Las iglesias de época bizantina en Nablus (Neapolis), Palestina

Abstract

Our aim is to research and catalogue archaeological and historical information on all the churches in Nablus from the Byzantine period, built from the beginning the fourth century ad to 638 ad –16 ah– and discovered from the nineteenth to twenty-first centuries. We also aimed to provide a description of each building in terms of usage and form. We have extracted information from Byzantine literary and historical sources and Samaritan religious sources, as well as from reports on archaeological excavations, for analysing and drawing conclusions. In our study, we discuss the reuse of former Samaritan, Christian or Islamic sites, for reconstruction or conversion of the buildings to adapt them for use by the religion of the conquerors, whether it be Samaritan, Christian or Islamic. The churches have never been the subject of a comprehensive archaeological study due to the biblical focus of archaeological projects in Palestine. We examine each church individually looking at the cross-over or integration of architectural periods and models. Our review leads to the discovery that all the churches built in Nablus during the Byzantine period were of four architecturally distinct types, these being the Latin cross, octagonal central-plan, basilica-plan and rectangular plan. We also found that Christian churches were allowed to remain in use during Islamic rule.