Nahariya - Giv'at Katsenelson

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Church Name, type, function

Site Name:

Nahariya

Church name:

Giv'at Katsenelson

Dedication:

Ovadiah and de Silva (1981) assertion that the church was dedicated to St. Lazarus is false. It has no basis whatsoever.

Functional Type:

Parochial

Church type:

Basilical - Free standing basilica

Location

Coordinates, ITM system:

210.05

768.24

Coordinates, ICS system:

160.04

1,268.20

Location:

Village/Town

Geographical region:

Western Galilee

Topographical location:

On a hill

Distance from nearest bishop-seat:

About 10 km. north to Acre (Ptolemais)

Distance from Roman roads:

On the Roman road connecting Tyre and Acre.

Provincial affiliation:

Phoenice I

Bishopric:

Ptolemais

Source of knowledge

HideEpigraphy

Text number	Summary
1	Identical monograms on capitals of three small pillars of an altar or an offering table.
2	Dedicatory inscription of Leontius of a broken fragment of a chancel screen.
3	Various small fragments of a marble chancel screen (Dauphin – Edelstein, nos. 2-10), not included.

Archaeological remains

Excavated site

Excavators:

Name	Date
Dauphin and Edelstein	1972-1974

Bibliograpy:

Ovadiah, A. and De Silva, C. G., 1981
Dauphin, C. M. and Edelstein, G., 1984
Edelstein, G. and Dauphin, C. M., 1986
Dauphin, C. M. and Edelstein, G., 1993
Dauphin, C. M. and Edelstein, G., 1993
Ovadiah, A., 2002
Michel, A., 2019	156-157

Abbreviation for Journals and Series

General description

State of preservation/which parts were uncovered:

Tri-apsidal basilical church with Phoenician type bema with solea, annexes on the north (not excavated; recognized by the floor bedding), south (two separate spaces are recognized), and to the east of the northern apse. Basilica dimensions: 16.6-17.7 x 28m. (larger in the east than on the west).

Description

Illustrative material:

Illustrative_material

Figures

Atrium:

The western part of the complex was not excavated.

Lateral walls:

The walls wee built of local kurkar stone and coated with a thick layer of plaster.

Nave:

Paved with a mosaic floor with geometric, floral and figurative motifs.

Aisles:

Two rows of six marble columns divided between the nave and two aisles. The capitals supported the wooden beams of a gallery above each aisle.

Bema, chancel screen and apse:

The bema in front of the central apse, protruding three bays, has a lower bema (chœur bas) and a solea in front, extending into the nave, enclosed by a marble screen. The passage from the lower bema to the solea is flanked by two secondary tables that were supported by three marble legs. The main bema was two stairs higher than the nave; the lateral apses - just one stair. The northern apse, the floors of which being decorated by a cross motive, was 3m in diameter and 2.1m deep. It was protruding and polygonal. The other two seem to have been the same, though not preserved on the outside. The floors of the other two apses depict geometric motives.

A large quantity of marble pieces of the altar were found on the bema. The chancel screen consisted of twelve screen panels separated by ten screen posts.A cross was depicted in the mosaic floor of the northern apse.

Lateral spaces:

Bases of two offertory tables each standing on four columns, were found in the lateral apses.

Small finds

Detailed description

Structure

Orientation:

Facing east

Materials applied (walls):

Kurkar

Materials applied (roofing):

tiles

timber

Aisles:

Colonnades / Arcades:

Colonnade

Number of nave columns in a row:

Total
6

Capital types:

Corinthian

East end:

External apses, polygonal

Church Head/Chevet:

tri-apsidal

Central Apse Category:

apsidal

Bema type:

Phoenician type

Bema type text:

A solea led from the nave to the lower bema and hence to the wider and higher bema.

Elevation of Bema above nave:

2 steps up

Altar remains:

plate

Altar type:

Marble, table like

Secondary table/s

Secondary tables:

Two secondary marble tables were flanking the passage from the lower bema to the solea, each being supported by three small marble columnets.‎ An altar table of four legs was also standing in each of the lateral apses.

Ambo:

Apse elevation:

Flush with the bema

Apse shape:

Hemispherical

Synthronon:

Lateral Apses Function

Location:

N & S

Northern apse description and function:

Cult of relics? (indicated by a table of four legs that stood in the apse).

Southern apse description and function:

Cult of relics? (indicated by a table of four legs that stood in the apse).

Cult of relics

Cult of relics loci:

N apse

S apse

Upper galleries

Upper galleries:

above both aisles

Attached structures

Prothesis chapel / Diakonikon:

Other

Prothesis chapel / Diakonikon description:

The annex on the north was not excavated; it is recognized by the floor bedding. The southern annex was divided into two spaces (their southern parts were not preserved; no openings leading to them from the southern aisle were recognized). The western space is much longer than the eastern one. It might have been a quadrangular chapel (most of the southern wall of the aisle was not preserved; a doorway might had existed there). On the east of the northern apse there is another room.

Sacristy / skeuophylakion:

Simple rectangular room

Sacristy / skeuophylakion description:

The eastern space attached to the eastern aisle might had served as a sacristy. No doorway leading in from the aisle was recognized.

Martyrs chapel:

Simple rectangular room

Martyrs chapel description:

A mosaic-paved room to the east of the northern apse might had served as a martyrs chapel.

Architectural Evolution

Phase 1
Phase 2
Abandonment

Phase name (as published):

Phase 1

General outline:

Tri-apsidal basilical church with Phoenician type bema with solea, annexes on the north (not excavated; recognized by the plaster floor), south, and to the east of the northern apse.

Dating material:

In this phase the church had a plaster floor, uncovered mainly under the northern annexes and in the central apse. Pottery found in the fill under the mosaic floor is dated to the Vth and VIth c., constituting a t.a.q. for this phase. Nothing more is known about this phase.

Phase date

Century:

5th-6th c.

Within century:

Mid

Iconoclastic evidence

Iconoclastic evidence:

Phase name (as published):

Phase 2

General outline:

‎The church was mosaic paved. Later on the mosaic pavement was interupted by the solea and by the legs of the secondary tables. This may mark a sub-phase.

Dating material:

According to the inscriptions on the altar table legs, and the style of the mosaics, the church already existed ‎during the reign of Justinian (527 – 565 CE).

Phase date

Century:

6th c.

Within century:

First half

Subphases

Subphase A Date

6th-7th c.

General outline:

The church was destroyed in a fierce fire probably during the Persian ‎invasion of 614 C.E.‎ Three skeletons were found in the atrium.

Phase date

Century:

7th c.

Within century:

Early

Effects of the Persian Invasion:

Destroyed