Sbeitla / Subayṭilah, Hanshī / Sbeïtla / Sbeitla Vitalis / Sufetula / Suffeitula / (سبيطلة)
Image copyright © Malcolm Yarnell, 2011
No known copyright restriction – Fair Dealing
Results: 10 records
view of font in context
Scene Description: Dr. John Mark Yeats stands inside the Early Christian font and provides a context for its proportions
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Malcolm Yarnell, 2011
Image Source: digital photograph 15 January 2011 taken by Malcolm Yarnell [http://baptisttheologians.blogspot.ca/2011/01/tunisia-beautiful-country-needs-our.html] [accessed 23 March 2015]
Copyright Instructions: No known copyright restriction – Fair Dealing
view of font
Scene Description: After the reconstruction/repair
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Brian Alvars Catlos, 1999
Image Source: digital image of a March 1999 photograph by Dr. Brian Catlos
Copyright Instructions: Photograph and permission received (letter of 12/3/1999)
symbol - cross - 2
Scene Description: a large dark cross adorns the two opposite inner sides of the sunken font -- after the reconstruction/repair
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Brian Alvars Catlos, 1999
Image Source: digital image of a March 1999 photograph by Dr. Brian Catlos
Copyright Instructions: Photograph and permission received (letter of 12/3/1999)
design element - motifs - garland - laurel
Scene Description: in mosaic work, all around the upper rim surface -- After the reconstruction/repair
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Brian Alvars Catlos, 1999
Image Source: digital image of a March 1999 photograph by Dr. Brian Catlos
Copyright Instructions: Photograph and permission received (letter of 12/3/1999)
view of font
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © roba66, 2006
Image Source: digital photograph taken 25 August 2006 by roba66 [http://www.flickr.com/photos/30957604@N06/2921819137/] [accessed 26 January 2010]
Copyright Instructions: PERMISSION NOT AVAILABLE -- IMAGE NOT FOR PUBLIC USE
view of font
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © George Eastman House, 2002
Image Source: transparency, gelatine on glass (3 1/4 x 4 in. (Gift of Florentine Jassogne) re.: 1968:0331:0114
Copyright Instructions: PERMISSION NOT AVAILABLE -- IMAGE NOT FOR PUBLIC USE
view of font
Scene Description: After the reconstruction/repair
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Dué, 1997
Image Source: Dué (1997: 28)
Copyright Instructions: PERMISSION NOT AVAILABLE -- IMAGE NOT FOR PUBLIC USE
view of font
Scene Description: Before the reconstruction/repair
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Davies, 1962
Image Source: Davies (1962: pl. 7)
Copyright Instructions: PERMISSION NOT AVAILABLE -- IMAGE NOT FOR PUBLIC USE
design element - motifs - floral - flower
Scene Description: flowers on the bottom surface of the basin, around the chrismon -- After the reconstruction/repair
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Dué, 1997
Image Source: Dué (1997: 28)
Copyright Instructions: PERMISSION NOT AVAILABLE -- IMAGE NOT FOR PUBLIC USE
symbol - chrismon
Scene Description: on the bottom surface of the basin -- After the reconstruction/repair
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Dué, 1997
Image Source: Dué (1997: 28)
Copyright Instructions: PERMISSION NOT AVAILABLE -- IMAGE NOT FOR PUBLIC USE
INFORMATION
Font ID: 02285SBE
Object Type: Baptismal Font3
Font Century and Period/Style: 4th - 5th century, Early Christian
Church / Chapel Name: Basilica of Bellator? Vitalis?
Font Location in Church: In the presbiterium
Church Notes: The site of Sbeitla, like many of these Early Christian ones, covers a large area with many buildings.
Church Address: Sbeitla Archaeological Site, Subaytilah, Tunisia
Site Location: Kasserine, Tunisia / Tūnis, Africa
Directions to Site: Sbeitla is off the P13, the main road betwen the coastal town of Sousse and Nefta, 33 km E of Kasserine, about 110 km N of Gafsa and 110 km E of Tebessa and the Algerian border.
Ecclesiastic Region: Diocese of Sufetula
Additional Comments: disused font (an archaeological site)
Font Notes:
Click to view
Described and illustrated in Davies (1962): a large oblong construction not conforming to the traditional shapes/types proposed by Ben-Pechat (1989) for paleo-Christian sunken fonts; the short sides of the font are straight but the long sides curve outwards in the centre, while the inside of these long sides brakes into a number of semi-cylinders, which give the inside of the font a strange shape, although it may be simply a 'sophisticated' variant of the more abundant cruciform shapes; four steps start down from one of the short sides; the upper part of the font rises a foot or so from ground level and is totally covered in a beautiful mosaic which forms a weaving of flowers in green, ochre and yellow colours on the upper surface; the centre part shows still the four round bases of the four columns which formed the ciborium (actually one of the bases sustains half of a column still standing); on the inside of one of the semi-cylinders a large dark cross (there may be another on the opposite side but it does not show on the sources. The font has obviously been repaired and restored in the last few years [ca. 1999], since Davies' illustration shows the font before reconstruction and Catlos' photograph of 1999 shows the font and the mosaics fully restored. Noted in Ferguson (2009)
Credit and Acknowledgements: We are grateful to Dr. Brian Catlos for the photograph of this font
COORDINATES
UTM: 32S 511779 3898527
MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS
Material: stone and ceramic, type unknown
Font Shape: sunken font, cruciform
Basin Interior Shape: cruciform
Basin Exterior Shape: cruciform
INSCRIPTION
Inscription Language: Latin
Inscription Location: On the upper surface of the rim
Inscription Text: Partial text only: "VITALIS / ETCARDE / LAVOTU / MSN"
Inscription Source: Photograph (courtesy of Dr. Brian Catlos)
REFERENCES
- Ben-Pechat, M., "The Paleochristian Baptismal Fonts in the Holy Land: Formal and Functional Study", 39, Liber annuus. Studi biblici Franciscani, 1989, pp. 165-188.
- Davies, J.G., The Architectural Setting of Baptism, London: Barrie and Rockliff, 1962, p. ix, 12, 22 and pl. 7
- Ferguson, Everett, Baptism in the Early Church: history, theology, and liturgy in the first five centuries, Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 2009, p. 841-842
- Slim, Hédi, La Tunisie antique: de Hannibal à saint Augustin, Paris: Mengès, 2001, p. 227