Bāmuqqā; Bāmuqā; Bamuqa Complete

Description

A ruined village in Jabal Bārīšā registered in TIB 15 on pp. 936–937 as Bāmuqqā. Also spelt: Bāmuqā, Bamuqa. The majority of the evidence for this village dates from Late Antiquity but its origins are probably earlier. A large building in its centre was supposed by Georges Tchalenko and Georges Tate to have been a heavily refurbished Roman Imperial villa. Klaus Peter Todt and Bernard Andreas Vest in TIB 15 adhered to this opinion and identified the site as a village which had roots in an earlier Roman agricultural estate. The archaeological evidence points to the abandonment of the site around the seventh century and an occupational gap between the seventh and the twelfth century. In the medieval period it was inhabited by an Arabic-speaking Muslim community. Todt and Vest's buildings' checklist comprises: 18 buildings; the so-called "villa" (an old structure, just possibly a former Roman estate); a fifth-century basilica with a baptistery (centre of the settlement); a three-aisled pillar basilica with a squarish presbyterium, pastophoria, and a baptistery - dating from the end of sixth or early seventh century (north sector); individual houses; an oil press; a cistern, a hypogeum/tomb (earlier than the second century); a community building (andron); a third and fourth-fifth century buildings with an oil press. A quarry and two water basins were also recorded. Literature (for a fuller bibliography, see TIB 15, pp. 936–937 and Lidewijde de Jong 2017, 277 note 82): TIB 15 = Todt, K.P., Vest, B.A., Tabula Imperii Byzantini, vol. 15 (Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2014), pp. 936–937 (with further bibliography). Villages antiques de la Syrie du Nord: Le Massif du Bélus a l'époque romaine (Paris: P. Geuthner, 1953), vol. 1, 302, 315–318, 374–376; vol. 2, Abb. XCIV.1–3, XCIX; Tate, G., Les campagnes de la Syrie du Nord (Beirut: Presses de l’Ifpo, 2013), 120, 282, 294–295; Butler, H.C., Architecture and other Arts (Publications of an American Archaeological Expedition to Syria in 1899–1900, vol. 2, New York: Century, 1903), 63–64; 208–209; Butler, H.C., Smith E.B., Early churches in Syria: fourth to seventh centuries (Amsterdam: Hakkert, 1969), 136; Dufaÿ, B., Les baptistères paléochrétiens ruraux de Syrie du Nord, in: H. Ahrweiler (ed), Géographie historique de monde méditerranéen (Paris, 1988), 71, Abb. 3, 73, 74, 92, Planche XIV.4, 97 Pl. 19; Strube, Ch., Baudekoration im Nordsyrischen Kalksteingebiet, vol. 2: Das 6. und frühe 7. Jahrhundert (Mainz: Zabern, 2002), 91, 105, 207. Lidewijde de Jong, The Archaeology of Death in Roman Syria. Burial, Commemoration, and Empire (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017), 277, s.v. Bamuqqa. Burns, R., Monuments of Syria. An Historical Guide. 2nd ed. (London–New York: I.B. Tauris, 1999), 55. Callot, O., Bamuqqa, histoire d'un village banal, MUSJ 60 (2007), 127–134. Griesheimer, M., Cimetières et tombeaux des villages de la Syrie du Nord, Syria 74 (1997), 194. Peña, I, Castellana, P. Fernandez, R., Inventaire du Jébel Baricha. Reserches archéologiques dans la région des Villes mortes de la Syrie du Nord, Mailand: Franciscan Printing Press, 1987, 52–56. Inscriptions: Jarry, J., ‘Inscriptions arabes, syriaques et grecques du massif du Bélus en Syrie du nord [avec 42 planches]’, Annales Islamologiques 7 (1967), 152–153, no. 22 (Greek inscription, names John, Michael). Jarry, J., ‘Inscriptions arabes, syriaques et grecques du massif du Bélus en Syrie du nord [avec 42 planches]’, Annales Islamologiques 7 (1967), 153, no. 23 (Syriac inscription, names of Sarah, John, and his father). Seyrig, H., "Inscriptions grecques", in: Tchalenko, G. (ed.), Villages antiques de la Syrie du Nord: Le Massif du Bélus a l'époque romaine, vol. 3 (Paris: P. Geuthner, 1958), 26, no. 25 and Pl. CXLVI (Greek inscription with the name Eusebios). Plan of the site after: Tchalenko, G. (ed.), Villages antiques de la Syrie du Nord: Le Massif du Bélus a l'époque romaine, vol. 2 (Paris: P. Geuthner, 1958), Pl. XCII.