‘Urbanised’ villages in early Byzantium, an overview

Ine Jacobs

(accepted) in Transformations of City and Countryside in the Byzantine Period (Byzanz zwischen
Orient und Okzident), Mainz: Verlag des Römisch-Germanischen Zentralmuseums
(Manuscript date: November 2016)

In the last few decades, a lot of attention has been devoted to the development of the city in
late antique and early Byzantine times, between the fourth and the seventh, or in some
regions eighth, century. Although it is very clear that there were wide regional differences and
that the fate of one city did not necessarily parallel that of its neighbours within the same
region, some general evolutions can be identified. They have been conveniently summarised
by Lucy Grig’s in her “Cities in the ‘long’ Late Antiquity, 2000–2012 – a survey essay” 1. Changes
in the late antique and Byzantine countryside have been receiving more attention too, with a
multiplication of surveys in cities’ hinterlands and territories as well as the introduction of new
approaches to evaluate the productivity of the land2. Although the interdependency of city
and countryside has been widely acknowledged, when urban and rural physical evolutions
have been compared, the focus has generally been on urban contexts, which are said to have
undergone a ‘ruralisation.’ This particular evolution, which included phenomena as varied as
a decrease in the number of public buildings, a growing privatisation of public space and the
increase of open plots in the city centre, the cultivation of crops in the immediate vicinity of
or even inside the urban core, the presence of cattle, the increase of refuse dumps and so on,
is often considered a sign that the living conditions of the urban population had become less
enviable than that of preceding centuries. Many pages have been filled with descriptions of
such changes and especially their pertinence to value judgements of ‘decline’ or
‘transformation’, entering an unusual Dark Age or returning to a more indigenous settlement
pattern that was not dependent on cities3.
In this article, I would like to revisit urban-rural relations, but I will move the focus to
rural settlements, which in many regions of the eastern Mediterranean seem to have been
doing very well. Between the fourth and the seventh/eighth century, villages grew in size and
number and played an important part in the late Roman economy as producers but possibly
also consumers. I will refrain from making general statements on rural versus urban
‘prosperity’ in late antique centuries – something that is exceptionally hard to determine –

1
Grig, Cities with references to older studies. For the regions discussed in this article, see also Jacobs,
Maintenance; Niewöhner, Urbanism (Asia Minor). – Walmsley, Syria; Avni, Palestine (Near East).
2
One of the few positive effects of a worldwide cut-back in research funds indeed seems to have been a shift in
attention from urban excavations to territory wide surveys. For a recent summary of research in the countryside
of Asia Minor, see Izdebski, Economy. – Hirschfeld, Farms, for the fourth to seventh centuries. – Magness,
Palestine, for early Islamic Palestine. – The volume edited by Lefort / Morrisson / Sodini contains a lot of pertinent
overviews of eastern Mediterranean regions with references to older literature.
3
Stephen Mitchell assumed that the settlement pattern of Asia Minor was and is until today based on rural
communities (Mitchell, Anatolia 9).
but instead will put three noticeable developments in urban-rural relations in the spotlight4.
Each of these show that villages not only were sizable and numerous, but also that they
adopted practices that are much better known from urban contexts. At the end of Antiquity,
the integration of these practices in rural contexts was as intense as or even more frequent
than parallel occurrences in neighbouring urban centres. Next to an urban ‘ruralisation’, some
village settlements indeed seemed to have been ‘urbanised’, though the extent of urban
characteristics was rarely so substantial that they led to confusion between a village
settlement and a ‘real’ city in Roman tradition5. The content of this paper is inspired by the
book of Lindsey Dossey, Peasant and Empire in Christian North Africa. She, amongst others,
argues that inhabitants of the countryside had much greater access to goods such as fine ware
ceramics, metal and glass objects as well as textiles than had been the case in previous
centuries. In this way, they had come to resemble their urban contemporaries.
After a quick look at the villages of the Aezanitis, where investments in rural
architectural decoration match, or even outdo, those in the urban centre of Aizanoi, I will
discuss some rural settlements in Cilicia that built late antique tetrapyla and arches, and then
move on to the villages of Jordan where one of the most remarkable corpuses of seventh-
century mosaics and epigraphy can be found. Finally, I will raise some questions concerning
the initiators of building works in villages.

Rural investments and workshops: Aizanoi and the Aezanitis

A first noteworthy case-study is the research done on architectural decoration in Aizanoi, a

medium-sized town in the Anatolian highlands, and its territory. As both have been the subject
of research, most recently by Philipp Niewöhner, a preliminary comparison of their
development in the fifth and sixth century in particular, is possible. In the city, all imperial
period buildings were reused in these centuries. They were either put to new uses in their
totality or they were at least partially dismantled to recuperate useful building materials. For
instance, the building components of a temple of Artemis as well as a section of the main
colonnaded street were reused in a new and shorter colonnaded street, which was created
around 400, that connected the previous main axis with the area near the Temple of Zeus6.
The stadium was reused as a quarry around the middle of the fifth century. In its substructures
a chapel was installed7. Another bath complex was converted into a church in the middle of
the sixth century. It was decorated with both locally produced and imported liturgical

