Journal of the Canadian Society for Syriac Studies 1 9781463216214

Table of contents :
Table of Contents
FROM THE EDITOR
THE DISPUTE POEM: FROM SUMER TO SYRIAC
RECENT ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXCAVATIONS IN TAKRIT AND THE DISCOVERY OF SYRIAC INSCRIPTIONS
TAKRITANS IN THE EGYPTIAN DESERT: THE MONASTERY OF THE SYRIANS IN THE NINTH CENTURY
MAR TADROS, BAHDEIDAT. PAINTINGS IN A LEBANESE CHURCH FROM THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY
A CHRISTIAN HERITAGE ON THE NORTHERN SILK ROAD: ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND EPIGRAPHIC EVIDENCE OF CHRISTIANITY IN KYRGYZSTAN
MEMBERS OF THE YEAR 2000-2001

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Journal of the Canadian Society for Syriac Studies 1

Journal of the Canadian Society for Syriac Studies

1

Edited by Amir H arrak

The JCSSS is an annual refereed journal containing the transcripts of public lectures presented at the Canadian Society for Syriac Studies Inc. It focuses on the literature, art, and archaeology of Syriac Christianity from the 2nd century to modern times.

Journal of the Canadian Society for Syriac Studies 1

Volume 1

1 gorgias press 2010

Gorgias Press LLC, 954 River Road, Piscataway, NJ, 08854, USA www.gorgiaspress.com Copyright © 2010 by Gorgias Press LLC

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise without the prior written permission of Gorgias Press LLC.

2010

ISBN 978-1-60724-066-2

Printed in the United States of America

1 ISSN 1499-6367

The Canadian Society for Syriac Studies

Table of Contents From the Editor

Sebastian Brock, The Dispute Poem: From Sumer to Syriac

3

Amir Harrak, Recent Archaeological Excavations in Takrit and the Discovery of Syriac Inscriptions Lucas van Rompay & Andrea B. Schmidt, Takritans in the Egyptian Desert: The Monastery of the Syrians in the Ninth Century

11

41

Erica C. Dodd, Mar Tadros, Bahdeidat: Paintings in a Lebanese Church from the Thirteenth Century Wassilios Klein,

61

85

A Christian Heritage on the Northern Silk Road: Archaeological and Epigraphic Evidence of Christianity in Kyrgyzstan Members of the CSSS for 2000-2001

101

© The Canadian Society for Syriac Studies 2001

ISSN 1499-6367

FROM THE

EDITOR

T H E FIRST ISSUE OF THE C S S S JOURNAL!

I

am delighted to present to the distinguished members of the Canadian Society for Syriac Studies (CSSS) and to readers at large the first issue of the Journal of the Society. Reflecting the growing academic interest in Syriac studies worldwide during the past few decades, the CSSS has been launched at the Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations, University of Toronto, as pari: of its Aramaic-Syriac programme. Its mission consists of creating awareness among academics and laypeople alike about the Syriac heritage, including history, literature, art, and archaeology. The CSSS is therefore academic, non-profit, and has no political or ideological affiliations or functions. In order to achieve its mission, a series of public lectures was planned for every year. The content of the present issue represents the four public lectures given in Toronto during the academic year 2000-2001. The public lectures appearing in this issue deal with Syriac art and archaeology, fields, alas, barely represented in Syriac studies. Though this issue might seem too involved as far as the general public is concerned, it nonetheless fills a gap in divulging the past of the Syriac-speaking people: Assyrians,

Chaldeans, Maronites, Orthodox and Catholic Syriacs. The first two papers deal with the medieval city of Takrit (Iraq) and its people who worked in international trade as far as Egypt. Several monastic and religious buildings were recently excavated in Takrit dated to the 7th century at the earliest and to the 13th century at the latest. A large number of Syriac inscriptions and mural paintings were also uncovered both in Takrit and in the "Monastery of the Syrians" in the desert of Scete in Egypt, revealing the enterprising character of the Christian Takritans, their skills in architecture, and their artistic endeavours. The paper on the church of Mar Tadros in Lebanon studies the mural paintings of that church, built in the twelfth or early thirteenth century. The paper is in fact an academic guide to the church, describing for the visiting reader its paintings in revealing details, and explaining their significance in light of the liturgy of the Syrian Orthodox Church. The fourth paper deals with a newly uncovered church (or churches) in Kyrgyzia, thus revealing the presence of the Assyrian Church of the East in that central Asian country. Its influence is felt through the many Syriac personal names and titles adopted by the local people, and through the

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From the Editor

Syriac language in which hundreds of tombstones were written. Some of the new discoveries discussed in this issue of the Journal will compel us to rewrite parts of the history of Syriac culture, as the reader will undoubtedly realize while going through its articles. We are also including an article by Dr. Sebastian Brock of Oxford University previously published in the Iraqi journal Bayn al-Nahrain (Mesopotamia). The article deals with Sumerian and Akkadian contest poems, a literary device well attested in Syriac as sogiatha and known in Arabic as munazara, thus highlighting the literary continuity from

ancient Mesopotamia to Syriac, and even beyond. We are very grateful to Dr. Brock for allowing us publishing his article, and we would also like to thank the publishers of Bayn al-Nahrain for giving us the permission to reprint the article for wider dissemination. The publication of this issue was partially made possible thanks to a fund-raising party that was organized by the Society in the Hall of the Syriac Orthodox Church of Mar Barsom in Scarborough, Ontario, on June 3, 2001. The Syriac School in this church, in the persons of its teachers and administrators, deserves a special word of thanks for its share in making this party both successful and enjoyable. A.H.

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THE DISPUTE POEM: FROM S U M E R TO

SYRIAC*

SEBASTIAN BROCK THE ORIENTAL INSTITUTE - OXFORD - ENGLAND

E

arly Syriac literature was heir to three main cultural traditions: ancient Mesopotamian, Jewish (mediated in particular through the Bible), and Greek. Whereas the influence of the latter two traditions has been studied in considerable detail, the Mesopotamian heritage has only rarely been explored by scholars. Pride of place in this respect should go to Professor Widengren of Uppsala, who, in the course of his numerous writings, throws much incidental light on this phenomenon. 1 Another scholar who has turned his attention to this topic is Dr Robert Murray of London, in his book Symbols of Church and Kingdom: a Study in Early Syriac Tradition. There he draws attention, for example, to the presence in early Syriac writers of many divine epithets which go back to Akkadian and Sumerian. In a more recent article,2 entitled "Aramaic and Syriac dispute poems and their connections", he gives a wideranging survey of a popular literary genre which can be traced back through Akkadian to Sumerian literature. By way of Syriac and Middle Iranian literature, perhaps, this genre was to reach in due course both Arabic (the munazara) and Persian; then, in turn, from Arabic it may well have travelled, by way of Spain, to medieval western Europe, where it is generally known as the tenson. 3

