Scythopolis / Beth Shean; Tell el Husn - Round church; acropolis church

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Church Name, type, function

Site Name:

Scythopolis / Beth Shean; Tell el Husn

Identification:

Di Segni (2022) suggested to identify this church with St Procopius the martyr (Cyr. Scyth., Vita Sabae 75), rejecting earlier proposals to identify it with St John (Cyr. Scyth., Vita Sabae 62; AP 8), suggested by Avi-Yonah (1962:60), followed by Arav (1989:196-197) and Mazor (2008:1634 and 2010:286).

Church name:

Round church; acropolis church

Dedication:

The church was probably dedicated to Saint Procopius.

Functional Type:

Episcopal

Church type:

Concentric - Circular

Location

Coordinates, ITM system:

247.57

712.31

Coordinates, ICS system:

197.57

1,212.31

Location:

Urban

Geographical region:

Beth Shean Valley

Topographical location:

The church was located on the top of Beth Shean mound.

Distance from nearest bishop-seat:

In the city; a bishop's-seat.

Distance from nearest settlement:

Within the city on it's acropolis.

Distance from Roman roads:

On the roads from Scythopolis to the north and to the west.

Provincial affiliation:

Palaestina II

Bishopric:

Scythopolis

Source of knowledge

HideLiterary sources

Text number	Summary
1	Mention of the church of the Holy Martyr Procopius within the palace of the bishop of Scythopolis, AD 531.

Archaeological remains

Excavated site

Excavators:

Name	Date
FitzGerald G.M.	1921-1923

Bibliograpy:

Vincent, L. H., 1923

FitzGerald, G. M., 1931

Vincent, L. H. , 1932

Abel, F. M., 1934

Avi-Yonah, M., 1962

Ovadiah, A., 1970

Ovadiah, A. and de Silva, C. G., 1982

Arav, R., 1989

Shalev, V., 1999

Nocera, D., 2013

Shalev-Hurwitz, V., 2015

Di Segni, L., 2022

Abbreviation for Journals and Series

General description

State of preservation/which parts were uncovered:

Only the foundations have remained. During the excavations two round foundation walls, an atrium, a narthex, a wide apse and some lateral rooms were exposed. Overall length of the building - 50.4 m, diameter of outer circle - 36.4 m, diameter of the inner circle - 26.4 m.

Description

Illustrative material:

Illustrative_material

Figures

Plan of the Beth Shean Round church. Arav 1989: Fig. 4.

Plan of finds as produced by excavators. Arav 1989: Fig. 2.

A restored view of the Round Church at Beth Shean. Arav 1989. Fig. 5.

A North-South and East-West sections of the Beth Shean Round Church. Arav 1989: Fig. 6.

Scythopolis, plan of the city center. Shalev-Hurwitz 2015: p. 408.

Plan of the church according V. Shalev-Hurwitz. Shalev-Hurwitz 2015: 410.

Atrium:

Fragments of pavement consisted of white marble square tiles (20x20 cm), alternating with red tiles of the same size in diagonal rows, were found to the west of the narthex (about 60 cm below it). These were set within a border of slabs running almost parallel to the narthex wall, at a distance of 8.5 m. The excavators suggest that it may be an atrium floor. According to the reconstruction of V. Shalev-Hurwitz, the atrium had 12 columns along its perimeter (2 on the short sides and 4 on the long ones), and 4 corner piers.

Narthex:

The narthex was trapezoidal in shape; its western front measured 33.7 m, about 5 m less than the width of the church. The short walls are 7.1 m long. It was paved, like the atrium, with square white and red marble slabs. The narthex was 60 cm higher than the atrium and 20 cm lower than the church. The entrance to the narthex was probably from the north side, due to the fact that traces of staircase were found to the north of the narthex.

Façade and entries:

The main entrance was apparently through the narthex, on the west of the building. Traces of four other doorways were found also on the north-west, north-east, south and south-west sides of the building.

External Walls (for a concentric church):

The church had relatively thin walls - 1 m for the outer circle and 0,7 m for the inner circle. They were decorated with marble revetment. South of the western door there was a niche in the outer wall. The excavators found there a semicircular fragment of mosaic with an imbricated pattern, that ran beyond the line of the outer circle. A corresponding niche seems to have existed to the north.

