GRAFFITO WITH A “TRIPHORIUM” FROM PTOLEMAIS

ELISABETH JASTRZĘBOWSKA UDK: 72.04University of Warsaw (612) “652“PL - Warsawa, Krakowskie Przedmieście 26/28 Izvorni znanstveni članak Primljeno: 2. VIII. 2010.

The graffi to on a block of limestone in the so-called House of the Triapsi-dal Hall in Ptolemais possibly belongs to the last phase of its existence (the 5th - 6th centuries). The comparison of that representation with two mosaics from the 5th century is especially interesting from the iconographical point of view. The representation of such a kind of “triphorium” was in Late Antiquity a com-mon form of architectural framing for places intended as offi cial audience halls and imperial imagery. The purpose had been to emphasize important elements of the building for instance the frame for a dedicatory inscription in front of an altar in the chapel of the presbyter John in Khirbet-el-Mukhayyat on the mountain of Nebo from the middle of the 6th century. Crosses, hanging from single arcades with the specifi c meaning, are common ornamental motifs, both in architecture and in objects from the 5th and 6th century. The best analogy to the Ptolemais graffi to represents another mosaic image from the 6th century baptistery adjacent to the basilica at Skhira (now at the museum in Sfax).

It is to Emilio Marin, my good friend from Rome and a master of sculp-ture ‒ Roman sculpture as well as, on equal terms, pagan sculpture from the early days of the Roman Empire and Christian from Late Antiquity ‒ I wish to dedicate my modest contribution.

The graffi to is simple, but extremely interesting. It appears on a loose block of limestone that was found on the other side of the Mediterranean, south of and almost directly opposite Split in Dalmatia. The site is Ptole-mais, a city on the coast in the Roman Cyrenaica (eastern Libya). The block with the graffi to (fi g. 1) stands abandoned in the ruins of one of the Roman private houses, the so-called House of the Triapsidal Hall (or

627627

Kačić, Split, 2009.-2011., 41-43

628

House T)1, which occupies a plot in the northeastern corner of the main street intersection where a Late Antique tetrastylon rises in the middle2.

As a matter of fact, British archaeologists who excavated the building in the 1970s found two loose blocks of limestone carved with crosses3. There was also a small rough graffi to representing a cross in a circle, set on a threshold in the house; this is in principle the only one that defi nite-ly belongs to the house4. There is no record of when and how the two loose blocks were found, not to mention where exactly inside the house. A smaller, square stone block with a graffi to in the form of a Maltese cross inscribed in a circle, was still there four years ago, but is now lost5. The bigger rectangular block ― which is of interest to us here ― was fi rst seen in the House of the Triapsidal Hall by Susan Alix already in 1969 and was noted again by other English visitors in the 1990s6. It certainly merits atten-tion before it disappears like the other lock, or the decoration vanishes as it is becoming fainter by the year.

There are no indications regarding the date of the two limestone blocks. As a matter of fact, this large and luxurious peristyle house, which had several distinct periods of use stretching from Early to Late Empire, is vaguely described as being “to date, the richest late Roman house to have been excavated at Ptolemais”, of which “the rebuilding and occu-pation occurred within the Byzantine period”7. According to Eleonora

1. J. B. WARD-PERKINS, R. G. GOODCHILD, Christian Monuments of Cyrenaica, ed. J. Reynolds, 2003, 194, fi g. 148, 197; E. JASTRZĘBOWSKA, The cross motif on stone objects from Ptolemais in Cyrenaica, Archeologia, 58, 2007 [2009], 99, pl. XIII/4; EADEM, Le basiliche cristiane sconosciute nel centro città di Tolemaide, in: Archeologia a Tolemaide. Giornate di studio in occasione del primo anniversario della morte di Toma-sz Mikocki, Roma 27-28. 05. 2008, Roma 2009, 236, fi g. 11.

2. C. H. KRAELING, Ptolemais, City of the Libyan Pentapolis, Chicago 1962, 81-83; S. STUCCHI, Architettura Cirenaica, in: Monografi e di Archeologia Libica 9, Roma 1975, 446-447; P. PENSABENE, Tradizioni orientali nel Tetrastilo a Tolemaide, in: Ar-cheologia a Tolemaide, op. cit., 187-201.

3. J. B. WARD-PERKINS, J. H. LITTLE, D. J. MATTINGLY, Town houses at Ptole-mais, Cyrenaica: summary of survey and excavation work in 1971, 1978-1979, Libyan Studies, 17, 1986, 126-143.