4
A detailed analysis of this very difficult and multifaceted topic, is being carried out by Kristina Terpoy, Anatolia
(in preparation).
5
Walmsley, village 515 on the different perceptions on what makes a city.
6
The chronology of this colonnaded street is based on coin finds. They date its construction some time between
395 and 408. A following phase has been placed in the second half of the fifth century or later. In this period,
encroachment already occurred. Further coin finds imply that the pavement of the road was re-laid at a higher
level at the end of the fifth or the early sixth century. See von Mosch, Replik 741-744. – Rheidt, Aizanoi 1993 699-
715. – Rheidt, Aizanoi 1994. – Rheidt, Archäologie 243-247.
7
Niewöhner, Städte 221. – Niewöhner, Aizanoi 74.
furniture of the best quality8. Considering that Aizanoi remained the residence of the bishop
and therefore a central place in a flourishing late antique region, there is no real reason to
suspect a demographic or economic decline9. In other words, this town remained the religious
centre of the region, and very likely also fulfilled additional political and social roles.
Nevertheless, there can be no denying that it had lost quite a bit of its previous lustre and that
the distinctions between urban core and surrounding settlements had become less
distinguishable.
At least, this is suggested by a comparison of both the quality and especially the
quantity of architectural decoration in city and countryside. The Aezanitis, as elsewhere, saw
the introduction of rural churches, both in the fertile plain and the more marginal
mountains10. They are attested by finds of late antique architectural decoration, all of them
church-related items. A small portion of these, mainly smaller columnar supports and capitals,
could be recognised as high quality imports from the quarries at Dokimeion. All bigger and
thus heavier architectural fragments belonged to local workshops from the plateau11.
Imported marble decoration in the city and countryside was very similar. The quantity of
architectural decoration in the countryside is much bigger than in the city though12. Moreover,
in imperial times a workshop was based centrally in Aizanoi. Architectural decoration
remained limited to the urban core alone13. For the fifth and sixth centuries, a separate
workshop producing church decoration could be pinpointed in a sub-region of the Aezanitis
(area of Ortaca)14. Both the local workshops of the Aizanitis and the Central Phrygian
workshops from Dokimeion must have mainly earned a living by working for projects in the
countryside.
A similar development, obviously tightly connected to the appearance of churches in
the countryside, has been recognised in other regions as well. Within Asia Minor, some of the
better researched instances of similar investments in high-quality churches include Milesia,
the territory of Miletus15, and the coastal hinterlands of both Lycia and Cilicia. Archaeological
surveys in the hinterland of Myra, in particular have uncovered high quality church structures
in the villages that feature in the Life of Saint Nicholas, including the church at Karabel, which
Harrison has identified as the church of Holy Sion16. Although the exact organisation of the
countryside continues to elude us, the proliferation of rural churches as a new type of
communal building worthy of additional decoration in settlements where these had been a

8
Naumann, Aizanoi 339. – Niewöhner, Städte 221. – Niewöhner, Aizanoi 75.
9
Niewöhner, Städte 226.
10
Niewöhner, Städte 223. – Niewöhner, Anatolia 243.
11
Niewöhner, Städte 224.
12
Niewöhner, Städte 226. – Niewöhner, Anatolia 243.
13
Niewöhner, Aizanoi 242-243.
14
Niewöhner, Anatolia 246
15
Lohmann, Survey 1996. – Niewöhner, Steinmetzarbeiten.
16
Foss, Coast. – Foss, Cities 303-339. – Harrison, Churches. More recently, Severin / Grossmann, Lykien discuss
the church remains in this area at length.
lot less common in the past, indicates a change in mentality among the rural population or at
least some of its members17.

Building types and decoration

The second phenomenon to be discussed in the context of urban characteristics penetrating

the countryside is maybe geographically less widespread, though equally telling. In the
southeast of Turkey, villages built tetrapyla and arches, often at their borders 18.
In the late antique province of Isauria (the area of Rough Cilicia), especially in the area
between Seleukia and the Lamos river in the east, a large amount of late antique settlements
can be found. They have been researched in depth by Günder Varinlioğlu, who was able to
show that these settlements were well connected to the harbours on the coast, have
remarkably well preserved remains and were doing very well between the early fifth and the
seventh century19. In two of the settlements along one of the rural roads, Karakabaklı and
Ișikkale, tetrapyla were constructed. This may have happened already in the early fifth
century, as it apparently became clear in illegal excavations that the road and northern
tetrapylon at Karakabaklı were constructed simultaneously20. As the road lead towards the
coast and the harbour of Korasion, which was fortified and rebuilt in the third quarter of the
fourth century, a date around the year 400 is indeed not unlikely21. The settlement of
Karakabaklı was a wealthy oil producing village of about four hectares in size22, which,
compared to the villages in Syria, Jordan and Palestine that will be discussed further on in this
paper, was still fairly small. One tetrapylon was present in the north of the village, the second
in the south. Although this latter has generally been interpreted as an exedra built
simultaneously with the basilica, Aydinoğlu and Çakmak were right to point out that the
tetrapylon structure predated the construction of the church23. It may originally have been
intended as a marker for the border of the settlement, as there do not seem to be any houses
to the south of this structure. At the time the tetrapyla were built, there was apparently no
other communal building present in this settlement, which solely consisted of well-built,
sizeable houses, some of them seemingly very luxurious. The church complex, a three-aisled
basilica with galleries, eventually was built to the east of the structure in the first half of the
sixth century24. An additional apse covered with a half dome was added to the tetrapylon’s
western piers. The tetrapylon from then on functioned as an elaborative church entrance, but

