The mosaic pavement substrates in the southern rooms of the eastern church at Khirbet et-Tireh, Ramallah (Palestine)
Date
2019-12-07
Authors
Al-Houdalieh, Salah Hussein
Bearat, Hamdallah
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Universidad de Salamanca
Abstract
The Eastern Church complex at Khirbet et-Tireh comprises five distinct sections: an atrium, a
narthex, a tripartite main hall –nave and two aisles–, three adjoining auxiliary rooms on the north, and finally
four more auxiliary rooms along the south side. The floor of the church was originally completely tessellated
with polychrome mosaics, forming pavements patterned with figurative and geometric designs on a white background.
Structurally, all known floor mosaics of the classical Mediterranean world had two main components:
a substrate –all the hidden, preparatory layers– and the tessellatum –the tesserae and the filling mortar between
them–. The most common substrate configuration consists of –from bottom to top– the statumen, rudus, nucleus,
and bedding layers. In practice, however, the characteristics of these preparatory layers (substrate) –their
number, order, thickness, technique, and material composition– have been found to differ from one period to
another, from site to site, from building to building within a site, and even from one room to another within the
same structure. In this context, the substrate of the mosaic pavements of the southern rooms of Khirbet et-Tireh
church was found to be constructed of five layers, including a thin soil layer existing between the bedding and
nucleus layers. To our knowledge, this layer has only been documented in Khirbet et-Tireh among the known
archaeological sites paved with mosaics.
Description
Keywords
preparatory layers , conservation and restoration , mosaics , Byzantine-Umayyad churches , archaeometry