The Sumerian examples of the dispute poem have as their protagonists personifications such as Summer and Winter, Silver and Copper, Cattle and Grain, Pickaxe and Plough, or Tree and Reed, while in Akkadian there are disputes between the Tamarisk and the Palm, the Ox and the Horse, as well as a few others. The survival of a fragment of Ahiqar in Imperial Aramaic, from Elephantine (Upper Egypt), indicates that the genre was already by the fifth century BC known in Aramaic, for in lines 165-6 is to be found the beginning of a dispute between the Thorn-bush and the Pomgranate: 4 The Thorn-bush sent to the Pomgranate and said: "The Thorn-bush to the Pomgranate: What is the use of your many thorns for him who would touch your fruit?" The Pomgranate replied to the Thorn-bush and said: "You are nothing but thorns for anyone who touches you" Surprisingly, this part of the Aramaic proverbs of Ahiqar does not have its counterpart in any of the later versions of the Ahiqar story in Syriac, Arabic, or Armenian. Nevertheless it is evident that the genre continued to enjoy popularity in the cultural area of the Fertile Crescent, for in the early centuries of the Christian era we find examples of it in Zoroastrian Middle Iranian, in

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The Dispute Poem: From Sumer To Syriac

Jewish Aramaic, and in Christian Syriac. The single Middle Iranian representative of the genre to survive is known as the Draxt-i asurik, the Assyrian (Babylonian) tree, in other words, the Date Palm. 5 This particular dispute takes place between the Date Palm and the Goat, and in the course of two extended speeches each contestant in turn proclaims his benefits to mankind. It must have been a p o e m of this sort that the Greek geographer Strabo was referring to when he spoke of a Persian song listing the 360 benefits of the palm tree ( G e o g r a p h y 18.1.14). The genre, incidentally, also reached Greece, where one of the best known examples is Callimachus' p o e m on the Bay Laurel and the Olive. In Jewish Aramaic literature the dispute genre is incorporated into some of the Palestinian Targumim, 6 and features for example in the dispute between Isaac and Ishmael in Targum Pseudo-Jonathan Genesis 22, where we find the following: And it came to pass after these things that Isaac and Ishmael disputed. Ishmael was saying: "It is appropriate for me to be heir to my father seeing that I am his oldest son." And Isaac was saying: "It is appropriate for me to be heir to my father, seeing that I am the son of Sarah his wife, while you are the son of Hagar, the handmaid of my mother." Ishmael answered and said: "I am more righteous than you, for I was circumcised when I was thirteen years old, and if I had wanted to avoid it I would not have allowed myself to be circumcised; but you were circumcised when you were eight days old had you been aware, you might not have allowed yourself to be circumcised." Isaac answered and said: "Here I am today, thirty seven years old, and if the Holy One, blessed be

he, should want all my limbs I would not withhold them." The moment these words were heard before the Lord of the World, the Memra of the Lord immediately tested Abraham and said...(thereupon follows the biblical narrative of Gen. 22) It is in Syriac, however, that the genre evidently proved most popular. T h e earliest examples belong to the fourth century, and happen to be the most sophisticated, for here this essentially popular genre was taken up by no less a poet than E p h r e m himself. In the second half of the Nisibene H y m n s Ephrem takes as his main subject Christ's descent into Sheol, and in hymn no. 52 he offers a perfect e x a m p l e of the dispute poem. 7 The hymn opens as follows: I heard Death and Satan loudly disputing which was the strongest of the two amongst men. Death has shown his power in that he conquers all men; Satan has shown his guile in that he makes all men sin. Death: Only those who want to, O Evil One, listen to you, but to me they come whether they will it or not.' Satan: You just employ brute force, O Death, whereas I use traps and cunning snares...' There are elements of the contest p o e m in several further hymns in the Nisibene cycle, but the only other very clear examples of the genre elsewhere in Ephrem's corpus are to be found among the h y m n s preserved only in Armenian. 8 Of these hymns nos . 4 and 5 in particular constitute excellent samples of dispute poems, with bthulutha (virginity) and qaddishutha (asceticism within marriage; lit. sanctity) as the protagonists. T h e contest is conducted by means of a parade, by each party, of her illustrious biblical models, on the following lines:

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The Dispute Poem: From Sumer To Syriiac

Qaddishutha: Qaddishutha beats you, Virginity, in her wondrous deeds: for the son of Amram (Moses) divided the sea and slew the firstborn of Egypt; he enticed the Egyptians into the sea and drowned them; he provided sweet water in the desert, causing twelve streams to flow from the rock.' Bthulutha: Turn your eyes to Elijah, who was a virgin: he bound and loosed the heavens; he was fed by ravens and raised a dead child to life in Sarepta; he made the vase and horn of oil to flow; he brought down from heaven fire upon his sacrifice; he divided the river and crossed it; he was carried aloft by fiery steeds. (H. Arm. IV, pp. 46-7). Whereas, as far as Syriac is concerned, the genre normally finds its home in verse rather than in prose, there is a single example of a prose contest, between Heaven and Earth, to be found in Syriac. This turns up, most incongruously and surprisingly, interpolated into chapter 30 of Isho-dnah's history of monastic foundations, the Ktaba dnakputha (Liber Castitatis).9 As a matter of fact, this interpolated dispute turns out to be an abbreviation of a rather longer prose dispute between Heaven and Earth that occurs in a sixth or seventh century manuscript in the British Library (Add. 14616). 10 There a seemingly irrelevant introductory paragraph is probably intended to give the piece some sort of liturgical context, namely the reconciliation of Earth and Heaven brought about initially at Gabriel's Annunciation to Mary: That greeting which was given through angels to men, that greeting which was depicted in spirit in the prophets and was indicated in the apostles in symbol, and which the saints discovered in symbol, priests

saw in a similitude, kings received with obeisance, babes saw in the womb, old men carried in symbol, which judges too held in trembling: may that greeting be with us and among us all our days, with the prayer of the blessed saints for ever, amen. The dispute ends in the same vein, rather more explicitly: Heaven says to Earth: W e are two sisters; let us not quarrel with each other, for those who live in us both have now become brothers", (cf. Colossians 1:20) The dispute proper opens with the following words: Let us therefore, my beloved, listen in readiness and incline our ears to hear the two fair vessels, Heaven and Earth, contending together, and let us give praises to the Lord of the two of them. Heaven says: In me is the kingdom and the angels.' And Earth says: In me is the Church and the Just.' Heaven says: In me are the thousands and tens of thousands who stand before his throne.' And Earth says: In me are the crowds and races who stand before his Cross...' The short speeches are usually carefully balanced symmetrically against each other, and we find several features characteristic of Syriac artistic prose style, such as isosyllabism, rhyme and assonance. 11 The same manuscript, Add. 14616, also contains the opening of another dispute, between Justice and Grace (f. 123), but unfortunately the manuscript breaks off after only a few lines, and the large part of the dispute is lost. From the fifth and sixth centuries we have a number of pieces in verse, often

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The Dispute Poem: From Sumer To Syriac

