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The sanctuary of Yanouh is a historic temple complex in the village of Yanouh, situated in the hinterland of Byblos in Lebanon. It was excavated during [xx]

Discover Lebanon Yanouh is a village and municipality in the Byblos District of the Keserwan-Jbeil Governorate, Lebanon. It is located 94 kilometers north of Beirut and has an average elevation of 1,120 meters above sea level. Yanouh has a long and rich history that spans from the Bronze Age to the Middle Ages. It was once a Phoenician center and a religious site for various cults and deities. It is known for its archaeological remains, including a Roman temple, a Byzantine basilica, a medieval chapel, and an Aramaic inscription.

The earliest evidence of human occupation in Yanouh dates back to the third millennium BCE, when a fortified town was built on a hill called Tell el Kharayeb ("Hill of Ruins"). The town was surrounded by a defensive wall and had a lower urban quarter extending towards the south. Several underground tombs with hewn stone blocks were also found near the hill.

From the 12th to the 4th century BCE, Yanouh witnessed significant agricultural and domestic development, as attested by pottery, coins, and other artifacts found on site. The most notable discovery from this period is an Aramaic inscription that mentions a "House of God" and is dated to around 110-109 BCE. This inscription is the earliest known Aramaic writing to be found on Lebanese soil and suggests that Yanouh was a sacred place for a local cult.

In the Roman period, Yanouh became an important religious site for the worship of Diana, the goddess of the hunt and daughter of Jupiter. A large temple dedicated to her was built in the northern part of the site in the second century CE. The temple was made of blue limestone blocks and had a rectangular cella with a pronaos and a portico. It was flanked by two annexes that served as sacristies or storerooms. A smaller temple was also built in the southern part of the site, forming a southern sanctuary with an earlier Hellenistic cult building.

In the Byzantine period, Yanouh became a Christian center and saw the construction of several churches and chapels. The most prominent one was a basilica with columns that was built in the fifth century CE in the south of the site. The basilica had a nave with two aisles, an apse, and a narthex. It was later replaced by a basilica with pillars that underwent several transformations until the 12th century CE.

In the Middle Ages, Yanouh was the seat of the Maronite patriarchate from 750 to 1277 CE. The Roman temple of Diana was converted into a church dedicated to Saint George, who was also known as Saint George the Blue because of the color of the temple stones. The church had three naves with two rows of columns and an apse. It was decorated with frescoes and inscriptions. Another church was built in the north of the site, along with several chapels in the vicinity. '''Nordiguian Lévon. Le sanctuaire de Mar Girios al-Azraq à Yanouh : notes préliminaires. In: Topoi, volume 9/2, 1999. pp. 579-''' https://www.persee.fr/doc/topoi_1161-9473_1999_num_9_2_1852



LA VIE RELIGIEUSE AU LIBAN SOUS L'EMPIRE ROMAIN  | Julien Aliquot 2012

https://books.openedition.org/ifpo/1451 Aliquot https://web.archive.org/web/20230430204247/https://books.openedition.org/ifpo/1451

Le petit temple romain du sanctuaire de Yanouh [article] 2009

sem-linkGérard Charpentier https://www.persee.fr/doc/topoi_1161-9473_2009_num_16_1_2296?q=YAnouh Amazing https://web.archive.org/web/20230923081745/https://www.persee.fr/doc/topoi_1161-9473_2009_num_16_1_2296?q=YAnouh

Title: The Small Roman Temple at the Sanctuary of Yanouh (2009) p. 107-119



Römische Tempel in Syrien (Denkmäler antiker Architectur 1938 https://books.google.nl/books?id=DR1IAQAAIAAJ

The sanctuary of Yanuh is an ancient place of worship

Location
The Yanouh sanctuary is comprised of (below) is located on the right bank of the Nahr Ibrahim river, to the east of Qartaba, at an altitude of 1165 m,xx km north of Beirut.

The site is located on the historical Apheca/Aqoura pass that connects the Lebanese littoral to the Beqaa valley. Itureans, and Romans established presnce. The pass maintained strategic importance even in later periods when the pass was under the control of the Crusader fortress of Moinestre (Mneitri).

Etymology
Alternative spelling: Januh, Yanuh, Iannouh, Anoch, Ianosh.

The great temple is known to locals as as Mar Girios el-Azraq [Saint George the Blue] so-named because of the blue-gray color of the Great temple's limestone ashlar, and in connection with the Christian Saint George to whom a Maronite church was dedicated in the repurposed temple building.

