentric circle at its rim flanked by two series of zigzagging lines. According to AMRF, it was restored by Alejandro Ramos Folqués, and is today catalogued as LA-1135. BAE/1950/C/P/358/cer/I/1 – Two double-conical weights. BAE/1950/C/P/358/misc/1, 2 – Two glass necklace pendants of smaller size. BAE/1950/C/P/358/vit/1, 2 – Two glass necklace pendants of larger size, with decorative incised lines. BAE/1950/ C/P/358/vit/3, 4 – One bone stylus with wide sting. BAE/1950/C/P/358/os/1 – Lead disk. BAE/1950/C/P/358/Pb/1 – Small copper sheet, trapezoidal shape. BAE/1950/C/P/358/Cu/1 – Fragment of great vase, decorated with zig-zagging or waving lines (“rooftops”) and concentric semi-circles. BAE/1950/C/P/358/cer/I/2 November 20th, 1950: – Earthen top. Vegas 16b type (AMRF), associated with Italic wine amphoras. BAE/ 1950/C/P/358/cer/I/3 – Two pieces of painted pottery (according to AMRF they are Estilo Ilicitano I). – One with horizontal waves. BAE/1950/C/P/358/cer/I/4 – One with vertical, diagonal, and wavy lines. BAE/1950/C/P/356/cer/I/5 November 21st, 1950: – Coin with Janus (double-profile) and prow. Republican, sized 1:100, 3.5 centimeters in diameter. BAE/1950/C/P/358/num/1 – Reddish weight, conical. BAE/1950/C/P/358/misc/3 – Small lead sheet. BAE/1950/C/P/358/Pb/2 – Lead object. BAE/1950/C/P/358/Pb/3 – Copper ring. BAE/1950/C/P/358/Cu/2 – Copper needle. BAE/1950/C/P/358/Cu/3 – Bone awl. BAE/1950/C/P/358/os/2 – “Top-hat” pottery with vegetal decorations. Conde D-1.2 type. Identified as item LA1145. BAE/1950/C/P/358/cer/I/6 – Small black vase, fine, indigenous. Second fragment found on November 22nd. BAE/1950/C/P/358/cer/I/7, 10
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stratigraphic unit catalogue
1007
– Small plate with painted fragments and others without paint. BAE/1950/C/P/358/ cer/I/8 November 22nd, 1950: – Bronze hook. BAE/1950/C/P/358/met/1 – 10 centimeter bronze awl. BAE/1950/C/P/358/met/2 – Hispanian coin with figure in profile, BAE/1950/C/P/358/num/1 (within “top-hat pottery” C/P/358/cer/I/6) – Small carbonized almond. BAE/1950/C/P/358/misc/4 – Fragment of blue and red vase, Megarian pottery, decorated with waves at a lower band and with stars at an upper one. Identified by AMRF as LA-941. BAE/1950/C/P/ 358/cer/I/9 – Fine conch valve. BAE/1950/C/P/358/os/3 – Lead disk. BAE/1950/C/P/358/Pb/4 – Fragment of Campanian inkpot, Lamboglia 3 of the Campanian B calena form. BAE/1950/C/P/358/cer/I/11 – Campanian base. BAE/1950/C/P/358/cer/I/12 – Another Campanian base. BAE/1950/C/P/358/cer/I/13 – Fragment of indigenous black fine small vase. BAE/1950/C/P/358/cer/I/14 – “Top-hat pottery” kalathos. Conde D-1 type. BAE/1950/C/P/358/cer/I/15 – Stone tile. BAE/1950/C/P/358/pet/1 – Fragments of more decorated “top-hat pottery”. BAE/1950/C/P/358/cer/II/1… September 29th, 1951: – Stone fragment “like the sculptures” (sandstone). The drawing and commentary by AMRF identifies it as a Corinthian capital, only preserved on one of its decorated sides. It is not yet identified (as of 2018). It is 45 centimeters thick, 18 centimeters wide, and 16 centimeters tall. It presents an acanthus leaf and one volute protruding from the leaf’s base. BAE/1951/C/P/358/pet/2 – Three fragments of Greek pottery with red and white figures. The first (16), presents a painted Dionysiac scene in red-figure style and is identified as LA-1334. The second (17), presents red-figure geometric labyrinthian forms and is identified as LA-1324. The third appears in f. 6r, presumably next to the other two, and is a red-figures base LA-1332. All were identified by AMRF (2018, p. 177). BAE/1950/C/P/358/cer/I/16, 17, 18 – Campanian pottery with decorative mark, decorated with a palm branch from the center. It is possibly a base of an Attic pottery (AMRF commentary). BAE/1951/C/P/ 358/cer/I/19 – Iberian pottery with geometric motif decoration. BAE/1951/C/P/358/cer/I/20 – A “cubic” stone slab (“like the statues”, that is, sandstone). Its measurements: 10 centimeters wide; 10 centimeters long; 6 centimeters high. Identified as LA-6390. BAE/1951/C/P/358/pet/3
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1008
annex c
– Black pottery, indigenous, with mica minerals and other white materials. Decorated with “a cord” (digited). BAE/1951/C/P/358/cer/I/21 – Fragment painted pottery. An annular base painted white, and horizontal waved lines as outer decoration. BAE/1951/C/P/358/cer/I/22 First Discovered: 1950 Commentary: To the abundance of materials discovered in this unit’s first discovery in 1950, one must add a second excavation of more earth in this level on September 29th, 1951. The latter could have been another probe, but Alejandro Ramos Folqués still considered it to be the excavation “to the west” of the original probes of Area C or “Street”. C/P/359—Type I. “Level F” below layer C/P/358, final layer of the probe. It is probably a floor layer of green soil that partially covered the limiting structures to the south (C/110) and north (C/375). Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: November 16th, 1950, n. 13, f. 2r. AMRF notes 26, 27, 28. Materials Found: – Fragment of big vase, with parallel horizontal lines (three) as decoration. BAE/1950/ C/P/359/cer/1 – Weight, apparently fragmentary (lower half). BAE/1950/C/P/359/misc/1 – Fragment of Greek pottery. Unrecognizable drawing accompanies the description. BAE/1950/C/P/359/cer/2 First Discovered: 1950 T/H/S/360—Type I. “Interface” layer for probe T/H/S in room T/H, September 20th, 1951. Made of gravel and lime mortar. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 20th, 1951, n. 14, f. 2r, annex 1r. First Discovered: 1951 Commentary: This opening layer of the probe is parallel to the one already opened in autumn 1948 (see T/H1). However, the location is clearly identified as different, to its south, as no burial from “Level C” (T/H/S/-366, 367, 368) was found in the previous intervention. T/H/S/361—Type H. “Level A” fill under T/H/S/360. It is 12 centimeters thick. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 20th, 1951, n. 14, f. 2r, annex 1r. First Discovered: 1951
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stratigraphic unit catalogue
1009
T/H/S/362—Type I. “Level B” floor under T/H/S/361. Made of gravel and lime mortar. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 20th, 1951, n. 14, f. 2r, annex 1r. First Discovered: 1951. Commentary: It has been initially interpreted as equivalent to T/H/208. However, T/208 was described as a “cement floor”, and not a “gravel and lime” floor. T/H/S/363—Type H. “Level B” fill under floor T/H/S/362. It is 25 centimeters thick. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 20th, 1951, n. 14, f. 2r, annex 1r. First Discovered: 1951 Commentary: This layer is only five centimeters thinner than T/H/108 from another probe. T/H/S/364—Type I. “Level C” floor under “Level B” fill T/H/S/363. It is made of cobblestones (“guijarros”). Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 20th, 1951, n. 14, f. 2r, annex 1r. First Discovered: 1951 T/H/S/365—Type H. Fill for “Level C” under floor T/H/S/364. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 20th, 1951, n. 14, f. 2r, annex 1r. AMRF notes 6, 7. RONDA FEMENIA, A.M. (2018): L’Alcúdia de Alejandro Ramos Folqués, p. 176. Materials Found: September 20th, 1951: – Fragment of Campanian B pottery with a mark from a coin. According to AMRF, decorations on this pottery piece are of opposing schematic squares, typical of this pottery type from between 150 to 100bce. BAE/1951/T/H/S/365/cer/1 – Coin, 2.5 centimeters in diameter. BAE/1951/T/H/S/365/num/1 – Decorated pottery fragment with attached handle, with an upside-down painted “V” and other geometric motifs. BAE/1951/T/H/S/365/cer/2 – Decorated fragment with painted bird feet. BAE/1951/T/H/S/365/cer/3 First Discovered: 1951 Commentary: According to the annex to notebook 14 from the Corpus documental, the greenish-grey earth detected here is possibly at a lower section than the floor, thus differentiating between the upper interface and the fill layer.
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1010
annex c
T/H/S/-366—Type X. Burial hole for individual T/H/S/367. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 25th, 1951, n. 14, f. 3r. First Discovered: 1951 Commentary: This burial hole breaks “Level D” floor T/H/S/369, as indicated in the stratigraphic sketch from September 25th, 1951. T/H/S/367—Type X. Skeleton mentioned on September 25th, 1951. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 25th, 1951, n. 14, f. 3r. First Discovered: 1951 Commentary: There is no information about this individual beyond the fact that the person was placed under a series of ashlar stones, serving as a mark and an architectural fill. There is no description of the skeleton. However, one noteworthy fact is that the direction of the individual’s placement tends to be NE-SW rather than the conventional E-W of late antique burials. The explanation is probably due to the remains of hewn stone placed in a “U-shaped” form (T/H/S/374), east to similar feature T/H1/264. Erosion and other actions probably moved the ashlar stones of fill T/H/S/368, including the remains of the skeleton. T/H/S/368—Type H. Fill on top of individual T/H/S/368. This includes a series of hewn ashlar stones and architectural remains placed on top of the individual. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 20th, 1951, n. 14, f. 2r (stratigraphic sketch); September 25th, 1951, n. 14, f. 3r. Materials Found: – Ashlar stones on top of skeleton. – Architectural remains (“other wall fragments”). – Sigillata pottery with painted fish as decoration. BAE/1951/T/H/S/368/cer/1 – Roman sigillata pottery without decoration. BAE/1951/T/H/S/368/cer/2 First Discovered: 1951 Commentary: The use of hewn ashlar stones indicates an important ritual burial practice. The fact that they were found with a NE-SW direction is probably due to erosion and/or taphonomy on the burial during the site’s use (see T/H/S/367, 374). Remains of sigillata pottery indicate that it is at least from the late 1st century ce. This fits with evidence found in the interior of U-shaped feature T/H1/264. T/H/S/369—Type I. “Level D” floor for probe T/H/S. It is affected by canal T/H/091. Apparently, it is made of reddish earth. Unlike fill T/H/S/370 for this level, it is not battered.
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stratigraphic unit catalogue
1011
Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 20th, 1951, n. 14, ff. 2r, annex 1r. Materials Found: September 20th, 1951: – Pottery shards (“tiestos” according to ARF), placed on the use level of the street. BAE/1951/T/H/S/369/cer/I/1… First Discovered: 1951 T/H/S/370—Type H. “Level D” fill under interface floor T/H/S/369. It is 14 centimeters thick and described as having a green-grey color. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 20th, 1951, n. 14, f. 2r–2v, annex 1r; September 25th, 1951, n. 14, f. 3r, 4r. AMRF note 10. Materials Found: September 25th, 1951: – Coin, 2.1 centimeters. Recognized by AMRF as a coin from Carthago Nova of Tiberius, minted in 22ce. BAE/1951/T/H/S/370/num/1 – Broken stylus. BAE/1951/T/H/S/370/os/1 First Discovered: 1951 T/H/S/371—Type I. Battered earth interface layer for “Level E” floor. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 20th, 1951, n. 14, f. 2r–2v, annex 1r; September 25th, 1951, n. 14, f. 4r (sketch). First Discovered: 1951 T/H/S/372—Type H. Fill for “Level E”, consisting of battered grey-green earth. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 20th, 1951, n. 14, f. 2r–2v, annex 1r; September 25th, 1951, n. 14, f. 4r (sketch). Materials Found: September 20th, 1951: – Limestone fragment “like those of the sculptures”. BAE/1951/T/H/S/372/pet/1 – Fragment of painted pottery with geometric motifs. BAE/1951/T/H/S/372/cer/1 First Discovered: 1951 T/H/S/373—Type H. Fill for “Level F” identified in stratigraphic sketches from 1951 in Corpus documental. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 20th, 1951, n. 14, f. 2r–2v, annex 1r; September 25th, 1951, n. 14, f. 4r (sketch). Alexander Bar-Magen Numhauser - 978-90-04-41992-6 Downloaded from Brill.com 03/03/2024 09:27:00PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison
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annex c
Materials Found: September 20th, 1951: – Painted pottery with decorative concentric semi-circles, limited by an upper band. BAE/1951/T/H/S/373/cer/1 First Discovered: 1951 T/H/S/374—Type V. U-shaped structure that defined the space for burial of individual T/H/S/367. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 25th, 1951, n. 14, f. 3r (sketch). First Discovered: 1951 Commentary: This feature is similar to the U-shaped structure T/H1/264. Their chronologies seem to fit, too, as they are dated no later than the 3rd century ce. The association of this feature, only preserved on its eastern side, with what seems like four fieldstones, strongly suggests that the other U-shaped feature is probably a burial. C/375—Type V. Wall foundation feature below T/111, possibly of an original wall. It was placed on top of the virgin soil, limiting the street to the north. It is 20 centimeters high, probably made of hewn stone. It was covered by “green soil” C/P/359. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 20th, 1951, n. 14, f. 2r, f. annex 1r (sketch); September 25th, 1951, n. 14, f. 4r (sketch). First Discovered: 1950 T/W/376—Type H. Apparent fill “Level F” underneath T/W/336. Supposedly broken by burial hole T/W/-339. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: April 15th, 1954, n. 19, f. 49r. Materials Found: April 12th, 1954: – Painted pottery fragment with vertical waved bands, leaves, and zig-zagging horizontal lines. BAE/1954/T/W/376/cer/1 April 17th, 1954: – Loom weight, colored red with incisions. BAE/1954/B/OM/376/ter/1 – Pottery piece, straight body, and distinct neck with decorative circular incisions on its shoulder. BAE/1954/B/OM/376/cer/2 – Copper needle. BAE/1954/B/OM/376/Cu/1 First Discovered: 1954
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stratigraphic unit catalogue
1013
T/-377—Type X. Drainage channel detected on sketch from September 25th, 1951, west of burial T/H/S/367. The sketch indicates that this drainage seems to have had an east-west direction. It crossed Area T, but at a certain point west of the abovementioned burial it turns southwards, in a diagonal section that is 1 meter long. Following that, the longest section of this channel is 4 meters. The channel keeps a regular width of 25 centimeters. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 20th, 1951, n. 14, f. 3r (sketch). First Discovered: 1951 T/H/S/378—Type I. Floor layer made of reddish earth. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 20th, 1951, n. 14, f. 2r, annex 1r (sketches); September 25th, 1951, n. 14, f. 4r (sketch). Graphic Sources: Figs. 9.23, 25, 27. First Discovered: 1951 Commentary: This is a second “Level D” layer detected through the sketches mentioned in the Documental and Graphic Sources. T/H/S/379—Type H. Fill of “reddish earth” in lower “Level D”. Documental Sources: ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: September 20th, 1951, n. 14, f. 2r, annex 1r (sketches); September 25th, 1951, n. 14, f. 4r (sketch). Graphic Sources: Figs. 9.23, 25, 27. Materials Found: September 20th, 1951: – Campanian pottery without mark, incomplete. It has a globular body, wide annular base and widened everted rim. BAE/1951/T/H/S/379/cer/1 – Globular baseless pottery, incomplete vase without decoration (smooth), of yellow paste. BAE/1951/T/H/S/379/cer/2 First Discovered: 1951 Commentary: According to stratigraphic sketch from September 20th, 1951 (Fig. 9.28), it is in this “lower Level D” that one finds the pottery fragments (“tiestos” sic.), as described by Ramos Folqués. This reddish layer covers the wall T/106. It could have originally covered the wall’s foundation, but over time the street’s level rise would end up completely covering this wall by the time “Level C” fill T/H/S/365 was placed.
