ʿEin Fattir - Church

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Church Name, type, function

Site Name:

ʿEin Fattir

Identification:

The site is located within the boundaries of the agricultural school of Beit Jimal. It is identified with ancient Fattura.

Church name:

Church

Functional Type:

Parochial

Church type:

Basilical - Annex\es on N & S

Location

Coordinates, ITM system:

197.87

625.81

Coordinates, ICS system:

147.86

1,125.85

Location:

Rural

Geographical region:

Judean Hills

Topographical location:

The site is located on the northwestern slope of a spur south of Beth Shemesh, overlooking the modern town.

Distance from nearest bishop-seat:

About 15 km northeast of Eleutheropolis and about 25 km southwest of Jerusalem.

Provincial affiliation:

Palaestina I

Bishopric:

Eleutheropolis

Source of knowledge

HideEpigraphy

Text number	Summary
1	Dated mosaic building inscription commemorating the renovation of the church under bishop Anastasius, March 563.
2	Invocation on behalf of John the deacon, in the mosaic pavement of the nave.
3	Fragmentary invocation in the main mosaic carpet of the nave.

Archaeological remains

Excavated site

Excavators:

Name	Date
Chambon and Strus	1989-1990
Piccirillo and Strus	1992-1997

Bibliograpy:

Chambon, A., Strus, A. and Alpi, F., 1992
Strus, A. and Chambon, A., 1993
Strus, A., 1995
Verhelst, S., 1997
Piccirillo, M. and Strus, A., 2000
Bagatti, B., 2002	135-136
Strus, A., 2003
Michel, V., 2004	Vol. 2, 71-74; Vol. 3, p. 85, Fig. 142
Magen, Y. and Kagan, E. D., 2012	83-84

Abbreviation for Journals and Series

General description

State of preservation/which parts were uncovered:

Mono-apsidal church with two pastophoria flanking the apse, a narthex and annexes on the north and on the south. Outer dimensions: 16.25 X 11 m. Three architectural phases were discerned.

Description

Illustrative material:

Illustrative_material

Figures

Ein Fattir, Plan 1. From: Strus and Shambon, 1993: 75, Fig. 99.

Ein Fattir plan. Magen and Kagan, JSP 14, p. 83, Fig. 208

Ein Fattir, Plan, Chambon, Strus et Alpi, RB 99-2_1992, p. 431, Fig. 2

Narthex:

3.5m wide. Paved by white mosaic floor. A door on the southern end led to a room annexed to the south of the church.

Façade and entries:

Three entrances led in from the narthex.

Lateral walls:

A door in the northern wall led to the eastern unit of the northern annex - seemingly a prothesis chapel. A second door led to a southern annex. Another door in the space flanking the apse on the south was blocked in the 2nd phase, when an apsidiole was installed there.

Nave:

Separated from the aisles by two rows of three columns. The columns standing on stylobates, are built of architectural elements in secondary use. During the second phase, or in the third phase, the southern aisle was separated from the nave by a well built stone wall, erected on the stylobate. It seems that in that stage, the southern aisle, together with the southern pastophorium, in which an apse was installed, became a martyrial chapel, inside the basilica. The nave is paved in colored mosaic with geometric and animal patterns. The mosaics belong to the second phase, dated by an inscription to March 536..

Aisles:

Mosaic paved mosaic carpets depicting geometric patterns enclosing buds and crosslets. In Phase 3 the northern aisle was separated from the rest of the basilica by blocking the inter-columnations by a wall. This modification is attributed by the excavators to the 7th or early 8th c. and associated by them to a liturgical transformation which they do not specify.

Bema, chancel screen and apse:

The bema is U-shaped, raised two steps above the nave's floor and surrounded by a chancel screen. No lateral opening existed to the southern aisle. The northern wing is not preserved, hence it is not possible to tell. An ambo protruded from the northwestern corner of the bema into the nave. Its location is marked by a square base with five depression for legs. The bema is paved with a colored mosaic with geometric, animal and human patterns. The human figure, standing, was identified as St. Menas, resembling his depiction on St. Menas ampouls. The apse is hemispheric, internal, flanked by two pastophoria (see under "detailed description").

Lateral spaces:

The excavators were of the opinion that both aisles ended in open pastophoria, but it rather seems that in Phase 1 the apse was flanked by two lockable pastophoria. The northern pastophorium, 2.10x1.80m in dimensions, first separated perhaps from the aisle by just a curtain, got in Phase 2 two antae. It might have served as martyrial chapel of the Syrian type, open to the aisle by an arch. It first had a plastered floor and in Phase 2 - a mosaic floor. In the southern pastophorium, 2.25x2.10m in dimensions, an apsidiole was installed, blocking an earlier opening that existed there. This opening was leading to the southern courtyard. Free passage from the aisle to the apsidiole was barred by a barrier. Seemingly it also served as a martyrial chapel. The excavators were of the opinion that a table for placing relics was standing there, and that it served as as Martyrs' Chapel already from the beginning (though no reliquaries were actually found). Their idea (RB 99/2 [1992], 433) that already in Phase 1 relics were venerating there by worshippers getting there directly from outside, without passing through the church, is to be dismissed. It rather seems that the space first served as a sacristy - a lockable pastoiphorium.

