Christian Archaeology

Settled and Sacred Landscapes of Cyprus (SeSaLaC) comprises an inter- and multi-disciplinary research venture of the University of Cyprus, drawing on a number of regional case-studies in areas under the effective control of the Republic of Cyprus. Within the framework of this wider intensive survey project, the author, along with Giorgos Papantoniou (University of Bonn) and Doria Nicolaou (University of Mainz), aim to identify, map, and interpret traces of pre-modern human activity in the Xeros valley in order to examine the interaction of secular and religious space with the natural environment. The ultimate objective is to investigate the political, religious, and settlement identities of the island through the application of advanced field methodologies and techniques. On the basis of the data collected by the field team in the first four seasons of our field project between 2014 and 2017 in our survey territory, one of our primary aims has been to investigate the Byzantine landscapes and monuments of the region in full detail. In addition to the widely employed methods of intensive surface survey, such as the systematic counting of pottery finds, and the measuring of pottery densities in a field-by-field manner, we initiated the digital recording of the area and its archaeology using the advanced technical equipment of the Artefact and Landscape Studies Laboratory (ArtLandS Lab).

The Lives of Holy Bishops of Cherson are the most famous hagiographic works in the “Crimean mediaeval cycle.” This volume analyses their versions in Greek (nine texts),
Church Slavonic (nine texts), Armenian (two texts) and Georgian (two texts).
      The complex of main points of the source: 1) indication of a “burial outside the city”;2) “topic with resurrection of a child through the sacrament of baptism”; 3) Jerusalem origin of Christianity in Cherson; 4) absence of miracles post-mortem; 5) parallels with the Life of John of Gothia; 6) the source keeps silence about the tradition of veneration of the holy bishops in Cherson (but only contemporarily with the author of the Life);
7) obvious controversy between the account of the Life and Chapter 53 of Constantine Porphyrogenetos’ De Administrando Imperio; 8) irregular information of the bishops – all
these allow us to suggest that the Lives of Bishops of Cherson, or at least their variant that became a source for all known versions, originated in the Iconoclastic period.
Possibly, the origin of the Lives is connected to the formation of new bishopric system in the Crimea in the Iconoclastic period. This was the impact for the appearance of local
hagiography.
The so-called “four-apsidal church” is the only object, which relation to the hagiographic story is almost generally accepted, in contrast to acute discussion on the
connection between other sites and place-names of the Lives.      The chronology of building of the four-apsidal church is reliably determined according to the chronology of levelling
layers within the limits of the late second and third quarter of the sixth century. The church existed for a relatively short period, to 880s, that makes its attribution as the martyrium of
St. Capiton doubtful. The kiln for baking lime (no. 1) below the church fl oor has nothing to do with it: it coincidence to “Capiton’s church” is accidental. Architecture of the church does not give reason to interpret this tetraconch of Cherson as a martyrium.  The idea that there was relation between the shape of tetraconch and martyrium is a mistake.
Archaeological context does not have evidences of pilgrimage to this church. However,the size of the Cherson church makes it unique among simple tetraconchs. Its buildingcertainly was an important event in the church history of Cherson. The silence of sources and lack of epigraphic monuments do not allow us to build hypotheses concerning thesaint to whom this church was dedicated. Hypothetically, we can interpret this church as
the fi rst stage of rapid development of architecture that started in Cherson and its environs 10 or 20 years after its construction. texts), Armenian (two texts), and Georgian (two texts).

San Salvatore at Barzanò, from Private Church to Baptismal Collegiate Church. A Historical, Architectural and Art-historical Enquiry

During the Middle Ages Barzanò was a small village forty km northeast of Milan. The site was first mentioned in 1015: due to a privilege of Emperor Henry II, the bishop of Como was granted quandam curtem que dicitur Villa Barzanorum, as a personal possession. The privilege was confirmed in 1055 by Emperor Henry III. In the late twelfth century this territory would appear under the control of "da Porta orientale" family, originating from the east side of Milan. At end of the thirteenth century, the church of San Salvatore is documented as part of the diocese of Milan and controlled by "da Pirovano" family, also originating from Milan. The church was probably founded in the late tenth century as a private chapel, on the southeast side of a high ground, perhaps already fortified.

The church of Phase 1, consisting of a square shaped hall (6x6,5 meters) with a barrel-vaulted apse, is still partly recognisable in today's building.