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annex d
Relation between the Re-excavation Catalogue of Materials and the Catalogue of Items from the Alcudia de Elche
Re-excavation catalogue materials
Alcudia de Elche Notes items catalogue: (according to Ana Ronda, 2018)
BAE/1949/B/011/vit/1 BAE/1949/S/B’/048/cer/I/1 BAE/1949/S/B’/048/cer/I/2 BAE/1949/S/B’/048/cer/I/4 BAE/1949/S/B/D/062/ter/1 BAE/1949/S/B/D/070/pet/1 BAE/1949/S/B/D/070/cer/2 BAE/1949/C/E/076/met/1 BAE/1949/C/078/cer/2 BAE/1949/C/081/pet/I/1 BAE/1949/C/091/pet/I/2 BAE/1949/C/091/pet/I/1 BAE/1949/C/091/pet/I/2 BAE/1949/C/091/pet/I/3 BAE/1949/C/091/pet/I/5 BAE/1949/T/I/098/pet/1 BAE/1949/T/I/099/cer/1 BAE/1949/T/I/099/cer/2 BAE/1949/T/H/109/cer/1
LA-4358 LA-1787 LA-6324 LA-979 LA-750 LA-469 LA-1026 LA-3432 LA-1335 LA-688 LA-884 LA-726 LA-721 LA-875 LA-6375 LA-3703 LA-1326 LA-6399 LA-2827
BAE/1949/B/112/pet/1 BAE/1949/B/E/128/cer/1 BAE/1949/B/E/129/Fe/1 BAE/1949/B/E/129/cer/I/11 BAE/1949/B/E/129/cer/I/13 BAE/1949/B/E/130/cer/4
LA-3712 LA-2421 LA-2474 LA-995 LA-1536 LA-619
“Murrinum glass” fragment
“Punic masc” Possible Campanian A pottery Bronze bell Statue fragment Statue fragment Statue fragment Statue fragment Statue fragment Statue fragment Bell-shape Greek krater Late republican filter “Estilo Ilicitano I” kalathos, with Conde D-1 decorations “Estilo Ilicitano II” type
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the catalogue of materials and the catalogue of items
1015
(cont.)
Re-excavation catalogue materials
Alcudia de Elche Notes items catalogue: (according to Ana Ronda, 2018)
BAE/1949/B/SE/135/pet/1 BAE/1949/B/SE/135/cer/I/1 BAE/1949/B/SE/136/pet/1 BAE/1949/T/E/R/141/cer/I/1 BAE/1950/B/F/151/cer/3 BAE/1954/B/OM/174/cer/2 BAE/1954/B/OM/175/cer/4 BAE/1955/B/OM/176/cer/1
LA-805 LA-568 LA-254 LA-2478 LA-416 LA-4065 LA-1961 LA-1992
BAE/1955/B/OM/176/cer/2 BAE/1948/P/196/pet/II/1 BAE/1948/P/196/cer/II/2 BAE/1948/P/196/pet/I/1 BAE/1948/C/204/I/1 BAE/1949/B/213/met/1 BAE/1949/B/F/215/cer/1 BAE/1948/N/E/227/cer/1
LA-2272 LA-681 LA-881 LA-683 LA-1970 LA-3117 LA-4080 LA-4088
BAE/1948/N/E/227/cer/6 BAE/1948/N/E/227/pet/1 BAE/1948/S/B/D/237/met/2 BAE/1948/S/B/D’/238/cer/1–15*
Stone adze Jar Punic pottery Mold or baker’s seal “Estilo Ilicitano II” type pottery decoration Campanian B type pottery Floral motif Equid
Possibly LA-4091 LA-4359 LA-4344 LA-3741, 3742, 3743 BAE/1948/S/B/D’/238/cer/1–15* LA-3745 BAE/1948/S/B/D’/238/cer/1–15* LA-3744 BAE/1948/S/B/D’/238/vit/1 LA-3663
Oil lamp “Firmalampen” oil lamp, Dressel 5C type of Flavian period Ointment container
Ceramic roof tiles Decorated tegula Tegula Associated with BAE/1948/S/B/ D’/238/cer/19 Associated to BAE/1948/S/B/D’/ 238/cer/19
BAE/1948/S/B/D’/238/vit/2
LA-3664
BAE/1948/S/B/D/239/vit/1
Possibly: LA-3683, 3689, 3690, 3691 LA-1340 LA-11728 Marble column fragment
BAE/1948/N/F/249/cer/5 BAE/1948/T/I/270/pet/1
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1016
annex d
(cont.)
Re-excavation catalogue materials
Alcudia de Elche Notes items catalogue: (according to Ana Ronda, 2018)
BAE/1948/P/276/cer/I/18 BAE/1948/P/276/Pb/2 BAE/1948/P/276/os/6 BAE/1949/P/287/pet/1 BAE/1950/B/OM/303/pet/I/1 BAE/1950/B/OM/303/cer/2
LA-2837 LA-3559 LA-3371 LA-1359 LA-607 LA-4082
BAE/1952/T/OB/307/cer/I/12
LA-3132
BAE/1952/T/OB/307/met/3 BAE/1954/T/OB/332/cer/I/2 BAE/1954/T/W/334/cer/2 BAE/1954/T/W/334/cer/3 BAE/1954/T/W/336/cer/I/2 BAE/1950/C/P/355/cer/5 BAE/1950/C/P/356/os/1 BAE/1950/C/P/358/cer/I/1
LA-3448 LA-7636 LA-6313 LA-6312 LA-4809 LA-3554 LA-2120 LA-1135
BAE/1950/C/P/358/cer/I/6 BAE/1950/C/P/358/cer/I/9 BAE/1950/C/P/358/cer/I/16 BAE/1950/C/P/358/cer/I/17 BAE/1950/C/P/358/cer/I/18 BAE/1950/C/P/358/pet/3
LA-1145 LA-941 LA-1324 LA-1334 LA-1332 LA-6390
Statuette of Venus
Architectural feature Atlante X, 1A type oil lamp, group C2 “May. 32” fine-walls type pottery, dated to between 27 and 37ce
Oenochoe Potter’s mold, 6th century ce Conde D-1 type decoration (late 2nd to mid 1st century bce) Megaric pottery
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annex e
Isometric Plan and Reconstruction The reconstruction carried out for the isometric plan (Plate VIII) requires a description. Based on the evidence presented in the preceding chapters, it aims to visualize the building in its height. It was done in collaboration with the architect Carlos García Sánz, who provided several valuable suggestions. To begin, the capacity of height for the walls was approximately 4.5 to 5 meters on average, thus permitting the reconstruction of 5-meter high walls. The presence of tiles provided evidence for a double-tilted rooftop, as depicted here. The evidence of one entrance in the narthex area, with stones that could have been associated with the window screens of 45×90 centimeters, suggests that the main entrance would have featured a window of that approximate size on top. Similar windows are presented, using the proposal for reconstruction suggested by Roberto Lorenzo and Javier Morcillo, in 2014. The evidence for central furniture is provided by the stones flanking the central nave. As such, the evidence for a pair of “solomonic columns” provided by Ibarra in 1906 and remains of Corinthian capitals scattered on the site, might indicate the use of this space to sustain a monumental introduction for a now-lost wooden aramarium. On top of these two columns, based on the Ronda (Málaga) plaques (see Fig. 2.5) and the mosaic from Cehegín (Fig. 11.38), there would be a triumphal arch, of unknown form, but probably made of light material such as plaster or wood. The armarium’s style and characteristics are entirely speculative, although they are based on available parallels from late antique Jewish art, both in synagogue and funerary contexts from across the Mediterranean. The two columns with the armarium would form a kind of cimborium which in turn would sustain another hypothetical feature, the parokhet or the curtains. As such, they would surround the original mosaic’s central inscription.1 Other artistic licenses include the molding at the middle height of the walls, depicted in a similar fashion to others from late antique Visigothic churches from the 6th and 7th centuries; the window webs; the wooden floor for the apse; and the decorative features of the doors. All are based on parallels from other sites, including the city of Pompeii, and Santa María de Melque in Toledo. These licenses attempt to express the common constructive features of the synagogue building, as a typical late antique structure, despite its numerous reforms and later conversion into a church. 1 I would like to thank the archaeologists Mercedes Tendero and Ana Ronda from the L’Alcudia d’Elx Foundation, who provided me originally with the possible interpretation of the central structure as a ciborium-type feature.
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annex e
With these caveats, the reconstruction presents a crucial feature that was underscored in the study of this building: the centralized concept of the inner space of the building. Furthermore, presenting two stages (one with the central furniture, another with the apse), it attempts to depict the different phrases in the building’s construction and use. Of course, it does not deny the many lacunae, including the dramatic absence of any preserved decorations from the synagogue or church phases, other than the remains of window screens described in Chapter 11. However, hopefully this will help the reader and student of the site to better understand the building and its development in the 6th century.
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Archival Documents 1
Archivo Histórico Municipal de Elche (AHME)
70-B-030.000—Efemérides. Copied manuscripts by P. Ibarra.
2
Deutsches Archaeologisches Institut—Madrid (DAI-Madrid)
DAI-Madrid Archive: R-213–71, R-214-71: Photographs of 1971 intervention in the Alcudia de Elche. Schlunk Archive: – D-DAI-MAD-A NL01-11-159-1931-SCHL. Folder with photographs, plates, personal annotations and plans. – New Signatures for recently re-revealed Photographs: D-DAI-MAD-SCHL-SCH-PLF0193, 0194, 0195, 0196, 0197, 0198, 1129-repro, 1130, 1132, 1133, 1134, 1135, 1138, 1140. – Documents from 1948 and 1971 interventions: – D-DAI-MAD-A-62-Z-1-1971-FRU—Plan by Laureano de Frutos of the Alcudia site. – D-DAI-MAD-A-62-Z-2—Copy of plan of the Elche basilical building of Pere Ibarra. – D-DAI-MAD-A-62-Z-3-1971-FRU and D-DAI-MAD-A-62-Z-3-1971-FRU—Superpositions of mosaic plan by Laureano de Frutos on Hauschild’s plan.
3
Fundación Universitaria de Investigación Arqueológica l’Alcudia d’Elx (FLA)
3.1
Photographs and Loose Notes
– CG4.18: Loose documents. – CG4.18-2: Copia Efemérides excav. Albertini (1905). Albertini excavation. – CG4.18-3: Photographs. Foto Congreso Pere Aracil (1948). Congress and removal of mosaic floor. – CG4.18-4: Photographs. 1948–1949 interventions. Mosaic, Calle, Palacio, burials and findings. – CG4.18-5: Photographs from the Albertini Excavations. – CG58.1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16. – CG59.17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 27, 28, 29, 30.
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archival documents
– Extra plate from the 1948 revelation of the mosaic and a plate of C. Zornoza’s 1965 mosaic model. – CG4.18-7: Loose Notes. – FLA. Memoria de Excavación de 1990: Photographs from the 1990 Excavation, pages 1–62. – FLA. Alcudia-1-PIR-01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 06. Photographs of Ibarra Excavation (1905). – FLA. Alcudia-ARF-01. Photograph from 1948 intervention.
3.2
Excavation Diaries
All from: Alejandro Ramos Folqués Corpus documental. Diarios y memorias inéditas 1933–1971, ed. Ana María Ronda Femenia (Alicante: Universidad de Alicante, 2018), http://hdl.handle.net/10045/73867. – ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: nº7 (1948), Excavaciones. 25 Mayo–12 Octubre 1948. Sinagoga. Pages ff. 0r–annex 12v. – ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: nº9 (1949), Excavaciones. 26 Abril–11 Agosto 1949. Sinagoga, Palacio, Sacristía B’. Pages ff. 0r–29v. – ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: nº10 (1949), Excavaciones. 29 Agosto–6 Octubre 1949. Sacristía, Sur Sinagoga, Rincón ábside. Pages ff. 0r–38v. – ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: nº11 (1949–1950), Excavaciones. 11 Octubre 1949–31 Diciembre 1949 y Febr y Mayo 1950. Pages ff. 0r–36v. – ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: nº13 (1950), 16-XI-1950. Prolongación Calle Sacra. Pages Pages ff. 0r–33v. – ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: nº14 (1951), Excavaciones 1951. Pages ff. 0r–annex 2r. – ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: nº15 (1952), Excav. 1952. 28 Enero 1952–23 abril 1952. Pages ff. 0r–54r. – ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: nº19 (1954), Excavaciones 1954. January 4th–April 17th. Pages ff. 1r–annex 10r. – ARF, AMRF, Corpus documental: nº20 (1954–1955), 4º Septiembre 1954–Octubre 1955. Pages ff. 0r–80v.
4
Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA)
C-37/1971: Dan Barag, Ehud Netzer and Yossef Porat (1971): דין וחשבון ראשוני על עונ .(71/31 החפירות השניה בבית כנסת בעין גדי )רשיון חפירה מס׳ ATQ/901, ATQ/83/6—Online sites catalogue, Beth Sheʾarim (1940).
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archival documents
5
Real Academia de la Historia (RAE)
– Delgado y Hernández, Antonio. “Estudios inéditos para la obra sobre las monedas arábigo-hispanas, nº1”. Document. Madrid, ¿1850–1865?. Real Academia de la Historia. Ms 11.8665.
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Ancient References Greek References – Letter of Aristeas to Philocrates. Vers. 305–306. – Josephus, Flavius, Antiquities of the Jews, XII.2.13.
