Architectural Fragments of an Ecclesiastical Structure in the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations (Ankara)

Abstract

Two slabs and an iconostasis pillar-all from the same church-are contained in the garden of the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations in Ankara. The pillar of dressed stone, rectangular in cross-section, is ornamented with a soffit motif on the front face and bears slab sockets on the side surfaces. The principal motif on the face of one of the slabs, whose edges are fractured, is the peacock and a series of frames composed of profiles inscribed in a square is displayed on the other slab. Based on the motifs (the peacock figure, the square composition and the framing by profiles) worked on both the iconostasis pillar and the slabs, which latter are assumed to have derived from the staircase of an ambo, suggest that these architectural fragments may be attributed to the 6th century.