At the very beginning of the eleventh century the bell-tower was built first (Phase 2a), then the western bay, transforming the first facade in arcade (Phase 2b). The entire nave floor was raised by 0,8 meters, both to level the hill slope and to make room for a crypt under the apse. Two flight of stairs were probably positioned along the walls, three meters east from those still existing. The pre-Romanesque crypts of San Pietro al Monte at Civate, San Daniele alla Pedeserva, and San Salvatore at Almenno are comparable in several aspects. Finally, an early christian sarcophagus was placed in the middle of the nave. It was likely the burial of the dominus, i.e. the head of the household owning the church.

Most likely in the late eleventh century, the chapel of San Salvatore evolved in baptismal collegiate church. It was the occasion for a further architectural renovation (Phase 3). A masonry dome on squinches, arcades and piers was built inside the central bay, squeezed up against the walls. The first (disappeared) baptismal font was set up under the dome.

The last medieval renovation dates back to the beginning of the thirteenth century (Phase 4). The apse and the crypt were extended towards the nave by the excavation of a corridor/trench covered by timber ceiling. The additional space was connected to the vaulted bay by two arcades, which were obtained demolishing the wall, while the stairs were 'moved' three meters west. The reorganisation of the liturgical space implied the dismantling of the first baptismal font. The monumental western portal, dated 1231, was realised quite possibly in the same phase.

In the need to provide a new baptismal font, a workshop experienced in fine stone-cutting was hired, able to engineer and realise an octagonal structure consisting of no less than 49 pieces (considering those allegedly lost) assembled with meticulous precision.
In San Salvatore there is neither material nor written evidence of an altar of Saint John the Baptist, even though it was used during the baptism, in particular in ambrosian context. Why shouldn't there have been such an altar in San Salvatore? Was it perhaps a movable wooden one? The question still stands.

A mural decoration completed the renovation of Phase 3, that means presumably in the late eleventh century. A peculiar cycle of Christ folds out in the domed bay, modestly preserved despite the 2009-2010 fine restoration.
The radial composition of the dome could be interpreted as the last episode of the christological cycle: the Pentecost, also considering the mural icon of the Virgin with Child at the base, or rather the Mission of the apostles to the four corners of the World.  The meander band at the base of the dome seems to point out the line between earthly and heavenly dimension. Given the above, the painted dome could also be seen as a teophanic apparition of the Lord/Christ with his heavenly court, or even a synthetic representation of the heavenly Jerusalem.
The experienced workshop rooted its language in the ottonian culture; nevertheless, it doesn't automatically imply a chronology by the beginning of the eleventh century, as suggested by some scholars trusting only the "stylistic" analysis. Referring to the Middle Ages, the role of traditions, the strength of models of reference, the persistence of pictorial patterns, and the really slow transformations inside a workshop, should be stressed. In such a situation, architectural features are much more reliable as a chronological indicator; in this case they suggest the late eleventh century, which is not in contrast to what is depicted.

Among the materials of archaeological excavations of ancient citycs, rural settlements, and medieval cemeteries is revealed a scries of similar round pendants with the image, of St rider fighting a dragon on the front side, some findings derived from illicit excavations.

c iconography of applies to those found in Novgorod bilateral suspensions with serpentine composition on the reverse side. Iconographically suspension is divided into two variants. П thc Ith variant ancient jewelers change in the way of doing battle horse in the XII-XIII centuries, version II — more traditional, continued to exist for a longer time.
Среди материалов археологических раскопок городских центров, сельских поселений и средневековых кладбищ выделяется серия однотипных круглых иконок-при-весок с изображением святого всадника, попирающего дракона, на лицевой стороне/ Часть находок происходит из незаконных раскопок. Иконография подвесок восходит к найденным в Новгороде двусторонним подвескам со змеевидной композицией на оборотной стороне. Иконографически подвески делятся на два варианта. В I варианте древние ювелиры отразили изменения в способе ведения конного боя в XII—-XIII вв., вариант II — более традиционный, продолжал существовать более долгое время.

Основу двадцать второго выпуска «Херсонесского сборника» составляют статьи, которые касаются находок, открытий и древностей, связанных с античной и средневековой Таврикой и, в первую очередь, с территорией древнего Херсонеса и его сельскохозяйственной округи. Одна из статей посвящена сарматским древностям. В выпуске нашли отражение эпиграфические и нумизматические исследования. Отдельная рубрика посвящена опыту применения междисциплинарных (конкретно — геофизических) методов при изучении археологических памятников в Херсонесе Таврическом. Традиционно в сборнике представлен материал, посвященный истории Херсонесского музея. Почти все статьи сборника богато иллюстрированы. Издание адресуется историкам, археологам, краеведам, студентам и преподавателям, а также всем тем, кто интересуется античной и средневековой археологией, историей и культурой.