17
The amount of churches in the countryside of course cannot be taken as a direct indicator of prosperity. It
could for instance take a rural community several decades to complete a church, as was the case in Akören II,
where it apparently took almost seventy years to complete the South Church. See Wulf, Akören 300.
18
Varinlioğlu, Landscape 52-53. – Eichner Wohnhäuser 2. – Eichner Wohnhäuser 9-11 for a short exposé on the
provincial borders in this area.
19
Varinlioğlu, Environment. – Varinlioğlu, Landscape.
20
Aydinoğlu – Çakmak, Karakabaklı 82.
21
Varinlioğlu, Landscape 56; Varinlioğlu, Habitat 204. – Eichner, Wohnhäuser 285.
22
Varinlioğlu, Landscape 64-65.
23
Aydinoğlu and Çakmak, Karakabaklı 77.
24
Varinlioğlu, Landscape 56-57.
also kept its primary function as a signaller of the settlement’s border. Apparently, the
northern tetrapylon was converted into a chapel at an unknown moment in time as well25.
The same fate befell the tetrapylon in the second settlement at Ișikkale, located only 800
meters to the north of Karakabaklı26. Finally, it is worth mentioning that the west façade of
the church at Ișikkale was faced by a half-round exedra, another monument that is very
uncommon in rural settlements27.
In the course of the sixth century, other settlements opted for related, but different
urban prototypes. Thus, a late Roman village near the modern Turkish village of Akören
(‘Akören II’), located much further inland than Karakabaklı and Ișikkale, some 100 km to the
north of Adana in the late antique province of Cilicia Secunda, in its turn assimilated an arch
into its built-up area28. In this case, the arch formed an integral part of the settlement’s south
church. This building, or at least its narthex, was placed to the south of the settlement’s core,
just next to the road coming from Anazarbos, the capital of the province of Cilicia Secunda.
The arch eventually, possibly as late as 594, formed the narthex’s south side. It was large and
richly decorated and, although its Christian iconography was very different from that of typical
Roman arches, the prototype of the structure remained clearly recognisable29. As at
Karakabaklı, this monument gave access both to the church and signalled the start of the
settlement as a whole. Opposed to the previously discussed tetrapyla, the appearance of this
arch outside an urban context was not an isolated case. Further to the east, the road
connecting Tarsus to the Cilician Gates was articulated by a late antique arch, undecorated
this time, where it passed a rural settlement30.
For both arches and tetrapyla, urban counterparts were found close-by. The main
street of Anazarbos, capital of Cilicia Secunda, started at an honorific arch31. It may very well
have served as a direct source of inspiration for villages such as those near modern Akören 32.
Moreover, the assimilation of architectural ideas from the capital into the village of Akören II
was confirmed by the plan of the settlement’s north church. This is not of the ordinary basilica
type common for these provinces, but an ambulatory basilica. The only other example in these
parts was indeed the Church of the Apostles in Anazarbos33.
Due to the close proximity of Karakabaklı and Ișikkale – it is actually unclear how the
two settlements relate to each other and whether or not they were really two separate
communities – it is not very surprising to find similar structures in both. Karakabaklı and
Ișikkale furthermore distinguished themselves from other rural settlements in the area by the

