Un martyrium octogonal découvert à Homs (Syrie) en 1988 et sa mosaïque

Below is published a posthumous article of N. Saliby, the Syrian archaeologist, born in Homs, the ancient Emesus (cf. supra his necrology). In 1988 he had organised a rescue-excavation near the Great Mosque (which is a church transformed in mosque and dating in its present state from Nour ed-Din). During the dig, a Christian building was discovered. Its external shape is half rectangular, half octagonal; the central part, surrounded by an ambulatory, is a regular octagon. Though the dig is incomplete, the building does not seem to have any central apse. It could be a martyrium (some privileged burial have been excavated in a lateral apse), though we do not know the martyr honoured. The date is not certain: N. Saliby proposes the 5th century, without excluding a later date. The pavement now very mutilated was of high quality. Made in opus sectile in the center, it was decorated with very refined mosaics on the border. On one of the preserved panels is represented the side of a Christian basilica (though the front is visible too). The representation is very much detailed. M. Griesheimer gives a more complete description of it and proposes a classic interpretation of it as a basilica with a projecting portico on the side. N. Duval has another interpretation: the interior plan has been projected at the exterior. Such an interpretation is grounded on similar representations from late antiquity. Arguing from the preserved tower, he supposes that this is a city representation. [N. Duval, transl. by M. Jones]