Los sustratos del pavimento musivo de las habitaciones meridionales en la Iglesia Oriental de Khirbet et-Tireh, Ramala (Palestina)

Abstract

The Eastern Church complex at Khirbet et-Tireh comprises five distinct sections: an atrium, a narthex, a tripartite main hall -nave and two aisles-, three adjoining auxiliary rooms on the north, and finally four more auxiliary rooms along the south side. The floor of the church was originally completely tessellated with polychrome mosaics, forming pavements patterned with figurative and geometric designs on a white background. Structurally, all known floor mosaics of the classical Mediterranean world had two main components: a substrate -all the hidden, preparatory layers-and the tessellatum -the tesserae and the filling mortar between them-. The most common substrate configuration consists of -from bottom to top-the statumen, rudus, nucleus, and bedding layers. In practice, however, the characteristics of these preparatory layers (substrate) -their number, order, thickness, technique, and material composition-have been found to differ from one period to another, from site to site, from building to building within a site, and even from one room to another within the same structure. In this context, the substrate of the mosaic pavements of the southern rooms of Khirbet et-Tireh church was found to be constructed of five layers, including a thin soil layer existing between the bedding and nucleus layers. To our knowledge, this layer has only been documented in Khirbet et-Tireh among the known archaeological sites paved with mosaics.Resumen: El complejo de la Iglesia Oriental en Khirbet et-Tireh comprende cinco partes distintas: un atrium, un narthex, una sala principal tripartita -nave y dos pasillos-, tres salas auxiliares contiguas al n y finalmente cuatro salas auxiliares más en el s. Originalmente el piso de la iglesia estaba completamente pavimentado con mosaicos polícromos formando solados estampados con diseños figurativos y geométricos sobre un fondo blanco. Estructuralmente, todos los mosaicos conocidos del mundo clásico mediterráneo se componían de dos elementos principales: un sustrato -todas las capas preparatorias ocultas-y el tessellatum -las teselas y el mortero de relleno entre ellas-. La configuración de sustrato más común consiste, en orden ascendente, en las capas