25
Varinlioğlu, Landscape 56-57; Varinlioğlu, Habitat 204.
26
Varinlioğlu, Landscape 53.
27
Westphalen, Kirche 540, 548 fig. 2.
28
The Berlin team that surveyed the settlement in the 1990’s counted some 90 houses, equalling approximately
450 to 700 inhabitants, spread over a surface of 100 by 350 m. The inhabitants of this settlement lived off the
land, as is shown by the agricultural installations found. See Wulf, Akören. – Wulf-Rheidt, Akören 191-198.
29
Wulf, Akören 299-300, 306.
30
Hellenkemper / Hild, Kilikien 96-97. – Varinlioğlu, Landscape 56; Varinlioğlu, Habitat 203-204.
31
Gough, Anazarbos 110-113. – Posamentir, Säulenstrasse 1015-1016, figs. 2-5. – Posamentir, Anazarbos 209.
32
Akören II moreover seems to have been directly connected to Anazarbos by a road (Wulf, Akören 306).
33
Wulf, Akören 205. For the church, see Gough, Anazarbos 116-118, figs. 7-8. – Mietke, Apostelkirche 227-239.
presence of paved roads and monumental basilicas. Where the villages gained their
inspiration to construct tetrapyla is not clear. A tetrapylon has been discovered at the outskirts
of Korykos (Kızkalesi), just next to the Transept Basilica or Church G 34. However, the date of
this monument is not known. Although the alignment and building style of both buildings led
to the assumption that they were contemporary, as demonstrated by the stratigraphic
information from the illegally dug trenches at the northern tetrapylon of Karakabaklı, only
excavations can clarify the chronological relationship between tetrapyla and their
surroundings. It is tempting to connect the tetrapylon to the construction of the church35, but
the reverse relationship, whereby the church building was aligned with an existing monument
should not be excluded.
Moreover, it also remains unclear why rural settlements developed a desire to
integrate ‘urban characteristics’. Varinlioǧlu has carefully suggested a connection between
Isaurian builders attested in Constantinople, Syria and Palestine in the sixth century and the
architecture of the Isaurian villages she studied36. Though this may explain some of the later
developments, it does not account for the appearance of tetrapyla and paved streets already
a century earlier. The connection between Karakabaklı and Ișikkale and Korasion no doubt
played a vital part in this story37, but we remain in the dark about the details.
In any case, these settlements nicely illustrate how some villages could now be keen
to express monumentality to visitors and how they became interested in planning and display.
They demonstrate how an architectural rhetoric of power that had been confined to urban
contexts before the end of the fourth century, penetrated the countryside in late antique
centuries. We see tetrapyla and monumental arches appearing in village communities, but
also connected to imperial domains, like that at Bab el-Hawa in northern Syria. Here as well,
an arch, this time of sixth-century date, was located on the road connecting Antioch to
Beroia38. More frequently, this rhetoric of power was utilised in Christian pilgrimage
sanctuaries from the fifth century onwards, for instance at Qal’aat Sim’an in North Syria,
where pilgrims passed under a free-standing triumphal arch as well as an arched gate39. In
addition, although the exact lay-out and components of the cult centre of Saint Thecla at
Meriamlik are not well-known, considering the apparently rich architectural tradition of the
area around Seleukia, the presence of an arch at the border of the pilgrimage site and/or a
tetrapylon would not be surprising40.

34
Herzfeld / Guyer, Meriamlik 110.
35
As argued in Jacobs, goals 107.
36
Varinlioğlu, Environment 309.
37
Varinlioğlu, Habitat 204.
38
Varinlioğlu, Landscape 56. The suggestion that this arch was connected to the imperial domain was made by
Tchalenko, Villages 114-117.
39
Jacobs, Goals, discusses several examples of ecclesiastical tetrapyla and arches in urban and rural contexts.
40
This was suggested by Varinlioğlu (Landscape 26-27) as well. Meriamlik is located c. 2 km south of Seleukia. Its
actual remains are badly known as the only excavations took place in 1907 (Guyer / Herzfeld, Meriamlik) and
further research was limited to surveys of the extant ruins. See Hild / Hellenkemper, Kilikien 442-443. –
Hellenkemper, Wallfahrtsstätten 263-264. – Hill, Churches, 208-214. – Donev, St. Thecla 121-178 for an overview.
Villages, towns or cities?

Arches and tetrapyla nevertheless remain rather remarkable monuments that have not been
found in village contexts outside the provinces of southwest Turkey. It is worthwhile to give a
cursory glance at other amenities that these villages were acquiring in late antique and early
Byzantine times, amenities that we again are much more acquainted with in urban contexts.
For instance, Ișikkale, besides as a tetrapylon, paved streets and a monumental basilica, also
possessed a more or less rectangular open space that could be used for gatherings and public
events41. The village known only by the modern name of Manastır at the Cilician coast, was
given a bath building in Late Antiquity, an amenity well known from larger rural settlements
in North Syria42. John Chrysostom mentions that landowners of the area around Antioch
erected baths in villages, of course, much to his disgust43. Korasion, the port that shipped the
products of Rough Cilicia, was equipped with a bath and aqueduct, but was also given
fortifications in the third quarter of the fourth century. The locality never became an official
polis, and no bishop is known from the later centuries of Antiquity, but the amenities of the
settlement, and especially its fortification wall again are reminiscent of urban environments
more so than of a village44. Indeed, most cities and towns of Asia Minor, large and small, were
given fortifications in the second half of the fourth century and around the year 400 45.
The size of some of these settlements, which were not really cities or towns, but not
ordinary villages either, could be very impressive. G. Dagron referred to them as ‘bourgade’,
whereas A. Walmsley more recently used the term ‘super-village’46. For instance, Androna, or
El-Andarin, in northwest Syria was characterised as an ordinary kōmē by a mosaic inscription
of the fifth or sixth century. Nevertheless, the settlement covered a surface of 160 hectares,
possessed two fortification walls, eleven churches, a kastron and a public bath47. In the Negev,
the large villages of the Byzantine period overall are somewhat smaller, but still stretched over
many hectares. Yet, they were called villages in local archival documents. The Nessana papyri