Biblical References – – – – – – – – – –
Gen. 23:8–19 Ex. 13:8 Ex. 13:14 Ex. 30:18–21 Ex. 35:31 Lev. 15:16 Num. 19:2–10 Deut. 6:20–25 Deut. 32:35–26 1Sam. 2:6
– – – – – – – – –
Is. 56:7 Amos 4:12 Ps. 26:6 Ps. 133 Proverbs 10:7 1 Mac. 15:15–23 (Apocryphal) Wis. 16:13 (Apocryphal) Jn. 10:11–13 (New Testament) Jubilees 8:13 (Leptogenesis)
Mishnah – – – –
Avot 3:9–10 Baba Batra 2:9 Berakhot 5:5 Midot 2:5
– Sotah 9:15 – Sukkah, 5:4 – Yadayim 3:5
Tosefta and Midrash – Megillah 3:4
– Pirke de-Rabbi Eliezer, 26
Talmud Yerushalmi – Berakhot, 9:1 – Megillah 3:3
– Sheviʾit, 8:2
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ancient references
Talmud Babli – – – – – –
Avodah Zarah, 31b Berakhot 14b Berakhot 15a Berakhot 27b Baba Qama 82a–b Baba Batra 142b
– – – – –
Megillah 28a–b. Shabbat 14a Shabbat 23b Shavuot, 23a Yoma, 76ª
Shulḥan Arukh – Oraḥ Ḥayim, 92:4–6
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Index of Greek Words Ἀδωναϊ 65 Ἀδωνέ 69 Ἀριήλ/Αριήλ 65, 68–69 αἰῶνα 79 ακάκεῖται 124 ἀμήν 120, 488 αναπαυεταυ 120 αρχησυναγωγος 124 αὐτοῦ 79, 130 αὐτῶν 488 Βαρκιήλ 65, 69 Βοσπορίχη 487 βουλή 478 Γαβριήλ Γλυκύς Γόμορρα γαμετῆς
65 136 65 488
δηκέων 124 διδοὺς 79 ελω 371 ενθα 124 ενθαδε 155 ἐνθάδε 155 ἐπὶ 479 ευλογια/εὐλογία 480, 488 εὐλογίαν 124, 127 εὔπλοιά/Εὔπλοία/Ευπλοίας 324, 487, 489, 490, 493n203 εὐχὴ 337, 488 εθων 155 εικοσι 120 εἰς 79, 109n132, 127 έκύρα 124 ἔλεος 79 ἑμέγας 140 εν 120 ενθα 124 ἔστεν 120 ετη 120 ἐτῶν 155 εὔπλοιά 489 εὐτυχα 489
ευτυχη 490 ευχη 337, 481 ηνειρενε 120 ἠτῶν 140 ηχη 483n167 Θεοδότης 488 Ἰαω 65 Ίαώ 69 Ἰουδαίων 479, 481n159 Ἰουδεος 139 Ἰουδέων 140 Ἰσραὴλ 488 Ἰύδαντος 120 ια Κάλμια 65, 69 Καικιλιανὸς 140 καὶ 65, 109n132, 488 καί 120, 124, 155 καὶ 488 κε 155, 481, 482, 490 κεῖται 155 κυρηε 124 κυρίον 120 λαο 478, 481 Μαιεινος 139 Μακεδονίου 488 Μαρές 120 Μελιώσα 120 Μητριχη 486 Μικαήλ 65, 155 μενας 140 μεμνϊον 120 μνήα 124 ξησασα 120 Οὐριελ 69 ὁ 79, 140 ὅτι 79 οὕτως 65
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1061
index of greek words Παη 114 Παησιος 116, 117n144 Πρεβυτερων 483 Πρόκλης 488 Προσευχη 478, 487 Πτολεμαῖος 139 Πυρριχη 486 παμμνηστος 120 παντὶ 488 πάσῃ 79 πατὴρ 96, 140 πνεῦμα 65 πολιουχος 490 προσευχη/Proseuche 297, 327n113, 479, 497 προτοπολίτες 140
ὑπέταξας
65
φηληα 120 φιλέντολος 480 φιλόλαος 480
Ραβλα 124 Ῥαφιήλ 65 Ῥωμανοῦ 488 Σόδομα 65 σαρκί 79 σνώματε 120 συ 489 συναγογης/συναγωγῆς συναγωγή 481n159 συνοδος 481
τεθνεῶ̣ 124 τεσερα 120 τῆς 96, 140, 141, 479, 488 τὸ 65, 79 τὸν 79, 478 του 124 τροφὴν 79 τὐτοῦ 488 τῷ 488 τω 120 τῶν 93, 96, 140, 228, 337, 479, 481n159, 483, 488
χειθε 155 χοιμᾶτε 140
140, 479, 480
Ώδε/ωδε 120, 140 Ὠς 65 ὣπου 120
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Index of Latin Words ab 108 aera 102 aetatem 87 Altercatio 57 amen 120 amici 87, 94, 98 angeli 108, 110 animo 108, 109 annis 150 annorum 167 annos 87, 102, 107–108, 120, 135 archon 92–94, 479 armarium 775–777, 779, 783, 790, 793, 828, 836, 1017 aperitis 108 artem 108, 110 artivicum 108, 110
edictum 107 edivicabi 108, 110 Egicani 135 ego 108 est 81, 120, 135 et 87, 94, 104, 108, 109, 120, 130, 135, 150, 167 exarchon 87, 92–95, 111, 253 exarcon 87
bene 87, 120 beniat 108 benememori 135 benemerentis 132 bona 104, 105 bonum 87
Honorificus (Onorificus) 87, 92, 160 hic 81, 120, 135
cella memoriae 797 ciborium 37, 789, 1017n1 citer 124 cives 87, 94 collegia/collegium 123n160, 314, 835 condam 135 culina 746, 762 cum 108, 120, 124 cura 120 de 87, 108, 135 defensor ciuitatis 57 dicti 108 didascali 105, 111, 122, 123, 124, 126, 835 die 63, 102 Dei 104, 109 Dis 150 domini 120, 124, 135 domum 108 dormiat 87, 95 duarum 87, 92, 95, 99
famulus 95, 103–105, 109, 128, 138 fides 114 filia 120 filii 135 filio 135 filius 104, 105, 108, 167 frunitum 87, 95 fuisse 87, 95
id 135 illi 108 in 104, 108, 120, 124, 135 innocentem 87, 94 iudanti 120 Iudeus 81, 82, 91, 150, 195, 832 ingrede 108 iustorum 108, 109 libertus 81 ligatorium 108, 109 ligatus 108 marito 167 memoria 120, 132 mens 63 menses 150 merentissimo 167 mortificat 109 mortivicat 108 nomine 120, 124 non 87 nonas 102
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1063
index of latin words o 87 optimo 167 ochonton 497 Octobres 102 pace 102, 105, 108, 110, 120, 124, 130, 135, 151n229 pacis 108 pater 56, 133, 141, 142, 150, 480 pausauit 104 pauset 108 pauso 108, 109 pax 108, 110, 114 piissimo 167 piissimus 150 ponendum 167 portas 108 preducens 108, 110 presbyteron 497 quaestor 82, 833 quarto 102 quem 87 qui 135 quibi 107, 108 recepta 167 reddent 87 regis 135
repletus 108, 110 requiescit 124 requiescunt 135 sacrum 150 sapientam 108, 110 secondo 135 Seniori 108 sepulcro 107, 108 sinagoge 87, 92, 95, 96, 99, 155 sit 107 situs 81 socerra 124 sorte 108, 109 spiritus 87, 95 sui 87, 94 suporans 108, 109 testimonium 87 tres 135 tuam 87 tuo 108 tuus 87 vite 108 vivificat 108, 109 vixerunt 135 vixi 108 vixit 87, 102, 104, 120
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Index of Hebrew Words אבון )רבי( 257 אברהם 272 אדם 74, 230 אוכלין 233 אזל 229 אחת 269 אין 229, 230, 229, 233, 270 אכסיגרון 84 אל 84 אלוהיך 233 אמיקוש )רבי( 262 אמן 114, 120, 247, 275, 276 אמר 229 אסור 229 אסתנס 230 ארחץ 231 בגדים 230 בית הכנסת בכסליו 257 בנה 231 בנינו 114 בסתר 275, 276 בצרור 109, 120, 146, 147, 162, 257, 260, 268, 269, 831 בקידוש 230 בר 59 בר דאודטוש 272 ברחמיו 275 ברכה 120 בשבת 257 בשלום 261–263, 266 בשער 262 בשר 79, 266 בת 121, 123, 142, 143 בתי כניסיות 230 בתי כנסיות 229 בתי מדרשות 229 230
גוברא 229 גורנה 229 גינזי 110 גן 110 גשמים 233 דבית 229
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דו 58 דוד 273 דכתיב 231 החיים 109, 147, 162, 257, 260, 269, 831 החים 120, 268, 269 הימים 275 הכון 233 הנפנה 231 העולם 269 הצדיקים 257 הקבר 120, 257, 268, 269 הקדושה 181 הר הבית 230 הראשונים/הראשון 70, 230 ויטול 231 ולקירא 120 ולתלמידיהם 229 ומנחל 275 ונפטר 257 ונשמתו 257 ורגליים 232
זכר
120, 127, 272, 273
חברון חגי 59 חכמים 229 חמה 233 חמי 229 חסדו 79 חצירות 230
269, 270
יאמרו/ויאמר יבא 262, 266 ידוי 229 ידיו 231 יהודה 120, 143, 148 יהי 122, 247 יהמידהו 275 יוחנן 231 יונה 130 יוסף 146, 147 יזכור 122 ייכנס 233
262, 266
1065
index of hebrew words
יכנס 230 יסתירהו יפנה 231 יצור 275 ירושלים 181, 262, 266 ישיני 269 ישן/ישינין 233, 261–263, 266 ישקהו 275 ישראל 114, 120, 135, 136, 162, 181, 182, 233 275
כאלו כי 79 כיורות 230 כלמיא )כלמיי ,כלמייה( 70 כן 120, 122, 241, 242 כנפיו 275 231
לא 74n47, 230, 233 לאוורח 272 ְל ִזָכּרון 270 לחם 79 לטב 272, 273 לירח 269 לכטושוש 144, 266 לכל 79 לכנישתא 229 לנהוג 230 לנו 230 לעולם 79 לקראת 233 לקץ 275 מאיר 260 מאריס 120, 122 מבשר 262, 263, 266 מורייס 84 מזבח 231 מחר 229 מטיילין 233 מטרונא 142, 143 מלכות 231 מלליושא 121 מנחם 136, 156, 261–263, 266 מנעלו 230 מספידין 233 מעלה 231 מעת 230 מפני 233 מקדש 230
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מרחשון 269 משזיג 229 משכב 262, 266 משכבו 266, 275, 276 נוהגין 233 נוח 148 נח 143, 144, 162 נחמן 147 נטילת 231, 232 ניאותין 233 נפטר 269 נפש 144, 148, 162 נפשו 109, 147, 162, 257, 260, 268, 269 נפש/נפשה 120, 831 נשמתו 275 נתן 79
סיללע
84
עד 261, 262, 263, 266 עדה 480 עדן 110 עולם 120 על 74n47, 114, 120, 135, 162, 221n32, 275 עליו 230, 231, 275 עלינו 114 עם 257, 268, 269 עשר 269 פיתחו 110 פרוטה 172 צדיק 127, 136 צדקת 120 צינה 233
קבר קהל קורא קלות קרבן
121, 272, 273 480 231 233 231
ראש 233 ראשון 70 ראשונים 230 רב 266 רבי 142–144, 146, 147, 262, 266 רצון 122, 247
1066
index of hebrew words 231 257, 270 110 181, 182 229 110 122 776, 787 146, 147, 162, 260, 268, 269, 831 231
שמים שנת שערי שקל שרי תבוא תהא תיבה תנוח תפילין
70
רקיע
229 שאון 487 שדי 110 שומרי 231 שיקבל 78 שיר 110, 114, 120, 135, 162, 261–263, 266, 273, שלום 275, 487 262, 263, 266, 272, 273, 275 שלם 268, 269 שלמה 59, 148 שמואל
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Onomastic Index Aboab, Immanuel 26 Adolfo de Castro 41 Historia de los judíos en España 15 Aguilar Piñal, Francisco 6n14 Albertini, Eugene 29, 292–295, 296, 297, 298–300, 303, 306, 309, 311, 313–316, 324, 326, 338, 343, 347, 349, 355, 357– 359, 361, 362, 363, 368, 369, 370, 372, 374, 375, 376, 376n23, 377, 378, 380, 381n26, 382, 385, 389, 392, 404, 405, 406, 409, 410, 410n78, 411, 411n78, 412, 416, 417, 422, 423, 433, 458, 473, 477, 478, 482, 483, 484, 485, 487, 489, 495, 519, 519n254, 535, 538, 546, 564, 795, 800, 822, 843, 855, 860, 861, 865, 866, 870, 936, 957, 982 Alfonso x of Castile 17 Alföldi, Geza 123, 124, 126, 131 Almargo Basch, Martín 106 Almagro Gorbea, Martin 237n4 Al-ʾUrdi (Abu al-Abbas) 250n45 Álvarez Melero, Anthony 81 Álvez Días, Maria Manuela 101 Amador de los Ríos, José 15–28, 41 and “Jewish victimhood” 23 Carlist war 22 Carlist wars 25 Cuban war 22 Latin-Byzantine Art 20 Latin-Byzantine tradition 21 rejection of Germanic tradition 21 study of Hebrew 24 theory of Castillian-Spanish civilization 22 Amaré Tafalla, María Teresa 632n39 Amengual i Batle, Josep 56n2, 61 Amorai-Stark, Shua 204, 205 Andreeva, Sofia 166n239 Annia Salomonula/Salonula 11, 26, 63–64, 156, 159, 161 Annianus Peregrinus Onorificus xxvi, 55, 65, 85–87, 92, 94, 97, 99, 100, 105, 130, 133, 155, 156, 160, 161, 204, 830, 832–834, 836 Peregrinus 88, 92, 98–100, 160, 832 Antonia 26 Applebaum, Shim’on 94, 325
Arco, Angel del 128–131 Arias, Lorenzo 518, 522 Ashtor, Eliyahu 3 Axiaes 130 Ayaso Martínez, José 78, 256 Bachrach, Bernard S. 111, 111n138, 802, 802n124 Bahat, Dan 219 Bailey, Donald M. 632, 632n39 Balaguer Prunes, Anna M. 237, 240, 241n21, 244–246, 250 Bea Castaño, David 131 Balil, Alberto 508n224 Ballesteros, Carmen 33, 36–38 Banu Qasi (family) 250 Bango García, Clara 38, 39 Bango Torviso, Isidro xii, 38 Bar-Ilan, Meir 230, 232 Bar Kochba, Simon 82, 83, 185, 755, 832, 833 Baron, Salo W. 253n60 Barral i Altet, Xavier 344 Barresi, Paolo 518, 524 Barroso Cabrera, Rafael 74, 75, 801n123 Basilius of Caesarea (Saint) 479 Battle Huguet, Pere 299 Beinart, Haim 123 Bel Bravo, María Antonia 335 Beltrán de Heredia Becero, Julia 764 Berger, Philippe 142, 143, 145 Berger, Samuel 98 Blau, R. Ludwig 51, 53n129, 195n27 Blau, Joshua 280n107 Blázquez Martínez, José María 47n108 Bonifay, Michel 189, 984 Bonnet, Charles 764 Botella, Daniel 264–267 Bowers, Paul 58, 322 Burkhardt, Nadin 754n25, 725 Cai (Caius) 81 Cañavate Castejón, Victor 748, 749 Cantera Burgos, Francisco 30, 64, 103, 104– 106, 110, 119, 121, 122, 123, 128, 131, 168, 261, 263, 264, 267, 268, 269, 271, 272, 274
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1068 Canós i Villena, Isabel 124–127 Cánovas Guillén, Pablo 522, 524 Canto García, Alberto xi, 236n1, 238 Carriedo Tejedo, Manuel 277n103 Carrobles, Jesús 195, 195n38, 196, 801n123 Casanovas Miró, Jordi 14n6, 34, 36, 39, 59, 61, 63, 63n15, 258, 259, 264–267, 271, 271n91, 272, 273 Castellarnau, Joaquín María 29 Castelo Ruano, Raquel 74 Centeno, Rui M.S. 176–178, 184 Ceprián del Castillo, Bautista 77, 186, 195n38 Chen, Doron 524, 525 Codera y Zaidín, Francisco 237, 240, 246 Colmeiro, Manuel 27, 27n47 Cordero Navarro, Catherine 111, 802 Corell, Josep 336, 337, 340, 342, 350, 483, 484, 490, 492, 493, 495, 827 Costamagna, Liliana 771–773, 812, 816 Cravinho, Graça 204, 205 Crispus (Emperor) 672 Curbera Costello, Jaime 126–128
onomastic index Février, James Germain 145, 147 Fine, Steven 79n59, 790 Fita y Colomer, Fidel 28–30, 31, 32, 37, 38, 64, 65, 110, 118, 134, 136, 137, 268 Flavius Josephus 26, 36 Flesher, Paul Virgil McCracken 756 Foerster, Gideon 497n209, 755n31 Fontaine, Jacques 325 Frey, Jean-Baptiste 93, 144, 150n227, 151, 298, 299 Frézouls, Edmond 141, 142, 149, 150 Friedman, Michal 23n33, 27n47 Fuentes Domínguez, Ángel x, 40, 40n80, 97n108
Egica (King) 135–137, 251, 514 Eusebius, Bishop of Caesarea 117n144, 479 Elsner, Jás 53 Esther 52 Erman, Adolf 243 Expósito Mangas, David 77, 186, 195n38
Galla Placidia 785, 789 Gallardo Carrillo, Juan 49, 225, 227 García Iglesias, Luis 38–41, 41n89, 42–47, 58, 62, 64, 85, 87, 88, 90–96, 100, 106, 123, 131, 166, 167, 200 García Moreno, Luis 43–46, 62, 335 García Fernández, Mijal xii, 40, 85n75, 97n108 García de Iturrospe, Muñoz 109 García y Bellido, Antonio 47, 301, 322 Gascó La Calle, Fernando 66–68 Gaspar, Mariano 30 Gil, Juan 124–126 Goitein, Shelomo Dov 279n105, 280n107 Gómez Font, Xavier 484, 490 Gómez Moreno, Manuel 292n10, 301, 323 Gómez Pallarés 476 Gonzalbes Cravioto, Enrique 46, 46n103, 47, 72, 73 González Ballesteros, José Ángel 49, 225, 227 Goodenough, Erwin R. 131, 322, 481n159, 785n83, 813 Grañeda Miñón, Paula 238 Grinda de la Cuesta, Jesús 29 Gusi i Jener, Francesc 179, 180 Gutiérrez Lloret, Sonia 339, 349, 524, 800