"Despite nearly two centuries of fascination in the scholarly world with the history of Sogdian culture there are still many under-researched areas. In particular, the history of the dissemination and inculturation of Christianity among Sogdians is one such area, which despite material and textual witness has not been studied autonomously. Instead, it has been incorporated into a broader discourse of the geographical-historical spread and enculturation of Christianity into the Central Asian landmass.
The existing studies on religions in Sogdiana have represented Sogdian society as a mosaic of religious communities with Zoroastrianism as a main religion which overshadowed the historical and socio-cultural significance of other religions such as Christianity among the Sogdians. This dissertation contends that Christianity among Sogdians, both in their native country and in the Diaspora, had a significant presence and that Sogdian Christians were instrumental in both inculturing Christianity as well as transmitting it to other ethnic groups.
This argument emerges from contextual and comparative ‘case studies’ of diverse material culture and textual evidence affiliated with Sogdians and Christianity. The evidence covered in this dissertation collectively constitutes a unique source supplying information about aspects of ‘Sogdian Christianity,’ such as its material and textual manifestations and its interrelationship with both its immediate cultural milieu and wider Christian oikoumene. In what follows, this dissertation will try to explain, through the testimony of the material and literary evidence, that Christianity among the Sogdian people had a footing in the local context and was expressed in local material and textual culture.
"

Representation of real people is one of the fundamental concerns of artistic expression – seeing either oneself or another person depicted has always been a topic of interest that has taken new forms over the years. At the end of Roman Antiquity a wide range of forms and a broad spectrum of opportunities were available for private portraits, which were encountered both in everyday life and on special occasions. However, the format, the motivation, and the context underlying such portraits are affected by changing traditions and developments. But so far there has been only infrequent research into the occasions for and forms of private representation in art from the close of Antiquity to the end of the Middle Ages and it has seldom been conducted in a systematic manner. Whilst Roman portraits in their various forms have already been the subject of intensive research, so far relatively few studies have dedicated their attention to the subsequent periods through to the fall of Constantinople. Set against the backdrop of the comprehensive processes of change between Antiquity and the Middle Ages, exploring the occasions for and forms of personal representation provides access to a wide range of levels to the development of the portrait, which has, as yet, rarely been considered in a wider context.
In the course of an international conference held in 2013 at the Austrian Academy of Sciences, researchers from seven nations addressed the private portrait from a wider diachronic and methodological perspective in 13 contributions dealing with a diverse range of monuments and aspects. The individual contributions in the conference proceedings edited by Vasiliki Tsamakda and Norbert Zimmermann each explore particular aspects of private portraits, whether in relation to their chronological and topographical distribution or in connection with features particular to the type or other art historical aspects, and point out traditions and changes.

This 3rd chapter of Early Christian Attitudes toward Images reviews the literature and artistic monuments from the first three centuries of Christian history. What do these witnesses tell us about the attitudes of early Christians toward images? Were they aniconic and iconophobic, as some say, or were they able to distinguish between idolatrous and non idolatrous art and baptize the latter as a means of preaching the Gospel in forms and colors?

The paper deals with problems related with the history and architecture of the basilica maior of s. Lorenzo fuori le mura. Main topics are a new analysis of the Liber Pontificalis passage in the Vita Silvestri about the location of the basilica maior, sub arenario cryptae; the meaning of "maior" and the discovery of eight late antique capitals that might belong to the basilica maior.

Il presente lavoro analizza lo studio della catacombe di S. Mustiola a Chiusi (SI) e dei suoi reperti ceramici rinvenuti nello scavo del 2016.
In particolare viene evidenziato attraverso lo studio di alcuni esemplari di lucerne l'utilizzo intensivo della catacomba in due diverse fasi

The Churche of Panagia Vlacherna (Agrinion)