41
Varinlioğlu, environment, 300; Varinlioğlu, Landscape 55.
42
If we move further south, some of the settlements in the northern Limestone massif in Syria were endowed
with bath buildings. Of the six establishments known, only one in Brad is third-century in date, the others were
erected in the Byzantine period. The larger establishments, encompassing stables and hostelries to
accommodate visitors, are unsurprisingly located in places of some importance - administrative centres (Sergilla
and Brad) or farming centres (Babisqa) or regional centres (Mujleyya and Northern Dana). They obviously
functioned as meeting places attracting people from afar. They were donated by generous philanthropists or by
the rural community for the welfare of everybody. On the mosaic paving of the Sergilla baths, a Greek inscription
announces the names of those who gave generously: Iulianus and his wife, Domiia, who offered the thermal
baths to the village in the year 473 (Tchalenko, Églises 27; Peña, Syria 191-192).
43
Ioh. Chrys., In Acta Apostolorum Hom. 18.
44
For a description of the remains at Korasion, see Keil / Wilhelm, Denkmäler, 102-117. – Hild and Hellenkemper,
Kilikien 311-312, fig. 241-244.
45
Jacobs, city 117-125.
46
Dagron (bourgade 29) distinguished these settlements based on their number of inhabitants, between 1,000
and 5,000, a more specialized or diversified economy than that of a mere village, and a strong social cohesion.
Walmsley, Development 516. Walmsley discusses examples from Jordan and Palestine. Varinlioğlu, Landscape
40 for North Syrian examples.
47
Mundell Mango, Androna 307. The results of the German expedition have recently been published in full, see
Strube, Al Andarin.
for instance again refer to Nessana as a village (kōmē), belonging to the district of the city
Elusa, even though it spread over 10 hectares48. Nevertheless, an inscription found in the
street pavement near Ișıkkale mentions a komopolis. This term could apparently be used to
indicate a settlement with characteristics of both a kōmē and a polis. Considering its find
location and the amenities with which Korasion had been provided, it most likely referred to
this site and not to one of the nearby smaller villages 49.
In regions where material remains are not as well preserved as well, very large village
settlements characterise Late Antiquity. If we return to the Milesia, the area around Miletus,
the settlement in which the church of ‘Ajos Pandelmonas’ as well as one additional church
was located, cannot easily be defined as either a village or a town. The spread of sixth-century
ceramics would here suggest again that this was a very sizeable settlement indeed 50.

Epigraphy and mosaics in the seventh and eighth century Near East

In the last section of this paper, I would like to review the use of epigraphy and mosaics in the
villages of Jordan51. Epigraphy, similar to tetrapyla and arches, generally is considered a
typically urban phenomenon52. If we linger in the region of Isauria for another moment,
inscriptions rarely turn up outside the cities, with just a few of them found in the port of
Korasion and none in the villages53. The spread of inscriptions in rural contexts again can be
linked to the spread of churches and monasteries into the countryside. To my knowledge, the
spread of mosaics in urban and rural communities has not explicitly been discussed, but before
churches were constructed in the countryside, the amount of mosaic decoration outside of
urban centres seemingly was a lot smaller as well, confined to rural villas and ‘palaces’.
One of the mosaics that often features in regional overviews of the provinces of
Palestine and Arabia is a panel found in a church near Khirbet Kissifum, a settlement located
in the Negev to the south of Gaza54. It depicts two women, both of them elegantly attired and
richly embellished with jewellery, including earrings, bracelets, a diadem and a necklace. The
younger woman is strewing coins, in an exceptionally prominent gesture reminiscent of the
liberalitas shown on consular diptychs. The second woman, of a more advanced age, is holding
a platter in both hands with an unidentified creature on it, probably a bird of some kind. A
Greek inscription, KAΛΗ WΡΑ Η ΚΥΡΑ CΙΛΘΟΥC, is added to the light background above the
two figures. There has been quite some discussion about the exact meaning of the inscription,
with two camps, one interpreting ‘Kali Ora’ as a nominative form and a name; the other as a

