12693 - Samaria (Sebaste; Sebastiya)‎ - Greek Orthodox church of St. John the Baptist

There were at least two Byzantine ‎churches in the city (according to the literal sources), but no ‎structures within it have been clearly ‎identified as such. Two Crusader ‎churches ‎were discovered (differed usually as Greek Orthodox (near Augusteum) and Catholic Cathedral (outside the ancient polis)).‎ According to Ovadiah (1970), who actually repeated Crowfoot (1931), one of the Crusader churches, dedicated to St. John the Baptist, was built on top of the Byzantine church (Greek Orthodox; http://huji.hagitbagno.co.il/sites/default/files/illustrative_material/118_fig.14.1.jpg ). Most of the eastern part of this medieval church (11th-13th centuries CE) belongs to the Byzantine period (apparently). The masonry of the central apse and two small niches, which are flanking it, is close by its quality to the Early Byzantine period. Crowfoot claimed, that the Byzantine church was originally built in a form of the three-aisled basilica, with two colonnades, 6 columns in each row. The columns have been leaning on the stylobata and topped with the entablatures. The central apse was semicircular, but inscribed into the rectangular protrusion. The lateral niches were raised over the floor level and inscribed into the straight eastern wall. The western entrance into the church was also attributed to the Byzantine period. Remains of the mosaic floor, decorated with the scale pattern and containing the partially preserved Greek inscription, were published by Crowfoot (Crowffot 1937: Plate 17. a, c, d; http://huji.hagitbagno.co.il/sites/default/files/illustrative_material/plate_17_crowfoot.jpg ). To the west from the Greek Orthodox church (it's western entrance was drawn on the plan in Crowfoot 1937: 27, Fig. 3; http://huji.hagitbagno.co.il/sites/default/files/illustrative_material/27_fig._3_0.jpg  ) a monastic complex was revealed (general dimensions: 27x15 m). Among the walls of the various buildings, small courts and rooms of the complex, a small hall was discernable, with the semicircular apse oriented to the north, as it was published and described by Crowfoot (Crowfoot 1937: 26-8). The architecture of the apsed hall was very plain: it was one-aisled, with the entrance on the southern side (located slightly to the west from the central axis of the chapel), with the adjacent semicircular apse from the northern side (ca. 7 m in length, the walls being between 1- 0.60 m in width). Behind the apse there was a rectangular room. NB, that the apse wasn't oriented to the east, as it was erroneously republished on the plan in the Ovadiah's corpus (no. 159; http://huji.hagitbagno.co.il/sites/default/files/illustrative_material/plate_62159_0.jpg ), so there is no reason to accept his identification of this apsed hall as a chapel. Besides, Ovadiah hadn't repeated the general plan of the whole complex and hadn't outlined its location towards the Greek Orthodox church of St. John the Baptist. The architectural features of the complex are interesting: in its western and central parts the remains of the Iron age walls were preserved and on their top the Byzantine complex was built. From the Byzantine period a mosaic floor in the north-east part of the apsidal building was preserved, as well as some masonry of the walls (highlightened with black on the plans). The other walls are medieval or even later. Also there is an opinion (Crowfoot 1942: 37), that a civil basilica, discovered by the Harvard Expedition (Reisner, G. A., Fisher C. S. and Lyon D. G. 1924 (Vol. II): Pls. 12, 16), once was used as a Byzantine church. In the archaeological report it was reflected that the basilica had two apses, a large on the upper level, the smaller on the lower. The larger apse was dismantelled in order to reach the lower one, whhich was a tribunal. Meanwhile, the upper apse could be a part of the Byzantine church (though not oriented to the east). Due to the scarcity of the information in the report, no examination of this idea might be done.