Burğka; Burdjkeh; Barijki; Burğ Kay; Kaprocherkeōn komē; Qalʿat Simʿān Complete

Description

A village in Jabal Simʿān registered in TIB 15 on p. 1033 as Burğka. Also spelt: Burdjkeh, Barijki, Kaprocherkeōn komē. The site has been well known to travellers and archaeologistis, having been visited by Van Berchem's, Bell's, Butler's, Tchalenko's, and Peña's expeditions. While describing notable architectural finds, Klaus Peter Todt and Bernard Andreas Vest list houses, a rock-cut chamber (possibly a granary), a one-aisled church (termed 'chapel' by some reports), and a tower usually interpreted as an ascetic's tower. The church probably dates from the sixth century, little is known about the chronology of occupation of the site. Literature (after TIB 15, p. 1033): TIB 15 – Todt, K.P., Vest, B.A., Tabula Imperii Byzantini, vol. 15 (Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2014), p. 1033 (with further bibliography); Butler (ed.) Publications of the Princeton University Archaeological Expeditions to Syria in 1905–5 and 1909. Division II: Architecture, Section B: Northern Syria (Leiden: Brill, 1920), 329; Butler, H.C., Smith E.B., Early churches in Syria: fourth to seventh centuries (Amsterdam: Hakkert, 1969), 149; Tchalenko, G. (ed.), Villages antiques de la Syrie du Nord: Le Massif du Bélus a l'époque romaine (Paris: P. Geuthner, 1958), vol. 3, 89–90, 117; Peña, I., Castellana, P., Fernandez, R., Les Reclus Syriens (Jerusalem: Franciscan Printing Press, 1980), 80, 272-273, 310, 313, 339-340, 343; Burns, R., Monuments of Syria. An Historical Guide. Revised Edition (London–New York: Bloomsbury, 1999), 70; Weber, Th. M., "Syrien, Ägypten und Aksum. Das 'sanctuaire carré' – eine Sondernform des Altarraumes in der frühchristlischen Sakralarchitektur Westasiens und Nordostafriaks", in: D. Kreikenbom et al. (ed.), Krise und Kult. Vorderer Orient und Nordafrika von Aurelian bis Justinian (Berlin–New York: Walter de Gruyter, 2010), 230, no. 2.28. Syriac inscriptions: Littmann, E. (ed.), Publications of the Princeton University Archaeological Expeditions to Syria in 1905–5 and 1909. Division IV: Semitic Inscriptions. Section B: Syriac Inscriptions (Leiden: Brill, 1934), 50–52, no. 59; Greek inscriptions: Jarry, J., ‘Inscriptions arabes, syriaques et grecques du massif du Bélus en Syrie du nord [avec 42 planches]’, Annales Islamologiques 7 (1967), 161 (comments to no. 36).