GRAFFITO WITH A TRIPHORIUM FROM PTOLEMAIS

ELISABETH JASTRZBOWSKA UDK: 72.04

University of Warsaw (612) 652
PL - Warsawa, Krakowskie Przedmiecie 26/28 Izvorni znanstveni lanak
Primljeno: 2. VIII. 2010.

The graffito 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 official 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 specific meaning, are common ornamental motifs, both
in architecture and in objects from the 5th and 6th century. The best analogy to
the Ptolemais graffito 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 graffito 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 graffito (fig. 1) stands abandoned in the ruins of one of
the Roman private houses, the so-called House of the Triapsidal Hall (or
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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 graffito representing a cross in a circle, set
on a threshold in the house; this is in principle the only one that definite-
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 graffito 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 first 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 period7. According to Eleonora
1. J. B. WARD-PERKINS, R. G. GOODCHILD, Christian Monuments of Cyrenaica,
ed. J. Reynolds, 2003, 194, fig. 148, 197; E. JASTRZBOWSKA, 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 citt 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, fig. 11.
2. C. H. KRAELING, Ptolemais, City of the Libyan Pentapolis, Chicago 1962, 81-
83; S. STUCCHI, Architettura Cirenaica, in: Monografie 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., fig. 149; JASTRZBOWSKA, The
cross, op. cit., 99, pl. XIV/1.
5. Ibidem, fig. 150 (as a round block?); JASTRZBOWSKA, The cross, op. cit., 99,
pl. XIII/ 5, 6; EADEM, Le basiliche, op. cit., 237, fig. 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.

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1-2. Graffito on the block of limestone in Ptolemais

Gasparinis 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 flourished 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 (fig. 2). Crosses hang from each of the three apexes. The shafts of the
four columns are flat 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
flat. From a technical point of view, the carving can be compared to a graf-
fito 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. JASTRZBOWSKA, La Bottega del tagliapietre a Tolemaide, Archeologia
Classica, 60, n.s. 10, 2009, 421-431.
11. E. JASTRZBOWSKA, Koci na synagodze w Chersonezie Taurydzki?, in: Po-
granicza Chrzecijastwa, Akta konferencji naukowej, 11-13. 05. 2010, Krakw (in print).

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as an incised faade that could indicate even an ecclesiastical function

for the house12. It could also be a simplified 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 testifies 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 difficulty in interpreting the graffito 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 faades as well as inte-
riors exist (the latter rare)14, but the church faades 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 faade 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 faade with four col-
umns and five arcaded intercolumnia (with hanging curtains and lamps),
but it clearly seems to be a view of the entrance to a five-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, fig. 148.
13. E. JASTRZBOWSKA, La bottega, op. cit., 428-430.
14. N. DUVAL, Reprsentations dglises sur mosaques, La Revue du Louvre, 22/6,
1972, 441-448; M. PICCIRILLO, Mosaques byzantines de Jordanie, Muse de la Civili-
sation Gallo-Romaine de Lyon. Fvrier - 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, fig. 15; R. WISSKIRCHEN, Der
Adler auf dem Paradiesberg. Zum Bodenmosaik im Ostteil der Kirche der Heiligen Mr-
tyrer in Tayibat Al-Imam/Hama (Syrien), Jahrbuch fr Antike und Christentum, 48/49,
2005/2006, 154-156, fig. 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, fig. 7.
16. F. W. DEICHMANN, Frhchristliche Bauten und Mosaiken von Ravenna. Ravenna
Hauptstadt des sptantiken Abendlandes, Wiesbaden 1995, pl. 108.