SUMMARY
The church of Panagia Vlacherna, dating the beginning of 19th c., is located in the homonymus position, in the hill of «Paliopyrgos» approximately 4 km. northwest the municipality of Agrinio, and has been the parish church of the village Pyrgos which  does not exist nowadays.
The church is rectangular in plan , forming today a long single-aisle building, where its dimensions are approximately 16,60 x 9,10 m., excluding the semicircular cockle of the nave. The church is not consisted of other complementary  buildings .
Externally, the building presents a carefully constructed stonework by stones of small and middle size, almost having the same shape. The building is covered by a double-pitched  rooftiled  roof  which is a new construction.
The church has three entrances. The main one is on the south. It is decorated by stripped  battresses.  The capitals are half-finished. In the key of the semicircular multi-windowed can be seen an anaglyphal decoration, where the subject is a double-headed, deep-sculptured eagle with aura and  open winds. The extension of the perpendicular battresses of the entrance completes the composition by  shaping a rectangular  frame. The top of that frame is covered by a horizontal overhanging and scaled stoned cornice. In the middle of the frame, exactly above the «key», there is a stoned dusky parquetted with two unequal partitioning’s. At the lower partitioning  there is a an anaglyphal  subject of a cross which has a base and circles on both its center and its three endpoints. On the upper part there is an inscription, difficult to be read. In the multi-windowed there is a flattened,  two­ dimensional cockle, with rectangular battresses and sharp-topped arch, where they used to place  an anaglyphal marble plaquette picturing the saint, to whom the church was dedicated. Above the cockle there is a  squared position  in which there used to be a framed blank plaquette.
Internally, approximately in the middle of the paved floor there is a marbled umbilical inside an almost squared frame, with dimensions of 2,00 x 1,90 m. Centrally to the frame there is an octagonal shaped limestoned dusky plaquette, in which is presented anaglyphal  a  single-headed  eagle  according  to  the  glatt-sculptured  technique. The deeply sculptured relief represents the facade of the  eagle  where  its  almost  natural  winds  are  widely opened and its head is turned on the right. The octagonal tamplette is designed within a circle which is shaped by the circular position of large stoned plaquettes. The perimeter of the circle is run around by thin, curved, long and stoned strips. The gaps which are created in the space between the perimeter of the circle and the rectangular frame are decorated by pieces of  marble  and  stone παραθετικά placed  in  κορασάνι  (ceramic  mortar)  mixed with small pieces of  stone and tiles. The colours of the crust, which  is cut in  specific shapes according to the requirements of each composition, are red, black and white. It is placed in the lower layer of the surface in such a way where it creates different geometrical and floral combinations. Symmetrically to the axis, the presented graphics are of blooms of almonds as well as of quarters of circles, creating thus a unique decoration for that era and area. That mixed technique (opus sectile and flat-sculptured) starts to appear in the second half of the 12th century, and that can be considered as the beginning of the differentiations appeared in the strict structure of the marble inlay in the 10th and 11th century, where several interchanges of that style seem to appear, such as the coexistence of the mosaic . The critical point for the dating of the marble inlay is neither the  flat-sculptured technique  nor the subject of the eagle, which is quite common  during the Osmanic occupation.
The name of  the church, as well as the two elements , that is the sculptured single-headed  eagle in the floor of the church and the double-headed eagle whith the cross above the main entrance of the church, lead us to the big ecclesiastical center of Konstantinoupolis, to the church of Vlachernae, whose adoration is established and spread on the most central Greece and Epirus through the Komnenoi and the Despotaton of Epirus and survives until the  19th c. as it can be proved by the church of Vlachernon in Agrinion.

Konstantinos Garitsis

The Christian cultural heritage of north Africa is ancient and rich, but at risk after recent political events. The Christian, Coptic heritage of Egypt remains poorly studied from the perspective of heritage management and is also at risk from a number of factors. Using first-hand study and analysis based upon original fieldwork, Egypt’s Christian Heritage offers an assessment to the risks facing Coptic monuments in Egypt today. It does this by situating Egyptian heritage policy within the English framework, and it establishes theoretical approaches to value, significance, meaning, and interpretation in Egyptian heritage within a wider global framework. The research is based on the analysis of three markedly different Egyptian Christian Coptic sites, each with their own unique management issues. This book offers a series of solutions and ideas to preserve, manage and interpret this unique material culture and to emphasise community solutions as being the most viable and sustainable approaches, whilst taking into account the varied levels of significance of these monuments.

