A Figured Wall Niche Block from the Silifke Museum

Abstract

This paper examines the preserved upper part of an arched wall niche made of limestone which is exhibited/preserved today in the Silifke Museum. This piece is very attractive with its encircled Malta crosses, dolphin, fish and eagle figures. The dolphin is neither mentioned in the Old nor in the New Testament, but the church priests due to ancient tradition mention the dolphin dealing with its love for people, its playfulness and speed. Dolphins are seen in Christianity as the king of the fish and symbolize all the creatures living in the sea and Jesus as "The protector". Dolphins jumping in water are also considered as the symbol of the newly baptized Jesus. The fish above the niche block arch of which two are smaller than the other two, must have been made according to the the New Testament in which the fish in the water symbolize the baptized believers. The eagle apparent inside the niche, seen on both Early Christian-Byzantine sarcophagai and Coptic tombstones, symbolize immortality and the believers who hope to be resurrected after death, just like Jesus. Sometimes this figure is also accompanied by a monogram of Jesus depicted in a wreath or just the wreath with no monogram. Similar examples for the block with niche at the Silifke museum are the wall niches with commonly have a rounded upper part which are found mostly in the religious and rarely in the civil buildings of the Early Christian-Byzantine period architecture of Egypt and Syria. The narthexes in the churches of the Cilician-Isaurian region have small plain wall niches without any decoration. It is considered that these niches called as "Colymbion" contained sacred water. Niches similar to the ones seen in the churches of Egypt can be seen on the West side of the Eastern Church at the Alahan Monastery. The edges and back of the block with the niche are left rough and this indicates the use of the block in a wall construction. It is possible that this piece was used in a church as seen in the Alahan example, in a grave structure or in another type of structure such as a Baptisterion. The iconographic program consisting of greek crosses, dolphins, fishes and an eagle with its wings spread is a common feature of sacred architecture throughout the early Christian and Byzantine Eastern Mediterranean, including Isauria (East Church of Alahan Manastiri). It will be argued that for stylistic reasons, the niche has to be dated to the first half or around the middle of the 6th century.