Small finds

Detailed description

Structure

Orientation:

Facing east

Materials applied (walls):

Limestone

Materials applied (roofing):

tiles

timber

Atrium:

Water cistern:

Narthex:

Yes

Aisles:

Colonnades / Arcades:

Colonnade

Number of nave columns in a row:

Total
3

East end:

Internal apse

Church Head/Chevet:

second apse on the s

Central Apse Category:

apsidal

Bema type:

U shaped without lateral openings

Elevation of Bema above nave:

2 steps up

Altar remains:

no remains

Ambo:

Yes

Ambo remains:

base plate

Ambo description:

The ambo was indicated by a rectangular stone base with five sockets.

Ambo location:

Ambo placement:

On a Rectangular slab

Apse elevation:

Flush with the bema

Apse shape:

Hemispherical

Synthronon:

Pastophoria

Pastophoria loci:

N & S

Description and function of northern:

The northern pastophorium is a square room that in the first phase had a plaster floor and was probably open to the northern aisle. In the second phase, the northern pastophorium was paved with a mosaic floor and separated from the northern aisle by a wall.

Description and function of southern:

The southern pastophorium is referred by the excavator as "chapel" or "martyrion". It seems that in the first phase it was a square room, similar to the northern pastophorium. In the second phase, the southern pastophorium was separated from the southern aisle by means of a stone-built balustrade and an apsidal shelf was built in the room. According to the excavators, at least one reliquarium was placed on the apsidal shelf. Thus, the southern pastophorium served for the cult of the relics.

Lateral Apses Function

Location:

Southern apse description and function:

see above, under "pastophoria".

Cult of relics

Cult of relics loci:

S apse

Reliquiaries: shapes and contents:

See under Lateral spaces window in the General Description tab.

Attached structures

Annex/es on the north:

The northern annex, of two rectangular units, was added in the 2nd Phase. The eastern unit seems to have served as a prothesis chapel see below). The western unit had an opening to the west. It might have served for storing the offerings of the faithful; a store-room\diakonikon of a kind.

Annex/es on the south:

The annex on the south had four openings, one in each of its walls. One open to the west, a second, on the north, coming from the narthex; the third, in its eastern wall, lead to the southern courtyard and the fourth, to an unexcavated building on the south. The function of this annex is not clear; it seems to have been a passage room.

Prothesis chapel / Diakonikon:

Quadrangular chapel

Prothesis chapel / Diakonikon description:

The northern annex, of two rectangular units, was added in the 2nd Phase. The eastern unit was mosaic paved. It was accessed by an opening in the northern aisle. Its eastern part seems to be elevated and separated by a screen from the western part, thus resembling a quadrangular prothesis chapel.

Architectural Evolution

Phase 1
Phase 2
Phase 3
Abandonment

General outline:

Basilical church with internal apse and two pastophoria.

Dating material:

The construction date is not given. Since the second phase is dated to the first half of the 6th (March 15, 536), and the inscription speaks about a renovation of the church, it seems reasonable to date the erection of the church to the 5th century, perhaps its second half.

Phase date

Century:

5th c.

Within century:

Second half

General outline:

Basilical church with internal central apse, ambo, colored mosaic floors with geometric, animal and human patterns. The mosaics belong to this phase. In the southern pastophorium an apsidal shelf was installed. In this phase the aisles and the main entrance were restored and the nave repaved as well. The northern annex, of two rectangular units, was added in this phase.

Dating material:

According to a Greek, dated mosaic inscription in the nave, near the bema entrance, the church was renovated and the mosaic floor laid on March 15, 536.

Phase date

Century:

6th c.

Within century:

First half

General outline:

General layout as in phase 2. The northern aisle was separated from the rest of the church by a wall, built on the stylobate of the northern colonnade, converting the church to a two naves structure with an attached elongated one on the north. This modification is attributed by the excavators to the 7th or early 8th c. and associated by them to a liturgical transformation which they do not specify.

Dating material:

According to the excavators, second half of the 7th or beginning of the 8th century.

Phase date

Century:

7th-8th c.

Iconoclastic evidence

Iconoclastic evidence:

Dating material:

Since there is no evidance of iconoclasm, it seems that the church was abandoned no later than the beginning of the 8th century.

Phase date

Century:

8th c.

Within century:

Early

Post Arab conquest history:

Modified