The towns and surrounding rural areas of the Eastern Roman Empire experienced a remarkable boom during Late Antiquity (late fourth to seventh century AD), which involved both extraordinary diversity from region to region but also continuities and parallel transformations in town size and monumentality. Early investment in church and fortification building on behalf of an ecclesiastical and secular/urban elite gave way to a gradual, progressive ‘Christianisation’ of townscapes in the late fifth and sixth centuries AD. This was a ‘global’ phenomenon, in that it began in many parts of the eastern Mediterranean world at more or less the same time, and this paper focuses on the example of central and southern Greece to discuss how this process relates to issues of urban diversity during this period. The article draws from a data set of excavated remains at Athens in Attica and Corinth in the Peloponnese, and from recent survey work in Tanagra in Boeotia.

La Sacra Sindone è un autentico reperto archeologico, sia pure unico del suo genere, in quanto ha una doppia immagine, frontale e dorsale, in perfetto negativo, prodotta per proiezione ortogonale, che si sovrappone all'impronta sanguigna di settecento ferite rilevate (il che non impedisce che possano essere state molte di più), passata per contatto sul lenzuolo e formante una immagine in positivo. Ben trenta discipline hanno analizzato il lino. In conseguenza di ciò, bisogna ammettere tre cose: che la duplice immagine corporea e la sua impronta sanguigna sono autentici e scientificamente inspiegabili e che la Sindone è una autentica reliquia, di grande rilevanza teologica. La sintesi di queste tre conseguenze è che la Sacra Sindone ha un significato storico-sacrale di assoluta rilevanza. Da essa, senza troppi infingimenti sulla identificazione del suo Uomo con Gesù Cristo, non solo abbiamo conferme da quanto ci raccontano i Vangeli ma apprendiamo notizie nuove sulla sua Passione, Morte, Sepoltura e Resurrezione che non potremmo sapere diversamente e che non potrebbero così smuoverci dal nostro torpore spirituale, suscitando in noi maggiore amore per Lui: fu flagellato con centoventi colpi di flagrum, avente a sua volta sei terminali di osso o di metallo; fu coronato da spine che produssero perforazioni su un numero di punti del suo cuoio capelluto che va dai cinquanta ai settanta; fu crudelmente percosso in viso e un colpo di bastone gli lesionò il setto nasale, presumibilmente in casa del sommo sacerdote Anna, quando un soldato lo percosse (secondo una traduzione più corretta del verbo greco che di solito è inteso come "schiaffeggiare"); fu crocifisso con chiodi di ferro e dopo la morte si fece scempio del suo cadavere trafiggendone il costato destro con una lancia. La datazione al C 14 , a suo tempo fatta simultaneamente a Oxford, Zurigo e Tucson e i cui risultati furono poi pubblicati su Nature il 13 ottobre 1988, non può avere valore scientifico per le modalità in cui è stata eseguita e per la sua discordanza con tutte le altre evidenze scientifiche che permettono di collocare il lenzuolo al I sec. e non nel XIV. Da parecchio molti scienziati, compresi alcuni che parteciparono a quell'indagine, chiedono che essa sia ripetuta2. Vi è in effetti una scienza autentica, risultante dall'intersecazione di molte discipline e che si chiama sindonologia, la quale, prima ancora di fornire un supporto formidabile alla storicità della Resurrezione di Cristo, studia un reperto unico secondo delle modalità autenticamente valide, cosi da permettere di arrivare a conclusioni obiettive.

in Brandt, O. – Fiocchi Nicolai, V. (Edd.) 2016, ACTA XVI CONGRESSVS INTERNATIONALIS ARCHAEOLOGIAE CHRISTIANAE, Romae (22-28.9.2013) COSTANTINO E I COSTANTINIDI L’INNOVAZIONE COSTANTINIANA, LE SUE RADICI E I SUOI SVILUPPI. Pars I, pp. 763-771.

"Sommaire:
1. LES PÈRES DE L'ÉGLISE
2. RÉPERTOIRE FIGURÉ DU DÉCOR
3. EXPLICATION DES IMAGES AUX CATÉCHUMÈNES
4. LES SYMBOLIQUES DU PRINTEMPS
5. A L'IMAGE DE LA PERFECTION DIVINE
6. MÉTHODE D'INTERPRÉTATION PAR ANALOGIE
7. CYRILLE DE JÉRUSALEM
8. LES ANALOGIES DE L'ÉVÈQUE CYRILLE
9. ÉGLISE DES SAINTS-APÔTRES À MADABA
10. PREMIÈRE ÉGLISE DÉCOUVERTE À PETRA
11. BASILIQUE DE DOUMETIOS À NIKOPOLIS
12. BASILIQUE DE CHRISTOPOLITISSA À PAPHOS
13. ÉGLISE DE QABR HIRAM
14. ÉGLISE DE PHOTIOS À HOUARTÉ
15. ÉGLISE DE MICHAËLION À HOUARTÉ
16. ÉGLISE DE MIRATA
cf. M.T. Olszewski, L'image et sa fonction dans la mosaïque byzantine des premières basiliques en Orient: l'iconographie chrétienne expliquée par Cyrille de Jérusalem (314-387) / The image and its function in the byzantine mosaics ... : the christian iconography explained by Cyril of Jerusalem (314-387), Cahiers Archéologiques 43, 1995, pp. 9-34. "

