Architekturdenkmäler der spätantiken und frühbyzantinischen Zeit im Hauran, 1: ŠAQQĀ (SAKKAIA - MAXIMIANUPOLIS)

During the years 1978 to 1980 Marcell Restle and Johannes Koder undertook surveys of late antique and early byzantine monuments in southern Syria, in the ancient landscape of Auranitis (Hauran). They investigated the extended remains of prestige buildings, churches, monasteries and farmsteads, which at that time were partially still in good condition. The project was carried out with financial support by the Austrian Science Fund and in cooperation with researchers of the Austrian Academy of Sciences and the Vienna University of Technology. The monuments and inscriptions from Azra‘a and Šaqrā were published in part 1 (2012). In part 2 Marcell Restle submits now the documentation of the monuments in Šaqqā. Especially he makes in-depth analytical comparisons of the basilica in Šaqqā with the pillar basilicas in Tafhā, Bosra, Hīt and Nimra and the column basilicas in Šagrā, Umm idj-Ğimāl, Umm iz-Surab, Mutā’iya and Suwaidā. The fact that some of the monuments published in parts 1 and 2 were severely damaged during the last 30 years, gives to this documentary an additional exceptional importance.