4. WARD-PERKINS, GOODCHILD, op. cit., fi g. 149; JASTRZĘBOWSKA, The cross, op. cit., 99, pl. XIV/1.

5. Ibidem, fi g. 150 (as a round block?); JASTRZĘBOWSKA, The cross, op. cit., 99, pl. XIII/ 5, 6; EADEM, Le basiliche, op. cit., 237, fi g. 12.

6. WARD-PERKINS, GOODCHILD, op. cit., 197.7. WARD-PERKINS, LITTLE, MATTINGLY, op. cit., 143, 149; the vagueness of

the dating is due to the fact that the pottery and coins from the house have not been ex-amined yet.

E. Jastrzębowska, Grafit s »Triphorium« iz Ptolemaide

629

Gasparini’s recent research on the Late Antique domestic architecture of Ptolemais, the most substantial rebuilding of the Triapsidal Hall occurred after the famed earthquake of 365 that caused widespread devastation in all of Cyrenaica8. In any case, it seems probable that the House of the Tri-apsidal Hall fl ourished again in the 5th century even as Ptolemais became a province capital and the tetrastylon mentioned above was built in the neighboring street intersection9.

The large block of limestone in question (ca. 80 x 40 x 40 cm) presently lies near the house entrance, to the east of the threshold and to the west of the remains of a presumably small workshop of the stonecutter10. The carving on one of its bigger surfaces (which now faces east) shows four columns under an arch in the middle and steeply pitched gables on either side (fi g. 2). Crosses hang from each of the three apexes. The shafts of the four columns are fl at and devoid of decoration and the bases and capitals are evident, but providing no further information on the possible architec-tural order. Of the three hanging crosses, the left one is hardly visible, but the other two appear to be more Latin than Greek in type. The ends of the arms are slightly widened. Overall, it can be said, the design is simple and fl at. From a technical point of view, the carving can be compared to a graf-fi to of a menorah on a limestone block, which was reused in the apse of a 6th century Basilica in the faraway Chersonesos in Crimea11. As for the iconography of the block from Ptolemais, Joyce Reynolds wanted to see it

8. E. GASPARINI, Edilizia domestica e autorappresentazione a Tolemaide nel perio-do tardoantico, in: Archeologia a Tolemaide, op. cit., 159.

9. PENSABENE, op. cit., 193. 10. E. JASTRZĘBOWSKA, La Bottega del tagliapietre a Tolemaide, Archeologia

Classica, 60, n.s. 10, 2009, 421-431.11. E. JASTRZĘBOWSKA, Kościół na synagodze w Chersonezie Taurydzki?, in: Po-

granicza Chrześcijaństwa, Akta konferencji naukowej, 11-13. 05. 2010, Kraków (in print).

1-2. Graffi to on the block of limestone in Ptolemais

Kačić, Split, 2009.-2011., 41-43

630

as an “incised façade” that could indicate “even an ecclesiastical function for the house”12. It could also be a simplifi ed representation of a church interior in section. In any case, it is certainly Christian in its provenance and considered in conjunction with the other mentioned examples of archi-tectural decoration from the house of the Triapsidal Hall, it testifi es to the possible Christian presence in this spot. It is also possible that this incised block was made in the neighbouring workshop of the stonecutter for some client from the outside of the house13. However, due to the lack of techni-cal quality it would have stayed in the workshop, perhaps it was only an exercise in stone cutting.

The diffi culty in interpreting the graffi to from Ptolemais is that, to my knowledge, there are no exact parallels for a representation of this kind carved on stone. Many mosaic images of church façades as well as inte-riors exist (the latter rare)14, but the church façades pictured on mosaics from North Africa (mainly the Roman province of Africa Proconsularis (modern northern Tunisia) and the eastern provinces of Syria and Arabia (modern Jordan) are not satisfactory as analogies. They do not present any distinct architecture with four columns in the façade and three intercolum-nar spaces topped by arches or triangular forms. The mosaic, dated 442 AD from the nave of the basilica of Saints Martyrs at Tayyibat al-Imam near Hama in Syria, bears a representation of a church façade with four col-umns and fi ve arcaded intercolumnia (with hanging curtains and lamps), but it clearly seems to be a view of the entrance to a fi ve-aisled basilica and hence unsuitable as a parallel in this case15. The only mosaic images with a building representation that could be taken into consideration are two well known examples from the 5th century: the palace of Theodoric from the nave of the San Apollinare Nuovo basilica in Ravenna16, and a

12. WARD-PERKINS, GOODCHILD, op. cit., 194, fi g. 148.13. E. JASTRZĘBOWSKA, La bottega, op. cit., 428-430.14. N. DUVAL, Représentations d’églises sur mosaïques, La Revue du Louvre, 22/6,

1972, 441-448; M. PICCIRILLO, Mosaïques byzantines de Jordanie, Musée de la Civili-sation Gallo-Romaine de Lyon. Février - Mai 1989, Korneuburg 1989, 248-254.