Fedorchuk, Artem 166n239 Ferdinand vi (King of Spain) 12 Ferdinand vii (King of Spain) 15 Ferreira, Fernando Eduardo Rodrigues 171n1 Ferrúa, Antonio 128, 130, 299
Hachlili, Rachel 53, 90n80, 335, 336, 354, 473, 751, 752, 753, 777, 779, 781–783, 785n83, 798n117, 799n117 Hadrian, Caesar Traianus (Emperor) 82, 83, 403, 833, 917, 918 Halperin, Don A. 322
David (Biblical King) 39, 58, 78, 79, 273 Delgado y Hernández, Antonio 238, 239, 239n6, 244, 246 Deneauve, Jean 190, 196 Díaz Estéban, Fernando 258–260 Domingo Ezquerra, Jaime Alvar 66–68 Dothan, Moshe 816n147 Dvorjetski, Estēe 496 Dulciorella 135, 136, 161
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1069
onomastic index Hauschild, Theodor 76 Hemeda, Sayed 223 Hernández García, Juan de Dios 193, 194, 195n36 Hernández, Félix 332–333 Herod (King of Judea) 174 Herod Archelaus (Ethnarch of Judea) 174 Hiedra Rodríguez, Enrique 256, 258 Horst, Pieter Willem van der 79, 79n59, 92 Hübner, Emil 26n44, 63–65, 106, 109, 118, 166, 168 Huntington, Archer Milton 293 Ibarra y Manzoni, Aureliano 290, 290n8, 293, 506, 511 Ibarra Ruiz, Pere xxx, 29, 289n5, 290, 290n5, 292–296, 297, 298–301, 303, 309–311, 314, 316, 319, 334, 339, 343, 347, 348, 357, 358, 360, 361, 362, 366, 368, 369, 370, 374–376, 376n23, 378, 379n25, 380–382, 385n36, 389, 392, 404, 405, 405n70, 406, 407, 409, 410, 411, 411n79, 412, 416, 416n80, 417– 419, 419n84, 422, 423, 470, 473, 477, 478, 482, 483, 483n165, 489, 494, 495, 499, 503, 506, 519, 519n254, 526, 532–535, 535n283, 795, 798, 800, 822, 843, 855, 860–862, 865, 866, 870, 887, 936, 959, 982, 983, 1017 Ildefonso/Ildefonsus of Toledo (Saint) 20 Ildefonso Ruiz Cecilia, José 74 Iniesta Sanmartín, Angel 197 Isac Martínez de Carvajal, Ángel 19n21 Isidore of Seville (Saint) 20 Isabel (Isabella) ii of Spain 15 Iacob 108, 110, 147, 161 Ionati 129–130, 273 Isidora 89, 95, 105, 109, 128, 130, 133, 138, 153, 156, 159, 162, 273, 834 Iustinus 39 Iustinus Menandri 167 Iustus 135, 136, 161 Izquierdo Benito, Ricardo 35 Jerez Linde, Manuel 191 Jonah (prophet) 130, 310, 310n61, 341, 342n154, 491
Juster, Jean 41, 93 Julian of Toledo 137 Junia 26 Katz, Solomon 298 Keay, S.J. 372, 545, 546 Koch, Michael 325 Kohl, Heinrich 50, 298 Kotansky, Roy 70 Kayserling, Meyer (Rabbi) 23 Kraabel, Alf Thomas 51, 751n15 Kraeling, Carl H. 751, 754 Lacave, José Luís 31–33, 37, 335 Lactosus (Rabbi) 144, 264, 266, 267 Lafuente Vidal, José 301, 302, 311, 312, 312n65, 312n66, 313, 313n68, 325, 355, 383, 406, 422, 422n90, 424, 483n167, 486, 843, 870, 983 Lampérez y Romea, Vicente 299 Lara Vives, Gabriel 658n108 Larrea Castillo, Isabel 256, 258 Le Blant, Edmond 134, 136 Le Bohec, Yann 47, 91, 136, 139, 140, 142, 149, 150, 158, 192 Leclercq, Henri 298, 322 Lefebvre, Gustave 117n144 Leon, Harry Joshua 41, 93, 94, 98, 155, 158 Lepidus, Marcus Aemilius 603, 744 LeQuesne, Charles 222 Leopold, Ernst Friedrich 239n6 Levine, Lee I. 479, 751n15 Levison, John R. 36n75 Licinia 26 Lieberman, Saul 497n209 Lifshitz, Baruch 481n159 Llobregat Conesa, Enrique A. 200, 326, 326n112, 327n113, 328, 356 Llorente, Hipólito 765, 766, 769 Loeb, Isidore 268–270 Longpérier, Adrien P. 246 López Alvarez, Ana María 33, 274 López Vilar, Jordi 522, 526 Lorenzo de San Román, Roberto 289n2, 294, 295, 298n36, 319, 323, 332, 342, 344, 345, 350, 351, 356, 362, 378, 405, 406n72, 473, 495, 512, 517, 518, 564, 734, 807, 855, 1017 Lucius 80–83, 160, 832
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1070 Mantas, Vasco Gil 191 María Trigueros, Cándido Melchor 13, 14n6 Marcus Ambibulus 173–176, 179, 183, 184 Marec, Erwan 508n227 Marciano (Bishop) 74 Marfil Ruiz, Pedro 183 Margoliot, Mordechai 69, 230 Mariana, Juan de (Father) 12 Maries 120 Marqiez Villora, Juan Carlos 337, 339 Marshak, Adam Kolman 199n47 Martín Manuel de Hervás, Marciano 32, 38 Martínez Alcalde, María José 197 Mateos Cruz, Pedro 104, 105 Mateu y Llopis, Felipe 182 Matrona 135, 136, 142–145, 147, 148, 154, 158, 161 Mazar, Benjamin (Binyamin) 217, 218, 497n209 Mazur, Belle D. 795 Melliosa (Meliosa) 109, 118, 120, 121, 123, 130, 133, 136, 147, 148, 156, 159, 162, 168, 257, 260, 271, 830, 831 Menéndez y Pelayo, Marcelino 98 Mergelina y Luna, Cayetano 332 Meyers, Eric C. 787 Michael 66, 68–70, 73, 74, 74n47, 325, 833 Millás Vallicrosa, José María 30, 58, 59, 60, 64, 103, 104–106, 110, 119, 121, 122, 123, 128, 131, 168, 268, 271, 272, 273, 274 Milson, David 53, 525, 785, 787, 794, 798 Mirabella-Roberti, Mario 507n222, 508n224 Miranda, Elena 493n203 Morcillo, Javier 211, 342, 345, 351, 356, 406n72, 473, 495, 512, 517, 518, 596, 735, 1017 Mondelo, Rita 506, 508, 508n224 Moretti, Juan José 74 Morín de Pablos, Jorge 74, 75, 801n123 Müller, Nikolaus 93 Muñoz Valle, Isidoro 94 Munuera Basols, Concha 30 Musa Ibn Nusayir (wāli of Al-Andalus) 249 Navascués, Joaquín María de 105, 106, 109, 110, 237, 240, 244–246, 249 Netzer, Ehud 755n31
onomastic index Niquet, Heike 83, 132, 133 Nosonovsky, Michael 166n239 Noy, David 58, 60, 61, 64, 81, 106, 109, 110, 114, 121, 122–126, 130, 131, 134, 152, 166– 168, 335, 336, 478, 480, 484, 486, 490, 491 Nuix, José María 172, 174, 184 Nützel, Heinrich 239, 240, 244 Oliveira, Jorge de 33, 37, 38 Olivera Prat, Miguel 30 Orlandís Rovira, José 325 Ovadiah, Asher 52, 52n125, 794n101 Paesios 116 Paesis (Saint) 116n144 Palol i Salellas, Pere de 61n11, 75n49, 319, 320, 321, 322, 322n93, 406, 765, 766, 767, 768, 768n57, 769, 797 Paragori 135 Paragorus 134–136, 148, 156, 158 Parodi Álvarez, Manuel Jesús 81 Pavón Maldonado, Basilio 31 Pedro i of Castile-Leon (King) 18 Peña Domínguez, Pedro 741n2, 742 Pérez Bayer, Francisco 12–14, 28, 63, 166, 181, 182 Philip v (King of Spain) 11 Plácido Suárez, Bartolomé 66–68 Pliny the Elder 199n47, 864 Ponsich, Michel 192, 196 Posèq, Avigdor W.G. 204 Poveda Navarro, Antonio M. 200, 201n52, 337, 419, 495, 501 Priscilianus (Priscillian) 80, 98 Prieto y Vives 237, 238 Puig i Cadafalch, Josep 299 Rabello, Alfred (Alfredo) Mordechai 326, 802 Rabla 117, 125–127, 160, 161 Rada y Delgado, Juan de la 74 Ramallo Asensio, Sebastián F. 791, 792 Ramírez Sábada, José Luís 105 Ramos Fernández, Rafael 328, 332, 333, 335, 353, 359, 428, 443, 563, 569, 604, 639, 640, 643, 646–648, 651, 685, 691, 693, 694, 701, 704, 737, 737n62, 741, 745, 855, 877, 881, 895, 906, 986, 1003
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onomastic index Ramos Folqués, Alejandro ix, xii, xxv, xxvi, 5, 300, 300n43, 301, 302, 302n44, 302n45, 302n46, 303, 304, 305, 306, 307, 308, 309, 310, 311, 312, 312n66, 312n67, 313, 313n69, 314–319, 324, 326n112, 328, 329, 334, 345, 348–351, 352, 353, 355–357, 359, 360, 362, 370, 371, 371n16, 372, 375, 376, 376n23, 377, 378, 383, 384n33, 385–391, 392n41, 393, 394, 401, 401n56, 401n57, 402, 402n58, 403, 404, 406, 410, 411, 417, 419, 420, 421–423, 425, 426, 427, 431, 432n100, 434, 435, 436, 437, 439, 440–443, 457, 458–460, 462, 464–466, 468, 469, 472, 473, 483n167, 486, 495, 496, 519, 532, 543, 544, 546, 548, 550, 555, 556, 557, 559–562, 564, 565, 568, 569, 571, 572, 573, 573n21, 574–576, 576n33, 578, 579, 581, 581n38, 582–586, 586n47, 587–589, 589n54, 590, 591, 592, 595, 602, 606, 607, 609–613, 615–617, 619, 619n14, 620, 623, 624, 626, 628, 630, 632, 634, 635, 638, 639, 640, 643, 646, 647, 648, 649, 651, 652, 654, 654n93, 656–658, 660–662, 664, 665, 666, 668– 671, 671n146, 672, 675, 679, 680–683, 683n166, 685n172, 688, 690, 693, 695, 697, 699, 702, 707, 708, 710, 711, 713–715, 715n13, 716, 716n16, 718–723, 725, 727– 730, 733, 734, 736, 737, 737n62, 738, 742, 743, 764, 775, 800, 803, 806, 807, 808, 809, 810, 815, 817, 822, 823, 841–846, 848–851, 853, 855, 857, 864, 865, 867, 868, 870–872, 874, 878–885, 887, 888, 890, 891, 894, 897, 398, 900, 901, 903, 905–907, 910, 911, 913, 915, 917–921, 925, 926, 930–932, 934, 935, 937, 940, 946, 947, 951, 954, 956, 958, 959, 961, 964, 966, 967, 979, 986, 988, 990, 991, 994, 1002, 1003, 1006, 1008, 1013 Ramos Molina, Alejandro 332 Reich, Ronny 228 Reinach, Alphonse J. 298 Reinach, Theodore 134, 134n192, 136, 137 Renan, Ernst 216, 814 Reynolds, Paul 317, 551, 594, 731n61, 864, 883 Recared (King of the Visigoths) 20 Ripoll, Eduardo 172, 174, 184 Riquelme, José Antonio 264
1071 Rodrigues, Nuno Simoes 191 Rodríguez Martín, Francisco Germán 191 Rodríguez Montero, Sagrario 195, 195n38, 196 Román Punzón, Julio Miguel 74 Ronda Femenia, Ana ix, xii, 6, 291, 302n45, 317, 350, 351, 351n185, 352, 356, 400, 400n48, 400n50, 402, 468n133, 474, 474n141, 544, 562, 571, 572, 573n23, 573n24, 574, 576, 576n33, 576n35, 586, 586n47, 591n57, 625, 630, 643n60, 649, 649n80, 652n89, 654, 654n93, 654n95, 657, 658, 658n107, 659, 679n156, 683, 693, 697, 699n199, 702, 702n202, 728n46, 731n60, 731n61, 748, 809, 823, 855, 887, 889, 890, 898, 899, 901, 919, 921, 923, 956, 990, 1005, 1014–1016, 1017n1 Roscius 80–83, 139, 160, 832 Runesson, Anders 212, 215, 215n12, 225, 226n43, 229, 758–761, 762n41 Rutgers, Leonard Victor 52, 79, 123n160, 151, 158, 796n112, 825 Saʾadia Gaon 281, 837 Sabbatari 149–151, 156–159, 161 Sabina 166, 167 Sala Sellés, Feliciana 646 Salies, Gisela 507, 508n224 Sánchez, Carmen 649 Sánchez Real, José 124 Santos Yanguas, Narciso 47 Samuel (of Volubilis) 148 Samueli (of Tarragona) 132, 133, 153, 160, 161 Sapaudi 135 Sarabia Bautista, Julia 362, 748, 749, 800 Sayas Abengochea, Joan José 45, 45n99, 48 Schlunk, Helmut xi, 5, 71n40, 76, 296, 301– 303, 304, 309, 310, 310n60, 311, 312, 312n67, 315, 317, 319, 320, 322–324, 325, 326, 326n112, 327, 327n113, 328, 328n113, 333, 335–337, 342, 344, 352, 354–356, 378, 382, 383, 384, 384n33, 387, 404, 406, 408, 409, 420, 447, 462, 464, 470, 471, 473, 483, 484, 490, 491, 491n194, 494–496, 501, 504, 511, 528, 528n271, 543, 544, 555–558, 577, 578, 591, 712– 714, 730, 732, 737n62, 765, 775, 822, 823, 842, 847, 850, 855, 867, 956, 992–994
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1072 Schrader, Hans 754, 756 Schürer, Emil 481n159 Schwab, Moïse 136, 268, 269, 271, 273 Seager, Andrew R. 791 Sejanus, Lucius Aelius 174 Serra, María Luísa 765, 766 Severus (Bishop) 320, 836 Sheehan, Peter 222 Sies 124–127, 160, 161, see Σίεσ Sillo 85, 199 Simeon 108, 110, 147 Sisebut (King of the Visigoths) 171n1, 327, 515, 802 Sousa Gaspar, Catharina Isabel 101 Soto Civantos, Marcos 77, 186, 195n38 Sotomayor y Muro, Manuel 326 Stern, Karen B. 141 Strabo 26 Stylow, Armin U. 74 Suinthila (King of the Visigoths) 200, 837, 528n270 Sukenik, Elazar Lipa 50, 51, 52, 91n85, 118n145, 795, 799 Stylow, Armin U. 74, 126 Tarif Ibn Maliq Abu Zara 249 Tendero Porras, Mercedes xii, 352, 468n133, 595n66, 654n93, 1017n1 Testini, Pasquale 194, 194n34, 195n36, 201n52 Theodomirus (Count) 250, 252, 528n270 Thouvenot, Raymond 141, 145, 192 Tournal, Paul 134, 136 Tzaferis, Vassilios 773, 774 Ugolino, Biagio 12 Urbach, Ephraim E. 497n209 Urman, Dan 756 Utrero Agudo, María de los Ángeles 332, 349
onomastic index Vadja, Georges 144–146, 148, 149 Valerius Gratus (Procurator) 172–176, 181, 183, 184 Valladares Souto, J.M. 176, 184 Velázquez, José (Marqués de Valdeflores) 12 Imprisonment 13 Vázquez Queipo, Vicente 239, 241n19, 244, 246, 247 Vegas, Mercedes 657, 658n105, 1006 Vicente Lara, Juan Ignacio 183 Vilaseca Canals, Albert 131 Vilar, Juan Bautista 199, 200, 202, 325 Villada Paredes, Fernando 183 Villaronga, Leandro 172, 174, 184 Villaverde Vega, Noé 142, 143n214, 145, 146, 148 Vincent (Saint) 758 Vitruvius 20 Vives Gatell, José 103, 105, 128, 299 Vives y Escudero, Antonio 237, 238, 240, 244, 246–248 Walker, John 239, 240, 244–246, 249, 254 Walsh, Robyn 352–354, 373, 501 Wamba (King of the Visigoths) 20 Watzinger, Carl 50, 298 Wieder, Naftali 230, 232, 233 Wiegand, Theodor 754, 756 Wilson, Mark 754n25, 725 Wischnitzer, Rachel 322 Yahuda, Abraham S. 274, 276 Yeivin, Ze’ev 777 Yerushalmi, Yosef Hayim 49 Yohanan ben-Zakai 92 Yohanan (Rabbi) 231 Zabaleta, Antonio 19 Zissu, Boaz x, 236n1, 239n6 Zori, Nehemia 219 Zucca, Raimondo 61
