Hagia Sophia in Context: An Archaeological Re-examination of the Cathedral of Byzantine Constantinople

The Byzantine cathedral of Hagia Sophia has been a source of wonder and fascination since its sixth-century construction. It was the premier monument of the Byzantine capital, Constantinople, and remains one of the most recognisable symbols of modern Istanbul. Often seen as encapsulating Byzantine history and culture, the building has been the subject of much scholarly interest since the Renaissance. However, while almost all previous archaeological work has focussed on the church itself, the surrounding complex of ecclesiastical buildings has been largely neglected. The research project presented here (co-directed by the authors) is the first to focus on the archaeology of the immediate environs of the church in order to understand the complex as a whole. Previously unrecorded material includes parts of the Patriarchal complex, from which the Orthodox Church was governed for almost a millennium, what may be the ‘Great Baptistery’ north of the church, and what are perhaps the first fragments of the fourth-century phase of the cathedral yet identified. The discovery of an unrecognised porch, surviving to its full height within the standing building, changes the known plan of the famous sixth-century church. This new information provides fresh evidence about the appearance and function of the complex, illustrating its similarities to, and dissimilarities from, episcopal centres elsewhere in the Byzantine world. Combined with other archaeological sources, these discoveries enable us to place the sixth-century cathedral in its urban context and to reconsider what Hagia Sophia can tell us about the wider Byzantine world.

Table of Contents:
Preface Terminology and conventions Acknowledgments Chapter 1: Introduction The Patriarchal complex The Hagia Sophia Project 2004–2018 Methods and practical constraints Chapter 2: The undiscovered church: Hagia Sophia before Justinian Introduction Fourth-century structures Fifth-century structures Features below the sixth-century church identified in other recent work Conclusion Chapter 3: New light on Justinian’s Hagia Sophia Introduction Buttress piers, their external staircase towers and the corner staircases in the base of the dome The Vestibules The access ramps Newly recorded sixth-century decoration Marble veneer on the church exterior Structures southwest of the Justinianic church: the Patriarchal palace Structures surrounding the Large Hall The southwest vestibule of the church The Baptistery south of the church A large rectilinear structure north of the sixth-century church Marble paving around the church and evidence for surrounding courtyards Archaeology and liturgy in Justinian’s church Conclusion Chapter 4: Revealing the Byzantine cathedral: Hagia Sophia after Justinian Introduction The Skeuophylakion North-east and south-east vestibules The north-east ramp Post-sixth-century modifications to the Patriarchate Identifying the Large Hall and associated structures with the later textually-attested additions to the Patriarchal palace The Baptistery The buttresses The south-west buttress The south middle buttress The north middle buttress The north-east buttress The west flying buttresses The remaining buttresses Archaeology and liturgy after the sixth century Conclusion Chapter 5: Sixth-century Hagia Sophia in its wider context Introduction Hagia Sophia in the context of surrounding structures and landscape features Building Orthodoxy in sixth-century Constantinople Bibliography

About the Author :
Ken Dark is Associate Professor in Archaeology and History at the University of Reading, where he was Director of the Research Centre for Late Antique and Byzantine Studies from 2001 until 2016. Between 1997 and 2004 he co-directed the British Museum-funded rescue archaeology program for Istanbul, published in 2013 by Oxbow as Constantinople: archaeology of a Byzantine Megapolis. Jan Kostenec is a member of the Czech National Committee of Byzantine Studies and the Czech Centre for Mediterranean Archaeology. His main interests are Late Antique and Byzantine archaeology and architecture.

Review :
This is a thorough and valuable addition to present knowledge on this key site, for which the authors should be applauded. It will best be appreciated by those with an existing familiarity with the church, rather than serving as an introduction to this awesome survival from Late Antiquity. Many of its findings are genuinely revelatory, resulting in some necessarily dense passages; it is richly illustrated with plans and photographs… [A]n important read for those who want as much information as possible about the whole complex of the church.