Excavation history
/Missions/ The mission led by P.-L. Gatier completely renewed the study, complemented by regional exploration from the temple of Afqa (25) upstream to Machnaqa (23) downstream.

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The Yanouh great temple ruins and remains of an ancient settlement were mentioned by French orientalist Ernest Renan in 1860. including the Roman temple transformed into a church, and a building located south of the sanctuary. The initial drawings were published by the German architecture historian Daniel Krencker and classical archeologist Willy Zschietzschmann in 1938 in a work dedicated to the architectural study of temples in Syria and Lebanon. In the 1960s, a restoration operation was initiated by the Lebanese Directorate General of Antiquities. As part of this project, Lebanese archaeologist Haroutune Kalayan undertook extensive excavations, nothing the presence of

A Franco-Lebanese archaeological mission was led by P.-L. Gatier under the auspices of Saint-Joseph University. Missions from 1999 to 2004 shed light on various phases of the sanctuary's occupation, with results published in several articles.

Don1966

Krencker 1938 described that the cella rose to the height of only nine courses, in the north anta which enclosed two columns with unfluted shafts; no traces of the capitals. The walls of the cella are now reconstructed to a greater or lesser height throughout the building

SRCFNDKalayan Kalayan conducted excavation and restoration work on the temple, then began excavating the structures around the temple. He uncovered a three-aisled church parallel to and south of the great temple, along with an Aramaic inscription carved on a reused stone.

Prior to the [2005] mission, there was no conclusive archaeological evidence supporting the ancient settlement of the Lebanese mountains. French archaeologist Henri Seyrig suggested that the construction of temples in Lebanese mountains did not begin until the development of villages during. French scholar Xavier de Planhol went as far as suggesting that the mountainous regions of Lebanon were not inhabited until the early Middle Ages by Maronites and Druze communities, who sought refuge in areas nearly devoid of human presence.

Architecture and description
The Yanouh archaeological site comprises three main sectors: (1) the sanctuary, (2) the second sector, situated to the south of the Yanouh sanctuary, encompasses Tell el-Kharayeb, where traces of occupation from the Early Bronze Age II up until the early 1st century BC have been found, and (3) the third sector comprises the region within a 600 m radius of Tell el-Kharayeb and the sanctuary, featuring the remnants of Christian chapels, predominantly dating from the medieval period.

The sanctuary sector contains the remains of five main structures dating back to various time periods, with the oldest being a Hellenistic-era sandstone platform. Adjacent to the platform stood the small Roman-era temple, and a Protobyzantine basilica. North of the platform, the small Roman-era temple and the Christian basilica lays the large Roman-era temple within its porticoed peribolos. The fifth and most recent structure within the sanctuary sector is the medieval Chrisitian chapel that occupied a section of the northern peribolos wall.

Hellenistic-era cultic platform
The rectangular platform measures 5.7 x. It dates back to the second century BC, and predates the site's monumentalization works carried out during the Roman period. The platform was accessible through steps on its long, south-east facing side. A survey conducted around the perimeter and in the western section of the ancient platform reveals that it was built in an area that was occupied during the Late Bronze and Early Iron Ages. Currently, it is impossible to study the nature of the underlying, much older installations.

The small temple
To the east, and parallel to the platform stand the remains of a small, single room temple. Like the platform, the small temple faces the south-east. From the small Roman-era temple, only the foundation, a part of the podium and the first course of the west wall of the cella remain in place. It is situated outside the large temple's peribolos wall at a distance of 1.5 m. The small temple's rectangular sandstone foundation is fully preserved; its last course covers an area 7.5 m long and 4.15 m wide. The temple sat on a low podium accessible via a 2.78 m wide staircase. The podium would have measured 6.3 m, 3.9 m wide and 1.1 m high. The podium was partly replaced in the west wall of the Protobyzantine basilica, and the six-step staircase leading up to the temple was dismantled when the Protobyzantine basilica was built.

The small temple, was a limestone prostyle temple of the Corinthian order. Its reconstruction was possible from surviving elements, and spolia reused in later constructions. The temple likely had a tetrastyle pronaos with four front columns, with 37 cm diameter shafts, corresponding to the width of a surviving pilaster. A 1.32 m deep pronaos gave access to a square plan cella measuring 2.76 m2. The cella featured corner pilasters. While lacking specific block-related evidence for elevation, an hypothesis was proposed using the Corinthian order's proportional relationships, referencing the grand temple dimensions. The cumulative height of courses amounts to 4.56 m from the base of the pilaster to the upper edge of the cornice. The construction of the small temple is believed to have been contemporaneous with the great temple, dated to the first half of the 2nd century CE. It appears to be an extension of the Hellenistic building associated with the initial local sanctuary of the Yanouh site, situated outside the grand sanctuary and aligned with it. The Romanization of the ancient sanctuary is evident in the architecture of the small temple, which Charpentier believed served to bridge the practices of the old and new sanctuaries.