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General Index Acanthus 659, 1007 Ad sanctos 258, 343, 344, 347, 349, 351, 524, 696, 704, 801, 807–809 Adobe 329, 345, 580, 580n37, 581, 679n156, 702, 731, 736, 858, 880, 912, 935, 947, 995, 1001 Adra (Almería, Spain) 11, 26, 42, 64, 82, 139 Abdera 63 Aedicula 71–73, 201, 354, 534, 761, 762, 763n41, 773, 775–779, 785–787, 790, 792, 794, 796, 812, 825, 826, 828, 833, 834, 836 Aegean 479, 480, 492, 493, 493n203, 824, 829, 830 Aegina 795 Aeolic 741, 741n2 Africa 27, 47, 91, 162, 196, 246, 249, 250, 281, 320, 521, 524, 632n39, 700, 834 African 77, 189, 194, 196, 207, 245, 251, 320, 341, 372, 524, 547, 834–836, 875, 979 Agadot 39 Agriculture/Agricultural 59, 62, 203, 292, 301, 307, 361, 419, 497, 561, 564, 583, 587, 607, 613, 618, 620, 626, 627, 629n30, 630, 650, 697, 710, 806, 808, 809, 860, 926, 952, 954, 958, 959, 961, 962, 967, 988 Águilas (Spain) 193, 197, 198, 207, 834, 835 Aisle 156, 160, 286, 341, 422, 423n90, 473, 476, 481, 483, 488, 500–506, 510, 519, 522–524, 527–529, 529n275, 530, 531, 533, 533n281, 534, 534n282, 536, 538, 539, 544, 546, 744, 765, 766, 796, 827, 936 Al-Andalus 7, 56, 181, 236, 749n14, 838 Albacete (Spain) 250, 285, 324, 345, 517, 523, 528n270 Alcudia de Elche site (Alcudia d’ Elx) ix–x, xii, 5, 6, 29, 76, 118, 181, 182, 199, 285– 290, 290n9, 292, 293, 294, 296, 300, 301, 304, 306, 307, 308, 309, 310, 312n66, 313, 318, 323, 324, 332, 333, 345, 350, 351, 352, 353, 355, 356, 362, 366, 381, 425, 440, 442, 468n133, 506, 554, 562, 576, 578, 579, 586, 594, 596, 599, 601, 602, 646, 646n70, 655, 658, 678, 679n156, 685,
694, 695, 696, 702, 704, 706, 719, 742, 745, 748, 749, 750, 764, 800, 803, 806, 807, 808, 809, 810, 824, 838, 841, 842, 845, 852, 858, 860–1013. See Ilici and Elche Alexandria (Egypt) 354 Algeciras (Spain) 182, 183, 206, 832 Algorós (Alicante, Spain) 325, 346, 350, 506, 507, 508–511, 513, 514, 547, 819, 824 Alicante (Spain) ix, 250, 295, 310, 324, 326, 328, 336, 339, 349–351, 356, 507, 528n270, 576, 823 Alqueva (Portugal) 103, 171 Amastris (Amsara, Turkey) 478 Ammaia (Portugal) 203–207, 835 Amphora/amphoras 58, 76, 83–85, 172, 175, 176, 197, 198, 343, 371, 372, 372n18, 439, 545, 546, 550, 586, 590, 601, 602, 631, 631n36, 641, 642, 648, 650, 652, 657, 662, 663, 666, 681, 684, 685, 687, 690, 695, 697, 702, 706, 715, 719, 720, 724, 727, 729, 728, 734, 738, 742, 744, 747, 801, 816, 832, 834, 835, 878, 879, 889, 891, 895, 896, 919, 926, 940, 942, 943, 947, 963, 966, 971, 973, 974, 977, 978, 989, 999, 1002, 1004, 1006 Amphoric 648 Amulet 68, 156 Andalusia 2, 74, 76, 151, 181, 236, 251n53, 507, 830, 831, 835 Angels 65, 68, 70, 74n47, 109, 156 Animal figures 468, 573, 961 Animal/s 390, 391, 442, 468, 468n133, 573, 620, 636, 657, 699, 720, 858, 961, 965, 1005 Annex (structures) 524, 753, 816 Antioch (Syria) 74, 320, 508 Antisemitism 41, 42, 44 Apamea (Syria) 52 Apse 6, 189, 193, 194, 295, 296, 304, 306, 309, 313, 314, 316, 320, 323, 325, 329, 332–334, 339, 343, 344, 346–349, 353, 358, 360, 363, 368, 370, 375, 377–379, 381, 384, 385n36, 386, 387, 394, 395, 404–410, 410n78, 411, 411n78, 412–419, 419n84, 420–422, 423n90, 425, 433, 449, 457,
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1074 Apse (cont.) 459, 460, 460n121, 462–464, 477, 496, 511, 512, 515–517, 519, 519n254, 520, 522–524, 526, 531, 533–536, 536n284, 537–545, 552, 554, 555, 559, 563, 576n35, 580, 585, 598, 600, 601, 670, 733, 735, 744, 766, 770, 773–775, 785, 793–798, 800, 800n121, 804, 805, 807–809, 812, 813, 815, 816, 816n147, 820, 822, 826, 828, 829, 836, 837, 842, 843, 850, 860–866, 870–875, 878, 887, 890, 900, 912, 913, 915, 936–938, 957, 959, 983, 993, 995, 1017, 1018 Aquileia (Italy) 310n61, 338, 341, 491, 492 Arab/s 5, 25, 56, 164, 245, 254, 278, 279, 280, 281, 295, 542, 696, 802, 826, 837, 865 Arabic 13, 25, 247, 252, 280, 286, 362, 837 Aramaic 58, 121, 123, 148, 168, 280n107, 487, 787 Archaeological 11, 12, 14, 15, 18–20, 24–27, 29–35, 37, 38, 40, 41n89, 42–51, 53 Archaeological ghetto 50 Archaeological method 42 Archaeological registry 48 Archaeological techniques 50 Archaeology 11, 13, 19, 27, 28, 33, 36, 38, 40, 49–51 Ark 89, 118, 514, 762n41, 776, 776n68, 778, 779, 778, 782, 783, 785, 785n83, 786, 787, 788, 793, 796, 797 Aron ha-Kodesh/aron hakodesh 220, 223, 224, 497, 775, 820, 834, 836 Ashkenaz 263n82 Astarte (goddess) 169 Atlante (type) 189, 192, 834, 944, 984 Atrium 52 Attic 439, 458, 522, 648, 659, 798, 862, 874, 876, 891, 931, 1007 Augustan 102, 174, 179, 182, 401, 474, 551, 554, 591, 599, 601–603, 634, 686, 693, 698, 702, 706, 735, 738, 739, 744, 824, 878, 888, 897, 913, 963, 1003 Augustus 172, 173, 175–177, 551, 638, 693 Awl 246, 591, 593, 658, 659, 950, 1006, 1007 Babylon 111, 123, 224, 232, 252, 257, 258n72, 279 Babylonian 15n8, 26, 42, 74n47, 229–233, 252, 279, 281, 837
general index Babli (Babylonian Talmud) 84, 84n71, 84n72, 226, 226n41, 226n42, 226n43, 233, 257n72, 258n72 Baetica 55, 62, 63, 71, 85, 91, 97, 141, 153–157, 159, 161, 648 Baghdad (Iraq) 838 Balearic Islands 56, 58, 61, 151, 154, 165, 319, 513, 765, 820, 831, 836 Banquets 58, 193, 755 Baptistery 324, 338, 523, 524, 764, 766, 779, 792, 802, 828 Baraita 219, 229, 232, 235 Barcelona (Spain) 2, 34, 179, 180, 202, 264, 271, 276, 279, 282, 764, 792 Basilica 3, 5, 59, 76, 186, 189, 190, 285, 292, 294–297, 299, 302, 304, 305, 310, 310n61, 311–315, 318–320, 323, 327, 333–335, 339, 340, 342–351, 355, 377, 422, 424, 433, 435, 443, 468, 483, 484, 487, 491, 497, 518, 522, 523, 527, 528, 528n270, 537, 540, 610, 655, 754, 763– 767, 769, 770, 792, 797, 801, 805, 807, 811, 828, 838, 957, 960, 962, 988 Basilical ix, 5–7, 29, 53–55, 118, 203, 285, 286, 290, 292, 294, 295, 297, 300–306, 310, 311, 313–316, 318–323, 325, 326, 328, 329, 331–337, 339, 340, 342–352, 354– 359, 363, 365, 402, 402n58, 406, 419, 421–423, 423n90, 427, 431, 432n100, 433–436, 439, 442–446, 447n117, 455, 458, 460–462, 465, 467, 469, 470, 473, 482, 483, 485, 488, 492, 498, 502, 506, 507, 510–512, 515–518, 520, 522–526, 531, 532, 540–543, 545–549, 551–556, 558–560, 587, 592, 596–598, 600, 604, 606–610, 614, 629, 637, 646, 652, 664, 665, 671, 673, 681, 686, 689, 691–693, 695, 696, 698, 700, 702, 707, 711n7, 732– 734, 739, 740, 741n2, 749, 754, 756, 766, 769, 770, 775, 805, 807–809, 812, 815, 822, 823, 826, 828, 838, 842, 843, 845, 847, 849, 851, 856, 861, 865, 867–869, 871, 872, 875, 876, 878, 888, 890, 893, 908–912, 918, 926, 931, 937, 938, 942, 944, 960, 961, 964, 968, 969, 983, 985, 988, 991, 993 Batei midrash 229 Bedrock 401–403, 421, 437, 467, 574, 575, 589, 592, 602–604, 616, 643, 646, 648,
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general index 650, 662, 673, 681, 684, 685, 702, 708, 728, 851, 879, 886, 887, 923, 929, 949, 982, 999, 1003, 1005 Belt 647, 897, 940 Bema 220, 224, 773, 775, 787, 794–797, 813 Bench/es 224, 392, 393, 431, 433, 447, 447n117, 483, 527, 547, 552, 610, 751, 762, 764, 765, 770, 773–775, 813, 815, 825, 826, 828, 872, 874, 910, 918, 937 Berakhot 74n47, 92, 226, 226n42, 226n43, 257n72 Berenice (Libya) 756 Besalú (Catalonia) 31 Beth Alpha (Israel) 50, 118, 778, 788, 793, 796, 813, 834 Beth Sheʾan (Israel) 218, 326, 341, 491, 778, 781, 793, 827 Bethlehem (Palestinian Authority) 780 Bezel 105, 347, 800 Bible 26, 68, 74, 79, 98, 99, 128 Biblical 26, 37, 61, 68, 70, 74, 79, 99, 100, 111, 127, 128, 132, 173, 257, 269, 280n107, 310, 785, 831 Bilingual 117, 122, 130, 133, 152, 162, 250, 830 Bird/s 436, 468, 586, 592, 656, 658, 671, 675, 687, 723, 724, 735, 857, 858, 879, 885, 895, 896, 901, 905, 907, 919, 930, 932, 948, 976, 977, 978, 984, 1004, 1009 Bishopric 99, 289, 297, 339, 345, 350, 528n270, 764, 764n48 Blessing 69, 73, 114, 116, 121, 127, 136, 147, 154, 162, 254, 338 Boletín de la Real Academia de la Historia 28 Boletín Español de Arquitectura 19 Bones 188, 353, 439, 563, 596, 619, 620, 624, 657, 719, 721, 747, 806, 808, 893, 926, 955, 1005 Bordillo (edge) 442, 991 Bourdeaux 130, 508 Brick 18, 62, 71, 73, 75, 76, 89, 102, 152, 156, 161, 205, 274–276, 354, 731, 736, 792, 830, 833, 838, 1001 British Mandate (of Palestine) 51 Bronze 69, 171, 172, 183, 191, 192, 400, 401n57, 403, 462, 466, 561, 562, 571, 576, 583, 588, 589, 594, 623, 625, 637, 643, 647, 659, 672, 683, 715, 720, 723, 727, 834, 859, 889, 901, 914, 917, 939, 943, 946,
1075 950, 953–955, 957, 958, 960, 968, 971– 973, 976–979, 987, 1007 Burial 36n75, 59, 121, 130, 131, 151, 193–195, 195n36, 202, 203, 257, 258, 270, 273, 317, 343, 344, 349, 351, 542, 607, 618–622, 632, 638, 673, 678, 684–686, 692, 693, 695, 696, 698, 699, 699n199, 701–704, 706, 732, 742, 747, 805–810, 818, 877, 899, 934, 966, 981, 999, 1008, 1010, 1012, 1013 Burials 51 Byzantine 20, 21, 25, 285, 299, 326, 336, 339, 340, 344, 347, 514, 521, 522, 524, 527, 528n270, 529, 529n275, 530, 532n280, 533, 534, 534n282, 535–541, 631, 769n57, 795, 817, 820, 824, 829, 831, 958 Caesarea Maritima (Israel) 183, 184, 832 Calatayud (Spain) 268, 269, 277, 282 Calendar 169, 257, 271, 793 Campanian 400, 402, 419, 439, 467, 550, 551, 573, 575, 576, 578, 603, 625, 641, 642, 649, 656, 658, 659, 664, 673, 675, 679, 690, 694, 701, 702, 720, 885, 887, 889, 892, 893, 903, 914–917, 922, 923, 927, 931, 937, 943, 947, 955, 959, 973, 1005, 1007, 1009, 1013–1015 Candelabrum/a 89, 90n80, 117, 121, 127, 201, 341, 349, 354, 476, 505, 754n24, 799, 833, 834 Capital (city) 21, 62, 80, 100, 103, 111–112, 115, 162, 249, 250, 255, 274, 282, 285, 458, 525, 741, 741n2, 742, 836 Capital (column) 199, 201, 295, 329, 457, 458, 659, 743, 874, 985, 1007 Capital (letter) 246, 711n7 Carnacier 468, 468n134, 671 Carnivore 625, 656, 671, 683, 997, 1004 Carthaginensis 55, 76, 154, 340, 479 Carthago Nova (Cartagena, Spain) 194, 197, 285, 401, 528n270, 631, 631n36, 679, 683, 697, 790, 834, 835, 915, 964, 997, 1011 Castulo (Linares, Spain) xii, 76–78, 185–190, 199, 831, 834 Catacomb 91, 93, 94, 144, 151, 162, 194, 479, 485, 770n58, 785, 796n112 Catholic 7, 15, 21, 22, 25, 28, 301, 302, 339, 837
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1076 Ceramic 39, 61, 72, 76–78, 192, 309, 329, 345, 361, 379, 390, 391, 400–402, 419, 439, 468, 468n134, 573, 587n50, 592, 597, 605, 624, 641, 642, 648, 650, 670, 685, 712, 725, 735, 830, 834, 858, 889, 917, 921, 939, 943, 952, 954, 955, 961, 963, 971, 972, 999 Chi-Rho 74, 131, 194, 201, 493, 801 Christ 42n90, 57, 490, 493, 944 Christian 1–3, 5, 6, 13, 17, 18, 24, 25, 45, 48, 51, 52, 53, 59, 61, 68, 69, 74, 75, 80, 92, 93, 97–99, 104, 110, 117n144, 119, 123, 127, 130–133, 136, 142, 146, 147, 165, 170, 189, 190, 194, 195, 195n36, 195n37, 200– 203, 206–208, 249, 251, 251n53, 252, 255, 258, 279n105, 285, 297–300, 309, 310, 310n61, 313, 315, 316, 319, 322, 324, 326, 326n112, 327, 336–344, 346–348, 350, 351, 354–356, 410, 423, 423n90, 466, 479, 480, 482, 484, 485, 487, 490– 493, 495, 496, 498, 502, 504, 512–516, 540, 543, 553–555, 607, 654, 697, 703, 704, 741, 750, 754, 754n24, 775, 779, 782, 785, 790, 794–796, 796n112, 798, 800, 800n121, 801, 804, 805, 807, 809, 811, 816–828, 836, 838, 839, 844, 958, 1004 Christian archaeology 51, 298, 320 Christian architecture 51, 189, 210, 349, 768, 770, 774, 798, 819, 820 Christian art 319, 322n93, 342 Christian symbology 51 Christianity 16n13, 20, 24, 26, 48, 195, 205, 298, 315, 493, 498, 655, 802, 826 as a “Spanish character” 26 Church 3, 5, 22, 38, 53, 61, 119, 190, 290, 297, 299, 310, 315, 320, 322, 324, 325, 326n112, 327, 328, 335–342, 344, 347, 348, 350, 355, 484, 491, 495, 498, 502, 508, 512, 513, 515, 516, 522, 540, 543, 553, 598, 697, 704, 707, 763, 764n48, 766–769, 796–802, 804, 805, 807–809, 812, 816, 818, 820, 822, 825, 826, 837, 838, 844, 1004, 1018 Church of the Nativity (Bethlehem) 524, 780, 789, 790, 793 Citizenship 45, 92, 159 Classical 3, 5, 7, 19, 26, 46, 110, 195n36, 236, 253, 271, 279, 286, 485, 516, 837 Clergy 315
general index Coins xi, xxvi, 13, 39, 42, 171–185, 206, 207, 237, 237n4, 238, 240, 243, 244, 244n26, 245–248, 250, 254, 289, 335, 339, 353, 401, 401n57, 563, 571n17, 583, 583n41, 588, 625, 656, 666, 683, 700, 721, 723, 735, 747, 816, 832, 858, 899, 955, 957, 958, 976, 996 Colonnades 522, 782 Columns 72, 286, 289, 290, 400, 525, 542, 751, 754, 756, 775, 776, 778, 782, 786– 788, 790, 792, 793, 796, 797, 802, 812, 825, 853, 1017 Communal 75, 85, 812, 825, 827, 836, 839 Communitary 37, 189 Conch 72, 658, 776, 778, 790, 792, 1007 Congregation 96, 254, 347, 373, 479, 480, 481n159, 483, 801, 826, 829 Congregational 478, 539, 600, 654, 827 Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (csic) 30, 33, 77 Constantinian 194, 339, 508–509, 666 Constantinople (Istanbul, Turkey) 116, 525, 829 Conventus 81 Conversos 1, 24, 802 Copper 172, 243, 244, 252, 254, 290, 624, 641, 656–658, 715, 719, 720, 724, 727, 729, 832, 859, 892, 900, 931, 973, 978, 979, 997, 1003, 1005, 1006 Cordoba (Spain) 7, 17, 21, 30, 62, 75, 88, 144, 144n218, 236, 250, 252, 255, 256, 258, 260, 262, 264, 265, 271, 278, 281, 282, 838 Coria (Spain) 32 Corinthian (column type) 199, 200, 295, 362, 659, 1007, 1017 Cornice 72, 790 Courtyard 37, 134, 509, 549, 553, 744, 745, 751, 755, 812, 815, 828, 876 Craftsmanship 52, 110, 206, 211, 340 Craftsmen 109, 110, 243, 506, 510, 516, 839 Creature 310n61, 468n134, 625 Crossbar 114, 798, 798–799n117 Cup 182, 394, 403, 438n114, 439, 467, 576, 591, 603, 625, 641, 642, 666, 688, 715, 720, 731, 731n61, 733, 736, 889, 905, 913, 914, 917, 920, 929, 937, 948, 955, 971, 973, 974, 979, 986, 987, 1001, 1002
