Mt. Tabor; Mt. Tavor - Monastery

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Monastery name, type, category

Site Name:

Mt. Tabor; Mt. Tavor

Identification:

Mount Tabor (Tavor) is associated in Christian tradition with the event, in the New Testament, of the Transfiguration of Jesus (Matt. 17, 1-13; Mark 9, 2-13; Luke 9, 28-36). Although very little remains of the Byzantine period monastery, it is attested in the sources.

Monastery name:

Monastery

Monastery type:

Cenobium

Monastery category:

Isolated in the countryside

Pilgrims

Source of sacredness:

Old Testament site

New Testament site

Location

Coordinates, ITM system:

237,048.00

732,439.00

Coordinates, ICS system:

187,045.00

232,439.00

Geographical region:

Lower Galilee

Provincial affiliation:

Palaestina II

Bishopric:

Helenopolis

Topographical location:

Hilltop and level

Soils:

Limestone and terra rosa.

Distance from nearest bishop-seat:

ca. 2 km (Helenopolis)

Distance from Roman roads:

ca. 22 km north of the road connecting Beth Shean-Scythopolis with Caesaria.

Source of knowledge

HideLiterary sources

Text number	Summary
1	Description of the monastery and the many monastic cells on Mount Tabor, from an itinerary of ca. AD 681-684, composed ca. 698.
2	Mention based on Adamnan of a large monastery on Mount Tabor, from a geographical work compiled AD 702-703.
3	Mention of the monastery for monks on Mount Tabor, from an itinerary of AD 722-729, composed ca. 780.
4	Mention of the Laura on Mount Tabor, from an 8th cent. guidebook for pilgrims.
5	Mention of 18 monks among the churches on Mount Tabor, from an official report ordered in AD 808.

HideEpigraphy

Text number	Summary
1	Painted funerary (?) inscriptions in the cave below the refectory of the Benedictine monastery.

Archaeological remains

Surveyed site

Surveyors:

Name	Date
de Vogüé	1860
Guérin	1868-1869
Conder and Kitchener	1871-1877

Excavated site

Excavators:

Name	Date
Franciscans	Second half of 19th century

Bibliograpy:

Comm. de casis Dei
de Vogüé, M., 1860	352
Guérin, V., 1880	144
Conder, C. R. and Kitchener, H. H., 1881	388-91
Vincent, L. H., 1922	124
Thompson, R. W., 1967	27-33
Ovadiah, A., 1970	71
Bagatti, B., 1977	119-22
Ovadiah, A. and de Silva, C. G., 1982	132
Schick, R., 1995	412-13

Abbreviation for Journals and Series

Discussion:

The monastery on Mt. Tabor was described in the writing of an Armenian pilgrim who visited Palestine in the seventh century. The excavations conducted by the Franciscan Fathers in the nineteenth century focused on the churches and revealed some of the remains but other monastery structures were apparently ignored and the plan of the monastery is not known.

State of certainty:

Archaeologically and Literarily definitive

General description

State of preservation/which parts were uncovered:

The site was excavated in the middle of the 19th century by the Franciscans. The excavation was not published. Remains of three churches were found but no remains of the monastery complex were reported.

General description

Enclosing walls:

A stone fence surrounding the monastery was described by Bede.

Churche/s:

The remains of a large church and two smaller chapels were uncovered. The church was located beneath the present day church of the Transfiguration. According to Guérin, the church measured 36 x 15 m. Beneath the nave, a crypt 30 x 6 m. was in a good state of preservation. A set of 12 stairs, some hewn and some constructed, led into the crypt. A partially standing altar was located at the far end. According to Guérin these are the remains of the church called "the Redeemer" in the Byzantine period. The remains of a smaller chapel (5-6 x 4 m) were found where the modern Greek Orthodox church stands today. The remains consisted of two apses, only the lower courses of which remained. The walls had been decorated with frescos of which traces remained with a pattern of branches and leaves in red. The chapel was paved with a mosaic pavement in red, white and black.

Burials:

A tomb was found in the crypt of the large church, with remains of bones.

Water installations:

A cistern was found near the entrance to the smallest chapel and an ancient pool, now filled in serves today as a garden for the Greek Orthodox church.

Small finds

Small finds:

Category	Description
Inscription - see under epigraphy	A marble slab with an inscription: ETAM, KMXRI
Oil lamps	No description was published
Glass	Fragments of glass vessels
Bones	Found in the crypt
Other	Many tesserae, some of glass

Detailed description

Structure

Materials applied (walls):

Limestone

Components

Monastery church:

Church type	Diakonikon	Link to church section	Church location
basilical			Ground floor
single nave			Ground floor
single nave			Ground floor

Tombs type:

Burial chamber

Water installations:

Cisterns

Painted plaster

Inscribed crosses

Architectural evolution

Phase 1
Abandonment

General outline:

The architectural remains of the Byzantine structures were not reported (apart from the churches) by the excavators. The foundation of the site can probably be dated to a fairly early stage due to the importance of the site to the Christian world. The existence of the monastery is known only from literary sources.

Dating material:

The earliest mention of the church on Mt. Tabor is by the Piacenta Pilgrim (530 CE). A later source claims that it was first established by Helena (see Literary Sources section).

Phase date

Century:

4th-5th c.

General outline:

The monastery continued to exist well into the Early Islamic period, at least till the ninth century.

Dating material:

Mentioned in the Commemoratorium de Casis Dei.

Phase date

Century:

Other

Post Arab conquest history:

Still in use

Post conquest history comments:

The monastery continued to function at least to the ninth century when it was mentioned in the Commemoratorium de Casis Dei. Al-Mas'udi wrote in the tenth century that the site was in the hands of Chalcedonian Christians (Schick 1995: 413) but nothing is known of the monastery. From the sources it is clear that the site continued to serve as a place of veneration for Christians. In the Crusader period the monastery was rebuilt.