The Missing Piece: Euphratesia as a Hub of Sacred Architecture within the Cultural Landscape of Late Antique Northern Syria

ongoing

This project aims to unlock a crucial yet overlooked chapter of Late Antique history by exploring the Christian architecture of Euphratesia, a region largely forgotten in modern archaeological research. While nearby regions like Northern Syria have been extensively studied, Euphratesia remains a blank spot on the map of Late Antique scholarship. Through this fellowship, I will address this gap by conducting the first comprehensive analysis of the province’s church buildings, which played a pivotal role in the spread of early Christian practices and architecture. My research will involve recording and studying these churches, examining their construction, design, liturgical elements, and put it into context. This will not only reveal how Euphratesia connected culturally and architecturally to its neighbors like Antioch and Northern Mesopotamia, but also how it contributed to the development of Christian rituals. The project is timely, given recent discoveries in the region, and promises to provide new insights into how early Christian communities shaped their cultural landscapes. The impact will be far-reaching: it will fill a major gap in our understanding of early Christianity, contribute to the academic community. The fellowship at the University of Warsaw will expand my expertise as a leading researcher in the field and offers a unique opportunity to pioneer a study that will influence future scholarship in archaeology, religious studies, and history.