15. A. ZAQZUG, Nuovi mosaici pavimentali nella regione di Hama, in: Arte pro-fana e arte sacra a Bisanzio, “Milion” III, 1995, 239, fi g. 15; R. WISSKIRCHEN, Der Adler auf dem Paradiesberg. Zum Bodenmosaik im Ostteil der Kirche der Heiligen Mär-tyrer in Tayibat Al-Imam/Hama (Syrien), Jahrbuch für Antike und Christentum, 48/49, 2005/2006, 154-156, fi g. 1; M. PICCIRILLO, Il mosaico della chiesa dei Santi Martiri nel villaggio di Tayyibat al-Imam - Ham (Siria) 442 D.C., in: Mosaici Mediterranei, a cura di M. C. Lentini, Caltanissetta 2009, 25, fi g. 7.

16. F. W. DEICHMANN, Frühchristliche Bauten und Mosaiken von Ravenna. Ravenna Hauptstadt des spätantiken Abendlandes, Wiesbaden 1995, pl. 108.

E. Jastrzębowska, Grafit s »Triphorium« iz Ptolemaide

631

veritable model of a North African basilica captioned as Ecclesia Mater on an epitaph of one Valentia from Tabarka (Africa Proconsularis), today in the Bardo Museum in Tunis17.

In the former case, there is a kind of propylon which appears distinctly in the center of the porticoed façade of the palace. There are four columns with plain shafts, ornamental bases and Corinthian capitals, topped by an empty pediment with the inscription “PALATIUM” in it. The three arcaded intercolumnia are all of the same height, but the central one is just a lit-tle wider. All of the openings have hanging curtains that are partly open; researchers agree that the ornamental curtains were introduced to replace the fi gures of Theodoric and his family or court members which had been imaged there previously18. Therefore this is the representation of the main entrance to the palace of the Ostrogothic king whose portrait on horseback may have stood in the pediment of the portico still in the early 6th century, but was removed from the mosaic, like the fi gures from the intercolumnar spaces, probably after the Byzantines’ defeat of the Ostrogoths in 540 AD.

As for the funerary mosaic from Tabarca, we are dealing with a fairly complicated view of a three-aisled basilica shown from all possible per-spectives at the same time (fi g. 3). At the top there is the tiled roof of the church seen from the outside and in profi le, combined with a fragment of the outer wall of the nave pierced by six windows. The left end of the roof breaks off suddenly at about one-third of the length, while the right mar-gin connects with an outside, frontal view of a triangular pediment from the façade. This element is not continued except for a curtained door at the right edge. The epitaph: ECCLESIA MATER VALENTIA IN PACE, is found below the wall with the windows. The bottom left corner of the pediment is supported on one of the inside columns of the building which from this point on is shown from the inside. There are two rows of stand-ing columns (seven in each row) dividing the basilica into three aisles. The columns of the back row are seen in their entirety (with bases and capitals); those of the front row have been cut off in the middle, but preserving the bottom parts. Between the two sections one sees a fl oor mosaic in top view, decorated with a pattern of birds and fl owers. A high altar with a screen

17. J. B. WARD-PERKINS, R. D. GOODCHILD, Christian Antiquities or Tripolita-nia, Oxford 1953, 57-58, fi g. 28; DUVAL, op. cit., 442, fi g. 1; E. JASTRZĘBOWSKA, Ecclesia Mater, idea i jej odwzorowanie w mozaice z V w., Meander, 29/2, 1974, 83-90; N. DUVAL, La mosaïque Funéraire dans l’Art Paléochrétien, Ravenna 1976, 60, fi g. 30; M. YACOUB, Le Musée du Bardo, Tunis 1994, 40, fi g. 33.

