Nurīya; Nūrīye; Nurie Complete

Description

A ruined village in Jabal Bārīšā registered in TIB 15 on p. 1557 as Nurīya. Also spelt: Nūrīye; Nurie. Klaus Peter Todt and Bernard Andreas Vest in TIB 15 assume that this late antique village prospered on site of a former larger landed estate. The basis for this supposition were the findings of Georges Tchalenko's expedition which recorded a large house, oil presses, and small church with an apse at the end of its sole aisle, which, according to Tchalenko's dating was built the second half of the fourth century (Todt and Vest opt for the second half of the fifth century). Butler (1903, 44), who also visited the site, described it as a "maze of polygonal blocks" on a hill, extending on its north slope. Tchalenko considers it as a "primitive" one-aisled church, similar to several other buildings in the region (1953, 337 note 2). Photo from Butler 1903, 92. See also [select bibliography after TIB 15, p. 1557]: TIB 15 – Todt, K.P., Vest, B.A., Tabula Imperii Byzantini, vol. 15 (Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2014), p. 1557. Butler, H.C., Architecture and other Arts (Publications of an American Archaeological Expedition to Syria in 1899–1900, vol. 2, New York: Century, 1903), 44, 91–92; Butler, H., Smith, E.B., Early Churches in Syria: Fourth to Seventh Centuries (Amsterdam : Hakkert, 1969), 76; Tchalenko, G. (ed.), ​​Villages antiques de la Syrie du Nord: Le Massif du Bélus à l’époque romaine (Paris: P. Geuthner, 1953), vol. 1, 326 note 1, 332 note 1, 336, 337 note 2, 384, vol. 2, Abb. XIII.6. Strube, Ch., “Hauskirche und Einschiffige Kirche in Syrien in: Studien zur spätantiken und byzantinischen Kunst”, in: F. Otto (ed.), Studien zur spätantiken und byzantinischen Kunst : Friedrich Wilhelm Deichmann gewidmet, vol. 1 (Bonn: Habelt, 1986), 115–117, 122, Tate, G., Les campagnes de la Syrie du Nord (Beirut: Presses de l’Ifpo, 2013), 87, 117–118, 207, 282, 308, 319; Strube, Ch., Baudekoration im Nordsyrischen Kalksteingebiet, vol. 1: Kapitell-. Tür- und Gesimsformen des 4. und 5. Jhs. n. Chr. (Mainz: Zabern, 1993), 139–140. Syriac graffito: Jarry, J., “Inscriptions arabes, syriaques et grecques du massif du Bélus en Syrie du nord (suite) [avec 9 planches]”, Annales islamologiques 9 (1970), 207, No. 48.