Soghyatha, which take on the form of the dispute poem; normally they are on topics of theological concern. Among the soghyatha attributed to Narsai is a dispute between Cyril and Nestorius, which is of some interest.12 It is the latter, not surprisingly, who comes out victorious, although the Cyrillian position is not as grossly caricatured as might have been the case. The same applies to a series of dispute poems between the Church and the Synagogue. Best known of these is Jacob of Serugh's sixth Homily against the Jews, recently published. 13 Although Jacob's poem follows the general outline of the dispute, the speeches are often long and of uneven length, and it is in two soghyatha, both attributed to Jacob, that a more stereotyped popular form of alternating couplets is to be found. These are known to me from two manuscripts in the British Library, Add. 17141 of the eight or ninth century, and Add. 17190 of AD 893. The longer text, found in both manuscripts (but abbreviated considerably in Add. 17190 ), is primarily concerned with which of the two contestants is rightful heir, a theme reminiscent of the dispute between Isaac and Ishmael in Targum PseudoJonathan, quoted earlier. The soghitha opens as follows: 14 There fell about a dispute between the two churches, and here they are, standing in conflict. Let us listen, my brothers, to what they have to say in the presence of Righteousness, who acts as judge. The Daughter of the Hebrews is boasting that she is heir to the House of God. The Daughter of the Nations is saying that she is daughter and true heir. Judge between them, all you who listen, with right and unerring judge-

ment, and once their words have reached an end, give the glory to her who is true. The Synagogue says : "From the wilderness did the Father espouse me; my inheritance is what he promised me. As for you, Daughter of the Nations, who are you?' The Church says: T h e Son who was crucified made me an heir together with you; the house can hold us both; don't begrudge me; let us inherit together, I and you...

The other poem, which is found only in Add. 17190 , begins like this: 15 Response: O Nation and Nations, come and hear: listen to the Church and Sion as they dispute. Make proper inquiry and see who is the Bride of the Most High. The Father in his love sent his Son to come down and save his creation; the Daughter of the Hebrews was inflamed and would not keep his commandments, but in the Church of the Nations they sing and give praise in every tongue; with every voice they bless the Son's revelation to them in his love. The Church has been chosen from of old, and rejoices in her inheritance; she honours the Bridegroom, to whom she is betrothed, and eagerly awaits his kingdom. Sion: W h o is this disputing with me, driving me out from my house? Don't be quarrelsome, Daughter of the uncircumcised , for I am the holy one.' Church: You are not holy as you claim, for your adultery is described in the Scriptures; take and read them for yourself and be ashamed, for in truth you are not holy'...."

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The Dispute Poem: From Sumer To Syriac

While in some dispute poems judgement is pronounced at the end, in none of these three contest poems between Church and Synagogue does this happen. The manuscript Add. 17141 contains yet another dispute poem, again in the form of a soghitha; this is on the months of the year, and according to a later annotation in the margin it was used on the Crucifixion, or Holy Friday. Here the months, beginning with Nisan, take it in turn to boast of their products in the following vein: 16 The Months of the year gathered together to present the beauty of their products; the Year sat there as mistress to hear the case between them. Come and listen to what the Months have to say and give praise to their Creator. Nisan enters, and with a loud voice proclaims as follows: The Year is not as proud of you, all you other Months, as she is of me.' Come and listen... In me good things are provided, in me proclamations are to be seen, and in me the Lord decks out the mountains like candles when they are lit.' Come and listen... Whereas the summer months are mostly allotted several stanzas each, the winter ones do less well; thus the two Kanuns, December and January, are joined together and only receive a single stanza to reply to the abuse of the other Months; The Months began to pour abuse on the two Kanuns, and said Barren and desolate months, what have you got to offer?' Come and listen... They replied: Come, listen and give ear: in us Mary's child appeared; in one of us he was born, in the other baptized, and through his birth he has

given salvation to the two worlds.' Come and listen... Besides the background of the ancient Mesopotamian disputes between Summer and Winter, it is possible that some of the inspiration for this particular dispute may lie in the late Roman mosaics of the Months, personified along with their produce, for several examples of these survive in Syria and (especially) Palestine. The dispute of the Months was evidently a popular one, for it turns up in an East Syrian manuscript of 1882, Cambridge Add. 2820, 17 and was also translated into Modern Syriac, 18 together with another anonymous dispute poem also to be found in the Cambridge manuscript, this one between Wheat and Gold. We may fittingly end with dispute between the Vine and the Cedar, by the eighth/ ninth- century Syrian Orthodox writer David bar Paulos, since this, as far as the subject is concerned, harks back to the ancient Mesopotamian disputes between various trees. In what survives of his seven-syllable poem 1 9 (the end is unfortunately lost), the Vine opens by praising its products (above all, wine), to which the Cedar replies, not at first by praising its own merits, but by drawing attention to some of the lamentable effects that wine can have, adducing biblical examples. This leads the Cedar to list all the things that Vine cannot produce, such, as wood for the double doors of churches, for all of which, the implication is, the Cedar was the supplier. Then, a few lines before the poem breaks off, the Cedar turns to himself: "Who can compare to me, the Cedar, glorious as I am, stretching up to the sky..." David's poem is of significance in that it shows that the genre still remained in favour among Syriac writers during the early centu-

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The Dispute Poem: From Sumer To Syriac

ries of Arab rule, at about the time when it must have found its way into Arabic literature, where the earliest examples of the munazara probably go back to the ninth century.20 Is it possible that Syriac is the missing link between the ancient Mesopotamian contest literature and the Arabic munazara

which Wagner (who mentions only the Ahiqar fragment) failed to find in his study of this genre in Arabic? 21 If there is anything in this suggestion, then Syriac will prove to be one of the channels through which ancient Mesopotamian, as well as Greek, culture reached the Arab world. 22

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The Dispute Poem: From Sumer To Syriac

NOTES * Paper previously published in the Iraqi journal Bayn al-Narrain (Mesopotamia) 7/28 (1979) pp. 417-426, with updated bibliography. 1 E.g. Mesopotamian Elements in Manichaeism (1946), The King and the Tree of Life in Ancient Near Eastern Religion (1951), and, most recently, "Synkretismus in der syrischen Christenheit", in Synkretismus im syrisch-persischen Kulturgebiet, Abhandlungen der Akademie der Wissenschaften in Göttingen, phil. hist. Klasse III. 96 (1975), pp. 38-64. In M. J. Geller, J. C. Greenfield and M. P. 2 Weitzman (eds), Studia Aramaica (Journal of Semitic Studies Supplement 4, 1995), pp. 157187. 3 Compare M. Steinschneider, "RangstreitLiteratur", Sitzungsberichte der kais. Akad. Wissenschaften in Wien, phil. hist. m. 155.4 (1908). More recent studies include S. Fiore, "La tenson en Espagne et en Babylonie: evolution ou polygenese?", in Proceedings of the IVth International Comparative Literature Association, ed. F. Jost (1966), pp. 982-92, and J. P. Asmussen, "A Judeo-Persian Precedence Dispute Poem and some thoughts on the history of the genre", in his Studies in Judeo-Persian Literature (Leiden, 1973), pp. 41-59. For Arabic, see note 20. 4 Cf. Gregorius Paulos Bahnam, Ahiqar (Syriac Academy, Baghdad, 1976), pp. 89, 107. 5 English translation by J. M. Unvala in the Bulletin of the School of Oriental Studies 2 (London, 1922), pp. 641-88. (See now on this dispute C. J. Brunner, "The Fable of the Babylonian Tree, I-II", Journal of Near Eastern Studies 39 (1980), 191-202 and 291-302). 6 Compare also the theological dispute between Cain and Abel in the Palestinian Targum for Genesis 4, and the dispute between Earth and Sea in Targum Neofiti Exodus 15:12. 7 This was first pointed out by P. Grelot in L'Orient Syrien 3 (1958), pp. 443-52. 8 Patrologia Orientalis 30 (1961). For other dispute elements in Ephrem's poetry see the article by R. Murray (note 2) and his "St Ephrem's