The paper deals with the vanished early basilica of Saint Herodion at Hypati, Fthiotis, Greece. The non-existant church is being reconsidered through the scrutiny of all available sources. Some earlier expressed views are being challenged and some new facts are given.

The passion stories of the Pannonian martyrs executed in the Great Persecution of
303-304 represent an important source not only for Early Christian hagiography,
but also for Church history in Pannonia. My book entitled Cities, Martyrs and
Relics in Pannonia: Discovering the Topography in Four Pannonian Passion Stories
explores the passion stories of Saint Irenaeus, Saint Synerotas, Saint Quirinus,
and the four „crowned saints.” These hagiographical accounts are part of the great
wave of Late Roman literary production about the martyrs, constructed around
well-known hagiographical topoi. The key elements are the arrest and the trial
of the martyrs, who respond courageously and consistently to the charges and
questions of the provincial governor and consequently are sentenced to death. The
martyrs’ execution is presented with more or less detail, but the precise date of the
martyrs’ death is usually given, because the day of the martyrs’ ’heavenly birthday’
was extremely important for the community who celebrated her heroes as saints.
Previous research held that only the passions of Saint Irenaeus and Saint Quirinus
preserved the traces of an authentic martyr’s act. These stories begin with the
trial scene, where the two bishops openly confess that they are Christians. Their
execution takes place in the first years of the Great Persecution, in 303 or 304.
As opposed to Saint Irenaeus and Saint Quirinus, Saint Synerotas and the
stonecutters were Christian laymen, not bishops. They were not persecuted by
the Roman authorities, but denounced by pagans. The denunciation and the trial
frames the martyrs’ story, who do not publicly witness to Christ, but exercise their
faith in silence at their workplace, in the garden or in the quarry. Their virtue and
their professional perfection are seen closely linked with their Christian faith. This
provokes the conflict with the pagans who are jealous of them because it hurts
their self-esteem. Pagans cause their downfall, which is ultimately a blessing: as
martyrs, they are immediately saved.

La promozione dei luoghi santi incoraggiata dalla casa imperiale bizantina e la conseguente diffusione del fenomeno del pellegrinaggio determinarono la nascita di flussi considerevoli di monaci verso le regioni della Palestina, della Transgiordania e del Sinai, che decisero di stabilirvisi  fondando un numero rilevante di laurae e cenobi presso i luoghi santi descritti dalla Scrittura e lungo le rotte di pellegrinaggio ad essi. Questi monasteri diedero un forte contributo alla nascita ed al successo dei santuari, assicurandone la continuità delle tradizioni legate a quei luoghi e garantendovi lo svolgimento regolare e quotidiano della liturgia. L’ubicazione di tali insediamenti monastici – presso i principali luoghi santi o semplicemente lungo le vie di pellegrinaggio a tali luoghi – è spesso spia del diverso approccio che essi ebbero nei confronti del fenomeno del pellegrinaggio e quindi del servizio da essi offerto a pellegrini e viandanti.
Per quanto riguarda i monasteri situati presso i principali luoghi  santi (come i monasteri del Sinai, del monte Nebo e del monte Tabor), le fonti archeologiche e letterarie mostrano i monaci fortemente coinvolti nel ruolo di guide e custodi dei luoghi, accogliendo i pellegrini con grande umanità e consentendo lo svolgimento regolare del culto. Costituendo essi stessi delle vere e proprie mete all'interno degli itinerari, tali monasteri sono spesso dotati di precipue strutture recettive.
Differenti sono invece alcuni monasteri minori situati nel deserto, presso villaggi o nelle campagne, nelle cui prossimità si trovavano importanti direttrici viarie che connettevano numerose città dotate di santuari noti (ad es. Cesarea, Jaffa, Gerusalemme, Gerico, Lydda-Diospolis). Tali monasteri offrivano spesso una qualche forma di ristoro ai pellegrini (acqua, cibo, in alcuni casi ricovero per la notte), i quali vi giungevano a volte anche deviando un poco dalla rotta principale, attratti dal rigoroso stile di vita ascetica che vi veniva praticato; molti di questi insediamenti erano collocati in punti strategici, quali gli incroci di importanti direttrici viarie o i piccoli rilievi prospicienti gli insediamenti urbani, rappresentando importanti punti di sosta per i pellegrini diretti ai santuari principali. Per molti di questi monasteri è stato possibile identificare la struttura pertinente al ricovero dei pellegrini (lo xenodochio).
I casi presentati mostrano come ospitalità e cura dei viandanti rappresentino delle importanti prerogative per questi insediamenti monastici, siano essi stanziati in regioni desertiche, lungo le principali vie di percorrenza, o presso i santuari più o meno noti. Inoltre, le fonti scritte (soprattutto quelle agiografiche, come Cirillo di Scitopoli) confermano il dato archeologico, presentando il servizio dell’ospitalità e dell’accoglienza dei pellegrini come una componente fondamentale della vita monastica, in particolare per gli insediamenti ubicati in stretta relazione con i santuari e le vie di pellegrinaggio; inoltre i riferimenti a strutture recettive (gli xenodochi) compaiono frequentemente in relazione all'elemento monastico.