CHARPENTIER The two adjacent constructions are arranged on north-south axes, shifted by about ten degrees in relation to the established framework for the construction of the large temple. Their main facades facing south are preceded by staircases, the steps of which were submerged under the paving of later levels. They were separated by a space 0.70 m wide. Its faced sides rested on sandstone blocks forming a foundation 7.50 m long by 4.15 m wide. It was partially dismantled to make way for the entrance door to the central nave of the basilica.

The large temple + altar and temenos)
North of the platform and the small temple stretches a large rectangular temenos housing the site's large temple and an open-air altar. Both the temenos and the large temple are oriented to the east and were constructed around the same period as the small temple. New description The rectangular temenos is enclosed by a 1.1 m wide peribolos wall, constructed from sandstone ashlar blocks assembled with dry joints. An inner portico ran along the peribolos, with a monumental gate opening to the east. The large tetrastyle prostyle temple, is of the Corinthian order. It is oriented east-west along the central axis of the temenos. The large temple was built using bluish limestone ashlar blocks laid in regular courses, with an average height of 64 cm. It consisted of a pronaos and a cella extended by an adyton. The center of the cella is flanked by two well-preserved lateral door-windows oriented along the north and south walls. The analysis of the temple showed a systematic use of proportional ratios, enabling archeologists to conduct a comprehensive virtual reconstruction of the elevations. The cella's large door was twice as high and wide as the lateral openings. The strict use of normative proportion is also evident in the remains of the peribolos portico.

Krencker said its an in antis based on the two column drums but in fact it's a tetrastyle prostyle based on later excavations.

The large temple stands on a small podium and is of an in antis design. The temple's short pronaos is framed by two antae, with two columns in between. Two unfluted column drums have survived into modern times. The pronaos opens to the cella (measurements) followed by an adyton to the back of the building. The cella features two large identical, and well-preserved windows. Their frames consist of two fasciae with a cyma above them. The lintel is decorated with an egg-and-dart frieze, a dentil course, corona molding, and finally, the sima. The corona molding has external volute consoles. The interiors of the windows are smooth and unadorned. The windowsill rests directly above the top layer of the podium. Since the internal level of the cella matches the height of the top layer of the podium., there is only a difference of a few centimeters between the cella floor and the windowsill. The lintel of the window is located in the 5th layer of masonry. The positioning of the windows within the cella, as well as their external design, gives them a door-like character. If we were to refer to them as doors, it would be necessary to assume the presence of stairs outside in front of the podium, possibly made of wood, as no stone remains are available. The absence of such side doors of this type in the long walls of the cella in Syria, at least within the material we have worked on here, speaks against the assumption of doors. However, side windows, though not as monumental and richly decorated as these, are not unheard of, for example, in Dekweh. A side door in one of the long walls, located just behind the door wall of the cella, is present in the Temple of Bet et-Tai in Gerasa.

The adyton of the small temple in Baalbek features small side windows (Baalbek II, Figure 70, Plate 13), the Temple of Bel in Palmyra has four on each side at the height of the side walls, and the Temple of Baalsamin in the same location has a single side window (Palmyra: Ergebnisse der Expeditionen 1902 und 1917, 1932, Plates 83 and 65). In Christian times, the temple was converted into a church, and an apse was built into the temple's pronaos. This church had fallen into disrepair by the time it was described by Krencker and Zschietzschmann in 1938.

Byzantine period: The temenos portico was completely dismantled during the Byzantine and medieval periods, making way for an artisanal sector with an oil mill and ovens located to the west, behind the great temple. These artisanal installations also extended further to the south, near a Christian basilica built during the early Byzantine period outside the grand sanctuary temenos.

The proto-Byzantine basilica : The proto-Byzantine basilica was a large, three-naved church. It leaned against the northern side of the southern peribolos wall that was partially modified on this occasion. Its west side also encompassed the east side of the limestone podium of the small Roman temple, several blocks of which are reused in the masonry of this church.

