New evidence for church decoration in the early ninth century

Abstract

This paper examines church decoration during the Transitional period (ca. 650-850), focusing on unpublished elements from the Fatih Camii (Hagios Stephanos?) in Zeytinbağı (Trilye). Located on the south shore of the Sea of Marmara, the church may be securely dated to the early years of the ninth century. Among the variety of decorative details uncovered during an unauthorized restoration in 1997 are more than a dozen fragments of opus sectile. The variety of these panels expands the corpus of geometric patterns known from the period; in addition, opus sectile seems to have been used both on the walls and the floor.

Keywords

• architectural decoration
• transitional period
• opussectile
• bithynia
• architectural sculpture
• windows