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general index Cupula/cupulae 141, 149, 188, 193, 194, 654, 655 Currency 184 Cyrenaica (Libya) 485, 832 Cyzicus (Balıkesir, Turkey) 117, 125–128, 835 Decumanus 185, 186 Defacement 116, 372–374, 481, 496, 502, 506, 512, 514–516, 538, 543, 553, 800, 819, 826 Deity 999 Delos (Greece) 52, 215, 478, 493 Deuterocanonical 832 Deutsches Archaeologisches Institut xi, 302, 309, 323, 359, 378, 380, 403, 543, 558, 823 Dhimmi 250 Diana 52 Temple of 190 Diana Veteranorum 525 Diaspora 45n99, 49–51, 52, 53, 74n47, 91, 91n84, 93, 185, 325, 344, 485, 539, 752, 753, 777, 779, 783, 786, 834 Diocesis Hispaniarum 56, 163, 839 Domus 83, 104, 189, 286, 509, 510, 514, 533, 548–554, 556, 586, 601, 603, 604, 646, 691, 694, 701–705, 732, 739, 741–752, 755, 756, 763, 769, 805, 811, 813, 815–821, 824, 825, 827, 831, 836, 839, 892, 910 Domus ecclesia/e 753, 763 Domus synagoga 189, 553, 764 Donor 116, 237n2, 485 Doors xi, 27, 251, 654, 711, 776–779, 853, 1004, 1017 Dura Europos (Syria) 52, 204n67, 750–752, 753, 755, 763, 778, 779, 833 Early Middle Ages 50 Earring 806, 807, 1005 Eastern Roman 154, 242n22, 829, 837 Ecumenical 99, 839 Efemérides 293, 294, 294n17, 297, 361, 409, 855, 860 Egg 192, 639, 647, 647n75, 684, 858, 889, 940, 956, 973, 998 Egypt 116n144, 279, 478, 493n203, 832 Elbow 522, 525, 533, 538 Elche xii, 3, 5, 6, 13, 42, 46, 58, 76, 117, 118, 171, 181, 182, 199, 250, 282, 285–289, 290, 292, 292n10, 292n11, 293–295,
1077 298, 299–302, 302n45, 304n52, 306, 308, 309, 310, 310n61, 319, 320, 322– 326, 327, 327n113, 335–337, 339–342, 345, 347, 350, 351, 351n185, 352, 353, 353n190, 354, 354n193, 355, 358n1, 359, 360, 360n3, 366, 377, 384, 401, 405, 417, 421, 424, 440, 473, 477, 478, 482, 485, 487, 489, 494, 506, 517, 542, 576, 579, 596, 614, 678, 685n172, 704, 724, 742, 748, 749, 803, 807, 810, 820, 824, 826, 838, 841, 842, 846, 847, 852, 858, 1014– 1016 See Alcudia de Elche and Ilici Elda (Spain) 324, 339, 344, 350, 419 Elvira (Council of) 26, 99, 840 Emeritan 94, 832 Emperor 69, 82, 83, 663, 672, 724, 735, 831, 833, 899 Emporion 42, 171–174, 176, 179, 181, 658 En Gedi (Israel) 220, 497, 497n209, 516, 787, 796, 813, 829 Epigraphic 14, 25, 26, 26n44, 28, 29, 42, 44– 46 Epigraphy (general) 3, 4, 28, 40, 41, 47, 55, 80, 144, 152, 158, 165, 237, 281 Epigraphy (Hebrew and Jewish) Beginnings 11–15, 32 in Hispania Chapter ii Epitaph 64n19, 74, 81, 88, 93, 102, 103, 110, 117, 126, 127, 136, 139, 143, 145, 147, 148, 154, 158, 161, 479, 480 Era Hispanica 838 Estilo Ilicitano 551, 573n23, 591n57, 658, 671, 683, 727n45, 885, 913, 931, 947, 978, 997, 1006, 1014, 1015 Ethnos 45 Etrog 72, 90, 204, 205, 777, 799, 833, 835 Euergetic 497, 836 European 27, 50 Ex novo 747, 755, 762, 769, 794, 797, 798, 807 Export 199, 292n10 Expulsion of the Jews 26 Façade 654, 691, 704, 776, 777, 785, 788, 790, 793, 815, 846 False symmetry 88 Feathers 114, 117 Festivity 73, 74 Fibula 439, 639, 643n60, 731, 736, 859, 889, 890, 894, 987, 1001
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1078 Flavia Neapolis (Samaria) 39 Flavius Neapolitanus 167 Flower 593, 634, 635, 662, 698, 938, 943, 948, 950, 978 Freedman 81–83, 160, 492n197, 832 Funerary sites 36 Hypogea 29 Inscriptions 45 Kochim 52 Jewish in Hispania 34 Funerary statues 646 Furniture 39, 53, 344, 483, 497, 511, 597, 762, 763, 788, 789, 793, 798, 820, 825, 826, 828, 834, 862, 1017, 1018 Fustat (Cairo, Egypt) 221–223, 230, 232, 235, 279, 829 Gadir/Gades (Cádiz) 62, 590n56, 685, 831 Galilee 143, 170, 342, 491, 497, 521, 787, 799, 829 Gamla (Israel) 228n49 Garum 84, 84n72, 197–199, 206, 207, 835 Gaul 27, 131, 298, 320, 749n14 Gaza (Palestinian Authority) 118, 341, 794 Genizah (General) 773 Cairo Genizah 207, 252, 279, 279n105, 280, 829 Geometric motif 39, 322, 422, 439, 498, 509, 510, 528, 582, 592, 659, 664, 675, 680, 690, 727, 799, 827, 863, 919, 924, 927, 929, 932, 943, 948, 978, 1007, 1009, 1011 Concentric semi-circles 422, 641, 657, 664, 681, 799, 924, 1006, 1012 German 170, 312, 322, 324, 447, 990 Globular 72, 73, 90, 422, 625, 652, 662, 671, 687, 725, 799, 887, 893, 905, 914, 917, 919, 945, 986–990, 998, 1004, 1013 Golan Heights 92, 485 Gothic 13, 27, 33, 37, 38, 102, 249, 250, 339, 802 Goths 25 Grafitto 77, 78, 161, 185, 189, 190, 207 Greek 20, 66, 67, 70, 74, 80, 92, 93, 96, 99, 111, 114, 116, 118–126, 128, 130, 136, 138, 139, 141, 147, 151–159, 162–165, 168, 179, 181, 201, 207, 246, 247, 253, 273, 280, 297, 299, 312, 314, 320, 327, 336, 337, 340, 371, 466, 476, 478, 479, 480, 483, 484, 487, 491, 522, 645, 652, 659, 660,
general index 662, 672, 701, 710, 793, 795, 796n112, 819, 820, 824, 826, 827, 829–831, 836– 838, 863, 864, 883, 902, 952, 1004, 1007, 1008, 1014, 1022 Guadiana (river, Spain) 80, 85, 100, 102, 164 Guarrazar (Toledo, Spain) 20, 21, 249n38 Guilloche 320, 481, 499–504, 506, 507, 509n233, 527, 529, 530, 791, 799, 863 Hanukiyah (mold) 39 Hanukiyyot 49 Halakhah 36 Halakhic 52 Hammath Gader 485, 794, 795 Hammath Tiberias 51 Hashkabah 277, 838 Hebrew studies 14, 30 Hellenistic 45, 45n99, 48 Hellenization 830 Hellenized 155, 158, 830, 839 Herodian (adjective) 172, 184, 185, 199n47, 206, 756 Herodion (site) 228n49 Heroic cult 646 Hetoimasia 779, 788 Hispania ix, 6, 7, 40, 41, 42, 45n99, 46, 48, 54, 50, 55, 57n4, 58, 61, 62, 64, 76, 79, 85, 91, 96, 98, 102, 111, 112, 116, 122, 132, 133, 137, 138, 151, 152, 155, 156, 162–166, 168, 170, 171, 174, 179, 184, 185, 190, 194–196, 206, 242n22, 257, 278, 282, 320, 322n93, 332n117, 354, 485, 509, 516, 521, 632n39, 663n129, 792, 798, 805, 821, 829, 831– 835, 839 Hispanian x, 46, 50, 97n108, 104, 118, 163, 158, 165, 170, 172, 181, 199, 206, 207, 208, 257, 310n61, 509, 821, 832–834, 839, 1007 Hispanojewish ix, xxxii, 4, 5, 7, 43, 55, 56, 160, 161, 163, 204, 205, 236, 278, 280, 355, 829, 831, 832, 837–839 Hispanorroman 7, 45, 837 Hispanovisigothic 45 Historiographical 12, 15, 23, 27, 31, 42, 46, 50 Horvat ʿEtri (Israel) 755 Huldah (kibbutz, Israel) 327, 328n113, 480 Huqoq (Israel) 310n61, 342 Hypogea 29, 195n36, 770n58
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general index Iberian (Peninsula) ix, x, 1–6, 11–15, 17, 18, 21, 23–26, 26n40, 28–31, 38–43, 45, 45n99, 46–48, 50, 55, 63, 69, 70, 76, 80, 82, 83, 89, 99, 100, 111, 113, 117, 118, 154, 155, 163, 164, 167, 170–172, 174, 179, 181, 183, 190, 194, 206, 208, 236, 236n1, 238, 240, 242n22, 244, 245, 249–251, 253– 255, 269, 277–280, 285, 292, 301, 307, 308, 314, 317, 319, 322n96, 325, 329, 331– 333, 335, 338, 345, 356, 528, 528n270, 539, 550, 551, 553, 590, 596, 663, 741, 750, 763, 797, 802, 805, 811, 819, 821, 822, 827–832, 834, 835, 837–839 Iberian (mountain range) 514 Iberian (culture/period) 362, 379, 391, 401, 402, 419, 422, 431, 432, 435, 438, 439, 443, 450, 451, 455, 458, 467, 571, 468, 468n133, 468n134, 554, 573, 573n23, 582, 584, 588, 590, 594, 594n66, 603, 604, 614, 625, 635, 639, 641, 646, 648, 651, 657, 658, 664, 671, 685n172, 686, 694, 695, 699–703, 705, 706, 708, 710, 715, 730, 731, 735, 737, 739, 741, 741n2, 742–744, 858, 874, 878, 883–885, 888, 892–894, 898, 906, 915, 917, 927, 931, 938, 943, 947, 949, 952, 954, 959, 964– 966, 971, 975–977, 986, 990, 997, 1001, 1005, 1007 Iberian Jews 15, 26, 40, 41, 43, 44 Ibero-Roman 307, 308, 571, 571n17, 589, 590, 600, 603, 631, 883, 930, 931, 938, 960, 963 Ibero-Punic 308, 685 Ibn Ezra synagogue 222, 223, 230, 829 Iconographic 52, 74, 200, 201, 240, 778 Iconography 53, 75, 137, 168, 195, 200, 202, 204, 207, 352, 490, 491, 496, 543, 694, 788, 826 Ilici ix, xii, 4–7, 46, 54, 55, 76, 152, 154– 157, 160, 161, 163–165, 181, 189, 200, 203, 207, 208, 253, 279, 282, 283, 286, 289, 296, 299, 305, 312, 312n67, 321, 326, 326n112, 328, 332, 333, 339, 340, 342, 343–345, 346, 349, 350, 355, 356, 360, 424, 438n114, 469, 480, 487n176, 487n177, 488, 490, 492, 494, 506, 507, 510, 511, 513–515, 518, 522, 526, 528n270, 541, 546, 551, 553, 586, 596, 603, 614, 646, 654, 663, 686, 704, 707, 741, 744,
1079 747, 749, 750, 754, 763, 764n48, 765, 768–770, 773–775, 788, 791–795, 797– 800, 800n121, 801, 802, 805, 813, 815, 816, 818–825, 827–830, 832–834, 836– 839, 1003 Illeta del Rei (Baleares, Spain) 320, 765– 769, 770n58, 816, 820, 827 Impluvium 744–746 In situ 55, 164, 317, 319, 334, 374, 375, 382, 396, 465, 525, 528, 535, 797, 857, 992 Incantation 62, 66–70, 74, 97, 141, 155, 156, 161, 830 Incense 777, 833 Infant 64, 65, 136, 678, 681, 685, 693n189, 706, 747 Inhabited scroll 118 Inscriptions 11–14, 29, 31, 41–43, 45, 46 Intaglio 204, 205, 207, 835 Instituto Valencia de Don Juan 237, 238 Ishtar 169 Islamic 2, 5, 39, 80, 91, 111, 138, 144, 207, 236, 246, 249, 254, 255, 258, 260, 268, 278, 280, 281, 350, 513, 596, 837 Israel x, xi, xii, 41, 51, 52, 53, 90, 90n80, 91, 114, 118, 121, 122, 130, 131, 135, 168, 182, 201, 206, 252, 257n72, 310n61, 326, 328, 336, 488, 492, 502, 539, 778, 779, 781, 785, 793, 793n98, 813, 819, 827, 833 Italic 438, 590, 657, 662, 738, 931, 987, 1006 Italica 12 Iudaea 42, 58, 63–65, 163, 168, 171, 172, 176, 184, 185, 206, 832 Játiva (Spain) 300 Jericho (Palestinian Authority) 228n49, 254, 755 Jerusalem 118n146, 121, 172, 184, 185, 204, 252, 262, 263, 266, 341n150, 485, 524, 655, 762, 773, 774, 776n68, 787, 793, 831n1, 832 Jewish Archaeology 11, 27, 38, 235, 244, 233n93, 356, 822 Metrological analysis 37, 53, 527 Origin of field (Spain and Portugal) 28, 39–40 Jewish art 17, 21, 25, 27, 39, 51–53, 53n129, 72, 118, 204, 342, 798, 1017 Jewish burials 51
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1080 Jewish culture 28, 39, 46, 209, 255, 821 absence of a state 21 and assimilation 21, 28 Jewish historiography 23n33, 40 Jewish names 26 Jewish object (archaeology) 31 Jewish people 2, 16, 16n13, 24, 26, 28, 45, 46, 48, 50, 51, 207, 270 Jewish Settlement aljama 35, 36, 44, 223 as foreigners 48 as outsiders 27 first arrival 25 Jewish neighborhood 31, 37, 49 Judería (Jewish neighborhood) 18, 31, 39, 49 Urban planning and space 35–36 Jewish studies xi, 28, 40, 42, 100, 244 Jewish wars 47 Jewry/Jewries x, 11, 21, 27, 42n90, 43, 47, 85, 136, 138, 207, 208 Jews ix, 1–4, 6, 7, 11, 13–15, 15n8, 16, 17, 18, 21–29, 31, 32, 34–36, 38–41, 42, 42n90, 43–45, 45n99, 46–49, 51, 52, 53, 55, 57, 57n6, 62, 64n17, 76, 99, 103, 111, 113, 116, 117, 123, 123n160, 132, 133, 137, 140, 155, 158, 163–165, 168, 170, 174, 184, 185, 189, 195, 195n36, 196, 197, 199, 203, 206–208, 251, 253, 254, 269, 271, 277n103, 278, 279n105, 280–282, 292n11, 296, 298, 314, 322, 327, 335, 514, 741, 758–761, 802, 821, 822, 827, 832, 835– 839 Judaea See Iudaea Judaic Law 45 Judaism ix, x, 3, 4, 6, 7, 11, 28, 33, 44, 48, 50, 51, 52, 70, 72, 83, 111, 121–123, 133, 137, 141, 144, 151, 155, 162–164, 170, 171, 184, 195, 208, 277, 278, 281, 292n11, 356, 485, 492, 765, 802, 821, 831, 836, 838 Judean 48, 58, 172 Judean Desert 756 Judeo-Arabic 280, 280n107 Judeo-Christian 498, 515, 785n83 Judeo-Hispanic 160 Judeo-Latin 154 Judeo-Greek 154
general index Kibotos (see also Armarium) 497, 776, 790 Knife 573, 592, 603, 649n83, 656, 720, 885, 900, 949, 973, 1005 Kosher 199, 199n47 Lamella 62, 67, 69, 97, 161, 830 Lamps 72, 79, 89, 90, 102, 171, 185, 189, 190, 191, 196, 203, 207, 362, 617, 618, 698, 715, 718, 754, 773, 801, 834, 836, 888, 921, 967, 968, 971, 972, see lucerna, lucernae Landlords 836 Late Antiquity 25, 38, 39, 43, 44, 46, 50–52, 54 Late antique 39, 40, 46, 47, 50–52, 52n125, 53 Late Middle Ages 25, 50 Late Republic (republican) 308, 345, 401, 419, 439, 469, 550–552, 554, 573, 573n23, 586, 591n57, 601, 602, 634, 643, 656, 657, 659, 694, 695, 701, 702n202, 703, 747, 750, 885, 892, 897, 898, 922, 943, 944, 963, 1014 Latin 12, 13, 20, 25, 40, 41, 63, 64, 73, 80, 81, 84, 85, 92, 94–96, 99, 100, 102, 106, 109– 111, 114, 116, 118, 120–126, 128, 136, 139, 141, 143, 149, 151–160, 162, 164, 165, 168, 207, 240, 242n22, 245–248, 253–255, 257, 263, 266, 267, 272, 273, 278–280, 297, 324, 326, 339, 341, 491, 528n270, 795, 796n112, 819, 829–831, 836–838 Latin names 26, 85, 136, 156, 158, 159, 165, 263, 267, 268, 273, 830 Law 22, 30, 36, 36n75, 45, 199n47, 203, 215, 228, 233, 249, 252, 279, 292n10, 300, 302, 480 Lead 59, 61, 62, 184, 194, 252, 257, 385, 400, 422, 425, 435, 466, 515, 521, 526, 550, 571, 584–586, 589–591, 594, 607, 629, 631, 639, 641, 643, 648, 652, 656–658, 683, 687, 704, 718, 720, 725, 728, 747, 802, 805, 806, 808, 859, 865, 878–880, 883, 885, 887, 889, 891, 894, 914, 917, 924, 939, 944, 946, 950, 962–964, 972, 978, 987, 1004, 1006 León (Spain) 29, 34, 98, 122, 277, 277n103, See Settlement sites: Puente Castro Leviathan 310n61, 491, 504 Levite/s 79