dialogue of Reason and Love", Sobornost/ Eastern Churches Review 2:2 (1980), 26-40 [on H. de Ecclesia 9], 9 Ed. Bedjan, p. 459-61; ed. Chabot, p.19-20. 10 The text is now edited in Le Muséon 91 (1978), pp. 261-70. 11 Compare the remarks in Le Muséon 89 (1976), pp. 263-6. 12 No. 5 in F. Feldmann, Syrische Wechsellieder von Narses (Leipzig, 1896), pp. 19-23. An annotated English translation is forthcoming in the Festschrift for Mar Aprem (Kottayam). 13 By M. Albert in Patrologia Orientalis 38 (1976). 14 The Syriac text is published in my Soghyatha mgabyatha (St Ephrem Monastery Holland, 1982), no.19. 15 No. 18 in Soghyatha mgabyatha. (For the contents of this volume, see Le Muséon 97 [1984], pp. 29-58). 16 For the text and translation see now my "A Dispute of the Months and some related Syriac texts" Journal of Semitic Studies 30 (1985), pp. 181-211. Perhaps comparable are some of the poems on the months that are also found in liturgical texts (e.g. Add. 17141, f. 80b, attributed to Ephrem; the Syrian Catholic Fenqitho (Mosul edition) VI, p. 140) 17 See note 16; the Dispute between Wheat and Gold in this manuscript is also published in this article. 18 M. Lidzbarski, Die neu-aramäischen Handschriften der kgl. Bibliothek zu Berlin (Weimar, 1898), I, pp. 442-51 (text), II, pp. 344 51 (translation). 19 Ed. Philoxenos Juhannan Dolapönü (Mardin, 1953), pp. 166-7. 20 See E. Wagner, Die arabische Rangstreitdichtung und ihre Einordnung in die allgemeine Literaturgeschichte, Akad. der Wiss. und der Literatur in Mainz, Abhandlungen der geistesund sozialwiss Klasse, 1962 no. 8, pp. 446-54. 21 Wagner, pp. 459-64. 22 For a list of Syriac dispute and dialogue

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The Dispute Poem: From Sumer To Syriac

poems, see my "Syriac Dispute poems: the various types", in G. Reinink and H. Vanstiphout (eds), Dispute Poems and Dialogues (Leuven 1991), 109-19, reprinted in my From Ephrem to Romanos: Interactions between Syriac and Greek in Late Antiquity (Variorum Reprints 1999), ch. VII (in the Addenda the list of editions/translations is updated to 1998; ch. VIII

reprints the Dispute of the Months, ch. IX gives a translation of one of the Disputes between Body and Soul, and ch. XI has a translation of the Dispute between Queen Helena and Judas (on the theme of the Discovery of the relic of the Cross). A critical edition (and translation) of the two disputes between Abel and Cain) has subsequently been published in Le Museon 113 (2000), 333-75.

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RECENT A R C H A E O L O G I C A L E X C A V A T I O N S IN TAKRIT A N D THE DISCOVERY OF SYRIAC INSCRIPTIONS

AMIR HARRAK UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO

A public lecture of the Canadian Society for Syriac Studies NOVEMBER 2 3 , 2 0 0 0

In Memory of my Former Teacher and Mentor, Father Jean-Maurice Fiey OP

Introduction

T

akrit is a modern city located on the west bank of the Tigris, almost mid-way between Mosul and Baghdad. Its name appears almost unchanged in Neo-Assyrian sources as Tak-ri-i-ta-in, 1 in Syriac sources as Tagrith (see the inscriptions below), and in medieval Arabic sources as Takrit, and popularly, Tikrit.2 From the mid 6th century AD the city was the see of the highest West Syriac (Syrian Orthodox) authority in Mesopotamia, during both the Sassanian and the Abbasid periods. The ecclesiastical leaders took up several titles, such as Catholicos, Bishop, Metropolitan, and, later, maferiono. A series of West Syriac Metropolitans residing in Takrit between the mid-6th and the mid-12th centuries is known. The city was almost totally destroyed by the Mongols in

1394, after which time Christianity disappeared from it forever. 3 Takrit is rich in archaeological sites which contain Neo-Assyrian, Syriac, and Islamic remains. During the medieval period, the citadel inside Takrit was a Syriac stronghold, which contained at least two churches as well as the headquarters of the Metropolitan. Three sites located on the other side of the Tigris opposite Takrit contain the Arabic word Kanisah (church) in their toponyms: Kanisa, Chenisa (short form for Kanisat al'Abid), and Kanisat Abu-Ajil. 4 The archaeological remains of so many churches and monasteries in Takrit indicate that this city was a major Christian centre in central Mesopotamia. During the 1990s Iraqi archaeologists conducted archaeological excavations in the citadel, unearthing a church. They also excavated the site called Chenisa (Kanisat al'Abid), where an entire monastery came to light. A number of Syriac inscriptions were

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Recent Archaeological Excavations in Takrit

also unearthed, along with several archaeological artifacts. In this paper we will survey the results of the excavations on the basis of two papers published by the Iraqi archaeologists. We will offer a new interpretation of the archaeological data in light of Syriac architecture, taking into consideration the important number of Syriac inscriptions uncovered therein.

The Site of al-Chenisa: A Monastical Building

Al-Chenisa, another form of the full name Kanisat al-'Abid (Church of the Servants), refers to an archaeological tell located to the east side of the Tigris, some three kilometres east of the modern city of Takrit (Map 1). The tell measures about 5600 square metres in total, and is about three metres above the level of the road linking Takrit with Kirkuk. Work on the site started in October 1992,5 and soon after clearing the surface of debris, a complex of buildings came to light, comprised of the following.