For Christians, Easter represents the climactic event in all of human history – the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.  Critics contend that it is a mythical story, based more on fiction than fact.      Archaeology is one field of study that must be considered in determining whether the death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth, as recorded in the gospel accounts in the Bible, are actual historical events.  Over the past 150 years, archaeological excavations in Israel have yielded much evidence for the historicity of Jesus of Nazareth.  Excavations have confirmed many elements of the Christmas story, his ministry in Galilee and Judea, particularly in the Jewish synagogues, and the fact that the world in which Jesus lived has been so accurately described in the gospels. However, nowhere is the evidence so overwhelming as it is when one studies the details of the historical accounts of the death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth.

This dissertation is an exploratory study on the interaction of architecture and Christian archaeology around the turn of the 20th century. As one of the roots of architectural historiography, Christian archaeology – the largely ecclesiastical study of the remains of the material culture of the first Christians – has had a place in architectural theory from the final decades of the 16th century onwards. It enabled the reconciliation of humanist archaeological interest in classical antiquity on the one hand and Christian apologetics on the other hand. During the 1800s, however, the role which Christian archaeology fulfilled in architecture appears to have been reversed progressively. This dissertation indicates how theorists have debated what ought to be the fundamental aspirations of religious architecture by means of argumentation rooted in catacomb archaeology in the 19th and early 20th century.

The mosaic from the House of Nestor was discovered in Sheikh Zuweid on the western shore of Sinai, by
Jean Clédat in 1912. It covered the floor of a reception room of a large villa with private baths. Today the
mosaic from the House of Nestor with two mythological panels, three Greek metrical inscriptions and an
interesting geometric carpet are very well known by the specialists of the Late Antiquity. Fifteen years ago I
had the pleasure to make an interpretation of its iconological programme where I had put together the
inscriptions and the images to explain the sense of the mosaic. Hippolytus and Phaedra panel is linked with
the inscription evoking the envy (phtonos) and baskanos (evil eye) - warning for incoming guests. The
second scene of thiasos of Dionysos is associated with the non-violent, happy and festive character of the
reception room in the house. After a very careful study of the style of the mosaic the date of its execution
seems to be around 450 AD. It is possible that it was executed by a mosaic workshop from Egypt
(Alexandria), however it is not excluded that the workshop could have come from Gaza.I would like to
present the oldest and recent researches of my colleagues specialists of Late Antiquity who wrote about the
programme of the mosaic. I think that it is important after one hundred years of scholarly research to make a
recapitulation of the state of research on its semantic programme. Rina Talgam (Hebrew University),
Vlastimil Drbal (Academy of Science, Prague), Delphine Laurentzen (Académie de Créteil), Gianfranco
Agosti (Universita di Roma, La Sapienza) and some others wrote about the programme of mosaic evoking its
connections with the culture and civilization of Late Antiquity in the Near East. I will also discuss the question
of a mysterious word "telete" present on the panel of Dionysos. I believe that its meaning seems clear.