18. F. W. DEICHMANN, Ravenna Hauptstadt des spätantiken Abendlandes, vol. I, Wiesbaden 1969, 175, 304.

Kačić, Split, 2009.-2011., 41-43

632

and three lighted candles is shown between the fi fth and sixth column of the back row. The last column in the back row supports the right edge of the arch over the passage from the nave to the apse with its elevated fl oor. It is this frontal representation of a tripartite passage with four columns (furnished with bases and capitals) and three arcaded intercolumnia that constitutes the nearest, although not direct parallel for the graffi to from Ptolemais. In this case, however, all the intercolumnia are arcaded and there is no sign of any hanging crosses. The artists carving this relief had obviously believed the image of a cross to be superfl uous, since the detailed representation of all the essential elements of a church and its furnishings. It was practically a symbol, according to the accompanying inscription, of the Mother Church and hence also of Christ.

In both of these parallels described above we are dealing with represen-tations of the most important elements of palatial and church architecture:

3. Mosaic epitaph of Valentia from Tabarca, Museum Bardo, Tunis(sketch Ward-Perkins, Goodchild, op. cit., fi g. 28)

E. Jastrzębowska, Grafit s »Triphorium« iz Ptolemaide

633

the palace entrance in one case, and the passage from the altar to the apse reserved for the clergy in the other. This type of “triphorium”, topped by the so-called Syrian frieze with a central arcade that is wider and higher than the lateral ones under an architrave, was in Late Antiquity a com-mon form of architectural framing for places intended as offi cial audi-ence halls and imperial imagery. Archaeological examples of such archi-tectural solutions are abound, e. g. the arrangement of the atrium of the palace of Diocletian in Split from the early 4th century. Iconographical images are equally frequent, e. g. the decoration of the silver Missorium of Theodosius I from Madrid from the end of the 4th century19. Depic-tions of this kind must have been quite common throughout the Roman Empire ― indeed many more than have actually survived ― and there is no point in citing them all here. In the 5th and 6th century, monumen-tal “triphoria” of this kind appeared in mosaic fl oor decoration inside churches, their purpose being to underline elements of the building that were of importance, for instance, as a frame for a dedicatory inscription in front of an altar. A good example of this is a fl oor mosaic from the chapel of the presbyter John in Khirbet-el-Mukhayyat on the mountain of Nebo (in Jordan) from the middle of the 6th century20. A monumental and decorative „triphorium”, composed of four massive columns and an ornamental pediment with Syrian frieze, constitutes the frame for a dedi-cation and two lighted candelabra. The image is found at the eastern end of the nave, just in front of the altar screen.

Another representation of a monumental “triphorium” or a façade of a building with four columns on a mosaic from the times of Justinian is found in the neighborhood of Ptolemais, that is, in the Eastern Basilica in Gasr el-Libia in Cyrenaica (fi g. 4)21. This image of an ornamental façade with four massive columns is very similar in its form and proportions to the Khirbet-el-Mukhayyat image except that the intercolumnia here are empty or to be more precise, they have curtains screening them off. John Ward-Perkins believed that these were steps leading to doors behind columns, but from a constructional point of view the location of these

19. A. EFFENBERGER, Frühchristliche Kunst und Kultur. Von den Anfängen bis zum 7. Jahrhundert, Leipzig 1986, fi g. 30 and fi g. 87.

20. PICCIRILLO, Mosaïques, op. cit., 244-245.21. J. B. WARD-PERKINS, A New Group of Mosaics from Cyrenaica, Rivista di Ar-

cheologia Cristiana, 34, 1958, 188-192; STUCCHI, op. cit., 399-400, fi g. 403 (as “ra-ppresentazione di una basilica”); E. ALFÖLDI-ROSENBAUM, J. B. WARD-PERKINS, Justinian Pavements in Cyrenaican Churches, Rome 1980, 59, 128, pl. 16/2 (as “the temple or church? façade”).

Kačić, Split, 2009.-2011., 41-43

634

columns in the middle of the steps in any kind of a building façade is hardly imaginable22. The representation of this “triphorium” or façade (F 3) appears in the mosaic of the East-ern Basilica in Gasr el-Libia below a dedica-tory inscription (E 3) and almost in the mid-dle of this extremely interesting mosaic fl oor composed of 50 square panels with fi gural dec-oration23. Therefore, the function and mean-ing of the “triphorium”

depicted in one of these panels should be considered as similar to that of the other examples described above.