Surrounding

Walls

(Plan l) 6

Four extensive walls surrounded the complex of buildings, three of them fortified by a number of towers. The walls were built with the traditional Mesopotamian mud bricks, and were covered on the outside with crushed stone mortar (jass) and at the bottom with burned bricks. The north wall, measuring 2.20 m in height, was fortified on the east side by two semi-circular towers of unequal sizes. The diameter of the tower near the northeast corner, including the

bricks, which cover part of it, is 2.60 m. The wall was also buttressed on the west side, near the entrance to the courtyard. The east wall, which measures 68.80 m in length, has one entrance, the width of which is 2.40 m. A defensive wall stood in front of this entrance, creating a kind of a vestibule, and its position in the middle allowed access to the vestibule from both sides. The south wall was strengthened with three towers, measuring between 3.20 and 5.00 m each in diameter, whereas the west wall had one tower, 2.60 m in diameter, located near the northwest corner. The whole gives an impression that the monastery was a true fortification, as is also the case of Near Eastern monasteries even today.

Courtyard. 1

(Plan 1)

As with any traditional Middle Eastern residential building, the site of al-Chenisa had a large courtyard. In this case it was located to the northwest. The courtyard is rectangular in shape, measuring 18.40 x 15.60 m. A circular basin located to the east side of the courtyard was found, measuring 3.40 m in diameter and 40 cm in actual height. Its floor was paved with paving bricks, as was the case of the passageway leading to it, which measures 1.20 m in width and 10.40 m in length. Open galleries surround the courtyard on its four sides. The floor of these galleries, which is about 20 cm higher than the courtyard itself, was paved with square paving bricks, each of which measured 28x28x5 cm. The north gallery had ten standing pillars on the outer side, measuring between 20 and 30 cm each in height. On the opposite side and against the wall, an equal number of buttresses, measuring 90 cm in width and

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Recent Archaeological Excavations in Takrit

70 cm in length each, protruded from the wall. The pillars and the buttresses, which used to support ten arches, were built with gravel and mortar, with bricks covering the bottom. Under this gallery three graves were uncovered, one of which contained a small glass bottle and a metallic buckle. The east wall had seven pillars and seven corresponding buttresses. The two central pillars are different in shape, in that they were part of the elaborate structure of the entrance leading to a hall (Hall 2). The pillars were built with bricks and mortar, and in this case the bricks were laid to form a geometrical design in the shape of superimposed 'X' characters. They both measure between 1.20 and 1.50 m in height. The west gallery contains six pillars of unequal sizes and six parallel buttresses, all standing on the north side; southward, the wall thickens so as to form a long buttress facing two additional pillars. Finally, the south gallery has ten pillars of unequal sizes. The pillars, originally round in shape but at a later stage made square, face the facade of the church with its six entrances. Four graves were previously dug in the ground of this gallery. One of them, built with burned bricks and mortar, contained a wooden coffin decorated on all sides with a circular design carved into the wood. Near the foot of the coffin, a rectangular plate bore a circle inside which a stylized cross was carved and from which two floral branches emanate. This type of cross is well known in oriental Christian art. Inside the coffin a skeleton was found, beside which there was a wooden sceptre the end of which was plated so as not to become eroded. Because of the sceptre, there is no doubt that the skeleton is that of a bishop. The other three graves had pointed roofs. Along with the skeletons in-

side them, there were also various artifacts, including glass bottles, crosses in metal, and a beautiful cross made of black wood (Fig. 1), measuring 7 x 4.5 cm (IM 140654). The cross was perforated so as to be hung around the neck. Could it be the cross of an abbot?

Hall 2

(Plan 1)

Hall 2 is located between Hall 1 and Rooms 2 and 3. Rectangular in shape, the Hall measures 11.43 m in length and 7.15 m in width, and was paved with square bricks, measuring 24x24x5 cm each. The entrance, which gives access to Hall 1, was narrowed at a later period, and was flanked on both sides by semi-circular pillars, protruding from the wall by 85 cm. The wall between the east pillar and the entrance bears schematic figures of two monks each holding a cross; both monks were painted in red on the lower part of the wall. The south wall of Hall 2 has two semicircular columns, facing the two parallel columns flanking the north wall. Two windows and one entrance to Room 4 were detected. The south wall gives access to Room 3 through an entrance measuring 1.70 m in length. The west wall of this Hall contains the main entrance, located in its centre. The entrance, which measures 95 cm in width, leads to a rectangular vestibule, measuring 3.65 m in length. The vestibule, which leads to Courtyard 1, is flanked on both corners by two semi-circular pillars, 40 cm in diameter each. The north, south and east walls inside Hall 2 were elaborately ornamented with half-columns, standing in groups of two on square and rectangular bases. This architectural detail is late in date, since the ornamental half-columns cover older walls. The

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Recent Archaeological Excavations in Takrit

walls bore figures of two eagles painted in red, green, and blue, with other designs molded in relief on both the mortar and the bricks. Hall 2 also yielded a cross in metal and bracelets in silver. Moreover, one Syriac inscription was found, according to the archaeological catalogue of this site, which is now housed at the Iraqi Museum. The two-line inscription (IM 143215) was incised on gypsum, of which several fragments were found. After the fragments were glued together, the gypsum measured 22 cm in length, 18 cm in width, and 5 cm in thickness. The inscription was painted in black; the upper line was written in large Estrangelo letters, whereas the one on the bottom was written in small and mostly Serto letters. What it reads is a strong evidence that the excavated site was a monastery, of which one Abbot was named (Fig. 2):

[... ] - l~>

in

Abbot Mor Giwargis (GeorgeJ Monk 'Abd-al-Nur7[...] Since the walls of Hall 2 were restored at different periods, the above inscription was covered by new plaster at a given time, and during the excavations the negative impression of the inscription fell off (IM 143258). Here the name Giwargis in the first line is fully preserved, but the impression of the second line is not clear (see Figure 3). Rooms 1, 2, 3, and 4, adjacent to Hall 1 on its south and east sides, share one feature: the masons fashioned with their own fingers on the fresh plaster designs in the likeness of branches of a palm tree. In the corner of the plastered floor of Room 3, a small metallic box was uncovered, the outer

sides of which were decorated with floral and animal figures. More importantly, the box contained 58 coins and three gold earrings. The coins were struck in Takrit during the Fatimid, Atabeg (at the time of Nur-aldin Arslan Shah), and late Abbasid periods. The late Abbasid coins indicate that the monastery was functioning until at least the beginning of the 13th century, since the coins were those of Caliph al-Nasir-li-dinAllah, who ruled between 1180 and 1225. On the east wall of Room 4, two lines of a Syriac inscription survived on a lump of plaster, measuring 34 by 19 cm. Above the two lines, traces of Syriac words can still be seen, written with black paint, as is also the case with the inscription below them (Fig 4). The script in both lines is Serto, and the inscription, containing a curse formula, reads as follows: ) ,,-s.Ki Jj

c*oaj ]i

[t o]oi

Jnv oKiio ]oat 1.0 [•V^o,

[He whjo effaces this name, may his name be effaced in the Book of Life, may all the curses that ¡are in the Scriptures concerning Ju] das the traitor come itpo[n him J, and may the entire nation say Amen. May his share be with that of Cain, wfho] killed hfis brother Abel], Two other fragments (IM 141669) echo the same curse, although their text is mutilated at the end (Figs. 5a and 5b). The gypsum fragments, joined together, measure 47 cm in length and 18 cm in width, and what remains from the inscription on it reads as follows:

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Recent Archaeological Excavations in Takrit

J; °>m ^o oooA 1 mN KJ Jjoi l^o*. 1 itN * ,—..N n [_oio N.^] (—.¡.Jjo 1—Jo; He who effaces this name, may his name be effaced in the Book of Life; may all the curses that are in the Scrfiptures] come up[on him]. From the same room, another gypsum fragment was found (Fig. 6), bearing an incomplete inscription (IM 141669): Line Line Line Line

1: ... 2: ... .»la> .. 3: ... ^ U u . . . 4: ... «„.yiN.! ...