A number of unmarked arched stelae, possibly funerary monuments, and at least one confirmed tombstone from the mid-3rd century, suggest the presence of a Roman necropolis around the temple site. Don1966

Modifications were made to the temple during its history, and an apse was integrated into its original entrance on the east side of the temple. It came to be known by the name Mar Gerios el Azraq ('Saint George the Blue') due to the blue-gray limestone with which the temple was built, giving it a striking contrast with the natural rock of the surroundings.

The presence of a small niche in the back wall, typical of classifies the temple into the interesting category of Syrian sanctuaries where this arrangement takes the place of the podium thalamos under a stone canopy. Large lateral windows with massive richly decorated lintels, supported by monumental corbels with elaborate scroll volutes.

Dating
Test pits [Gatier 2003–2004] within the sactuary found traces of occupation corresponding to some of those found on the Kharayeb tell and dating from the Late Bronze, Iron II and the transition between the Persian and Hellenistic periods. The beginnings of the sanctuary itself date back to the Hellenistic period with the construction of the cultic platform. In the 1st century AD, the cultic platfrom was doubled to the north by the large temple and its temenos, and by a small temple built to the east and aligned with of the Hellenistic-era platform.

Donceel 1966

Dating back to before the Roman presence in Syria, it provides significant information about the Itureans who inhabited these mountainous regions. Several Byzantine villages and towns (often former Roman settlements) in these areas continue to thrive.

Oldest Aramaic inscription found in Lebanon.

Guillon 2013

"En outre, une inscription araméenne datée de 110-109 av. J.-C.642 et l’existence d’un réseau de sites fortifiés643, d’accès difficile et visibles les uns des autres, tendent à attester une présence ituréenne à Yanouh et ses environs dès le IIe siècle av. J.-C.

.... Avant cette période, différents sites de la région ont révélé des traces d’occupation phénicienne et d’époque perse644

Toutefois, dans le domaine du bâti, c’est à Yanouh que l’on retrouve les traces de l’édification d’un sanctuaire précédant le sanctuaire romain, et ayant un parallèle à Tell Dan. Cet édifice cultuel est à associer, sans doute, avec la zone d’habitat hellénistique du tell voisin de Kharayeb. Il est augmenté au milieu du IIe s ap. J.-C., pour créer un sanctuaire plus vaste645 . Autrement dit, à l’époque hellénistique, des populations nombreuses sont installées sur des points fortifiés ou à l’accès difficile. Elles construisent des lieux de culte, comme à Yanouh et vivent principalement de l’exploitation de troupeaux domestiques (consommation et artisanat)646 644 NORDIGUIAN 1999 : 580 et GATIER et NORDIGUIAN 2005 : 10."

After occupation in Byzantine times and a new phase of expansion in the 12th and 13th centuries, the site seems to have been almost completely abandoned in the second half of the 13th century, at least until the 15th century.

Finds and inscriptions
]

An Aramaic inscription carved on a 75 x sandstone block was discovered during the excavation of Harutune Kalayan in the spolia reused in the the Chrisitian basilica. The inscription commemorates the consecration of a "house of the god(s)" (byt'lh') by a group of people whose names are incomplete, in the year 203 of the Seleucid era, corresponding to 110–109 BC. The structure it refers to is believed to relate to the Hellenistic era platform. The dated inscription is linked to the Ituraeans who are thought to have established presence in the area at that time, and is the earliest known example of an Aramaic inscription in the Lebanese mountains. Mission de Yanouh et de la haute vallée du Nahr Ibrahim 2003-2004 | Charpentier and Gaitier 2004

Downloaded Gatieretal.

https://shs.hal.science/halshs-00661948

https://www.lorientlejour.com/article/381038/ARCHEOLOGIE_-_L%2527equipe_de_l%2527USJ_poursuit_les_fouilles_et_les_prospections_a_Yanouh_Temples_et_tombes_revelent_leurs_secrets_%2528photos%2529.html (dated to second half of second century AD) https://web.archive.org/web/20230923075456/https://www.lorientlejour.com/article/381038/ARCHEOLOGIE_-_L%2527equipe_de_l%2527USJ_poursuit_les_fouilles_et_les_prospections_a_Yanouh_Temples_et_tombes_revelent_leurs_secrets_%2528photos%2529.html

https://www.discoverlebanon.com/en/panoramic_views/mount_lebanon/jbeil_byblos/village_yenouh.php

https://lebanonuntravelled.com/yanouh-roman-temple/

A list of other articles. https://www.persee.fr/issue/topoi_1161-9473_1999_num_9_2