48
Hirschfeld, Farms 38.
49
Dagron / Callot, bâtisseurs 61-62. – Varinlioğlu, Environment 298. – Eichner, Wohnhäuser 285-286. Eichner,
Wohnhäuser 285 discusses the use of the word komopolis in Strabo 12.2.6 and Malalas 13.39.13-14.
50
Lohmann, Survey 1994 304-305 300 fig. 18.
51
A more extended version of the epigraphic habit in villages of Palestine and Arabia can be found in Jacobs,
churches.
52
For late antique and Byzantine epigraphy as an urban phenomenon, see Destephen, ‘Byzantinization’.
53
Keil / Wilhelm, Denkmäler, 108-117 for Korasion.
54
Cohen, Kissufim 254-256 for a report of the original discovery. – Cohen, Church.
dative form that must be translated as meaning a greeting, that is, ‘in good time’55. So the
inscription would be ‘In good time (or on this happy occasion), the Lady Silthous’. The second
woman might be a servant or a family member – her identity remains unclear.
The site where the mosaic to which this panel belonged was found, was not a city but
a village, as there were so many in the provinces of Palestine and Arabia. The countryside,
which had been expanding already from the fourth century onward56, experienced a true
boom in activity, village construction and extension from the sixth century onwards.
Construction of churches in the countryside reached its zenith in the second half of the sixth
century but continued into the Umayyad period57. A shift from urban to rural sites already in
the second half of the sixth century but certainly by the end of the sixth and in the seventh
century is visible from north to south in the provinces of Arabia and the three Palestines58. In
urban contexts, building activity seemingly had reached its peak already in the early sixth
century, with a few exceptions. Urban inscriptions datable to the seventh century are very
limited59. In the Negev, some of the urban settlements – Avdat and Mamphis – had
disappeared in the seventh century, the city of Beer-sheba in the northern Negev seems to
show decline as well, whereas the fate of Elusa is ill-understood. Conversely, it is clear that
villages like Nessana, Shivta and Rehovot flourished in the sixth and seventh century, all of
them covering surfaces of about ten hectares60. Shivta’s churches were extended and
renovated. A chapel was added to the south of the North Basilica in the year 60761; the south
church has preserved an inscription commemorating a new paving of the church under Bishop
George and the Archdeacon and economus Peter in the year 64062. Further to the north, in
the Hauran, a similar evolution was taking place. To name but one example, Khirbet al-Samra,
a village belonging to the rural territory of Bosra, was given eight churches in total, most of
them built around the 630s63. The increase in epigraphy and churches in villages of both the

55
E.g., Cohen (Church 279) Israeli / Mevorah (Cradle 86-87) and Habas (Donations 83) consider Kaliora to be a
name – though note that Habas confuses her with Silthous. Ovadiah / Mucznik (Kissufim 275-276) argue for the
second option.
56
Hirschfeld, expansion.
57
Cohen Kissufum, 256 for the region immediately around Kissufim. For churches built in the broader region, see
Michel, églises.
58
Di Segni, Documentation 165. – Hirschfeld, Farms. – Hamarneh, Topografia 55-62. – Walmsley, village 517. –
Walmsley, Development 337-339. – Hamarneh, Continuity with examples. Leah Di Segni has studied how many
buildings were constructed per year in these provinces and has thus shown that the highest rate of construction
was reached during the reign of Phocas (Di Segni, Documentation 158-78). The construction rates between the
reign of Anastasius and the Abbasids is presented in graph form in Walmsley, village 517 fig. 5; Walmsley,
Development 338 fig. 14.
59
Di Segni, Documentation List I (Dedicatory inscriptions of sacred and public buildings in Israel (Southern
Phoenicia, Palaestine I, II and III West of the Jordan) and List II (Dedicatory inscriptions of sacred and public
buildings in Jordan and Southern Syria (Provincia Arabia, Eastern Palaestina).
60
Hirschfeld, Farms 39.
61
Rosenthal-Heginbottom, Kirchen 97-98. The church had a very rich epigraphic record. Besides the building
inscription, the church further contained 14 epitaphs, commemorating 18 deceased between 505 and 679, nine
of which post-dated the Arab conquest, two building inscriptions and some further fragments (Rosenthal-
Heginbottom, Kirchen 93-96).
62
Rosenthal-Heginbottom, Kirchen 103.
63
Walmsley, village 517.
Hauran and Negev seems to attest to a parallel growth of the entire settlement, as the
buildings are evenly spread on the settlement plan64.
Not only was the number of village churches increasing rapidly, but also monasteries
expanded around the second half of the sixth century and continued to profit from patronage
during the seventh century and later. They were built in the environs of major centres, or,
more often, in the proximity of large and medium sized rural settlements and in some cases
perfectly integrated into their fringes65. In addition, Basema Hamarneh has drawn attention
to the fact that, together with the growing size of villages and the amount of village churches,
the ecclesiastical positions in the countryside also gained some importance66. Many of the
inscriptions in the region under discussion – in urban churches, village churches and
monasteries – refer to the bishop of the urban diocese that the church was located in. This
suggests that building policy was at least sanctioned by the bishop. In the sixth century, there
is little evidence for initiatives unconnected to the urban centre or initiatives of sole monastic
communities. However, in the seventh century, more reference is being made to the ufficium
of chore bishop and periodeutes. There are already several references to both functionaries
in the Petra papyri, and they start appearing in dated inscriptions from around the year 600
onwards67. Moreover, the fact that some of the larger villages were given baptisteries in the
seventh century (or in Cilicia already in the sixth century), and especially after 635, suggests
that they were becoming more and more religiously autonomous from urban centres 68.
Up until now, I have not commented on who was responsible for this architectural and
epigraphic blurring of boundaries. This remains a difficult matter, closely connected to the
social composition of these villages69. The content of the associated inscriptions gives us some
indications, as Hamarneh demonstrates in her article in this volume, but also the material
remains themselves suggest that various inhabitants of the countryside were adopting
practices previously confined to urban contexts70.
It is often assumed that the churches just discussed were the result of the patronage
of wealthy landowners. The influence of such landowners on the villages of the eastern
Mediterranean is based on literary evidence such as the passage of John Chrysostom
mentioned above, in which he refers to the involvement of landowners in villages around
Antioch, and, for the more southern regions, the papyri from Petra. They show how the land
assets of a family living in Petra and Gaza were dispersed over numerous villages and were
normally leased out on a contractual basis71. If we assume that the cities were contracting by