Line 3: ...they understand... Line 4: ...his disciple ... Another clay inscription (Fig. 7), fragmentary and missing pieces, was found in the same room (IM 148012). Unfortunately, not only is the context lost, but also the surviving words are not always clearly incised. What remains from this (funerary?) inscription written in Estrangelo reads tentatively as follows: Line 1:

V—uu...

Line 2: [ttffo - n . \ v r ... Line 3:

ri ...

Line 4:

t^siVjui

Line 5:

niqiXr< T^nXain...

Line Line Line Line

1: 2: 3: 4:

... blessed she... ...young Sister ... signe[d] (by the Cross?)... ...fear?] of God

In Room 5 other inscribed fragments (IM 141767, IM 141768) were found (Fig. 8), but they are so small that they cannot be

read easily. One other fragment (IM 139098) contains the incomplete name of a monk: Bar-Sali[bi?J the Monk

The Church (Plans 2 and

3)

The church (Halls 4 and 5) is located to the south of the great Courtyard 1, adjacent to the south gallery It is rectangular in plan, measuring 16.20 x 32.50 m. and is divided into three aisles The middle aisle is the largest, measuring 5.40 m in width, whereas the two other aisles are not only narrower, compared with the central aisle, but also differ from each other in width. Originally, circular columns supported the roof, 1.40 m in diameter each, but at a later stage these were made into rectangular pillars. Moreover, the four corners of each pillar were ornamented with four circular columns, the diameter of which is 35 cm each. The arches must have rested on these pillars and on the buttresses of the lateral walls of the church. The central aisle of the church is divided into sections (Plan 2). The section in the middle of the church is a platform accessed through a staircase made of three steps, and the whole represents the remains of a bema. This was a platform made either of wood or building material, on which Scriptures were read before the Consecration took place in the Sanctuary. Although the bema ceased to exist in Syriac churches, its remains can still be seen in several churches in Tur-'Abdin, now in southeast Turkey. 8 Below the bema two walls standing side by side were uncovered, separating the nave into two parts, but the nave was accessed

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Recent Archaeological Excavations in Takrit

through the space separating the two walls. Originally these walls were not very high, and they separated the men and women attending the service, the women being given the space below the bema. Such a wall still exists in one church in Tur-'Abdin, 9 but several other churches in the same region replaced it with a wooden barrier.10 The south wall of the church is strengthened with rectangular buttresses, measuring 1.70 m in width, except for the 5th buttress located to the west, which is larger. While the wall was built with gravel and mortar, the buttresses were covered with bricks. The same wall has one entrance, 80 cm in width and accessed from inside through three stairs; the steps measured 25 cm in height each. Another entrance, closed at a later time, still preserved two of its steps. The north wall offers five entrances measuring between 1.20 and 1.60 m in width, after they had been either narrowed down or widened up at different periods. Some of these also have stairs made of one or two steps. The church is accessed through three entrances from the east. The central entrance is the largest (1.60 m in width), and is accessed through a staircase made of two steps (20 cm in height each). On both sides of the entrance from the inside there are two niches, measuring 2 m in height and 60 cm in depth. On the plaster, which covers them from the inside, an ornamental cross was painted. The entrance to the south (1.30 m in width) is ornamented with one half-column on each side, whereas the third entrance to the north is narrow (80 cm in width) and is accessed by one step. On one wall of the entrance crosses were painted on the plaster in black and red, as well as other faded designs in red and yellow. As for the west wall of

the church, it is also buttressed. The sanctuary (Plans 1 and 3) does not exist in the plan of the Iraqi archaeologists. In fact, one must look for it in Hall 5 of their plan. The east wall of the church with its three entrances is an integral part of the architecture of the Syriac church. The middle gate, which is usually the largest and most ornamented, was called the Royal Gate since it leads to the inner sanctuary called the Holy of Holies. A great number of square, triangular, octagonal and rectangular pieces of colourful marble were uncovered in this section. They must have covered the floor of this important part of the church, in the same beautiful way similar marbles still cover the floor of yet another ancient church in Tur-'Abdin, the church of Mor Gabriel in Qartmin." This church was built in 512 thanks to monetary donations of the Byzantine emperor Anastasius. The fact that both churches shared the same artistic and architectural features 12 suggests that the church of al-Chenisa was not only ceremonial but also quite old. Six niches of various sizes were found on the wall inside the sanctuary, which may have stored liturgical books; they are elevated above the ground by 60 cm and are 50 to 90 cm deep inside the wall. Facing the central entrance of the Royal Gate is a square room (Plan 3), also paved with pieces of marble greenish and grayish in colour. Originally, the three walls of this room formed a semi-circular apse, now 4 m high; 3 m above the ground three windows on each side allowed light to enter the apse. Half a dome, the remains of which have disappeared, probably surmounted the apse. At a later stage, the apse was modified; not only was it made square, but it was also ornamented with a pair of circular columns in each corner, resting on square bases. The

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Recent Archaeological Excavations in Takrit

columns and the walls of the apse were painted, since remains of red and black paint have been detected. A dome must have been mounted on the four pairs of circular columns, though it must have collapsed in antiquity. In the middle of the apse a platform was built, divided into two parts, which doubtless represents the altar. A large marble plaque (Fig. 9) was uncovered on the ground near the altar, bearing three incomplete lines of an inscription, two horizontal and one vertical, standing parallel (IM 148278). The lines, written in Serto, read as follows:

Bottom arm:

(vertical line):

The back of the plaque (Fig. 12) shows raised double frames, and in the centre of the lower surface a traditional cross (with pointed edges on each arm) was incised inside double circles. No inscription was left on this side. A third fragmentary plaque (Fig. 13) was uncovered in the same area, bearing a complete inscription in the shape of a cross (IM 148015). The inscription reads as follows:

ll^b^a,);

^.JJ

(Horizontal line, top): (Horizontal line, bottom):

For the Glory of the Trinity // (His) Holiness Mor Yawsef (Joseph) the Bishop // [...] the sons of Mor Ephrem son of [...]

lirtiVa

V

i r.

Left arm: rfLua-i n-ja ri - u 71 a XCJ rC u i ] xtf S n l i u

r

i-u[ a j -»T^n •**

•• -jii >t£a

For the holy Upper Church of Hassonitho // The year one thousand and twenty-one //' /77ie Father, the Son, and the Spirit sanctified (it) through the bishop Mor Jo]hn bar Kipho.

