HAWARTE: PROJECT FOR THE RECONSTRUCTION OF THE PAINTED DECORATION OF THEMITHREUM
HAWARTE: PROJECT FOR THE RECONSTRUCTION OF THE PAINTED DECORATION OF THEMITHREUM

Summary/Abstract: Salvage excavations of the cave mithreum in Hawarte in the years 1998–2005 revealed walls covered with murals, a collapsed ceiling with painted decoration and countless fragments of painted plaster. Once the excavations were completed in 2005, and the preservation of the murals still in situ was accomplished, the conservation project moved to the stores in the archaeological museum in Hama. A reconstruction program, launched by the mithreum’s excavator has among its prime objectives the studies of the iconographic program of the mithreum’s painted decoration. The results will prepare the ground for a graphic representation of the decoration. The present report discusses the methodology and successive stages of the work, as well as some of the issues that are involved in the study of this class of iconographic finds. Two of the more comprehensive themes have been chosen for this preliminary presentation: the Mithraic cycle and the ceiling decoration in Room A.

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