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general index Leptis Magna (Khoms, Algeria) 189, 525 Lighting 89, 190, 207, 801, 834 Lilies 173 Lintel 119, 376, 523, 654, 799, 811, 815 Lions 319, 765 Literary 7, 15, 17, 21, 25, 28, 40, 42, 45n99, 52n125, 54, 156, 281 Loci 6, 371, 555, 559, 584, 595, 599, 602, 603, 612, 614, 616, 841, 843, 844, 848–851, 853, 854, 856, 857, 888, 892 Locus xxvii, 358, 361, 400, 467, 561, 589, 591, 593, 594, 602, 603, 852, 855, 856, 892, 894, 895, 922, 929, 939, 964, 968, 989 Loom weight 400, 467, 584, 644, 648, 890, 891, 894, 922, 930 Lorca (Murcia, Spain) 35, 35n67, 39, 49, 264, 279, 301, 829, 838 Lucerna (oil lamp) 958, 965, 1004 Lucernae (oil lamps) 186, 362, 971 Lulav 72, 90, 90n80, 114, 117, 129, 204, 205, 777, 793, 799, 833, 835 Lulavim 90n80, 130, 163, 833, 834 Lusitania 41, 55, 80, 82, 85, 100, 111, 138, 153– 158, 164, 165, 168, 190, 191, 204, 205, 830, 831, 835, 836 Maʾon (Nirim, Israel) 220, 341, 794, 829 Mahón (Magona, Spain) 56, 57, 57n4, 57n6, 513, 516, 765, 836 Málaga (Spain) 42, 62, 71, 75 Martyrial cult 801, 807 Mas Rimbau (Tarragona, Spain) 131, 201 Mast 202, 324, 326, 341, 491, 501, 503 Mauritania Tingitana 6, 42, 56, 60, 96, 138, 141, 144, 152, 154, 158, 159, 162, 191, 192, 257, 521, 831, 836 Mausoleum 110, 785, 789 Meander 476, 499, 502, 503, 505, 507, 527, 530, 546 Medallion 175, 403, 496, 498, 501, 506, 509, 516, 788 Medieval architecture 18, 19 Mudéjar/mozarabic styles 18 Mediterranean x, 1, 4, 42, 46, 55, 62, 69, 70, 118, 123, 154, 155, 164, 165, 168, 169, 206, 236, 250–252, 253n60, 280, 285, 354, 356, 372, 479, 492, 502, 631, 740, 741, 750, 773, 776, 789, 792, 796n112, 797,
1081 802, 815, 817, 819, 825, 827–831, 833, 835, 836, 1017 Mediterranean Levant 42 Megaric 658, 1016 Menorah 39, 65, 71–73, 75, 86, 88–91, 91n86, 96, 101, 102, 114, 117, 120, 121, 124, 130, 131, 133, 134, 136, 163, 171, 185, 189–198, 200– 202, 204–206, 254, 254n66, 320, 354, 372, 374, 476, 480, 502, 506, 510, 754, 754n24, 773, 776, 792, 798, 798n117, 799, 800, 819, 825, 826, 833–835 Menorca (Baleares, Spain) 56, 57n6, 320, 765, 767, 768, 770, 816, 827 Mérida (Badajoz, Spain) 29n50, 31, 39, 40, 46, 55, 65, 80, 81, 83, 85, 92, 94, 95, 98, 100, 103–107, 122, 130, 136, 139, 144, 147, 153, 160, 164–168, 190, 196, 207, 253, 255, 278, 282, 338, 338n138, 831, 834, 836, 837 Mértola (Portugal) 36, 58, 80, 100, 101, 127, 130, 171, 174, 176, 257 Mesopotamia 253 Metrology 522, 534n282, 543, 544, 793 Metrological 5, 6, 37, 320, 345, 347, 348, 350, 356, 363n11, 470, 517–519, 521, 522, 525, 526, 533, 539, 541, 542, 553, 598 Middle Ages 17, 20, 21, 25, 27, 36, 41, 44, 54 Midrashic 70 Minority 20, 35, 50, 54 Mint 250 Minted 171, 172, 179, 181, 183, 240, 243, 245, 250, 401, 672, 679, 735 Miqveh 31 Miqvaot 36 Mishnah 36, 92, 253n58, 270 Mishnaic 17, 230 Modern soil 361, 459, 559, 607, 618, 692, 748, 806, 961 Mold xxiii, 25, 39, 71, 73, 75, 196, 276, 652, 654, 654n93, 655, 655n97, 656, 694, 1004, 1016 Monasteries 801 Monteverde catacomb 786 Mosaic xxv, 5, 29, 46, 52, 53, 55, 61, 83, 118, 154, 156, 161, 163, 286, 290, 292, 294–300, 302–307, 309, 310, 310n61, 312–320, 322–326, 326n112, 327– 329, 331–341, 342n154, 343–350, 352, 353, 353n193, 354, 356–363, 363n11, 367–384, 384n33, 385–392, 392n43,
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1082 Mosaic (cont.) 393, 394, 394n47, 395, 397, 399–402, 402n58, 403–406, 409, 409n75, 410, 411, 411n78, 412, 416, 417, 419, 419n84, 420–423, 423n90, 425–432, 432n100, 433–439, 441–443, 447, 455, 457–461, 461n124, 462, 466–470, 473– 517, 517, 519, 519n254, 520, 520n257, 521, 525–529, 531, 531n279, 532–535, 535n283, 536, 538–549, 552–555, 558, 559, 564, 571, 575–577, 580, 597, 598, 600, 603, 605, 606, 609, 610, 613, 618, 620, 622–624, 627, 634, 654, 655, 664, 667, 668, 670, 671, 683, 687, 689, 690, 692–694, 696–698, 700, 704, 710, 717, 719, 721, 732–735, 737n62, 739, 746, 747, 750, 763–766, 769, 770, 773–775, 778, 780, 785, 788, 789, 793, 794n101, 795– 801, 804, 811–813, 815, 817, 819–830, 833, 837, 842, 843, 850, 852, 855, 860–874, 880, 887, 890, 893, 898, 906–914, 916– 918, 920–923, 925, 930–932, 935, 936, 938, 941–944, 946, 950, 951, 953, 958, 960, 968, 973, 974, 980, 982–986, 990– 993, 1001, 1017 Mudbrick 591 Museo Arqueológico de Elche 373, 495 Museo Sefardí de Toledo 33, 40, 71 Museo Judaico de Belmonte 177 Murcia (Spain) 40, 192, 199, 250, 285, 528n270, 719, 790, 820, 823, 829 Muslim 7, 19, 21, 25, 238, 240, 245, 249–251, 251n53, 252, 254, 254n66, 255, 258, 282, 347, 528n270, 805, 820, 837 Myrtilis (Mértola, Portugal) 80, 100, 102, 174–178, 181, 184, 185, 833 Mythraic 53 Naʾaran 91, 91n86, 513, 793 Narbonensis (Gallia Narbonensis) 6, 43, 55, 133, 137, 138, 148, 153, 157, 162, 165 Narbonne 131, 133, 134, 137, 154, 156, 279, 514, 836 Narthex 496, 513, 764, 765, 769, 797, 804, 805, 811–813, 815–817, 827, 1017 National 11, 14, 16–23, 28, 50, 298, 335 Nationalism 17, 19, 280 Spanish 14, 15, 16, 19, 20, 292n10 Neighborhood 31, 33, 37, 38, 49, 112, 224, 255, 260, 274
general index Nicaea (Iznik, Turkey) 79 Nicolo gem 203 Noah’s ark 496 Nomen 107 Numantia (Soria, Spain) 12 Numismatics 39, 172, 177, 206, 246, 248, 300, 301, 858 Numismatist 12, 237, 238, 244 Old Testament 99, 336, 832 Opus sectile 212, 213, 745, 956 Opus signinum 193, 213, 597, 807, 959, 963 Orihuela (Alicante, Spain) 39, 76, 117, 171, 199, 200, 206, 207, 325, 340, 833 Orthodox 99, 779, 788 Ostia (Italy) 41, 41n89, 478, 493, 516, 755, 758–762, 773, 785, 787, 790, 812, 813, 829, 833, 839 Ostrich 118n145, 639, 889, 973 Pagan 43, 45 Palace 200, 596, 623, 707, 708, 717, 718, 720, 722, 725, 727–731, 736, 801n123, 850, 851, 938, 939, 968, 970, 972, 974–976, 1001, 1002 Palestine 39, 50, 51, 53, 91, 123, 167, 168, 195, 205, 254, 344, 480, 524, 776n68, 834 Pamphylia 787 Paradise 110, 273 Parokhet 72, 776, 778, 782, 790, 793, 796, 802, 1017 Passover 38, 73 Pattern/s 37, 53, 120, 236, 308, 320, 341, 420, 476, 489, 499–505, 508, 508n224, 509, 509n233, 529, 531, 539, 541, 546, 603, 641, 727, 795, 799, 857, 892 Peacocks 114, 117, 199–201, 754, 754n24, 799, 833 Pediment 118, 776, 778, 785n83, 786, 788, 790, 793 Persecution (of Jews) 15, 16, 23, 24, 26, 27, 137, 163, 164, 174, 251, 253, 278, 802, 804, 836, 837, 839 Persian 248n36, 253, 837 Pes Capitolinus 522, 525, 526, 530 Philanthropic 123, 836 Philology (Hebrew) 31 Phoenician 42 Plasencia (Spain) 32
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general index Polis 762 Pomerium 220, 749 Portico 745, 751, 975 Portugal 1–3, 11, 14, 17, 22, 28, 32, 34, 34n62, 36, 37, 49, 100, 151, 164, 171, 176, 191, 194, 253, 323, 797 Positivism 28 Pottery Decorated pottery 582, 603, 736, 949 Shards 189, 468, 628, 647, 662, 683, 878, 997 Prayer 74n47, 98, 116, 121, 122, 162, 263, 263n82, 266, 269, 277, 280, 324, 334, 478, 479, 481, 483, 497, 838 Prayers 122, 136, 163, 478 Priscillianism 80, 98, 99, 514 Psalms 58, 79, 190 Ptolemaic 215, 325, 478, 522 Puente Castro (León, Spain) 34, 260, 277, 278 Puerto de Mazarrón (Murcia, Spain) 198, 205, 207, 835, 836 Punic 58, 77, 168, 308, 521, 522, 525, 574, 575, 590, 601, 603, 642, 646, 648, 662, 663, 666, 695, 700, 702, 706, 887, 889, 891, 897, 923, 942, 948, 961, 1014, 1015 Qayrawan (Kairouan, Tunisia) 838 Quadratum populi 525 Qumran 228, 228n49 Rabbi 23, 42n90, 51, 92, 108, 110, 122, 127, 136, 143–148, 162, 254, 257n72, 258, 260–267, 273, 278, 279 Rabbinic 36, 224, 228, 229, 232, 233, 234, 266, 496n208, 831 Raqit (Israel) 776, 776n68, 799 Ratio 158–160, 348, 520, 521, 525, 527, 531, 532, 534, 534n282, 535, 536, 536n285, 537, 539–541, 545, 581, 598 Real Academia de la Historia (rah) 11–13, 16, 27, 30 Rebbi 105, 108, 110, 111, 147, 837 Rehov (Israel) 497 Relief 39, 88, 89, 112, 113, 117, 199–201, 201n52, 340, 354, 362, 646, 662, 718, 728, 728n46, 738, 754n24, 790, 833, 897, 919, 928
1083 Ritual 4, 36, 58, 61, 72, 90, 110, 114, 117, 121, 122, 138, 162, 163, 193, 204, 206, 263, 277–279, 344, 347, 439, 442, 480, 492, 497n209, 516, 572, 594, 601, 603, 619, 656, 657, 684–686, 725, 736, 747, 755, 770n58, 776, 785, 793, 801, 815, 819, 828, 830, 831, 833, 968, 977, 1010 Ritual objects 72, 90, 114, 204, 480, 603, 747, 776, 793, 833 Ritual practice 206 Roman 4, 5, 7, 11, 15n8, 18, 20, 21, 36, 41–45, 45n99, 46–48, 50, 51, 51n119, 52, 52n122, 53, 56, 62, 64, 64n17, 70, 77, 80, 82, 89, 91, 94, 100, 104, 112, 115, 117, 123, 123n160, 127, 128, 136, 138, 141, 142, 144, 156, 158, 159, 163, 164, 166–168, 171, 174, 179, 181, 182, 197, 199, 201, 203, 205, 206–208, 240, 242n22, 245, 246n31, 249, 251, 253, 274, 281, 286, 289, 292, 297, 299, 300, 302, 307, 308, 312, 315, 319, 322, 325, 340, 347, 348, 371, 383, 384, 391, 401, 409, 411n78, 422, 432, 442, 457, 466, 468, 468n134, 469, 479n153, 480, 485, 486n176, 487, 491, 493n203, 494, 506, 508, 510, 517–519, 521–526, 530, 534, 538, 543, 547, 548, 551, 564, 573, 576, 584, 588–589, 594, 594n66, 599–604, 612–614, 620, 628, 629, 631, 632n39, 634, 637, 640, 646, 647, 650, 663, 673, 686, 689, 693, 696–698, 700, 702, 702n202, 703, 704, 706, 718, 723, 730–732, 735– 739, 742–745, 747, 749, 749n14, 751, 765, 776, 779, 791n96, 795, 801, 802, 811, 819– 821, 823–825, 829, 830, 832, 834–837, 839, 845, 850, 858, 865, 878, 884, 885, 890, 892, 899, 901, 902, 926, 933, 934, 941, 946, 949, 954, 958, 962, 964, 965, 968, 972, 976, 977, 1001, 1010 Rome 7, 36n75, 41, 52, 64n17, 69, 93, 96, 121, 127, 147, 150, 155, 155n234, 156, 158, 162, 172, 174, 194, 201, 207, 354, 479, 480, 492, 758–761, 763, 786, 796n112, 829, 831, 834 Ronda (Málaga, Spain) 62, 66, 71, 74, 89, 102, 154, 205, 264, 265, 267, 351, 352, 354, 1017 Roof tiles 193, 555, 572, 575, 576, 576n33, 577, 578, 595, 604, 605, 805, 812, 825, 858, 912, 956, 1015, 1017
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1084 Sa Calatrava (Baleares, Spain) 190, 834 Sacral (adjective) 220, 524, 542, 770 Sacral (bone) 620 Sacristy 315, 555, 686, 708, 878–881, 883, 938 Sala Colonia (Chellah, Morroco) 138, 139 Samaria (Palestinian Authority) 39, 58, 167, 168 Samaritan 58, 167, 168, 181, 328, 778, 799, 820 Santa Pola (Alicante, Spain) 325, 346, 509, 510, 547, 745, 819, 825 Saranda (Albania) 827 Sarcophagi 53 Sardis (Salihli, Turkey) 52, 189, 217, 750, 785, 786, 787, 791, 813, 817, 818, 829, 839 Scholar/s x, 1, 3–5, 12–15, 27, 28, 30, 37, 39, 45, 47, 50–52, 63, 74, 84, 98, 99, 106, 158, 165, 237, 239, 244, 248, 281, 292, 293, 298–301, 316, 327, 328, 332, 335, 336, 339, 348, 350, 353, 372, 382, 437, 483n167, 484, 495, 501, 745, 765, 791n96, 818, 820, 823, 827, 832, 837, 841 Scriptures 226, 785, 828, 832, 836 Shema’ (prayer) 226, 226n42, 231, 232 Scrolls 776, 778, 779, 782, 783 Second Temple (Jerusalem) 46, 168, 171, 172, 184, 185, 204, 206, 214, 220, 226–228, 230, 231, 263, 506, 756, 762, 832, 834 and synagogue architecture 478 Second Temple period 171, 227, 228, 485, 762, 832 Sefarad (journal) 30, 31, 59, 258, 271, 274 Sefer ha-Razin 69 Segovia (Spain) 29 Semis 401, 401n57, 683, 897, 915, 997 Semitic 46, 47, 62, 104, 126, 156–159, 164, 170, 257, 273, 279, 831 Sepharad xii, 4, 11, 13, 14, 30, 32, 40, 43, 44, 49, 111, 247, 269, 281 Sephardic 225, 263n82 Septimania 6, 55, 133, 137, 143, 163, 279, 514 Septuaginta (lxx) 79, 128 Serpents 57 Sevilla pintoresca 17 Seville (Spain) 2, 12, 18, 34, 62, 249, 250, 252, 255, 293 Ship/s 301, 314, 324, 326, 337, 338, 469, 490, 491, 503, 658, 673n150, 902, 951 Shmone ʿesre 116