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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 faade 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 figures 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 figures 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 (fig. 3). At the top there is the tiled roof of the
church seen from the outside and in profile, 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 faade. 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 floor mosaic in top view,
decorated with a pattern of birds and flowers. A high altar with a screen
17. J. B. WARD-PERKINS, R. D. GOODCHILD, Christian Antiquities or Tripolita-
nia, Oxford 1953, 57-58, fig. 28; DUVAL, op. cit., 442, fig. 1; E. JASTRZBOWSKA,
Ecclesia Mater, idea i jej odwzorowanie w mozaice z V w., Meander, 29/2, 1974, 83-90;
N. DUVAL, La mosaque Funraire dans lArt Palochrtien, Ravenna 1976, 60, fig. 30;
M. YACOUB, Le Muse du Bardo, Tunis 1994, 40, fig. 33.
18. F. W. DEICHMANN, Ravenna Hauptstadt des sptantiken Abendlandes, vol. I,
Wiesbaden 1969, 175, 304.

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3. Mosaic epitaph of Valentia from Tabarca, Museum Bardo, Tunis

(sketch Ward-Perkins, Goodchild, op. cit., fig. 28)

and three lighted candles is shown between the fifth 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 floor.
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 graffito 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 superfluous, 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:

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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 official 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 floor 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 floor 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 faade 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 (fig. 4)21. This image of an ornamental faade
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, Frhchristliche Kunst und Kultur. Von den Anfngen bis zum
7. Jahrhundert, Leipzig 1986, fig. 30 and fig. 87.
20. PICCIRILLO, Mosaques, 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, fig. 403 (as ra-
ppresentazione di una basilica); E. ALFLDI-ROSENBAUM, J. B. WARD-PERKINS,
Justinian Pavements in Cyrenaican Churches, Rome 1980, 59, 128, pl. 16/2 (as the temple
or church? faade).

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columns in the middle

of the steps in any kind
of a building faade is
hardly imaginable22.
The representation of
this triphorium or
faade (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 floor
composed of 50 square
panels with figural dec-
oration23. Therefore,
4. Mosaic of the faade from the Eastern Basilica the function and mean-
in Gasr el-Libia 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-
fito 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 specific 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 suffice 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
graffito toutes les proportions gardes 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, fig. 10.
24. M. FENDRI, Basilique chrtienne de la Skhira, Paris 1961, 48-53, pl. J and 24; F. B-
JAOUI, La mosaque palochrtienne de Tunesie, in: La mosaque en Tunesie, Paris 1994, 222.

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

museum in Sfax, cut from its original archaeological context (fig. 5).
Double arcades of the biphorium type with ornamental, spirally fluted
columns on three-stepped bases and with Corinthian capitals were de-
picted in two square fields framed by a guilloche. Colorful big birds
(possibly three pigeons and one duck) are placed among small flowers
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 fill 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 unidentified rhomboidal ornaments (stars?).
The modest graffito 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 significance for the owner or the client of the House of
the Triapsidal Hall. Although the intention of these images was to rep-
resent ones 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.

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SAETAK - SUMMARIUM

GRAFIT S TRIPHORIUM IZ PTOLEMAIDE

Grafit na vapnenakom bloku u tzv. Kui s troapsidalnom dvoranom iz Ptole-
maide vjerojatno pripada njezinu posljednjem razdoblju (V.- VI. st.). Sastoji se od
urezana tri kria, grkog tipa, izmeu etiri stupa, ispod luka u sredini. Usporedba
tog prikaza s dva mozaika iz V. st. (onaj koji prikazuje Teodorikovu palau 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 esto uokvirivao dvorane za slubena primanja. Istie se u tom smis-
lu posvetni natpis ispred oltara kapele sveenika Ivana u Khirbet-el-Mukhayyat
na brdu Nebo iz sredine VI. stoljea. Drugi primjer monumentalnog triphorium
jest u istodobnom mozaiku u okolici Ptolemaide, u Istonoj bazilici u Gasr el-
Libia (Cirenaika).
Postavljanje krieva umjesto lika vladara, kao i posvetnih natpisa, u takvim
arhitektonskim okvirima, prvenstveno je simbolike naravi da bi se naglasila
Kristova snaga. Krievi, koji vise s pojedinih lukova, uobiajeni su ornamen-
talni motivi i u arhitekturi i na uporabnim predmetima V. i VI. stoljea. Najbolja
analogija za grafit iz Ptolemaide jest mozaik iz VI. st. u krstionici do bazilike u
Skhiri (sad u muzeju u Sfaxu).

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