Central space:

According to R. Arav, the inner foundation retained a circular colonnade, and the central space of the church was unroofed, since the foundations were too thin to carry the pressure of a dome. V. Shalev-Hurwitz suggested that there was no need for an open space in the center of the church, since it had a huge atrium. Moreover there are no parallels for such unroofed construction elsewhere in Palestine. She opined that the church had an inner colonnade which formed the third circle and supported a smaller dome, while the inner foundation supported a second wall, not a colonnade. This foundations were too thin to carry the column bases, with a diameter of 0.8 m. The central area of the church was probably paved with marble.

Ambulatory:

The circular space between the outer and inner circle walls is 4.4 m. wide. Shalev-Hurwitz suggested that it was divided to four diagonal chapels. At the north-west a mosaic edge seems to mark the limits of the chapel. A similar chapel was reconstructed by her in the south-western area. In the western walls were reconstructed two round niches in front of entrance piers. Towards the western end of the peripheral space fragments of the mosaic pavement with a geometric design were found. The rest of the space was paved with red tiles and white marble slabs bordered by the plain slabs.

Bema, chancel screen and apse:

The church had a wide bema and an external semi-circular apse 4.4 m deep (outer diameter 10.04 m, inner diameter 7.1 m). An apse and bema walls projected from the outer wall of the church for 7,4 m. The straight walls of the bema prolonged into the ambulatory by additional walls, somewhat narrower and not bounded with the bema walls.

Lateral spaces:

There were at least three rooms on the east. Two chambers on the south were paved with stones and tiles. The existence of the the northern room was indicated by the remains of a pavement north of the apse. The excavators doubted if the rooms had any liturgical functions.

Small finds

Small finds:

Category	Description
Metal objects	Bronze nails
Stone vessels	A fragment of a mould for eucharistic bread.

Small finds illustrative material:

Illustrative_material

Photos

The mould for liturgy bread from the Round Church in Beth Shean. From: FitzGerald 1931, Pl. XXIV, 1

Detailed description

Structure

Orientation:

Facing east

Materials applied (walls):

Limestone

Marble

Atrium:

Yes

Water cistern:

Yes

Narthex:

Yes

Colonnades / Arcades:

Colonnade

Number of inner space columns (for a concentric church):

Total	Extant
12

Capital types:

Trapezoidal

Corinthian

East end:

External apse, round

Central Apse Category:

apsidal

Altar remains:

no remains

Apse shape:

Hemispherical

Baptism

Loci:

Opposite the main entrance to the church deep (2.13 m) narrow baptistery with six stairs was exposed. Probably it was built in the phase 1B when the western openings of the ambulatory were blocked.

Attached structures

Discussion and Comments:

In addition to the lateral spaces mentioned above (see General Description), a small (8 x 4.4 m) rectangular room adjoined to the north-eastern corner of the narthex. It was paved with mosaics with a pattern of interlacing bands forming circles with crosses in the intervening spaces. A doorway in the south wall of the room led to the triangular space between the eastern wall of the narthex and the western side of the round outer wall. Another door led from this triangular room to the church ambulatory. It seems that there were also parallel rooms on the south.

Architectural Evolution

Phase 1
Abandonment

General outline:

All the components were built in the same time, apart from the two rectangular rooms on the north-west and south-west, which, according Arav, were built after the main building of the church. In phase 1B, according to Shalev-Hurwitz, the western entrance to the church from the narthex and the opening from the peripheral to the central space were blocked and the area was converted to a baptistery.

Dating material:

The excavators dated the church to the 5th century by the style of the Corinthian capitals and the mosaics. Shalev-Hurwitz attributed the building more exactly to the first half of the century, based on the evolution of round churches in Palestine.

Phase date

Century:

5th c.

Within century:

First half

Subphases

Subphase A Date

Early Christian / Byzantine

Subphase B Date

Early Christian / Byzantine

Dating material:

An arabic inscription on one of the column shafts with the date 190 year of Hijra (806 AD), inscribed when the shaft was already laid horizontally, suggests this date as terminus ante quem for the collapse of the church. Apparently this occurred in the 749 earthquake. This suggestion is supported by position of the fallen column in the interior of the church as found in the excavations.

Phase date

Century:

8th c.

Within century:

Mid

Post Arab conquest history:

Unmodified

Post conquest history comments:

Building materials were used as spolia in structures of later periods.