Horizontal line:

A frame was incised along the four sides of the plaque (Fig. 10), which also shows a wedge-shaped cross cut into the flat surface. No inscription was left on this side. A second plaque was also uncovered (Fig. 11), of which five fragments remain while others are missing (IM 148277). It also bears an inscription written in Estrangelo around the marble as a frame: Right arm: iif^aia

+ riTLuo

t >aa

\ \

+

.\v

r i n - 3 Ti_n -ci—irCa t£

—*

>ajj +

x_>:ui rCu cv-ic\

-i XJth rC La^io rf irti n Vertical line: dl fl irtli\x\ tC fd—t CPA , The Father, Son and Holy Spirit sanctified (the plaque), through the Bishop and High // Priest Athanasius, our Metropolitan, for the Church of Hassonitho.

Journal of the Canadian Society for Syriac Studies 1 (2001) - Page 17

ijJ

Recent Archaeological Excavations in Takrit

Plaques such as these were called tablitho ("tablet") in Syriac. They could be made of wood or stone, and were inserted into the surface of the altar as a resting place for the sacred vessels. According to West Syriac ecclesiastical rules, only the bishop was able to bless the tablet with oil in the name of the Holy Trinity. Since these tablets usually bore the name of the bishop blessing them and the year in which they were consecrated, they can be of great help in dating the archaeological levels in which they are uncovered. One such tablet was found in Takrit at the end of the 19th century, bearing an inscription (written in the shape of a cross) containing the name of Dionysius "Mapherian of Takrit". It bore the date of the Seleucid year 1435, which corresponds to the year 1123/4 AD. 13 The newly discovered inscriptions in alChenisa are dated to three earlier periods. The "Joseph the Bishop" mentioned in the first inscription was the ecclesiastical leader of Takrit for a short while after 774, and it is to this or the following year that we should date his inscription. To be sure, there is another leader bearing the same name (Joseph II), but he lived in a time during which Takrit ceased to be a Christian city (1458-70). Unfortunately, the context in which "Mor Ephrem" is mentioned in the inscription is damaged. The second inscription mentions the name of John bar Kipho, who administered Takrit for one and a half years between 686 and 688, according to traditional chronology. He was formerly the abbot of the famous Monastery of Mar Matta, still functioning to this day in the north of Iraq; when he died he was buried in the church of Saints Sergius and Bacchus in Takrit. The inscription bears a Seleucid date (1021),

which corresponds to AD 709-710, a time when John's successor, Denha II (688-728) was believed to be in office. Thus, either we have to change the chronology of the line of these two Metropolitans (and this is a must), or the name of John on this tablet is unintelligible. The tablet was consecrated for the Upper church of Hassonitho, a town in the vicinity of Takrit. The reason for attributing the adjective "upper" to the church and not to the town (both cases are possible), is based on the phrase it. .N% "Upper Church" found written in black paint on the outside wall of a clay container (7.8 cm high; diameter of the mouth: 16.5 cm; diameter of the base: 7.5 cm). The container (IM 144944) was found in the same archaeological site (Fig. 14). The third inscription mentions the Metropolitan Athanasius. This name also occurs in a beautiful seal in the shape of an ornamental cross made of silver, as we shall see. There are three ecclesiastical dignitaries of Takrit who bore this name. Athanasius III who died in 1379 is not the one mentioned in the inscription since Takrit ceased to be a Metropolitan see at least two centuries earlier. Moreover, after the mid-11th century, no Metropolitan of Takrit seems to have been buried in that city. Athanasius II, native of Malatia in Anatolia, and educated in a monastery near Edessa, was made Metropolitan of Takrit in 1028, and he died in 1069. Most unfortunately, no Syriac source mentions where exactly he was buried. Since he was a native of Malatia, he could have been buried in his native land, and this seems possible since there is no evidence that he died in Takrit or anywhere in its vicinity. Finally, there is Athanasius I, native of

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Recent Archaeological Excavations in Takrit

Takrit and a former member of one of the monasteries near Edessa. He was elevated to the rank of Metropolitan of Takrit in 887 by Patriarch Theodosius (887-890), four days after the latter was appointed Patriarch of the West Syriac Church. There are good reasons to believe that this Athanasius was the one referred to in the marble inscription. One, in his Ecclesiastical History, the 13th century West Syriac author and Mapherian Bar-Hebraeus, mentioned specifically that the Metropolitan was buried in Takrit, in the church of Saints Sergius and Bacchus, when he died on 17 December 904. 14 Two, our Syriac inscription mentions that the marble slab was consecrated not for any church in Takrit but "for the church of Hassonitho", as was the fate of the earlier tablet bearing the name of John bar Kipho. Athanasius is even referred to as "our Metropolitan," and this would not make sense had it been consecrated for his home church in Takrit. In fact during his ecclesiastical tenure, the people of this town revolted against him and appointed a local person named Far'a as an anti-Bishop. The connection between his well-known problems with Hassonitho and a slab mentioning his name and the church of Hassonitho is surely significant. It is therefore safe to date the inscribed tablet between 887 and 903, the time of his office as Metropolitan. The only question remaining is why two tablets belonging to the church of Hassonitho are found in a monastic church. It is quite possible that they were brought to the monastery during the trouble, and because they were sacred, they were placed near the altar of the monastic church. Let us turn our attention once again to the apse of the church, which was accessed from the Royal Gate through a threshold (Plan 3). Another smaller apse with an altar

was found to the south of the main apse, measuring 2x2 m, with two deeply recessed niches located on both sides. A small wall divides the apse into two unequal parts both accessible through one common entrance, leading to Rooms 7 and 6. Below Room 7, and after passing through its vestibule, a vaulted gallery, 1.65 m high, was uncovered, containing niches that were most probably parts of the graves in which holy men were buried. If this were the case, we would have a beth-qadishe, lit. "Place of holy men," that is the burial place of the ecclesiastical leaders. The burial place is part of the traditional plan of the West Syriac church. 13 Room 6 was paved with marble of which many pieces were found. Floral designs were incised into the plastered wall and the bricks, whereas the figure of a holy man or a monk was painted onto the mortar. The area south of the church remains untouched by the archaeologists. The area southwest of the church was excavated, and it includes Courtyard 2, 19x8 m in size. To the south of it, some eleven rooms, different in size and shape, were identified In Room 11, two intact jars of medium size were found. The following fragmentary texts were also found in various spots in the site: IM 148014 is a small sherd (Fig. 15) covered with tar on the reverse. On the obverse an inscription written in Serto survived out of context. T ... Joiu 3 ' ... I]«»

4' ... ! 5 tS nVyJJJ

[rtf]di u-ia

ric\cn i]

una

z-iri

r

Three fancy crosses mount the inscription on the bottom, which reads as follows:

iSiii c p \

On the Day of Judgment, may the Lord have mercy on and compassion for lord Sergius son of Isaac, of the house of Saliq. May he pardon him, amen. In fact, the funerary inscriptions commemorate the members of one single family,