Positioning crosses instead of images of rulers and dedicatory in-scriptions inside such architectural frames ― as is the case of the graf-fi to from Ptolemais ― could have been of symbolic meaning primarily, the goal being to emphasize the power of the ruler of Christians, that is, to the greater glory of Christ. Crosses, hanging from single arcades with the specifi c meaning as outlined above, are common ornamental motifs, both in architecture and on objects from the 5th and 6th century. Indeed, they are so common that it will suffi ce to cite just a few examples for the sake of illustration. First of all, there is a mosaic from the piscina of a baptistery in Kelibia (Africa Proconsularis), now in the Bardo Museum in Tunis, depicting a small Latin cross between two columns under an arch resembling a ciborium. Even better as a parallel for the Ptolemais graffi to ― toutes les proportions gardées ― is another mosaic image from a 6th century baptistery in a basilica at Skhira in the African prov-ince of Byzacena (now southern Tunisia).24 It is now on display at the

22. Ibidem, 128.23. Ibidem, 122, fi g. 10.24. M. FENDRI, Basilique chrétienne de la Skhira, Paris 1961, 48-53, pl. J and 24; F. BÉ-

JAOUI, La mosaïque paléochrétienne de Tunesie, in: La mosaïque en Tunesie, Paris 1994, 222.

4. Mosaic of the façade from the Eastern Basilicain Gasr el-Libia

E. Jastrzębowska, Grafit s »Triphorium« iz Ptolemaide

635

museum in Sfax, cut from its original archaeological context (fi g. 5). Double arcades of the biphorium type with ornamental, spirally fl uted columns on three-stepped bases and with Corinthian capitals were de-picted in two square fi elds framed by a guilloche. Colorful big birds (possibly three pigeons and one duck) are placed among small fl owers at the top of each intercolumnium, right under the arcade. The birds are shown standing on a yellow line that cuts across the arcaded space just below the capitals of the columns. Big Latin crosses fi ll the space in the lower intercolumnia. The yellow color and red line imitating stone incrustation were meant to suggest the preciousness of these golden be-jeweled crux gemmata. Large semicircular and rounded incense burn-ers are suspended from the arms of the crosses, above which there are some unidentifi ed rhomboidal ornaments (stars?).

The modest graffi to on the limestone block from Ptolemais can hard-ly match the rich church mosaics described here. There can be no doubt it had a similar signifi cance for the owner or the client of the House of the Triapsidal Hall. Although the intention of these images was to rep-resent one’s religion, it most probably was an exercise in stone cutting. This could be hypnotized mainly due to the lack of technical quality seen in this block of limestone.

5. Mosaic from the baptistery in a basilica at Skhira, Museum of Sfax

Kačić, Split, 2009.-2011., 41-43

636

SAŽETAK - SUMMARIUM

GRAFIT S “TRIPHORIUM” IZ PTOLEMAIDE

Grafi t na vapnenačkom bloku u tzv. Kući s troapsidalnom dvoranom iz Ptole-maide vjerojatno pripada njezinu posljednjem razdoblju (V.- VI. st.). Sastoji se od urezana tri križa, grčkog tipa, između četiri stupa, ispod luka u sredini. Usporedba tog prikaza s dva mozaika iz V. st. (onaj koji prikazuje Teodorikovu palaču u bazilici San Apollinare Nuovo u Ravenni, te onaj koji prikazuje crkvu ecclesia mater na epitafu koji je imala Valentia iz Tabarke, sad u Bardo Muzeju u Tunisu), ali i s drugima diljem Rimskog carstva, pokazuje kako je taj tip s “triphorium” u kasnoj antici često uokvirivao dvorane za službena primanja. Ističe se u tom smis-lu posvetni natpis ispred oltara kapele svećenika Ivana u Khirbet-el-Mukhayyat na brdu Nebo iz sredine VI. stoljeća. Drugi primjer monumentalnog “triphorium” jest u istodobnom mozaiku u okolici Ptolemaide, u Istočnoj bazilici u Gasr el-Libia (Cirenaika).

Postavljanje križeva umjesto lika vladara, kao i posvetnih natpisa, u takvim arhitektonskim okvirima, prvenstveno je simboličke naravi da bi se naglasila Kristova snaga. Križevi, koji vise s pojedinih lukova, uobičajeni su ornamen-talni motivi i u arhitekturi i na uporabnim predmetima V. i VI. stoljeća. Najbolja analogija za grafi t iz Ptolemaide jest mozaik iz VI. st. u krstionici do bazilike u Skhiri (sad u muzeju u Sfaxu).