general index Shofar 90, 114, 117, 204, 205, 777, 833, 835 Shops 700, 701, 817, 818, 824, 846 Sigillata (Pottery) 61, 438, 438n114, 468, 545, 550, 573, 587, 587n50, 588, 593, 602, 617, 618, 620, 625, 634, 634n43, 637, 637n48, 639, 647, 652, 683, 692–694, 697, 698, 700, 701, 710, 712, 715, 718– 720, 728, 731, 735, 736, 878, 888, 893, 894, 899, 929, 940, 949, 950, 952–954, 962, 971–974, 978, 986–988, 996, 1001, 1004, 1005, 1010 Silver 172, 181, 182, 237n4, 594, 718, 832, 859, 865 Skeleton/s 351, 618, 675, 681, 684, 685, 693n189, 747, 806, 807, 809, 934, 966, 1010 Skeletal 115, 620, 934 Slab 86, 88, 89, 98, 100, 106, 118, 128, 131, 133, 134, 202, 467, 512, 632, 659, 923, 1007 Soria (Spain) 12 Spain ix, xi, 1–3, 11–16, 18, 21, 22, 24, 25, 27, 28, 30, 32, 33, 35, 40, 44, 49, 98, 113n140, 134, 192, 203, 243, 249, 250, 253, 290, 292, 292n10, 298, 299, 300, 303, 322, 325, 335, 336, 345, 352, 700, 715n13, 797, 840 Spanish 1–3, 6, 7, 11–16, 19–22, 24, 26–28, 30, 32, 33, 37, 38, 40, 41, 42n90, 43, 44, 46, 48, 56n2, 80, 98, 122, 208, 236n1, 251, 271, 285, 292n11, 293, 298, 300, 301, 309, 319, 324, 326, 328, 355, 423, 517, 613, 765, 841, 940 Civil War 1, 30, 237, 237n4 Identity as opposed to Judaism 28 Spanish Institute “Rodrigo Caro” of Archaeology 301 Spirals 594, 950 Spolia 88, 89, 98, 164, 186, 187, 523, 560, 596, 740, 747, 754, 762n41, 787, 805, 808, 873 Statue/s 289, 290, 550, 556, 624, 638, 640– 643, 645, 646, 649, 652, 656, 659, 665, 680, 693, 694, 695, 702, 742, 845, 850, 891–893, 896–898, 917, 922, 925, 940, 942, 1007, 1014 As name of the site’s street 316, 461, 611, 693, 699n199, 845, 848, 850, 923, 925 Stella 171, 199–201, 201n51, 206, 207 stratigraphic unit xxvii, 5, 6, 357, 358, 363, 371, 374, 376, 393, 394, 403, 422, 459,
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general index 462, 467, 476, 547–549, 555, 558, 559, 563, 564n10, 584, 586, 587, 595, 597, 601, 606, 616, 625, 627, 632, 636–638, 640, 649, 662–664, 666, 669, 671, 673, 681, 691, 694, 695, 703, 710–712, 714, 715n13, 717, 721, 724, 730–733, 745, 823, 839, 841–844, 847–858, 858n3, 859–861, 866, 867, 870, 872, 877, 884, 890, 894, 896, 899, 909, 912, 914, 915, 927, 935, 941, 942, 944, 953, 957 Street 192, 261, 316, 556, 611, 613, 637, 699n199, 705, 751, 845, 848, 894, 906, 921, 923–926, 1003, 1008 Stucco/s 32, 59, 194, 359, 376, 380, 390, 390n38, 391–393, 409, 414, 416, 417, 421, 422, 426, 428, 431, 432, 447, 457, 465, 510, 512, 515, 527, 545, 547, 556, 560, 562, 566, 568, 569, 571, 572, 579– 581, 583, 597–599, 601, 628, 630–632, 637, 698, 719, 721, 747, 775, 789, 825, 833, 853, 853n1, 863, 866, 867, 869–872, 880–884, 888, 908, 911–913, 916, 939, 943, 962, 963, 965, 966, 973, 990, 995 Sufetula (Sbeitla, Tunisia) 525 Sukkoth 73, 90 Sun 72, 169 Susiya 778, 782, 794, 813, 834 Symbols 73, 74, 88, 112, 117, 118, 128, 138, 163, 170, 195, 198, 201, 206, 251, 254, 255, 498, 513, 514, 781, 783, 785, 802, 819, 825, 833, 835, 837, 856 Synagogue 3–5, 18, 21, 32, 33, 37, 41, 41n89, 49, 50, 52, 53, 56, 72–74, 76, 79, 91, 116, 118, 127, 140, 151, 152, 154–156, 161–165, 170, 189, 190, 192, 207, 208, 253, 254, 279, 282, 296–299, 303, 309, 312, 320, 322, 325, 326, 326n112, 327, 335, 337, 340–342, 342n154, 344, 351, 354–356, 373, 433, 468, 478, 480, 481n159, 483, 485, 487, 488, 491, 495–497, 497n209, 498, 502, 505, 510, 512, 513, 513n242, 515–517, 524, 531, 533, 543, 546, 547, 553, 555, 598, 600, 604, 605, 614, 623, 624, 665, 703–705, 707, 740–743, 745–747, 750–754, 754n24, 755, 755n31, 756, 758– 762, 762n41, 763–765, 769–773, 775, 776, 778, 779, 785, 787, 788, 790–793, 793n99, 794–796, 798, 799, 799n117, 800–802, 804, 807, 810–813, 815–830,
1085 833–839, 844, 877, 890, 893, 900, 927, 1017, 1018 As “small temple” 232 Synagogal 53, 94, 100, 234, 320, 322, 326, 327n113, 328, 349, 485, 521, 524, 750, 778, 787, 834 in Évora 37 in Molina de Aragón 34 in Santa María la Blanca 18 in Tomar (Portugal) 37 in Tránsito (Toledo) 14, 18, 30, 31 in Trujillo 31 in Valencia de Alcántara 37, 38 Tabernae ix, 6, 185, 316, 551, 557, 606, 673, 692, 698–700, 701, 703–705, 741, 746, 764, 805, 801, 811, 817, 818, 824, 841, 845–847, 899, 905, 962, 963, 994 Tabula ansata 349, 477, 480, 481, 496, 500, 529n276, 864 Talmudic 17, 49, 51, 70, 84, 209, 230, 231, 235, 257, 497, 787, 829 Tanit 571–573, 599, 646, 647, 883–885, 897, 930 Tarraco (Tarragona, Spain) 88, 92, 97, 111, 112, 115, 122, 131, 133, 154, 164, 165, 202, 203, 518, 522, 537, 828–831, 833, 835 Tarraconensis 55, 111, 112, 138, 153, 154, 157, 158, 257, 763, 836 Tarragona (Spain) 31, 39, 46, 90, 95, 105, 109, 111–113, 115, 116, 118, 123, 124, 127, 128, 128n170, 130, 131, 136, 148, 153, 154, 159–162, 165, 201, 204, 207, 271, 279, 345, 509, 518, 518n250, 834 Tarsis 26 Tegula 1015 tegulae 128, 576n33, 955 Temple (general) 79n58, 190, 329, 332, 335, 506, 604, 724, 725, 737, 741, 741n2, 742– 744, 754, 777, 778, 811, 915, 938, 978 Territories 50 Tesserae 371, 372, 377, 378, 384, 385, 390, 391, 474, 476, 477, 481, 485, 486, 489, 502– 504, 506, 509–512, 546, 687, 696, 717, 719, 791, 865, 907, 910, 916, 920, 942, 943 Theodotos 228, 485 Thermae 76, 189, 654 Thermal structure 797
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1086 Thessaly 69, 479 Tituli 61, 156, 763 Titulus pictus 83, 84, 157, 207, 831 Toledo (Spain) 2, 13, 14, 17, 20, 21, 32, 33, 38, 39, 71, 103, 111n138, 112, 113, 113n140, 115, 116, 122, 137, 183, 195, 196, 249, 251, 274, 275, 276, 277, 278, 280, 339, 509, 514, 515, 801n123, 802, 834, 837, 838, 1017 Toledo pintoresca 17, 20 Tolmo de Minateda (Hellín, Albacete, Spain) 324, 339, 345, 517, 523, 523n261, 524, 528, 528n270 Tomar (Portugal) 37, 38 Tombstone 82, 115, 127, 144, 149, 258, 263, 268, 549, 830, 985 Top hat (pottery) 371, 658, 889, 923, 932, 937, 977, 978, 1001, 1006, 1007 Tortosa (Spain) 114, 118, 119, 133, 136, 147, 159, 162, 168, 169, 260, 830, 831 Tria nomina 87, 157, 159, 160 Triclinium 738, 745, 746, 755, 755n31, 762, 769, 770n58, 773, 816 Triclinia 193, 510, 755, 756, 770n58 Trilingual 31, 39, 90, 114, 117, 130, 136, 152, 156, 159, 161, 162, 168, 201, 203, 829–831 Troía (Portugal) 191 Trujillo (Spain) 31, 32 Tunisia 47, 236, 341, 740, 819, 827, 838 University of Castilla-La Mancha (Jewish Studies courses) 32 Uppsala Cathedral (Sweden) 170 Urban 2, 29, 34, 35, 37, 52, 76, 80, 116, 141, 145, 162, 164, 189, 197, 203, 274, 282, 317, 319, 350, 393, 432, 461, 528n270, 534, 552, 553, 558, 596, 603, 614, 615, 646, 650, 663, 663n129, 664, 704, 706, 732, 744, 749, 749n14, 754, 763, 804, 805, 818–820, 831, 832, 834, 835, 845, 847, 922, 938 Urbanization 35, 346, 347, 402, 599, 650, 663, 689, 737 Valencia (Spain) 13, 34, 63, 171, 250, 300, 301, 309, 310, 316, 336, 507, 528n270, 940 Valencia de Alcántara (Cáceres, Spain) 32– 33, 37, 38
general index Vase 154, 400–403, 422, 442, 467, 468, 574, 586, 591, 641, 652, 655–660, 662, 666, 671, 680, 683, 879, 882, 883, 885, 887, 889, 893, 900, 903, 905, 914, 915, 917, 919, 922, 923, 934, 942, 948, 949, 972, 977, 987–990, 996, 998, 1004, 1006– 1008, 1013 Venosa (Italy) 60, 64, 85, 85n74, 144, 148, 155, 162, 278, 485 Villa 71, 81, 289, 320, 325, 346, 506, 507, 508, 509–511, 513, 514, 547, 819, 824 Villae 350, 576, 763 Villa Torlonia (Rome, Italy) 89, 786 Villamesías (Badajoz, Spain) 80, 81, 83, 196 Visigoth/s 5–7, 20, 21, 42–44, 56, 106, 110, 111, 131, 133, 136–138, 163, 164, 200, 236, 240, 249–251, 253, 278, 298, 299, 307, 309, 310, 339, 340, 343, 514, 515, 528n270, 576, 578, 678, 696, 764, 801, 802, 804– 807, 810, 836–838, 955, 956, 1017 Visigothic architecture 20, 21 Volubilis (Morocco) 96, 136, 138–144, 145, 148, 149, 154, 155, 161, 162, 164, 165, 171, 192, 834 Volute/s 362, 647, 659, 662, 671, 905, 948, 949, 985, 1006, 1007 Vulgate 110 Window 209, 235, 347, 349, 362, 457, 470, 543, 654, 775, 792, 800, 801, 803, 804, 811, 815, 826, 837, 957, 1017, 1018 Wine 58, 77, 79, 198, 834, 1006 Wisdom of Solomon 832 Wissenschaft des Judentums 50, 51 Wooden 187, 189, 315, 548, 582, 597, 604, 605, 754, 762, 769, 775–777, 787, 788, 793, 795, 796, 1017 Workshops 52, 53 Yavneh (Israel) 92 Yerushalmi (Talmud) 74, 84n72, 219, 229, 230, 232, 258n72 Yeshivot 111, 279, 281, 837 Zaragoza (Saragossa, Spain) 250, 268, 785 Zionist archaeology 51
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Plates
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Plan for the Alcudia de Elche Synagogue, Phase IIIE plate i Alexander Bar-Magen Numhauser - 978-90-04-41992-6 Downloaded from Brill.com 03/03/2024 09:27:00PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison
Plan for the Alcudia de Elche Synagogue, Phase IIIB plate ii Alexander Bar-Magen Numhauser - 978-90-04-41992-6 Downloaded from Brill.com 03/03/2024 09:27:00PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison
Plan for the Alcudia de Elche Synagogue, Phase IIE plate iii Alexander Bar-Magen Numhauser - 978-90-04-41992-6 Downloaded from Brill.com 03/03/2024 09:27:00PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison
Plan for the Alcudia de Elche Synagogue, Phase IIC plate iv Alexander Bar-Magen Numhauser - 978-90-04-41992-6 Downloaded from Brill.com 03/03/2024 09:27:00PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison
Plan for the Alcudia de Elche Synagogue, Phase IIB plate v Alexander Bar-Magen Numhauser - 978-90-04-41992-6 Downloaded from Brill.com 03/03/2024 09:27:00PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison
Plan for the Alcudia de Elche Synagogue, Phase IB plate vi Alexander Bar-Magen Numhauser - 978-90-04-41992-6 Downloaded from Brill.com 03/03/2024 09:27:00PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison
Plan for the Alcudia de Elche Synagogue, Phase IA plate vii Alexander Bar-Magen Numhauser - 978-90-04-41992-6 Downloaded from Brill.com 03/03/2024 09:27:00PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison
plate viii Isometric Plan Reconstruction of the Ilici synagogue/church, phase IIb
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plate ix
Stratigraphic map scheme of Area P
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Stratigraphic map scheme of Area B plate x Alexander Bar-Magen Numhauser - 978-90-04-41992-6 Downloaded from Brill.com 03/03/2024 09:27:00PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison
Stratigraphic map scheme of Areas C and T plate xi Alexander Bar-Magen Numhauser - 978-90-04-41992-6 Downloaded from Brill.com 03/03/2024 09:27:00PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison
Stratigraphic map scheme of Areas S plate xii Alexander Bar-Magen Numhauser - 978-90-04-41992-6 Downloaded from Brill.com 03/03/2024 09:27:00PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison
plate xiii.1 Picture of the 1990 excavation intervention by Rafael Ramos Fernández, looking at structure B/138 and walls B/020 and B/021
plate xiii.2 Image of the current basilical structure’s western edge, following its restoration. Looking south. August 2011
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plate xiv.1
Western edge of the basilical structure (August 2011). Including wall B/027, to the south of the restored central stepped entrance to the complex. Looking northwest. Within a circle: remains of the original wall under the restoration following the 1990 excavation
plate xiv.2
Picture from the 1990 Excavation, looking to the southsouthwest
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plate xv.1 Picture of B/033 from the 1990 excavation, looking northwest
plate xv.2 Picture of B/033 from the 1990 excavation, looking north
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plate xvi.1
Picture western structures below the basilical building from the 1990 excavation
plate xvi.2
Picture from the 1971 DAI-Madrid intervention, looking south-southeast, next to structures at the western edge of where the mosaic floor was placed
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plate xvii.1
General picture of the 1990 excavation, after the removal of weeds. Looking west
plate xvii.2
Picture of attached structure to the southern wall B/020, that is B/138, seen from above
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plate xviii.1 Picture of detail of profile of structure B/138 after restoration. Looking east
plate xviii.2 Picture of the attached structures’ face to the south of the mosaic. Looking south
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plate xix.1
Picture detail of the attached structures’ face to the south of the mosaic. Looking south
plate xix.2
Picture of the structure B/138’s profile after restoration. Looking west
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plate xx.1 Picture of remains to the east of B/138 next to southern walls B/020 and B/028. Looking east
plate xx.2 Photo from the 1990 excavation campaign. Looking from the northeast to the southwest
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plate xxi.1
Photograph of “wall” B/OB/306 looking south
plate xxi.2
Photograph of B/OB/306. Detail of width
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plate xxii.1
Photograph of B/OB/306 looking north
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plate xxiii.1 Picture of western edge of the mosaic, looking north
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