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Recent Archaeological Excavations in Takrit

the Saliq, whose name is of good Arabic origin: "Smooth". This family can be reconstructed as follows: Isaac & wife Ido I Sergius

1

, Giwargis, Priest, Monk

Conclusion The excavations conducted by the Iraqi archaeologists have produced a wealth of new information about the Christian history of Takrit, from as early as 774 and perhaps much earlier, to as late as the 12th century and perhaps much later. More importantly, they give a comprehensive view of three very important facets of Syriac Christianity in that city. The monastic facet tells how rich Takrit was with monasteries, and how imposing these were architecturally and artistically speaking. The architecture of the church of al-Chenisa tells us that the bema was still in use in the West Syriac church perhaps as late as the 9th century if not later. The three tablets bearing new inscriptions found in the same church not only give evidence of at least three Metropolitans, but also invite us to correct their dates taken for granted in modern scholarship on the basis of BarHebraeus (13th century). The administrative aspect tells us concretely about the ecclesiastical leaders of Takrit, through their physical remains. The home church of the Metropolitan was uncovered with the stony sign indicating that it was also his residence. The personal seal of one of them inscribed in Syriac was another indication that the Citadel of Takrit was the headquarters of the Metropolitan.

At the personal level, the remains of a whole family, the Saliq family, were unearthed to tell us that Takrit was composed of Syriac speaking people, otherwise known to be particularly wealthy. Thanks to their work in trade, they managed to leave an ineffaceable memory in the "Monastery of the Syrians" in the Scete desert in Egypt, on which the public lecture of January 2001 will shed much light.

Acknowledgements I owe my deepest gratitude to the Department of Antiquities of the Republic of Iraq for giving me the authorization to photograph and study the Syriac inscriptions from Takrit during the summers of 1997 and 1998 Dr Mu'ayyad Sa id al-Damerji, former Director General, Department of Antiquities, Mr. Rabi' al-Qaysi, Director General, Department of Antiquities, Dr. Nawala alMutwalli, Head of the Department of Cuneiform Studies, Iraqi Museum, and Dr. Donny George Yukhanna, Head of External Relations, Iraqi Museum, offered all the help possible to facilitate my work on the Syriac material at the Iraqi Museum. I also thank the officers of the Mosul Museum, particularly its Director Mr Manhal Jabr. for their help in allowing me to photograph Syriac and Aramaic inscriptions housed at the Museum. The gentle, courteous and very professional attitude of these colleagues made my work at both museums very pleasant My dept of gratitude goes also to the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada for financially supporting this research and my project on the Syriac inscriptions.

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Recent Archaeological Excavations in Takrit

Notes 1 S. Parpola, Neo-Assyrian Toponyms, Kevelaer: Butzon & Bercker, 1970, p. 344. 2 Yaqut al-Hamawi, Mu'jam al-buldan (Dictionary of Countries), vol. II, published by Dar-Sadir, Beirut, 1985, p. 38. 3 On the history of Christian Takrit see mainly J.-M. Fiey, "Tagrit," L'Orient syrien 8 (1963) pp. 289-342. Id., Assyrie Chrétienne, vol. III, Beyrouth: Imprimerie Catholique, 1968, pp. 110114; Mossoul Chrétienne, Beyrouth: Imprimerie Catholique, 1959, pp. 52-57. 4 See the very valuable Atlas al-mawaqi ' al'athariyyah fi al-'Iraq (Atlas of Archaeological Sites in Iraq), Bagdad: Da'irat al-'Athar, 1976, M a p 18. 5 Abdul-Majid Muhammad al-Hadithi, "Altanqibat al-'athariyyah fi mawqi' al-Kanisa (Chenisat al-'Abid)," (The Archaeological Excavations in the Site of al-Kanisa [Chenisat al'Abid]) in Mawsu'at Madinat Takrit (Encyclopedia of the City of Takrit), vol. II, Bagdad: Wizarat al-Thaqafa wa al-'Ilam (Ministry of Culture and Information), 1996, pp. 259-268 (text), pp. 289-336 (plans and figures). 6 I would like to thank Loretta James, of the Wadi Tumilat Project (University of Toronto), for drawing the plans published in this article, after the original ones found in Mawsu 'at madinat Takrit (Encyclopedia of the City of Takrit). 7 Though the line below the name 1 Abd-al-Nur seems like a final independent nun, it is an underline. The name, lit. "Servant of the Light" was borne mostly by West Syriac men. A recently uncovered funerary inscription from Balad contains the same name; it is dated before the 12th century. 8 Fiey, Mossoul Chrétienne, pp. 96-7. 9 See H. Hollerweger, Living Cultural Heritage: Turabdin Where Jesus ' Language is Spoken, Linz, Österreich: Rudolf Trauner, 1999, p.

246 picture to the left (church of St Stephen in Kefarbe). 10 Ibid., (church of Mor Yuhanon in Kelith). 11 Ibid., p. 72, bottom picture. 12 The rest of the church of Takrit was paved with burnt bricks and mortar. 13 H. Pognon, Inscriptions Sémitiques de la Syrie, de la Mésopotamie et de la Région de Mossoul, Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1907, pp. 127f, pl. xxix:73. 14 BO II p. 440. 15 Good examples of beth-qadishe are found in the Monastery of Mar Matta in the north of Iraq, and in several churches and Monasteries in Tur-'Abdin; for the latter see Hollerweger, Living Cultural Heritage, p. 68 left picture (Mor Gab-riel), p. 209 (Monastery of the Cross, tomb of Mor Alio). 16 Abdul-Majid Muhammad al-Hadithi, "Altanqibat fi al-mawqi' al-ma'ruf bi al-kanisali alkliadra'" (The Excavations in the Site Known as the Green Church) in Mawsu 'at madinat Takrit (encyclopedia of the City of Takrit), vol. I, Bagdad: Wizarat al-Thaqafah wa al-'Ilam (Ministry of Culture and Information), 1995, pp.221-229 (text), pp. 230-258 (plans and figures). 17 See D. P. S. Peacock and D. F. Williams, Amphorae and the Roman Economy, London and New York: Longman, 1986; M. Sciallano and P. Sibeila, Amphores: Comment les identifier? Barcelone, Edisud, 1991. I am grateful to Patricia Paice, Research Associate at the Wadi Tumilat Project, University of Toronto, for helping me in identifying the jars of Takrit and providing me with the afore-mentioned references. 18 This is shown in one slide sent to me by Dr. Michael Fuller, Director of the American Excavations at Tell Tuneinir. 19 BH II, col. 134, 146, 218, 254, and 306.

Journal of the Canadian Society for Syriac Studies 1 (2001) - Page 28

Recent Archaeological Excavations in Takrit

Map 1 : Christian Sites in and around Takrit

Plan 1: al-Chenisa: General Plan (after Mawsu'at madinat Takrit, II)

Journal of the Canadian Society for Syriac Studies 1 (2001) - Page 29

RTCEOTI AJI: h M U LUMPED E r a n v i í i u n a u i T a f a i i

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