64
Walmsley, village 517 for Khirbet el-Samra.
65
Hamarneh, Monasteries 291-293.
66
Hamarneh, Evergetismo 60-62. – Hamarneh, Monasteries 277.
67
Hamarneh, Continuity 65. Kaplan, villageois 80-81 on chore bishops in fourth-century Asia Minor.
68
Hamarneh, Continuity 65 lists baptisteries at Umm ar-Rasas, Hayyan al-Mushayrif, Rihab, Khirbat al-MaqatI',
Dhiban, Ma'm, ad-Dayr and Khirbat Hujayjah.
69
For an overview of literary sources on this matter, see Dagron, bourgade; Kaplan, hommes Chapter 4; Kaplan,
villageois.
70
I have explored this topic at greater length in Jacobs, churches.
71
Gatier, villages 113. For Petra, see Fiema, Petra 226. Papyrological evidence from Egypt likewise suggests
increased interaction between city and village, for instance with villagers leasing land from urban residents who
owned land in the village and with villagers supplying the cities with agricultural products through local markets
the later sixth century, it would not be inconceivable that members of a rich land-owning elite
had taken up permanent residence in the countryside72. However, recognising where these
owners physically stayed has so far proven largely impossible. There is very little evidence for
the presence of an aristocracy in the aforementioned villages. Most of the houses were used
for lodging an extended family and as the centre of agricultural exploitation. At Shivta, the
architecture of the 170 or so houses identified generally suggest equality, with only one house
standing out: ‘House 2’73. It was double the size of the others, possessed 14 rooms
surrounding a spacious courtyard and it was physically connected to ‘Building 1’ which seemed
to have served some communal function and may have been connected to a nearby wine-
press74. Varinlioğlu was able to distinguish a few ‘wealthier’ buildings at Karakabaklı as well,
based on their size, their advantageous settings and additional architectural decoration75. Are
we then to assume that the people who paid for church mosaics and furniture lived in such
residences? Or is it more likely that multiple members of society contributed?
Let’s take another look at the Kissufim pavement. The ‘Lady Silthous’ to the right of
the panel has been called an aristocratic lady76. This characterisation assumingly is based on
the combination of the title kyra, the action of distributing coins and her wealthy attire. Based
on her action of strewing coins, it has even been suggested that she donated the finances for
the entire mosaic pavement of the church77. The female donors appearing in the mosaics of
the Roman Near East typically look their best78, but equating jewellery with elite status may
not be very sound. It is worth repeating L. Dossey’s observation that, on the mosaics of North-
Africa, from the fourth century onwards, peasants and servants are wearing tailored, colourful
clothes and are depicted with jewellery79. Indeed, church donations of the later sixth to eighth
centuries were not necessarily made by people living in exceptional houses or with a status
far above that of a well-off farmer or trader.
Admittedly, there is only one very explicit reference to a merchant in an inscription
from the region, dating as late as 776. In a room to the south of the basilica in the monastic
complex of Mar Liyas in the diocese of Pella, the text mentioned Esion, priest and abbot, as
well as the benefaction of John the pulse merchant and his family80. A further indication of
the contribution of non-aristocratic members of society though is provided by the subject of
the panel located to the east of the Lady Silthous in the church at Kissufim. It depicts a man
leading a camel laden with Gaza amphorae and baskets, accompanied by the word ‘Orbikon’.

