Tuesday, January 7, 2020

SYRIAN SANCTUARY

SANTUARIO SIRIACO
Via Dandolo 47

It had three phases of construction:
1)       First century AD
2)       Second half of the second century AD for the rich Syrian merchant Marcus Antonius Gaionas
3)       The last one, maybe after a fire, in the fourth century AD

It was discovered in 1906 during the works for the construction of a building in medieval style called CASTELLETTO inserted in the area of Villa Sciarra owned at the time by the American diplomat George Wurts

It is a unique building for the plan and for the technique of construction employed, consisting mainly of walls in blocks of tufa
Two opposing sides separated by a central courtyard evidently intended to accommodate the faithful, on the south side of which the entrance to the temple opened

SECTOR TO THE WEST OF THE COURTYARD
Better preserved and most probably intented for the worship
Hall with an apse at the bottom, preceded by a sort of vestibule flanked by two long narrow rooms
In this room a “marble statue” representing Jupiter without attributes was found (maybe Hadad the Jupiter of Heliopolis, the chief god of the Heliopolitan triad or Osiris) sitting on a throne

SECTOR TO THE EAST OF THE COURTYARD
Diamond-shaped room with a triangular altar in the center, preceded by a small room with an apse and flanked by two more rooms with a pentagonal plan
In this area of the temple probably reserved for priests and practices of initiation was found the most important piece of the entire excavation:

A “Bronze statuette” 50 cm (20 inches) high, (now in the Museo delle Terme) representing a male character mummy-looking, whose body is wrapped in the coils of a snake
The small idol, probably to be identified with Osiris, was buried inside the triangular altar, apparently in connection with a ritual of death and symbolic resurrection

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