and obtaining short-term financing (Bagnall, Village 556). Hamarneh, Continuity 62 with further pertinent literary
passages and references.
72
Hamarneh, Continuity 62.
73
Hirschfeld, Shivta 403-407. Similarly, the stone-built sixth-century houses in the villages in North Syria all were
of more or less the same dimensions and quality (Tate, Prospérité 95-96. – Gatier, villages 111).
74
Hirschfeld, Shivta 407.
75
Varinlioğlu, Habitat 299.
76
For instance, Di Segni, Gaza 47-48 note 30 calls her ‘a gentlewoman’ and refers to her as belonging to an
‘aristocratic family’.
77
Ovadiah / Mucznik, Kissufim 275.
78
Further examples in Hunt, mosaics 120. – Habas, Donations. – Hachlili, Pavements 238-239.
79
Dossey, Peasant Chapter 3.
80
Hamarneh Monasteries 280.
The exact meaning of this label again is contested, but, based on other parallel depictions, it
is very likely a personal name81. Orbikon can be taken as a representative of a very lucrative
profession in the sixth and also seventh century, that of the owner of a camel caravan, or,
more specifically, wine trader. The presence of wealthy wine merchants in Kissufum would
not be surprising, considering that the village was located in a wine producing region, 15 km
from the export port of Gaza82.
Finally, it may also be useful to stop to think about how much a donor would have
spent on a mosaic pavement, even though this is extremely difficult. Suffice it to say that, if
the Lady Silthous (with or without her companion) had donated only the amount needed to
create her own panel, she would not have spent an enormous amount of money. According
to the information gathered by Baumann in his Spätantike Stifter im Heiligen Land, a smaller
surface of mosaic would have cost between 0.25 and three solidi83. It would therefore seem
that such mosaic panels were within the reach of broader layers of society, not just the elite.
This is confirmed by a different category of church donations on which one could be
commemorated for all eternity: that of church silver. The items belonging to the treasure of
Kaper Koraon were donated to the village on the plain of Chalcis, to its Church of St. Sergios,
between 540 and 640 or somewhat later84. As calculated by Marlia Mango, most items in the
reconstructed Kaper Koraon treasure, though impressive to look at, had only a low monetary
value as the silver was worked very thin85. The most expensive object, the Antioch cross
revetment, weighed eighteen pounds, good for seventy-two solidi (no. 35), but a silver spoon
(no.19) would have cost about half a solidus, a chalice (no. 57-59) four solidi 86, more or less
comparable to that of a mosaic panel. Since most of the items of the Kaper Koraon treasure
were inscribed, about 50 individuals making at least one donation of silver are known, only
four of which had a title added to their name87. As opposed to the slightly earlier Sion treasure,
more than a third of which was donated to an important and upcoming pilgrimage centre by
a bishop Eutychianos, bishops play a minor role in donations in the village of Kaper Koraon88.
Only one donor was an archbishop. The cursus honorum of a certain Megas can be followed
on several of the objects of the treasure (with titles as ‘most glorious ex-consul’ and
‘patrician’). A third donor with titles was a tribune and argyroprates. The fourth was probably
a magistrianos, working under the Master of Office as an agens in rebus. All other donors did
not carry titles. As they did have their family relationships mentioned in the texts on the
objects, it has been possible to reconstruct that most of them came from four or five families,

81
Ovadiah / Mucznik (Kissufim 276). This is contested by Di Segni, Gaza 48, note 30.
82
McCormick, Movements 71-72, fig. 3.6.
83
Baumann, Stifter 303-307.
84
The treasure is presented and discussed in Mundell Mango, Silver.
85
Mundell Mango, Silver 11. Mundell Mango, Value, on the monetary value of silver objects and furnishing from
the entire Late Roman and Early Byzantine Empire.
86
Mundell Mango, Silver 11-13.
87
Mundell Mango, Silver 8-11.
88
Bishop Eutychianos donated about one third of the treasure. Among the other donors, there were two and
possibly three more bishops, one priest, two deacons and one reader as well as secular members of the society,
one of which bore the title of lamprotata. A second lay donor may have been a clarissimus. See Boyd, Treasure
8-14 and Appendix 1; Ševčenko, Treasure 46-49, Appendix for the donors of the Sion treasure.
each of which for some three generations donated to the church. They may very well have
been middle class merchants or artisans89.

Summary

In summary, in imperial times, large communal buildings, architectural decoration as well as

inscriptions were urban features that hardly appeared outside of the city-context. Cities and
villages were thus easy to distinguish based on their architecture. This changed in late antique
and Byzantine times, changes which can often, though not always, be connected to the
growing rural presence of the Church. In the fifth and sixth centuries, stone cutters working in
Asia Minor must have mainly earned a living by working for projects in the countryside.
Already in the early fifth century and continuing in the sixth, villages along the south coast of
Asia Minor, in Syria, the provinces of Arabia and the three Palestines, started to take on more
characteristics that we would normally call ‘urban’. Among these was the appearance of
monuments such as bath houses and fortifications, and, at least in southeast Turkey, honorific
arches and tetrapyla. Eventually, an extensive epigraphic record was no longer the prerogative
of urban settlements. This evolution was stopped prematurely in the provinces more to the
north, whereas in the south it continued without being interrupted by the Islamic conquest.
Here, villages of the seventh and also eighth centuries apparently had inhabitants that
continued the epigraphic tradition even though town-dwellers no longer did.
The people responsible for the flourishing of these settlements as well as for the
continued investments in church decoration and epigraphy cannot simply be equated with an
upper class. By contrast, it would seem that part of the donations can be connected to affluent
‘middle class’ donors and donor families making use of the same means of expressions known
– to them and us – from urban contexts.

Dr. Ine Jacobs

Stavros Niarchos Foundation Associate Professor of Byzantine Archaeology and Visual Culture
The Ioannou Centre for Classical and Byzantine Studies
Oxford University
66, St. Giles'
Oxford OX1 3LU
United Kingdom
[email protected]

89
Mundell Mango, Silver 10. Similarly, Fourlas in a forthcoming article discusses a silver hoard currently at
Karlsruhe, possibly discovered in the Biqā valley in Lebanon, that included a censer and a spoon donated to an
unknown sanctuary by Frankish soldiers in the Roman East.
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